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Sharing all things related to business here. You’ll find tips, tricks, and wisdom from the LBI crew and contributors related to being in business, running your business and growing your business!

Where it All Began & Where We Are Going

Where it All Began & Where We Are Going

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I started my first business under my bunk bed selling Bubblicious Gum to the neighborhood kids. I did!! Once I realized I could buy 5 packs of the same gum for $1.59 instead of 1 packet for .59 cents, I was like, ‘Girl, we gotta boss up!’ I picked up a couple chores from my family members and stashed some cash away to purchase my inventory. 

When my Mom found my safe box with a pile of dollar bills, ordered and stacked along with enough gum to blow a bubble to outer space and back, she had questions. 

I promptly told her it was, ‘My business!’

To which she said, ‘No! Your business IS MY BUSINESS!’ and in gleeful ignorance I  replied: 

‘Yes! It is my business and it’s so fun!’ As I pulled out the raffle tickets I was planning to sell at the annual block party to pawn off my kid sister’s bike she didn’t like and that was too big for me. Naturally. 

You may be thinking, ‘Wow, such a stellar free market capitalist!’

Little 6 year old Rose started to scale her neighborhood chewing gum racket and by the next summer, we had established our operational headquarters in my grandma’s backyard hedgery.

As swiftly as I could, I  got my work permit at age 14 and following a handful of odd jobs at pizza joints, cafes and a few moonlighting occasions as gal Friday, I quickly leaned into one of my inherent skills: being market savvy & community oriented.

I learned quickly that doing business is relationship building!

And a lemonade stand always brightens up the neighborhood, even if it is a sales funnel to my larger network of My Little Ponies and last season’s Barbies from my sister’s discarded toy chest. 

Where it Began

And a handful of decades later, I proudly call myself a serial boat burner, a conceptual visionary and a social entrepreneur.  The responsibility of upgrading social systems that have long been outgrown falls into the laps of innovators in all fields, not just business.

And it’s my hypothesis that given the chance, women in roles of leadership in all industries can activate innovation at lightning speed.

And before I jump into my current trajectory for inspiration as we launch another LBI channel this October 2022 supporting my creative concept du jur, I need to give credit where credit is due. 

You see, I am a matriarchal baby. I am the daughter of a single mother who made her way through fashion design school in the 1990’s with two small children. She is the daughter of a woman who gladly wore shoulder pads to hustle up the corporate ladder in the 1980’s, thanks, Reaganomics!!

And all of us existed only because of her mother, a German immigrant to the US, a mother to 2 sets of children, 4 of whom perished in the Spanish Flu and 4 of whom she brought into life in the New World shortly after she immigrated, as a window.

I am the result of their labors, triumphs and human struggles.

A scrappy, gregariously fabulous friend raiser, I naturally rally groups to unite around collective missions. And into my more recent years of entrepreneurialism,  I’ve been integrating both the bootstrapping nature of invention and the luxurious possibilities of big visions that can and will change the world. 

When I had the opportunity to pause my women owned & operated production company during covid and adjust course, it seemed like a ‘now or never window’ to lean into better ways of doing business by looking closely at my inherent skills once again & asking other women forward  leaders I respect for their insights & wisdoms. 

In 2017, I began polling the audience of women I’d built community with in conversations around money, sex & politics with  thought leaders, industry disruptors and business activitsts.

During covid closures, I took these conversations online and now we are a year into the build of our own LBI network and supporting app, The LBI Backstage Pass. 

Where it Began

The LBI Backstage Pass is a digital platform that provides business and social connections through event programming & content networking in our Ladyboss Lounges, accessed globally on our app and locally in pop up events as we connect social media into the organizing and mobilizing lanes of unity for an equal world. 

 We generate access to additional civic resources in our Ladyboss Library , host conversations around money, sex & politics in a curated  & inspired way where thought leaders, industry disruptors and business activists unite to support, elevate & collaborate through our e commerce lane, The LBI Mall. 

This digital access point is part of a larger network build to support systematic upgrades towards equality  led by women forward leaders. LBI houses a new way to do social media and thereby, business through our app, podcast and into a multi channel ecosystem. 

We’ve been talking about women in roles of leadership for a long time and that can be its own inspiration ! Though sometimes it can feel that the progress we make gets pulled back in time when political power shifts hands and womens’ experiences aren’t as valued as mens’. 

In the last few years, such movements as the Great Resignation,  #BLM and #metoo, make the stage perfectly set for systemic change, upgrades of how we have access to and redistribute power.

So then, how can we, all with our own origin stories of specific human experience that form our empathy, our capacity to care and our ability to adapt, be inspired to connect beyond the current conditions in which we find ourselves??

What about this for a cup of visionary inspiration: Can we bring all the women thought leaders, industry disruptors and business activists  together, into one digital space where we can unite around a collective mission to collaborate, elevate and inspire with each other and use social media as a generative tool instead of the extractive machine it currently is?? 

Can this online HUB serve as a collective pool of inspiration for those who have historically been left out of both leadership roles and help us to effectively use our voice to advocate for  access to many of the resources we need to gain progress on our own dreams and super powers? 

If we can do that, can we then also begin to mobilize and organize the many eager for this groundswell of women forward leadership to cross connect our networks for greater strides towards equality of opportunity for all genders??

MY INSPIRED ANSWER IS A HOWLING HELL YES WE CAN!

I’m eager to know your answers and would love to read the comments below!!

And if you are so inspired to comment within the community of Bosses here leading the way and connecting Backstage, click here to come Backstage!!

Love,

Rose Kaz

Mommy Bossing – How To Juggle Momming With Bossing

Mommy Bossing – How To Juggle Momming With Bossing

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Article written by Ellen Ahrendsen

Moms- we have all been there. Exhausted, worn down, hopeless, and it is not even 7am. For me, a regular morning starts at 5:15 because that is the only time I have before the kids wake up (most days). Then it is straight to the grind. We are the boss of our businesses, our careers, and our homes. No matter what we do, we are juggling a million things.

5:15 am turns into 5:45ish am when the kids wake up, breakfast time and getting dressed before the park, soccer, another play date, lunch, nap, and then figuring out how on earth to keep them occupied until bed. During their naps, it is all about writing, blogging, gaining publicity, laundry, cleaning, ordering groceries, ordering things for the kids, prepping dinner, and trying to sit down knowing it will be the only time of the day I get to do it. This is all on a non-work day.

How is it possible that we can do this? We, as women, put pressure on ourselves to get absolutely everything done on our own. We think our way is the only way. We do not ask for help, especially when we need it. We feel that we need to do it all.

Mother and son walking through leaves. Text: Mommy Bossing - How To Juggle Momming With Bossing

What is Mommy Bossing?

Mommy Bossing is a new term that I have created. We not only are living our work lives, but we are mommy-ing. We are Mommy Bossing every single day whether we know it or not. Breaks are few and far between. All we want is some time to ourselves, but we are lost at how to find it. Just last night, I wanted to take a quick shower as it was my only time alone. All I heard were the kids screaming for me, refusing to go to bed. I had no alone time even though I was indeed alone in the shower. Juggling this all is so hard, frustrating, and sometimes seems downright impossible.

So what can we do?

Ask For Help!

Why are we so afraid to say “I need help.”? 

It is one of the hardest sentences that one can utter. It feels like we are saying we are incapable of doing something or that we failed. This is absolutely the opposite! We are doing ourselves a favor when we ask for help. This is one of the best pieces of advice I got when I was pregnant. Someone told me to never worry about asking for help once the kids arrived (twins). I knew I would need it. 

What I didn’t know was that my son would be born with a life threatening birth defect. I needed an entire village. And by asking for help, I got it. I was able to be less worried about tedious things like laundry or dinners. I was able to put the energy needed towards the care of my son in the hospital and my daughter at home.

Commit to at least 3-4 hours a week to yourself. Schedule it!

This could be a morning walk, meditation, time at the spa, or anything that makes you happy! You can do small things everyday or wait until you have a few hours to yourself on the weekend. I personally enjoy my time at 5:15 in the morning (even though that is so dang early!), and I have some time to myself every Saturday to get massages and do errands or other things. I enjoy this time so much; my husband knows he is in charge during that time. It is on the schedule, and it is something I look forward to every week.

Let go of expectations

I have a box where I put in all of the things I feel like I need to control, but in reality I cannot. It is called “My God Box.” It does not have to be religious, rather I think of it as spiritual as I believe in a higher power that some would call God. By putting these uncontrollable expectations in this box, I am handing it over to the Universe acknowledging that I no longer have control of the situation. 

This box is full of things as simple as “I need to stop obsessing over how I expect my family to act,” or other things like “I need to stop trying to control the outcome of a certain situation (say applications for preschool for example).” I do not have control over how people act or how every preschool has a different application process. I do not have control on whether or not the kids will be accepted to certain preschools due to wait lists.

By handing these situations over, I am letting go of my expectations knowing that the Universe has control. Not everyone has to let go of expectations this way. It is simply the way I do it, but everyone is on their own journey and can determine the best way forward for themselves.

These are 3 main things all of us can work on. They may sound simple. But the Mommy Boss in all of us needs these tools in order to live a life where we don’t need to do it all, where we can have time to ourselves, and where we can thrive even more than we already are.

Find Ellen here:

Find Ellen here:

Website |  Instagram

Bio:

Ellen Elizabeth is an infertility warrior and recovery advocate who uses her skills as an author and sober mother of twins to coach women struggling with feelings of shame and inadequacy. These mothers feel powerless to quit drinking or unable to bring a child into the world. Through radical honesty and recovery principles, Ellen inspires moms and their partners in all forms to define who they want to be and transform their demons into dreams.

 

Ellen has been featured in publications such as Authority Magazine, Collective World, and Recovery Today Magazine, as well as several podcasts. To keep herself centered, she makes her home with her family of 5 (dog included!) in Colorado Springs, CO.  
Simple Steps To Create Business Financial Milestones.

Simple Steps To Create Business Financial Milestones.

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Article written by Suzy Wraines 

If you hear the word “finance” and cringe with fear, you are not alone. Evaluating numbers in your business is scary. I’m here to reassure you that working with numbers can be simple. You will have your financial milestones set for the next year in three easy steps. 

Follow these three steps to reaching your financial goals:

Step One: Create an annual income goal.

Step Two: Set milestone goals.

Step Three: Create a milestone plan.

Creating financial goals can feel like pie in the sky dreaming. When you sit down and visualize your financial goals, they can seem unattainable at first. If it was possible to reach your financial goals, wouldn’t you have done it already? Not necessarily. Creating goals and milestones can be just the thing to get you moving along the right track.

First, you create the end goal and work backward to figure out the “how” through the planning process. Then you break down the big goal into smaller milestones. Having milestones will focus your financial goals for one year. 

Let’s go through each step one at a time.

 

Step One: Create An Annual Income Goal

It’s important to start with a goal you want to achieve. Decide on the annual financial goal you want to achieve. Think BIG when establishing your yearly income goal. Pick an income goal and write it down. The number should be what you hope to reach in a year. Now, this may seem crazy to put a huge number down. It’s okay to feel nervous.  Remember, these are numbers you can adjust as you are working throughout the year. 

Step one establishes the foundation for steps two and three. 

Example: Annual income goal is $100,000

Step Two: Set Milestone Goals

By taking the significant goal you set and breaking it down into smaller goals, you will see just how attainable your big goal is. You determine when you will measure progress (ex., weekly, monthly, quarterly).

Take the example annual goal of $100,000 above. Start by breaking it down by the largest milestone first, quarters. Since there are four quarters in a year, divide $100,000 by four.

Example Quarterly Milestone: $100,000 / 4 = $25,000 per quarter. 

Your quarter milestone is $25,000. When you see a smaller income goal, you can be more confident in achieving it. Now let’s break it down even further. 

Each quarter has three months. To get a monthly milestone, you will divide $25,000 by three. 

Example Monthly Milestone: $25,000 / 3 = $8,333 per month.

That number doesn’t seem so scary! Comparing $100,000 to $8,333 makes it much easier to envision reaching the annual goal. 

You can keep breaking this down to weekly. Since there are roughly four weeks in a month. Divide $8,333 by four. 

Example Weekly Milestone: $8,333 / 4 = $2,083 per week.

Now that you have an amount and timeline for each income milestone, you can start creating your plan to reach these goals.  

Step 3: Create A Milestone Plan

Now it’s time to create a plan for reaching each milestone goal. It should start feeling less overwhelming, having set income goals over time. In this step, you will be mapping out a plan for how you will achieve these goals. 

Identify as many income-generating ideas as you can. Identify the products and services, and pricing. Once you have this information, calculate how many you need to sell to reach your milestones. 

Service example: Health Coaching Program – price is $2,100

Using the above example, you will need to sell one health coaching program per week to reach your weekly milestone of $2,083. 

Product example: Time Management Online Course – price is $500

Using the above example, you will need to sell four online courses per week to reach your weekly milestone goal. 

Not every week will be the same. If you don’t reach your income milestone one week, you may double it in a different week and still meet or exceed your monthly goal. 

Developing the right products and pricing is vital. I don’t recommend having more than three active offers. But having a few different offers will give your potential customers choices while giving you more flexibility to reach your milestones.

Example using the above products and services:

Monthly milestone goal = $8,333

Sales needed:

13 online courses = $6,500 

1 coaching program = $2,100

Total Monthly Sales = $8,600 ($300 over milestone goal)

There are multiple variations to how you can reach your goals through sales. Setting up a solid marketing plan will help you identify how to get to your sales goals. Each product will have a unique marketing plan depending on your ideal client. 

These are all things to consider as you create your marketing plan within your business plan.

Conclusion

Using these three simple steps, you will create a business financial plan. 

Step One: Create an annual income goal.

Step Two: Set milestone goals.

Step Three: Create a milestone plan.

Now you can relax. Numbers don’t have to be scary. When you feel yourself start to feel overwhelmed, take out a pen and paper and follow the steps. Breaking down the steps will reduce the anxiety that comes with crunching numbers. Know that you can change the numbers at any time. 

By having smaller milestones, you leave room for adjustments. Hopefully, these steps will take some financial fear out of your business planning. You will have your financial milestones set for the next twelve months when you follow these simple steps. 

The steps above are included in the sales and marketing part of your business plan.  For those of you who have completed your business plan, you can revisit this section using the steps outlined here.  For those of you who haven’t started your business plan, you can purchase a copy of the Simple Steps Business Plan Workbook to get started today.

Find Suzy here:

Find Suzy here:

Website | Facebook

Bio:

I’m a business development specialist with over 20 years’ experience helping businesses succeed. I have worked with every kind of company, from startups to large corporations, and have boots-on-the-ground experience launching small businesses of my own. I’m passionate about sharing what I’ve learned!

Integration is the New Inclusion

Integration is the New Inclusion

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Article written by Sarah Poet

I was driving home from a road trip and it hit me: integration is the new inclusion. And the first thing I thought was, “Sarah Poet, who do you think you are to say that anything is the new inclusion?” 

I’ve been thinking about this concept and others lately and they all seem to have a common theme – question the constructs within which I assume anything to be true. Question everything. 

Integration is the

We see this thing we think is reality, but it’s not reality. It’s actually all based on our assumptions of it, the frameworks that have existed since before we arrived. For example, we have frameworks of patriarchy and colonialism still at play in our current world. Those are not my favorite frameworks, and so I don’t like to assume that they are true just because we can see evidence of them. I want to dream of new frameworks, and then create them. 

As humans, we put a lot of energy into fighting the frameworks, or trying to deconstruct them. Or, some of the time, we just operate within these constructs without questioning them at all. As someone who speaks about masculine and feminine archetypes in my work, one of the most common frameworks that I want to encourage us to question is the one that said men have power. Well, why does this have to be true? Why was this true? And most importantly, how do I (or we) act or behave when we assume that it is true?

It’s just a framework for reality that we default to participating in, and then we try to rise up and fight against it, but it doesn’t even have to be true and we can choose to question it and therefore collapse what is false about it. Men are not inherently more powerful than women, and so I don’t have to react in a way where I fight for my power. I am inherently powerful – not because I’ve taken my power back or fought against a system. But just because I am.

Let us also note that this framework of “someone has power and someone doesn’t” was built within a paradigm of separation. 

If things are separate and not united, then one group or gender can have power and another can’t. But what if we choose to believe in unity instead of separation? What if we stop participating in separation? 

 

 

Let’s look at more examples of how humans behave when we believe in the construct of separation. I’d say entire feminist movements have been built on the concept that one group has power and another doesn’t, and so feminists have been fighting for power within that framework. You might say, “Of course women have to fight for power!” And I would say, “No, we don’t.”

We simply have to be powerful. I do not define my power because I’ve had to “take it back” or fight men for my power. I spent a lot of time doing that, and it’s actually exhausting. Rather, I want to be powerful, and to be sovereign, which requires integration of my personal and inherent power, not my inclusion into an external system of differentiated power. Who I am does not require external permission, which I feel like inclusion is inherently seeking. 

If I focus on the external framework accepting me, then I will have to fight for my right to be included. I don’t choose to do that. I choose to integrate all parts of Self and to show up whole. Nothing defines whether or not I can be included, except my own level of personal integration.

It’s like I said in my TEDx, if “equity” of women means that I have to participate in a rat-race built in patriarchal masculinity (different from conscious masculinity), then I don’t want it. I played that game as a woman leader, climbing ladders and putting on a false sense of being able to handle anything. I fought against misogyny and wanted to be included for a time. Until I didn’t, because who made those rules? 

More and more lately we see women leaving the workforce in this thing that culture is calling the Great Resignation. I know that the pandemic has burdened women with the lion’s share of responsibilities for family and caretaking, and yet I believe that women are also leaving because they are questioning the framework of the systems that haven’t been working for us for years. Because they are inherently patriarchal, inherently separationist, and women have had to fight within those systems for something we should have never had to fight for. 

I would call that thing we should never have had to fight for “integration.” 

 

 

Let’s look at integration in a personal sense. As a child, I experienced deep trauma and I didn’t realize what had truly happened to me until I was an adult with the dis-integrated symptoms of trauma, which led me to go to trauma-based therapies. In those therapies, such as Hakomi and Internal Family Systems, we work to integrate the “parts” of the self. If the child-self has experienced a traumatic event, there will be a separation in the psyche.

That “part” may not feel safe anymore, or it may feel outcast, and it may stay that way well into adulthood. In the therapies, we don’t really ask the core Self if these parts can be included – if they can pull up a chair and join the other parts of Self and be accepted. To be explicitly clear, we don’t just want to include the parts, we want to integrate them. And the assumption is that they can all be integrated, we just have to look at the health of the system and restructure the psyche to integrate all the parts. We work to integrate the separated or isolated part. And we do this because wholeness is the entire purpose. 

An integrated human, just like an integrated system, will operate much more functionally in wholeness. To me, inclusion depends on a part (or group of people) having been separated out, and then included back in. But integration speaks of wholeness and to me has a deeper intent. 

I used to be a Special Education teacher. As many people likely know, each student who qualifies for special education has an individual legal document called an Individualized Education Plan (IEP in most states). The IEP will say how much time a student is able to sit in the regular classroom and access the curriculum from there versus how much time they need to be in the smaller special education classroom, to get all their needs – academic and social – met.

First I want to say, I think schools are doing the best they know to do, but I do question this model. When a student can go back into the “regular” classroom for their education, we call this “inclusion.” But the reason I question whether this is the correct way to do it or not is because, to my original point, the entire basis for this way of “including” is based in a model of first separating the children out. Why are the children separated? Why are schools set up this way? And what would an integrated model of education look like? 

Well, I consult with a few such schools, and what we’re noticing is that student empathy and community actually increase when there is a model of integration. No one is the core group, and no one needs to be included back in, because the wholeness and coherence of the group were always the priority. 

If we never separate out, then we don’t need to “include” back in. 

And you may say, “Yes, but this idea is null and void because we do have exclusionary systems and women were and are treated as less than and people of color were and are discriminated against, therefore having less access to full equality.” And I would say: I know, I know, and all of that is still predicated on ideas of separation, which I’m just not interested in perpetuating. If I condone it, then I am constantly living my life within that framework, fighting against walls and barriers that will feel very hard to knock down. 

 

 

I want to question the walls we fight against. I find that in my own life, as I question the structures, they simply begin to fall down, because I’m not believing that I am within them anymore. 

I don’t want “inclusion for all” – because inclusion is inherently based in separation. You have to first be separate in order to be included again. What I am advocating for is the integration of all into a paradigm of Unity. 

It’s a mindset shift of epic proportions. And it’s possible. 

I keep going back to the example of the body and mind in trauma therapy. It’s not that I want to deny that the separation / trauma event happened. I realize that it did. But when I ask myself if I want to focus on inclusion of the outcast part, or if I want to focus on integration into the whole, I want the latter. 

I want wholeness, integration, and connection. I believe we function better this way, and this is how we actualize the true Self, and this is how we can also actualize potential in community as well. 

So what does this look like when we’re talking about groups of people, or organizational health, or the fact that black and brown people are still treated differently? 

It means that we begin to design systems of integration rather than systems of inclusion. It means that we question the existing structure within which we are trying to “include” everyone. If inclusion feels difficult, or if it isn’t working, maybe let’s question and realize that these structures were not meant to support all people and parts. These systemic structures were built within a paradigm of separation. Therefore, they may not be the best thing to fit into. Do you want to be included into a system that was not healthy to begin with? Or do you want to make sure that an integrated system exists, and that everyone can operate with equity within it? 

Again, I want the latter. 

I want us to question everything, to question the walls that we stand within. I want us to have open dialogue about what our needs are, what kinds of collectives and communities we want to create, and I want to do this together. No one person (or group of people) can design systems that are inherently integrated. We need integrated groups of people to design and develop new integrated systems. 

 

 

I believe that this is possible for our workplaces and communities. All members of the organization or the community would need to be considered and consulted in order to design an integrated, new, system that is capable of far more than the systems of the past. It requires us to redefine leadership, to move from old models of patriarchal masculine where there was a hierarchy or one leader, and to take team restructuring and shared leadership (or at the very least, stakeholder feedback) very seriously. 

I am here for the work of it, and willing to facilitate new ventures such as this. I’m here to do the worthy work of analyzing organizational systems, asking what is dis-integrated and separate, and to work to integrate those parts – be it people, ideas, resources, emotions, races, genders – into new systems where separation is no longer the assumed framework.

Let’s build integrated systems within the framework of unity. Let’s do it together.

Find Sarah here:

Find Sarah here:

Instagram | Linkedin | Website

 

Sarah Poet is a truth seeker, a soul traveler, a former school creator turned feminine/masculine integration expert, and, as it turns out, a medicine woman for modern times. 

It is Sarah’s mission to serve the true evolution of human consciousness, to integrate feminine & masculine on all levels, and to bridge us collectively from separation to connection, and to live a life of integrity and heart. 

To this end, Sarah is a teacher, couples coach and Sacred Union activator, energy medicine practitioner, mentor, speaker, spiritual counselor, systems analyst, and new-paradigm leadership coach and business consultant. 

You can watch her TEDx and book a consultation at www.sarahpoet.com.

How to Unlock Your Productivity Potential

How to Unlock Your Productivity Potential

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(and avoid burnout)

Article written by Avery Thatcher

Hey high achiever! I see you – looking for ways to increase your productivity and get more done in less time!

You’re a woman in business, on a mission to make your corner of the world a better place and that’s incredible!

But…

… you’re stuck on the cycle of burnout being incredibly productive one day, while crashing and procrastinating on another. You’re met with message after message online of where you should be spending your time if you want to grow your business.

 

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This hustle culture is starting to make you doubt if you’re even cut out for this whole ‘entrepreneur thing’ in the first place.

So you find yourself looking for resources, signing up for courses, and joining co-working programs to try and keep you and your business on track. You keep searching for the secret to cracking the code for how to get more done in less time.

Want the answer?

Lean in close.

You’re asking the wrong question.

It’s not so much about how to get more done in less time, as it is about making sure that you’ve optimized the four key components of the productivity puzzle to make it possible for you to be consistently productive in a way that matches your energy, responsibilities, and expectations for yourself.

Instead of asking “how can I be more productive?” I encourage you to ask yourself “how can I optimize my productivity potential?”

Let me explain.

The Four Puzzle Pieces of Productivity

There are four key components of productivity:

  • Clarity and Alignment
  • Stress Management
  • Energy Management, and
  • Time Management

Each of these components interact with each other and all need to be optimized if you want to become your most productive self and avoid the downfalls of hustle culture that inevitably lead to burnout. If one of these pieces are out of balance, the entire system collapses and we’re left struggling with procrastination.

We’ve probably all heard of shiny object syndrome, and basically what that means is that we’re tempted and distracted by things that aren’t in alignment with our mission and goals, and that means that we spend too much time doing things that aren’t going to make our long-term goals a reality.

Signing up for new courses, free trainings, challenges, keeping ourselves busy, all that kind of thing can really slow us down because we THINK that we’re doing something productive. We’re learning right, and it means that we’re embracing a lifetime of learning which is really exciting. I see this a lot in high-achievers diving into personal development. We’re great at learning…

But there comes a point where learning is just covert procrastination because if we don’t put that learning into ACTION, then we’re really just distracting ourselves from facing our obstacles that are keeping us in this same space where we are right now.

So how do we stay out of this space of sneaky procrastination?

Productivity Tip #1 – Clarity and Alignment

If we don’t have clarity with our big picture goals, our smaller goals are less likely to be in alignment with what we’re really hoping to achieve, which leaves us working on things that keep us busy, but don’t actually serve our ultimate mission.

By achieving clarity and ensuring that what we’re doing is staying in alignment with that is essential to our productivity because it makes sure that we’re working on the tasks that will really make the biggest difference. 

 

 

This starts by writing your clarity statement, because with your clarity statement you will be able to then know if something is in or out of alignment; you’ll know what opportunities, tasks and activities to say yes to and what to say no to.

Once you have your clarity statement, it’s going to be easier to prevent burnout because you’ll be able to operate in your peak performance zone by mastering your stress response.

Productivity Tip #2 – Stress Management

What you may not realize is that there are two kinds of stress: 

  • Distress – The stress that we know more commonly and that’s distress, the stress that feels heavy and awful and causes all kinds of problems.
  • Eustress – The positive, productive, motivating stress where we’re in the zone, we’re in flow, we’re getting stuff done and we’re just killing it, rocking our life and our goals.

This is the stress curve based on the Yerkes-Dodson Law created by psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson in 1908. It illustrates the relationship between productivity and pressure.

 

 

Here on the left hand side we don’t have enough pressure, and in this state we’re wired as humans to kinda sit around and do nothing! Here we don’t have motivation, we don’t have drive, we don’t feel connected to a purpose or a mission, we don’t have clarity and therefore we don’t have momentum or alignment. 

But, here at the peak of the curve we have momentum, we have drive, we have goals and the energy we need to support our ability to achieve those goals.

But, as with so many entrepreneurs, we’re high achievers, and as a high achiever, it’s very easy for us to shoot way the heck over this peak and the optimal balance where our productivity and pressure are optimized – and roll all the way down over here getting closer and closer to burnout. In this space of burnout, we lose access to our CEO, higher level thinking part of our brain, the prefrontal cortex which makes it harder for us to be productive because our brains aren’t wired for success in this space – it’s working to run away from a bear, not figure out why your website isn’t working.

We can absolutely get ourselves back into eustress and out of distress with some simple techniques including one I’m going to share with you right now.

The simplest thing you can do to keep access to this higher level thinking brain of yours is to practice breathing techniques. There are many different breathing techniques you can use and today we’re going to talk about the 5-5-5 breathing technique.

5-5-5 breathing is when you take 5 slow deep breaths for 5 seconds on the inhale, 5 seconds on the exhale This breathing technique has been scientifically proven to deactivate the fight or flight sympathetic nervous system and bring us back into rest and digest parasympathetic side. This means that if you start to feel your stress response ramping up, you can take control of that switch with this breathing technique and regain access to your CEO brain.

Other ways to manage your stress include work-life balance, taking time off, and taking care of yourself.

Which ties in perfectly to our next puzzle piece, energy management and the four energy spheres

Productivity Tip #3 – Energy Management

Now, when we think of energy we think we either have an abundance of energy, or we’re completely fried and have nothing left to give or are operating in survival mode, activating our stress response and losing access to that higher level thinking brain.

Having the right balance of energy means that we’re capable of being productive. Without energy, we procrastinate, we work slowly and get frustrated about how little we’re accomplishing, and we are overwhelmed with all that we have to do and have no idea how we’re going to get it all done.

The thing about energy is that it’s simple, but not simple at the same time. It’s simple in that we either have things that restore our energy or deplete it. But some things may both restore and deplete energy at the same time.

You are not a simple being, and so we can’t qualify your energy as one unit. 

We have four different energy spheres:

  • Our physical energy
  • Our emotional energy
  • Our mental energy
  • And our metaphysical energy

Let’s break these all down.

Physical energy is pretty easy because it’s what we typically define energy levels by. We either feel awake and alive, or we feel tired and struggle to move.

Emotional energy is slightly different. When you feel drained without feeling tired, irritable, or a lack of interest in what usually lights you up it could either be emotional energy drain, or mental energy drain.

We make important decisions every day that impact us, our life and the people we help. Knowing what drains and restores our mental energy and learning how to build more mental stamina is essential for entrepreneurial success. Mental Energy Balance, more than any of the others, is key for us to know how to master.

Finally, we have the metaphysical energy space. We’re not going to go too in depth in this space here, but I want you to think about this in the context of your contribution to the world and how you make your corner of the world a better place. This is the bigger picture kind of thing, connecting with that clarity statement from before.

 

 

Alright, so we have physical, emotional, mental, and metaphysical energy spheres. Let’s look at how they all interact with each other with some examples.

One of my non-negotiables during the day include a walk with our dog, Takoda. This drains my physical energy, but restores my mental and emotional energy.

When I teach a workshop online, it drains physical, emotional and mental energy, but really restores metaphysical energy – my connection to my purpose, mission and drive.

Do you see how the four energy spheres are connected?

If I want to optimize my productivity, I have to make sure that I have the physical, emotional, and mental energy to work on the tasks that move my business forward, which then boost my metaphysical energy or my connection to my contribution to the world.

High-achievers are notorious for taking on too much, pushing themselves too hard, and burning themselves out. We need to find the balance, and so by monitoring our energy spheres we’re able to find and maintain that balance more easily.

Alright, now for the moment you’ve been waiting for…

Productivity Tip #4 – Time Management

Here’s where the hustle culture really backfires and makes it harder for us to be as productive as we want to be.

By trying to do more, you’re making it so that you’re able to accomplish less and what you can accomplish won’t be up to the quality and standards that you generally have for yourself. This further demotivates you, pushes you further down that stress curve decline and brings on the burnout. 

One of the most important things we can learn how to do is to say no to everything at first and then give yourself five minutes to convince yourself it’s a yes. To help guide you through this process, here are some questions for you to consider:

 

 

Is there a hard and fast rule of the number of “no’s” that you’re allowed to have in this question list before you take something new on – no. These questions here are just to help guide the decision to make sure you’re not going to set yourself up for an impossible time management situation where you’ve taken on too much.

Alright, so let’s wrap it up and bring everything together to create your pre-work routine to unlock your productivity potential. It’s going to tie all of the puzzle pieces together.

Developing a Pre-Work Routine to Optimize your Productivity Potential

The first part of an effective pre-work ritual is to read your clarity statement to keep your mission top of mind before you start your work session.

The second part is to practice one round of 5-5-5 breathing to turn off your stress switch and regain access to your prefrontal cortex, your higher level thinking brain

The next piece is to check in with your energy levels and see if you need to do something for a few minutes first to boost the energy sphere that you’re going to need the most in this work session. Planning for an energy level recovery activity after your work session will be important as well.

And finally is to set realistic expectations and goals for how you want to use this work session, what you want to prioritize, and make sure that you do your most dreaded, difficult or time consuming task first.

Bring these four things together, and you’ll be able to achieve and maintain your peak performance, helping more people, accomplishing more, and feeling more like yourself – without burning out, crashing or getting sick.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to try out this productivity routine before your next work session and notice how it goes for you. Challenge accepted?

 

Find Avery here:

Find Avery here:

Website | Instagram

Avery Thatcher is the CEO and founder of the Inner Stillness Outer Chaos Podcast and the Flow State Membership. When she started her career as a Registered Nurse working in the ICU she noticed that the majority of the reasons people found themselves in the ICU were because of illnesses and diseases that could be linked to chronic stress. She decided to get out of the reactive side of medicine and now helps highly sensitive high achievers prevent burnout and reverse the negative health effects of stress.

After experiencing a significant change of health in 2018, Avery had to learn to redefine her identity and grieve the loss of who she used to be. Now she shares her story openly to help others realize that they are not alone in their struggles, and talks about the strategies that helped her heal along the way.

Winning as a Woman in Business: Using Google Ads as a Profitable Source of Leads

Winning as a Woman in Business: Using Google Ads as a Profitable Source of Leads

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Article written by Tiffany K Borruso

At a time when more women than ever are turning to entrepreneurship as a way to make a living, Google Ads can be an important key to success.

Google Ads is one of the most powerful advertising platforms in the history of the Internet. There’s an excellent chance that you’re aware of this, and that as a woman business owner you’ve already given it a try.  

If you are on the fence about using Google Ads for your business, complete this quiz and find out if Google Ads is right for you. 

Why Google Ads needs the feminine energy to succeed

When you first check out Google Ads, it comes across as intimidating, data heavy, technical and confusing.  In fact, the majority of technical marketing roles such as Pay-Per-Click (includes Google Ads) are taken up by men. (source: https://www.b2bmarketing.net/en-gb/resources/news/news-double-number-men-women-working-digital) 

However, in my experience, I have seen women in Pay-Per-Click get far better results.  Why?

Because women bring the yin to the yang.  The feminine energy, intuition and creativity to the yang, technical, linear, rigidity.

When running an advertising campaign you need to immerse yourself in the prospects’ life, heart and mind to really understand how to connect with them at their various stages of engagement with your business.

Now that you have perhaps warmed up to the idea of Google Ads and how you can use it for your business, let’s see if Google Ads is the right channel to invest your hard earned dollars to get more leads.

Are Google Ads Worth It Nowadays? 

Google is by far the world’s most popular and widely used search network, with over 3.5 billion daily users and over 1.2 trillion searches per year.

Each second, Google processes an additional 40,000 searches, each of them associated with a person who is possibly searching for your products or services.

So, are Google ads worth it? 

That is the case even now in 2022, and it will not change in the near future. That is why you should include them in your marketing campaigns as well. 

Google Ads has several benefits. Here are some of them:

1. Possibilities are endless

2. Quick results

3. Connect with your customers at the right time

4. You can target highly specific markets

5. There’s more than one way to level the playing field

6. You can seamlessly reconnect with former website visitors

1. Possibilities are endless

Because millions of new keywords are put up for bidding every day, a well-crafted Google Ads campaign is about as scalable as it gets.

So, whether you want to break into a new market or strengthen your bonds with a specific niche, all you have to do with Google Ads is add some new search terms to your campaign.

If you have the funds, you can boost your bids (what you want to pay) on your most profitable keywords to raise your chances of receiving clicks even more.

And, because you always have complete control over your campaign, you may pause and resume it at any time with no consequences.

2. Quick results

Those who dislike the concept of pay-per-click advertising generally argue that it isn’t worth it because SEO can drive traffic just as effectively.

And, yes, SEO is undeniably important and should be a key component of any well-rounded marketing campaign. However, pay-per-click options such as Google Ads produce results much faster.

In fact, you’ll start seeing serious results almost immediately, whereas SEO takes months to yield a good return on your initial investment.

A wise marketer would employ both for this reason. Consider Google Ads PPC as a way to get the ball rolling while you continue to play the long game with SEO.

3. Connect with your customers at the right time

Think about the last time you were in the market for a specific product or service.

You were already primed and ready to buy by the time you got to the point where you were Googling the possibilities.

Guaranteed, your future customers will be in the same frame of mind.

Because your Google ads will appear ahead of even the best organic search results, you’ll reach your target audience when it matters most: when they’re ready to make a purchase.

In other words, Google ads keep your product in front of the right people at the right time.

4. You can target highly specific markets

Every business owner has broad plans for their marketing campaign as well as specific goals for who they want to reach.

For example, a local business may be interested in establishing authority in their industry as a whole, as well as in attracting more local customers through the front door.

Google Ads makes it simple to target your advertising to whomever you want to reach in almost any context you can think of.

Do you want to limit the geographical range of your ad to attract more local customers? No worries.  Looking to dominate a specific niche market? You can do it, as well as anything else you can think of.

5. There’s more than one way to level the playing field

Of course, increasing your bids on important keywords is one way to potentially improve your ad ranking, but it isn’t the only one.

Quality and relevancy are critical to Google, so a savvy marketer who intuitively knows what their audience is searching for and what mental state they’re in when they are searching can translate that into ads and the planning of the campaigns.  Gaining a significant advantage over their competitors.

If you do a good enough job of creating quality ads and optimizing them to perfection, you can easily outperform less relevant advertisements with higher bids.

Your quality score is determined by the relevancy and positive user experience of your ads.

The combination of your quality score and your maximum bid per click determines where you appear in the search results.

6. You can seamlessly reconnect with former website visitors

When looking for the best solution to your problems, you may visit a number of different websites before deciding on the best option for you.

Your customers are the same way, and unless they are exceptionally diligent about bookmarking options they want to remember, it’s easy for them to forget where they saw something promising.

Google Ads has several features that make it simple to remind people of your best offerings if they’ve previously visited your site.

If a visitor does not complete an action, such as downloading a lead magnet or getting in contact with you, a remarketing campaign may show your brand and services through advertising interfaces on other websites as well as across the Google display network.

A person who has previously visited your website is far more likely to convert if shown your brand and service again in the future.

Wrap Up: Thorough Marketing Campaigns Are Your Best Bet As A Woman in Business.

Traditionally, the most successful marketing campaigns are those that are well-rounded and make innovative use of a variety of practical solutions.

Of course, SEO has always been an important part of a company’s overall success, and it will continue to be so in 2022.

However, Google Ads has a place in a woman’s business campaign plans.

Consulting with the right experts is another dependable way to ensure that your 2022 marketing campaign is everything it should be.

Hopefully, you now feel a sense of empowerment when it comes to Google Ads. In that way, this post was not only meant to help you, but also to inspire you. Regardless of your gender, a good business idea and some hard work should be rewarded with success.

Find Tiffany Here:

Instagram | website | youtube

Tiffany K Borruso is an entrepreneur, mom and nerd helping female CEOs and owners; smart ambitious people who are working their butts off to grow their businesses using data and intuition led Google Ads, Analytics and Web Optimization strategies.

How to Go From Frazzled to Freedom

How to Go From Frazzled to Freedom

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Article written by Kylie Clark

Do you feel like you are constantly teetering between the role of CEO and Employee in your business?

I can feel your head shake from here.

As entrepreneurs we are very passionate about our business. We have broken the mindset of the 9-5 mentality and found a better way!

We have created the thing that we are passionate about, I mean, do we even call it work!?

And then comes the things we aren’t so passionate about.

The must haves that come with owning a business that you REALLY don’t want to do but seem to pop up on the daily.

Those are the ones that you hire out for first!

It has been engrained in us women as children that delegating is a cop out. We are supposed to take on all the new while keeping up with the old while standing on our heads and doing it all with a smile.

How many times have we had conversations specifically about being overwhelmed, over-tired, burned out, READY TO BURN IT ALL DOWN!!

All because we feel like we are failing if we delegate the things that drain us. We wear our overpacked, over-demanding, never-ending to-dos and schedules like a badge of honor. Until we can’t, until we wake the heck up and realize that we are doing it all wrong. This is not how we pictured our life or our business. Matter of fact, we literally started our business with visions of some R&R, some girl time, vacations, more time with our family.

So, what do we do? We hire a team and take a deep breath and wait for all that extra time and money to make its arrival! That’s how it works right? We see it on social media all the time! It works for everyone else… why not you?

But now you find yourself even more overwhelmed. You have people waiting for you to give them direction, you are answering questions from multiple people.

How do you want these tasks completed?

When do you want them completed?

Can you help me with XYZ?

And the list goes on and on.

What do we do?

It’s fine, I’ll handle it! Before you know it, you are right back to doing the things you don’t want to do, and you have added Team Lead, Project Manager, and Fire (putter outer) < totally a word! To your job description.

This is usually where I make my grand entrance (Insert Applause here!).

Hey there!

My Name is Kylie Clark, I am a Certified Director of Operations and Founder of Frazzled to Freedom Consulting.

I have made it my life’s mission to drag successful women like yourself out of the everlasting loop of the CEO/Employee teetering and giving them the time and financial planning that you so desperately want.

I come from a long line of strong-minded women who have built very successful businesses and names for themselves.

Even watching the entrepreneurs and business owners in my family, I never once considered that I may join the club one day.

Until the night before I started my online business that is.

I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up…. Matter of fact, I avoided the question like the plague!

I never knew how to respond and would just rattle off something that I felt may appease the person asking. I have always been multi-passionate to an extent (runs in the family), my problem was being put in society’s box of “how” to perform that profession and “what” was expected when entering it.

I didn’t want to live on someone else’s schedule or get paid someone else’s opinion of what my skill and time was worth or to have to ask for a day off in my own dang life!

What I wanted was to be FREE.

I remember shortly after starting my online business I joined a networking event, and would you believe that “What did you want to be when you grew up?” was the Ice breaker question!?

My luck, right?

I panicked, the sweating started and of course we were picked at random which made the torment worse! Lol

My name was called… And I half shouted FREE!! I just wanted to be FREE!

Silence… complete SILENCE!!

Yep, that’s it… Business closed; I’m done.

And one of the ladies responded, I’m sorry. Did you say FREE?

Ummm… yes, I guess I did. (I’m just as surprised as you are!)

And everyone started responding with positive feedback. They had never heard my response before, which didn’t surprise me at all considering I hadn’t either!

Confidence slowly started creeping back in…

And, that my friends, is where I picked up and ran with Frazzled to Freedom!

I already offered business planning and strategy which I loved! But of course, there is always more that can be done!

So, I reached out to a biz bestie of mine (Shannon) and gave her the news of a new collaborative venture we were doing together! Lol I offer business strategy and planning and she offers financial planning. The same exact services that we have specialized in for years… just with a few added personal touches and perks that makes us just as happy to do as our clients are to receive them!

Frazzled to Freedom is for online service providers and coaches that are ready to move into that work less earn more lifestyle that we have daydreamed about for so long.

It starts with your vision, your goals, and what works for you and your business only! Cookie- cutter is not in our vocabulary. We create a plan around your life rather than try to fit “our” plan into your life.

We find solutions for your problems, break your ideas and goals into projects, we pull needs and options for future hires and then give you the step-by-step strategy and plan that gets you closer to your vision by giving you the clarity you need, the direction you lack, and the plan that’s going to get you there!

I’ll let Shannon give ya the deets on her financial plan process… but I can tell you that she actually takes a cringe worthy topic and turns it into something that makes you excited to talk about and dare I say, the future!

I have literally built my life around the vision that I had all those years ago working in the brick-and-mortar world- you know, the one I said I didn’t want to do?

It hits me almost daily while I take a break and lay in the pool, while I’m at a school event with my children, or while I spend the afternoons with my grandpa and dad. I once talked about this life every single day during lunch… or while staring out my office window. Back then it was a pipe dream.

Now it’s my reality!

And I’m not done yet! I’m bringing more women with me!

I’m a giver by nature. So, I can’t leave here without knowing you have some concrete value that you can take and implement (*cough*cough) have your team implement for you today that will make your life a little easier.

So here are a few small tweaks that can make a BIG Impact in your business and give you a little more FREEDOM in your business.

1. Make sure you have an SOP for everything. Update them often. And make sure that the SOP is up to your standards of service aka how you would do it yourself.

2. Make your project management tool (if you don’t have one, get one- you can thank me later) your central hub. This is where your business lives and where ALL communication should live. All client information, links, instructions/request, EVERYTHING should be here.

3. Get to know your team… Get your team to know each other… HAVE FUN, reward them, acknowledge the good they do for you! A team that feels valued and knows who they are working with is going to be just as excited for your goals as you are AND be more likely to come to you with any bottle necks or suggestions that can improve your business.

4. Remember tip 1 & 2? Do that x 100! OVER DOCUMENT everything. No task is too small. If your team member checked an email for a client- have them document that they checked an email for said client. It saves so much time for all involved.

Quick example of “how” it can save you time (a lotta panic).

Ex 1: You (or your Project Manager/Team Lead) are checking in on a team members progress on a clients task/project.

You get two versions

1. You see Notta… Zilch… Blank EMPTY page. (You panicked just reading that, didn’t you?) Just a lonely due date (which is close) and a client wanting an update. You reach out to your team member… dang! It’s outside their working hours and now you have to wait until tomorrow.

You either “do it yourself” or stress and get zero sleep until you get their response of… Oh, yes! It’s all done! Just haven’t hit complete in the PM tool yet!

And you say *JKH&ST%!$%^RYDGug* under your breath for wasting precious time.

And my personal favorite

2. You see a complete time stamped outline of each action taken to complete this task/project for this client. You see that everything is running like clockwork and the client is going to be ecstatic paying for your services again. You do not have to reach out to your team member because you see their last time stamped note of: Final walk through completed and task/project is now complete.

Did this hit a little too close to home? Do you have a lot of back-and-forth communication with your team daily to ask questions that could be answered with a simple timestamped update?

You think these are good? These aren’t even our main focus points in Frazzled to Freedom!

Just a couple of teeny tiny fixes to some major pain in the butt issues.

Let me know if any of these tips helped you in your business in the comments!

Find Kylie Here:

LinkedIn | Instagram
Facebook | Website

Hi! I’m Kylie. I am a Certified Director of Operations and Founder of Frazzled to Freedom. I help online service providers and coaches create the time and financial freedom they are looking for by being certified and licensed to deliver Strategic Mapping along with 15+ years experience in business strategy and planning. I help create the work less earn more lifestyle by giving the clarity you want, the direction you need, and the plan that tells you how you are going to get there. 

Managing Distractions as Women in Business

Managing Distractions as Women in Business

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Article written by Tiffany Ghrist

Have you ever imagined why your workdays spiral out of control? Do you plan your day sometimes and notice that you are distracted within just a few hours?  Do you find yourself procrastinating or find it difficult to concentrate on your tasks? Does that sound like what usually happens to you?

Now, imagine yourself at the end of the day, breathing a sigh of relief, knowing that you’ve accomplished everything you need to. Again, how will you feel knowing that you are on top of all your activities while executing them effectively? Of course, you will probably sleep well at night with your mind at rest.

Did you know that you can be more productive, and effective in executing whatever task you set out to do, rather than being tired behind your office desk with piles of unfinished projects? There are several ways in which you can improve your productivity and effectiveness on tasks. Yes, it is possible, and that is what  I plan to share with you today.

For two reasons, many people are not as productive as they wish, or think they are. The first reason is that the default setting or our mind is in a scattered state, and we are reactive about it, instead of being proactive. The second reason is that many bad habits interfere with our productivity. These two reasons are what keep drawing people back from their goals and prevent them from being productive.

The importance of being productive can’t be ignored, both in our personal and professional lives. If you run a business or are responsible for a team, you will want to ensure that everything goes according to plan without ignoring your productivity level. This is because your level of productivity is what will determine your level of success.

As we go through life, a lot of distractions and factors will inevitably want to contribute to why we can’t be productive. However, if you are aware of how to tackle these distractions, you can easily shield yourself from them, and become more effective and organized in your tasks.

Now the question: how can we become more productive, focused and regain control? Please understand that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, as only a systematic approach will work. However, it starts with putting our minds in order and substituting some reactive habits with good ones.

Do you want to know how to put your scattered mind in order and be able to focus better? Do you want to learn how to substitute those habits that keep you from being productive for the ones that will increase your productivity? It starts with understanding the real reason we are distracted.

Why we get distracted:

We have got things inside-out when it comes to how to be more focused. Even though our Facebook, Instagram, thousands of notifications, phone calls, WhatsApp, and what have you constitute the majority of what distracts us today, they are not the real reasons for our distractions.

What if I told you that our mind is responsible for the majority of our distractions, according to research conducted by two Harvard psychologists. Psychologists Daniel Gilbert and Matthew Killingsworth discovered that the human mind is wired to be continually distracted.

These two psychologists researched with 2,250 adults, and it was concluded that we spend around 47 percent of every waking hour “mind wandering.” This is also known as “stimulus-independent thought.” When our mind wanders, we don’t even notice it because it is so natural and ordinary to us.

Mind-wandering is fantasizing about that dream company or position you hope to have in a few years, or waiting at the gate for your plane. It is driving in your car thinking about how you forgot to reply to some emails in the morning. It is picturing yourself in a conference call sitting on a bench in Bali with a cocktail. We can all recognize this state because it is mostly the default mode of the brain. 

Tips for Managing Distractions as Women in Business

Try to identify the top 5 things that keep you distracted when you are trying to work on important tasks. We all have our vices. We, therefore, have to design a no-distraction strategy for ourselves. You may consider these few ideas.

·       If you are always distracted by your boss, family members or colleagues: You can approach this scenario this way. Have them agree on a “no distraction” time with you. Encourage them to use coffee breaks and lunch to talk things with you and agree on which questions are classified urgent. An example is the time someone is entirely blocked to continue with a work that needs urgent attention. Also, agree on the topics to be discussed in your weekly meetings.

·       If you get lost in YouTube binges or distracted by social media: Tools like OFFTIME and StayFocusd can help you limit the time you spend on certain apps or sites.

·       When you feel the urge to usually reply to every mail the moment you see them: You need to schedule a time slot for replying to your emails, and systematically work through them all at once. Turn off your email for the rest of the day or install a tool such as IFTTT to send you a mail when you receive an email from your investor, priority clients, or boss, for example.

Employ the Pomodoro Technique

This is one of the most powerful techniques that can help you focus on a task at a time. This is how it works: split your tasks into 25 minutes’ intervals. Then set a timer and shut off all your distractions. Take 5 minutes to break after your Pomodoro, before starting another one.

This technique works effectively because of its gamification. There are even apps that can help you using this technique such as Focus Booster, Focus Keeper.

Take Care of your Body

A pain-ridden, tired, sleep-deprived body is a great recipe for killing your productivity because it leads to an increased level of stress hormones, impaired memory, and decreased mental ability to focus.

Talk about distractions! Therefore, prioritize proper nutrition, exercise, sleep, and off-time to recharge your battery if getting stuff done is important to you.

Increase your Mental Focus Through Mindfulness

Taking care of your body is as important as taking care of your mind because an inspired, focused, and calm mind is the basis for working distraction-free. Calm your monkey mind with journaling, yoga, meditation, and getting out of your head every week by enjoying nature, and taking time away from the screen, and spending time with your loved ones. 

Conclusion

Being unfocused comes with a price. You need to get clear on what you want and focus your time, attention, and energy if you want to be ultra-successful. If you want to achieve your goals, live a successful, and happy life, you need to learn how to put your mind in order and focus on your tasks. The mind has the natural tendency to be loaded with both important and unimportant activities, thus bring about continuous distractions and waste of time.

To effectively handle the situation of putting the mind in order and focus, we have to take proactive steps and be deliberate about the approaches that will be employed. With these techniques, my goal is to help you maximize your time, and help you achieve more with less. You will be glad you did. 

Find Tiffany Here:

Facebook | Instagram | Website

About Tiffany: After spending years in Corporate America as a  Process Improvement and Implementation Director, I now help Female business owners get out of their heads and into action by providing coaching,  personalized project plans, and accountability that allows them to regain control of their business and give them time back in their day to focus on gaining clients and growing their businesses.

Why Having a Business Plan Will Set You Up for Success

Why Having a Business Plan Will Set You Up for Success

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Article written by Suzy Wraines

Every business needs a roadmap of some kind to stay on track no matter how big or small. 

A business plan makes the perfect map: keeping you on track with your vision and goals, making everyday decisions easier and positioning even the smallest companies for growth.  You may be thinking, but writing a business plan is overwhelming. I agree it’s a big task to write out the specifics of your business. The benefit of taking the time upfront will save you from stress, decision fatigue, and overwhelm with running your business later. 

Why Having a Business Plan Will Set You Up for Success - Article written by Suzy Wraines

This article will show you real life examples of how having a business plan will reduce overwhelm and ultimately lead you to a successful sustainable business. 

The traditional business plan isn’t used as frequently with entrepreneurs these days and some don’t use any business plan tool at all.  In my research I have found there are many large corporations, even billion dollar companies that didn’t start with a traditional business plan. They did however, have lists, ideas on paper, project deadlines, and goals they wanted to achieve.  

In my opinion no matter the size of the business, they will be successful utilizing a well written  business plan. These are the reasons I feel a business plan sets you up for success. 

  • You get serious about your business.
  • Shows you how much money you need.
  • You will set milestones.
  • It allows you to stay on track with your business.
  • It gives you insight to where you need help.
  • You will be able to measure progress.
  • Business success will be obvious as it is happening. 

Now that you know the reasons to have a business plan I’m going to ask you some hard questions. 

  • Do you know how much money you need to start your business?
  • Do you know who will be responsible for the following now and in the future?
    • Sales & marketing
    • Bookkeeping
    • Product development
    • Customer satisfaction
    • Technology within your business.
  • Do you know how much income your business will earn in the next month, quarter, or year? 
  • Do you know how your products and services will be created and sold?   
  • How serious are you about your business?

Those are not easy questions to answer. For some of you they might be easier because you are the only person in your business right now and need to have all the answers. But, what happens when your business starts to grow? Will you be able to keep up on your own? 

Keep these questions in mind as I walk you through real life stories of two women entrepreneurs with similar businesses, one who started with a business plan and one who didn’t.  Their names have been changed for this article. 

Kathy’s Story (no business plan):

Kathy is a stay at home mom with adult children and a loving supportive husband. She decided  to start a business now since she has time.  Before kids she earned a degree in Human Services. Her passion for helping others is what motivated her to become a life coach. 

After graduating from coaching school she jumped right in without a business plan and started taking clients. Most of her clients came to her through referral or people who she met networking. Her coaching practice took off and she was making more money than she ever thought she would. Even though the income was there her focus remained on coaching. She would deal with the business side of things later. When it came to business income she didn’t have a plan on what to do with the income to benefit the business. 

On paper this looked like a successful business. What was happening for Kathy in reality was very stressful. She never knew when or if she would have any new clients. This created a sense of fear around how she would keep the business going.  

Things started to change when her client load was growing and she was becoming physically and mentally exhausted from coaching, marketing, and running all aspects of her business. If only, she could just coach that was what she enjoyed the most. This is when emotions took over.  Maybe if she hired a coach to help her automate some of her marketing that would free up some of her time. 

Keep in mind, Kathy doesn’t have a business plan or timeline to follow. She is making these decisions based on the feelings of stress and overwhelm. When she hired a 1:1 marketing coach for $10,000 she knew this had to solve her problem. Halfway through the coaching program she realized this wasn’t what she needed at this moment. They were coaching her on how to purchase ads. Kathy didn’t want to pay for advertising. She wanted her coaching business to be smaller word of mouth and referral based. The business decision she made didn’t line up with the vision (in her mind) of the business she wanted. 

How could she create a business model that allowed her to have more time while still making the income she was used to having with her 1:1 clients? 

She went back to working the way she did before with referral clients and struggling with time, stress, and having sleepless nights because she didn’t know how to create her business the way she was envisioning it to be. 

While still struggling she came across a book that would change everything. It promised if she followed the steps she could have the business she was dreaming of. Small boutique, referral only coaching practice.  Because this spoke directly to the emotions tied to her business she jumped without research and joined the training program to become a licensed professional for the organization that supported the book. 

Being a licensed professional would allow Kathy to use the tools provided for her coaching program. It included workbooks and training materials that all she had to do was put her logo on them. This seemed to be the answer she was looking for. 

Of course this comes at a price. It was a steep cost without a guarantee of return on investment. She ended up signing a contract to pay licensing fees for twelve months without a way to cancel before the contract ended. All of these business decisions were not from a plan but rather emotional decisions made based on the “promise” they would fix the problem. 

Within the first six months of being a licensed professional with this organization she finished working with all her current clients with no new clients in her pipeline. No new income coming in.  She was trying to incorporate the new training she received from the license she held but didn’t have a plan created to follow how she would implement this into her current coaching practice. She was quickly realizing being licensed with this organization wasn’t inline with the vision she had for her business either. Now she felt hopeless. 

Sally’s Story (started with a business plan):

Sally is a working mom and wife. She works full time but longs to have more time for her family.  She has seen working mom’s successfully start coaching practices and leave their day job. This is what she wants to do. Her passion is writing so naturally she has decided being a writing coach is how she wants to start. 

Since she has never started a business before Sally researches business plan writing. She finds a business plan workbook and dives in. With each page she turns Sally quickly realizes all the moving parts involved in creating a business. Remember all the questions at the beginning of the article? Sally was finding the answers as she built her business vision through the help of the business plan workbook. 

By writing down the ideas she had for her business and seeing how they all fit together she was able to feel confident that her business coaching idea will work. Like a puzzle she was putting the pieces together as she filled out her plan. She was getting excited about all the possibilities for her business as she filled out her plan. 

At one point, the overwhelm started setting in. Sally was seeing how much went into creating a business and it’s not easy. She was approached by a marketing company during this stressful time. She had a discovery call with them that sounded like a good fit. She knew her business needed marketing. Before she made the business decision to hire the marketing company she went back to the marketing plan section of the workbook.  

Seeing her plan before her in writing made it crystal clear her business wasn’t ready for the type of marketing that was offered. Yes, at some point down the road Sally wanted to invest in paid ads not right now. Had she made the decision to hire the marketing professional without a plan that would have been money gone prematurely.  This was a wake up call to her to stick to the plan. 

Sally is still in the very early stages of building her business.  Taking time to complete her business plan before making major business decisions she is off to a great start. As she worked through each business category she started feeling more and more confident her business will be successful. Having a business plan gives her a roadmap to the steps necessary to build and grow a business. Sally’s business decisions are not made with emotions. They are well thought out and the risks are weighed against the investments. 

Having a business plan created the perfect map for Sally to stay on track with her vision and goals. While not having a business plan stifled growth for Kathy due to emotional decisions that ultimately stunted success. 

The common thread between these two business owners is stress and overwhelm. Creating and running a business is not easy. There will be stress and overwhelm. How you handle these situations can be traced back to having a business plan as a guide. Having a business plan allows you to know exactly where your business should be at any given time. It gives you the power to make changes as needed ultimately leading to success. 

I understand how overwhelming starting a business really is. My experience as an entrepreneur I know first hand how difficult it is to create a business out of an idea. When I researched the business plan templates and books that were out there. I realized there wasn’t one, at least that I could find that walked through the steps giving room for brainstorming and developing ideas.  I had to share my process of creating a plan step by step. This is how the Simple Steps Business Plan workbook was born.  

No matter what your process is, I encourage you to seriously consider writing a business plan to have your own roadmap to success. 

Find Suzy Here:

Website || Facebook

About Suzy:

Hi, I’m Suzy Wraines!
I’m a business development specialist with over 20 years’ experience helping businesses succeed. I have worked with every kind of company, from startups to large corporations, and have boots-on-the-ground experience launching small businesses of my own. I’m passionate about sharing what I’ve learned!

Overcoming Coaching Stereotypes Through Diversity

Overcoming Coaching Stereotypes Through Diversity

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… and how it increases opportunities for all.

Article written by Kitty Kistler

If you’re a coach, influencer or social marketer who’s been paying attention, you already know that coaching has been reinvigorated, or even revolutionized, by the growing obsession over self improvement and personal wellness.

Over the past two decades, the industry has massively shifted into the online space, allowing the average person a backstage pass to tools and techniques, as well as real people, to lead them to a better life experience. 

After decades of coaches being somewhat hidden in plain sight, known more by those in the high ranking positions of business, wealth, and fame, the term “coaching” is now showing the world it should belong in the lower ranks as well. Because the terminology is becoming more mainstream, the industry is cashing in on becoming more accessible and available to all people. However, it appears the self-inflating cyber bubble has begun receiving kickback because of, what can be classified as, “perceived detachment” from the struggles of the real world.

And right now, the real world is on fire.

Real Pain. Real Suffering. Real Life.

Which is why more people are tuning in, watching, eager to tap into easy to obtain wealth, beauty, and freedom all at the shift of their mindset. But this same ease has prompted industry speculations that the integrity of coaching’s propaganda is potentially harmful, even at times, toxic. 

Now, more than ever, inclusion and diversity matter.

And they look more like ethics, integrity, and acceptance.

As the idea of living by your own rules becomes more normalized, it also demands change in how coaches take up space, and make room for others at the table.

During these past few years, the fight for equity is one that can’t be denied. From postgenderism, women’s rights, racial inclusion, cultural acceptance, and religious apostasy, coaches must learn to witness others without assumption or the desire for creating uniformed conformity.  

And as a coach, helping to bridge the gap between where a human is, in their current reality, to where they want to transition into, you’re asked to provide safe spaces for the broken, the exhausted, the lost, the scared, and the humbled–ones that look more like giant hugs, meadows to frolic, and wilderness to wander.

The world is full of asylum seekers whose homes, offices, churches, schools, communities, and minds are not safe. When they can’t find this safety, they assume they are too different to survive it, too poor to afford it, and too broken to deserve it which has created the need for diversity and inclusion to become a major talking point around clarifying your values, solidifying your core message, breaking the industry trends, and reshaping the landscape to welcome those desperately seeking change.

To accommodate social consciousness, corporations specifically, are changing the way they hire, promote, and market. As a coach, you’re also a business owner and should begin embracing similar concepts to create healthy standards and develop a company culture.

Here are 3 ways you can weave these principles into your business:

  1. Truly know and understand your client and potential client. Knowing who you serve and who you are as a person allows you to include those who will benefit most from your message and align with your values. Your clients deserve a safe, empathic space that accepts and welcomes them as they are.
  2. Be sure to create offers, products, and systems that align with your mission and core values. Knowing what you stand for and what doesn’t fit your value guidelines will eliminate confusion, frustration, and assumptive risk when signing a new client or inviting them into your community. 
  3. Understand the reality of your audience. Pricing and service offers depend on who you choose to work with. While it’s in your company’s best interest to charge for the value of your work, the time you invest, and the sustainability of your business, grossly over (or under) charging will leave a gap in the trust / expectation between you and your audience.

It’s essential, as an entrepreneur, to create a business that’s sustainable and profitable to carry out your mission of serving others, but as a coach it’s imperative to know who you are as a person, who you serve best, and the values base of your company. All 3 of these guidelines will help you to present your programs as true service offers and eliminate the need for harmful marketing.

Being a diverse and inclusive leader demands an open mind and a softer understanding of the needs of others, which allows you to meet them where they are to create a safer harbor.

The landscape of the industry, and the world, is changing and this is your opportunity to create a heart-led business that embraces real people, equally, with integrity. 

Find Kitty here:

Facebook // www.facebook.com/groups/howtolifecoach

Instagram // @ kitty_kistler

LinkedIn // @ kittykistler

Kitty Kistler is an experienced Life Coach + Business Mentor.

Driven by a desire to see integrity within the coaching community she created Ready, Set, Coach Academy to teach aspiring coaches, course creators, influencers, and social marketers how to coach professionally and build sustainable heart + values centered businesses. Her goal is to expand and diversify the industry while helping more coaches become successful, profitable business owners as well.

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