Latest / Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney / Juggling chaos - how to combine life with your wedding business

Transcript

Juggling chaos - how to combine life with your wedding business · Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney

0:00
Becca: Owning your own wedding business and being
0:02
self-employed is a massive juggle.
0:04
There's so much to do and it feels like so little time to get it all done.
0:08
Last week I was speaking an event and someone asked me how I achieved
0:12
so much in my business and did I have loads of childcare help because
0:15
that must be the way that I do it.
0:17
What I told her next blew her mind, so I thought I'm gonna share that
0:21
with everyone on the podcast too.
0:23
Spoiler alert, I don't have a lot of childcare.
0:28
I'm Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker and blogger,
0:32
and you are listening to The Wedding Pros who are Ready to Grow podcast.
0:36
I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life
0:39
examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
0:43
If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion
0:46
and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you
0:50
love, then you're in the right place.
0:52
Let's get going with today's episode.
0:55
When it comes to our wedding businesses, there's one thing that's universally true
0:59
for all of us, and that's that we all have the same amount of time in a week.
1:03
It's 168 hours to be precise.
1:06
What's more important though, is how we use the time that we've got.
1:11
So often I have conversations with you where you say to me, I can't achieve
1:15
what I want to in my business right now because I've got young kids, because I'm
1:19
looking after my elderly parents because I've got grandchildren three days a week
1:22
because I've got massive health concerns, which are taking up loads of my time.
1:26
Or because I'm juggling another full-time job alongside my business, which is just
1:30
a side hustle, and I totally get it.
1:33
I have lived my life as one big juggle for the last six.
1:38
So today I want to share my story with you.
1:41
I wanna show you what it really looks like in my life and how I practically implement
1:45
things and ideas into my business.
1:47
To help me make the most of my time, I'm gonna share with you some
1:51
ideas that you can implement into your life and your business too.
1:55
I also wanna share with you how my.
1:59
Actually looks versus Instagram.
2:02
I always fall into this trap.
2:03
I think everyone understands that Instagram isn't reality, but yet so
2:07
often we look at what's happening on Instagram and make assumptions about
2:10
how people are living their lives.
2:12
So I'm gonna peel back the curtain today on the podcast and show you how
2:16
chaotic and crazy my life really is and how I've practically implement
2:21
things into my business to help get that Instagram look that you maybe see.
2:28
You may have heard of Parkinson's law.
2:30
It's the theory that says that a task takes however long we have to do it.
2:35
So if we've got a long time to do a task, we just make that task last longer.
2:40
And if we only have a short time to do a task and we've got a
2:42
tight deadline, then guess what?
2:44
That task takes us less time.
2:46
Now, we could go into the ins and outs of why that is, and you can go away
2:49
and read up about Parkinson's law.
2:51
However, I think really each and every one of us know this to be.
2:55
When we've got loads of time, we waste loads of time.
2:58
And whether we have a week to do something, a month to do something or
3:01
a year to do something, I guarantee most of us leave it until the deadline.
3:07
That is what Parkinson's law is, and that is why if we understand that we can really
3:14
work out how we can be way more productive with our time and get more done in the
3:18
short amount of time we have when it comes to being more effective, one of the.
3:22
People suggest is giving yourself less time to do tasks.
3:26
So if you are sitting listening to this podcast, or perhaps because you're busy
3:29
like me, you're doing it while in the car, on the way, somewhere else or on
3:33
a run and you're multitasking, then if you are someone that doesn't have
3:36
a lot of time because you're juggling.
3:38
All of these other commitments, Stop seeing that as a negative.
3:42
Stop seeing that as a frustration and realize that could actually be
3:45
your superpower because you are gonna be so much more effective with the
3:49
small amount of time you've got.
3:51
I'm gonna give you an example in my life about how this.
3:54
Absolutely plays out.
3:56
So a couple of episodes ago I mentioned to you one of the things I implemented
3:59
into my business more recently, which has been a massive help to me, is a cleaner.
4:04
It helps me so much because it saves me so much time.
4:07
She's amazing.
4:07
She does a great job, and she comes once a week.
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Now before she comes each week, I have one hour between dropping
4:15
my children off at school and her arriving, and in that hour without
4:19
fail, I run round and tidy my house.
4:23
I achieve more in that hour when it comes to tidying than I do with
4:27
all of the other hours in my week.
4:29
Now I know if I just had to tidy the house each week, it would take me forever.
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In fact, it'd probably take me a whole day.
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But because I know I only have that short window of time and there's
4:38
a massive deadline on it because she's turning up at the exact right
4:41
time, then I am really effective.
4:43
I can blitz and tidy my house in that hour so it looks pristine, and then
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she can come in and do the rest, it's an example of how I use that time more
4:52
effectively because I have a short.
4:55
And that will be the same for you when it comes to all of
4:57
the tasks in your business.
4:59
The less time you have to do them, the more effective you will be at
5:02
getting them done, without wasting time and without being distracted.
5:08
So how does my life look versus Instagram?
5:12
Now, if you look at my Instagram page, you might think that I spend
5:14
my days sitting on my bed on my computer putting in strategy and
5:19
going to glamorous events and parties.
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In fact, one of my friends asked me the other day, if I
5:23
get paid to party for a living.
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Now I understand that that is what I'm putting out online because that is.
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Marketing, right?
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Marketing is selling the dream.
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Now, I'm not trying to sell the fact that I've got this amazing life, not at all,
5:35
because I am doing all of those things.
5:37
However, there's a whole lot of other things that I'm doing on a daily basis
5:41
that you don't see because, well, no one wants to see me running around on
5:45
the school run or running my children back and forward to gymnastics.
5:48
It's nothing to do with my business.
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I wanna keep my personal life separate.
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And quite honestly, it's not that interesting.
5:55
But that is the reality of my life.
5:57
And so if you look at my Instagram, like the person did at the event, I
6:00
met the other week, and just think that's all I do, then you will make
6:03
assumptions about me that I have all this childcare and I have all this help,
6:07
and that maybe my husband's at home all of the time doing all the house
6:10
stuff so that I can run my business.
6:12
And I wanna tell you, that's absolutely not true.
6:16
So how does my life really look?
6:19
Well, for a start, I have very little help with childcare.
6:23
In fact, out of all my friends with children of the same age,
6:26
I have probably have the least amount of help with childcare.
6:29
We don't have a lot of childcare at all.
6:31
In fact, 95% of our childcare is either myself or.
6:36
Or my husband now, we have young children.
6:38
They are six and nine, and they do now go to school full-time, which
6:43
has freed up a lot of time, and I'll talk about that preschool phase for
6:46
anyone that's in that right now, a little bit later in the episode, but
6:49
right now they're in school all day, but we don't have any childcare help.
6:53
So we are doing everything ourselves 95% of the time.
6:57
In that extra 5%, I may pay a babysitter for an evening so that we can go out
7:02
together, or one of my friends might walk the children to school and I'll
7:05
do the same for them the week after.
7:07
So it kind of works in kind.
7:09
But most of what I do, I do it myself.
7:12
So I take my children to school every morning.
7:15
I pick them up every afternoon.
7:16
So I only have between the hours of nine o'clock and three o'clock on a
7:20
daily basis to get my work done once I pick the children up from school.
7:25
My life is just completely chaotic.
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We're going from gymnastics to dancing, to singing lessons,
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to piano lessons and swimming lessons and everything in between.
7:34
I'm then coming home, making them dinner, sorting their bags out for
7:37
the next day, doing the schoolwork, and then getting them into bed.
7:40
I.
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I then have some time in the evening to do some work.
7:45
However, I don't have, every evening I'm currently practicing for a
7:48
Performance of Sister Act with a local drama group, and that is happening
7:51
twice a week, so two evenings a week.
7:53
At the moment, I am out and I'm doing that for my own fun.
7:56
And leisure, so that takes away a couple of evenings.
7:59
I also try not to work for my business on the weekend evenings so that I
8:03
can spend some time with my husband.
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So really there's only one or maybe two evenings now that I can work in the week
8:09
and where possible, because the kids are in school, I try not to work any
8:13
evenings at all, or only once or twice.
8:15
A month, so don't be fooled.
8:18
I don't have unlimited time to run my business.
8:21
I really do have between nine o'clock and three o'clock to get things
8:24
done and the occasional evening.
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I also have little to no childcare when it comes to school holidays.
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So for me, I have six weeks in the summer where I basically have them at home
8:36
all of the time and I have to juggle.
8:38
This summer, I had them for the whole six weeks.
8:41
We went away, we did things, we had fun.
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I had no childcare.
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The only childcare I had was for a couple of days when my parents took
8:48
them away for a few days and we actually went away ourselves, me and my
8:51
partner, and had some times to ourself and one week where I booked them.
8:55
Dance camp that they wanted to go to for a few hours a day, and so I did
8:58
get some time back in my business.
9:01
Most of the school holidays though, I just know that I've got them at home.
9:05
So that's what my life looks like.
9:07
It is one chaotic juggle with small children at home.
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We are going here, there and everywhere.
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School runs, picking them up.
9:13
If a child comes home sick, they're at home with me.
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If it's school holidays, they're at home with me and I just make
9:19
my business work around it.
9:22
Now, like I said, if you look at my Instagram, you might think that that is
9:25
not how I live my life, but I want you to know this is the truth, and I'm being very
9:28
open and honest with you here because I want you to understand that all of us have
9:33
this chaos going on in the background.
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Even if it's not children that you've got, Perhaps you've got other
9:38
things going on with your health.
9:39
Maybe you've got another job that you're trying to do alongside setting up your.
9:44
And so you need to look at the time you do have available and look at
9:47
how we can use that more effectively.
9:50
And that's what I wanna talk about.
9:51
Now.
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I'm gonna share with you some of the things that I've implemented
9:54
in my life over the last six years to help me run my business, whilst
9:58
also having this constant juggle of children going on in the background.
10:04
So the first thing is that I set the boundaries and the
10:07
boundaries shift with me over time.
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I'm gonna say that again.
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I set the boundaries in my business and the boundaries shift with
10:16
me over time because my life circumstances are always shifting.
10:21
So when I gave up my job, In radio and went self-employed.
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One of the primary reasons was so that I could be more flexible.
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In fact, that's why most of us start a business.
10:29
But it's very easy early on to get sucked into ending up working more
10:33
on your business than you did in your office job and being tied to
10:36
doing certain things and feeling like you're working all of the time Now.
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, I understand starting a business and running a business is hard work and
10:44
you have to put the hours in because I've done it myself and I still do.
10:48
But you do have some flexibility and you can set the boundaries
10:52
in your own business.
10:53
So for example, when I first started my business, I actually was
10:57
pregnant, uh, with my second child.
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And so I then had a newborn baby when I first started, what I do now.
11:03
And so I set some really strict boundaries in my business for a start.
11:07
Business wasn't as big as it is now, and I did that on purpose
11:10
because I knew I didn't have loads of time in my week to grow it.
11:13
So I had it at the level that was sustainable for me in that period of life.
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I also chose to run all of my events in evenings because I knew
11:21
that's when I could get childcare.
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My husband had a normal nine to five job and he was home most evening.
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So I could have my networking events and any training and things like
11:29
that that I did always happened in the evening or um, on the weekend.
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So that's what I did to start with, and I said it around that now.
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People were asking me all the time, Can I do some events in the daytime?
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Can I do some training in the daytime?
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But I had to say no.
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I knew my own boundaries and I knew at that point I wasn't able to do that.
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So I just said it around me.
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Now you might be thinking, Yeah, Becca, but I'm working weddings,
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so I have to work all the weekends.
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I have to work the peak times.
11:57
I totally understand what you're saying, but equally,
12:00
you don't have to do anything.
12:02
It's your business.
12:03
You can run your business however you want to.
12:05
Yes, it might be different to how other people are doing it, but if you choose
12:09
to only do five weddings a year at a premium rate because that's all you
12:12
have time for, then great, go for it.
12:15
You don't have to do what everyone else is doing if you decide to become the person
12:19
who is the specialist of weekday weddings, so that could be your marketing message.
12:23
I only work weekday weddings.
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I don't do weddings at weekends, but if you are getting married in the
12:27
week, you'll get great value from me.
12:29
I specialize in weekday weddings.
12:30
Let's chat.
12:32
Okay?
12:32
You can do whatever you want.
12:33
We don't have to do what everyone else is doing.
12:35
You just need to find something that works for you within your boundaries and within
12:39
your family life, and that's gonna be different for each and every one of us.
12:44
Now, as I said, this then evolved with time.
12:47
So now I don't have such small children and my children are in school, and so
12:52
now our boundaries have shifted again.
12:54
Whereas I used to do things around naps and around when my husband was at home.
12:59
Now I've shifted my business to be much more during the day,
13:02
so I do less evening events.
13:04
I do more things during the day, more of my training sessions.
13:07
Take place during the day, and that shift has happened because my life has shifted.
13:12
I haven't particularly told people that's why it's happened.
13:15
You may only be learning this by listening to this podcast, but
13:17
over time, I've shifted things so that it works in line with me.
13:22
So when it comes to your business, think about the boundaries you have.
13:25
Think about the size of the business you can manage right now
13:28
with the time that you've got.
13:30
And set yourself some boundaries and stick to them.
13:32
They can shift and they can change over.
13:35
Everything in life is a season.
13:37
I really believe that If it's a difficult season, sometimes we can do
13:40
less, but then other seasons will open up and we'll have time to do more.
13:44
And you might be right in the middle of a really difficult season right now.
13:48
You might have really young children, You might have a really
13:50
sick relative or family member.
13:52
You may be going something.
13:53
Really difficult personally, and that's okay.
13:56
And I wanna say to yourself, just be kind to yourself and look at
13:59
what you can actually manage, but also don't use it as an excuse.
14:03
If you can't manage as much, that's fine.
14:05
Be kind to yourself and set those boundaries.
14:08
There will be a season when you have more time and you can grow
14:11
back into your business again.
14:14
Okay.
14:14
The second tip I have for you is that where possible,
14:17
in my business, I automate.
14:19
I automate as much as I possibly can because I'm short of time.
14:23
Automation is not as scary as it sounds, and there are little
14:26
things you can automate in your business to save yourself time.
14:30
So things like setting up a scheduler or setting up a calendar so that people
14:34
can just come in and book an appointment straight away, rather than having to go
14:37
backwards and forwards A lot of times.
14:39
Email, setting up payment pages on your website using something like QuickBooks,
14:44
where it's really quick and easy to send your invoices automatically sending
14:48
people emails when they buy from you.
14:50
Having templates saved so when people ask for something, you've got it to hand.
14:54
Having really simple.
14:55
Email folders and systems where all of your contracts and things
14:59
are held, so it's quick and easy for people to find what they need.
15:02
I automate and simplify as much as I possibly can.
15:06
Now, not everything can be automated, but a lot of things can be.
15:10
So look at the tasks that you're doing all of the time and save
15:14
yourself those extra minutes by looking at how you can automate.
15:18
If you automate something once, yes, it takes you time to get it set up,
15:22
but then you can use it time and time and time again without having
15:26
to put the effort and the hours in.
15:28
And when you're short of time like I am, then all of the automation
15:31
is really, really helpful.
15:34
Okay.
15:34
The third thing that I use in my business is that I'm only
15:38
available when I'm available.
15:40
And I'm okay with that.
15:42
So many conversations I have with people are around when they're gonna fit in their
15:46
client meetings because they're so busy and it's because they're letting their
15:50
customers decide when they want to meet.
15:53
However, in my business, I don't let people make the decisions.
15:57
I make the decisions for you.
15:59
Now again, I just talked about automation and calendars.
16:02
So if you wanna book in with me to do a podcast recording or to have
16:06
a discovery call or a one-to-one.
16:08
I have a calendar set up, but that calendar availability
16:12
is all built around my life.
16:15
So you can't meet with me at eight 30 in the morning because
16:18
I'm taking my children to school.
16:20
You can't meet with me at four o'clock on a Wednesday because I'll probably
16:24
be at my daughter's singing lesson.
16:26
So you can.
16:27
Only book times when I'm available, so I will put into my calendar times between
16:32
nine o'clock and three o'clock, and then I will put in the occasional evening
16:36
slot when I know I'm available for people that struggle to meet during the day.
16:41
But I set the times that are working for me.
16:44
Now people don't look at my calendar and think, Wow, she's
16:46
really stingy with her times.
16:48
She can only meet me between nine and three.
16:50
She must be doing something else.
16:51
She's really unprofessional.
16:52
Okay.
16:53
That's not true.
16:53
People don't look at it like that.
16:55
People look at a diary and they just pick the time that's most convenient to them
16:58
from the times that I have given them.
17:00
And this is the same for you and your business.
17:03
Don't ask people when they wanna meet you and then have to run around
17:06
juggling everything to make it work.
17:08
Tell them when you are available.
17:10
Look at your own life.
17:11
Work out when you have spaces in your diary and either set up a calendar
17:15
or send them the times that you have.
17:17
When we ring up to book a dentist appointment, they don't say
17:20
on the other end of the phone.
17:22
Great.
17:23
When are you free?
17:23
Do you wanna come?
17:24
And I say, Yeah, nine o'clock on Friday night.
17:26
That's not how it works.
17:27
We don't expect that.
17:28
We ask what availability they have, and then we choose the
17:31
appointment that works best for us.
17:33
It's exactly the same in business.
17:35
So make sure you are telling people when you're available and you're
17:39
only available when you're available.
17:42
Okay.
17:42
The next thing that I do in my household is try as much as possible
17:46
to plan things ahead of time.
17:48
We need to make sure my business and my husband's work and the children's
17:52
schedule all fits together well.
17:54
And when we don't communicate that well, that's when it all starts to fall apart.
17:58
So we try and sit down together, either at the beginning of the
18:00
month or a beginning of a week.
18:02
As much as possible and talk through as a couple what we've got coming
18:07
up and how we're gonna manage it, how we're gonna make these things
18:10
work, and who's gonna be doing what.
18:11
Sometimes we have to write it all down on a piece of paper to make sure it all fits.
18:16
So for example, if I'm going away to speak at a conference, perhaps
18:19
we need to sit down and work out.
18:21
Whether my husband can leave work early to pick the children up and what days he
18:24
could work the extra hours to make it up.
18:27
It's practical, simple stuff, but by talking and working together,
18:30
we can solve problems much easier.
18:33
If you think ahead and plan ahead and look at what's coming up rather than
18:36
just working in the moment, it will make your life so much better Now.
18:40
That really is how my life works.
18:42
It is a massive juggle.
18:44
The children have to be in all sorts of different places at all sorts of
18:47
different times in all sorts of the right uniforms and shoes, and make sure
18:51
they've got the right equipment with them.
18:53
And so we just write it all down on a piece of paper.
18:57
So that we remember what we're doing, because otherwise it will all fall apart.
19:01
So between us, between me and my partner, we get them to all the places
19:04
they should be with the right things.
19:06
Not because we are superhuman, but because we write it down and we
19:10
plan it out, and we talk about it.
19:12
I know it sounds simple, but maybe that's something you need
19:14
to start doing at the beginning of a week or beginning of a month.
19:17
Sit down with the other people in your house and just talk about how you're
19:20
gonna make this work between you.
19:22
Who's gonna be cooking the dinner that night?
19:24
How are you gonna make it?
19:25
Is there someone else in the household that can help you in certain areas
19:29
to free up some time for you?
19:31
Okay.
19:31
My next tip for you is that I am transparent about my situation as
19:36
much as I possibly can be because that helps me and helps my clients and
19:41
people understand what I'm all about.
19:44
Now, let me explain.
19:45
What I mean by that is I don't pretend to be something I'm not.
19:48
Now, obviously this hasn't worked for me as well as I thought it was because
19:51
people still think that I must have all this super help behind the scenes,
19:55
which I absolutely don't, and that's one of the reasons I'm doing this episode
19:58
for full transparency to show you that it is possible to run a business and
20:02
have an absolutely crazy, chaotic life.
20:04
In the background, but I think it's helpful for me to be transparent
20:08
and open with the people that I'm working with and not try and
20:11
pretend to be something I'm not.
20:13
Often, when we are running a business, we try and allude some kind of super
20:17
humanness to our clients, to our couples, to the people that we are working
20:21
with, as if we've got it all together.
20:23
And I understand why we wanna do that because we wanna come across
20:26
professional and that's really important.
20:28
But sometimes it's actually more relatable for people.
20:32
When we are honest with them, we don't need to hide the
20:34
fact that we've got children.
20:35
We don't need to hide the fact that we've got another job.
20:38
We don't need to hide all these, these things.
20:40
Yes, we might not wanna shout about them, but we can also be honest and transparent.
20:44
When we start telling lies or covering things up, we start to
20:47
get ourselves in a big pickle.
20:49
If, for example, I'm recording a podcast with someone and they say to
20:53
me right at the beginning of the call, just to let you know I've got a baby
20:56
in the next room, or I've got a dog next door that might start barking.
20:59
Please let me know if you hear anything, and I'll go and sort it out.
21:02
I would much prefer that for them than them to be pretending that everything
21:06
in their house is silent and then looking really shifty and trying to
21:09
work out what to do when something goes.
21:13
Be upfront and be honest.
21:15
Now, I had a situation, just today where I decided transparency
21:18
was absolutely the best answer.
21:20
I had this nightmare scenario whereby I had a video call with my members at
21:25
10 o'clock in the morning for an hour, and it was an interview with a guest,
21:30
uh, coming in and talking to them.
21:32
About branding.
21:34
Now, during that time, I also knew I had a plumber that was gonna be
21:38
turning up and I didn't exactly know what time they were going to be coming.
21:42
Now, I could have pretended that that wasn't happening and hoped that I could
21:47
remain professional, and hopefully no one would notice that that was going on.
21:51
But I knew that my stress levels would be absolutely raised and my life
21:54
is a little bit chaotic sometimes.
21:56
So I decided transparency was the answer and.
21:59
I just owned it.
22:00
I said at the beginning of the call just to let everyone know, unfortunately,
22:03
I've got a plumber coming to my house.
22:05
I don't know when they're coming.
22:07
They're gonna come as part of this call.
22:08
So if I suddenly have to disappear and leave you with the guest for a
22:11
moment without me, that's where I am.
22:14
And that definitely was the right thing to do.
22:16
What happened was I went on, I went live, the guest came in, I handed over to him,
22:21
and then the plumber knocked on the door.
22:22
So the timing was perfect, but then I came back and just explained to
22:25
everyone, yeah, the plumber's here now, so I might have to disappear
22:28
again, but I am paying attention.
22:31
Now you may listen to that and think, Well, that's a bit unprofessional.
22:34
But in that moment, it was much better for me to be open and honest with my audience
22:38
about what was happening than trying to pretend that I was something I'm not.
22:41
And you know what?
22:42
That's really relatable because they're all sat there listening
22:45
to the training as well.
22:46
Maybe you were there too, and you've probably got other things
22:48
going on in your life as well.
22:50
Maybe you've got the doorbell going off, an Amazon parcel being
22:52
delivered, you've gotta go and get.
22:54
Dog from the vet all whilst trying to listen to the cool,
22:57
and people relate to it.
22:59
They don't wanna work with me because I'm superhuman.
23:01
I guess they wanna work with me because I'm just me.
23:04
And that's the same with your couples.
23:06
If you can be relatable to them, if you can find common ground, if
23:09
you can get on with them, sometimes being transparent about your
23:11
circumstances goes a really long way.
23:14
Yes, maybe you might lose a couple of people for not being as super professional
23:18
or mentioning that you've got children.
23:20
However, for me, those are the clients that I don't wanna work with
23:24
anyway because ultimately if they're that funny about it, then they're
23:27
probably not my kind of person.
23:30
Okay, next up is that I'm selective with what I say yes to, and I've
23:35
learnt to say, no, I get it.
23:37
Saying no is one of the hardest things, especially when big
23:40
opportunities come around.
23:41
But sometimes we gotta be realistic.
23:44
If you know that your editing time is short and you can only manage one wedding
23:48
in a weekend, take the one wedding in the weekend and then don't take another one.
23:53
You'll live and learn that it's best to say no, rather than stretching
23:57
yourself into time you don't have.
23:59
This is when setting those boundaries is really important.
24:02
If you know you can't do something because it's your child's birthday or you've
24:06
gotta look after your mum, or you've got a health need that's gonna take priority,
24:11
then sometimes you've just gotta say no to opportunities and that's okay.
24:14
Or maybe it's a not.
24:17
I got invited to speak at an event this weekend, but it's my son's
24:21
birthday and so I turned it down because for me that's a hard no.
24:24
I'd much rather turn down the opportunity and spend the time with
24:28
my child on their birthday, and I was honest about the reason why I said no,
24:32
and they were totally fine with it.
24:34
And I said, If you do another event and it's in a different day,
24:36
or the date changes, get back in touch and let's work together.
24:39
And they said, Yeah, we'll absolutely do that.
24:41
So you've gotta be selective and you've gotta say no.
24:43
The other thing I say no to now.
24:46
Things that waste my time ultimately.
24:48
So I won't just have loads of coffees with random people or jump on calls
24:52
with people unless I understand why that is, what the objective is and
24:56
what I'm gonna get out of that time.
24:58
I don't have the time to have loads of pointless conversations
25:01
if I'm quite brutally honest.
25:03
I have to be really careful and precious about my time because I have so.
25:08
It.
25:08
I will jump on calls with people.
25:10
I will have meetings with people, but I have to understand why and whether or not
25:14
it's worth giving up some of that precious time in order to have that meeting.
25:18
So if you are someone that has very little time, don't waste your time.
25:23
Think strategically about what conversations you have, what
25:26
projects you say yes to, and what projects you say no to.
25:29
Why you are saying yes and why you are saying no.
25:32
How does that fit in with your schedule and can you manage it?
25:35
It's okay to say no.
25:37
Sometimes it's okay to say not right now sometimes, and if you can get.
25:41
Better at that, you will use your time much more effectively.
25:44
And again, I'm really open and honest about that.
25:47
I will tell people I'd love to meet for a coffee, but I'm very short of time.
25:51
However, is it something we can sort out over email?
25:53
Could we do something on Zoom?
25:55
I've got 15 minutes on Zoom and I'm really strict with that.
25:58
And just be really careful about how much of your time
26:02
you give away to other people.
26:06
The next tip I have for you is to outsource where possible.
26:09
This is something that I've got better and better at over the years because
26:13
I've realized my time is finite, right?
26:15
I don't have loads of it, and I'm gonna run out of it if I try and do
26:18
all of the things all of the time.
26:20
So if I wanna grow my business and develop my offerings, then I'm
26:23
gonna have to do something about that, and I've had to outsource.
26:27
I found this really hard in the first instance because ultimately
26:30
I know that I can do all of the tasks I outsource myself.
26:33
I may think that I can do them better, although I've been proved
26:36
wrong over time and realized other people can do things better than me.
26:39
But we are very protective about our own businesses and we feel like we have
26:42
to do all of the things, and we're also very reluctant to pay someone else to
26:46
do something that we know that we can.
26:48
However I've learned sometimes in life, you've got to speculate to accumulate.
26:52
There are some tasks in your business that someone else could do for you.
26:56
There are some tasks in your business that you have to do yourself, and
27:00
if you can do more of the tasks you have to do yourself, which leads to
27:04
more sales in your business, and in the meantime, outsource some of those
27:08
smaller, less important tasks to someone else, you'll end up making the money
27:12
that you are spending on outsourcing.
27:14
And I'm always looking at things I can outsource in my business now, things
27:18
that take a lot of time that maybe I could be doing something else with
27:22
that time, instead either spending it with my family or using it to build my
27:26
business and grow and make some money or change my offerings or whatever it is.
27:31
For you, outsourcing is one of the best things that I've done, and
27:36
it's something I highly recommend.
27:37
If you feel like you're really stretched for time, have a look at
27:40
who else in your life could take some of those tasks off of you.
27:44
Perhaps you've got someone in your family, a niece, a nephew, a cousin, a teenage
27:48
child who's looking to earn a little bit of extra pocket money and could
27:51
do some of your basic tasks for you.
27:54
You're helping them out because they're gonna get some extra
27:55
money, and it's massively helping you out because it's saving you.
28:00
Outsourcing doesn't have to be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pounds.
28:03
It could be 20, 30, 40 pounds a week for someone to just take a
28:07
little bit of work away from you, freeing you up to have more time to
28:10
do the things you want to be doing.
28:13
Have a think about everything you do in your business.
28:15
Take note of what's taking loads of time, and think about what
28:18
somebody else could be doing.
28:22
Okay.
28:22
My final tip for you today is that I write a lot of lists and I prioritize
28:29
when I feel overwhelmed with the amount of work that I've got going
28:32
on or all of the things in my head.
28:34
I write everything down and then I look to prioritize it.
28:38
Sometimes we've got things on our to-do list, which actually aren't
28:41
essential and are just wasting time.
28:43
Are there things in your business that you could stop doing entirely?
28:47
Either outsource.
28:48
Actually, they're just pointless and you don't need to be doing them anymore,
28:51
and you can erase them from your list.
28:53
Are there things that you could be doing more effectively or are there things
28:57
that you could start doing which would actually be better uses of your time than
29:00
the things you're doing at the moment?
29:02
Have a look at which of the tasks you write down will move
29:05
the needle of your business.
29:07
Forward, what things will have a big impact on your business?
29:10
What things will bring in money into your business?
29:13
What things will grow your business?
29:14
What things will grow your network, and what things are you just
29:17
procrastinating over and using a lot of time on unnecessarily?
29:21
We get that shiny object syndrome, don't we, where we see
29:23
everyone's doing Instagram reels.
29:25
So we spend loads and loads of loads of time doing Instagram reels
29:28
and it wastes loads of our time.
29:29
And yes, it might help.
29:31
But also maybe your time could have been more effective by spending that
29:34
same amount of time, meeting with a venue coordinator about getting on their
29:37
recommended suppliers list, or being part of a style sheet where you're gonna get
29:41
loads and loads of photos that you can use on your marketing for the next year.
29:46
Think about the tasks you're doing.
29:48
Think about which ones you don't need to be doing and which ones are the priority.
29:53
Then when I get down to what I need to do on a daily basis, if I've got a
29:55
lot to do, I write everything down on a piece of paper, and then I go back
30:00
through that list and start prioritizing it, and I give everything a number.
30:03
1, 2, 3, 4.
30:05
Number one is the task I do first.
30:07
And so on.
30:08
I put my phone on airplane mode.
30:10
I turn off the distractions, and I just start going through that list one by
30:14
one by one in the order that I've set.
30:16
Nothing else can take priority because I've already chosen the priority order.
30:21
And when I do that, I get so much more done in a day.
30:24
Why?
30:24
Because I've given myself less time to do it, and I've decided what
30:28
I'm gonna do when, and I tick loads off, and I feel so much better.
30:32
So if you are feeling overwhelmed and you've got loads of tasks
30:34
on a list, I highly recommend.
30:37
Out of your head onto paper, choose which ones need to be
30:40
done today and then prioritize.
30:44
I hope you found today's episode helpful.
30:46
I hope it's helpful for you to understand a bit of my story
30:49
and how I run my business.
30:51
I don't want you to look at me and think I've got it all together.
30:53
I really don't.
30:54
My life is total chaos behind the scenes.
30:57
Like I said, I'm in this season of life where I'm running my children backwards
31:00
and forwards here, there and everywhere all of the time whilst trying to run my
31:04
business and be in a show at the same time and have date nights with my husband.
31:07
But I do make it work because of all of these things that I've shared with you.
31:12
Whenever I'm vulnerable like this, I love to get feedback from you.
31:15
Obviously I'm talking to the ether and I never really know who's
31:18
listening, so if something in this episode has resonated with you
31:21
today, I would absolutely love it.
31:23
If you could reach out to me, drop me a message on Instagram and let me know if
31:26
there's something in here that's been helpful to you to help you move forward.
31:31
I understand how overwhelming it can be to be a business owner.
31:34
I'm right there with you myself, but you absolutely can do it, and you've
31:38
just got to prioritise, set those boundaries and make it work for you.
31:44
I'll see you next time.