Why Are You So Busy?

This one's an easy question to answer, right? You're so busy because you have SO MUCH TO DO. 

I hear you loud and clear. I have so much to do, too. I am reading Million Dollar Consulting a little at a time. (I recommend it to just about anyone who wants to start any kind of business.) 

The author, Alan Weiss, posits an underlying reason you may have so much to do that you feel overwhelmed.

But before he shares that reason, he lays out his "unified field theory for consulting success." (By the way, he is so confident that his book will hook you that he reveals the whole shebang on p. 26 of a 267-page book!) 

The theory is six steps long.

Simple, he says, right? "So why don't people abide by the simplicity of excellent consulting and accelerate their careers?" 

Because: 

Dug the Dog. 

We get distracted. We set a plan for the day, for the week, for the year, and then we find something that seems easy to tick off the list, and we prioritize that instead.

Where does that impulse come from? 

For me, it comes from fear. I'm afraid to set a course and follow through. What if it doesn't work? Who wants to play the long game and lose?

But I've started to learn my lesson about setting aside long-term plans to build my business week after week in favor of quick fixes and just taking any and all new projects that come my way because of the fear that I might not get more business if I say "no" to anything. I hope I'm phasing out the squirrel-chasing part of my business.

Reading Alan's description made me realize I'm far from alone in allowing myself to get distracted by pursuing projects that just don't fit their business models. 

I just wonder, how many other entrepreneurs and consultants have felt like they're chasing squirrels while they're building their businesses? 

Here's Alan again: "The 'squirrel' you see is seldom relevant to your day, is almost impossible to catch, and in the long run actually tastes awful."

"I Don't Have Time to Blog." FALSE.

Ironic title since this is my first new post in 5 months. I took a blog hiatus to focus on client work and build my business. I'm back now with info I've gathered running online marketing campaigns for a lot of fantastic entrepreneurs! And I'm ready to share what I've learned and to hear what you think of it!  Do you have trouble blogging consistently? Let me know in the comments!

When I was 22 I interviewed for my first "real" newspaper job, to be a general assignment reporter at a very small paper. After the sit-down interview, I was given a test with the following materials: a computer with no Internet (this was the early 2000s),  a police report, and some typed-up notes of witness interviews. The test: write an article on the crime detailed therein.

Twenty minutes later, I was done. A couple of hours after that, I was offered the job. 

Working for a daily newspaper is the quickest way I know to internalize the motto, "done is better than perfect." A whopping 13 years later (!), a lot has changed about the newspaper industry, but I have come to realize that the most important skill I honed during my newspaper time was to write on deadline. And I've realized that writing on deadline doesn't come so easily to other people. 

It's a motto a lot of my clients take issue with. But if you're going to share content, life gets a lot easier if you can give this motto some thought. 

So tip 1 for making the tip to blog: Start; don't wait for perfect. 

Other tips for writing quickly: 

1. Don't try to say EVERYTHING there is to say on the topic; as we discussed you will revisit these topics over and over, using different formats (checklists, Q&A style, video). 

2. Pick a point you'd like to make, write an outline, write the blog. 

**If there are two points you want to make, create a title for point no. 2 and add it to your content calendar to write about another time. 

3. Be patient with yourself. You will get faster with practice. 

4. (This is a suggestion I heard from Tim Ferriss that I love) open up Outlook or Gmail and click "new." Write your post draft in a new email. Our habit is to get organized and write emails quickly; using an email draft might signal your brain to apply the same discipline to your blog writing.

Bonus! Try video: write the outline and then talk about the topic in one take. Compare how long that takes vs. how long writing takes. 

This is Your No. 1 Productivity Killer

I was listening to Amy Porterfield's podcast episode 102, "How to Create Content Rituals to Get More Done."  Amy focused on sharing about how hard of a time she was having carving out the significant chunks of time she needed in order to create: blog posts, interview questions, presentations, course content. 

She pointed out something that struck a chord with me: don't check your e-mail. During "Tiger Time," Amy says that she doesn't check e-mail. She doesn't touch e-mail until 4 hours in to her work day, at 12 pm. 

Not only does she not respond, but she doesn't CHECK.

Ideally, if you're trying to create a cocoon of time in which you can focus on a single project, you don't check e-mail during that time, of course. But here's why I love the idea of not checking at the outset of your day, period:

E-mail is the number 1 de-railer of my day, and it definitely ranks above phone, social media, or texting. Why? 

Because I find that e-mails require me to take at least one action before I can respond. Maybe I have to research a fact or a question, contact someone else to get an answer, or put together a plan of action. 

But whatever it is, I often automatically let it take precedence over what I had been planning to do before I opened the email. And that completely knocks me off the track I set for myself when I started my task.

Texting usually only requires a reply (not a bunch of research). Social media is admittedly a rabbit hole but doesn't require a constant reshuffling of work priorities.  Phone calls don't happen much and when they do, they are largely self-contained (Dr. appointment reminders, for example.) 

E-mail is the de-railer. 

Amy's system reminded me of another tactic to approach getting focused, intensive work completed first thing in the morning. It's called the 90-90-1 rule.

"For the next 90 days, devote the first 90 minutes of your work day to the one best opportunity in your life. Nothing else. Zero distractions. Just get that project done. Period."

I used the 90-90-1 rule to create and publish my website. (It was more like 60-30-1, but it still worked.) 

If I'm wrong, e-mail me (don't expect a response until after 12 pm though, LOL) or leave a comment!

Get It Done.

I read a lot of advice on the internet about building your business. And apparently, according to the internet, the first rule of accomplishing a big goal is to break it down into manageable chunks.

But what if you don't know how to do that? How big a "chunk" is a " manageable chunk"? And what if the chunk you thought was manageable doesn't turn out to be so manageable once you get down to brass tacks?  

Well, I got a great roadmap on how to move forward from Felena Hanson, the founder and CEO of Hera Hub, the coworking space where I'm a member.

I took a workshop from Felena where, after talking about exactly what we do and whom we serve, she asked us to write out our goals for the next 12 months.

Step 1: Write your top goals for the next 12 months on a sheet of paper. (If you're already a big consumer of business-building advice, you'll know these goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound.)

I wrote down my SMART goals during the workshop. I looked at them.

They looked back at me.

In any goal-setting, goal-achieving program, this is usually as far as I get. I write my goals down, fold up the paper and tuck it somewhere. Then I put my head down, work hard, and in 12 months I may or may not have accomplished them. 

But Felena showed me a way to transform this from a daunting list to a manageable, daily to-do list.

You need: 

• That daunting list of your one-year goals

• two additional sheets of paper

• Your daily calendar 

• something to write with

• about 30-60 minutes and

• these two additional steps. 

Step 2: Draw a 12-month calendar on a piece of paper, and mark each month with the due date for each goal you wanted to accomplish. So, for example, in 12 months time I want to have at least 4 clients who provide me with monthly, recurring business.

That means, theoretically, in three months, I need to have client 1. In three more months, I need to have client 2. And three months from that, client 3. And in the final three months, client 4. That's four repeat-business clients in 12 months. 

That's already clarifying, even if I don't necessarily book each recurring client in exactly that order. At least I know what I'm looking at.

Step 3: Take a second piece of paper, lay it horizontally, and write the next three months at the top. As in:

Now, week by week, what do you need to do each month to make that first-quarter goal happen? 

Now that you've got the weeks of the month planned, go to your daily calendar. (I use Google calendar.)

Plunk some time on there for each of the things you said you needed to do for each week. 

For example, in week 2 I said I would write my opt-in offer. So here's how that might look, broken down day by day on my calendar for the week. 

(If you want to know why most of those boxes are gray but one is blue, you can find out here about the color-coding system I use for tracking my tasks and how much time it's saving me.)

So, that's how you can take a great big 1-year goal and break it down far enough so that it is an actual to-do list that you can schedule on your calendar. What do you think? 

What to Do When You Need Free Photos and Graphics--Fast

Get your cute and cuddly free photos from these great sites. 

Free stock photo sites: 

1. Picjumbo.com

2. Unsplash.com

3. Pixabay.com

4. Pexels.com 

5. Gratisography.com 

6. Morguefile.com

Edit photos using Picmonkey.com, a free basic photo editor I've been using for years. The big disadvantage to Picmonkey is that you can't save a design and edit it later. That can be really painful, but if you're just creating simple graphics, adding a layer of text or creating a simple collage (like the one I created above), Picmonkey saves you hundreds of dollars over Photoshop. 

It's easier to use than Canva and it has more free features. 

Here's a great introductory tutorial: 

3 Pinterest Accounts That Drive Traffic--And What You Can Learn From Them

Pinterest is a powerful way to drive traffic to your website. Maybe you already knew that, and maybe you didn't.

In either case, I love these three Pinterest profiles because they highlight the unique features this social platform has for curating ideas through images: .  

1. Sociological Images is the most creative use of Pinterest I've seen. Lisa Wade curates boards of "needlessly gendered" products like "Mancan" wine for men and images like this, (with clickthrough for full commentary):  

Another thing I learned from this account: you don't need the most compelling images to make Pinterest work for you: but you do need to use images that can help you tell the story of your idea. 

2. Teachmama: It's true that many of these images are pretty, but what I love about Teachmama's account is that she constantly updates her boards so that the most timely of her content is at the top.

Also, each pin gets specific: one activity, or one tip, for one type of child. Each pin will appeal to a discrete, identifiable audience looking for this kind of info. 

3.  Natalie Jill Fitness. Printable workouts, with links to more detailed explanation. Many of these require no equipment and no need to click through: just follow the directions on the pin itself and you're good to go. A great way to hook an audience. 

Using Instagram's Geo-Targeting Feature to Identify Leads

This tactic, like many others, is quite simple, but you need to spend some time on it if you really want to start seeing it work for you. 

1. Where does your target market spend time? Let's say you're product or service is aimed at people who work from home. How do you find them? Where do those people tend to go when they get tired of sitting at home in their PJs but still want to get some serious work done. ... 

I bet you answered this question before you even finished reading it: coffee shops. So, if you start by typing in the behemoth of coffee shops, you'll see you have dozens of spots to explore via Instagram.

Make sure the PLACES tab at top is highlighted when you're searching. 

Make sure the PLACES tab at top is highlighted when you're searching. 

This geo-targeting tip allows you to connect with people who are ready to hear about your offers--and you may not have found these leads in other ways, or even by paying for an Instagram ad. 

Remember, when you find a potential lead, you don't need to pitch them in a comment or private message. Just like two or three of their photos and follow them. If they are someone who's genuinely interested in your products or services, chances are they will start to follow you. 

Then, work on posting great photos that represent you and your product. Here are some photo tips. 

Have you tried this tactic for getting noticed? How has it worked for you? 

Answers to the Most Common Questions about Facebook Ads

We moved, which has resulted in me driving a lot more each day. This gives me extra time to listen to a lot more podcasts. So somewhere within this hectic week, I listened to a terrific episode from Amy Porterfield. Episode number 58 is nearly a year old, but the advice in it is so spot on that I almost choked on my coffee when I heard it. 

Amy takes a question from a fan who leads with, "How do I increase my FB followers?" 

If you've read my post about vanity metrics, you'll know that I hate this question. It turns out, so does the extremely successful (and very succinct!) Amy Porterfield. 

Amy doesn't use the word "hate," though. Here's how she puts it: "This is where we need a reframe."

The reframe: Facebook followers don't translate into the number of clients your business has. Ads can help you build your client base, but only if each of your ads has a clear strategy behind that you implement and monitor, tweaking along the way as you see your results within Facebook Ads Manager. 

As Amy says, " I want to help you see FB as a place where putting in a little bit of money will result in bringing back a lot of money."

Seriously! Or as I have said to new and prospective clients, to friends and family, to my dog Toby as he sits at my feet while I hammer away on my laptop keyboard:

Don't buy a Facebook ad unless you have a clear strategy for how you will receive a return on that investment. If you can't draw a line between that Facebook ad and how it will get prospective buyers/clients in the door, don't spend the dough. 

This doesn't mean you won't have to experiment with some trial and error as you figure out the target audience for your ad, the right text and images, times of day (in some cases), and the most rousing calls to action you can.

But you can only figure these things out if you have a clear goal in mind. You can only know whether the ads are "working" if they are moving you closer to that goal, or if they aren't. 

For example, if you set up an ad with the goal of getting those who see the ad to join your email list, and no one joins your e-mail list, you know the ad didn't work and you need to try something else. 

But I just love how Amy handles this question because she puts to rest the idea that your number of Facebook page likes has much to do at all with the effectiveness of your online marketing. 

Check out the full episode. 

How Brilliant Mom Beth Anne Schwamberger Grew Her Online Business

I met Beth Anne almost a year ago here in San Diego, and her online business, Brilliant Business Moms, has sky-rocketed since then. 

Whenever I talk to her about BBM or see her online marketing efforts, I think a big reason for her success is that she knows the community she serves and how she helps them. She offers support, tools, and tips for stay-at-home moms who want to grow their side-project businesses. 

“I’ve finally learned my lesson when it comes to focusing, and I can tell you that it has made a world of difference for my stress level, my income level, and my ability to balance my work life with my family.”

We could all earn from her clarity around who she serves and what she offers as we try to get the most out of our marketing efforts. 

So,  I wanted to give Beth Anne a chance to talk about her strategies in her own words. Below is our Q&A.

And check out her answers to a "lightning round" of 6 work-life balance questions I tossed her way in the video below. 

(Skip to 1:15 to get her Number 1 tip for anyone juggling work and family time.) 

More on

More from Beth Anne on the birth of her business and what she's learned: 

1. How did you decide to start your business? Did you have a moment of inspiration or did it evolve? 

“Since we couldn’t find a resource that really did that in detail, we decided to create our own—the Brilliant Business Moms podcast.”

My business has completely evolved! It's definitely been a "one thing led to another" type of scenario! Initially, I started out with an Etsy shop selling butterfly terrarium kits. My sister and I opened that shop together in November of 2012. 

We made some side income from our shop, but we wanted to grow it more. We thought a mommy blog focused on outdoor activities would be the perfect way to get more traffic and sales for our shop!

Well... it turns out growing a mommy blog is much harder than we anticipated! After several months of crazy hard work in early 2015, we realized we needed to find a way to pick the brains of other Mompreneurs and figure out how they were growing their online businesses. Since we couldn't find a resource that really did that in detail, we decided to create our own--the Brilliant Business Moms podcast.

Through serving the community at BBM, we discovered we could help our audience solve the problems of time management as Mamapreneurs--so our book and planner were born. Then, I created other digital products such as the Get-Found Guide to Etsy, and more recently, courses on Pinterest and Facebook.

I think, though, that very quickly after starting the podcast, I realized that we had something special. For the first time, Sarah and I were building a true community online, and we were so committed to serving the women that came into our path. From that point forward, the business became much more clear - because we knew who our audience was - and it was just a matter of helping them and serving them well.

2.  One time you told me you tell yourself, "I'm just trying to teach that lady that was me, one year ago." If you could go back a year and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be? 

“Remember this: It’s not the idea that’s bad, it’s your lack of focus that’s bad.”

Focus! Seriously, it's that simple. I wish I would have dug into Pinterest wholeheartedly sooner, and I wish I would have created a course sooner. Instead, I pursued all sorts of little ideas at once. Some worked out,and some didn't. But hindsight is 20/20. 

Also, I think it's much easier to spot lack of focus in others versus yourself. I look at the businesses of other Mamapreneurs all the time and do a facepalm because they're pursuing 3 completely separate things at once.

Don't do it. Give your initial idea a fair chance by diving in wholeheartedly. Until you've spent at least 150 hours doing nothing but marketing your business, you can't say you gave it a fair shot.

Remember this: "It's not the idea that's bad, it's your lack of focus that's bad." Give your idea room to flourish. Water it with loads of outreach and marketing, and if it still doesn't work, it may just need some tweaks. Don't give up so easily. Dig deeper instead of digging a new hole.

3. What would you cite as the big pivot point for your business? A moment that happened inside, or a big win that really made you feel like you were on your way? 

“There are so many women out there I can help, and I’m now much more confident in my ability to find them and market to them online.”

I think the big pivot for me happened quite recently! It was really with the launch of my first course which happened at the beginning of March. I was amazed at how many of my loyal audience members showed up for the webinar, and how many of them said yes to the course! It made me realize how important it is to build relationships and serve your audience well. If you show them how much you have to offer, they won't mind voting with their wallet. Seriously, I feel so grateful for them!

And part two of that pivot is this: I'm focusing on one signature product right now. Instead of going back to the drawing board and creating something brand new, I will continue to market my new course for the next 6 months. There are so many women out there I can help, and I'm now much more confident in my ability to find them and market to them online.

4. What is the accomplishment that you're most proud of up to this point?  

“I have no idea how I got lucky enough to know all of the kindest, most helpful ladies online, but somehow I did!”

I've finally learned my lesson when it comes to focusing, and I can tell you that it has made a world of difference for my stress level, my income level, and my ability to balance my work life with my family.

It sounds strange to list "people" as an accomplishment, but I'm really most proud of the Brilliant Business Moms community! They're amazing! People tell us all the time that our private Facebook group is full of the nicest people around, and that makes me so happy. I have no idea how I got lucky enough to know all of the kindest, most helpful ladies online, but somehow I did!

Seriously, I'm so proud of them!

Getting Comfortable With Failure

I just got back from a Meetup of budding entrepreneurs. A couple of them volunteered for the "hot seat" at our meeting: they spent 3-5 minutes talking about their business idea, and asking for any and all advice from the rest of us on how to move forward. 

Each of these businesspeople had an idea, a great and powerful idea. But they expressed fear about making a commitment to bring that idea to life. They were afraid they weren't ready. They were afraid to try something and find that it didn't work. They were afraid that trying something and finding that it doesn't work reflects back on them and means that they are a failure. 

They didn't say it exactly like that, but I recognized those fears because I have them, too, every single day.

The War of Art, which I've been listening to as an audiobook, has been helping me recognize those fears so that I can face them. It's been especially good at teaching me that trying something and having it completely and utterly fail does not mean that I am a failure. It just means that I need to try a lot of things before I find the thing that doesn't fail. 

So what does this have to do with Bob Dylan?

Well, I've noticed over years of being his fan that Bob Dylan's music is not just loved and enjoyed. Bob Dylan himself is revered as an unassailable genius. Inspired. 

"This is an artist whose working process has been as private as his personal life," said a New York Times article this past Sunday. Maybe for this reason, I find that lovers of Dylan's music always talk about Dylan like he's someone who doesn't have to work to produce the great music he's created over the decades. It just comes out. 

Internalizing that notion has been dangerous to my survival. Because over the years it's made me feel like if I don't "get it right" right away, I shouldn't bother at all. This despite the fact that another writer a lot of people admire, Ernest Hemingway, once said,

“Don’t get discouraged because there’s a lot of mechanical work to writing. There is, and you can’t get out of it. I rewrote the first part of A Farewell to Arms at least fifty times. You’ve got to work it over. The first draft of anything is shit. ”

— http://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/09/20/draft/

The Times article provides evidence that the Hemingway quote is as true for Bob Dylan as it is for any of us.

“Dozens of rewrites track the evolution of even minor songs like “Dignity,” which went through more than 40 pages of changes but was still cut from the 1989 album ‘Oh Mercy.’”

I had to read that line twice.

Bob Dylan worked through more than 40 pages of changes to a single song. And then he cut the song from the album. 

Rewrites and failures happen with the trying. Trying and failing go together. Not trying and not failing just mean that you never get to succeed, either. That is what I'm realizing. Some days when I feel like I've really messed up or I'm never going to figure anything out, that realization provides no comfort. Trying just feels too hard and the potential for success doesn't feel worth it. 

But today, as I watched other budding entrepreneurs with potentially life-changing ideas peer wide-eyed over the edge, look back up at the group around the table, and say, "Do you really expect me to jump off this thing??" it gives me a lot of comfort.

Jumping feels scary and of course it does! If you jump off a cliff, you will probably land on your face. Until the time that you jump and you don't land on your face. I'm still waiting for that time, let me tell you. But! 

The difference between Bob Dylan and many other potentially great songwriters and performers is that Dylan doesn't stop at "potential," and he never has. That may even be the secret reason people are so fascinated with him, although the mysteriousness probably also doesn't hurt. But he doesn't let the second-guessing stop him before he can get started. That makes him different. 

Although may I just point out: Dylan has landed on his face MANY times, sometimes privately, sometimes in front of everyone. There was the example of the song above. There was Self Portrait.

And I myself witnessed an instance of Bob Dylan face-flatness. It was the time my friends and I saw him perform three summers ago at Jones Beach. He sounded so bad that we left early. On the way out my friend Daniel made the comment you see below on this Instagram photo. 

LOLz

Revered genius Bob Dylan fails on a consistent basis. I guess I can, too.