Episode Summary

We hear it, I say it, and we all do it – but using personal time is not the way to “get ahead.”

First of all, getting ahead rarely leads to more free time or making more money and secondly, for most of you that terminology of “getting ahead” is hollow.  

Unless you have a strict schedule of work – but most of us just flow with what’s happening.

*NOTE: If you work in certain industries, your business relies on the weekends, which is not what we are talking about.  Maybe your “weekend” is Tuesday/Wednesday, but whatever it is TAKE IT OFF!

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR SCHEDULE

If you find yourself working all the time it’s because YOU allow that to happen.  You are always setting expectations for your clients. If you are always available, that’s what they’ll expect and then you always need to be available.  If you set boundaries and tell your clients when they can contact you and when they can expect to hear from you, they’ll understand and expect that. The hard truth is, YOU are the one allowing your business to control your schedule and it doesn’t have to be that way.

YOU NEED TIME AWAY FROM YOUR BUSINESS 

-You’ll have more energy

-You’ll come up with great ideas

-You’ll spend time recharging your personal life and friendships

-You’ll resent work-time less when you allow yourself free time

-You’ll remember WHY you work so much

YOUR GOAL SHOULD BE TO CREATE A BETTER LIFE

-The whole reason you’re in business is to live your life!

-Take yourself seriously → this shouldn’t be work vs. life…this is just one big life.

-Weekend work is usually due to an inefficient work week or procrastination, which leads to stress.

STOP ALL CLIENT OR TEAM CORRESPONDENCE DURING ALL NON-WORK HOURS

-We’ve all been guilty of it, but DON’T DO IT…otherwise, you’re self-sabotaging your time and setting the wrong expectations

Quick-Wins

1. Commit to giving yourself time off
2. Create boundaries for yourself and your clients
3. Don’t check emails on your weekend

Host Bio –  Rhi and Pete [Rhi-Pete – now you’ll remember] are a wife and husband team who have been in business together for over a decade.  They run a creative media agency [Do Something Different Media] that provides strategy and consulting, video production, website development, photography, graphic design, and content writing for small businesses.  

Recommended Resources 

-THINGS TO HELP: Set SLEEP mode on your phone, use a scheduler for email correspondence, don’t reply to things during non-work hours.  Your dentist wouldn’t answer the phone at 8pm, neither should you!

The post Quick-Win Episode 4: Stop Working On The Weekend! appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

It’s important to pay attention to the language that we use on a day-to-day basis. In this episode, we zero in on the term “busy” and discuss why it’s not a great thing to say about yourself and your business.  It’s easy to assume that busy is good, but we unpack many reasons why you should remove it from your business vocabulary and how removing it will help your personal and business mindset.

Host Bio –  Rhi and Pete [Rhi-Pete – now you’ll remember] are a wife and husband team who have been in business together for over a decade.  They run a creative media agency [Do Something Different Media] that provides strategy and consulting, video production, website development, photography, graphic design, and content writing for small businesses.  

Episode Summary 

• The term busy is generally used in a negative way.  “I’m too busy and there’s never enough time”. It makes you feel lousy, too, because it comes from a place of lack.
• It’s not a good term to use when you’re networking because it’s a conversation ender.  The term “busy” shares nothing productive about your business.
• People may assume that being “busy” means you’re unavailable, not interested, or that you can’t handle more work.
• Being busy shouldn’t be your goal, making more money while doing less work should be.

Quick-Wins

1. Remove the word “busy” from your vocabulary for at least a week. Instead use description, stories or anecdotes to describe your current situation.
2. Listen for other people saying that they’re “busy”. Pay attention to their body language, what they’re speaking about and just be present with the term.  Also, see how other people react to hearing the term.
3. Remove the goal of being busy and replace it with being efficient.  You can make the same amount of money being busy as you can while being efficient, the main difference is that when you’re efficient you earn a lot more free time and it’s less stressful.

Recommended Resources 

You Are A Badass – https://jensincero.com/

The post Quick-Win Episode 3: Busy Is Bad For Business appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

It’s inevitable that you’re going to have to deal with a situation involving a difficult client.  These situations are always challenging because of the magnitude of personal emotions that are inevitably involved.  And you’ll find, too, that as your business grows you may find some difficult situations arise with past clients that you’ve outgrown.  We talk about our experience handling these difficult situations and shed some light on what you can do to help yourself out when you feel stuck with a bad or wrong client.  

Host Bio –  Rhi and Pete [Rhi-Pete – now you’ll remember] are a wife and husband team who have been in business together for over a decade.  They run a creative media agency [Do Something Different Media] that provides strategy and consulting, video production, website development, photography, graphic design, and content writing for small businesses.  

Episode Summary 

• You can’t provide your best service when you’re working with the wrong people who are being difficult.
• It’s okay to outgrow your clients, just remember that communication is key
• A soft way to let people go is to raise your pricing.
• Don’t get caught up in the emotion of handling the situation.  Remember that this is a business decision and do what’s best for your business.
• Being honest and open is always the best policy when dealing with difficult people.

Quick-Wins

1.  Have an honest talk with your client and don’t let it linger.  Write out what you need to say, be prepared and rip the band-aid.  The sooner you do it, the sooner you can move on.
2.  Give yourself permission to outgrow your clients or pivot your business.  This is your business.
3. Utilize the idea of a third party.  When it’s bigger than just you, your clients may take it more seriously because other people are involved in the process.
4. Avoid bad clients by creating an upfront process that will allow you to find out upfront if they’re not right for you.

The post Quick-Win Episode 2: How to Handle Bad Clients appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

In this quick-win episode, we share our own story of learning the valuable lesson of separating our work life from our home life.  Early on in our career, a mentor told us to be strict about the time spent on our business and the time spent on ourselves.  As simple as it seems, this is extremely hard to accomplish when you’re working to make more money any possible way.  We talk about habits, concepts, and ways that we keep ourselves grounded and make sure that we’re bringing balance to our everyday lives.

Host Bio –  Rhi and Pete [Rhi-Pete – now you’ll remember] are a wife and husband team who have been in business together for over a decade.  They run a creative media agency [Do Something Different Media] that provides strategy and consulting, video production, website development, photography, graphic design, and content writing for small businesses.  

Episode Summary

• It’s okay to work non-traditional hours
• Make sure that you’re not always available for your business/clients
• Schedule your personal chores, hobbies and family activities just like you would business meetings
• If you end up working weekends, or nights, make sure to swap out other times in your week for your personal time
• Create weekly business goals, so that you can actually be mentally present during your personal time and allow yourself the flexibility to take personal time

Quick-Wins

1. Make a schedule for your personal time as well as your business time
2. Don’t make work available everywhere. Separate it physically from you. Commit to your scheduled personal time.
3. Make clear goals.  Weekly goals are extremely helpful to get out of the workaholic mindset.  Once you’ve hit your goals, you can celebrate with personal time.

The post Quick-Win Episode 1: Being Strict About Work & Play appeared first on Learn It - Do It.