In this episode, we’re talking about resolutions/goals, making a plan, and how to actually achieve those goals! We are well into the new year, and if you are like most people, those lofty goals you set up at the start of the new year have already fallen to the wayside. So let’s dive in, and see what you can do to create better goals and set out to actually achieve them!

Episode Summary

Most of us would love to make a plan to grow, both personally and professionally. But it’s easy to set goals that are too lofty, aren’t really actionable, or are inconsistent in nature. The best way to really achieve new heights is to set small, reasonable goals that you can easily insert into your everyday routine. Turn your goals into daily habits so they really stick and can help create long-lasting, sustainable change in your life.

Take action each day to reach your goal

• Make a plan and commit to it
• Break down your goal into specific, daily actions you can take
• Insert your daily action/habit into your everyday routine

For example, if you want to exercise more, set a small goal to do 20 squats every day. Then tack those squats onto something you already do every day, like brushing your teeth. So now, when you brush your teeth, you’re reminded to do your 20 squats as soon as you finish – or if you’re super talented, simultaneously!

Think about Improving 1% Each Day…

Taking a few minutes each day is totally doable! Whether it’s reading for 5 minutes, taking a 10-minute walk, or doing 20 squats – set these actionable goals that are super-specific and schedule them into your day. These small steps will lead to more and more improvement.

If you can take your goals and turn them into habits, THAT is how you can really create CHANGE in your life. If you think about it, that is what these goals are for, right? We are trying to make a change – and long-lasting change, at that! The best way to create lasting change is by developing a habit, and small daily action is exactly how to get that done!

Lighting the Spark

While 20 squats a day may not get you in the best shape of your life, it’s all about LIGHTING THE SPARK! On days when you are super tired, 20 squats are so easy you’ll still get it done. But on days when you are super motivated and have the time, those 20 squats might turn into 10 push-ups, a short jog, jumping jacks, etc. What started as 20 squats each day has turned into a short exercise circuit that we do daily – all we needed was a spark, and daily action to create the habit!

The Next 3 Steps:

1. Commit to a small, consistent, daily action you can take. Make sure it’s something SO simple that it will only take you 5-10 minutes to complete. Just light that spark!
2. Schedule it – Set the same time every day to do that activity. Maybe it’s when you first wake up at 8:00 am or after you brush your teeth at night. Just pick the time or routine activity to attach it to, so you actually get it done.
3. Show up – Do it EVERY day! “Don’t break the streak!” should be a mantra! And if you do miss a day, it’s OK – life happens. But keep your commitment by following the rule of NEVER missing 2 days in a row.

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:

• Headspace – Sign up for Headspace
• Leave us a voicemail and be on an upcoming podcast – www.learnit-doit.com/podcast
• The Book: Atomic Habits by James Clear

The post The Easy Way To Make A Plan Work appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

Episode Summary 

I know what you’re thinking; “Never finish your To-Do list is bad advice.”  But hear us out!  You always need to have something on your list to keep you moving forward. If you have completed everything on your list and have nothing left to do, this means you aren’t working towards anything.

In order to be successful in your business, it’s extremely important to eliminate stress, be efficient, and make sure you are always moving towards your goals. We’ve noticed that things that generate a lot of stress for self-employed business owners are often related to their To-Do lists.  

Three common To DO list stressors business owners struggle with are:

1. Unrealistic To-Do lists
2. Not knowing what to do next
3. The “Getting Ahead” Myth

How to Overcome Stress from Unrealistic To-Do Lists

We’ve all been guilty of creating To-Do lists that go on forever and are impossible to complete. We think that writing everything down on an epic list is the perfect way to relieve the stress we have of keeping everything in our heads.  The reality is, these impossible To-Do lists end up adding to our stress because they are impossible to complete!  This means we end every day with a never-ending list of things we didn’t get done and it’s deflating.

The way to fix this problem is to focus on making different To-Do lists.  Your Daily To-Do list should only include tasks that you can actually complete that day.  Force yourself to really consider how long something will take you to complete and make sure you are breaking down your tasks into their smallest form so you can easily check things off as you go.  It’s not helpful to have giant tasks on your To-Do list that require multiple steps.  This means that as you complete each step you have nothing to check off so it never feels like you are making progress.  This can lead to stress!  After focusing on your daily To-Do lists, think about breaking things down into different categories and making different lists to work off of.

Tips on Making Different To-Do Lists:

• Weekly Tasks

These are things that have to be done no matter what, like housekeeping.  It’s not exciting but it’s got to be done.

• Client Tasks

These will constantly change as weeks go by, but if you’ve got a good client workflow process and a project management system in place, it should be simple to manage.

• Internal Business Tasks

Any time an idea pops into your head of something that you want to do or SHOULD do for your business, you need to write it down.  Not on a sticky note, but in an organized place for your business tasks.

How to Overcome Stress from Not Knowing What to Do Next

When you don’t know what you should be doing for your business or your current clients/projects this can be really stressful.  We use WRIKE to manage our projects and when we come up with things that need to be done, we create the task and keep it in a folder that we can pull from when we begin to make our next week’s agenda.  Think of this as your “Backlog” that you can pull from whenever you aren’t sure what to do next or you have extra time.  Believe me, when you properly plan a daily To-Do list, you’ll sometimes have “extra time” and this Backlog will come in really handy to keep things moving forward and avoid time-wasting.

If you have nothing on your list to do, it’s impossible to keep moving forward. For example, I like to always be reading a book so I keep a list of potential books that I can always pull from.  A few months ago, I finished the book I was reading and realized that I didn’t have any more books on my Reading Wish List, and before I knew it an entire week had gone by without me reading!

How to Overcome Stress from The “Getting Ahead” Myth

I used to work tirelessly in my business to try and get EVERYTHING done so I could get ahead and relax.  The reality is, it is impossible to “Get Ahead.”  Think about it,  if I ever actually finished EVERYTHING that needed to be done for our business, it would be the day we were no longer in business.  Finishing your To-Do list means you are out of business. 

There is always client work to do, bookkeeping, business development, organization, etc.  If you actually finished everything, it would be because you had no work and no money coming in and effectively, NO BUSINESS.

Quick-Wins:

1. Organize your To-Do lists into different categories
2. Make realistic daily To-Do lists
3. Create a “Backlog” list with tasks you can pull from when needed
4. Forget about trying to get ahead and focus on always moving forward

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 

Wrike Project Management

The post Quick-Win Episode 7: Never Finish Your To-Do List appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

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.

In episode six, we tackle the challenge of growing your business.  We all get to a point where we’re doing well, but we’re looking for ways to get to the next level.  In most cases, we think that getting bigger clients is the only way to make more money but as we uncover in this episode, there are many ways to scale your profits with some minor changes to your process, procedures, and marketing.  As you’ll hear in this episode, Steff and her husband Mike have been offering quality web development services for 7 years, but have been looking for ways to grow their business and make more money. We dive into developing ways for them to better showcase the services and value they provide their clients so that they can make more money and work with quality clients. 

Guest Bio – [From her website] “We are a full-service web design & development company based in New Hampshire, serving all of the United States. We’re known for our fast turnaround, insightful expertise, and exceptional service. Our clients enjoy working one-on-one with a real person – no phone directories, and no lengthy lead times. We’re a developer owned small business, which means that we build and maintain higher quality products for our clients more timely than other web companies. We can also afford to go above and beyond for our clients without needing to nickel and dime.”

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 6 Summary

• Improve the quality of your client not necessarily the size of your client
• How to transition to new pricing with old clients
• Clearing your business plate to make space for the clients you want
• Defining your target audience and niching down
• Thinking about how your ideal audience utilizes your products/services
• Finding your own value and niching down your sales pitch
• Refining your process to increase efficiencies leading to profits
• How to create proposals that give you an option to make more money
• Creating value-added services 
• Providing complete solutions will allow you to make more money
• Creative ideas to maintain client relationships that lead to more work 
• Show that you are a valuable asset to your clients
• How to price yourself and get through money blocks

The Challenge & The Next 3 Steps

Steff and Aurora Tech do a great job providing top-notch service to her clients, but she’s looking for ways to increase her income in order to grow the business in a way that stays consistent with her and her husband’s personal and business goals.

1. Audit your messaging so that you speak to the benefits that you provide.  Speak about the process and experience and less about the technical aspects of web development.
2. Offer multiple options in your proposal process.  Make your top option something that makes you uncomfortable because people will say yes and it’s the only way to gain confidence and grow.
3. Update your monthly maintenance process and mine your current clients for more business. Use your updates to cultivate your relationships with your client base.

Recommended Resources 

Aurora Technologies, LLC

https://goauroratech.com/

The post Episode 6 – How To Make More Money: Bigger Clients or Increased Efficiency? appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

In episode five, we tackle the challenge of how to stand out in a saturated market.  The issue begins to arise when we spend too much time paying attention to what our competition is doing and not enough time focusing on ourselves and our unique differentiators.  Although you may offer the same products or services as other businesses, you can stand apart based on your own unique qualities, experiences, and expertise. As you’ll hear in this episode, Dawn is an experienced Realtor who is looking to provide value to people who are just beginning their house buying journey so that she can cement herself as the local trusted expert who is dedicated to providing a top-quality service.

Guest Bio – [From her website] “I have had the privilege of assisting people in buying and selling homes for over 14 years. As a dedicated mother, wife, daughter, and friend, I have learned that multitasking, balance, and negotiation keep me at the top of my game in all aspects of my life. I have built my business on trust, integrity, and always putting my clients’ interests first. From first time buyers to downsizing sellers, I am always working hard to make their dreams come true.”

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 5 Summary

• Understanding triggers that will make you more memorable 
• Brainstorming your service differentiators
• Niching down your audience 
• Breaking down audience buying habits
• How to use your experience to your advantage
• How to use Facetime or video for client communication
• Brainstorming custom content
• Using Meet Up to create in-person groups
• Breaking down your ideal client experience
• Using stories and visual descriptions to make yourself more memorable
• Developing your brand voice and branding yourself 

The Challenge & The Next 3 Steps

Dawn does a great job providing top-notch service to her clients, but she’s looking for ways to connect to buyers earlier in the buying process so that she can provide education and insight to her clients earlier on to ensure a more successful process. 

1. Use video to send responses to digital messages from potential new clients so that you can stand out among all other agents.
2. Niche down your audience and outline where they spend time digitally and physically
   1. Be as precise and specific as possible
   2. Outline a few profiles so that your messaging can speak specifically to them
   3. What experiences have you had that make you unique and different and how can you use that to relate to a niche audience?
3. Create a content strategy to get people into your sales funnel much earlier
   1. Write out your content for the month at one time so you don’t get burnt out
   2. Use messaging and topics that your niche markets would be interested in

Recommended Resources 

Dawn at Coldwell Banker Classic Realty

Dawn on Zillow

Pat Flynn – Smart Passive Income

MeetUp.com

The post Episode 5 – How to Stand Out From Your Competition & Show Your Value appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

In episode four, we tackle the dreaded “elevator pitch”.  We’ve all been in a situation while networking when someone asks you what you do and you either spout off some generic answer or you’re just too long-winded for it to be effective.  We talk with Pam about how to overcome the hurdles of talking about her services, which deal with the taboo topic of money. Whether your service is hard to talk about with strangers, or you haven’t mastered your one minute pitch, this episode is a must-listen!  We touch upon many ways to connect with people, how to introduce topics, and why storytelling should always be your go-to move when getting your message out there.  

Guest Bio – [From her website] “With a background in social work, an MBA in Business Administration, a Master’s degree in Education, and training with Dave Ramsey, I’ve got the resources to prepare you to succeed financially while ensuring that you feel comfortable during this transitional process.

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 4 Summary

• Understanding triggers that will make you more memorable 
• Brainstorming your service differentiators
• Using terms, phrases, and examples that people will immediately understand 
• How to use testimony and transformations in networking
• Making people comfortable and confident in your service 
• Using forms to help do some self-research
• Using stories and visual descriptions to make yourself more memorable
• Developing your brand voice

The Challenge & The Next 3 Steps

Pam does a great job providing top-notch service to her clients, but she’s noticed that she has trouble describing her services in live networking situations in an effective way. 

1. Make a Typeform questionnaire to get your audience warmed up to you and your services.
   1. Get people to think about the questions that you’d ask to get to others to understand what you do. 
2. Reach out to all-star clients and ask them how they would describe you.
   1. Reach out to 5 clients and pay attention to the language that they use to describe you in their responses.
   2. Ask them things like: What is the #1 service I provided you? What was your biggest challenge and how did I help you?  What was your ah-ha moment? What prompted you to reach out and work with me?
   3. What 3 words would you use to describe me and my service?
3. Create a document with these words, phrases, and language.
   1. Use this document to create your brand voice in-person and digitally.
4. BONUS STEP! Test your new phrasing and descriptions at networking events! 

Recommended Resources 

Money Mastery With Pam

Typeform – for forms and questionnaires

The post Episode 4 – How to Effectively Pitch Your Biz When Networking appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

In episode three, we talk about how to organize and strategize your service offering to enhance your client experience with Donna Briggs, the owner of Harmony Massage.  It happens all too often that we get our businesses up and running by taking the path of least resistance and that isn’t always in the best interest of your client experience.  In many industries, service providers tend to use a cookie-cutter approach to their content and marketing, and in almost every case, it isn’t what’s best for your particular business and customer experience.  In this episode, we tackle how to educate your clients so that they know what you offer, why they’d want to work with you, and what’s in it for them.

Listen on iTunes

Listen on Spotify

Guest Bio – [From her website] “Owner of Harmony Massage, Donna Briggs, is an NCBTMB Board Certified massage therapist, licensed in the state of New Hampshire. Donna graduated from the Northeast Institute of Whole Health in 2010 and has since acquired extensive experience in therapeutic massage, to include Lymphatic Drainage Massage, Sports Massage, and Cupping Therapy. Donna is also certified in Thai Bodywork and The Auth Method of Deep Tissue Massage. She is skilled at providing massage to enhance wellness, reduce stress, assist in rehabilitation efforts and deliver therapeutic touch; providing balance and harmony for each client.  In her time off, Donna enjoys kayaking, road cycling, and training in Muay Thai.”

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 3 Summary

• Write to your audience just as you’d talk to them 1 on 1
• Focusing on the value of the transformation/solution
• Create client confidence
• Saving time, stress and energy with forms
• Using email to create educated clients
• Blogging: Storytelling vs cookie-cutter explanations
• Share testimonials and client case studies that people can relate to
• Share tips with your digital audience – just like you would in person
• Give your audience a quick win
• Create fans of your brand
• Remember your brand voice needs to be genuinely you
• Set proper expectations with your marketing and brand

The Challenge & The Next 3 Steps

Donna does a great job providing top-notch service and being the trusted advisor for her clients, but she realizes that her current service offering is creating a roadblock that leads to client confusion — which then leads to Donna spending more time and energy explaining her different services.  In order to help her solve this roadblock, we created these next 3 steps to help her create a better client experience.

1. Audit your service descriptions and re-write them for your specific clients or customers.  Ask yourself questions like: 
   1. Who is the specific person that this service is for?
   2. What are they feeling physically and emotionally?
   3. What transformation will they go through or what solution with they find?
   4. Add photos or videos to help show what to expect.
2. Use forms and questionnaires to help save you time and energy.
3. Write blogs that describe your services 
   1. Use stories to engage the reader and speak to them like you would one on one.
   2. Make an ongoing list of topics and batch writing your blogs for each month so that you’re always playing from ahead.

Recommended Resources

Harmony Massage 

Typeform – for forms and questionnaires

The post Episode 3 – Organizing Your Services to Enhance Your Client Experience appeared first on Learn It - Do It.