Episode 76 Transcript
Heather (00:05.878)
Hello everyone, welcome back to episode 76. Now, a couple of episodes ago, I spoke about my plans for the year ahead, both in my business and personally. I didn't tell you how I was gonna achieve them though. It was very big picture, right? It was just some ideas that I had. So I've been sharing the plans that I've made for the year ahead with some of my team members and I've been getting their ideas and getting them to weigh in on things.
Plus we have a team meeting next week to go through all of this more fully so I can share it with them. And I also thought about what some of my previous guests have said about accomplishment in this show, in the Hustle Rebellion. So I've been kind of percolating the ideas, starting to share with team members, going to have a meeting next week, and also thinking and reflecting what sort of past successful guests say about success in business. And I've come up with a little list.
And what this is, is basically where I'm going to start to achieve the goals that I have for the year ahead. That's very top level at this point. For example, it's not about like the exact steps or project plans that I need to put together in order to achieve them. But I thought that this might help you in case you need a different perspective on going after what you want this year as well. You'll see that I'm kind of breaking it down into chunks.
And as we go through this episode, I've shifted how I'm thinking about achieving goals as well, and that will become apparent too. So stay tuned for that. So here's the list I am starting with, the list that I'm gonna start to dive into to achieve the goals that I have set out for the year. So number one is believe that bigger things are possible. Now, my recent self-talk has been, who am I to do this? Or,
How am I different? Or what is so and so doing? Maybe I should just do that too. And I'm not sure if any of you can relate with that. Maybe, just a little bit. Instead, I wanna start thinking differently. For example, what do I want? How can I be different or better than before? And what do I need to get there? So instead of focusing on what's external of me and going into, you know, stepping into comparisonitis and all that stuff.
Heather (02:30.058)
starting to focus on what I can do and how I can be a bit different. Now, the next thing I'm gonna focus on outside of believing that bigger things are possible is my list. So I'm gonna write a list of what I don't want to do in order to accomplish my goals, what I don't want to do. Now, normally I do this the other way around. I start with what I need to do. And this is...
Something I've learned from a lot of the interviews in this podcast around really getting clear and saying no to things and focusing on your strengths, but also a conversation I just had the other day with Adam who's on my team. So here's what I'm gonna do with that list. I'm just gonna do a big, big brain dump of what is needed to basically do or accomplish each of the items that I mentioned in episode 74, which is when I shared my plans with you guys for the year ahead.
So for example, you know, my live events that I have coming up in the year, what do I need in order to make that a reality? Gonna just dump all that on a piece of paper, document, I haven't decided, I've kind of had notes everywhere and it started to consolidate in one place. Then what things do I not like, that's clear, or I have no interest in learning about? So all the things that have to happen to make this goal a reality.
I'm gonna go and circle all the things that I do not want to be a part of. Like I don't wanna learn it, I don't have time to learn it, I shouldn't be doing it, I don't want to do it, I don't like to do it. So I'll circle all those things. Which again, normally I do it the other way around, I sort of go, oh, I could do this, I could do this, but I'm gonna reverse it this time. Once I have that list, I will then focus on my team. So what team do I need to have to make those things a reality? I'll look at all those tasks. Do I have current team members that can do that?
Do I need to train some? Do I need to get more help as well? Once I'm clear on the team, then I'll define my role in each project because now I know what I don't wanna do and I've delegated or thought about delegating that to team and now I wanna look at what I wanna take on. So at this point, I just need to make sure and come from a place of, we'll say leadership rather than a doer, right? A technician.
Heather (04:49.694)
Again, I would be that person in the past that would go, oh, we just need to design some graphics or write 10 emails or do some ads. And I'd be like, I'll just do that. But I don't wanna do that this time. So I'm gonna be looking at it in a different way. Next, I will decide on my non-negotiables for the commitments that I wanna keep to myself and put them in my calendar. So for example, Pilates. So I already have that in my calendar. So I won't miss a class unless I have someone's birthday which was last weekend and I missed the class for that, or I'm just not feeling well. But I try to stick to that schedule four days a week as best as I can. So that's in my calendar. Travel as well. So I have a couple of trips planned and I am looking to map that out so no one can jump in and take those times in my calendar because my scheduling tools and my team have access to my calendar and they can book things in.
Time to unplug, you know, things like that. So all these non-negotiables, you need to block them in now early in the year Now next on the list Stop focusing so much on the how but instead on what I want and the why behind it So why do I want these things that I mapped out in episode 74? Why did I what do I want these things for right and really get clear on that? so for example, I wrote all of my house for my goals last year. Like I literally had the goals and went straight into, okay, here's the project plan, here's like the calendar blocks, here's how I'm going to do it. And it literally made me think really, really small because I could only do what I knew how to do. Because I was trying to do all myself. I was like, yeah, this is what we're going to accomplish using the brain or the knowledge that I have at this point in time. Here's the project plan, here's the to-dos, here's all the things to make it into reality. But if I keep doing that every year, it's never gonna change, right? So that is different thing. So stop focusing so much on the how, but more like the why I want it. What is it gonna do from my community and my customers and my business and my team? Then after that, I will be workshopping new projects to make them great. You know, you've heard that book from Good to Great.
Heather (07:08.866)
Again, in the past, I wouldn't be workshopping stuff. I just have an idea and I just do it. Like I had a series of webinars that we would do in our business. A couple of years ago, I would do them monthly and I would literally just go, boom, here's a cool topic. I'm not just like that. You guys, by the way, I would pull my database and get a list of what they wanted to learn. So I did do that. And then I would go, okay, cool. Let's, let's teach this topic. And I would just come from my knowledge of working in digital marketing since 2008, of working with clients. And yeah, I do have a lot of knowledge. I teach, you know, for the University of Sydney and Metta and all that. And I'd come from that knowledge, but still it wasn't putting things together that were great. I would just literally go, here's the bullet points, maybe some slideshow or slides and I would just teach it. So I'm gonna do things differently this year as well. And when I say workshop new projects, basically I'm not gonna rely on myself to come up with the ideas and plans.
I don't want to do this alone anymore and will be brainstorming ideas with my team and my mastermind groups and just different groups of people in the industry I'm a part of and I've already started. So for example, this week I spoke to my copywriter about a brand new AI product for copy that we can offer to our clients. And you know, I had this idea, but I obviously need to talk about it with multiple people. So I spoke to her about with her.
Then I shared this concept with them, like a mastermind of a couple of other agency owners I'm a part of to see if I was on the right track. At first, they were staring at me kind of blank, blankly through the zoom and just like going, huh. And then it kind of they got it. And then they're like, wow, that's cool. And now they're sending me links and Slack. So they're just like, you should check this out. Look what all these all these other people are doing. I'm now being exposed to resources that I never would have thought were possible had I not shared this idea with team.
and other people in my environment. So, workshopping, right? So come up with ideas and workshop and brainstorm and do pros and cons. And I'm now so excited about this. I'm gonna go do like a lunch with another friend of mine who has her own business and start to really just share ideas and get better ideas rather than trying to do it all by myself. And last thing on the list is to learn how to be more creative. This seems to be kind of a big theme lately.
Heather (09:26.602)
because there's so much movement in my industry in online marketing and digital space. How do we constantly, I guess, push the envelope and be different from what else is happening out there? With this, I feel like the idea of being more creative will help me be a better leader and a better teacher, better at solving problems, but I just am not normally in that space. I'm sort of just always trying to solve problems with what's happening right now.
So it's been a long time since I was in a creative mode. I used to do art back in my 20s, paint, draw, even got commissioned for a few pieces. I haven't done that in a very long time. It's kind of my definition of creativity. So I have to change gears on that and learn how to bring back those processes to operate in a slightly different way. Now, for me, this list is mostly a mindset shift. If you kind of have heard what I've saying, it's gonna help me dream big again.
it's gonna help me remember I cannot accomplish what I want to do alone. When I say remember, I'm always thinking that I have to have help, but I just don't believe it sometimes. So it's gonna help me with that and that I need to change as a person if I wanna upgrade my life and my business. Like if I wanna actually be growing this thing and growing into other countries and doing these live events and actually growing past this sort of plateau we've been in the last few years, then it's time to think differently.
And this list is also not about tasks and to-dos at this point in time either, which is what I would normally get stuck on. Um, literally over analyzing the how, okay, here's what, what we need to accomplish. Here's how we're going to do it. It's not about that at this point. I'm taking a step back. I'm focusing on steps to accomplish something. Um, you know, of course as needed. So focusing on steps is needed for sure, but without a bigger map or an idea or creativity of where you could go in your business.
Focusing on the steps to accomplish them might not lead you where you actually want to go, right? All right, you guys hope that list helped I'm now gonna take that and start to action that and map that out and Always through the filters of what I'm learning from my amazing guests on this show and I'll speak to you guys soon Hope you're having a really nice
