Entrepreneurship

Two Questions to Change Your Life and Business

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I want to give you two questions I use to keep myself centered and stay organized.

Ready to level-down your stress and get focused?? Here we go…

1. The Question that Leads to Better Bottom-Line Results

There’s a tendency to always be looking for what’s NEXT to do or what ELSE you could add to your plate. The questions, “What should I do next? What else should I be doing?” – these create a perfect environment for distraction and overwhelm.

The question to ask instead is, “What’s working?”

This reminds you to focus on what is already bringing results. You’re going to get more traction when you double down on what’s already working, instead of always experimenting with something new.

The biggest challenge to making this work for you, is taking the time out of the busy operations of a business to actually step back and evaluate your efforts so you can uncover the answer to this question.

2. The Question that Melts Resistance to Challenging Work

When you want to accomplish a project or goal that is unfamiliar or outside your comfort zone, your self-talk usually runs along the lines of, “This is going to be difficult, it’s going to be stressful, and it’s going to take forever.”

And that’s absolutely natural.

Your brain is getting you prepared for any potential hardship. The problem is that by doing so it’s also building resistance that will keep you from moving forward.

In order to melt that resistance, the question instead is, “Am I willing for this to be easy?”

Anytime you find yourself overwhelmed, stressed, worried or apprehensive about a project, about marketing, or even about simply having a way too long to-do list: use this question.

Repeat it like a mantra, “Am I willing for this to be easy? Am I willing for this to be easy? Am I willing for this to be easy?”

Your brain will be redirected from focusing on difficulty to instead consciously finding the path of least resistance.

How I almost messed up an in-person presentation

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Back in May I did my first in-person speaking gig after 2 years of only doing webinars.

As you can guess, it was not all smooth sailing.

There were some setbacks with logistics, setting up the projector, minor stuff. But things could’ve really gone south for me when I was in the very middle of my presentation.

As I looked around, I noticed interest in the faces of the audience, their body language responding to my content in ways that you could never really see during a Zoom call.

I started going with the flow of that feedback, going deeper into details that I don’t normally cover in my presentation. And suddenly I realized…

I was using the time I needed to get to my call to action! (a.k.a. the single most important part of a presentation!!!)

It hadn’t occurred to me that the audience’s reaction could influence my carefully timed presentation, but it did.

The whole point of speaking as a business owner is to do it strategically, and speaking in-person again after so long made me realize I needed a refresher on what details to look out for.

So here are a few tips to help you get back in front of live audiences and get the best possible results:

1. Help manage the event a bit more. The logistics behind an in-person event are a lot different than for an online one, and the group you speak for might be just getting back to doing them after a 2-year pause. So, helping them out a bit more to keep track of details will save you time and headaches.

2. Regardless of the size of the audience, serve them at the highest level. Don’t let a small attendance keep you from delivering the best value to the group.

3. Remember to apply your usual speaking criteria. Your criteria (which btw I HIGHLY recommend setting if you haven’t already) is something that should be top of mind when accepting a speaking gig. Whether it’s the compensation for the gig, or if it’s for members only, whatever you have figured out works best for you, DON’T ignore it just so you can get the win of booking a gig.

4. Remember to practice your call to action. This is a tremendously important part of your presentation and, because you’re not sitting in front of a screen anymore, you can’t read it off a script! So memorize the wording, practice the delivery (10 times more than the rest of your presentation), and make sure you get all those little details right.

5. Be mindful of your expectations around feedback DURING your presentation. Watching people react to your presentation in-person can throw you off your game, and that can be particularly disruptive if you have a short time to deliver your content.

If you want to know how I bounced back from almost messing up my presentation and expand on each tip, watch these videos:

Tips 1 to 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlMn2wN2Y8A

Tip 5 + the full story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zdOS5c-YhM&t=174s

 [Guest blog] Use Your Peak Time!

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When you own your own business, it’s discouraging to feel like you “aren’t doing it right.” A client recently told me:

“Today I didn’t have client calls but I struggled so much the first few hours of the day that really it was just time wasted. If I don’t have calls in the morning, I may as well not go to the office until after lunch…as soon as afternoon hits I am way focused. What do you think about client calls only until 1PM and then the afternoon is office time?”

There’s a simple three-step solution to making decisions like the one my client faced.

1. The first step towards adjusting your schedule to one that works for you is to become aware of your peak (when you are most alert and productive) and trough times (when you are least productive).

2. The next step is to create a menu of those tasks and projects that can go into those peak and trough times. [link to full blog]

For example, projects that require your strongest focus, motivation, and energy should be scheduled during your peak time. Tasks that require less brainpower, like filing, clearing your desk, or some email processing, could be checked off during your trough times.

3. Last, take advantage of as many peak times each week as possible by arranging your tasks into the appropriate time slots. When you plug tasks into your calendar with an awareness of “best times,” you’ll begin to create a new routine around scheduling. One tip I use for scheduling is to color code my tasks on my to-do list, purple to schedule in the morning and blue for afternoon.

I get it – it can be hard to leave a task undone and move it to the next day. What helps me push through that “undone” discomfort is a reminder that in the long run, when I match the task with the appropriate time of day, it typically takes me half the time.

Matching tasks to the right time of day is just one way you can gain more time each day. If you want to tweak how you schedule your peak and trough times, we can discuss in our next session!

Lisa Crilley Mallis MA, COC, ACC  

Helping service-based microbusiness owners eliminate day-to-day busyness. ImpactiveStrategies.com  

5 Speaker Prep Tips for In-Person Events

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After two years of virtual events, even very experienced speakers may have forgotten how to navigate speaking at a live event.

Including this girl.

Having knocked out my first 4 in-person gigs, here are my top 5 tips with details about how to get back in the saddle!

Tip #1: Micro-manage in-person events.

Tip #2: Deliver full presentation, no matter what.

Tip #3: Set your criteria for speaking for free (and stick to them!).

Tip #4: Practice, practice, practice your offer! 

Tip #5: Be mindful of your need for approval.

1 Step to Clarify Your Vision

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Picture this…

I was on the beach. I’d cleared my schedule so I could meditate and write and to clarify my vision of the next level of my business.

I came up with… nothing.

So I took deep breaths and let it go and…

Nothing.

Hours of nothing.

The relaxing day at the beach turned into a day of pure frustration.

I was so aggravated, I started saying crazy things to myself.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have this business at all.”

“Maybe I’m just selfish and don’t really care about people.”

“Maybe I should just buy a lottery ticket.”

I carried this crazy headspace into the next week. And the next.

Then in a seemingly unrelated event, I made a very difficult and emotional decision to let go of something that played a big role in my business.

The minute I made that decision, my vision snapped into sharp focus.

I was holding on so tightly to something that was no longer working that it eclipsed my entire vision.

With hindsight, it is so obvious.

But in the moment, with all that beach around me and the sound of the waves and space in my schedule with no pressure, and still coming up with no answers, all I could think was, “What’s wrong with me?”

In the future, I will do my best to remember that I’m smart and very motivated, and then ask a better question: “What do I need to let go of in order to welcome in something new?”

I Forgot My Words…

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That is, the words I chose as my theme for the year. It’s weird.

Because I pick my word or words for the year and they guide my focus and attention. This year, I chose them and promptly forgot them.

People even posted on social media with reminders to revisit your themes for the year, and I just drew a complete blank.

So finally, FINALLY I remembered to go to where I jotted them down. Plenty and Wonder. Ohhhhh, right.

I may not have remembered them, and for the life of me I can’t recall what inspired them ?… but looking at the first 3 months of the year, it’s clear that I am living them!

Plenty.

Not only are we on track to exceed our stretch goal by nearly six figures, but also my family gathered around me for my birthday. Never have I felt more loved or appreciated how precious it is to gather with those I love.

Wonder.

Making the big mindset shift from being the sole service provider in my business to CEO. Now some days this is more of a “I wonder what the hell I was thinking” than “WOW, how wonderful” – but hey, isn’t that just the universe’s sense of humor showing up 100%?

So take a moment. Revisit your word for the year.

And if you take that moment to reflect and notice you’re not where you want to be with your business, please let me and my team know what we can do to support you, ok?