Ep 022: Moving from Overwhelmed to Focused – with Christina & Corinne

00:00
Welcome to the Shannon Acheson Show, real business talk for real life. I’m Shannon, creative business coach, digital product lover, and your strategy sidekick. I’ve built a business that fits my life, and now I help other women do the same. No hustle, no fluff, just smart, honest conversations about building a business that works for you. Let’s dive in.
00:30
Hello and welcome back to the show. I am so excited to have two of my actually new friends here, Christina and Corinne, and we are just gonna talk about a whole bunch of awesome business stuff. And so the easiest way, the best way that I love to start the show is first of all to welcome you guys and thank you for coming on the show. And then to have you introduce yourself and sort of share how you got into the online business world because nobody can introduce you better than yourselves. So.
00:59
How about you tell uh my listeners who you guys are and how you got into the online business world. Go ahead, Corinne. You go first. Thank you for having us, Shannon. We’ve been looking forward to this ever since we scheduled it like last week, I guess. So I got in, I think a little bit later than Christina. I started in 2013 and it was when my youngest had started school. And so I wanted something to fill my days while the kids were in school. But at the time I also had a teenager like my
01:29
There’s a 10 year gap between my youngest and oldest. And like I had several sister-in-laws that had kids that were older than mine that always said, think that you want to be there when they’re little, but when you have to be there is when they’re teenagers. Cause that’s when you don’t want them getting all of their advice and information from a bunch of dumb teenagers, right? Like you want to be there from school so you can undo all the gamut. So I needed a job that was flexible that I could see them off in the morning, be there when they got home.
01:58
Um, like was intellectually challenging, like I like very type a personality. I think you find that a lot in, you know, in our space, right? So it needed to be like checking off boxes and working on new things and growing and like blog, blogging, which I didn’t realize was even a thing until that point was like the perfect fit. Um, and then was such a perfect fit. Like it’s like, I’m so happy to wake up every day and do something that I thoroughly, even in the bad times, I really love what we do. So.
02:28
But that was how I got in basically to fill that time while the kids are in school. And when did you start, Corinne? That was 2013. That’s awesome. I love that. So mine’s a little different. I’m Christina Hitchcock. My website is It Is A Keeper. That’s my primary website. I also have a second food site called Cake Mix Recipes. Mine started out as a hobby. I was cleaning my house one day and I’m a recipe hoarder. I had piles of recipes all over the place.
02:54
So was like right after Christmas, I had just gotten the DVD, Julie and Julia for Christmas. I popped it in, I plopped down all my piles of recipes and I’m sorting through them while watching the movie. And in the movie, she cooks her way through Julia Child’s cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she blogs about her adventure. And I’m sitting there and like the little cogs in my brain clicked and they’re like, you should cook your way through this pile and start a blog. So I’m like, what is a blog? Like I Googled it, what is a blog?
03:24
And by the end of that weekend, I had the framework of what is now it is a keeper. And that was back in 2010. I had a full-time job. So I was working full-time, just kind of doing this on the side. Maybe about a year and a half into it, two years into it, I was able to leave my full-time job and I haven’t looked back since.
03:46
My sister loves that movie. I’m pretty sure she watches it like every year and she is so not a blogger. She just likes recipes and cooking. That’s so awesome. I feel like those are like two really common places where we start from, right? Like we want something to do while the kids are small. Like I started in 2010 too, right? And I had three little kids, but then we want to be around longer. And also a lot of people started as hobbies. Like I feel like those are two super, super common.
04:14
starting points. So how did the two of you meet and then decide to team up as the to start the smart influencer? Because that’s that’s how I met you guys. had me on your podcast. It’s funny, because we met doing the thing that we still like it is still one of my favorite aspects of what we as bloggers get to experience. We met at a conference, like in the hotel lobby, like literally. And we always talk about that, like we reference the hotel lobby so often because
04:42
Those were our favorite parts of conferences. Like that’s when you get to meet someone and you find out all their tips and tricks. Like it’s not necessarily in the sessions, but yeah, we got there early. Um, we, cause we like, that is us. We both showed up early to the conference. Um, and we’re like, Oh, you’re here for the conference too. We were in New Orleans at the time. So we went and got beignets together. He like, we fought over the seat. was what, that was what we first bonded over.
05:09
We fought over a chair. of us have to sit facing the exit. Like we had, we can’t sit with our back to a threat. So come to find out her husband’s a state trooper. was a Marine. yeah, was going to ask. You’re trained to We’re never allowed to sit in those chairs as wives. So when we’re out, it’s like, usually our husbands are now my son takes that chair and I don’t ever get to sit in it.
05:35
And then they’re gone so much. feel like they’re always training you for what to do in emergency situations. So I always felt like I was the most capable person if there was something like, which is like hilarious. Cause I’d probably be the first person to dive under a table, but like I have walked around with a sense of what I could possibly. you. I watched so much true crime and listened to so many true crime podcast girl. I got you. know what’s happening. I watched a lot of female superhero movies. I am relying on them. We’re good. Yeah.
06:03
I watch a lot of murder mysteries. So yeah, hang out with us. You’re well protected. Here we go. Okay. So yeah, we met. I’ll let Christina talk about how we bonded. Yeah. So then, you know, off and on, you know, you’re in the same circles, you’re intermingling here and there, chit chatting, liking stuff on social, whatever. And then one day I just kind of posted out in one of the blogger groups. It’s like, Hey, I just came across this tool called air table. Like, and I think I really love it.
06:31
It’s like a spreadsheet, a database had a baby. Does anybody use it? like, you know, a couple of people had responded and I’m like, I’d love to just like everybody hop on a zoom and let’s talk about how we’re using it and like how we can make it work best for us. Like put our collective brains together. And Corinne hopped on that zoom as well as a couple other people. And as everybody dropped off, it was just Corinne and I, and we’re like, Oh my God, we could do this. Oh, we could do that. We could do this. And like when our brains got together, it was like they just clicked.
07:01
And we found like we had this shared interest and then it just evolved from there. Okay, that is so awesome. love conferences were like, I feel like in my niche, they don’t really happen anymore because I like my other website that I first started with is like home decor and DIY. And so there was like a few really big conferences for that. And like, those are still the people I’m most connected to are the people that I met at these conferences, like
07:27
There is something like the online world is amazing and like you can make connections, but I feel like there’s just this little extra that goes with meeting someone in person, especially over a shared. Yeah. The shared sort of thing, right? We’re huge about the hotel lobby. feel like so much, so many good things happen in hotel lobbies, right? We sit there and like, that’s where like the walls come down and you’re vulnerable and you’re willing to share. Nobody’s gatekeeping and.
07:55
You know, the ideas just start flowing and then you find out you have shared, you know, personal interests and like the bonding happens. It’s such a magical, I think the most magical part of a conference that when people come back from a conference and you say, oh, how was it? Like, oh, I didn’t learn anything from the sessions. I’m like, you totally didn’t do that right then. I know it doesn’t come out of the sessions. The value comes out of everything else there. Yeah, it’s true. Are the one that I went to all the time was Haven in Atlanta and they did break out.
08:24
eventually, like after a few years, they started doing sort of breakouts where you talked with people at your table and that helped a bit. But it was still it was still the hotel lobby thing, right? Where you’re sitting there and you’re just waiting for the next session or you’re waiting to check in or you’re waiting for whatever. And it’s so true. Those are like such amazing connection points. Yeah, I got actually got scolded the last conference I was at for being out in the hotel lobby because like one of the speakers was coming on and everything. And I was having such a great conversation with somebody.
08:53
And we were really digging into stuff. And then the coordinator of the conference comes by, says, you girls need to move into the room and listen to the speaker. And I’m like, oh, OK. Yeah, no, we’re not doing that. Like, this is too good right here. We’ve got some stuff going on. Yeah, it’s true. mean, not to bash sessions or like normal parts at all. And I have learned a lot, a lot, especially as an early blogger. You know, when you start.
09:21
doing things. Like there’s so much to learn. yeah, I find that take advantage of the fringe moments because that’s where the magic happens. uh So much. Okay. So you guys indicated that you really wanted to talk about moving from overwhelmed to focus because I think that is something that we can all sort of identify with. There is so much to like any online business, but I feel like with blogging, like it has become so much like, you know, when we started, whether you started as a hobby or whether you started it as a business, it was
09:51
really simple back in the early 2010, 2013. It was simple. When I started, Instagram wasn’t a thing. Pinterest wasn’t a thing as far as I know, or it was a baby. You had to be invited to join Pinterest. There is so much now, so many platforms, so many resources, which is great, but…
10:17
What did overwhelm look like for you guys in your business sort of before you figured this out, like this overwhelm to focus? So for me, like, I just always felt like I was behind. Like I, I remember early on, I, I had like a, an emotion I was experiencing and I’m like, this is an old emotion. Like I haven’t dealt with this for a long time. And when I like processed what it was, it was the same sensation I had when I was in college, when you could not possibly be ahead.
10:44
No matter whether you were caught up on assignments, there was always like an exam you should be studying for or a project you could be working on to get a slightly better grade or, you know, uh an assistantship that you should be applying for. Like just this never ending, no matter, there was no end to the to-do list. So always feeling like I was behind, which like over time, if you don’t take care of that becomes like this monk, like it just is this weight weighing down on you. It’s very like very
11:13
dragging, I guess. And like these long to-do lists where I would just be jumping from task to task because the other thing that is like a product of what we do is there are so many different things we have to be good at. Like we’ve talked about this, it’s such a delicate balance between like you’ve got to be really good at the content creation, you have to be good at social media, you have to understand SEO, right? Like there are so many aspects to what we do um and you’ve got to be changing hats.
11:42
And the people that do things really well only focus on those things. that, you know, that’s one of the things from our podcast that we love. Like you get someone and they’re really an Instagram genius. They spend so much time on Instagram. And so like feeling like I had to be spending eight hours a day on 20 different things. Like the not knowing what the needle movers rule would be. So Christina says it all the time. Like we were really good at being busy, but not productive.
12:09
Like that’s Christina saying. And I think that for me, and every time I find myself back in that mode, I know that I’ve let the system slip. Yeah. I’m a huge list maker too. So even like back in the day, like everything had like, and I still have some of those notebooks with those initial like to-do lists on them. And I look back at them sometimes and I laugh because they’re so basic, but you know, I’m a list maker and sometimes that can overwhelm me. it, you know, like I have all the different lists.
12:38
You know, you have your business list, your personal list, your kids list, your family list, your doctor, like all the lists. And it gets to be overwhelming and you get to be consumed by them that you feel like you just can never get ahead. I always describe it. In fact, I just got off another Zoom uh with a nonprofit that I’m aboard that I’m on. And I was telling somebody, I if you looked at my head right now, it’s like a whirlwind going around. And sometimes I just reach up and grab something. It’s like, okay, I’m to work on this.
13:07
I don’t even know what it is. just open my hand like, okay, that’s what we’re working on. But it’s getting that together, you know, and coming up with a strategy because I also like to, I’m very, I feel like I’m very strategic. This is one thing I’ve learned about when you turn 50, right? You get a lot of clarity about who you are and what’s going on in the world around you. So if you’re not 50 yet, just wait. It’s freaking awesome. I’m looking forward to that because it has been a disaster in my head for a while.
13:36
To me, that has been the best part so far is I’ve gotten so much clarity and you can see things. I don’t know what it is. But I found that I’m the kind of person that everything I look at, it doesn’t matter what it is or where it is in my life, I look at and go, there’s a better way to do that. There’s a more efficient, there’s a better way to do that. I’m not being as smart as I can with the resources that I have. You know, like I volunteer at a fundraiser in our town.
14:02
you know, serving up hamburgers and stuff in the summer. And I look at the way the counter is laid out and go, mm-mm, there’s a better way to do that. Like it’s just the way my brain works. When I look at it, things get rearranged into other ways. So I try to, where I’m going with this, try to capture that and bring it to my business and say, okay, there’s a better way to do this. I shouldn’t be dealing with this whirling dervish spinning thing going on in my head. Yeah, true. It used to make me crazy when Christina and I first started working together, cause we’d spent all this time into like,
14:30
Like getting our air table base pinned down. The podcast one is actually probably a great example of this. Like, we would organize it. We’re like, okay, we understand the flow. And then like three months later, she’d like, I’m going to go in and just tweak a few things. Like she’s constantly, but because, one thing’s changed, right? Like, so it doesn’t, but because her mind never does turn off that mode, there’s gotta be a better way. There’s gotta be a better way. So no matter how good like is good enough, like there are constant refinements to make it better. Like it is how her mind.
14:59
And I can use the heck out of current. Now that I have embraced it, I love it. And I appreciate it. Yeah, that was uh a learning point. I’m into my kitchen. It’s getting rearranged all the time. I’m always moving stuff. My husband can never find me. with you. I’m the same thing. Yeah, I that’s the way my except I look at as how can I break this down into step by step so it makes sense in an order that makes sense. Right? Like that’s Yeah.
15:24
Yeah, yeah. That makes me laugh about the hamburgers too, because I serve at our church, like on guest services and like we do a potluck like every quarter and I’m like, no, no, that doesn’t go there. It doesn’t make sense. We could be so much more efficient if the cheese was over here. Why? It’s like you can’t put the napkins there. Like that’s just not like… Imagine the output we could have if we just made a couple systemic shifts here.
15:52
But I’m like not my fundraiser. I’m just here to volunteer. This is not true. I’m like I’m just standing here like yeah, it’s I said funny like when I was little uh and I went to daycare the one uh Person that worked there. She goes I came up to you and said what are you doing? And she’s like I told her I’m sorganizing. I was sorting
16:16
And so I like to make up words apparently too, but sorting and organizing. So even at like three years old, like it was just something that was, in. Wired like this from birth. Yeah. And the funny thing is neither of my parents were like that. So I don’t know. I think it came as in the, had to the one to organize the family. Yeah. I am the spreadsheet person. Yeah. Yeah. So was there like a turning point or was it just a general, like there’s like when you you couldn’t do all the things anymore.
16:46
a very distinct one. Okay. was that? My same daughter who went to school that like kind of inspired me to get into blogging. Every night we always ate dinner together as a family. So this was years later. We’re at dinner and we always did like questions, right? Like so, like, and they were always different depending on whose night it was to ask the question, like very different questions. But that night the question was like about how you like, how you defined the different people at the family. And my
17:14
youngest daughter came back and she was like, um, that I was a workaholic, which is funny because in my mind, like my site, right? Like is all about being a homemaker. Like I still define myself as a stay at home mom. I’m like, I took a job so that I could still stay at home. So in my, like, when I think about like my whole scope of existence, most of it is being like the PTA mom and volunteering in the classroom, like being so present for my kids.
17:42
And here’s my youngest daughter who’s like, I barely see you because you’re always tethered to your desk. Um, and that was a real wake up call. Cause like I had been hustling so hard and I’m like, the whole point of P picking this job was to be at home with my kids. Um, and my child is telling me they never see me. Um, like even now, like I’m going to get teary thinking about it. Like it was a gut punch. So that was my wake up moment. Like something had to change. Yeah.
18:11
Yeah. Oh my goodness. Christina, did you have one or is it what sort of just? Yeah. Mine is not as definitive as Corinne’s. Like I wish I, I wish I could have pinpointed that moment, but, um, for me, it’s usually when I’m sitting in a corner, just holding my knees and rocking. And I’m like, I can’t go on like this. can’t, like, I’ve had a couple of those moments. Like I only have one son, but he’s involved in everything.
18:37
Okay. I have a hard time saying no myself, which is why I’m the Sunday school teacher, the Cub Scout leader. sit on two boards, you know, like all the things. And I do, there are times when I just end up sitting in a corner and rocking going, I can’t like, just, something has to give. And those are the moments when I have, I allow myself my moment to completely and utterly break down and it’s okay. Cause I got to get it out. But then it’s like, all right, Chris just.
19:05
stand up, get your whiteboard and let’s figure this out. Like let’s organize it. And I just let my brain do what my brain does. And I get the whiteboard out and I just start, it usually involves whiteboards, Post-it notes, a giant wall, like all these things. And I just get it out of here and get it onto something. And then I can start manipulating and organizing and seeing where the patterns are. Yeah. A hundred percent. That’s, um, wow. So Corinne, like that’s yikes.
19:35
Like that would be like a hard, hard thing to do for your kiddo, especially. And I sort of, identify with that a bit though, because like that was the point of me staying home too. But then there were times where I’m like, no, I have this giant thing I have to work on or like, you we used to work with brands. So we did like big projects around the house, like rentos and stuff. And I’m like, dad, and I have to finish this. Like we have a deadline. And then yeah, Christina, like.
19:59
the giant whiteboards. I’m staring. I have two in my office. I was telling Karim before we started, I’m like, I have two giant whiteboards to get that stuff out. And Post-it notes are one of my favorite ways to do things too. actually, before my office was down here, my first course was created and my first book was written with Post-it notes on the upstairs sliding glass window doors because that’s where there was enough space to stick them. So yeah, like I totally get that. Okay, so you both teach then.
20:28
sort of practical tools to get through that stuff. Like, can you share a couple of those sort of tricks or tools that make the biggest difference for you guys personally? And then we can sort of talk about if you want, like how you teach that to your people too. So I guess one of the tools that was, that revolutionized the way I run my business is Airtable. I mentioned that. And for those that don’t know, it’s a platform that’s kind of like a spreadsheet in a database had a baby.
20:57
So you can look at it from a spreadsheet perspective with rows and columns, but now they’ve built in uh features called interfaces, which looks more app-like. So you can, it’s a more graphical representation of your data. But when I learned and figured out how to corral all of my business data into one place, it eliminated all of that frustration I was feeling with, okay, I need…
21:25
What are my brand colors? Oh, is that in Apple notes? Is that in Google docs? that written in a notebook? Like, what is my EIN? What is, you know, what is the blog post I was thinking about doing last week? Where is all my content? What did I share on Pinterest last? I was able to get all of that into one place. So I have one thing, well, I like to say one thing open, but Corinne knows, I probably have 82 tabs open right now. ah But it’s all in one place.
21:53
And I can go to one place to find everything. And just knowing I had that was such a huge relief for me because it really brought it all together. that tool, understanding what that tool is. it might be for you, might be, you know, a Google sheet, might be Trello, it might be Asana, whatever that tool is, you have to find what that tool is that works with the way your brain works. There are ones that just my brain does not work in a certain way.
22:23
I am not a Kanban brain. do not do not have sliding. Even though I like Post-it notes, I do not have a Kanban brain. And so that just doesn’t work for me. But I need to have you need to find what works for you. Yeah. Yeah. And then mine is more like, so the reason we bonded over air table, like we were both falling in love with it at the same time, I think we had both just tried to click up to and really, this is where we realized we thought a lot of like, because both of us just could not.
22:51
wrap our head around that. And I know people that love it. So this is like, again, no condemnation or like proclamation that one tool is better than the other. just has to be how your brain works. But for me, like one of the reasons I loved Airtable and then this ties to like how, like every productivity I’ve had since then is I realized what I loved about it was I could clear away visual clutter. I am so easily distracted.
23:14
And I’m so easily overwhelmed. I’m very visual. So like if I’m looking at something, but there’s too much to look at, it’s very hard for me to figure out where to focus. So I liked that in Airtable, I could create a view for a very specific purpose, right? Like which posts do I need to assign to a writer? And I could just go to that view and only the fields I needed to see to do that task were there. And then that tip has just applied everywhere else in my existence since then. like creating like just.
23:43
Anywhere I can eliminate decision fatigue or visual clutter. So like we were talking about it earlier, like I schedule all of our meetings, all of my meetings are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. um So sorry for everybody that wants to do Wednesday meetings. Like I block those off for like work time. She doesn’t even let me in there. Every once in a while. I have to beg for Wednesday’s watch.
24:06
But I am an introvert and I truly need, so anytime, even if it’s like this, like a Zoom, I need to prepare mentally for that. Like energy-wise, it’s draining. So now I know I only have to do that two days a week as opposed to when meetings could trickle in throughout. then like, I’m a morning, Christina knows I’m a morning person. I may or may not have woken her up too many times, like bouncing. By jumping on the bed. Yeah. It only was once, but let’s see, we’ve really exaggerated that story, but yes.
24:36
I’m a morning person. have a morning brain. I do my best work in the morning. So on my work days, like the morning is my deep work. And then I do the busy work where like I have those tasks, but like just being aware of like your own psychology, I guess, like what you need. do the five minute rule trick, like with myself, which I borrowed from how I run because I, I like to think I’m a runner. It’s like, I’m a jogger. Like what I like to do for exercise.
25:04
But a lot of times I don’t want to jog and I’ll be like, okay, just go out and just do five minutes, commit to like five minutes, just a one mile run. I don’t do a mile in five minutes, but like one mile run, go out and do it. And I’ve never run just a mile. Like I always run for like, cause the hard part is getting out the door. So I do it with work. Okay. I don’t want to do this task. You only have to do five minutes or 10 minutes or 15 minutes. And usually by the time you’ve gotten over the hurdle of opening it up and starting it, then you’re in.
25:33
Yeah, those are the sorts of things like the little productivity tricks, I guess I do like to keep me on target. Working the way I need to. I love that a lot of like for both of you, it depends on like your personality, right? Like you need to know how you best work, how you best function, be that with the tools or your timing. When I first started this podcast, I was I sort of had open like schedule and ever you needed to schedule like to record the podcast. And after a couple of weeks of that, I was like,
26:02
Oh, heck no. can’t do It’s a lot. Anyways, I am an introvert too and it takes time. I mean, it’s the hair, it’s the makeup, it’s the putting on a blouse instead of a hoodie. It’s like for me. So you need to know yourself for your time and for your tools. That’s kind of what I’m hearing a little bit. And you have to know, I think what’s important is you can’t try to shove yourself into somebody else’s system.
26:31
Right? Like what works for you or for me may not work for the listener. Right? I love air table. That’s how my brain works. Your brain may not work that way. And that’s okay. The thing is to realize that you need the system and to figure out the system before landing on air table. I tried everything, all of the things I tested them. I tried them and I’m not just for like a day or an hour.
26:56
Like I tried it for pretty much like a month or so to try to make it work. And if I found I was working too hard to make it work, it wasn’t for me. And it’s understanding where your frustrations and your friction points are. And again, this goes back to what we love about the hotel lobby. It’s what I love about a good mastermind group. It’s what I love about, you know, podcasts, either being on other people’s or having people on ours is that every time you talk with someone else, they’ve got a different perspective and they’re using things in a different way. And like,
27:23
And it just opens, like you don’t have to do it that way, but it introduces you to a new, like it’s a new lens on looking at your own. Yeah. Which speaks to another part of, you know, we are, we’re entrepreneurs who have businesses online. So we’re at home on our own a lot. So those connections really matter so that you’re not sort of isolated and seeing things only through like your tiny little lens, right? Yeah. Being on zoom is great, right? This is great where we can connect here, but you can’t make that connection you get.
27:53
in person. like Corinne and I, are so much more productive when we’re holed up together in a hotel room and like feeding off of each other’s energy or lack thereof. know, can, mimosas help, but also we learned at one event that we are very productive when there’s bottomless mimosas involved. I guess so, all the creative things. That was my takeaway from it, but it was much more fun to do our work that Much more fun, there you go.
28:21
We also do the hotel wall that’s just covered in Post-it notes. We get the giant Post-it notes. yeah, you and Christina have a lot of overlap in how you guys work. we do a lot of that. Oh, my goodness. Okay, sort of this sort of piggybacks off what I said, but also not. like, you talk about like systems and how they have a big impact on things like
28:46
But we also touched on the fact, so this question doesn’t account for that as it’s written, like as I wrote it down, but we also touched on the fact that you have to find a system that works for you. like, what is one thing that our listeners like could try? Like maybe not uh a tool, but like how could they figure out what systems work for them? I guess. So I’ve got a couple ideas here, like simple things. So, cause I’m, I’m a simple girl. Um, like the big one for me that was super easy was in
29:16
People talk about it like it’s not revolutionary, but the daily top three, right? Like that is a key part of my day. And I think if you actually practice that, if you actually get up each day or every day before you finish, right? Like if you write down what it is you want to work on tomorrow, like to be super clear on those three things and like it forces you to focus on your needle movers. It forces you to think about where you’re going to be productive and not busy. Like that is something anyone can do, right?
29:46
And as you do that to figure out like, if that works for you, or like, maybe you don’t want to do three for the day. Maybe you need to have it for the week. But like, like what I do now is essentially time blocking, but every time time blocking was taught to me before I hated it because I, I do, I resent having each hour accounted for. I did not want to be pigeonholed into that. Um,
30:08
Yeah, I always joke that I’m a Gemini and I’ve got two twins battling. One of the twins really resists that, But what I do now is essentially time blocking, right? Like I’ve blocked off Tuesdays and Thursdays and I’ve got morning time for this and afternoon time. So try it. Try the writing down your priorities and actually sticking to it, keeping it on a post-it note. Am I straying from that? This shiny object I’m chasing, is it actually related to one of these? Does it replace one of these because I do see it as a big needle mover?
30:38
But that act alone is going to force you to do what Christine and I always talk about triage, right? Triage that list. We are doing way too many things that don’t actually have to get done. Yeah. We are like a hospital ER, right? When you come in, you are, from the minute you set foot in there, you are triaged as to how serious things are. And I feel like I do that with now everything in my life. It’s just second nature because I’ve done it for so long. And I look at it I figure out which bucket it needs to go in. Is it on fire? oh
31:07
How big is the fire that needs to get put out? And then the other thing that I think that people don’t do enough of, like they like it in theory, but then just don’t execute is automation. Like once you triage, like there are some things that have to stay on the list, but not every, like we get into this, this trick of thinking we either have to do it ourselves or we have to find someone else that’s really qualified to outsource it too. There are so many things that we can do that can be automated or at least templated. So it’s almost automated.
31:37
Um, or it makes it easier to hand off, you know, things like something like auto replies in your emails or having like a delivery, like an FAQ for like your common problems that you attach in every delivery email. Like there are so many things in our day-to-day business life that can be templated, automated, and get it off of our list. Like, yes, it’s important, right? Like not everything’s going to get scratched off that list, but
32:04
Not everything has to be us putting in real time on it in the moment. Yeah, you could look at those friction points and find out what they are and how you can systematize that. Well, I have two other ways that I’ve kind of done this that are totally different because when I when you were talking, I’m writing mine down and I’m like, what if she’s going to cover mine? Do you share? Yeah, I know. So number one is I’m a big fan of a CEO day and I’ve built this into my calendar. I do mine on Fridays.
32:33
And I have two different types of CEO days depending on which week it is in the month. ah But these are the days where I work on my business, not in my business. And I think that’s a huge distinction to make. So much of our time is often spent in the business, in the weeds, know, publishing the posts, scheduling the social, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. On those days, I don’t do any of that. I work on my business. I’m looking at the finances. I’m looking at…
33:00
uh I’m looking at how traffic is coming. I’m digging into those reports. I’m doing like sites, like that kind of stuff that’s really moving it forward that we don’t often make time for. sits on the to-do list and gets carried over month to month to month. You know, maybe I have to find insurance or I really want to create an SOP to hire somebody. That’s when I do that. And I spend the time working on my business.
33:25
That’s been huge. And I have like my regular weekly one that I do like weeks one, two and three, and then week four, I have a bigger, more encompassing of things that I only have to do like once a month. And that’s when I do those. And I have it, you know, set up and all written down so I can go through and I don’t ever forget because SOPs are huge. So that was a huge, I, that was a big aha moment for me was coming up with CEO day. The other one was figuring out how I worked and how my brain worked. And
33:55
Like I said, age is great and clarity, know, a lot comes with it, but sometimes we can’t see the forest through our own trees, right? We’re, we know like we’re stuck in our ways. So the one night I was so frustrated with the way things were going. I felt out of control. I literally sat down with chat GPT, who I dubbed Donna from suits because everybody needs a Donna in their life. So Donna and I had a very frank conversation and I was sitting at my dining room table.
34:23
And I’m just telling her, I’m like, all right, listen, here’s how I currently manage all the things that are going on, right? I like to write things. I do like to write on paper using, choosing my color pen in the morning is a thing I like to do. You know, I love a good notebook. So I do like to write, but the writing and carrying things over week after week, you know, and it gets frustrating. Things get lost. have five notebooks sitting on my desk.
34:51
random scraps of paper, I like digital calendars, I like this tool, sometimes I use my Apple Notes, sometimes I do like, and I literally, I don’t even think I put punctuation in this, I literally word vomited everything into it, just, you know, this is what I do, this is what’s working, this is what’s not working, maybe I wanna try something else, I was looking at this, but I don’t know, literally, just like that, no clarity whatsoever, and then I’m like, tell me what to do. And.
35:17
She came back with some stuff and then some questions. I’m like ask me questions, you know, she came back with some questions I answered them and after maybe like a five ten minute back and forth There was a system. I’m like, oh my gosh, I never would have thought to cobble together the pieces the way she did and for me it was it is probably the only system that I have stuck with for an extended period of time because I’m a bouncer to like when things don’t work out
35:47
And I have stuck with this for months and months and months and it works for me. That’s awesome. Because it works the way my brain works. I just had get to what that was. Right. And I think chat is really, really good for doing that sort of thing. Right. Taking that because I’ll sit there with my coffee in the morning and be like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Yeah. Yeah. It’s in there, right?
36:14
Yeah, and I told him like, and tell me, am I making this too complicated? And she’s like, well, yeah, a little bit, you know, but here’s how we can, you know, and I’m like, it’s okay to tell me I’m wrong. Like you don’t have to give me all like the happy stuff all the time. I’m a big girl. Yeah, could take, I could take it from my robot. You can give it to me. uh So yeah, like I had to, you know, like actually see like where it was and like be open with myself and then give that a try. And like, I didn’t use it verbatim. I did tweak a couple little things. Like I wasn’t into all the hokey.
36:44
frou frou things that she put in there, but I made it work for me. And it is like I said, it is a system that has stuck with me for months and my my 15 notebooks, I have one, you know, things are working with the tools that I can use, right, that I feel comfortable with. That’s really good. That’s so helpful. So, okay, so now this one, a lot of us, I love this, wrestle with perfectionism.
37:12
Right? Like we just do, we always have so much to do, but we always think, but if I can do it perfect, know, awesome. So how do you sort of coach people towards progress over perfection sort of mindset and yourselves versus that let’s go for perfection? Because progress always trumps perfection in my opinion, even though I’m a perfectionist too. Can I go first? Yes, absolutely. This is on my computer all the time.
37:38
done is better than perfect. It sits right in front of me every day all day because I am a perfectionist. And I have to physically tell myself done is better than perfect because perfect never gets done. So it’s okay to send out that email that isn’t perfectly perfect perfect because sometimes the data you get back from the imperfect will make your perfect even perfecter. Does that make sense? Right?
38:06
Yes, yeah, yeah. Right? So if you’re doing something incorrect, because it points out like some some gaps and some holes and you can then tweak and make it even better than what you thought the first time. But yeah, you have to get out of that. It has to be perfect and just let it go. Yeah, because that can be paralyzing, right? Like you said, because perfect never gets done. exactly. If I tweak it and tweak it and tweak it and tweak it.
38:33
Eventually it’ll get to perfect and then I can launch it or then I can whatever, but that is not true. No, and that’s one thing we see in our group coaching program all the time is people are paralyzed by the perfection. Like that perfection paralysis is you’re like, oh, I can’t, it’s such a big project. just can’t tell. Like cleaning out the junk door, right? In your mind, this is like an all day affair, cleaning out the junk door. Whereas when you just sit down and start doing it, oh, that only took
39:03
I’ll beep it out. Christina. I’m making myself a note to beep it out. It’s like, oh, look at that. It only took me 10 minutes to clean out the junk drawer. It’s true. It’s okay. It’s all good. Yeah. So I’ve got two, two different ones that like, depending on what my, personality is reigning at the time, like I can trigger. the…
39:31
I am like a competitive person. again, I think we’re all like a lot of us are very type A. So I’m competitive. And someone once said to me, you know, like you think you’re going for perfection. And that’s just another word for procrastination. So that to me is one of the things is on my desktop. It’s perfection equals procrastination. So, and again, like we’ve talked about it, like my product does not make money until it leaves my, you know, until it leaves my files and gets put somewhere.
40:01
So like the part of me that’s competitive that wants to say that I’m working towards something, I’m building something, like as soon as I’m like, oh, you’re just procrastinating. Like it’s almost like I’m calling myself like, you know, like calling myself a bad name. Like I don’t like that association in my brain of being a procrastinator. Um, and so like that doesn’t always work because one of the twins doesn’t care about being a procrastinator. So for her, I draw inspiration. My father-in-law came up with this. cannot take credit for it.
40:27
But I loved it and I have held onto this and it’s super helpful. He, when he retired, like kind of became, this isn’t the good part of story, but he kind of started acting like a jerk. Like, and a lot of us were complaining. We’re like, what is with this new attitude? And he’s like, well, this is Dave V2. Like he was a software engineer. So he had updated the software and this was a new version where like, can we get to 2.3 or like version three? Right. But that version mindset.
40:56
helps me because like it’s that philosophy of like your mistakes don’t define you, right? Like your mistake doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. If you do something wrong today, it doesn’t mean you’re always wrong. It means you made a mistake that you can learn from. So like that version mindset of like moving forward that this is, okay, this is just the version I am today and it’s a little bit better than the one before. And if I just go find a couple of things that will move me past whatever my hurdle is now, I’m at a better version, right? Like, so that like,
41:26
I don’t need to be perfect. the software doesn’t get perfect. It’s always improving. Like my air table. Yeah, like air table. though, think about how many things would not never be around if somebody didn’t fail. Like so many great things in our world. Like look at Facebook. It didn’t end up being the product it started out to be. Right? So sometimes you have to look and I wouldn’t necessarily say that’s a failure, but the failure and it’s okay to fail.
41:56
Yeah, it teaches you so many things. And I think that’s one of the things like while I’m afraid of failing, I don’t like that word. I’m also not afraid to throw spaghetti against the wall and see what’s going to stick. know, I like to say like, I’m an idea person, like you have a problem, come see me, I’ll give you 15 ideas, because something in there is going to work for you.
42:19
You know, and it’s a matter of finding out what that is and you have to be willing to pivot, like you said, and you have to be willing to try things. If you’re too paralyzed in the planning, you’re never gonna move forward. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Yeah, I love that. I love that. like the, you know, I don’t like it, but you know.
42:40
done is better than perfect, perfect equals procrastination. Cause that is people get paralyzed. I get paralyzed. Same thing. come back to 80-20 on that, right? Like, so you can get to a hundred percent, but it is such a colossal waste of time. Like 80 % is good enough and like, I don’t know, only takes 20 % of the time to get there. I mean, Karen, you even brought that up years ago when I had asked you, like we were just, you know, spit balling off each other. And I’m like, Oh, I have all these posts that I’ve updated and I’m dripping them out.
43:08
one at a time and you’re like, just put them all out there. Just why are you sitting on this stuff? Just put it out there. Like nobody knows. Like in our minds, we have it built up that everybody knows all of our systems and they’re watching our calendars and they’re tracking everything and nobody freaking cares. No, they don’t care. Yeah. They’re worried about their own stuff. They’re just seeing the end product. Yeah. And even then not all of it. Not all of
43:36
And they don’t care about the thing that we’ve obsessed over the little font color or, you know, little things like that. They don’t care about. Yeah. Yeah. It’s so true. So I feel like in this sort of world, running a business sort of as a duo is kind of unique. Like how do you guys divide roles and so play to your strengths for a smart influencer? Like, cause obviously you each have your own things, but then together.
44:05
How do you make that work? Go governor. She’s making fun because we had to fill in something the other day and we both had to be assigned governor and then we needed a president and a vice president. She’s like, which do you want to be? like, vice president. Of course she’s like, no, that’s not your president. So now I call her president governor. Yeah. We have to make motions for everything. Oh my goodness. Where there are clear delineations, like where I like doing something more than she likes or vice versa, like that makes it easy.
44:34
A lot of times, Christina and I discovered, like we joke about this all the time about how a lot of times we start at the same place and end at the same place, but we take completely different routes to get there. So like when we are building new products, that is typically what we do. We build it independent of each other. And then we bring our final product and be like, okay, let’s take the best of each. Plus we feel like it incorporates, cause again, right? Like it’s part of our philosophy. Everybody like does things differently. So we’re trying to get as much of that as we can with just two people.
45:03
Right. Like if someone might do something differently. So like our Pinterest system was a good, like the Pinterest system that we’ve got in smart influencer is a marriage of our two systems because we both did that very differently, even though we were both live pinning, right? Like we were both doing manual pinning every day and outsourcing it to our VA. Like the systems we built were different. Um, so I.
45:25
I think we, so sometimes we work concurrently that’s maybe not efficient, but I think we get better results. You know, like a more comprehensive result. And then other times, like I love writing email. So anytime there’s an email task, like, you know, raise my hand for that one. Somehow I think that somehow you get an email from us on sales pages, which I hate doing, but I don’t think she likes either. I don’t like it. But you’re so good at it.
45:57
Oh man. It is, it’s one of those things. It’s like, think over the years we found our rhythm, but it’s figuring out that expertise and knowing how we each work. Cause we’re very different. You know, even when we’re in Airtable, I work in interfaces, she works in the grid view. Like there’s just, it’s very different, but that’s okay.
46:18
You know, like she doesn’t have to be, you have to understand like when you’re working with a partner, they don’t have to be the carbon copy of you. It’s probably better if they’re not. You’re covering more ground and you’re more efficient if you both have different areas of expertise. I will say a key component though, because we’ve been asked this a couple of times and I think the thing that makes it work because we’ve both been through.
46:42
We’ve both had stressful lives in our own way. I think everybody does. I’m not claiming ours are any harder than anyone else’s. But you’ve got personal stressors, you’ve got work stressors. We’re both running our own businesses on top of this one. And I think the reason we’re able to do that without any resentment ever is I feel like we’re really good at communication. And when we’re being bad at communication, we call ourselves out for being bad on communication. hey, I think that you’re mad at me, but I don’t know why.
47:10
Can you just tell me so we can fix it? As women do. Yeah. But it is super important. Like if you are going to have any type of partnership or in any relationship, that is the thing that makes it much easier. If you’ve got good communication and you’re willing to communicate what you’re thinking and feeling, then you can get to a resolution. And I think also because our goal has always been the same.
47:35
And again, I do call her my work wife sometimes. So it is, it’s like a marriage. Yeah, that’s I was thinking. Yeah. Yeah. You’re not arguing with each other. You’re arguing against a situation to find a, because the goal is the same. We want the partnership to work. We want the business to work. Like, I’m not mad at you. I’m frustrated with whatever it is that’s our hurdle at the moment. Or it could be something that she’s not even seeing. It could be something I’m dealing with personally, you know, that she’s not seeing. So. Right.
48:04
It’s understanding that too. But communication is definitely 99.98 % of it. and commitment to it working. it is literally just like a marriage. Yeah. You know, when you think about it too, you have to know how to pick your battles, right? Like there’s certain things that she feels passionate about and I have to realize I don’t have to go down on that stand, right? I can let her, you know, if that’s what she wants to do and run with it.
48:33
go for it. And that’s hard as type a, we’re dominant personalities, we’re, we’re, we’re the ones wearing the pants in our families. And my husband likes to think he does, but let’s be honest. Um, you know, like it’s hard to sometimes let that go, but like, it’s a conversation you have to have with yourself that it’s okay. You know, like she can bring, if she wants to make this work, that’s fine. Like, like we’ll go with that. And then she’ll give me that grace.
49:00
when I have something I’m very passionate about that she may not feel as passionately about. do have a lot of those conversations, or how much do you care? Yeah, we ask that all the time. We’ll be arguing about, a font. We’ll make it something simple. Say a font, and I’ll be like, OK, I don’t love the font that you’ve chosen, but I care zero. So we’re not going to argue. I’m willing to let this one go. Right. Right. If you care five, that’s more than I care. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
49:27
No, that’s fair. that’s, that feels like you’ve sort of gotten a good groove with that. And I think communication, yeah. And communication and commitment to like the end goal. I really think that’s it. Like it’s not a complicated formula, but those are two necessities. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So, okay, so this is a little bit, um, we’ve sort of covered this, but maybe in a different wording. So when someone is stuck, sort of stuck in the cycle of
49:55
doing all the things, where do you suggest they start? You said the three things. So feel like this is sort of a duplicate question a little bit, but is there anything else that comes to mind when someone’s like fully in that I’m overwhelmed? It’s funny you say that you think that we covered it because Kristy and I, when we read through your questions before, both of us answered this exactly the same. And I don’t, I think we may have said a variation of it earlier in this talk, but yeah, it had the same. I’ll let you, Kristy, I feel like you are much more concise, so I will let you describe it.
50:24
Well, it’s triaging. It’s brain dumping everything, right? Get it out of your head because right there it’s just twirling, twirling, twirling. You’re waking up in the middle of the night. You’re in the shower. You’re, know, like it’s coming at you and like things just firing at you or that whirlwind is going on in your brain. Get it down somewhere, get it out and then triage, right? Look at it and say, what is moving my needle in my business? What is actually, go ahead. No, I’m like, what is actually pushing my business?
50:54
forward and figuring that out. What am I doing that get rid of what’s making you busy and not, you know, focus on what’s making you productive. And I’d say like before all of that, like the very first thing, and this is the, I only say it like it’s obvious, but then it’s kind of not like when you are in the throes of like feeling overwhelmed, like that is when you feel like the to-do list is a mile long, but you are behind the last thing you want to do is slow down, but that is absolutely step one is you stop. You stop.
51:24
You, it doesn’t make sense. It’s kind of like you were stuck in a traffic jam. You can spend two hours being mad on the interstate or you can get off and have a meal and clear your head and then come back and have a joyful ride. Right? Like maybe if you think of it like that, but you have to stop first and then yeah, do the brain dump, get it all out of your head in one place. So it’s not. So I was raised as a, I’m going on a tangent, but I promise it’s going somewhere. I was raised as a Catholic and I never understood confession.
51:52
Like that just seems so silly to me. I’m like, can’t, can’t we just be like other religions and just talk directly like in my sleep or in bed and like clear it out, square up with the big man, you know, one-on-one. And, um, and for whatever reason, I didn’t go through confirmation the way that I was supposed to when I was like a child. So later in life, I’m like, okay, we’re making our kids go to these classes. I should probably like be a, like a card carrying Catholic.
52:16
So I did, went to the classes and I had to go to confession as a 40 year old woman, right? Like I walked in to confession. There is something very different about verbalizing. Like every person we’ve ever talked to that said mindset that you have to actually go in the mirror. You can’t just think the thoughts I’m strong and confident. You have to say it. There is something about verbalizing to someone else, right? Like that this is what I’m going to do. And I think that’s the same thing when you brain dump like.
52:43
We think we’re processing it all up here, but there’s something about getting, and I know it’s not speaking it, but writing it out and getting it on paper that makes it lose its power. Right? Like all of a sudden it doesn’t have this hold on you. You look at it, you see it, you can put it on sticky notes and throw some of them away. Like very, very, and I know we talked about different people using whatever system works for them. So maybe it’s not a giant list. Maybe it’s speaking it into like an audio recording.
53:13
Um, you know, like whatever it is, it has to be some actual, like transactional thing where it leaves your system. And I think there’s great power in that in terms of actually letting you let go of some of the things that you don’t need to be doing. Well, I think it’s like, when you see those things, right, stacked up against the other things. You start it, there’s a clear delineation as to where you should be spending your time. And you’re like, Oh, like in my brain, this was like, this was on fire right now.
53:42
Yeah, this was super duper important. But now when I see that compared to all the other things that were in my brain, I’m like, oh yeah, that could be bottom of the list. Like that doesn’t really need to be there. And one thing I’ve always said is you are never wasting time. Cause everybody’s like, oh, I don’t have time to sit and plan. I don’t have time to take a planning day. just, I don’t, don’t, don’t. There, never waste time.
54:05
planning and organizing. is time that is not wasted in your life. If you take a half a day, a day, an hour and spend that time strategizing and planning and getting organized, I guarantee you that will come back tenfold. Yeah. Now you can’t do it while watching the Real Housewives. Like you really have to be all in. That’s a different kind of Yeah, that’s a different kind of procrastination. But I think that’s super important because I feel like
54:32
as entrepreneurs, we’re sort of doers, right? Like, let’s get this done, let’s get this done. And it is really, really difficult to go stop. Like, I may be checking things off a list, but they’re probably not the things I should be doing and my brain is spinning. And that stop, I think, is super hard to do, but like super, super important. And you do have to like either speak it out loud or write it down, get it out of your head because there’s just this…
55:00
when everything’s in your head, it’s so easy to be, well, to deceive ourselves or to just think, like you said, that something is more important than it actually is in the whole scheme of everything and getting it out, either speaking it or writing it out, that is a huge, huge, huge thing. I mean, that’s why I keep lists so I don’t have to hold on to it in my head. I always joke, I watch these, so I have a couple of books and I watch these authors like,
55:28
quote like from XYZ page in my book and blah blah blah. I’m like, no, no, I wrote it down so it’s not up here anymore. I have to refer to my own book. Like I know what I know what I know, but if you want like a specific, it’s out of my head now because I’ve written it down and that creates so much more space I think for being creative, for doing the next thing, for doing the things that are necessary, right? So this, the stop and get it out of your head is like huge and super important.
55:57
100 % agree with that, like so much. that point, there’s so many different ways you can do it. You can take a pen and color code them, like, you know, important versus not important. You can Eisenhower matrix it. Like that’s where you take your brain, right? Like the way your brain works and plop it into the system that lets you triage. But I think that step of stopping and getting it out, like, is anything it, that works for anyone. But if you’re sitting there saying, you know, oh, I already have lists, like I’m a great list maker. I have lists on this and this. I think even then, like,
56:26
because I got overwhelmed. I’m a list person. I have lists everywhere. I have the list apps. I’ve got, you know, digital paper, all the things, all the little sticky notes, color coded. It can still get overwhelming. I think the trick is to bring it all together and to look at it all is one big picture because that’s when it starts to make sense and they start to kind of triage themselves. And you can see where everything stacks up when compared.
56:52
to everything else. So yeah, even if you are a multiple list maker, you’re not done yet. Yeah, like you can still get very overwhelmed. Razzled and overwhelmed. Mm hmm. Get it all in one place. Bring all the lists together. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So, okay, so we talked about the actions of doing that. So stopping and making lists, but like what’s one mindset shift that can help an overwhelmed entrepreneur breathe easier today, right? Because that that’s an action, but like
57:22
A lot of stuff happens in our brains too. So like what’s one mindset shift that can help us do better, breathe easier? So the thing that was always hard for me, like it’s still hard for me. Like I have a really hard time saying no, especially since I always think we can do something better. I’m like, oh yeah, well, yeah, I think you could do this better. Sure. I’ll come in and fix it. Cause I don’t want to be the person that’s just telling you how to do stuff. Right. We enable each other a lot. We do. So the mindset shift that works there doesn’t like
57:51
You got to really work it. I’m not a great, I’m not great at my affirmations, but that saying no to one thing is saying yes to something better, right? Like, so saying no, isn’t saying no, it’s actually, it’s still a yes, but now you’ve got yes for something that was more important in your life. So I think as long as like, for those that have problems saying no, just think of the yes that you have like created because you said no. Right. That might be so much better. Yeah.
58:19
And I will say to build on that, saying no doesn’t mean no not ever. It means no not now. Right. You can still have that on your list that maybe, you know, in 12 weeks, we’re going to revisit that. But right now, this isn’t the priority for me. I have other priorities. Um, my mindset shift is getting out of my own head because I feel like I can handle everything up here.
58:46
Like I’m like, yeah, I feel like I got it together. There’s days when I feel like the perimenopause brain is, you know, going full throttle. Like there’s a fog machine up there and people are flipping switches. But I feel like I’ve got it together, you know, pretty good. But I would keep everything to myself, you know, and be like, okay, here’s my to-do list. I think when you find somebody who can hold you accountable, it really…
59:13
That was the big needle mover for me because I don’t hold myself account. I have zero willpower, zero willpower. But I also don’t like to fail or to not meet a goal. So if I tell you I’m going to do XYZ, you can bet your butt that two minutes before we get on that call, I am finalizing XYZ because I may not have done it all week, but I got it done before we met to do it. uh
59:42
Finding that accountability and knowing that understanding that I don’t have to do it all in my head myself. I can lean on other people. Um, that was huge. Yeah, for sure. For sure. It’s true. Cause we’re very, we’re very capable. Yeah. I’m like, I got this. can, can hold myself accountable for that. I got my list. It’s on my list. It’s true. I skip over it every week, but it’s on the list.
01:00:12
It gets rewritten out every single week in a different color pen, whatever I was feeling in the mood for. It’s pretty, but it’s still there. Yes, I am. Yeah, I get that an awful lot. So let me make sure I’ve got this right. So you guys have a 12 12 week power plan and goal crusher group coaching. Yes. Yes. We got those right. Okay. So how do those tie into sort of what we’ve been talking about today?
01:00:41
So the power plan is like our version of like, cause we’re both big fans of the 12 week year, but like you can stay super focused on those goals. Like we both do annual goals still too, but like it’s really hard to stay laser focused on an annual goal for 12 whole months. So like we’re big believers in, uh, in 12 week plans. And so the 12 week power plan is if you are like, you just need direction, right? Like you need to know what to focus on. Like we.
01:01:11
force you in that process to triage and tell us the one thing, like what is your goal so that we can create the plan with the action steps that will get you there in the 12 weeks. And then the goal, the group coaching throws in all the other things that we love about like, you know, about what we do and what, know, like both of us need accountability. So it’s the accountability. It’s the little bit of mentorship to help you get over those hurdles. You know, like if you’re stuck, they function too as a mastermind, like all of our groups have
01:01:40
tended to be like a good mix of people. So you’re getting so many different perspectives, so many different lenses on the problem that you’re facing. I get like, so to me, like, they’re so much more powerful. But if you don’t have the time for that, or you can’t make the schedule, the power plan is a great place to get started to give you the focus. And then we kind of have the hybrid in there of like a power session. So if you want to do the
01:02:03
plan, but you want a little bit of the one-on-one, we can book a one-on-one call to help you figure that out, get you set up for managing it yourself. don’t get that weekly touch base, but you still get the guidance and support that you would need to take those first steps and get yourself moving.
01:02:30
So what is exciting you guys most about the next season of the Smart Info? We just had a call today. I always get excited. did. And you share? Can I tell her a big thing that’s coming up? We haven’t even announced it on our podcast yet. We’ve been hinting at it with all of our mastermind groups. So we’re hosting a summit in the spring. So that’s like a big thing. We’re super excited to do our own in-person thing and bring that.
01:02:58
Did you get how she asked me if she could say that, but she didn’t wait for the answer. She just went for it. I read your facial expression. I can see you. I can see you. Maybe she thought you would like very much object if you weren’t allowed. No, that’s the work wife. It’s the telepathy here. That’s exciting. all the interns. She doesn’t wait till we get off the call. She’ll extend the offers because she can read. She can read me. So yeah, so we’re doing the summit, but I think that has given like
01:03:26
That’s been motivating us a lot and we’re really like loving to create our own experience. So that in our planning session this morning, feel like that radiated through all the products that we’re building between now and then like that whole, like not just teaching something, but actually helping people apply it and giving people that like that hotel lobby experience and everything that we do. Um, which is a piece I think we’ve been missing. So.
01:03:55
super excited about that. I’ve been hearing a lot about that from some very, you know, big people in online space about that. Yeah, especially with AI going forward, helping people implement and take action is going to be so key to the you know, in addition to the teaching, but like, right. I love that. watching our industry the last year, two years, like just how many people are
01:04:23
suffering or have closed their businesses. Yeah. And, and who’s succeeding? Like some of the people that are succeeding, like I, aren’t people I’d want to sit at a table, not everyone, like there are many. But right. Like, I don’t know. I, I’m excited to see if we can turn that tide a little. Yeah. I think, I think it’s a good, not a pivot, but a good addition to me. And I one of the things we’ve seen in our group coaching in our masterminds is that we.
01:04:51
We are very smart people, right? We can consume information. If we want to know how to do something, we can Google it and find the answer. But where we tend to falter is in the implementation, right? Either we don’t have the accountability, so we start off strong and then just drop off, or we start, we get confused and we stop, or worse, we start, we get confused and we keep going, but in the wrong direction. So what’s lacking there is the…
01:05:19
the implementation part, right? Somebody to hold your hand and to kind of guide you through taking action on what you learn. mean, how many times did we go to conferences, we come home with a notebook full of things we’re gonna do, and the minute we get off the plane, we forgot about our notebook. Yeah, yeah, no, so true. We don’t want that. you can actually understand what you do, cheerleading for you. Right. Mm-hmm. Or saying, yes, that’s great. We’re very lonely, like it’s a very lonely thing we do. The people that love you most probably don’t understand a lick of what you do at work.
01:05:48
Not even a little. Yeah. So, yeah. But like we notice that when we get together and we’re sitting in a hotel room and Corinne has an idea and I’m like, yes, and you know, and like you can just, you can start building and growing and turning that little nugget, that little ember becomes a flame because you’re surrounded by the right people trying to help you make it happen. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
01:06:13
No, I think that is super, super key. I love that I’m hearing that you guys are like on the same page with that because that’s been something I’ve been realizing for it’s what’s missing. Yeah. It’s really what’s missing. think. Yeah. And we, we approach this from that perspective. Like we wanted to build something that currently wasn’t being met. were listening to all like the feedback and what people were saying that they wanted to see and picking up on those notes. And hopefully we’re building something that.
01:06:42
That’s super exciting. we’re excited. We’re excited. Yeah. Okay. So where can my listeners find you, connect with you and sort of binge more of what you guys do? TheSmartInfluencer.com. I say in my best podcasting voice. There you go. You can find our podcast. You can find our air table templates that we sell. You can find all of our group coaching, our power plants, all that stuff is on theSmartInfluencer.com. That is
01:07:11
Awesome. So I will make sure that goes in the show notes too for anybody who missed it. So thank you, Christina and Corinne so much for coming on the show today. This has been such an awesome conversation. loved it. I know I loved it too. having us. It was fun. Yeah. Thank you. That’s it for today on the Shannon Acheson Show. If you found this helpful, follow the show and share it with a friend. And hey, if you’re not sure what kind of business actually fits your life,
01:07:40
Take the free quiz at shannonacheson.com. It’ll point you in the right direction. Thanks for listening. Talk again soon.