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EP 7: 5 Time Management Tips for Getting Your Business Structured
119 Plays1 year ago
In this episode, Lindsay and Betsy dive into some of the top ways they use time management and systems to help structure their businesses in these busy seasons. Listen in as they walk through the realities of being a busy business owner while juggling small children and mom life.
We’ll discuss five ways you can start building out a better structure for your business, including:
- Time Blocking
- Categorizing Your Days
- Building out a WorkFlow
- Staying True to Your Boundaries
- And being realistic about what you are capable of doing!
Follow us online & come say hi!
- The Business Playdate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebusinessplaydate/
- Lindsay White's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindsaywhite.co/
- Betsy Moorehead's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/betsymoorehead.biz/
- Learn more about Lindsay's marketing agency here: https://thewhitelabelcreative.com/
- Learn more about Betsy's marketing services here: https://betsymoorehead.com/
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Transcript
Introduction by Hosts
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to the Business Playdate, a podcast hosted by Lindsay White and Betsy Moorehead, two internet strangers turned business besties. We're two marketing professionals living across the country, raising our kiddos while running our own individual businesses.
Transitioning from Corporate to Family-Centric Business
00:00:15
Speaker
We built these businesses based on our experiences working in corporate management roles with the end goal to be able to show up for our families first. And we did it. We're so happy you're here with us. Now let's get into this week's episode.
00:00:31
Speaker
Hey guys, welcome back to the business play date. It's another great week here and we're just rocking and rolling. How's it going, Lindsay? Rocking and rolling. I say that a lot. I've like listening back to these episodes. I say rocking and rolling a lot. I guess it's my, my catchphrase. I like it. I like that catchphrase.
Parenting Challenges and Creative Problem-Solving
00:00:52
Speaker
Um, it's been quite a week over here. My children are not sleeping like at all. We have a, I'm assuming like an 18 month sleep regression going on.
00:01:01
Speaker
Those are the best. Yeah. Inconsolable child all night long. So sweet. Love that for me. And then I have one who's got Croup and oh my gosh, I know we've actually never dealt with Croup. Like we've done all of the childhood sicknesses, but not Croup. So this is a first. It's really sad because they're so like the, the cough is like, like a bark bark. So sad. So sad. And so I took him to the doctors. I took both of them to the doctors yesterday.
00:01:29
Speaker
I wanted to make sure Lila was not sick because she's the one not sleeping. She's not sick. She's just not sleeping. And then Asher is the sick one with the croup, so they gave him a steroid. And I really messed up. I can take the blame here, but I also want to shift a little bit of this blame over to the pediatrician.
00:01:51
Speaker
So she's like, okay, well, we're going to give him a steroid. I'm like, okay, great. We've done steroids before he's got asthma. We've done the steroid thing a bunch of times. It's always a liquid. Like it's always a liquid. They gave me not one, but two pills that I had to crush up.
00:02:09
Speaker
for a four-year-old? For a four-year-old. Not even four. For a three, almost four-year-old. Oh, my gosh. So I had to take these two pills and crush them up between spoons. And she's like, just mix it with some yogurt or applesauce. And I was like, OK. OK. So I take these. One's blue and one's green. Super sketchy.
00:02:29
Speaker
Uh, I take these, you know, my husband always refers to the matrix whenever he, cause he's at, we've had steroids like that before. One blue, one green. It's like a matrix reference. Anyway, I digress. I've never watched the matrix. Honestly, me either. Um, so I make, I push them up and I put them in a spoon and Asher had just asked for a bowl of yogurt. And I was like,
00:02:50
Speaker
Sure. Perfect. Yeah. So I only have Greek yogurt and he likes his Greek yogurt with like fruit in it and like some honey or some jelly. And I was like, okay, great. So I get a bowl of normal sized yogurt and I put the medicine in it and I mix it up and
00:03:05
Speaker
I had mangoes and he loves mangoes. So I was like, I'll throw some mangoes on top. So I dice up a mango and I put it on top of the yogurt and I give it to him and he loses his mind. He's like, no, I don't. I like mangoes and I like yogurt, but I do not like mangoes with my yogurt.
00:03:24
Speaker
Oh no. Oh yes. So I was like, well, fuck me, huh? So I went and I was like, okay, well we've got to get you to eat this yogurt. And I diced the mangoes up like kind of small and I kind of like mushed them into the yogurt a little bit because I thought that he would like it like that.
00:03:41
Speaker
And so I was like, okay, I'm just going to throw it on the blender and we'll make a smoothie. And I was like, how do you want a smoothie? And he's like, yeah. And I was like, okay, put on the blender, make a smoothie. I throw a banana in it to make it nice and sweet. So at this point, we've got a bowl of yogurt, a whole mango, and a whole banana. And two pills of steroids. And two steroid pills in this smoothie. And I give it to him.
00:04:02
Speaker
No, I don't like this. I wanted to be a chocolate smoothie. So I was like, great. So I add two scoops of hot cocoa mix. And I give it back to him. He's like, no, I wanted to be. This is so ridiculous. He's like, I wanted to be strawberry vanilla.
00:04:17
Speaker
I want strawberry vanilla in there too. And I was like, and I'm like so desperate for him to drink this stupid smoothie cause I don't have any more steroids. So I'm like, you have to drink this. So then I go and I add like three frozen strawberries and a little bit of vanilla extract and I give it to him and I'm like, dude, this is it. Like this is your smoothie.
00:04:34
Speaker
Nope. Will not. He's like, it's too, it's too yummy. Oh, it's too yummy. And this smoothie has so much stuff in it at this point that it's literally filling an entire turbos tumbler, which I think those things are like 16 ounces. Yeah.
00:04:50
Speaker
And so I'm like, you have to drink this whole garbage tumbler of smoothie. I don't know. I'm messed up. I'm sorry. You have to. It's got the medicine in it. Oh my gosh. He's like, no. No, I won't do that. And he's throwing a fit about it. So I'm bribing him with everything under the sun. He's not allowed to watch Paw Patrol. I'm like, you can watch Paw Patrol.
00:05:07
Speaker
You can. We can FaceTime your best friend. We could go on a vacation to your best friend. I don't care. Let's go. Just take the medicine. Take the medicine. Drink the smoothie. And he's like, no, I don't want that. I'm like, Mimi can come into town because my mom is coming into town on Sunday. So I was like, you know. And he's like, no, I'm not going to drink it. And then I was like, well, if we don't drink this, we're going to have to go to the hospital. And I try really hard to only give threats that are like, we're going to do it, not empty threats.
00:05:34
Speaker
And I was so sure that he would be like, Oh no, I'll drink the smoothie. He's like, Oh, okay. I'll go to the hospital. And he went and put it on his shoes. Oh my gosh. Gotta be kidding me right now. And like my husband is out of town. And so I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to do here.
00:05:54
Speaker
Uh, so then I, like a psycho, I took fruit pouches that he likes to eat and I emptied them and I filled them up with the smoothie. And then I put a little bit of the fruit pouch stuff on top back in it. And I was like, this will certainly do it. And there were three full fruit pouches that he would have to fill using like a syringe to put it in there. I was using a medicine.
00:06:16
Speaker
Oh my God. I'm literally losing my mind. You've got it. Like I said, we haven't slept all week and I was like, I need to sleep tonight. I can't have you creepy all night long. We need you better. Oh my gosh. No, he didn't eat them. So I still have three full fruit pouches of steroid
00:06:33
Speaker
smoothie in the fridge. I guess I have to throw these away. He's not going to take them. Yeah. So do you have to get another steroid or? I don't know. He did a lot better last night and he's not creepy coughing now. So I'm just going to wait it out. We'll see. I know. But I'm like, I really messed up there. But also, who gives pills to a four-year-old?
00:06:54
Speaker
I know. That's really weird. It's been a long time since one of my kids has needed a steroid and yeah, it was always a liquid form. Yeah. So I don't know. Oh, bless you. What a week. Yeah. Like we had a medical event ourselves here. My four-year-old went for her four-year-old annual visit and she had to get her shots. And last night, yesterday, afterwards, she was at school all day, which was fine.
00:07:17
Speaker
She was like hobbling around, like just so miserable. Like I can't, my legs don't work. You know, they put them in their thighs still. And I'm just like, Oh, bless her heart. But a little bit of medicine. She slept decently ish last night. She's my, not my good sleeper. Like I totally know where you're coming from. When she had 18 months old, sleep regression, she's four like hit or miss. We never know what the night's going to be like. Um, but today, yeah, she was like, I can walk again. And she was so excited.
00:07:45
Speaker
These kids, they keep us on our toes, don't they? Truly. I was thinking about it the other day when, I mean, I think we both have, it's just cold and flu season's coming. These kids have just come out this summer, they're back in school, sickness is inevitable, whatever. But man, am I so thankful that I don't have to commute into a job or ask for time off or have to have that feeling of
00:08:10
Speaker
choosing something over the other. It can just be so flexible with what we do now. I don't know what I would do. I mean, my kids are sick every other week. Yeah. I remember before I had kids when I was still working in my corporate job, my friends had just had kids and the kids were young and they'd come into work.
00:08:32
Speaker
and they would just be like zombies all day. And I was like, how are you doing this? Or they were having to take off PTO and some companies are pretty strict with that. Yeah. And I also feel like, I mean, many reasons why I don't like corporate America, but I feel like you're so tied to your desk from nine to five. And it's not really appropriate to leave early, but it's like,
00:08:54
Speaker
Which work are you actually doing? You could take all of that work and jam it into a couple of hours. Right. That was the main thing that I noticed whenever I started working for myself was that I was trying to do that. I was trying to work from nine to five, trying to fill my time. It wasn't until a year maybe into my business that I was like, there's a better way to do this. I am efficient and I can get my work done in a matter of
00:09:22
Speaker
three hours every day. Exactly. Yes. Especially if you're good with your time. Yes. And that's why I wanted to like do this in the first place was to have more time to get stuff done around the house. I'm not spending my weekends going to the grocery store, food prepping, doing all the laundry, not spending my evenings, like not having time with my family because there's so much to be done around the house and I'm like commuting an hour and a half to work every day. Um, so yeah, I mean, I,
00:09:49
Speaker
Like being able to structure our time how we want it is clutch. So clutch. Yes. And I mean, that leads us to our topic for
Time Management Strategies
00:09:56
Speaker
today. It does.
00:09:58
Speaker
We're talking all about time management. Specifically, we will be giving you five different thoughts on time management, but we're also going to talk about what we do, what we've done, what's working for us, what's not working for us. I mean, there's a large range of pieces of the puzzle over here. Just a glass case of emotions constantly.
00:10:20
Speaker
And it's constantly changing. So why don't we start by talking about what our days are currently structured or unstructured? What's your day? Yeah. I am notoriously bad at structure organization. That's never been my strong suit. I will admit it.
00:10:36
Speaker
like to anybody. I am definitely not the most structured person. Um, and like I just said, like once I started my business and I was working, I was like working myself nonstop and I was like, Oh my gosh, like I'm just trying to fill time because this is what I'm used to. Um, so now I, that I, um, a little bit more seasoned as a business owner and, and structuring my own time.
00:10:57
Speaker
Um, my days, not every day looks the same, but my goal is that after I dropped my kids off, I come home. I like have some time to myself. I either like go for a walk or I like it recently, like I've gone for a run or, um, start some laundry or like get dinner at a crock pot or something. That's like my plan today, get dinner in a crock pot. And then I start, I sit down on my computer by nine o'clock. That is my goal.
00:11:22
Speaker
Monday, at least Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I try to get in front of my computer by nine o'clock. I work for a couple hours. I like power it through for three hours until noon.
00:11:38
Speaker
I, at that point I was like still pumping every three hours because Maggie went for the last year, you know, I've been nursing her and, and so that has changed a little bit now. And so I worked till noon and, um, I take a break. I take like an hour break and I eat lunch and I just sit with myself and my phone and the TV or whatever. And I just kinda like have a lunch break for an hour.
00:12:02
Speaker
And then if I haven't gotten everything done in those three hours in the morning, then I usually try to work for like another hour or so in the afternoon. But my day, my work day is done by 3 p.m. And that allows me if I need to run a couple of errands before daycare pickup, if I need to do some stuff around the house before daycare.
00:12:19
Speaker
or if I'm having one of those days where I just need to sit and do nothing for a little while, I do that before my kids come home so that I am mentally ready to be mom once they come home in the afternoons. So that's kind of my day. I have a three-hour block that I work in the morning.
00:12:38
Speaker
a little bit of me time in the middle of the day. And then sometimes I'll work an hour or two in the afternoon or like I'll schedule phone calls in the afternoon if I need to. But nine to three is kind of my work hours now. And again, it's not like that every day. I mean, there are some days where
00:12:54
Speaker
I work maybe an hour because I just, I need to like run around. Usually Fridays I don't work. I just happen to like have a call with us on like today after this. Um, usually I try like not to work on Fridays. So those are like the days like I go to the grocery store and I can get prepped for the weekend. Cause I don't like to grocery shop on the weekends. If I can help it, um, that's just takes away time from the family. Yeah. I'm with you.
00:13:20
Speaker
I would say my day is right now. As we've mentioned in a previous podcast, I took the last nine months of my life to be more present at home. And I shifted my working to less agency, more consulting. Starting in September, September 1, I shifted back to agency. I have more time. My kids are in care now from 9 to 1 every day. And so I shifted back into agency model. And I really thought that I was going to,
00:13:49
Speaker
blissfully unaware, thought I was going to have at least a month to get myself situated, to create strong systems and processes and get my project management flow going. That was totally not the case. I had my largest client ever come and sign on, I think, September 1st. Our contract started September 4th and we signed that contract on September 1st.
00:14:15
Speaker
things did not go the way I planned. And so I'm much more of my current structure is very unstructured and there's a problem and it needs to be fixed. So what I've kind of been doing and I'm like literally looking at my calendar right now is a lot of my days, especially working in an agency fashion, I have a lot of meetings with clients, meetings with my team about projects we're working on and meeting with my meetings with my clients. And so I have been
00:14:41
Speaker
really bad about scheduling my meetings just all over the place. Like chocked in the middle of the day and I have realized that is totally not working. My work hours are nine to 12, 30 most days. So I mean, that's three and a half hours and they're used so unofficially, it is wild. And that's because your childcare is done by a certain time and like late early afternoon, right? Yeah, I have to pick the kids up at one.
00:15:08
Speaker
Yeah. So the lack of catch up time I think is a struggle for me. Like I love how you have that good catch up time in the back end of your day where it's like, I can't do laundry. I can't go to the store or I can catch up.
00:15:19
Speaker
Um, I am not having that time, which is hard. And I've been finding myself doing a lot of catch up or weird tasks after bedtime or with the kids, which is something I've always like my entire duration of business been like, no, I don't do that. Yeah. So I have been going back to my roots and figuring out, you know, okay, what do I need to change about this? And I've had a lot of thoughts and I think I know what direction I'm going to go, but we'll kind of like talk about more of that.
00:15:48
Speaker
You know, as we go through, as we get into our tips. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I don't know. I can just say like, that's good that you recognize this and you're trying to do something about it. Cause I think like I personally, like I can get overly frustrated and I'm just like, screw this. I can't, like, I can't figure it out. My days are just going to be crazy. And I mean, that that's like typically how I've been in the past. It's like, Oh, everything's just chaos. I can't figure it out. And then I just get in this funk and I can't get out of it.
00:16:15
Speaker
And I think too, I mean, it's like also a mindset issue. I mean, I don't know if it's coming from corporate mindset issue, probably is.
00:16:23
Speaker
in conjunction with me also being a people pleaser, but I'm like a yes person and in corporate, you're always like, Oh yes, boss. I will do that because you guess I'll stay late. Yeah. Like I don't have an option. Like that's my job. And sometimes I get in these funks where I'm like, Oh, my client is my boss. And it's like, actually, no, I'm my boss. You're my, you're my client. And I have to kind of,
00:16:47
Speaker
I get these fears that my clients are going to leave me or, you know, like, Oh my gosh, I'm going to lose the income because I
00:16:56
Speaker
tell them I only take meetings on Tuesdays, you know? That's that boundaries thing, right? It goes back to the episode we were talking about, like having boundaries and sticking to them and not feeling guilty for you wanting to structure your business in your time a certain way. Yeah, like you have to come back to your why. And I keep telling myself that, especially right now in this chaos season of like, I have created my own chaos. I'm like, no, I need to go back to my why I created this business to be a tool and a resource for my family, not to be like the reason I'm breathing every day.
Balancing Business and Family Priorities
00:17:26
Speaker
And so going back to that and saying, okay, well, the money will be here whether a client wants to leave me because I'm only taking calls on Tuesdays and Thursdays now, like that's their problem. That's not a problem. Exactly. So that's kind of what I, you know, in the past, I've always structured my days very time block oriented hourly time blocks, which I think is our first kind of point of a way that you can structure your days and hourly time blocks have always worked really well for me where I kind of,
00:17:55
Speaker
know what my week looks like ahead of time. I look at my calendar on a Friday, be like, okay, what's next week look like? And I could set my time blocks and say, okay, this time block is before the kids wake up and I'm going to be doing X, Y, and Z. Maybe I'll do an email cleanup or I'll get through all my emails or maybe I'll be doing the dishes at that time or the laundry and I'll kind of like plan it out and know
00:18:16
Speaker
what my needs of the week are and how to structure them into different time blocks, especially my work time block. Yeah. Are you a wake up before your kids, mom? I would love to be a wake up before my kids mom. Me too, but the baby's my alarm clock right now. Yes. I never know when she's going to wake up. My kids wake up at six and it's like, oh, I'd have to wake up at five. Yeah. I always set my alarm for five and I've like figured out finally on my iPhone, like how to make it where it doesn't like,
00:18:44
Speaker
Cause I don't, then the alarms on the new iPhones, you can't like turn the volume down. So there's just like so loud. So I figured out how to make it like vibrate only. And I have it like right by my head on my, on my, uh, nightstand. And so I've been like setting it for five. Cause I'm like, Oh, I'm going to become the get up before my kid's mom. I'm going to have like my morning, like morning time block to myself. No. Uh, no, I never know when my kids are going to wake up. So it's like, let me let them wake me up. And then.
00:19:11
Speaker
Yeah. We'll just start our day. I am living in an apartment right now because we're still waiting for things to be done with our house. And it's like a glorified hotel room. I'm like, the alarm wakes up everyone in the house.
00:19:25
Speaker
If I wake up before the kids, someone's going to wake up. They're going to hear me. They're going to sense me because it's literally a glorified hotel room. Yeah. Same here. If the baby's awake, then Ellie will hear her being downstairs because Ellie can't sleep with her door closed, so her door's open. Even though there's sound machines in both their rooms, it's like,
00:19:42
Speaker
No, that's not possible. But yes, hourly time blocking, you taught me this. I didn't really know about this until you introduced me to this method and it wasn't ever something I was like, I was just all over the place all the time. And so I've been implementing hourly time blocking at your encouragement. Yes. And like I said, it works for me really well. 9 to noon in the mornings, I just power
00:20:08
Speaker
through. That is my work time no matter what. Again, maybe not every day, but I do like you. I look at my week and I say, okay, I have phone calls on these days and I know that I'm going to get shit done in the mornings. Yeah. And I think too, especially if I personally cannot do the nap time hustle, it doesn't work for me and it doesn't work for my kids. But if you are in the nap time hustle space,
00:20:35
Speaker
hourly time blocking can work really well for you because you know that between, you know, nine and noon is your kid time. And it's when you're hanging out with your kids and your momming and you are doing the things. And I also a lot of my thoughts on hourly time blocking have been adapted from Chelsea Joe's podcast. So if you haven't checked her out, go check her out. She is the queen. Love her. Love her.
00:20:58
Speaker
But something I learned from her is that you should be doing the things around your house when you're with your kids. Because it also teaches them. And it shows them that this is how we take care of our things. And this is how we take care of our house. And I've really adopted that mentality where I didn't used to do that. And I'm like, OK, in the afternoons, I'm with my kids in the morning. I'm working. And my house could be an absolute
00:21:19
Speaker
shit storm from the morning and that's fine. I'll clean it up when the kids get home from school and we can all do it together. We can all put the shoes away. We can put the lunch boxes away. We can clean up the, I don't know, all the pajamas that are everywhere and the toys, the magna tiles, but that's really helped me because then it's like my work block. I don't feel this insane pressure to do the things and get my house reset from the morning. It's purely when I'm working.
00:21:44
Speaker
And when they get home, they're just going to destroy it again. So it's like, what's the point? Let's show them how to tidy up. And yes, I agree. I love Chelsea Joe. I just started her systemize your life, like course that I know a couple of people you, you know, have told me about. So very excited for all of that. Um, but I agree, like hourly time blocking is one way to definitely get it together.
00:22:10
Speaker
So the next thing that I want to talk about, I'm definitely already in the hourly time blocking mode. And like I said, I'm not using my work block efficiently. And so that's kind of what my next step of change in creating effectiveness and efficiency is, is to categorize the work that I do. So I am going to start doing almost like a daily block. So each day, I'm going to focus on something different. I'm shifting all of my calls, whether they're client calls or team calls,
00:22:40
Speaker
outside of this podcast recording to Tuesdays and Thursdays. And those are going to be my call days now where I know that those days are just going to be back to back calls. And if my clients can't do calls on that days, then they're going to have to figure it out.
00:22:54
Speaker
They're going to have to figure out how to shift to my schedule. I've been in a really bad habit of taking calls outside of my work block and then scrambling to find childcare. And it's like, why am I doing this to myself? Yeah. Like, no, my clients can plan in advance. They're capable of it. They should be planning to be on my time zone during my.
00:23:13
Speaker
nine to 1230 time block, and they can take those calls when I'm available. And then on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are going to be my content days. So that's going to be building content, recording this podcast, creating social content, leveraging things on Pinterest, writing blog posts, all of that. I want to get back into the flow of creating content that's valuable again, creating
00:23:33
Speaker
free content for people creating. And then structuring your day around your business and the growth that you want for your future too. I mean, that's like you haven't been able to do that because you've been so bogged down with client work. Exactly. I love that idea of structuring what days. I too have kind of been
00:23:56
Speaker
thinking of moving, I only take calls on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or I only take calls on Wednesday mornings. I don't have a ton of calls, not nearly as many as you do. But I have a few recurring client calls. Even if they're not on a certain day, I'm trying to get them on a calendar on a recurring schedule so that it's not like, hey, do you have time to meet tomorrow? Or, hey, do you have time to meet next week? So we're not scheduling it on the fly.
00:24:23
Speaker
And my clients also are all like kind of scatterbrained and all over the place. And like, that's wonderful. Like we, we worked so well together, but we're all like, okay, yes, no, we need it on the calendar. We need to know that it's going to happen on a certain date at a certain time every month. And if we need to adjust, we can. But, um, I love that idea of like on these days I do certain things within my time block, which goes into our next point, which is setting up
Workflow Systems and Productivity
00:24:47
Speaker
a good workflow. And so I think that setting ourselves up for success on like, like if I know Mondays are
00:24:53
Speaker
a content day, I can get myself in this flow state of, one day I do a lot of writing, right? I write a blog post, I leverage that content for social media posts, and then I create Pinterest posts out of it or whatever. But I can get myself in a good flow of, this is where my mind is today, and this is what I'm working on, and I'm not juggling from switching between my creative and visionary type of mind into client serving mind.
00:25:19
Speaker
And then on Tuesdays, I'm in that client space where I'm just getting those rocks and rolling them forward and I am doing client work and diving into those calls. I think two project management systems. Oh, yes. I was just going to say that. That's a huge struggle of mine. Are you very good at that?
00:25:36
Speaker
No, not at all. One of them I am. I'm pretty good. One of my clients, we use monday.com and we try to just keep everything in there because we text a lot and we email a lot, but we need one central location to have everything. But that's not even a workflow. It's like our home base for everything.
00:25:55
Speaker
but I've been trying to do more of like, cause I suck at workflows. Like I am the person that sits down and I'm like, okay, I know what I need to do today, but what am I going to start with? And where am I going to go? And how do I prioritize? I've always been so terrible at that, even in my corporate job. And, um, so that's like where I'm at right now is like trying to figure out how to build a workflow. And I definitely need to use, um, a project management system to get like my home base and my days like structured. Did your client,
00:26:25
Speaker
tell you, hey, we're using Monday and get you in there? How did that come about? Yeah. I had used Monday when I was working with the ad agency and really liked it. It was like a pretty simple one. There's a lot out there and a lot of project assistance out there. I know some of them are very confusing and Monday was pretty straightforward. So she was asking me if I had a recommendation.
00:26:49
Speaker
So, I already had an account and she just added me to theirs that they got. I love that though. And I think that that's something that I struggle with. And I've always been of the mentality of if the client wants to use a certain system, especially like I do a lot of email marketing strategies and things like that, and it's like, you want to use active campaign? Great. You want to use MailChimp? Great. I'll do whatever. They're all basically the same as long as they have the capabilities that I need, like segmentation on the back end.
00:27:19
Speaker
And, but when it comes to project management and things like that, I kind of just do what the client wants. And it's like, no, no, I need to really step into authority here and be like, this is how we do it when you work with me. And again, you can take it or you can leave it. Yeah. And most clients take it. Most of them are good with it that I've experienced. I don't know what yours has been, but like most of the time the clients are like, no, that works. Um, just tell me like how to do it. You know, so yeah. And I think the, the learning.
00:27:48
Speaker
The learning curve of getting from point A to point B on any platform is just so overwhelming. I struggle with it immensely. Yeah, but yes. Workflow is my next thing I need to master for my overall systems just for my business. I mean, I'm starting to get in a good flow with the amount of work that I have, and I'm very happy with it. And I don't want to get to a place where it's like I'm so overwhelmed that I don't know where I need to go.
00:28:17
Speaker
where I need to start my day. Um, and so setting up a good workflow. If you don't have a workflow, that's, that's a good place to start.
00:28:30
Speaker
Diving in, I'm trying to stay diving in. There you go. All right. Point number four, staying true to your boundaries. My favorite. I know. I know I go up and down with this and I really try to hard to stick to my boundaries. But again, I, in this last month, I have literally thrown all of my normal rules for myself out the window and I really need to get back to, you know,
00:28:54
Speaker
who I am as a business owner and get those boundaries back in place, but staying true to those boundaries and saying, I only work from 9 to noon or I only work from, these are my work hours and this is, I need to stay true to that instead of trying to work from my phone while my kids are watching a show or I need to be pleasant with my kids and that's the most important thing and I need to be able to stick true to my boundaries so that I can do that.
00:29:18
Speaker
I think too, people automatically hear the word boundaries and think it's a negative thing. It's not. It's healthy and they're definitely needed. It's not just boundaries for you, but by you holding true to your boundaries, it almost causes this sense of respect for you and your clients together because you're setting your boundaries, which then makes things a little bit more simple, I'd like to think, for the client sometimes because
00:29:47
Speaker
It's not chaotic. It's not like you're like, Nope, hard and fast. Like this is when I do this. This is when I take these calls. Like everyone knows what to expect when there's boundaries is what I'm trying to get at, I think. And, um, yeah, I'm really shitty at this too, but it definitely pleaser. It's the people pleaser mentality and, and the corporate mentality where it's just like, you do what you told. And I do really think that stepping into a,
00:30:16
Speaker
authority type of figure, part of that is being able to hold true to your boundaries. It is. Yeah. And to like, nobody says you have to be like ugly about it or rude about it. And like, I think again, people hear the word boundaries and they automatically assume that it's, and maybe this is just me. Like I've always thought that like, I got to set a firm boundary and like, but I'm getting, I'm not like rude about it. So I mean, it's a, that's another mindset thing, but, um, but yeah.
00:30:43
Speaker
I think that's just definitely another way to get yourself structured. Exactly. And then of course, being realistic about what you are capable of and not getting hard on yourself when you let it go a little bit.
Encouragement for Career Flexibility
00:30:57
Speaker
Yeah. All these things that we've just talked about are wonderful and they're definitely like good starting points, but at the end of the day, like we're all human.
00:31:05
Speaker
and we all have lives and we all have kids who like to throw wrenches on plans all the time. And even if you don't have kids, you have a life and you are only one person, right? And so just don't be too hard on yourself if your day goes to shit and then you're like, well, I guess everything sucks and I can't
00:31:28
Speaker
I can't, I can't do this. Um, you can, and tomorrow's a new day and that's been my mantra for ever. Like tomorrow is another day. It's a new day. Start fresh. And what doesn't happen today can happen tomorrow. It's not the end of the world where I, you know, my old job was an event, right? And so it was like an annual event and we were always like,
00:31:48
Speaker
No matter if we meet our deadline or not, this event is starting and it will happen. And it will go on and everyone will survive. And so like you just kind of have to be like, it's not the end of the world. Yeah. If you get off your structure and try again tomorrow.
00:32:05
Speaker
I was told once that there are glass balls and there are rubber balls, and you cannot always juggle them all. So you need to be able to figure out which ones are glass, and when you drop them, they'll break, and which ones are rubber, or they will bounce back. I love that. And I always try to remember that. Mm-hmm.
00:32:24
Speaker
Well, hopefully this helps everyone kind of step into a new week and figuring out if they need to. Structure their time differently. Structure going, especially if you're coming from corporate, which we've heard from some of you in our DMs and just separately in messages that you are leaving corporate soon or you are thinking of leaving and you're not really sure what this could look like.
00:32:50
Speaker
two testaments to you can leave a corporate job and create something big and do it on your own time. Yes, absolutely. And it doesn't have to be, you don't have to be glued to your computer all day, every day. Yeah. And I know that this has been an episode full of tangible tips, but I have
00:33:10
Speaker
a starting point for you for your tangible tip of the day. If you are listening to this and you're like, hey, I need some time management. My days are chaos like Lindsay's days. Sit back and audit.
00:33:23
Speaker
audit what your day looks like. First, take a look at your day and be like, okay, what do my days look like? When are my kids waking up? When are my kids with me? What do my evenings look like? Evaluate that. Audit your landscape of just where your time is spent, not just business-wise, but in total. Then you can look at the business side and say, okay, what do my business days look like? And audit that. Just start by getting a basic understanding of where all of your time is going and where your effort is spent.
00:33:50
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good point. This doesn't have to be just figuring out how to structure your business. I mean, you're building this business to fit into your life, not your life to fit around your business. So by looking at everything as a whole, that definitely really helps get your mindset where it needs to be. I like that. That's a good tangible tip. I don't need to add one. That's a wonderful one. Perfect. Perfect. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I did. I did.
00:34:18
Speaker
Well, we hope you guys have enjoyed this episode.
Conclusion and Listener Appreciation
00:34:21
Speaker
And again, we would so appreciate that if you enjoyed this, you would leave us a review and share the podcast, take a screenshot, share it on your Instagram stories, tag us at the business play date. We get so excited when we see your reviews and your messages. And we've seen a couple of you recommend the podcast like in some Facebook groups that we're in that are
00:34:41
Speaker
marketing and business centric. And we just so appreciate your support and all of the reviews and helping us push the podcast messaging out to other business owners and moms and women in this space is so huge. So we appreciate that. We appreciate it so much. Well, thanks guys. We will talk again next week. Yeah. Bye.