January 2021

Organizing Your Marketing Efforts

7 Tips for Organizing Your Marketing

Someone once said: “Your life will begin changing the moment you decide that you want it to.” And so it is with organizing too! Organizing your marketing efforts will help you succeed, just ask other business owners.

I’ve found that the same is true for growing your business. If you want to see different results than what you’ve seen in the past, you must make a heartfelt decision to do things differently. You need to start with making over your mindset and start organizing.

Mental blocks can hold you back and keep you from achieving your goals. When you sit down to work on your business are you clear and focused, or is your mind cluttered with ideas, client requests, overdue items and more?

The FIRST step to achieving your goals is de-cluttering and organizing your mind. When you do this, you’ll be able to clearly define what you want to accomplish and start taking the necessary action to achieve your goals.

It’s a long to-do list. Right? Too many ideas for marketing your business, missed opportunities, and a constant state of overwhelm that’s running your life. Don’t you think it’s time to clear out the old and get organized? When you do this, you’ll find that it’s easier to focus on marketing your business consistently and effectively.

Here are seven simple practices that you can use NOW to help you with your organization:

1- The first thing to do is to document EVERYTHING! Yes, you heard me right…

When your brain is busy trying to keep track of the many details that are floating around your head, you begin to feel stressed out and overwhelmed. Write down everything! Get a notebook if you prefer the pen and paper type of note-taking, or use Evernote. No matter how you do it – start documenting every aspect of how you run and market your business. Getting it all out of your head and onto paper is going to relieve a tremendous amount of stress.

2- Use a notebook to capture all of your ideas

Apart from your procedures and to-do list notebook, you should create a space where you can write down all of your new ideas. Entrepreneurs have no problem generating great new ideas. But it’s far too easy to forget about them or allow them to distract you from your profit plan. Keeping your ideas in one spot will make it easy for you to refer back to those ideas often so you can actually implement them. Imagine how you can increase your profits when you start taking action on your great ideas?

3- Use just ONE to-do list

If your daily task list is in 7 different spots, you’re going to feel distracted and scattered. Keep everything in one list – there are countless options, so just choose one and stick with it! Once you’ve picked the best option for you, commit to using this one system for your tasks and projects. Using a web-based system will make it easy to delegate tasks to other people and help you organize an effective system.

4- Plan ahead with your content

Many entrepreneurs feel stuck with marketing because they aren’t sure what to do. Just start with one month – plan out what you’ll be doing in the upcoming month. Pick a date to publish each piece, plan out the theme for your content and jot down some ideas for your newsletter, blog posts or social media updates. When you sit down to write your marketing materials you’ll crank out your content quickly and easily. This will also help you to stay organized.

5- Create a Master Schedule Template

If you find yourself looking back at the end of the week and wondering where the time went, you need to implement this right away! Using a weekly calendar, you can designate blocks of time where you’ll work on certain aspects of your business. For example, reserve Monday from 9 am to 12 pm for marketing, 1 pm to 3 pm for writing, 3 pm to 5 pm for email management, and so on. Start by inserting recurring tasks (like client meetings, marketing times, meeting with your coach, etc.) and then designate other blocks of time for your other activities. Don’t leave your essential tasks to chance! Make a plan for when you’ll do them and you’ll boost your productivity. Daily Plan Sample [Click to Download]

6- Set clear boundaries

Once you get this support system into place, you need to follow through and stick with it! Commit to yourself that you’ll honor what you’ve set out to do. Turn off email notifications and other distractions. Make sure that friends and family know when you’re available to chat. You can also create accountability for yourself by working with a coach or mentor to help you.

Marketing and growing your business isn’t impossible – but it does require planning and consistency to work. When you de-clutter your mind and organize your materials, you will be able to see the results you’ve been looking for and fully enjoy a successful business.

So, which organizing tip will you implement first? Please share your thoughts with me in the comments!

YOUR “TAKE ACTION” PLAN FOR THIS WEEK:

1. Plan a “brain dump” – Take time this week to get everything out on paper – all of your “to-dos,” all of your big ideas for growing your business, all of your client projects – everything. When you write it all down you’ll be able to get it off your mind and develop a plan for getting things done.

2. Get organized – Create digital files on your computer for all your important documents. Also, anything you deem important, such as graphics, articles you need to write, backup files for your website, just to mention a few. I’m sure you can think of others as you go through your computer. You’ll save time each day and boost your productivity just by knowing where everything is located.

3. Master your schedule – Set time aside each week in hourly blocks for all of the things you need to do – including marketing your business. You’ll be more productive, waste less time, and get more done.

4. Plan ahead – Write down your content focus for the next month and brainstorm ideas for blog topics, social media conversations, and newsletter articles. Then sit down to write at your designated time and get your content into the hands of the people who need you!

5. Set boundaries – Let friends and family know when you’ll be available to chat and commit to sticking with your master schedule. You’ll eliminate distractions and increase your profitability.

GO…Do it NOW! You will be so thankful that you did this for your growing business.

Remember to contact me if I can help in any way. Your business really needs organization and I can provide that service to you.

Growth Mindset

by Linda

Growth Mindset and Success

A conversation between you (in the blue writing) and me explaining about growth mindset:

A Comparison

So, you may be asking yourself “What exactly is a growth mindset?” Well, a growth mindset is an actual, demonstrable psychological phenomenon.

Huh? I don’t get it!

It turns out that many long-term successful individuals possess certain characteristics that they share with other long-term successful individuals. This set of characteristics has been termed a “growth mindset”.

Oh, now that explains it!

Now, some people, who tend to achieve less than their full potential, also possess a set of characteristics that they share with other under-achievers. This set of traits has been dubbed the “fixed mindset”. Most people, more or less, fall into one camp or the other.

Oh, I see now.

Do YOU Have It?

People with a growth mindset tend to have a desire to learn from life. This desire leads to the ability to embrace challenges, to overcome setbacks, to see effort as worth the results, to accept criticism, and to admire and learn from the successes of others.

Oh, do you think that’s ME?

These behaviors allow native intelligence to grow throughout a lifetime. (Hence, the name.) People with a growth mindset are believers in free will and this belief allows them to achieve their goals time and time again.

Oh yeah, I want to be this person!

People with a fixed mindset tend to have a desire to appear smart, with a corresponding fear of looking foolish. Their desire leads them to avoid challenges, to give up easily, to see extra effort as wasted, to ignore or reject criticism, and to envy and begrudge the success of others.

Oh, oh…this isn’t me!

These behaviors tend to limit native intelligence to a fixed amount. (Again, hence the name.) People with a fixed mindset often plateau early in life and fail to have, let alone reach, fixed goals.

Woah…….

The good news is that a growth mindset can be cultivated fairly easily by changing some critical behaviors.

Hmmm!

First of all, you have to decide to choose growth over stagnation. You also have to be willing to take positive action and begin to accept challenges and criticism and learning from both.

An excellent way to begin is by developing the philosophy of “YET”. This simple step simple attaches the word “yet” to the end of every negative thought, as in “That will never work, yet…” or “It’s probably not worth going, yet…”

This simple trick opens up the possibility for growth and that possibility leads to changed behavior that actually does cause the development of the growth mindset.

Whew!! That’s a lot to digest, am I right?

Contact me if I can help you in any way. Contact me here.

How to Be On Time and Organized

by Linda

There are a lot of different factors that come into play when it comes to being successful in business. Today, let’s focus on two of them, how to be on time and organized.

These two factors can make a HUGE difference in your day-to-day life. Once you have mastered these, you will be able to move faster in your business because they are a major stumbling block for new business owners.

Successful People

Think back on some of the most successful people you’ve met in your own life. The chances are they were good at both of these – being organized and on time. There’s a reason why both of these factors will make such a big difference when it comes to being successful. Can you name at least one or two?

How Being On-Time And Being Organized Can Help You Succeed

Both being on time and organized can help you make the best possible use of your time and energy. When referring to energy, it includes both mental and physical energy. We all have a limited supply of both, along with being restricted to 24 hours on a given day. In other words, both time and energy are limited resources. What being on time and staying organized helps with is making the most of those resources and focusing them on tasks and activities that help us reach the goals that define success.

There are two different ways in which being both on time and organized will help you succeed. Let’s look at both of them and then briefly discuss how to get better at them.

Being On-Time And Being Organized Saves You Time

So, how much time have you wasted this week looking for a misplaced item or a file on your hard-drive? How about your car keys? And, how much time have you wasted because you didn’t show up on time for an appointment and ended up having to wait? Making an effort to be on time and staying organized helps you save precious time and energy.

Being on time is all about time management and awareness. Work will always stretch out into however much time you give it. Becoming more aware and better at time management will help you work more efficiently.

The same is true for being well organized.

Being Organized and On-Time Helps You Look Professional

Showing up late for an appointment or interview makes you look bad. So does not being prepared or having to dig around for a few minutes to find something needed like a pen or a notepad. This is particularly true when it comes to first impressions. Work on getting better at both by trying harder to be prepared.

It will help you get the chances you deserve, and people see you as the respected person or expert in your field that you are.

How To Get Better At Both

You now know why it’s important to work on getting organized and being on time.

So, let’s look at how we can improve both those skills.

What it comes down to is getting into the habit of being conscious of time and staying on top of organizational tasks. Yes, if you’re exceptionally disorganized, it will take some up-front work to clear things up. Once completed though, you have to make an effort day in and day out to put things back in their place and stay organized.

That is true for physical items, digital items, and even thoughts and ideas. The short answer then is to practice both being on time and staying organized on a daily basis until they become habits.

It’s said that it takes 21 days to make a new habit stick. Here’s a free tracker to help you master your new habits.

And if you need additional help, I’m always available to chat with you to discuss how you can master your habits. Book an appointment with me here for a free 15-minute chat.

Organizing Your Marketing Efforts

7 Tips for Organizing Your Marketing