I’ve not had a hard time with making exercise a priority. I started running as a freshman in high school when I took up cross country and never looked back.
I jogged and then walked through my pregnancy and trained for a marathon when my son was very young by pushing him all those miles in his baby jogger — and this was up and down hilly terrain!
When I had to give up running due to bad knees and back, I started working out at the gym. I’m in better shape now than I was 20 years ago.
I’ve found that if I want to achieve a certain fitness goal, I have to make time for exercise — no matter what else is going on in my life.
This means that I do get up at 4:30 AM to get to the gym by 5:00 or I that I squeeze in a workout between work and making dinner no matter how exhausted I am.
As the Nike slogan says, “I just do it.”
Making time for my own marketing works the same way. It doesn’t really matter how much client work I have, or that I need to do my accounting, or that my desk is full of clutter that needs to be dealt with.
Marketing, like exercise, is important.
Exercising regularly means I enjoy excellent health and a fit body. Marketing my business on a daily basis means I continually bring in new business without suffering “feast or famine.”
And like exercise, marketing takes real discipline. Even though I get my butt to the gym at least four days a week, I still fight that voice in my head that says, “You can take a break today. You’ve worked hard. You deserve an hour to just sit and eat cheesy poofs and read a good book.”
When I hear that voice, I quickly change my clothes and high-tail it to the gym. I’m always glad I did.
I hear the same voice with regard to spending time on my own marketing. “You can skip today,” the sly voice says. “Your billable hours are filled for the month. You don’t really need to make those phone calls or write those blog posts.”
I learned this week that when I hear that voice, I need to double-down and get my butt in gear.
And despite the siren call of “the voice,” I did spend at least one hour per day this week working on my marketing. It felt really good. And you know what? Within 48 hours of making this my new habit for June, I became fully booked for June and half of July.
If you’ve taken up the challenge with me, what were your results?
I’m a huge fan of Leo Babauta, author of The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential, in Business and in Life and the publisher of the Zen Habits blog.
One strategy that Leo recommends in achieving the life you want is to make a list of what you want to change with regard to your life — and then focusing on changing or implementing one new habit per month.
I initially made a list of bad habits I have and half-heartedly tried to change a couple. But nothing stuck.
That’s because I wasn’t inspired by them and the pay-off was too small. I already exercise five days a week, I’m not overweight, I eat my fruits and veges, and I actually do a pretty good job of separating my work and personal life.
But I have one honking huge habit I’d like to change . . . I’d like to put my marketing first instead of last (or never). Before client work. Every day.
Like many freelancers and consultants, I use the same tired excuses for not doing my own marketing:
1. Billable work comes first.
2. I don’t have time.
3. I’m the shoemaker’s daughter.
4. Marketing is hard.
5. I have so many ideas I don’t know what to do first.
So, to make this new habit “stick,” I’m following Leo’s advice and posting it here. My goal is to work on my marketing at least one hour every day five days a week.
It’s a huge goal for me and one that will take some work. But the pay-off for me will be huge.
If you’re struggling with finding time for your own marketing, why don’t you join me?
I’ll keep you posted on my progress. If I don’t post anything here during the month, you’ll know I’m not keeping my goal!
I’ve been operating under a big secret for over eight years now.
No, I’m not a convicted felon.
Here’s my big secret . . . I stop working every day at 3:00.
There — I’ve finally outed myself.
I kept this a secret for a long time because I wanted to look “corporate” and “hard working” to my clients — especially since I used to work at home. I wasn’t one of those slipper-clad, PJ-wearing home-based workers, no, not I.
I was (and still am) a Professional.
Yet every day at 3:00 you’d find me slinking to my car in order to pick up my son from school and then begin my Mom shift.
For years I operated under time-clock induced guilt, which was compounded when I would discover voice mails left at 3:47, 4:24, or 5:06. What did people think that I wasn’t at my desk to answer the phone? Did they guess I wasn’t working?!
Once I moved into my rented office, I would forward my land line calls to my cell phone. Only then I would get calls from clients while waiting in the carpool line — and would quietly shush my son as he climbed into the car. He knew the drill having been well trained from infancy. Ha!
But then I read Timothy Ferriss’ book, The 4-Hour Work Week. Ferriss says the 40-hour, 9-5 work week is arbitrary. I mean, really, who decided we all have to work 9 – 5 (or 8-6 or whatever it is we all work these days)?
I started realizing that working 6:30 AM to 3:00 PM every day was indeed a full day of work — and why did I need to make people think I worked some standard “shift”?
It was then I got really daring — I decided to take Fridays off after reading The Big Moo. By Friday mornings, I’m pretty much fried. The idea of taking a day off to do nothing but recharge sounded really appealing.
I’ve taken the last five off and let me just say, I love it and highly recommend it.
A few weeks later I read this blog post from HubSpot’s CEO Brian Halligan on how HubSpot has done away with its vacation policy. Why did an employee have to submit a debit for weekday time off, asked Halligan, but not submit a credit for time worked on a Sunday?
That made a lot of sense. Here I was feeling guilty about cutting out at 3:00 PM but not feeling guilty when I checked email at 8:30 PM or wrote blog posts on Sunday mornings.
That was when I decided to come clean. I changed my “Contact Me” page to reflect my “new” hours and decided to celebrate the fact that I’m a morning person and get more done before 11:00 AM than most people do in an entire day.
What do you think? Should freelancers and consultants work the same hours as their clients — or does it not matter anymore?
A few weeks ago I watched the 212 Extra Degree video on YouTube. The message of the inspirational video — that success comes with just a little bit of extra effort — stuck with me.
I found myself looking for little ways in my day-to-day life to “turn up the heat” a notch — to go from 211 degrees to 212 degrees. Surprisingly, these little things were pretty easy to find.
For example, instead of getting up at 5:00 AM — or 5:15 or 5:30 — I started getting up at 4:30 AM. And instead of putzing around the house and reading emails on my iPhone, I showered, ate breakfast, and went straight to my office. This put me at my desk at 6:00 AM (versus 7:00 or 7:30 AM).
An earlier start gave me more time to think and accomplish the “big” tasks for the day. The earlier start has also made me much more focused, and I’m finding I’m accomplishing a whole lot more.
Too often, I think, we tell ourselves we can’t be successful because ______________________ (fill in the blank). I’ve proven to myself that all it takes is just a little bit of extra effort — that one degree — to make a real difference in how I approach my life and my work.
Try it and see what you think.
(One caveat: A pan of boiling water will run dry so it’s also equally important that you recharge yourself in order to have plenty of energy to sustain your 212 degree focus.)
In May my desktop machine that I use for work got hit with *nasty* malware. Up until this point, I had been completely virus free — mostly because I have always practiced ultra-safe (re: paranoid) practices: i.e. don’t download files from people you don’t know, use virus scanning software, have a great firewall, etc.
So I have no idea how malware breached my defenses. I only know that once it infected my machine, it caused pain. Lots of pain.
I spent hours reading techie boards trying to figure out how to dislodge it.
I spent more hours running programs designed to delete it — to no avail.
I paid over $500 to have a computer tech guy come to my office and remove it.
Nothing worked. The malware was so evil, it turned off Windows automatic updates, refused to allow anti-malware programs to open and run, took over my scanner, and then ultimately my Web browser. When that happened, I knew I was hosed.
That morning I unplugged my machine and lugged it to the local computer fix-it guy who did a complete “wipe and reload” — computer speak for reformatting my hard drive and then reloading the operating system.
Because of the havoc with my machine, I had limited access to files and information, including Outlook and ACT! — and began using Gmail as a stop-gap measure.
Once I got machine back and began reloading all of my software programs, the proverbial light went on . . . and I realized how much time and money I had been wasting all these years on bloated software programs that forced me to work their way, not my way.
Using Google’s Gmail, Tasks and Docs apps got me thinking about cloud computing . . . which got me thinking about how I really work . . . which got me thinking about cloud computing again . . . which led me to doing demos with products that I had never even considered.
Thinking about how I really work made me think about my business in new ways — which opened up a whole treasure trove of ideas and possibilities. I even bought an iPhone, something I had resisted. Buying the phone made me see marketing from a whole different perspective.
I began asking myself, “What do I really want to do?”
In their book, The Power of Focus, Canfield, Hansen and Hewitt talk about how our normal behavior is based on ingrained habit. For example, we may have one way of driving to the supermarket — and take that way every single time — without thinking about it. Driving the same route means we never see anything new on the way to the market.
It’s the same for our work habits. We get locked into doing a task the same way — and never change — which can blind us to new opportunities or ideas.
Looking back at the notes I kept during my “malware” period made me see that having an infected machine was the best thing that could have happened to me — although at the time I didn’t see it that way.
It forced me out of my rut, got me to try new things, and opened my eyes to new ideas and vistas — all of which I’m in the process of implementing.
I don’t recommend infecting your machine with malware to get you to “think different.” However, I do recommend you try different ways of working to see what pops up for you.
Look at what you’re resisting and instead of resisting it, embrace it. For example, I am a book lover and could never imagine reading a book on an electronic device (shudder). However, I recently downloaded the Amazon Kindle iPhone App and can’t believe what a pleasure it is to read books this way. I even fell asleep on the couch while reading it — something I believed could never happen. How cool is that?
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Do you have an experience that forced you to do something in a different way — and what did you learn from it?
“There is more simplicity in the man who eats caviar on impulse than in the man who eats Grape-Nuts on principle.” — G.K. Chesterton
In the December 12, 2009 edition of the NY Times, Sylvia Ann Hewlett writes about how corporations who offer flextime to workers find it a “win-win” situation (Flexible Hours Can be a Win-Win).
It was her answer to a question about how she unwinds that caught my attention, however. Instead of giving the trite answer of doing yoga or working out she replied, “Nothing. Nothing at all. What I crave more than anything are chunks of empty space — no expectations, no agendas.”
Her audience of women went wild.
Doing nothing — or doing whatever you want in the moment without any goal in mind — isn’t something we come by instinctively. America has a solid work ethic that goes back to our Puritan mothers and fathers who had to maximize time due to having to survive a grueling environment.
As a to-do list oriented person with an ingrained work ethic that started with my first job — a paper route at age 11 — I find myself craving and relishing the chunks of empty space where I’m free to read, nap or putter around the house.
When I get these chunks of time, I purposely steer clear of any work-related thoughts and focus on just enjoying the moment, such as sipping a cup of tea in the silence of my house while taking in the beauty of winter sunshine filling my kitchen.
The air is still — as are my thoughts. No work, no agenda, no to-do list. Just the peace and quiet of . . . nothing.
I usually come back to the “real world” refreshed, relaxed and focused.
Do you make time to do nothing? How do you feel about it?
Hat tip to work-life balance coach Sharon Teitelbaum for telling me about this article — and for her post, “Pajama Thanksgiving.”
In her fabulous book, Fashion Secrets Mother Never Taught You, image consultant Ginger Burr lists 50 secrets to looking good. Fashion secret #48 (which really should be fashion secret #1) lists six tips for avoiding clothes buying “mistakes.”
The full six tips are too long to list here, but to summarize, you should only buy an item of clothing if you think it looks great, if you like what you see when you look down at yourself (i.e. look at your tummy, your legs, etc.), if the item you’re trying on feels comfortable to you, and if the color looks good on you.
Most important, however, you should purchase something “ONLY if it suits your personal style.” Ginger goes on to write:
“Anyone who has ever shopped with me knows that I’m a big believer in keeping an open mind, trying new things, breaking out of a rut, BUT if you don’t recognize yourself when you look in the mirror, you won’t ever wear it. If you’re going to try something new, start small.”
Suffice to say, the biggest fashion mistake you can make is to buy clothes based on someone else’s style or trends. (For example, one trend that’s been around for a few years is low-riding pants for women — pants that ride at the hip versus the waist. I look like hell in these pants, so I stick with the high-waisted kind, even though many women think they look “matronly.”)
Ginger’s advice is applicable to clothes shopping — and to your business and your life.
I know, because I’ve come face-to-face with the fact that a few years ago I got “off course” when I bought into someone else’s business plan. This plan sounded great on paper and it is a viable business plan for many successful people.
However, it didn’t fit me, my values, or my life — a realization that took me months of self-reflection to figure out (which is why I haven’t posted to this blog — for which I apologize). My period of self-reflection included finding answers to the following:
Who am I? What are my values? What do I like to do? What do I do NOT like to do? What are my goals? Why am I in the business I’m in? If I could start all over, what would I be doing instead? What are my dreams? What am I passionate about? If I could write my story for the rest of my life, how would it read? What do I want to accomplish with my life and why?
It takes a lot of time to find the answers to these questions. If you’re like me, you have to wade through years of gunk and “beliefs” that somehow attach themselves to you like barnacles. They’re hard to remove, too.
Self-reflection also takes a great deal of quiet time — and by quiet time, I mean you have to find that quiet place inside of yourself and start listening to it. What is the little voice inside of you saying?
After months of self-reflection, here’s what I’ve learned:
My family is my number one priority. For me, this means work – life balance is very important to me. I have to ensure that I have the time necessary to be involved in my son’s life — which includes everything from baking cookies to attending his events to just hanging around doing nothing.
I value my independence. I love being in business for myself, I love being free to make my own decisions and to decide my own destiny. This is one reason I don’t work for a corporation — I don’t like feeling boxed in.
And, lastly I value learning. I must have books, newspapers, and magazines to read. I consume them. I love working with clients and trying new marketing tactics to see what works and what doesn’t. I love new things like social media and figuring out how it all works. I love working with my hands and doing something huge, like learning how to refinish hardwood floors. If I’m not learning something new, I feel dead inside.
Once I figured out what I truly value, it was then pretty easy to plan my life and my business around these values (although that took some time, too).
And this is where the rubber met the road. One thing I realized (among many things) is that I really do not like being in the information products business — i.e. developing products to sell. Really. I hate it. I don’t like the time it takes to develop products, the expense, the commitment, and the fact that I have to constantly market and sell them.
I’m giving it up — even though lots of people will tell me it’s a great way to make passive income. Yes, yes, yes. I know that. However, when I look in the mirror, I don’t see me.
Once I gave myself permission to give up this side of my business, a tremendous weight lifted from my shoulders. What I really want is to pursue the one thing that resonates with me on a very deep level: helping my clients achieve business success through strategic, hands-on, get-in-under-the-hood, results-based marketing.
What it all boils down to is that to be successful, you have to listen to your heart — and do what is inside of you — versus what the rest of world tells you you should be doing.
Have you gone through a period of self-reflection? What did you learn and how did it impact your business? Please feel free to share your story.
(By the way, you can now download my email marketing mistakes e-book — Goof-Proof Email — for free. Enjoy.)
