Business Management Archives - Elizabeth McCravy

Daily Business Routines & Habits That Help Me Manage My Business Well as a Busy Mom

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 14 minutes

Routines, habits, focus, time management—all of these things are such a key to running a successful business. And I've got plenty of habits that I've developed over nine years in business that contribute to my business doing well. Over the past 9 years, I’ve gone from someone who worked with Friends in the background on TV in the first months of my business to someone who now really dials in what I'm working on.

I batch tasks well and I get what I used to get done in a week, done in two days. So in this episode, I just want to explore with you six different kinds of routines, habits, and just ways of running my business that help me manage my business really well that you can carry on into your own life and apply it to your business as well. So let's dive into it.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

Subscribe & download the episode to your device: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Search for episode 295!

If you're listening to this episode live, I just want to let you know that my Black Friday sale is happening right now. I’m not actually focusing on the sale in this episode because I imagined that you might be in travel mode, family mode, or hosting mode as you celebrate Thanksgiving. So, I thought you might enjoy a simpler, more lifestyle-focused episode this week. But if you're interested in details about the sale, you can find all the information here. The sale is fantastic and runs through December 3rd, make sure to check it out!

Now, let's dive into the content of this episode, which I think will be a fun one. To give you a bit of context as we start, I want to share where I am in my current season of life. My hope is that by knowing where I am, you can take what resonates and apply it to your own life, recognizing that your situation, experiences, and priorities are probably quite different from mine.

As I navigate life as a parent while running my business, I’ve noticed that my goals and routines are constantly changing. It used to feel like things changed on a yearly basis, but now it feels like they’re shifting every few months. Maybe you can relate to that feeling. For example, at the time of this recording, I typically have two full workdays each week, plus another workday that’s spread across two half-days. Beyond that, I’m primarily with my kids, which is a huge priority for me in this season. I have two young boys—an eight-month-old (I still can’t believe he’s already eight months!) and a three-year-old.

Just for a bit of background, I’ve been running my business for a long time, since before I became a mom, about nine years ago. A lot of what helped me succeed back then, when I had fewer responsibilities, still works well for me now. When I reviewed this list, I realized that many strategies I started when life was simpler continue to help me run my business effectively, even as a busy mom.

So in this episode, I'm sharing some of the practices that are working for me right now, in this season, as well as in past seasons of life.

1. I Know What I’m Going to Work on That Day Before I Sit Down to Work!

Since I only have two days with childcare each week to focus on my business, I have to be extremely strategic with my time. This approach is something I’ve developed over the years, and I genuinely think I’ve become more productive since becoming a mom. It’s not always easy to manage, but I’ve had to learn how to make the most of my time because I’m fitting what used to be five days of work into just two. How well I plan each day depends on what’s going on, so I kind of play it by ear in terms of detail. I’ll explain three different ways I do this, and feel free to take any ideas that work for you.

How detailed my planning gets depends on if I’m in a busy season or not and what’s happening that particular day. For a while, I planned out every hour of my week on a digital calendar, Monday through Friday, sometimes even weekends. Longtime listeners might remember me talking about this, especially in episode 46, which was super popular. That method worked well back then, but it doesn’t fit as well with young kids and limited childcare. I’m in a different season of life now. However, I sometimes still do it on a day-by-day basis.

For instance, today, I actually used this method to plan my entire workday, hour by hour. I left a few spots blank to leave the buffer room. Our nanny is here from 10:00 to 4:30, and my older son is at preschool, so I planned out Sunday afternoon during the kids’ overlapping nap. Right now, Ethan naps twice a day, and Colin naps once, and their second nap overlaps for about an hour. I used that time to plan out today, Wednesday, and a few specific things for Tuesday and Thursday. So far, I’ve mostly stuck to my schedule today, which is great!

Last week, though, I planned out Monday on Sunday but quickly had to adjust. My husband, Adam, came down with food poisoning and was home sick. I had to take my preschooler, Colin, to school with my baby, and we ended up getting there late. Our nanny was late too, and I spent much of the day taking care of Adam while also making sure he stayed away from the nanny so she wouldn’t get sick.

My workday started an hour later and had more interruptions than usual, ending earlier than planned. That day was very different from my original schedule, and some tasks had to be pushed to another day. When I do this more intense planning, I leave blank slots of 15–30 minutes to account for these kinds of interruptions, breaks, or if a task takes longer than expected. I plan for the schedule not to work out perfectly, which helps me realistically see how much I can fit in a day. This lets me really maximize my two full workdays.

So that’s the way I prefer to do it, map things out on a digital calendar, but it doesn’t always work for me depending on the season. Here are the three ways (one I just talked about and two more that I use often) toI plan each workday:

Digital Calendar: This method is exactly what I’ve talked about so far—scheduling tasks on a digital calendar and it is my preferred option when I can.
Physical Planner: I use the Full Focus Planner, where I list my tasks and sometimes add calendar notes.
Todoist App: For a simpler approach, I use Todoist, a free app available across devices, which I’ve used for years. My husband uses it for his entire project management system.

These options might sound like a lot, but I change my planning approach depending on the day or season. When my youngest was four months old, and I was working around his frequent breaks, a strict schedule would have felt silly and unnecessary. Instead, I just made a simple list using Todoist, adding tasks to work on when I had a bit of time.

The key is to adapt your planning to your season and day-to-day needs. It doesn’t have to be rigid; instead, it can be flexible to fit your situation. The main takeaway here is that knowing what I’ll work on each day before I start has been a huge help for making the most of my limited work time.

2. I Work On What Sounds Exciting to Me (When Possible)

The second routine that really helps me manage my business well is working on tasks that feel exciting whenever possible. So often, business is framed as a constant hustle and grind, where you're supposed to just toughen up and push through tasks whether you like them or not. It can seem like that’s the only way to succeed. But for me, I want to truly enjoy my business—and I do! Of course, there are plenty of things I have to do that I don’t necessarily love, but there are also many things I genuinely enjoy, like recording this podcast or speaking at conferences. I just spoke at a Showit conference last month, and I loved that speaking engagement. I also enjoy creating social media content, though a lot of that depends on when I’m in the mood for it.

A big part of what I do with this is looking at what needs to be done and, when possible, following my creative intuition on when to do each task. I know this sounds like it might contradict my first point about structured planning, but I actually find they work together. This approach is really about planning around my energy for the week and each day.

For example, if I know I need to record two podcast episodes and also spend time strategizing for my Black Friday plans, I try to tackle each task when it feels right. If I'm in the mood to record a podcast episode, I’ll go ahead with it. But if I’m feeling tired or low-energy, and I know I won't be able to bring my best to an episode, I’ll try to move it to another day.

Of course, this isn’t always possible when there are deadlines beyond my control, like client projects or presentations with fixed due dates. For instance, my presentation for the Spark conference had a set deadline, so I had to work on it regardless of my mood. But whenever I can, I try to reorder my tasks to work on things I feel up for at the moment, or I hold my plans loosely.

Even today, as I record this episode, it’s 1:30 on a Monday afternoon. I had planned for this time slot with a “record podcast?” note on my calendar because I wasn’t sure if I’d feel ready. But as the time approached, I felt good about it. I have a meeting at 2:30 and nothing super pressing at the moment, so I decided to go for it. I’d also left an option to record on Wednesday, just in case.

I think this approach could be helpful for you, too, as you consider managing your own business. Working on tasks when you feel inspired or excited about them can help you show up better and produce higher-quality work.

3. I Know When I’m Testing if Something Is a “Good Use of My Time” and When I Decide It’s Not, I Stop Doing It.

The third thing that’s really important for growing my business is knowing when a task or project I’m testing is a good use of my time—and stopping it if it’s not. As I mentioned, I work with very limited time, given my current season of life. There are countless things I could be doing in my business that might help it grow—like experimenting with new marketing strategies or creating additional products. But it’s all about knowing my priorities. Right now, I choose to prioritize time at home with my kids while they’re little. That doesn’t mean this choice is right for everyone, but it is right for me, right now.

When I consider a new task or strategy, I ask myself, Is this a good use of my time for my business in this season? This question is really powerful because it removes the pressure of thinking, "I should be doing this" or "This works for others, so I should do it too." What works well for one person or business doesn’t necessarily mean it’s right for my business in this season of life.

For example, let’s say you’ve been thinking about creating a course. Maybe you feel like you could do well with it, and you see others launching courses successfully. But just because it’s a good idea doesn’t mean it’s the right idea for you right now. That’s a big part of my approach—just because something is good doesn’t mean it’s right for me, my business, or my audience right now.

Since my business runs lean, whenever I try something new, I track its return on investment (ROI) closely, rather than assuming it’ll be worth it just because it’s supposed to be. Just because it’s valuable to someone else doesn’t mean it’s valuable for my audience, offers, or life stage. When I see that something isn’t worth it, I cut it. This helps me focus on what truly makes sense for my family, my life, my business, that particular day or week, and then let go of the rest.

For example, some businesses intentionally choose not to be on Instagram. They’re not saying that Instagram is bad; they’re simply choosing not to prioritize it. Similarly, if Instagram makes sense for your business, then prioritize it. It’s all about what’s best for your unique business.

Another way to put this is understanding my business’s unique needs and my life’s unique circumstances, rather than following a cookie-cutter approach. Instead of doing something just because it’s a "good thing," I always ask, Does this make sense for my life? For my time? Is it worth it to me? Do I enjoy this?

As we head toward the new year, it’s a perfect time to evaluate what you’re doing in your business. What are you spending your time on? Are there things you want to add or remove? Asking these questions can help you build a successful and sustainable business tailored to your life and priorities.

4. I Pray About My Business

The fourth routine that really helps me manage my business is praying about it—and, honestly, just praying about life in general. Since we're focusing on business here, I’ll emphasize that I spend a lot of time talking to God specifically about my business. This isn't always a formal prayer time where I sit down with my Bible; rather, it's more of an ongoing conversation with God, where I talk to Him about my business, ask for His guidance, and pray for wisdom in my decisions.

This practice has been especially meaningful for me in 2024, a year when I’ve made several behind-the-scenes pivots in my business after having another child. Some of these changes won’t even be visible until 2025. But staying faith-focused and asking God for guidance is something I truly believe has been pivotal to my business's success.

If you’re thinking about incorporating prayer into your business, remember that it doesn’t have to be a perfectly quiet morning routine at 5:00 AM, with your coffee and a lit candle. While that sounds wonderful, it's just not realistic for me right now. Both of my kids wake up early—especially with the recent daylight savings change—and I’m still getting up at night with my eight-month-old. My kids are my alarm clock; I don’t even remember the last time I set an actual alarm.

While I’d love to wake up at 5:00 AM to have an hour of peace before the day begins, it’s just not my current reality. I know I could set my alarm earlier, but right now, I’d rather prioritize sleep. I’m okay with this season of life, and I think it’s important to have realistic expectations about your spiritual routine.

For now, my morning routine looks different, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have an active prayer life. I appreciate what the team at Risen Motherhood often says: “The little years don’t have to be the lost years” when it comes to your faith. This is a message I think resonates with many young moms. Just because your life is busier and more chaotic doesn’t mean that spiritual growth can’t happen. Head here to listen to an episode where they talk about that.

So, for me, it’s about fitting in prayer for my business and life where it makes sense, even in this season. Praying about my business and being okay with however my morning routine looks right now has been key to managing everything.

5. I Leave My Laptop in My Office

The fifth habit that helps me manage my business is leaving my laptop in my office instead of bringing it around the house with me and working wherever, whenever. I have a home office on our third floor, which I’m really grateful for. This setup might not always be possible, but for now, I have a dedicated office, and I really do “leave my work” up there. I don’t usually bring my laptop downstairs unless I’m heading out to work somewhere else or, on days when I’m home with the kids, to work a bit during nap time or after bedtime.

Sometimes, I’ll also bring it downstairs for a little online shopping—I am very much a millennial who prefers to shop on my laptop.

I think this approach helps with that elusive concept of work-life balance or work-life harmony. I’m not just sitting at the kitchen table working randomly while the kids play nearby; I’m focused on keeping work time for work time. And I know there are different seasons in business, so I want to say that my season might be different from yours.

There are times in our business when we’re in a season of hustle, and I’ve been there—working a lot after the kids go to bed or getting up before they wake up. If that’s where you are right now, keep going! I still have days where I need to do that too to get things done.

Right now, as I’m recording this, I know that leading up to Black Friday, I’ll have some nights where I’m working after bedtime to get everything ready. I’ve already told my husband that this is a priority right now, and I think it’s helpful to let both yourself and your family know when that’s going to be the case. But the key here is to be intentional about it. So, if you’re going to work after bedtime, that’s great—just be intentional. Know what you’re working on and why. Don’t work just because you’re bored or avoiding sleep. It can turn into “doom working,” like how we sometimes doom scroll.

For me, leaving my laptop on the third floor helps with this. Sometimes, I don’t even feel like walking up three flights of stairs to grab it, which helps me only get it when I really need to work on something. So, when I do go up and grab it, I know I’m working on something specific with intention.

6. I Don’t Sit At My Desk All Day

I really believe that successful people make it a point to move their bodies, get up, and exercise. You won’t have a productive day if you’re just sitting behind your desk for hours without getting up or looking away from your computer. Productivity drops when you do that; you need to change your scenery and get moving.

For some, that could mean taking a break to play some pickleball, going on a long walk with your kids, lifting weights, doing a spin class, or even just taking a solo walk. I like to mix things up personally, but one habit that keeps me sane on long workdays when I do have childcare is getting outside for a 10-minute walk (weather permitting). If it’s too cold, rainy, or otherwise unpleasant, I’ll at least get up from my desk and move around the house in some way.

Sometimes, that’s a 10-minute break to tidy up my bedroom or hang up the clothes that have collected on the floor of the closet. Small breaks like that help me manage my business better because when I return to my desk, I feel refreshed and ready to tackle the next task.

I don’t have a rigid system of, say, getting up every two hours, but I know when I’m hitting a point where my brain feels sluggish or I’m not as productive. That’s when I get up, go downstairs, walk around the block for 10 minutes, and come back ready to work.

Often, I’ll pop in my AirPods but leave them silent. I’m not looking for podcast or audiobook time, and I’m not aiming to catch up on a FaceTime call. I’m just looking for a moment of quiet to refresh and reset. So whether it’s doing laundry or taking a walk, these small breaks improve my productivity and keep me grounded.

Daily Business Routines & Habits That Help Me Manage My Business Well as a Busy Mom

I hope as you read this, you’re thinking about these ideas and considering, “These are the things that work well for Elizabeth—what could I try for myself?” Maybe there are things here that you’re already doing, but with a new twist, you could make them work even better for you. Reflect on what might fit your life and business routines.

To recap, here are the habits that work well for me:

Knowing what I’m going to work on each day before I sit down, using one of three different planning methods based on my needs that day.
Working on what excites me whenever possible, to keep inspiration fresh and improve the quality of what I create.
Evaluating whether something is a good use of my time, especially when testing new ideas, and being willing to stop if it isn’t adding value.
Praying over my business and making prayer a core part of my life, focusing on spiritual growth, even in a busy season with little kids.
Leaving my laptop in my office rather than carrying it around the house, to help separate work from the rest of life.
Not sitting at my desk all day, but getting up to take breaks, change the scenery, and recharge.

That’s it! I’d love to hear from you—reach out on Instagram or shoot me an email. Let me know which of these ideas you’ll be trying out or what you’re already doing yourself. And, if you’re listening live, take a break and check out my Black Friday deals this year. It’s an incredible sale, and I’m so excited to share it with you!

Links Mentioned:

Shop the Black Friday sale

Listen to the Risen Motherhood Podcast

Shop Showit Website Templates

Not sure which template is right for you? Take the quiz!

Listen to the Breakthrough Brand Podcast

Connect with Elizabeth on Instagram

Join Booked Out Designer

Thanks to our sponsor, Christian Heathcare Ministries! CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry and is a faith-based alternative to traditional health insurance. My family has been using CHM for our healthcare for 4+ years now, and we couldn’t be more pleased. As a business owner we all know healthcare is outrageously expensive with CHM you can save money on your budget and know if a medical situation ever arises CHM will be there to take care of you and share 100% of your eligible bills. Learn more here!

The post Daily Business Routines & Habits That Help Me Manage My Business Well as a Busy Mom appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

Why Every Business Owner Needs a Fast Follow-up Email in Dubsado (Steal My Free Template!)

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Does booking clients feel slow for you right now? Are you getting ghosted by potential clients? Maybe you have even thought to yourself, “Man, they seemed so interested, but I never heard back from them.” If you’re nodding your head right now, that this episode is for you. I'm teaching you a simple but powerful way to stay top of mind with a fast follow-up email so you can book more clients that most business owners just completely skip over.

This booking strategy is simple but strategic and honestly? Pretty easy to set up too. Plus, I'm going to give you an exact template to use in all the things (grab it here!). So if you're a service business provider and you feel like the ball is getting dropped between the inquiry and someone booking, this is for you. Let’s get into it!

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

Subscribe & download the episode to your device: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Search for episode 285!

I still remember that a few summers ago (before we had kids), I was looking to book a branding photographer while my husband and I were at the beach with friends. I was super unfamiliar with the area, so I was hunting for the right person using a mix of Instagram hashtags, Pinterest, and Google to find someone with a style I liked. Ultimately, I emailed or filled out the contact form of around 5 different photographers. If I’m being honest though, they all really started to blend together after a while.

So when I was done, I was just hoping that someone was going to be available for my dates at the right price point. Before I signed off my computer though, I checked my inbox, and one of the photographers had already emailed me! It was an automated email confirming that she got my message with some more info (that we’ll get to later in this episode).

Each of the other photographers replied at various times over the next few days, but you know who I got to know in the meantime? The gal who had the automated email. And that’s who I ended up booking.

Your Potential Customers Are Likely Reaching Out To Your Competitors

We’ve all been there when booking something, right? Whether we’re looking for birth doulas, bookkeepers, videographers, graphic designers, hair stylists, nannies, event planners, etc — you often contact a lot of people at once when you’re in research mode.

Regardless of what it is that you're searching for, you're reaching out to all these people often at the same time and they can quickly start blending together. That's not a problem with anyone's business, it's just that they are all doing similar services (the services that you are looking for), and it can be hard to distinguish and remember who you prefer. It’s easy to even start forgetting who you actually contacted when you are filling out a contact form if you don't hear anything from them again until they email you directly.

So how can you stay top of mind and be remembered?

You need to reply first, even if yes, we know it’s automated. You’ll still have a leg up on everyone else. So, in this episode, I’m going to briefly tell you WHY you need this automated touchpoint after the initial inquiry and then give you some ideas for exactly what to include in this email that comes after your contact form.

Want help putting this episode into use? I’ve got a completely FREE guide for you with canned responses and templates that you can put right into Dubsado and use today! This 17-page guide is full of strategies to help you smooth out your inquiry process and book more clients. Grab your copy here!

Why You Need a Fast Follow-Up Email

We’ve already touched on this a little, but in case you need more convincing to add this to your to-do list, here are three reasons you NEED an automated reply to your contact form:

It keeps you top of mind and sets you apart from the 5-10 other people that they may have also just contacted. It’s every business owner’s dream for customers to make the buying decision quicker, right? So, why not start that process immediately? And by immediately, I mean as soon as they’ve opened up the conversation about working with you.
It helps them start to fall in love with you NOW before you get to your computer to reply.
It helps set expectations and professionalism around your brand. This one is huge. You can have a leg up on others as the more professional one, the more memorable one, and so many other things. People want a good client experience, and a fast response is a part of that.

I have done this automated email thing practically the whole time I’ve had my business. I had this email in place when I was only offering branding and website design, and I still have it today. It really does increase bookings and move the buying process along.

I’ve seen this not only in my own business but it’s something I teach inside Booked Out Designer as well. When people tell me they constantly get ghosted by potential clients, one of the first things I ask is always, “Did you have a post-contact form email?”. And typically the answer is no. It makes a huge difference.

Now let’s get into what to include and how to do this…

How to Set-up Your Fast Follow-Up Email

You’ll need to use a tool like Dubsado (a CRM) to do this. At least right now, you can’t do this sort of thing easily with a standard form in Showit, Squarespace, or wherever your website is. But if you don’t use Dubsado yet, trust me — you can do so much with it, it’s worth the investment.

In Dubsado, you’re going to want to set up your contact form (and I actually cover what to put on your contact form in this guide, so I won’t rehash that here). Make sure to tune into episode 48 where I share more about contact pages too!

Basically, in your contact form, you’ll create a drop-down with options for why they are reaching out. I also always recommend having a “generalized option” in addition to your services or products that could be used if someone wanted to interview you on a podcast, invite you to an event, or anything random like that.

For example, for a course creator you might have:

I’m reaching out about:

Course name #1
Course name #2
Media Inquiry
A general question

Or, if you are a fellow designer, they might select: :

What service are you inquiring about:

Brand Design
Website Design
Branding + Website Design
Something else!

The reason we do this is that by getting specific on what they want, you can tailor the follow-up email to that. Then, you can set up a trigger in Dubsado for what email is sent will be based on this response. Then, you’ll apply a workflow to each of those dropdown options. I recommend naming the workflow to match what the option is so you can keep it all straight!

Finally, you’ll set the workflow to send an email to the person after they submit the form with that answer.

What to Include in Your Fast Follow-Up Email

First, as I said above, you want to make it specific to the service they reached out about - not generic to all things. If you have multiple ways to work with you, this becomes even more important.

Here are some must-have elements for this email.

1. Show your personality a little.

Be friendly. Thank them for reaching out to you. Every potential customer is a gift and something to be grateful for so say that you’re excited that they want to work with you. Personally, I am someone with an enthusiastic brand, and I know many of you are the same. Show that here!

2. Set expectations about when you’ll reply.

This doesn’t need to be fancy, you can say something like, “You can expect a personalized reply from me within …. Timing”. This can be “within 48 hours” or during my business hours of “Monday-Thursday from 9 am-4 pm” or whatever it is for you.

3. Point them to resources to interact with in the meantime.

This is where the “falling in love with you” and staying top of mind happens! It’s one of the most important things to include. Do you have a resource related to the offer they reached out about? Link to it and tell them why they should click. Give them a reason to hang out on your website longer. If you don’t have anything like this, create it.

For example, if someone reaches out about templates, the automated email will mention my “all things Showit” website page (which plays a similar role to a Frequently Asked Questions page). I encourage people to look there. I also link AGAIN to the shop page (which is probably where they came from before contacting me). My goal here is to encourage them to go back to my website and keep exploring the template more!

4. Get them to follow you on social (or somewhere else)

Lastly, when someone has just decided to interact with you via submitting your contact form, they are at their prime for wanting to get to know you! So, this is an excellent time to get them to interact with you on social media.

I call this “audience distribution and disbursement”, which I talk about in Podcast Success Blueprint. You want to get people who are interested in you to follow you on other platforms. I’d recommend picking 1-2 platforms for this email. Tell them to go interact with you there and link to it!

For example, if you’re a podcaster, send them a link to listen or highlight a few of your favorite episodes. If you post often on Instagram, that is great, encourage them to follow. Maybe it’s TikTok for you or even Threads, it doesn’t matter. Just give them up to two different places to go that aren’t your website.

That’s All You Need For Your Fast Follow-Up Email

Make sure you grab this free guide because there’s so much more detail as you start to implement this. Plus, if you don’t have Dubsado yet, start your free trial here and use code ELIZABETH30 for 30% off.

Links Mentioned:

Grab your FREE Dubsado Templates

Shop Showit Website Templates

Not sure which template is right for you? Take the quiz!

Listen to the Breakthrough Brand Podcast

Connect with Elizabeth on Instagram

Join Booked Out Designer

Join Podcast Success Blueprint

The post Why Every Business Owner Needs a Fast Follow-up Email in Dubsado (Steal My Free Template!) appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

How I Planned (& Executed) My 3 Month Maternity Leave with Baby #2

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 00:36:20 +0000

Reading Time: 9 minutes

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing a behind-the-scenes look into my 3 month maternity leave with my second baby. Specifically, what my maternity leave looked like as a business owner! I’ve done this once before (and actually took off 5.5 months with Colin when he was born). Back then I planned to take 2 ½ months off, but ended up taking longer for a lot of reasons!

This time, I was more up in the air about how long exactly it would be, but ultimately thought I’d want to take around 15 ish weeks. I have to say though, it felt a lot more fluid this time. In this episode, I’m going to share a behind-the-scenes look at how I planned this leave: from what I had to do to prepare my business for me to be gone, what I’d do differently, what I thought worked well, and what I did do differently from my last leave.

I also want to say - you can apply this stuff to another type of business leave too, so if you want just my tips and thoughts in general for planning time away, you’ll enjoy this episode too!

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

Subscribe & download the episode to your device: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Search for episode 276!

It’s always so interesting to talk about a “leave” or “maternity leave” because going back as a business owner, at least for me, doesn’t just go from “you’re not working at all” and now you’re working everyday! It’s been way more subtle than that.

First, I’m still home because I work from home. I’m Ethan’s primary childcare. So I’m starting with just 2 work days a week right now, which is really limited. To some people, this would even be considered back at work. But the truth is that my business is really really lean and I’m fortunate that I’m able to work less and still keep things stable (or even see growth).

Taking time off as a business owner

When you’re a business owner, it’s hard to truly take off “all the way”. I know this is true of some jobs when you work for an employer as well, but it is especially true as a biz owner. That said, I do take off the best I can, and I did for both my leaves. Personally, I also don’t struggle with taking time off from work for a new baby. I actually love the time and if anything, I struggle more getting back into the swing of things. While at the same time, I’m also being hit with a ton of great business ideas while on leave!

How I Prepared During My Pregnancy

First, I went on two trips with Showit that happened basically immediately after finding out I was pregnant. First trimester trips are not my favorite (partly because of the heat, and partly because I wanted to start planning right away!).

I also decided to make another course! I made Booked Out Designer pregnant with Colin, and something about pregnancy gives me a course itch. It felt really ambitious to make Podcast Success Blueprint while pregnant since I was not just pregnant but also had a toddler. That felt a lot different than when I made my first course “just” being pregnant.

But I did it. I beta launched the course in October last year, then created it basically my whole pregnancy, then opened the doors again in January. Now, the Podcast Success Blueprint is on evergreen and available now!

But with that said, during my pregnancy itself I was working on creating the course, maternity leave prep, plus maintaining everything happening in the business already. There was PLENTY to keep me very busy!

I always recommend starting earlier in your expecting/waiting for baby time if you’re able to. I know with things like adoption, you can’t always plan as much, and that is hard! But if you’re able, starting earlier is great because you lose energy around it often as you get later into pregnancy because you want to just be in baby nesting mode. At least that has been my experience!

Planning My Maternity Leave as a Business Owner

When planning for this new baby’s arrival, I did the planning part really similar to how I prepped for Colin, only with more experience this time and some of those things I really had to focus on delegating and eliminating with Colin, were already done. So that was nice and easier. Also Ethan was born at a totally different time of year, which I think made for an easier leave actually. With Colin, there was an upcoming Black Friday sale which was a bit more stressful.

I used a ClickUp system for planning a leave and mapping things out nearing the due date that I just LOVE. I plan to make it into a little mini offer and sell it at some point - if that interests you, let me know. I literally have it planned out month-by-month up until my leave.

When I think about the biggest things I had to prep before my leave, it was:

Internal communication things for our team
Autoresponders and communication outward
Podcast episodes
Social media content
Any sales/promos
Projects happening behind the scenes with my team

So let’s walk through those! And I’ll share what I did and how that went.

Internal Communication

On leave with Colin, we weren’t using Slack or ClickUp yet! We were on Voxer and Basecamp back then, so internal communication was just really different. Personally, I like Slack so much more than using Voxer when it comes to team communication with multiple people. It’s way more effective.

But when planning my maternity leaveI had to decide: what would the set up be? What’s the expectation for communication? I was planning this mentally throughout my whole pregnancy, but really got down and made a written plan in early February, a month before my due date.

The plan lived in ClickUp documents and then it was mainly executed in Slack. Again, I might make an eBook/audio course on this at some point!

But basically, I had documents for:

Important dates/contact info
My plan for unplugging
Best methods for communication about different things (Slack or ClickUp based on urgency)
The new maternity leave slack channel I wanted to use
Managing the inbox notes about different requests we get and how to reply (plus information on all the canned emails I made)

Then, I shared that with my team, everyone read it over, and then we all had one-on-one meetings before my leave in the month of February to discuss questions and just touch base about things! I feel like all of that went really smoothly too. I loved our slack set up, and think that things felt clear to everyone. I also felt like I knew what was going on, while being unplugged!

Outward communication

This was mainly between me and Stacey since she responds to most things in my inbox! I made some canned emails in our email software for her to use and I set up an autoresponder. Business and customer service inquiries were responded to by Stacey as per usual, but for anyone emailing me, they got an auto response. I can’t recommend autoresponders ENOUGH! It gives you so much peace of mind when an important email does come through.

Podcast Episodes

This was the biggest thing probably that I actually had to prep for before my leave. ALL THE EPISODES! This can feel like a lot of work because you’re prepping ahead, while also just recording episodes for the month when you’re not on leave yet.

You need to make a decision: do you stop airing episodes and take a break? Record anything in real-time? Recast stuff? Interviews? All solo episodes? There is a lot to decide.

I have to say that I prepped this better than I did with Colin’s maternity leave, which I’m proud of. With his, I didn’t go as far out because of Black Friday looming and feeling like I needed to record in “real time” for that. I batched 15 episodes for this leave. That’s a LOT of episodes.

That said, it was a mix of things:

2 recasts from other shows
3 interviews I pre-recorded with guests
Solo episodes
2 recasts of my old solo episodes

I was really strategic too in mapping out when things would happen. For example, one of the recasts happened the week that I assumed (correctly) that I’d have a newborn baby on my hands and might not want to promote an episode much on social media. I also left a gap for me to do the birth story if I wanted to.

When planning, I tried to vary up when things were airing so it wasn’t like 3 motherhood episodes in a row (for example). Ultimately, I looked at a 3 month period and the episode ideas I had and mapped them all in.

It’s worth noting too that my podcast team worked on these not in advance, but in real time, so I had communication with them every week for episodes. Tuesdays were a little bit of a work day for me on leave for episode things. I also recorded a few reels ahead of time for specific episodes, but mainly did social media content to promote the episodes in real time. It probably would have been easier if it were all prepped.

Social Media

Social media was so different when I had Colin! While Reels were a thing, I could also post an image with a caption a lot too. I did a prep day for social media where I recorded some things. Ironically some of the stuff I prepped, I never posted.

Generally over my leave, I felt less engaged on social media and felt less of a need to show up this time around. I would go days at a time not posting anything, even to stories. I liked that.

I didn’t do that with Colin, I was on a lot sharing everything. I enjoyed the privacy this time posting less but then when I felt inspired, really going for it. For example, I did a few content pieces that I made while on leave that I really loved! I also had a doc going my whole leave with social media ideas that would come to me and some of them I made while holding Ethan in the dark nursery rocking him while he napped.

I can’t say I’d do anything different on the social media prep honestly. But it would have been easier on me if I had made more in advance to post. I also would have something planned to post and then just keep delaying and delaying it. So that’s the disadvantage of prepping.

Sales/promos

Ethan was born March 5th and I actually had a leap day sale going when he was born. It was a last minute decision which ended up being true pregnancy brain because I set up the coupon code wrong.

Generally with the timing of his birth, I decided no sales or launches were needed while I was on leave or even immediately when I returned! Which was SO GREAT AND NEEDED.

I did do a quick Memorial Day sale that I just put on my website and sent one email about, but that was it.

My products are all evergreen, which is the business model I love for this season of life! Things are always for sale. And that works really well for planning maternity leave because money can keep coming into the business, and people can still access your products while you are away.

Projects happening

The fun thing about having people work with you, is that you can have things happening when you’re not working.

We had a few projects that were actually tackled while I was on leave where I’d approve things and communicate about them over Slack and ClickUp like:

Redesigning all my freebies into new brand look
New social media graphics to go with new branding to use as needed on stories
New blog post graphics to promote offers
Making Podcast Success Blueprint evergreen
Created two new freebies that went with podcast episodes (my guide to team check ins on Slack and my podcast equipment guide!)
Weekly episode emails going out with weekly podcast episodes

Those were the main things, but I’m sure I’m forgetting something!

I originally had myself doing some 1:1 consulting meetings at 37/38 weeks pregnant and ultimately asked those people to reschedule for after baby was born. I was so beat at the end of pregnancy, feeling myself in more nesting/privacy mode and couldn’t do it.

So those got canceled and ended up being meetings I did when Ethan was like 2 months old. I am so grateful that they were ok rescheduling! I was just truly feeling so exhausted and anticipating birth at the end of pregnancy and felt honestly overwhelmed by to do list things for postpartum season like freezer meals, nursery, thank you cards for the baby shower, appointments, and I felt like I couldn’t take on anything else! And needed that break from meetings.

Next week, I’ll be sharing what the leave was actually like on a personal and professional level.

In the meantime, if you want more maternity leave episodes, tune into:

If you're an expecting mom right now listening to this, I just want to say you're doing amazing. Pregnancy is really hard. Running a business while pregnant is really hard. Planning this leave on top of everything you're already doing is really hard, and you're doing amazing. Keep going. It'll all be worth it when you get to have that planned time away where you're just snuggling your baby, enjoying that phase, not having to worry about work.

Links Mentioned:

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The post How I Planned (& Executed) My 3 Month Maternity Leave with Baby #2 appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

3 Questions I Ask My Remote Team Every Single Week

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 28 May 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 4 minutes

I’m all about growing your business with a team and not doing it alone! But just because you hire people (contractors or w2 employees) does not mean that business is all of a sudden easy peasy. In some ways, it actually makes your business more complex. There are a lot of challenges that come with having a team, especially with remote teams. I have team members who I’ve literally never met in person but I’m in communication with daily or weekly, so it CAN work! And today, I’m sharing 3 questions I ask my team members every week that have made a HUGE difference in my team community and productivity. Plus, it’s easy and can even be automated!

Before we jump in, if you want these questions in a downloadable format (that you can copy/paste) and peek BTS of exactly how I set this up in my own business… download my free guide here where I share what it looks like (with examples!).

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Remote Team Communication Tools

In case you are curious, my two main tools I use with my team are Slack and ClickUp (use my link for a free trial and a discount). Personally, we are on the free version of Slack and I pay for ClickUp.

Setting up Slack for Weekly Check-ins

For these three questions that I’m going to share, I post them in Slack each week!

I created a slack channel called “check ins” where these questions get automatically posted. I schedule the question set as a slack comment in that channel so it’s always in the same place. I go in and schedule these once a quarter (and it takes about 5 minutes).

Then, I set it up to auto post from me at 8 am CST every Monday morning. For my team, the expectation is that at some point on Monday, every one should answer the questions (unless it’s a holiday week or something)!

The reason I like Slack for this is that then we answer the questions in a thread. I love the “thread” feature on Slack for keeping things organized. In my opinion it’s better than doing this on Voxer or ClickUp or somewhere where it could become a long chain each week.

3 Questions I Ask My Remote Team Every Single Week

Now, let’s talk about the three questions I ask each week:

What are 2-3 things you’re working on this week?
What do you need from Elizabeth or another team member for your job to keep going?
What is happening in your life this week? What’s something you’re excited about? And/or what’s something you could use prayer/support in?

Then, we usually answer by “bolding” each category and then answer in bullets. We don’t write long paragraphs to each other. I read all of them and we will all “heart” or “like” the comments to let people know we’ve read it! I answer these questions too!

It sounds simple, but this is sooooo helpful for just touching base and keeping track of what’s happening in the business!

Why These Questions Help A Remote Team

With the first question, everyone answers with what they are working on in THIS business (so it’s not just like a random place to share their to-do list).

Then, with needs, this is so helpful because sometimes I will miss something or won’t realize that people need something from me to get their job done. So it gives them a place to make sure they get what they need from me or someone else on the team.

The last question might be my favorite though, because that’s where they say what’s going on in their life! As a remote team that doesn’t do meetings as a group often, this question helps us all know what’s going on with one another. You can see some examples of the way my team has answered here.

I love this question too because I love to pray for my team (which I talked more about here when it comes to integrating my faith into my business) but it also just helps you show up with more empathy as a boss in your business. So if someone comments that they're having a really hard week and XYZ is happening in their personal life, you'll never know that unless you ask these kinds of questions. Especially with a remote team when you're not all going into the office together every day, so it doesn’t naturally come up “at the water cooler.”

I Schedule These Out Each Quarter And Try to Include Fun Details!

I also will say at the beginning of these three questions, you can see it in the guide if you want to see some examples, but I'll say, Happy Monday, or add something relevant to that week if there is something (like happy launch week, or Merry Christmas, or if it’s someone’s birthday week). That’s why I like to do it every quarter instead of automating it forever and ever. I like to customize it a little. Plus, it literally takes me five minutes.

Links Mentioned:

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14 Things That Make Growing Your Business MUCH Harder (Your New “To Quit” List)

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 11 minutes

Whether you're in the early days and months of your business, or you've been at it a while, we all unfortunately do things that make business harder than it has to be. These are things that both new and established business owners all do, and today, we are adding them to your “To Quit” list, because they're taking up your time, energy, and ultimately making growth slower.

Today, I’m sharing 14 things as a business owner that are making your business harder that you may not even realize you're doing. The week this episode airs, I am celebrating eight years of running my business. These are some of the MANY things that I have had to consciously quit in those eight years (and some honestly that I still struggle with quitting even today!). So anyway, this is going to be a great (and FUN!) episode!

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1. Getting input from too many voices to the point where eventually you just don’t know what to do

Listen, I’m all about learning from different people and places and in different ways. But sometimes, too many voices and inputs can be more distracting than helpful, because people have different ways of doing things (and all of those different ways can work!). So if you’re asking too many people, you’re likely hearing a whole bunch of “do it this way” from people who have seen success with their method. And it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and not sure what voice to listen to.

I’d encourage you to find a few trusted voices/people who have built businesses (and lives!) similar to what you desire and listen to them! Listening to too many people WILL slow down your growth.

2. Focusing too much on inbox zero

Now obviously “inbox zero” on a support inbox is different, so I want to say that before I talk about this mistake. It’s normal to prioritize customers or potential customers requests and make sure they have the help they need. That inbox gets to “zero” often.

But for my personal inbox for my business, I gave up on inbox zero a long time ago. Most emails I get are not urgent or important and the ones that are, I get back to right away. That being said, there can be an obsession with getting to inbox zero, with replying ASAP to everything, and depending on your business type, this isn’t always helpful. It can actually be a distraction from the real work of your business.

Now, I do a strategic inbox “clear out” about once a week (or even every two weeks) instead of obsessing over this. I rarely get to zero ever. In fact, the last time I did, I remember someone responded within like 5 minutes and I wasn’t at zero again!

3. Overbooking your calendar to where you have too many meetings and can’t get any work done

This is such a PAINFUL mistake to make! I’ve made this mistake hundreds of times. I feel like at this point in my business I have a really good system going with my calendaring that helps this not happen to me very much anymore, but it can be so painful to make when it does!

But picture this… you have meeting upon meeting upon meeting to the point that you can’t actually work on stuff because you’re just in meetings all day. Maybe you then have stupid 1-hour gaps between all of them because you’re not strategically grouping them so then you just can’t get anything REAL done. Then, you look at your day, and are like, WAIT - what did I get done?! It really stinks.

As you grow your business, meetings are a must. Whether it’s discovery calls, client calls, podcast interviews, team meetings, etc, you likely can’t just eliminate meetings but you CAN be more (or less) strategic with how you let people get on your calendar.

3 things that help me avoid overbooking my calendar with meetings

While meetings are inevitable, here are three things that have helped me make sure I still have time to get work done.

If I’m only having one meeting that day, it’s always at the beginning of the day or the end of the day.
If I’m having multiple meetings in a day, I group them to still get that free time (for example, if I have a meeting from 9 to 10 am, I will book another from 10:30 to 11:30 am, and then I’m free after).
I try to make meetings shorter. I would challenge yourself to say, does the meeting need to be an hour? Could it be 45 mins? Or 30 mins? I know meetings often go long, so sometimes I will set a meeting as 45 minutes, knowing it will probably go a little bit over, but if we had said it was going to be an hour, it would end up being an hour and 15 minutes.

4. Just buying every business thing out there without any strategy.

You know this mistake, right? Someone tells you that you need that tool or this course and that software, and you buy it ALL. Because that must be the solution, right?

Listen, I’m all about moving quickly on decisions like these versus obsessing over which CRM to go with (or which Podcast Host to use), but at the same time, you can move too fast and end up with tons of expensive subscriptions you don’t need or courses you never take or memberships you never log into. The platform/course can’t work for you unless you use it (and actually need it).

A better solution is being strategic with what you buy, and be willing to spend, but on the right things.

5. Being unwilling to spend some money to make some money

This one is similar to the point above, but let me explain. I both hate and love the phrase “You have to spend money to make money”. I hate it because people overuse this concept and talk about how much THEY SPEND on their growth in order to sell you stuff.

But, I also love the statement because it is somewhat true. It’s a mistake to be too frugal in your business. Whether that’s not being willing to pay a team member that could help you, not being able to buy the software that will make your customer experience better and save you hours a week, or refusing to buy the course that you believe will help you finally launch the thing, because you're scared to make the investment is a mistake. Just make sure that you are investing smart.

6. Not asking people where they found you so you can use that data to do more of what’s working

By this I mean, ask customers and clients, “Where did you find me?” or “Where did you first hear about [business name]?

When you feel stressed and overwhelmed in your business, especially with marketing, knowing the answer to this question can save you loads of stress because you can stop doing the things that aren’t driving your sales.

Now with that being said, you have to give things time. Don’t start a podcast and then deem it not good if no sales come from it in month one. Give things time. But when you consistently ask this question, it can help you evaluate what’s helping people find you and what isn’t.

7. Trying to do everything and do it all alone.

This goes back to one of the first things to not do, but having too many voices can lead you to do too many things. And then worse, deciding that YOU have to be the one that does it all. Without help!

I’m a big fan of first eliminating what doesn’t matter to your business so you can do less. But second, I would encourage you to look at hiring contractors in your business to help you be in your “queen bee” or zone of genius role.

8. Scrolling on social and calling it work

So as business owners, I would say we have a tough with social media time wasting because an hour spent on Instagram could be an hour of wasted time or it could be an hour of growing our businesses. It's really hard to tell. You look the same. You're just on your phone and it's like, Is it helpful? Is it not? You don't always know.

That being said, getting really conscious about how you're using social media is huge, especially when you're calling it work. What you do at the end of the day to wind down is different if that involves scrolling on social media but if you're spending hours a day on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook, and you're clocking that as work, you're not actually working, and that's a huge miss and a time suck that is not going to help you grow your business.

I would challenge you when it's during what you're deeming your work time to not be scrolling on social media, but instead to be showing up as a content creator, not a consumer.

9. Not having a website

Something that makes growing your business harder is not having a website or an online presence beyond things like your social media account. Maybe right now you're selling on Etsy or Creative Market or something like that, and you don't have an actual website that's just for your business.

If you didn't know I'm a website designer, I create and sell Showit website templates. So it goes without saying that I’m very pro websites. I actually don't think that you have to have a website from day one of your business (I know a lot of people will tell you that). I think in a lot of ways if you're in the early days of your business, it can be smarter to start the business and focus on getting clients before you have your site live. With that in mind, it should be a business goal for you to get a website up sooner than later.

We live in a time right now where I feel like everything is just social media, and I just want to say: your website still matters. I have two recent stats for you that are from just last year that I want to share.

First, business owners who use their website to connect with customers see an average of 15 to 50% growth in revenue. Second, 84% of consumers believe a business's website is more credible than the business's social media page.

Additionally, when we talk about not having a website, a website is what people go to when they are making buying decisions. So someone who is going to do the purchasing and looking at your packages is doing so from a website, not from your TikTok or Instagram account.

10. Thinking of your business goals only as the BIG picture instead of breaking them down into quarterly goals

As business owners, we set goals in January or maybe at the beginning of a quarter and are often just hoping to accomplish those goals by December of that year. But then when you don't break it down, it's really hard to get any of it done. Especially if you have six or more business goals that are BIG projects. They all just live on a list together of things you're “supposed to do” in your business, but you're not going to get them done.

Instead, you want to break it down. For example, let’s say you're wanting to create your first course and that's a goal for the year, but that's a Q3 goal. Or, maybe you want to start running Facebook ads and that should be a Q1 goal. Maybe starting a podcast is also a Q1 goal. What you want to do is map it out and assign all the goals to quarters and then go deeper.

Personally, I do a week-by-week of things I need to do to get there. So if it's a big project, especially something like a course, I'm not just saying “I have to make a course this year”. I'm saying, okay, this is the date I'm going to start working on it and during this week I need to have module one done, etc. Doing this in your project manager can be a really great way to stay organized, but basically, all you need to do is find some way to take the goals from “big picture wishes” to actual tactical to-do list items to really make the goals work for you and see results in your business.

11. Deciding you have to have everything completely figured out before you take action on anything

This is a mistake I see so many business owners make, especially in the early days. And it can be easy to fall into this pattern of where you feel like you have to have all your ducks in a row.

For example, “I have to have my website live, my social media live, everything filed with the government, etc. before I try to get a client”. That's one example of what this looks like. And really, it's a mistake. It's procrastination disguised as perfectionism.

As a business owner, I mean one thing I've learned in eight years of business over and over again, is how important it is to move fast. I think Mark Zuckerberg is the one that said this, but “move fast and break things”. Moving fast is important and it's okay if things don't work out perfectly.

12. Surrounding yourself with people who don’t get what you do and think you should give up.

Sometimes this is unavoidable, which makes me sad! Maybe you have an unsupportive spouse, or parents, asking you to go back to your 9 to 5. Or maybe you have friends who are judging you for starting a “little business”.

There will always be some people who don’t get it, who don’t believe in you, and judge you. That’s life. But your core people whom you’re talking to about your ideas and what you’re working on should be people who are all in with you.

One of my favorite Sara Blakely quotes is this, "I made a conscious decision not to tell anyone in my life [about Spanx]. Now I tell people--don't tell anyone your idea until you have invested enough of yourself in it that you are not going to turn back. When a person has an idea at that conception moment, it is the most vulnerable--one negative comment could knock you off course."

13. Working all the time in every spare moment

I know some seasons call for more hustle and are busy, and I’m not going to say “Don’t go all in on a project that makes life feel a little crazier”! I was just in course creation mode for Podcast Success Blueprint and was working more than usual for that reason, but you don’t want it to be forever. You want to make sure that during these short seasons, and that you’re not neglecting your mental health, physical health, faith, or relationships.

If you live like this all the time, you’ll ultimately lose productivity and probably lose the freedom that was the reason you started in the first place. Too many people start businesses and then become just slaves to their business, and they're not enjoying their life. They might as well just be working a nine-to-five because they would probably have more free time back.

So ask, is that deadline the deadline it has to be? Do I need to work on this tonight or would it be better if I chilled out and enjoyed the FREEDOM my business gives me instead?

14. Focus tons of energy on getting unfollowed and looking at who unsubscribes to your email list.

So I want to be clear, I'm not saying don't pay attention ever to getting unfollowed and don't pay attention at all to unsubscribes. So for example, if you send an email out and you get tons of unsubscribes, much higher than normal, that should be something you check out. Or maybe you do a reel and all of a sudden you have a huge follower drop. I'm not saying to ignore those things, but if every time you send an email, you're immediately looking at who unsubscribed and you're feeling hurt by it, you’re wasting your time.

Your Business “To Quit” List

There are so many things we do unintentionally or intentionally (but with good intentions) that are making growing our businesses harder, right? So looking at the list below, think about what you would like to QUIT next!

Getting input from too many voices
Focusing too much on inbox zero
Overbooking your calendar
Buying everything there is out there without a strategy
Being unwilling to spend money to make some money
Not asking customers where they found you
Trying to do everything and doing it all alone
Scrolling social media during work hours and calling at work
Not having a website
Having big-picture business goals without breaking them down
Deciding you have to have everything completely figured out before you take action
Surrounding yourself with people who don't get what you do and think you should give up
Working all the time in every spare moment
Focusing too much energy on your unfollows and unsubscribes

I hope some of those will be encouraging to you as ways to take action, and things to stop doing. These are all things that I've learned over eight years in business (as I celebrate my eight-year business anniversary this week)! Thank you for reading until the end!

Links Mentioned:

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4 Ways to Bring God into Your Business as a Christian Business Owner (Part One)

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Today’s episode is inspired by a question I got over and over again in my audience survey last year because a lot of you guys are like me. You want to bring God into your business as a Christian business owner. You are a personal brand business or other type of business but you are not a ministry, and what you do may have literally nothing to do with your faith on paper, but you ARE a Christian business owner and your faith is an important part of who you are and how you show up in the world. It also informs the decisions you make in your business, both the big ones and the small ones.

But maybe you feel like your faith is a secret because you don't know if it's okay to share it as a business owner and you're worried you'll alienate clients or customers who disagree with you. OR - maybe you're feeling like God is calling you to share about your faith, but you're not sure what that looks like when you’re a photographer or a designer (for example!).

So in this episode, I'm sharing four ways to bring your faith in Christ into your everyday work life as a business owner. And stay tuned - we are also doing a part two of this next week where I'm sharing four more ways. Let’s get into it!

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First, I believe that we are not all called to ministry as Christians. But we are all called to be ministers of Christ in our lives and work, regardless of our literal career. I still remember being in high school in Sunday school and having our teacher ask us what we think we want to do when we get older, and I still remember so many of the other girls saying they wanted to be missionaries, or work at a church, or start a non-profit, etc.

At the time, I felt so alone in that I did not feel like God was calling me to overseas ministry or to work at a church or anything like that. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but didn’t feel like that was it.

Flash forward to today, I married someone who did work in ministry for over 5 years for a non-profit Christian ministry and I volunteered in that ministry for 7 years. So I’ve been in that world, intensely so, while running my very “not ministry” business. And while running this business, I’ve also known that I want to talk about my faith sometimes as I feel so called and I don’t want to hide that I’m a Christian. I don’t want my faith life to be separate from my business. I don’t want to live with parts of me in neat little boxes. Maybe you can relate?!

The problem is it can feel hard to figure out how to do it all. So that’s what I want to talk about today: 4 ways that you can integrate your faith and your business.

1. Tithing BIGGER as your business gets bigger.

This is a private way to integrate your faith into your business, but SO REAL when you want to bring God into your business. By tithing, we put money in its place in an industry where it is so easy for money to become an idol. With “6 figure this,” “7 figure that,” “become wealthy this way,” and “buy this course and you’ll make $100k in 6 months,” and so much other stupid (and dishonest) marketing, it’s hard to not let chasing money become everything.

By giving generously you can work towards putting money lower in your world (when it comes to your priorities). By tithing generously, you’re giving back to God what’s his, and really separating your money from “your worth”. Obviously, you're helping other people when you give money to different organizations and to the local church and things like that, but it also impacts you and your relationship with God and your relationship with your business. It is huge for your own personal health to give away money.

I think tithing is amazing, and I love that the Bible calls us to tithe percentage-based, so as your income grows, this number can change. There’s no set dollar amount, When you make more, you can tithe more. Or lower months, that number will naturally be less.

In addition to your local church, I highly recommend tithing to a non-profit that has a mission you feel like you can get behind and your heart feels drawn to (whether that’s foster care, or sex trafficking, or homelessness).

I personally don’t tithe from my business (unless I’m corporate sponsoring a non profit event). This is something I do from our personal finances. And again, you can give to multiple non-profits and organizations. But if you are not tithing from what you make in your business, I just encourage you to pray about this and see what God is leading you to in terms of places and ways to give.

When you are really attached to your money and in scarcity, you’ll probably never feel like you have “enough money to go around” to tithe. There is never enough when you’re in a scarcity mindset, so if that’s where you are, you’ve got to get out of that.

2. Being generous with a client/customer who is in a tough situation.

This generosity can come in a lot of different ways. I’m putting this one right after tithing because it relates! But as a Christian business owner, you can share your faith in a very subtle way just by being generous with your clients/customers when they’re going through something.

This could look like something little like when a client is having a bad day, you send a Starbucks gift card. Or you let a customer pause their payment plans as they get through a rocky time. We’ve had customers who are in rough situations and I don’t think they’re trying to just take advantage and we’ll let them pause payment plans. I had a customer about a year ago who was going through a tough divorce and I sent her a note and gift card to Target.

3. Pray for your customers and clients.

Similarly, praying for customers and clients can be a great way to bring God into your business. There are so many people that you probably frequently interact with through your business but they are not in your everyday life. It can be easy to “forget them” because you only communicate on zoom calls or over the internet. But one way to integrate your faith and business is to pray for your customers and clients often.

This can look like prayer journaling about them by name. It can look like a client of yours who is having a bad month, and not just sending them a sweet note, but actually praying for them.

Something I like to do is pray over customers when they buy. And you might be wondering, what do you pray for? That they’ll find favor with your product or service. That it will go smoothly, that they’ll have wins. I often literally pray that people will be able to customize their Showit template. With my new podcast course, I was praying over every new student that they would be able to have a HUGE WIN from the course, and learn something, and have the time/diligence to take action with it.

This will look different depending on what you do in your work, but this is something we can all do, and it’s something that YES sometimes it might make sense to pray with a client, but you can also do this more privately. Off the top of my head, I don't think I've ever prayed with a client over Zoom or anything like that. This can be private just for you.

4. See yourself as working for the Lord first and foremost.

Colossians 3:23-24 says: “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.”

In my personal opinion, this is not an easy perspective to keep in mind. I often will struggle with this, because earthly validation does feel so good. It also feels SO BAD when someone is unhappy with something you create.

But working for God to serve God first is helpful to remember. Plus, when we keep this in mind practically, I think what it looks like is putting our business in its place. It’s so easy for our business to become an idol and this thing we love so much and put before other priorities like our family, health, marriage, etc.

I think this verse and heavenly perspective on our work help to put our business back where it belongs. Tying it back to the first one about tithing, we are in an industry where it can feel really hard to keep that perspective. There is a lot of glorification of hustle culture. If you don't do all the things, then you're not all in on your business. Hearing that, I just want to tell you that you're allowed to work less, take the vacation, take the time off, have a longer quiet time and start work later.

Basically, I would ask God and pray about it. You can also just reflect on your own how you can put your business in its place and get your priorities straight. This is something that you have to do over and over again. It doesn't just happen and it’s unfortunately not a one-time thing.

Moreover, this also makes me think about asking when it comes to your business decisions — ”does this honor the Lord?”, “What reason am I doing this?”, “Is this what I’m being called to?”. These are all helpful questions to ask ourselves often. Another thing I would add is that you're not going to be able to get that clarity from God and get answers to things when you never have moments of silence and quiet in your life. You need quiet time to vision cast for your business. You can’t always be doing the next thing, listening to podcasts, or scrolling on your phone.

Bringing Your Faith Into Your Business

I hope this episode has helped you start to think of more ways you can practically integrate your faith with your business as a Christian business owner. Ask yourself now, which of these resonates with you? Pray about which ones God could be calling you towards and DO IT.

Next week, I’ll be back with 4 more ways to bring God into your business that are completely different from these ones! Stay tuned!

Links Mentioned

Tune Into Episode 42 with Jena Viviano about Sharing Your Faith as a Business Owner

Tune Into Episode 236 with Brooke Jefferson on How We Can Share Boldly in Our Faith

Connect with Elizabeth on Instagram

Become a Booked Out Designer

Shop Showit Website Templates (Use Code BBPODCAST for 10% off)

Join my FREE Breakthrough Brand All Access Facebook Group

Looking for amazing stock photography and videography? Check Out Haute Stock!

The post 4 Ways to Bring God into Your Business as a Christian Business Owner (Part One) appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

Want Better Results from Your Launches and Sales? Steal My Launch Debrief System

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 10 minutes

In this episode, I’m teaching you how to debrief a launch in your business. If you’re not 100% clear on what I mean by this - don’t worry! We’ll talk about what it is, why you should do one, all the STEPS, and I even have a new resource to share with you — a ready-to-go Google Doc template of my ACTUAL launch debrief process that you can use as your starting point!

Whether you’re just getting started and debriefing your first launch EVER, or if you’ve been in business a while and are already doing some version of this (even just in your head!), I’m going to show you how to do this FOR REAL and effectively for your business. I love this kind of stuff and can’t wait to dive in!

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What Is a Launch Debrief?

My definition of a debrief as it applies to business is basically a breakdown of what happened in a product or service release or a sale in your business. Essentially, it's a breakdown of what happened, what worked, what the numbers were, the data points, screenshots, and things like that. You could debrief a new digital product, release a Black Friday sale, a mastermind door open and close period, launch a course, launch a membership, launch a new service—it could be ANYTHING.

So you're putting into writing (and maybe a video), about what happened during this specific period, whether it's five days, whether it's 10 days, you can include the pre-launch, post-launch, all of it. What happened and what level of detail you do will depend on exactly what it is, as well. For example, a debrief on a Labor Day sale or a Valentine's Day sale on your preexisting course might be smaller because you’re putting less effort into it. That would be different from a launch debrief after you release a new service or a new digital course and promote it heavily.

3 Reasons I Recommend Every Business Owner Have a Launch Debrief

The most common thing I think that most business owners do is we do all this prep-work, then we launch, then we think “YAY - I made this much money” or “ooooh - it didn't go the way I hoped” and then you move on. Then, the next time you go to promote that same product or launch something similar, you don't have any points about “why” a launch was good or bad in a helpful way. Which brings me to my first reason…

1. A debrief is a gift to your future business.

A launch debrief is a way to learn. When you’re in it, you might think….

“of course, I’ll remember that doing a giveaway before the launch started was a good idea”
“of course, I’ll remember that I often get bummed out and worried on day 4 of the launch”
“I shouldn’t do such a significant discount next time”

Whatever the thought you had during the launch… you think you’ll remember but you probably won’t. We are forgetful as people. So the idea behind a launch debrief is that we write it all out so that we can reference it later. Or maybe you grow your team and you’ll be glad you wrote it out so that someone you hire who you don’t even know yet can reference it later.

2. We can’t grow and improve unless we look at what worked and what didn’t at both a micro and macro level.

Another way to look at this is that a launch debrief allows you to compete with yourself and iterate. You literally can’t do that if you don’t remember how it went and if you don’t give yourself feedback. If you don't give yourself feedback. I believe that we don’t want to just go through our business doing the motions, we want to deep dive into things. As business owners, we should be getting into the weeds to find answers. That’s where you’re going to see really good business growth.

I get asked all the time about things like my launch strategy and how I plan launches, how I plan my podcast content around launches (which is something I cover in Podcast Success Blueprint), but I get asked that question a lot, and this debrief is one of the things that I would say I'm doing to help launches go better every single time.

3. HONEST debriefs allow us to not feel crazy.

There are so many highs and lows in business in general, not to mention during a launch week. And in my experience, we often only remember the highs. Looking back at things that were documented during or after the launch can help us not feel so crazy when things happen again because we remember better.

I’ll give you an example of what I mean here. For one of my last template launches/sales, I was super discouraged on day one. Like so discouraged. I did not make many sales on day one, which was not what I expected. Eventually, the launch picked up and I ended up right at my goal, but at first, I was so bummed and was questioning everything in my business. Then, when I looked at the situation in more detail after the launch, I realized that the first day was slower because people needed to LOOK at the new templates. I hadn’t been sharing them much before the launch. Because of that, I believe that people were still deciding what to buy on the first day.

During that particular launch, I tried to do it without a sale as well, and I actually added a sale on day 2 (and honored the sale price, via a refund, for people who bought on day 1) because I realized I wasn’t incentivizing people to buy IMMEDIATELY.

So I learned from that for the future because I wrote it down, and notes like this can help me not feel crazy the next time I decide to launch a template if day one ends up being the lowest day of the launch.

2 Rules for a Launch Debrief

These are the rules I live by with my launch debriefs and I think you should live by them as well. The reason for these rules is that a launch debrief only works if we put the effort into it and we help make it work. This is something that you do during or after a launch, and yes, it's going to take some time but it’s so worth it.

First, you have to be able to be HONEST in it, which means you need a version that is only for you.

You need a version that isn’t going in a Facebook group, that isn’t being shared with your team, and that isn’t something you’ll talk about with your biz friends. You need a version that is for YOU and you alone, so you can be as open and as raw as possible.

In my business, I have a folder on my Google Drive in my “internal projects folder” that is only shared with myself (my team is not on it), and that’s where I keep my “Launch Debriefs” folder. I do share parts of the launch debrief with my team, but I also like to go super super detailed and personal in my main debrief and share stuff that I’m only ok with me seeing myself.

My recommendation is that you also do that. Start with a version for you only, and then edit it to share with your team or wherever else you might want to. I do an [external] and [internal] version.

Second, you need to do it fairly quickly after your launch (and DURING IT) for the feedback to feel accurate.

Again - we’re forgetful! If you want to backlog a launch debrief with just the data, you can do that. But the part where you’re writing how you felt about things and little things that went well and didn’t, you’ll forget it all if you don’t fill that out immediately after.

I’ve had some launches where I’ve checked in every day of it in my launch debrief doc to write notes about that day of the launch and I’ve found those debriefs in particular to be SO helpful later on (go figure!).

How to Create a Launch Debrief

So now I want to talk about the debrief itself and what kind of stuff you want to include. If you want a DFY template - I’m selling my EXACT launch debrief template for just $7 here! It’s based on EXACTLY what I've done in my own business for 8 years and is delivered as a Google Doc so it’s extremely easy to use! It’s 5-6 pages and trust me - it’s way easier than trying to do this from scratch!

Step 1. Data Collection

In my launch debriefs, I go over things like:

Total customers
Where people found me
Payment plans versus pay in full purchases
What I feel like worked and what didn’t work
What I’d change next time
Anything disappointing
Anything thrilling

The list could go on and on and on! Personal;y, I love to start with getting all the data entered into this form (or paste screenshots) from my email software and data from my cart software. I will also include data from Facebook if there were paid ads!

I also want to mention - you don’t need to do all the data analysis yourself. If you do have a team this is a great place to get some help gathering initial data. For smaller launches DIYing makes sense, but when you are dealing with more than 50 customers, I’d say getting help will save you a ton of time!

Here’s what I’d recommend getting your team member(s) to gather (or gathering yourself to start):

Total customers
How many customers did each payment plan variation
Where everyone found you (this should be required on your cart software in my opinion!). In Thrivecart, you can add this as a required question before they buy.
Where people are located (most customers for me are US based, but I like to note international students as well so I can keep time zones in mine for coaching calls).
Top-performing and lowest-performing emails (I add screenshots to my launch debrief for this!)

So that is just some of the data you’ll want to start with, that again, you can get help with gathering BEFORE you start the process of debriefing. Ideally, have your team member gather this data as soon as the launch is over and then send it to you so that you’ll have it ready to go when it’s debriefing time.

There are technically some other data points too that you could have someone else gather, like which days were the highest and lowest in the launch and things like that. But, I personally like to look at all of that myself in ThriveCart to really feel like I can analyze the whole picture.

Other financial data to collect in your launch debrief:

Total revenue (Cash in door - either pre or post processing fee)
Total revenue (Coming later if all payment plans fulfill)
For a membership, you may want to look at the expected yearly revenue on the monthly payments
Launch spending (what did you buy that relates specifically to this launch?)
- The copywriter who wrote the sales page
- The designer who designed the sales page
- Gifts for customers
- Giveaway spending (if applicable)
- Any contractor you paid JUST for work on this launch
- Advertising costs
- If there’s a software you bought to use during the launch only but maybe you’re stopping with

Depending on the style of launch

If you hosted a webinar, you’ll want to include data like how many people registered, how many attended live, and how many attendees bought during the webinar and after the webinar. If you did an Instagram live, how many people watched? Did it contribute to the success of the launch? If you did a private podcast, how many downloads and subscribers were there? If you had email list growth, how many people were on the waitlist? Finally, if you ran Facebook ads, what was the conversion rate and/or click-through rate?

Step 2. Analyze the data.

Now it’s time to analyze the data! This is going to look different for each type of launch and launch debrief. For example, as you guys know, I have a course I do launch debriefs for, and then I have template releases and template sales. Every launch debrief is a little different as to what I care about (and therefore what it includes).

Even as I look over my own debriefs for past launches, I notice a huge trend in my own debriefs in that every one of them is slightly different in what I did/didn’t do based on my current NEED around that particular launch. This means that:

Sometimes, I did a day-by-day analysis in real-time.
Sometimes, I include screenshots of the email data and info under each email about how I think it did.
Sometimes, I’ve kept the launch debrief more over arching about the whole experience, others have more details.
Sometimes, I add lots of links and graphic screenshots, other times I keep the analysis high level!

Truly, I’ve had 3 page debriefs and 10 page debriefs. It really depends. My recommendation to you would be to do what you need. The template you’ll start with if you buy my debrief template is 5 pages! But you may not use every single part every single time and you may also choose to add in your own things.

Step 3. Create Your Launch Debrief

The first thing you need to include is WHAT exactly was the offer. For example, it could be “I was selling X at 20% off for 5 days). You may include the dates, the price, that kind of thing.

Then, I like to include a general description of what happened and what I did (either overarching or broken down day by day).

Next, I like to include a section on what went well and what didn’t go well. For example, “The giveaway was amazing and brought so much traction” or “I felt discouraged on day one and I should’ve posted on Instagram more”. My advice here is to take your time and expand well on each thing! Remember that this is a gift to your future business!

Next, I love to have a “takeaways” section. In this section, I’m kind of summarizing the data and reminding myself for next time to do (or don’t do) these specific things. For example, “I loved ending the launch in the afternoon instead of midnight” or “I felt like the sale was too long because I was exhausted”.

At the end, I like to include all the screenshots. Generally, I like to include screenshots and links that are helpful to reference later on in the actual doc, but if you have a TON you can also consider creating a separate drive folder as well. I will include launch graphics or even a reel I felt performed really well.

Lastly, and this is new, I will create a video going over everything for myself. Sometimes it’s easier for me to talk it all out than to type out all of my notes. My one for the Black Friday launch was 20 minutes (not short!). It really was just for me talking about the sale, and I had the debrief and screenshots pulled up, and I paused and restarted as needed. I talked through what I was feeling, what worked, what didn’t, what I want to remember, etc. I will be referencing it and rewatching it before this year’s Black Friday sale!

After Your Launch Debrief

Once you're done with your debrief, if you're doing an internal and external version so you can share it with your team or someone else, you can duplicate it and make those two versions. Again, it can also just only be for you. And if you do have a team you're sharing this with, you could have a whole meeting where you're debriefing the launch together, or you can even make them a loom video about it so that you never even have to do the actual meeting.

Then, the next time you're doing a sale or launch of that product or a similar product, you can open it up and remind yourself what worked and what didn't. You learn from the wins and you learn from the mistakes, and your launches get better every time.

To give you a recent example, before I launched the beta round of Podcast Success Blueprint I looked at my launch debrief from the beta launch of Booked Out Designer from THREE years ago!

Grab My Launch Debrief Template Here

If you’re ready to start doing this (and I hope that you are because it’ll make a BIG difference in your business), you can grab my launch debrief template for an insanely affordable price here. Once purchased, you can keep reusing it in your business over and over again. Grab your copy here!

Links Mentioned:

Grab my Complete Launch Debrief Template Now

Connect with Elizabeth on Instagram

Become a Booked Out Designer

Shop Showit Website Templates

Join my FREE Breakthrough Brand All Access Facebook Group

The post Want Better Results from Your Launches and Sales? Steal My Launch Debrief System appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

Bible Verses to Encourage You in Goal Setting & Vision Casting as a Business Owner

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Today, I'm sharing some scripture three bible verses to encourage you that have come for me in the last month or so. I thought this would be a great way to kick off January (or really, any time we as business owners are goal setting and vision casting in our business). I think these verses will be encouraging to you and they can also be really great things to pray over your business this year.

Once you’re done listening, I would even encourage you to look these up in your own Bible and read them in the context of the whole chapter (really explore them and read them in different translations and all of that good stuff!).

As a bonus, if you want these as pretty lock screens for your phone, I made a few different options for you! Head here to download them now!

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“The people who know their God will display strength and take action.” - Daniel 11:32

The first piece of scripture is from Daniel 11:32 which says, “the people who know their God will display strength and take action”. This verse to me is a calling as a business owner, as a wife, as a mama, as a woman of faith to know God. The people who know their God will display strength and take action. Knowing God in the many decisions you'll have to make this year (and today), and in your personal and professional life is so important. I know for me, I want to be a businesswoman who displays strength and takes thoughtful action.

In business (and really all areas of life), how many times are you faced with decisions where you don’t know what to do? The presence of God in us can cause us to reflect his reality in our world.

Here’s a quote from Sally Clarkson (from her devotional book, “Mom Heart Moment”). I personally did it last year and am doing it again this year. Here’s what she said:

“What does it mean to display strength? We face constant challenges in which we could be discouraged or bitter or develop a victim mentality that suggests we are unfairly limited by our difficult circumstances. However, this verse in Daniel suggests that even in every circumstance when one is walking with God, strength will be available.

Taking action means taking initiative to do something, pursuing the harvest field of the lost, working diligently, and engaging resources for much-needed kingdom work. Passivity and laziness are never seen in the character of God.

Consequently, when we are in the presence of God and are in his word daily, we see that he has compassion on the poor, so we have compassion for the poor. He is holy, so we are to be holy. He forgives us so we are compelled to forgive. He is the servant leader, so we serve those around us. “

I would like to ask you a few things with this (that I'm asking myself too!).

First, how can I be in the word of God more? Not just reading it but really looking at how Jesus acts and how can I apply what's happening in this story to my own life in a very practical way
How can I act as a business owner this year, and again as a mother, as a wife, as a friend, in all the roles we play, but how can I really show up better?
Knowing God is the first step of that. How can we know God better? We talk to him, and we read his word.

I love Jen Wilkins saying, “the heart cannot love what the mind does not know”. That saying always sticks with me as I think about why reading the Bible is so important (versus just praying or reading a devotional book or attending church or whatever else you could do).

I know for me, I want to be in scripture even more intentionally this year. And I'd ask yourself to do some closing questions with the scripture.

What are ways you can display strength in your own life?
What are ways that maybe God is calling you to take action today and in this year?
What are some things you could do to tactically be in the word of God more this year so that God can be the guiding decision-maker for you as you take action in your business?

John 15: 1-8

From the MSG translation, it reads

1-3 “I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken.

4 “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.

5-8 “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.

In this scripture, Jesus is describing himself as the vine, and God as the gardener, and I don't know about you, but I've struggled at times with this scripture because I don't know anything about winemaking. I certainly love me some wine, but I do not know anything about making wine in a vineyard from grapes or anything like that.

However, something I've thought about with this scripture is flowers in a vase. Let me explain - I think it can help make this verse land more practically in a way that we see it in everyday life.

A flower, when it's cut off from its branch, is so beautiful and when we take it home, we put it in a vase, and we can temporarily enjoy it. But even when we give it fresh water, and we put that little flower powder packet that's supposed to keep it healthy, it is going to die eventually because it’s been cut off from its original source.

I think of us as humans, as Christians, and how it's like, perhaps you are thriving for a while completely cut off from Jesus (just like that flower in a vase looks gorgeous). But ultimately, when you're cut off from your source, it doesn't last.

The scripture says you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me and that when you're joined with Jesus, and he's joined with you, the harvest is sure to be abundant. I love that phrase.

This even goes back to scripture reading from Daniel we just talked about, because in this scripture in John, Jesus says, “If you make yourself at home with me, and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon”.

So as you set goals for the year (or at any time in your business) and you do these action items to get started, the thing I take from this is, “How can I ultimately stay connected to Jesus through it all and not be cut off from my source?”

Just as a reminder, if you want these as lock screens, you can get those below!

“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

Fun fact: this verse is actually on a lot of my templates. It’s one of my all time favorite verses so if you bought a website template from me, if you really look at the filler copy, you might see this verse.

This verse reminds me that it's God in me that allows me to accomplish things, infinitely more than I could think or ask. I think it's so interesting how we can have dreams for our lives and our businesses and we think that one thing, one vision, one of our versions of whatever it is, is the best thing and the only way.

So for example, we might think, “if only I get this client” or “if only I can hit the coveted six figures”, or “if I start running Facebook ads and this problem will go away”, or “if I hire this person, then it'll be it”. This verse reminds me that God sees things that we don't. And when you let him work in you, more is accomplished and we can bring him more glory.

As a Christian business owner, I'm trying to do so many different things in my business. I'm trying to make money for my family, I'm trying to help other people grow their businesses through my products, but I also want to bring glory to God through it all and I think this verse really hits home with that.

I also think of this as “God never wastes anything”. So when you think something you're going through in your business does not make sense, you're going through something, it's challenging, it's frustrating, it does not make sense, be action-oriented and work on it but also find quiet moments to trust God and listen in. Lean on him and ask him for wisdom. Ask him to work his mighty power within you.

This verse is actually even in my most recent business journal, if you have ever heard me talk about how I love journaling, this was the verse I wrote as the declaration over my whole business dreams journal.

No matter how small your work seems compared to other things in the world or in your life, God cares about you and God cares about your business.

To close up here, I really want to encourage you to know that God cares about you and God cares about your business. He cares about your clients, he cares about your customers, he cares about what you're doing. He cares about that stressful refund request or client situation or bad financial month. He cares about it all, and nothing is too big or small to bring to him, both good and bad.

I think praying for wisdom and discernment as you set goals and approach new projects, new visions, and new decisions in your business, is so important. Come to God with it all.

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Scripture mentioned: Daniel 11:32, John 15:1-8, Ephesians 3:20-21

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How to Host a Team Vision Meeting to Kick Off the Year (or Quarter!)

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 06:00:02 +0000

Reading Time: 10 minutes

Today, I’m sharing ALL about planning a team vision meeting. I rarely hear people talking about this, but it has been immensely impactful in my own business. So, naturally, I wanted to share it with you all.

What I mean by team vision meetings is a gathering to kick off the year, close a year, start a new quarter, or even halfway through the year. It's where you lay out the exact direction we're heading in as a team. We discuss the business goals and how each person plays a role in achieving them. I like to review data from the previous quarter or year and interpret what it means for me. These team vision meetings are a great time to identify what's working, what's not, and where we're headed. It's a comprehensive overview of our progress and future plans.

In my opinion, team vision meetings are not just for large companies (where these types of meetings are more common). it's also great for us business owners who have small teams, whether they are all contractors or partly remote.

In this episode, I'm sharing exactly how I do this. You can also put your own spin on it, but I'll be sharing what it looked like in my business last year. I hosted two of these sessions - one to kick off the year and another halfway through to recap our progress and set new goals. As we start another year, I'm currently preparing for the upcoming meeting while recording this episode. It's fresh in my mind, and I’m so excited to dive in!

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5 Reasons Why You Should Host a Team Vision Meeting

Before we dive in, I want to mention that this is relevant to you, even if you have just one contractor contributing a few hours a week to your business. They play a role in your business goals. So whether you have a small, medium, or large team, this applies to you. And if you don't have a team yet, still listen to this episode because you can adapt it for yourself and I think you’ll still find it effective.

1. We often don’t talk about the overall vision enough with our team

One main reason you should host a team vision meeting is that we often fail to discuss the company's overall vision with the entire team, especially remote members or contractors. As a visionary, you may have ideas about the potential outcomes of social media or deadlines for launching projects, or you may feel disappointed with certain metrics and are hoping for improvements. But, and this is the key part - you keep these thoughts to yourself. By hosting a more formal meeting, you can communicate the company's direction to your team in one sitting, which ultimately leads to better clarity and alignment for the year ahead.

2. You can give ownership to people on your team

I also love this because it empowers team members to take ownership. When they understand the vision, they can contribute unique ideas to drive business growth. Sharing goals with the team encourages them to come up with ideas (and share them with you) that they might not have otherwise thought of. I've personally seen how good communication breeds ownership, not just in coming up with ideas, but also in taking pride in their work. This is especially important for small teams where contractors might feel a bit disconnected from the bigger picture.

3. It creates team bonding in an environment where team bonding is tougher

If you're like me, your team may be small and maybe even spread out across the world. It's not as easy to bond compared to working in the same office or living in the same city. In my experience, these team vision meetings help create a strong work bond because it reminds everyone that we are all working towards common goals, even if they don't directly relate to our individual tasks. It's great to see and talk to each other about them.

4. Even if you’re talking about your goals in weekly or monthly meetings, it’s great to have a meeting where this your complete focus

Even if you're talking about your goals in a weekly or monthly meeting, it's super helpful to have a dedicated session solely focused on them. My next team meeting, scheduled at the beginning of the year, will be all about visioning. No practical discussions about failed payments, emails, or upcoming launches. It's all about presenting and sharing the vision. It might feel a bit like a webinar, as I'll explain in detail below, but it's really important to have a meeting solely dedicated to this big focus, without getting caught up in the day-to-day stuff.

5. You coming up with a vision in a way that you can clearly COMMUNICATE to someone else is important. And it helps you and your business overall.

Finally, it's super important to have a clear vision that you can effectively communicate to others. This is true even if you're working solo because it helps your overall business. We often have big goals and ideas that end up being unclear or undocumented. But when you have to explain your goals and lay out your path to someone else, it pushes you to create a game plan. This way, your vision isn't just in your head but is effectively shared with others.

How to Plan Your Team Vision Meeting

Alright, let me break down how I run and lead this kind of meeting. There's no one-size-fits-all method to it. Every business is one-of-a-kind. But hey, I'll share what I've personally done, and my team has loved it too. This is exactly how I plan to handle mine for this year as well.

1. As the CEO, I come up with our company goals and the vision for the new year.

The first step as CEO is to establish goals and vision for the year. For me, this process typically spans a few weeks, with dedicated moments of focus. I don't often have the luxury of a whole day to vision cast, so instead I find time in between tasks to work on this. For instance, yesterday I wrapped up recording lessons for the new podcast success blueprint. Then, during a free hour before picking up my son from preschool, I reviewed social media data from last year and took notes. These small bursts of productivity add up to crafting a comprehensive plan.

I like to consider our goals for the upcoming year and analyze data from the previous year to inform our decisions. Instead of focusing on the last 30 days, like I might do throughout the year, I take a holistic view of the entire year. This is the perfect opportunity to review your data if you haven't done so already. I personally keep detailed notes in a private document.

Once I finish that, I translate it to another document. By "translate," I mean duplicate it in an edit to share with the whole team. We have it on Clickup, where anyone can reference it at any time. So, they can see what the presentation was based on, the goals, and a written version different from what I'll share in the actual presentation.

Lastly, I want to note that you might not have to do this step alone. You could work with a team member on some of these goals before your vision meeting. Last year, I did this whole step on my own and presented it to my team. However, this year, my marketing assistant and I are meeting one-on-one before the meeting, a week or so in advance. I'll discuss the goal ideas specific to marketing and show her the data. I'll ask her opinion, if she thinks they're achievable or if she sees another direction. I'll send her all the document stuff before the meeting, so we don't have to go through it all together. Instead, we'll meet and talk about it, figuring out which goals make sense. She'll help me finalize some of the details before the team vision meeting.

2. I Create a Presentation in Canva

The presentation is often quite lengthy. Last year's version had a whopping 56 slides! However, the length can vary, and I do go through some of them quickly. The meeting itself lasts around an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. During the PowerPoint, I cover everything from data and goals to the business's word of the year. I'll share all the details with you shortly. The slides are designed to be visually engaging, typically featuring text and photo backgrounds. It can feel similar to a webinar or a presentation for an online summit or speaking engagement.

3. I schedule a meeting with the team (often our first of the year!)

And then the third step is scheduling a team meeting. It's typically our first meeting of the year, where we set the goals and vision for the whole year. Then in future meetings, we'll check in on the progress of these goals. We use Zoom for these meetings, so I can present in a casual manner, allowing the team to ask questions. Encourage team members to take notes on ideas or topics they want to discuss later. After the meeting, I'll have one-on-one conversations over Slack with each team member to get their thoughts on everything.

Also, it's worth noting that this could be a great opportunity to involve other team members who aren't as involved in the day-to-day operations of the business. You might have a couple of core individuals who are constantly in touch with you through Slack and ClickUp, working alongside you. However, this could also be a chance to invite other professionals like your podcast editor, bookkeeper, or frequently collaborating copywriter. Of course, you would pay them for their time, but it could be beneficial to have them join this discussion.

What I Share During a Team Vision Meeting

My Words of the Year For the Business

Firstly, I'm sharing the business's words for the year. I discussed these and how to incorporate them into your own business on episode 245. If you missed it, give it a listen as it's an excellent episode. These words are not only for your personal life but also for your business. I will share these words and their meanings with my team, highlighting how they align with our goals and connect with what happened last year. It's not only about the word itself, but grasping why it matters and how it impacts our goals.

Sales Data From the Past Year

The second thing I share is basically sales data: where customers come from, what's working, what's popular, what's not working. For example, last year our top referral sources for new sales were this source. The product that sold the most was this. We had our highest month of revenue and our lowest, and this is why I think that is.

Additionally, I share some results. For instance, imagine this year if our goal was to launch 20 new products (or halfway through the year, if applicable). If we set a goal of doing this thing 20 times at the beginning of the year and we've only done it five times by now, we're not on pace for that goal. So from there we can discuss whether we adjust the goal or pick up our pace.

While I believe sharing data is important, I also don’t want you to feel pressure to share everything. For example, if you're not into sharing exact revenue and sales figures with your team, that's cool. You can still share valuable insights without diving into specific numbers. During a team vision meeting it’s also a great time to zero in on what's working and give props to team members when the work they are doing is contributing to the company goals.

My Goals for the Year

And then the third thing I discuss is the goals for the year categorized by the words of the year I set above. Each word has its own set of goals, though not necessarily a specific number. We go through each one, explaining what it means and how we plan to achieve it. We also touch on what's on the horizon for the year, for example, this year we will be including my upcoming maternity leave and its impact on the structure. Action items are assigned to each goal for team members, ensuring everyone knows what role they play.

Problems from the Previous Year

And another thing I include is reflecting on both challenges and successes from the previous year, and the lessons learned. Looking back at my presentation from last year, I openly shared with my team the areas where I felt our systems fell short, what I learned from it, and how it will shape our new goals and strategies. This is an opportunity to let your team in on insights they might not otherwise have, helping them understand the reasons behind the direction we're taking. That's the essence of the meeting.

Make sure to grab my free team vision planning guide below to walk you through the process and take ACTION!

Final Advice for Hosting a Team Vision Meeting

And here are some final tips to wrap things up. Remember, the goals you set for your business can change. That's why it's helpful to revisit them later in the year and have a place where everyone can reference them. Simply making a presentation with goals is not enough. You need to regularly check in on them and ensure you remember what they are. Consider having another meeting later in the year or even quarterly to discuss progress. Maybe you can kick off each quarter with a longer meeting to set the tone for the year, and then follow up with shorter check-ins.

It's also important to have a clear area where all the goals are laid out, accessible to any team member. Remember, the goals shouldn't just live in a PowerPoint. If you ever need to know what the goal was for something, like the number of guest interviews you planned to do this year, you should be able to find and see it. The key message here is that you must revisit and communicate the goals, as they can change even if the overall vision for the business remains the same.

And I also want to tell you, whenever you're listening to this, it's a good time to host your first team vision meeting. Don't feel like it has to be January. People say there's nothing magical about January 1st when it comes to goals and they’re right. You can start at any point. Maybe it's the middle of August and you're like, "Hey, I'm finally going to set goals for my company and share them with my team for the first time." You can literally do this at any time. There's no rhyme or reason to when. But I wanted to share this with you so that if you do want to kick off the year this way, you can! Happy New Year!

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Setting Goals? 2 BIG Lessons I Learned This Year + 2 BIG Moves I’m Making in 2024

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 11 minutes

Before setting goals for the next year, I like to take some time to reflect on the previous year. It's a chance to evaluate what worked, what didn't, and relive the best memories, like the places I traveled and the things I accomplished in my business. In this episode, I want to take you along on this journey with me, sharing some practical business insights I learned in 2023 that can help you grow your business in the new year. Additionally, I'm going to be sharing two things I'll be focusing on in 2024. As always, I’m sharing practical tips in case you have the same goals as well!

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Reflecting on 2023

Before diving into the first two lessons, let me share a glimpse of 2023. 2023 was a BIG year for me. I was able to sort out some team member things (that I will share more about below).

Additionally, it marked the end of nursing Colin at the end of April. So, for most of the year, I wasn't nursing a toddler or baby anymore, which is quite unbelievable. If you've been a nursing mom recently or ever, you'll understand the impact it has on your life when you stop nursing. Now, I'm about to enter that wonderful phase again as I'm pregnant with baby number two, due very soon. Also, in June of 2023, I found out I was pregnant again. Hence, I've spent half of this year being pregnant, which has been a major highlight. It feels like time has flown by. How am I already in the third trimester? How is the baby almost here? I have no clue.

This year, I went on eight trips, half for work and the other half for fun vacations or family holidays. I managed to strike a better work-life balance this year than during Colin's entire life so far.

In my life as a mom, I have a toddler boy who's a little over two years old and I'm also pregnant with a second baby boy. In 2023, we had childcare three days a week throughout the year, except for holidays. This allowed me to focus more on work and maintain consistency. In contrast, in 2022, we didn't have any outside childcare, and my husband and I were handling everything together. It was a different experience. This year, I felt a sense of stability and strength with my schedule. So if you're currently in a different season, remember that things can change and I feel you there! I know I’m about to enter into the season again where that's less of the case!

I also launched a lot of new templates this year, which was so much fun. There were many new add-ons, full site templates, and all sorts of designing things. Additionally, I introduced an exciting new course called the Podcast Success Blueprint. Interestingly, launching this course wasn't initially part of my goals for 2023, but as we adjusted our objectives throughout the year, it became a reality. It's been really fulfilling to see it come to fruition! I'm currently working on completing it, which is a lot of fun. It was a BIG year!

Now, let me share two of the lessons I learned.

1. Being in a season full of “yeses” is fun BUT there’s also growth happening in seasons of “no”.

This year was filled with more yeses for me. I said yes to podcast interviews, speaking engagements, online summits, partnerships, and trying new things. In contrast, in 2022, I had fewer public-facing commitments and a more irregular work schedule with a newborn. I also took maternity leave during that year and moved to a new house right at the beginning. So, a lot was happening!

This year, I traveled more for work, attended more conferences, and took part in more online ventures that involved some level of risk because I hadn’t tried them before. I participated in two online summits and taught free classes for Dubsado users and Showit Designers. I have to admit - it was a lot of work, and some opportunities were easy to say yes to, while others made me think, "I'm not sure if this will be worth it, but let's give it a try and see." I was also interviewed on over 20 podcasts this year, so there were plenty of yeses there too!

But here's the lesson for me. 2023 was a year of saying yes. I had more stability in my life and business, and one of my main goals was to increase visibility. So it made sense to focus on that. All the yeses felt good, and I didn't have any resentment. I was excited because it all made sense.

In 2024, I'll have fewer yeses because I'll be on maternity leave for part of the year and focusing more on behind-the-scenes work in my business. And that will feel good too. There's still growth, just in a different way. So I encourage you to remember that everything has its season. You might find yourself in a year where you're nursing a baby and only working during nap times, or where you went back to a 9-to-5 job and feel defeated, or where you said yes but feel like it was to the wrong things.

Regardless, life and business have their seasons. For me, in the little years of parenting, the different business seasons are shorter-lived and you move between them quickly. But when you're in the thick of things, it may not feel that way.

A Tip for You Going Into 2024

Think ahead to 2024 and consider what you want to say yes and no to. Identify the opportunities that sound delightful and the ones that may be distractions. Will it be a yes season or a no season for you? Both have their value! Creating a list of things you're interested in saying yes to and things that will be no can be beneficial AHEAD of time so you don’t feel reactive in the year (and you can feel more confident in your decisions).. Store it on your computer or a document for easy access (somewhere easy to find - not a notebook you’ll never look at again). Remember, you can always change your mind, but having a reference like this can help you make better decisions.

Having the right people in the right seats within your team is everything!

Last year, I faced some team struggles, which were my responsibility. I had difficulty with hiring and determining the right roles for people. It wasn't that anyone on my team was doing anything wrong, but I felt overwhelmed and needed more support in certain areas. It was like a mental chess game for me. This was particularly challenging because I had already hired for positions that were easier to fill, like customer support and design assistant. However, I struggled with deciding if I should hire certain roles that should have additional responsibilities or if someone already on the team should handle them. I struggled with keeping my team small while expanding. I was constantly asking myself, like should this role handle this or that, or should someone already in the business take care of it, or should I outsource? It was all very confusing!

I also hired a marketing assistant this year, which I honestly believe was the most challenging role to fill. There's something about marketing as a job that's harder to define in terms of job descriptions and finding the right fit. That's one of the toughest roles I've ever hired for. Marketing as a job can be tricky to define in terms of job descriptions and finding the right fit, especially for small business owners and personal brand businesses. As someone who genuinely enjoys marketing, I found it challenging to determine what tasks I should delegate and what I should handle myself. It's an interesting process, but definitely took some time to figure out.

At the end of 2022, I had also just hired a podcast manager (I kind of consider this a 2023 hire since I hired her right at the end of the year). But now, as 2023 comes to a close, I feel confident in having a strong, exceptional team in place. I can't express enough how much this boosts my confidence as a CEO and improves the overall smoothness of operations. Managing a team is indeed work, and I'm still learning and figuring things out. So I just feel like I'm still always learning and figuring things out and growing as a leader, literally through every conversation, every project, all the things. But this has been huge for me this year, and it's been interesting stepping into a more visionary role in some areas of the business.

If You’re Growing a Team This Year, Here’s My Advice!

If hiring for marketing positions feels difficult, it's because it is. As small business owners, finding the right marketing help, whether it's for social media, email writing, or hiring an actual marketing manager, can be more challenging. So if you're experiencing this difficulty after previously finding hires to be less challenging, it's because marketing is inherently more challenging. I really believe that!

And then, as you grow your team, take the time to play that mental chess with yourself. Weigh out different options that could make sense for your team structurally. Trust me, it's worth every single minute. Even though it may not feel like you're seeing immediate growth in the business, spending an hour typing into a document or drawing diagrams on a piece of paper can set your business up for future success.

I know it can be hard to figure out, and I'm still figuring out aspects of it myself. But when I first started, I had so many documents in my ClickUp “visionary area” dedicated to figuring this out. I spent so much time on it, asking others, listening to podcasts, and seeking resources. And let me tell you, it was worth it. So, every minute you invest in this might be challenging, and you might feel like you're never going to get someone in the right seat or that it's too hard and confusing. You might even think it's easier to do it all yourself. But I want to encourage you that it absolutely is worth it.

Bonus Lesson: Having a Word for the Year Was HUGE

So here's a bonus lesson I want to share before I look ahead to 2024. It's about having a word for the year (I talked about this in episode 245, just a few episodes back). I truly believe it's a can't-miss episode for you as an entrepreneur. Having these words provided me with direction, focus, and a lens to make decisions in my business throughout the year.

And listen, I know it's hard to predict a whole year. As a business owner, I personally like to think in quarters. It's challenging to decide what exact thing I'm going to do in November of this year when it feels so far away. You never know how your life and business will change. However, I did choose to have overarching goals and my three words for the year. All my goals fell under those words.

And to be honest, I did decide not to pursue some goals because they didn't align anymore when the time came up. You might still change your goals too. But for me, focusing on my three words of the year gave me clarity and allowed me to make different decisions in Q4. I had accomplished what I set out to do in the prior quarters. It’s OK to change your mind!

Now - Let’s Talk About 2024!

Personally, with the baby due at the end of February or beginning of March, I almost kind of think about after he arrives as being 2024 and the first couple of months almost feel like “still 2023” for me.

So my goals for 2024 will be different from 2023, which was a more stable year. And that's okay. Different seasons of life require different things from us. Looking ahead to 2024, I'll have more personal life goals and a different focus. My business will still be important, but I have fewer goals, and will be focusing more on a few bigger projects. I'll also be spending a lot of time at home with my new baby boy. Just like with my son Colin, we don't plan on using outside childcare for a while. So I'll need to be resourceful and make the most of nap times, just like I did in the past. In 2023, I had more help with childcare, so it was less of a challenge. But I remember that naptime hustle from when Colin was a baby!

Here are two things I’m focusing on for the year:

#1 I’m Rebranding my Business

I'm rebranding my business, which is pretty crazy. I haven't shared it on the podcast yet, but I did talk about it a bit on social media. It's been a long time coming, but I want to clarify that I'm not changing my business name. I'll still be Elizabeth McCravy, and the Breakthrough Brand podcast will stay the same. I'm not changing the names of my courses either (in fact, I’m in the process of trademarking them!).

However, I am updating the visuals for my business, like the fonts, colors, and logos. I'm even designing a brand new website. My current site is quite large and not very cohesive because it has grown over time with new additions and changes. So, I'm really excited to create a new website that is more cohesive and takes my business in a different direction. This is why I'll be focusing more on behind-the-scenes work in 2024 rather than front-facing marketing. It's like the calm before a big reveal and a big change.

Behind-the-scenes of My Rebrand

The work involved in the new website and rebranding is a lot, but I'm thrilled about it. I'll share more details closer to the time, and I plan to do a whole podcast episode about the rebrand once everything is done.

I'm currently making some changes to improve the shopping experience, like my affiliate program and the hosting of my template shop. It's a lot of behind-the-scenes work, but it will be worth it in the long run. The rebranding process is still ongoing, but you'll start seeing some changes on social media gradually. I prefer making adjustments in smaller increments that make sense for me. The new brand is more cohesive and aligned with the direction I want my business to take in the coming year. While it’s a significant investment, I’m so excited for the direction I’m heading!

#2 I’m Focusing on Visibility Again in 2024 (But in a Different Way!)

If you listened to episode #245 where I shared my words of the year, you’ll know that traffic was one of my three words for the year in 2023. And by traffic I meant more eyes of my business and products. We had specific goals for increasing visibility and trying new things in terms of word traffic. We also aimed for summits and other similar activities. It was a major goal for the year, and I had a lot of fun and exciting experiences (like I mentioned above - there were a lot of YESES).

I won't publicly reveal my words for the year on this podcast, just like last year (I think I will do a big reveal at the end like I did this time!). However, I'll be focusing on visibility in a different approach that aligns better with my current season of life as a new mom. So if you take anything away from this I really just want you to know that sometimes your business will go through seasons and that’s GOOD and NORMAL. What made sense for me last year won’t make sense this year.

Setting 2024 Goals

So there's a little snippet of my 2024 goals and year plans. In January and February, I'll be focused on coursework for Podcast Success Blueprint and preparing for maternity leave. Then, I'll transition into other things and take maternity leave. The year will feel shorter, but I'm still excited and optimistic about it all. I hope you take the time to reflect on your own year before setting goals. It's so helpful.

Lastly, don’t forget that you can be flexible with your goals. Just because you decide something in December or January doesn't mean you can't change your mind in October and do something completely different. It's a commitment, but one that you can revisit. Sometimes the method to achieve a goal changes, but the overarching vision for your business remains. You might scrap a goal but come up with another one that still works towards that vision. So, reflect on your year, think of goals as commitments, but know that you can change them. A helpful tip (at least in my experience) is to think of the year in quarters. Have an overarching vision, but break your goals into quarters. It's been really helpful for me at least!

Take My End of Year Survey!

Lastly, thank you so much for an awesome year of podcasting! I'd love to hear your feedback and what you'd like to see more or less of in 2024. Your input will help shape future episodes and products. The survey is anonymous, and you'll even have the option to ask me anything. As a token of appreciation, 10 lucky participants will win Starbucks gift cards. The survey deadline is early January, and you can get started here! Thank you!!

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Setting Goals for 2024? How to Choose a BUSINESS Word of the Year (And How This Practice Absolutely Changed My Life in 2023!)

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 9 minutes

Let's talk about having a word of the year for your business! I've alluded to having a word of the year (I actually had THREE words of the year) on the show many times so if you're a regular listener, you've heard me talk about this already but today I’m sharing WHAT those words are, why I picked them, why this matters, and how you can do the same!

On top of that, I’m going to share practical ways that having a word of the year has positively impacted my business this year, and I'll also give you tips on how to keep your word of the year at the forefront of your mind for the entire 365 days. I know how easy it is to choose a word and forget about it. Ready to get started?

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What is a Word of the Year?

Let's start by talking about why having a word of the year is so beneficial for your business. I feel like the concept of a word of the year has gained popularity in recent years, in the realm of goal setting, but I think that it is commonly associated with personal life goals. I know I’ve practiced this for a long time in my personal life, and I do find it to be an important part of goal setting for the new year. And while some years I did really well with it (I even had a necklace made with my word of the year once!), some years I felt that my “chosen word” fell short because I would forget about it as the year went on. By the end of the year - sometimes I couldn’t even remember what my word WAS.

Regardless, I've always enjoyed doing it in my personal life but never incorporated it into my business. So, let me quickly explain what a "word of the year" is with some examples in case this idea is new to you. Essentially, it's a word that defines how you want to show up and live your life in the upcoming year. Some examples of words of the year you might hear people say are: flourish, grounded, happy, adventure, brave, faithful, joyful, play, peace, and rest. These words can then guide your goals and actions for the year. For instance, if your word for the year is "play," you might set goals to engage in more fun activities and be more playful. If your word is "rest," you might prioritize taking breaks and spend less time on your phone or other distractions.

This is a popular trend during this time of year—choosing a word that represents your goals and discussing it while setting resolutions. However, it seems rare to hear people applying this concept to their businesses. Am I the only one who does this? It's surprising that not many business owners have a separate personal word for the year from their business word of the year. Personally, my word of the year often has nothing to do with my business. Instead, it'll have to do with my motherhood, my marriage, my faith, my health, things like that.

Why Have a Separate Word of the Year for Your Business?

You are not your business. And I believe that by declaring a shared word of the year, we unintentionally blur the line between ourselves and our business. Your business is a separate entity with its own objectives and possibly other employees. You are merely a part of your business, not synonymous with it. On top of that, having a word of the year for your business can provide focus and guidance when making decisions throughout the year. Personally, this approach helped me view business decisions through a specific lens.

Choosing Your Word of the Year

First, when it comes to coming up with your words of the year, the process is similar to how you would approach personal words. It involves brainstorming, journaling, and aligning it with your goal-setting. Remember that these words should be connected to your actual business goals for the year.

For me, I came up with my words in December of the previous year and started incorporating them into my activities in January. I didn't share them widely because they felt special and private to me, almost like a secret. I wanted them to be personal for me and the people working on these goals with me. I did share them with some close business friends and my husband, who I remember discussing with to finalize one of the words. My entire team knew about them, and we even had a meeting centered around these words.

I didn't announce them loudly because I valued the privacy of it (it still feels a little funny to share them here today!). So, as you think about your own words for the year, whether in business or personal life, remember that it doesn't have to be something you share with everyone or post on social media. It can be something just for you and the people who are helping you achieve these goals.

My Words of the Year for 2023 Were Templates, Team and Traffic

For templates, it obviously refers to my Showit website template shop, which actually celebrated its fifth anniversary this year. Within that goal, I aimed to revamp various elements of the template shop and create more templates, including specific add-on templates that I wanted to design this year. Templates were a major focus in my business, and although I didn't accomplish everything I had planned to do (and want to do) this year, I made significant progress.

For team, what does that mean? For me, it meant making some new hires and improving team communication. I also implemented new systems and restructured some processes which was a big focus for the year. Two of the hires I’ve made more recently were ones that I believe are some of the hardest hires to make in your business. And looking ahead to next year, I'll be starting maternity leave in early March, so my team will continue to play a crucial role in my business. As the year comes to a close, I've been delegating more and figuring out how to navigate maternity leave.

Lastly, for traffic, that really means visibility and marketing. So I’ve been putting myself out there more and maybe saying yes to some things I would not otherwise. It also meant doing some different strategies on Instagram, getting on TikTok for the first time and things like that.

Choosing YOUR Business Word of the Year

Choose your goals for the year based on what you want to achieve. They should align with your vision and business forecasts. Don't just choose them because they start with a T or something like that (although I did love that I was able to choose three words and use alliteration).

When considering what to work on in your business this year, first think about the areas you want to focus on. Businesses are multifaceted, so you'll have different objectives at different times.

Here's some questions I would ask yourself:

At the end of the next year, where do you want your business to be?
What are the biggest changes you would like to have “been through” by next year?
What will be defining things (that might even already be on the calendar)?
What are the goals you have for the year already?
What words sum up those goals?

Next year is going to be a whole new ballgame for me. I'll be welcoming a baby after just two months and then I’ll be taking maternity leave. We won't be using childcare for the second baby for about a year, so my work life will look very different. That means my goals for next year won't be the same as before. Take a moment to consider what's already on your agenda and what significant changes you'd like to see in your business by the end of the year.

This also doesn’t have to be done in one sitting. I probably sat with my goals over a few weeks before deciding on my focus for the year.

How My Words Impacted My Year

First of all, I ran all of my goals and new ideas that happened as the year went on through this lens. Let's be real, you're going to start the year with some goals, but then by Q3, you may have new ideas. I know some people have this perfect 10 year business vision but as a small business owner, I don't know how you do it. I don't know what things are going to look like at that point. I find some things happen slower and some things happen faster than I expect and then I’m asking myself, “now what?”. These words help you decide the answer to “now what?”.

You guys have heard me share this quote by James Clear where he said, “success generates opportunities and distractions”.

I think that sometimes an opportunity is literally just a distraction disguised. Whether or not it's an opportunity or distraction literally depends on your unique goals. What might be an opportunity for your other business friend might actually be a distraction for you because y'all are in different seasons and you have different goals. So that was a huge way these words played a part for me because I was looking at all the opportunities this year and being like, “is that an opportunity or is it a distraction? How does that fit into my capacity? And also how does it fit into these goals for the year?”

Here’s an example with my word “traffic”

I've been on about 20 podcasts this year. Not all of them have aired yet, but I've recorded 20 interviews on other people's shows. I actually recorded one right before doing this episode, and I have more scheduled before the year ends. I've spoken at one in-person event and taught two live webinars for software companies (Dubsado and Showit). I've also participated in two summits, and I'm about to start working on a third one, so it will be three in total in 2023. All of these align with my goal for this year, which is to increase traffic. If traffic wasn't my goal, these opportunities might have been distractions.

Looking ahead, next year I'll probably be more selective with online summits and other things like that because my capacity will be lower. I think it's important to evaluate each opportunity through the lens of my goals and consider if it aligns with what I’m working for. Even if it does align, we still will sometimes have to say no to opportunities we don’t have the capacity for.

The Biggest Takeaway For Setting Your Words of the Year

The key takeaway here is that while these words serve as the foundation for setting your goals for the new year, it's important to remember that it's okay to change your mind once you've achieved those goals or if the goals you set no longer align with your vision. There might be instances in your business where you initially think a certain course of action makes sense, but once you start taking action, you realize it doesn't. In those cases, you can use these words as a guide to assess whether the decision aligns with your business objectives.

Keeping Your Words of the Year Top of Mind All Year Long

The first step is to align your goals around these words. Each of my business goals for the year fell into one of these top-line categories. This approach ensured that my goals were not random and made them easier to remember.

Telling your team is also a great way to keep your words of the year top of mind. Have a team meeting to discuss the vision, goals, and their significance. Seek input from your team to make informed decisions aligned with your annual goals.

On the same note, I think it's helpful to tell other people. Don’t be afraid to have it come up naturally in conversation, because this kind of thing is nice to speak out loud. That being said, you can also hold it tenderly close to you as well and keep it private if that feels better for you. I've done a mix of both this year.

Lastly, place your chosen words where you can easily see them every day. Whether it's in your office, another space in your home, or even in your car, find a spot that will serve as a visual reminder. Personally, I wrote my three words and my personal word for the year on a dry erase board last December, and they haven't been erased since. They are simply written in blue dry erase marker, nothing fancy, but I see them every day right in front of me. Another idea is to use sticky notes and place them on your desk or mirror. You could also write the words on the outside of your journal or planner, or even make them your computer or phone background. Some people even use their chosen words as passwords to constantly remind themselves. The key is to find a way to bring these words into your everyday life so that you don't forget them.

Setting Your Business Words of the Year

To sum it all up, I hope this convinces you to choose a word for the year for your business, not just your personal life. Maybe this will also be the first year you choose one for your personal life too. If so, that's amazing. I really hope this episode helps you. Thank you for letting me nervously share my own words for this year, and cheers to all of us setting words for 2024.

Can I Help You Grow Your Business in 2024?

As you dream and vision cast for your business in 2024, I would love to help you take things to the next level. Whether you need a new website template to elevate your online presence or just want a specific template to add onto your existing Showit website (to spice things up a bit), my Showit Template Shop can help.

Or perhaps you're a designer who wants 2024 to be the year you really go for it and you hit those profit goals (and client goals and social media goals). Check out Booked Out Designer which is my program for brand and website designers, all about building an in demand design business.

Or maybe for you starting a podcast is on your 2024 goals list (or you have a podcast and you want to start really scaling it), I'd love to help you with that too. My new course Podcast Success Blueprint, which will be opening again in 2024, would be perfect for you.

Lastly, I also have the Profit Sheet, my financial spreadsheet for organizing and tracking your finances as a service-based business. I can’t wait to support your business in 2024!

Links Mentioned:

Shop All of My Showit Website Templates (use code BBPODCAST for 10% off!)

Not sure which template is for you? Take the quiz

Grab my Profit Sheet spreadsheet here!

Starting a podcast (or trying to scale your current one)? Learn more about Podcast Success Blueprint

Join me Inside Booked Out Designer

Join my FREE Breakthrough Brand All Access Facebook Group

Connect with Elizabeth on Instagram

The post Setting Goals for 2024? How to Choose a BUSINESS Word of the Year (And How This Practice Absolutely Changed My Life in 2023!) appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

Working Less + Reclaiming Your Life: Talking about CRMs, Repurposing Content, and the Power of Automation with Colie James

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 18:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 18 minutes

Hey! Today, I have an amazing guest, Colie James. I've known her online for years, and we finally got to meet in person at a conference in January. She's absolutely wonderful, inspiring, and incredibly knowledgeable about systems and all things business. I can’t wait to share her brilliance on the podcast today!

A little bit of background: Colie started as a family photographer, but now she mainly focuses on helping creatives with their systems. In our conversation, we’re diving deep into topics like automating your business systems to save time, strategic content repurposing (she has brilliant ideas on this!), and how to create more freedom in your life by automating your business. I absolutely loved all of it!

And heads up, we'll be diving into Dubsado in this episode, which is the CRM both Colie and I use. If you're not familiar with what a CRM is or what Dubsado is, don't worry! We'll explain it during the episode. Then, if you want to try out Dubsado and save on your subscription, use my code Elizabeth30 to get a 30% discount. If you want to learn more about how it differs from other tools and all the good stuff, you can check that out there.

I'm really excited for you to hear this conversation. So without further ado, here's my conversation with the incredible Colie James. Enjoy!

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

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Who is Colie James?

Colie James is a Disney-loving family filmmaker, Workflow & Automations Guru, and the host of the Business-First Creatives podcast. Based in Denver Colorado, her heart pumps in helping photographers & creative service providers automate their processes, reclaim their time and get back to living!

With 10+ years in the creative space, Colie believes every creative deserves to build a business that is sustainable and profitable, and no one should quit their 9 to 5 only to work 24/7 [in their business].

The truth—automated systems can save us all from being overworked and overwhelmed.

When Colie isn’t building killer workflows and automations, you can find her spending some much needed time with her husband, James, daughter Chloe, or [you guessed it] at Disneyland.

You’re a Photographer/Filmmaker and a Systems Strategist. What’s it like running two businesses?

If you had asked me this nine months ago, my answer would have been very different. At the end of 2022, I made the decision to stop accepting new photography clients in my business. While I still have two branches in my business, the majority of my photography clients are people I've worked with for 6, 7, or 8 years. They have been with me for almost the entire time I've had my business. So, I have gradually reduced my focus on marketing for photography and shifted more towards the systems side of my business. Right now, around 70% of my business is dedicated to systems, while the remaining 30% is still focused on family filmmaking and photography.

When you made the decision to transition from photography and filmmaking and enter the systems business, what was that like? What made you decide to pivot?

So, it's ironic. This is a podcast episode and it was a podcast episode—my first guest appearance on my friend's podcast “This Can’t Be That Hard”. It was during the height of the pandemic in the summer of 2020. We recorded two episodes: one where she interviewed me about CRMs and systems, and another where I hosted a roundtable discussion with photographers using different CRMs. After the first episode, we stopped recording, and I had an epiphany—I should offer systems as a standalone service. Although I had been helping my mentoring students with systems for a long time (since 2013 as a photography coach), it never occurred to me to offer it as its own service. It was always integrated into my business and photography coaching.

Were you nervous?

If you know me, you'll know that I don’t lack confidence. When I set my mind on doing something, I humorously set a deadline of next week, but usually end up accomplishing it by the end of the day. I don’t let grass grow under a new idea. I'm also highly analytical, considering various aspects before diving in. If things don't work out, that's alright. Many entrepreneurs get stuck in a cycle of indecision, believing they need complete confidence before taking the next step. However, I believe that successful entrepreneurs understand that they don't have to wait until they're fully ready. They simply go for it, ready to pivot if needed.

Do you feel like you struggle with perfectionism?

I am one of those people who knows that when I launch something, it won't be perfect. I work out any issues as I go along. When it comes to launching new offers and pricing, I always have an end goal in mind. For example, if I want to charge $3000, I don’t start there, I pick a number I'm comfortable with, and gradually increase the price. Sometimes it doesn't take all those incremental steps to reach the final price tag. Eventually, I decide it's ready for the full price. I know it won't be perfect in the beginning, but I need feedback from myself and the people I'm servicing to get it where I want it to be.

Switching to systems - what do you feel like most people miss when starting to put together more formal systems in their business?

I feel like people often overlook what they already know. For example, when clients come to me for my full VIP day setup, they expect me to handle everything. However, the first step is a four-hour call where I ask questions about their business, often uncovering processes they are already implementing without realizing it. My role then is to refine and enhance these processes, offering suggestions to improve emails and forms. Really, confidence seems to be one of the common struggles. The truth is, if people simply took the time to sit down with pen and paper and document everything they are currently doing and want to do, they would have the foundation for their business systems. Too many people get caught up in the technology and automation aspects, but it all begins with the basics of pen and paper. Once thoughts and existing processes are written down, we can then analyze what you've been doing, take an audit of those steps, and figure out ways to make it better.

If someone feels like they need better systems and they set out to hire you, what would you say? Do they start by getting out a piece of paper and just track their steps the whole day? Or how does that work?

If they hire me, we do it together. But when I'm talking on my own podcast or Instagram, this is what I say: First, consider how you want to engage potential clients. You’ve got a website, you’ve got a contact form: Do you want them to provide information so you can decide if you want to work together, or would you rather schedule a call as the first step? Of course, this choice also depends on your website's conversion rate and whether your audience is ready to work with you too, but making this first decision is important for establishing systems in your business. Then, by centralizing all your clients in a platform like Dubsado, you can efficiently manage them.

Do you have a recommendation between letting people tell you information through a contact form versus scheduling a call where you prefer one over the other?

It really depends on the business. On my photography website, I offer both options for my clients. If they have already filled out the contact form and provided key information such as being aware of my price and preference for documentary photography, I can skip the call and send them the proposal directly. The proposal contains all the necessary information about the offer, making it easy for them to book.

That being said, for clients who are not confident in their website's ability to attract the right fit clients, I recommend starting with a call. Some people worry that a call might scare potential clients away, but if the call is important to you and you only want to work with clients who are willing to have a call, it's not a bad thing if it scares away others. It helps you focus on clients who are the right fit for your business before putting in a lot of time and energy into potential leads who aren’t the right fit anyway.

EM: And I would add that if you make a call, especially as a newer business owner, it can put you ahead of someone who fills out a contact form but has no automations. They may not hear back from that competitor until five days later when they check their Dubsado or whatever they use. On your website, you can say, "Jump on a call with me” and they can schedule it right away. This way, you're already talking to them, while the other person hasn't even heard back. I like both methods depending on where you are in your business.

For creative business owners who know they are being a bottleneck in their own business by avoiding systems, but find it overwhelming to think about, where would be a good place to start?

When people reach out to me, whether it's through Instagram or other means, I often guide them based on their specific situation. One of the key questions I ask is whether they already have a steady stream of leads for their business. If they do, then focusing on automating the inquiry processes might be the best starting point. This involves setting up a robust contact form that can segment leads based on different offers and seamlessly push them into the booking process.

On the other hand, if the person has a solid client base but lacks sufficient leads, it would be more beneficial to prioritize improving the onboarding processes. This ensures that existing clients receive all the necessary information, including client questionnaires, service reminders, and delivery emails. By addressing these aspects first, you can streamline your operations and allocate more time and energy towards marketing or handling inquiries.

Interrupting this interview for a second…

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Now, let’s jump back to the interview!

What do we do if something can't be automated?

So I know we both use Dubsado, but this applies to any CRM. People tend to focus on the automation aspect of using a CRM, but they should also consider how it organizes and centralizes client relationships and communications. This centralization and organization frees up time, even if you're not automating emails or booking proposals.

Some people are nervous about automation, so I offer to set up workflows and add approval buttons to every step. While this is extreme and not necessary for everyone (I’m not recommending this), it helps those who want more control. Once you gain confidence that everything is working as expected, you can let go of control and let the system work for you. It doesn’t take long for those approval buttons to come off!

Can you clarify what you mean when you say CRM for those readers who may not know?

A CRM, or Customer Relationship Manager, is a tool that centralizes all client-related activities. Platforms like Dubsado, HoneyBook, and 17 Hats are all examples of CRMs. They consolidate every lead and client into a single location, streamlining the process of organizing, communicating, booking, and onboarding.

I can tell you from personal experience, having used a CRM for a long time, that it greatly simplifies your workflow. Before using a CRM, if I needed to check whether I'd sent an email to a client, I would have to search in Gmail. If I wanted to confirm payment of an invoice, I'd have to search in PayPal. Basically, client data was scattered across multiple apps.

CRMs like Dubsado, HoneyBook, and 17 Hats solve this problem by consolidating all these pieces of information into one place. Everything from invoicing and communication to organization is managed in one platform.

When would you say someone is “ready” to start using a CRM?

If you have more than five clients, you need a CRM. I don't think that a CRM is negotiable. I think that even by booking one single client, depending on what your prices are now, getting a CRM is for you. Dubsado is $40 a month (click here to save money!).

Think of it this way: if you were to hire a virtual assistant, they would be $40 an hour. And a CRM saves you so much time and energy in your business. When someone asks me, “am I ready for a virtual assistant?”, my first question is: do you have A CRM? Have you seen how much time and energy you can save with the CRM first? And of course, doing that helps you organize your business too. You get your processes in order so that when you do hire a virtual assistant, you've actually made their job easier because your business is not chaotic. So yes, everybody needs to spend $40 a month (or whatever the cost is) on a CRM.

Switching topics a little bit, you have a podcast with over 100 episodes! And you are SO good at repurposing. Can you share a little bit about your content repurposing system?

Okay, so first let me say, I used to hire an agency that was taking my guest episodes on a podcast like this and was pulling the really interesting clips that I had to put them on my social media. And so that's how I started. It wasn't even with my own podcast. Every month I would send them 5-12 long form pieces of content, like podcasts, or even Instagram lives that I had done, and they were pulling out the really interesting bits. Then. they were making me graphic cards, social media videos, all of that content that you love.

And then when I started my own podcast, I knew I was going to bump this up some more. Podcasting is now my primary content that then gets repurposed across all my social media platforms. My team, including my wonderful podcast manager and virtual assistant, are instrumental in this process. Here’s what we do:

Once I record a podcast episode on Riverside, it's transcribed in Descript. My podcast manager, Haley, edits the audio and video together, while also highlighting interesting points made during the episode.
These highlights are then copied into a separate composition, which is really easy to do in Descript, and then saves around five to six potentially engaging video clips from each episode.
These clips are then passed onto my virtual assistant, Sarah, who creates the social media videos. Using Canva, she decides on the best headline and places it on a pre-made graphic. The graphic is then added to the video along with captions.
To distribute the content across various platforms, we use Metricool. Here, Sarah schedules all the videos and graphics. Depending on the strategy, we may choose to post the content on two or three platforms at once, instead of all simultaneously. A major advantage of Metricool is its ability to customize captions for different platforms (so you can drop the hashtags on platforms where it doesn’t make sense).

For solo episodes, I handle the recording, editing, and publishing to Buzz Sprout. If an episode is particularly good, I'll ask Sarah to select some clips for posting on Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube shorts, and other platforms but not always.

I never thought to ask someone for the video content when I appear on their podcast. That’s such a good way to make the promotion of that episode (and content) go further.

I have two suggestions for you, to add to that. First, when talking about yourself and your offers on someone else's podcast, it's different from how you present it on your own. Even if you do solo episodes, there's something about the interaction when someone asks you about your offers - it brings a different level of excitement. So that’s number one: repurposing your GUEST episodes is a great idea.

Now, for number two, I've actually done this myself, and it was my episode 100. I've decided to have a guest host on my podcast every quarter to ask me the questions that I usually ask or get asked on other people's podcasts. It gives it a fresh perspective. Your audience gets to know more about you, and you're not just interviewing guests anymore, you're a guest on your own show. Being on the other side of the microphone on your own podcast is amazing because your audience gets a taste of how you are on other people's podcasts.

EM: I love this! I actually did this for my own episode 100! Such a great reminder and tip! An extra tip I would add is that I will sometimes set up my phone to record me talking in an interview. It’s a great “extra” reel without having to do something on your computer. I also spoke on a round panel recently and everytime it was my turn to answer a question I started recording and sent those clips over to my social media manager to turn into some clips.

Yes - and I'm just going to add one thing. If you end up doing that, there's no audio in a time-lapse, but if you go into that episode or that clip and extract the audio, you can always make it a clip from a podcast episode or your teaching while you type on your computer or do something else in the time-lapse. You can also repurpose it into great reel content by adding bullet points or other elements.

Don't think that every piece of content has to be used in its entirety exactly as you recorded it. There are many ways to mix and match audio from different sources with different videos. I often do this with Disneyland videos. I don't want the background noise of kids screaming on the rides, but if I take a video of me on a ride and overlay it with audio discussing building a business that works for your life or any of those big ideas I randomly talk about on a podcast, combined with a strong call to action, it becomes great content that people love to reshare. I mean, who doesn't enjoy watching me on a Disney ride? It's like a thing.

EM: Another tip for B-roll: I have a whole folder dedicated to B-roll on my phone. I also have a shared folder with my podcast manager, but my social media manager and I have another shared folder where I constantly create clips of myself to use. Sometimes, it includes family-related content and sometimes its footage of me working. It’s nice to have both on hand whenever we need!

Do you have any more advice about repurposing content?

Everyone should be doing it! And one thing we didn't discuss is analyzing your content's performance on different platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, or TikTok. If a particular post or message gains traction, consider resharing it. You can either repost it as-is after some time or modify the caption slightly. Paying attention to what engages people on your preferred social media platform is so important and will really help you create better content. On Instagram, I like to look at what content is getting the most saves since that isn’t obvious on your feed but it’s content people intended to come back to.

How would you say someone should start repurposing when they don't have a team yet? What would you say they should prioritize?

For a while, I didn't have a team. Let me tell you, during that time, I did my own podcast entirely by myself for four months. The reason? I wanted to improve the way I communicated with people - the way I spoke, phrased things, and edited content. It took me a good four months, but it was worth it. My interviewing skills improved significantly because, without an editor, I had to listen to myself and identify areas for growth. It really helped me find my groove on the podcast.

I also use and love Descript. Descript allows you to download your content from platforms like Instagram or your podcast and automatically generates a transcript. Then, you can simply read through the transcript to find the parts you want to highlight, add them to another composition, and export the video. It takes less than five minutes to create a video using Descript. So, you really don't need a team.

Personally, I have a team because I'm involved in other projects, but I could still manage this on my own. Giving up my podcast had nothing to do with my ability or enjoyment. It was simply a matter of realizing that spending hours editing podcasts wasn't generating income. So, I decided to invest in a podcast manager, allowing me to focus on activities that actually make money. I still edit my own solo episodes though!

EM: I’ll add that for people who, for whatever reason, don't want to listen to their own interviews but still want to improve as interviewers, one way is to get the transcript from the interview and analyze the way you transition between questions. Personally, I found it beneficial to read the transcript of my episodes and make edits accordingly (but I don’t do it every time!). Similar to you (but on a smaller scale), I did edit my first three episodes myself to get a feel for it. I remember editing out every single “um” to the point where it sounded unnatural. Now my podcast editor does that (not every filler word) and over time, I have reduced the use of filler words like "ums" and improved my overall delivery.

As a business owner, how do you force the pause and focus on other fulfilling things in life? I know you talk about the power of automation so that we as business owners can reclaim our lives!

If you don't follow me on Instagram, I was going to Disneyland every month from Colorado. Yes, I flew every month. And the thing is, I wouldn't be able to take these trips without the confidence that my Dubsado systems were handling everything behind the scenes. As a newbie photographer and business owner, I used to check my phone constantly for new inquiries, feeling the need to respond right away. But that's not the case anymore because Dubsado takes care of that for me.

I’m a big advocate for, you refer to it as the fast follow-up and I personally call it the automated lead response, but regardless of your CRM, it's important to have something setup as an autoresponder when someone inquires. That way, there is no gap between when someone expresses interest in your business and when you provide a response. By implementing an automated lead response, you offer a high level of service. It acknowledges their inquiry, provides relevant information, and to take it one step further, I always advise photographers to share blog posts of similar sessions based on their dropdown selection in the contact form. This allows them to engage with more of your content, even if it takes you another 12 hours to respond because they may submit an inquiry in the evening and you won't be at your desk until the next morning.

No one should feel obligated to immediately respond to people when we have automation and robots to handle that for us. Personally, it has significantly reduced my stress and anxiety knowing that inquiries in my business will receive the necessary information. Plus, at this stage of my business, if someone inquires in the evening and books with someone else by the next morning, it's likely they weren't the right fit for me. And that's okay. Reclaiming your life involves having confidence in automated systems that allow you to spend less time in your business and more time outside of it.

Lastly - let’s talk about your experience in Booked Out Designer! You joined Booked Out Designer even though you are not a brand and website designer (which I love!). What made you decide to join? And how has it helped you as a non-designer?

First off, when you launched it, I know there were limited beta spots. I can't recall the exact number, but I was fortunate to be part of the initial group. I set an alarm the next day to secure my spot in her course. What I truly appreciate about Booked Out Designer is its holistic approach to running any 1:1 service-based business. Even though Elizabeth specializes in website design, the program applies to any one-to-one service business.

While I love websites and enjoy talking about (and auditing) them with clients, I lack the knack for design. Booked Out Designer was super amazing from beginning to end. What stood out to me the most is that many course creators focus on only one aspect of their expertise, but Elizabeth covered all bases. For example, in the case of website design, if someone is guiding you on pricing, website setup, onboarding, and booking, that's one thing. But what I truly admire is that Elizabeth also emphasizes the importance of marketing – a hidden gem that often gets overlooked when starting a business. Marketing is one of the most important things for any business, whether you handle it yourself or pay someone else to help you, without customers you don’t have a business.

I had recently switched my business focus to Dubsado setups when I joined, and when listening to the modules in Booked Out Designer, instead of designing websites, I was thinking about it through the lens of designing the client experience within their CRM. As I watched Elizabeth's recommendations, I looked at which ones I already implemented and which ones needed improvement. Until then, I knew how to attract photography clients and coach photographers, but now I had to develop systems for creative entrepreneurs in general. The client experience module of the course was incredibly helpful to me.

What module of Booked Out Designer was most helpful for you?

Module three: Networking to Book Dream Clients. Networking and referral partnering are one of the most overlooked marketing strategies that can greatly benefit your business.

It's as simple as getting yourself into places where your ideal clients hang out. And to be honest, for me, Booked out Designer is just that - a community of website designers who understand the importance of onboarding processes and effective CRMs.

In this module, there are a few different lessons on networking in Facebook groups, leveraging social media platforms like Instagram, guest blogging, speaking engagements, and podcast appearances. You talk about how being a guest on a podcast can significantly boost your visibility and allow you to connect with your ideal client audience. Lesson six, "How to Pitch Yourself," really helped me in that regard! You do such a great job of framing that inside the course.

Rapid Fire Questions with Colie James

What advice would you have for someone who's in a “client and booking drought” right now in their business?

Visibility. Visibility and making sure that you're marketing. This is going to sound really silly, but also making sure that you're asking for the sale. I did an entire series on my podcast in August on marketing and branding, and one of the most important lessons that I wanted everyone to walk away with is that you actually have to ask for the sale. I want everyone to have a calendar and every post where you ask for the sale, mark it down. That way, if you look at the end of the month and you're like, “oh, I only asked for the sale one time”, that's why you ain't got no leads.

What is one habit you think has made the biggest impact or difference in your business?

I struggled with this, but back when Chloe was still in elementary school before the pandemic, I had a rule. I turned off my computer every day at 2:30 when I left to pick her up. During Covid, that wasn't possible because I was homeschooling and she was attending virtual school, and I ended up working longer than I should have. However, if you have the opportunity to set a daily work time limit and genuinely avoid distractions by putting your phone on "do not disturb" mode, you should turn off your computer. That's a habit that I am desperately trying to get back to now.

Connect with Colie James!

I have two different websites, so don't go to the photography one unless you live in Denver and you have a brand new baby that I can hug on. But my main website is here, and that's where I have all of the information about my Dubsado system setups, my course, my template shop, and it also has links to my podcast, which is Business First Creatives.

Is Dubsado the best CRM for you?

I will say this - my business wouldn't be where it is today if I hadn't started using Dubsado about eight years ago. With Dubsado, you can effortlessly manage your leads, send contracts, invoices, accept payments, create and send questionnaires, email clients, organize your leads, and much more - all in one place. Use code Elizabeth30 to save 30% on your Dubsado subscription and start your free trial today.

Links Mentioned:

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The post Working Less + Reclaiming Your Life: Talking about CRMs, Repurposing Content, and the Power of Automation with Colie James appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

3 Podcast Systems I Use to Save Me Time and Energy with my Show

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 06:00:10 +0000

Reading Time: 10 minutes

Should you start a podcast? Listen - I believe that podcasting can be a powerful way to grow your business. It can be enjoyable too, and then it really becomes a win-win situation. However, many podcasters struggle to achieve their business growth goals because they lack effective marketing strategies and systems. The reality of podcasting may not live up to their initial expectations, with content and production and all the steps it can quickly become overwhelming. Podcasting requires a lot of work and time, but with the right podcast systems in place, it CAN be done well. And that’s what I’m here to talk about today!

The reality is that while podcasting does have a lot of moving pieces, it's also my #1 lead generation source for my business. Podcasting and SEO are the top two ways people find me. And guess what? The great SEO on my website is primarily due to podcasting and all the blog posts I put out based on past episodes (like this one!). On top of that, even four years later, it truly is the joy of my business. If I were to drop something, it would never be this. So today, I want to talk about podcast systems that will save you time and energy while you start and grow your show. The truth is that if you're going to stick with podcasting, you need passion for it, but you also need systems in place. So let’s get into it!

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

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This blog post is brought to you by our friends at Sticker Mule. I'm a BIG FAN of on-brand stickers whether they're stickers to gift your podcast listeners, customers, or clients. Sticker Mule is our team's go to spot for high-quality, custom stickers for your brand. Check them out!

The Need for Podcast Systems

I think the main reason people quit their show is because they struggle to keep up with everything. Managing your business and your podcast can be challenging, but it's definitely manageable with the right systems in place. You don't have to be the biggest podcast in the world to make your show a top lead source for you. Personally, I love creating and implementing strong systems and processes in my own business (which you’ve likely noticed if you are a longtime Breakthrough Brand listener.

Even if systems are not your strong suit, I’m going to share three specific systems that I have in my business, to help me run this show behind the scenes! These systems allow me to focus on other aspects of my business without working a full 40 hours a week. Just to give you an idea, I work about 20-25 hours a week in my business, and it has been like that for the past two years. Even before that, I wasn't working a full 40 hours, but I have still managed to create and release this show every week and do so many other business things on the side. I run a multiple six-figure business and earn a multiple six-figure salary. So, what I’m saying is: it’s all possible.

Sign Up for the Waitlist for my New Podcast Course

Now, before we move on to the content, I want to mention that I'm currently working on a course just for podcasters. It’s going to cover topics like scaling, monetizing, and growing your show to align with your business goals. I’m also going to include topics like podcast organization, recording skills, outlining skills, creating great content, and optimizing your launch. If you want to dive deeper into what this course is and who it's for, head here. On that page, you can sign up for the waitlist (I'll be doing a beta launch in mid-October with limited spots), and you can fill out the survey to let me know what you want from me in the course. It’s going to be amazing!

#1 I'm Always Generating Podcast Ideas (And Yes - This is a System)

Give me a second and I'll explain how it's a system, not just a statement. Basically, I keep ideas everywhere and constantly think of new episode ideas. It may sound overwhelming, but I promise it's not. Life experiences and random moments in your day spark ideas, which I then jot down in ClickUp. We even have an Ideas Bank area for the podcast, where they're organized into categories.

For example, "Hey, I have an idea to do a podcast about this." Then, sometimes, there's a little description section where we write, “here are the points we'd make”. So that’s in ClickUp, but the truth is that most ideas start as notes on my phone's notes app. You have to do what works best for you, but it works well for me because inspiration strikes at all hours. My best solo episode ideas or interview ideas often come when I'm not working. They come to me during a walk, in the shower, or in a meaningful conversation with a friend. They even come during my quiet time, while reading a random book, playing with Colin, running errands, or just driving in the car. Ideas rarely come to me when I'm sitting at my computer working. So, I recommend having a spot that is always with you to jot down ideas. It could be an idea for a solo episode, someone you want to interview, or a topic you want someone to interview you about on your own podcast.

I'll be honest: my note system isn't super organized. The other systems I'll mention are, but this one isn't. And you know what? I actually kinda like it that way. It feels more creative to me. It's all very searchable, and I have a separate note for every idea. That's why I say it's not very organized, but it works great for me. But seriously, I cannot stress enough the importance of having a dedicated place on your phone for your ideas. And yes, I would choose a phone over a notebook or a project management system because your phone is always with you. Your notes app is right there.

Honestly, even after 230 podcast episodes (or whatever number I'm at now), there are never moments where I need to record something and have zero inspiration for what to talk about next. And this podcast is mainly solo episodes so I think that says a lot! I don't think that's because I'm super, super special with content. I think it's a combination of the fact that I cover a lot of topics on the show, so I could talk about a variety of things that fall under the realm of business and it will all work, but also that I'm seeking inspiration in every corner in my life and then jotting ideas down. So anytime it's time for me to record something and don’t have a topic in mind, I just look at my phone.

#2 I Have a Very Robust Podcast System in my Project Management Tool

Unlike the notes app on my phone, this one is VERY organized. We have a very built out podcast system in ClickUp, and this is where the meat of the systems lie for me. It doesn’t need to be ClickUp either, before that I was on Basecamp and before that I was on Trello. It all works.

If you run a podcast, I highly recommend using a project management tool to keep your show organized. Podcasting involves a lot of moving parts, which can be overwhelming and like I said at the beginning - I think this is why most podcasters actually quit.

In our podcasting area within ClickUp, we create a main task for every episode with the episode number and title. If the episode number is not known yet, we use 0X. as a placeholder. These tasks move through different stages and areas depending on their progress. For example, is it on deck to be recorded, in progress, or in editing mode? We track if it's scheduled for release, already published, or in any other relevant stage.

In ClickUp, we also have a clear calendar view to see our podcast schedule holistically. This view helps us plan and make strategic decisions. For instance, if we notice we're talking about website design too frequently, we can switch it up by airing an interview about content creation instead. We also align our episodes with other activities we're doing, like product sales or promotions, to create a cohesive multi-platform strategy. It’s not just based on inspiration.

Each episode has a main task, with eight subtasks for interviews or four subtasks for solo shows. These subtasks further break down into 36 sub-subtasks for interviews and 17 for solo episodes. It’s a lot!

And if you're thinking, “Elizabeth, your ClickUp system for your show sounds amazing”, I would say it is. I've been using a version of this system since the beginning of my podcast, and it's become so well-organized that I no longer have to manage my show frantically. It syncs with my Apple calendar too, so I can easily see what's happening there. Everything is right there for us to see, and we can always know what needs to be done and what's happening with the show.

If this sounds helpful to you, I have exciting news about the podcasting course I'm working on. In that course, you'll receive my exact podcast system as a ClickUp template (or Notion template - if you prefer) that you can simply download or use for your own show!

If you prefer using something other than these two options, that's perfectly fine. I will provide a tutorial where I walk you through the steps, explaining their meaning so you can adapt them to your own project manager. Additionally, if many people in the course are using a different tool than ClickUp or Notion, I may create another template version to ensure everyone has alternative options. I'm really excited about including this in the course because I genuinely believe it can be a game changer and business transformation for your show.

And course, you can edit and adapt it to fit your needs and the way you and your team work. We have been using this specific ClickUp podcast system for over a year now. It has truly been perfected. It even has tasks for putting your shows on Youtube because we put our interviews there as well!

#3 We Have a Strong Podcast System for Promotion to Maximize Our Efforts

Here's something not many people mention about podcasting, but it's a key focus of this course and should be for your show too. Many podcast courses neglect effective promotion beyond the basics like making graphics and writing blog posts. Let me tell you about my show, the Breakthrough Brand podcast. It serves as the content hub for our business.

Almost everything I do marketing wise stems from the episodes that air on this show. To explain what I mean by that, each episode has:

A blog post
A YouTube video of the interview (if it was an interview)
YouTube shorts with clips from the interview
A reel with either clips from the interview or me promoting the episode
A TikTok video doing the same! This one I have not been that consistent with, but it is something I'm working on.
A Facebook post for my page (usually twice)
An engagement post in my podcast Facebook group
A LinkedIn post about the episode
Instagram stories about the episode (usually twice)
Pinterest pins about the episode (about 10 to 15 pins per episode)
An email to my list about the episode (this is something new we are trying!)
Then, with guest interviews, we create promo material for them as well!

It’s a LOT. And that doesn’t even include the social media content that is inspired by a past episode but isn’t actively promoting an episode. So when I'm making a TikTok or a reel and I'm teaching something, I might literally go to my own blog and be like, “okay, I'm trying to teach something on this topic”, let me see what I've written about on this, and then I will pick one of the points and talk about it. So you can really use it for content in a lot of ways.

Now, all those things listed, I haven’t always done all of these. Some of these are things we added just this year, and then some of those things did not even exist when I first started my show. Some things have also been removed overtime (like IGTV).

The bottom line is though, one episode becomes MANY different things. In my case, it’s 12 different pieces of content! Which is pretty insane when you think about it. But we have great systems in place where I'm basically starting the chain of events by recording the episode and then everything happens from there on a great timeline until it's done and promoted everywhere. These are the ways that this podcast becomes the number one lead gen source for my business while still being something I super, super enjoy.

So just to recap, here are three strategies you can use to enhance your podcast systems. They're part of the larger course I'm developing, but you can start implementing them today.

1. Idea Generation: Always be in the mindset of generating podcast ideas. If you're contemplating starting a podcast, begin by noting down any topic that strikes your interest in your notes app. As you accumulate these, you'll have a rich reservoir of ideas ready when you start your podcast. If your podcast will primarily feature interviews, these ideas can serve as potential discussion points with your guests.
2. Organized Workflow: We employ a comprehensive system on ClickUp for managing our podcast. It's detailed and covers all the stages of our process and you’ll need it as your show grows.
3. Promotion Strategy: We also have an effective promotion strategy to ensure we maximize the reach of each episode. Each episode goes on to be about 12 different things!

Lately, if this is interesting to you, I want to encourage you to join the waitlist for my upcoming podcast course. This course is designed for both new and seasoned podcasters. For beginners, we'll cover the basics such as distribution, defining your niche, creating captivating artwork, and selecting an engaging title. But the primary focus of the course is on advanced topics. I’ll share how to monetize your podcast and develop effective systems for creating high-quality content. You'll learn strategies for producing great solo episodes from outlining to recording, developing a unique podcast voice, keeping your voice fresh for your show, and honing your interview skills. I'll also discuss how to encourage your guests to share about their interview experience afterwards. On the marketing front, I'll share the strategies I use to maximize the impact of my own show. Additionally, we'll touch on team management, including hiring and working effectively with your podcasting team. So yeah - this course is going to be packed with valuable insights and practical tips, so if you're eager to elevate your podcasting game, make sure you join the waitlist!

Lastly, there are 2.5 million podcasts listed in Apple Podcasts, (and that's actually a slightly old stat, so it might be even more than that now), which is a ton of podcasts, but only around 450,000 podcasts are actually active. So despite the fact there's so many, only about 20% of podcasts are considered an active podcast. And again, I think that's what I want to address in my new course: I think the problem for people is not getting their podcasts live, it's not getting those first two or three episodes live, it's keeping it going and keeping it an active show so that you can actually see results from it.

I believe many podcasters tend to abandon their show due to the significant amount of work involved and the lack of immediate results. It can often feel like an uphill battle, with efforts not translating into increased sales or bookings. Furthermore, low-value sponsorship offers can make the endeavor seem unrewarding. My goal is to help you transform your podcasting journey into a profitable and enjoyable venture that significantly adds to your business revenue. If that all sounds good to you, make sure to jump on the waitlist now!

Links Mentioned:

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Join me inside Booked Out Designer

The post 3 Podcast Systems I Use to Save Me Time and Energy with my Show appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

The One-Day Workweek: Building a Multiple 6-Figure/Year Business as a Stay-at-Home Mom with Courtney Lazar from SystemsUp

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 06:00:36 +0000

Reading Time: 11 minutes

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to just work ONE day per week? And run a successful 6-figure business? Courtney Lazar (our go to systems expert in episode 226 - make sure to listen to that one if you haven’t yet!), is back on the podcast but this time she’s coming to us as a mom to a toddler with another baby boy on the way, sharing exactly how she built her business as an agency model that allows her to work just ONE day a week (and completely unplugs from work the other 6 days). She considers herself a stay at home mom on days when she’s not working!

Even though she works only one day a week (since 2021 - so this is not new to her!), she still scales her business with her team and maintains a great income that supports her and her family. We both started our businesses at around the same time and have gone through similar seasons of motherhood together so I knew I wanted to have her on the podcast to come and talk about it!

In this episode, we dive into:

How does she manage to grow her business while working just one day a week?
What does the business look like on the back end?
What does her childcare look like?
What's her exact work schedule?
How did she scale her business with her team and truly step into that CEO role in her business?

There are many valuable tips packed into this short and sweet episode. So even if you're not a mom or your children are adults now, don't worry! There's still so much here for you. As business owners, I think most of us aspire to work less and operate in a CEO capacity. This episode provides insights on scaling with a team and creating systems so you're not constantly caught up in the day-to-day operations. Doesn’t that sound good?

Courtney and I have known each other online for years, and we've become good friends online. I've had the pleasure of being a guest on her podcast, Backend Brain, multiple times and she was also one of my very first template customers when we first met. I've even worked with her as a client, setting up my own ClickUp system last fall. I love Courtney and I love that she just works one day per week!

Before we dive in - are you in the Breakthrough Brand All Access Facebook Group yet? It’s free to join, and it’s where we take conversations like the one I had with Courtney today further. Pop in and ask questions, share insights, and get the inside scoop into what I’m trying lately. I’d love to see you inside!

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

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Have you always been intentional about building your business to be “lifestyle-first”?

In our last episode, I talked about how I got started with my business. A lot of it came down to feeling unfulfilled in my day-to-day life and not wanting to be tied to a desk for eight hours a day, even when my work was done in three. When I started my business, it was because I wanted location independence and the freedom to travel and enjoy life. I also wanted to be my own boss and have control over my team (and my earnings!).

Then, everything changed when I met and married my husband, bought a house, and had Luca (our two year old toddler!). My life completely changed. Now, the great thing about being a business owner was the ability to shape my business to fit my personal life. I was able to transition into a role that aligned better with my new responsibilities and desires. Looking back, I had no idea that the decisions I made years ago would set me up perfectly to be able to work from home and contribute financially to my family. It just happened to work out that way.

You work one day per week… Can you tell us what that looks like? Is it literally just one day?

It's just one day per week, specifically Wednesdays, that serves as my dedicated work day. Meanwhile, my husband enjoys his day off and spends quality time with our son - they enjoy their “daddy-son days”. It's absolutely adorable. On my end, I work one day a week, except for during really busy seasons where our neighbor might watch Luca for a couple of hours on Tuesday and Thursday mornings - which gives me a little extra flexibility when needed! But usually, it’s just Wednesdays that are my work days!

How do you manage your team working just one day per week? Are you available to your team on other days of the week?

Yeah, so there was a period of time when I would check into Slack once in a while throughout the week, if Luca was napping or when he'd gone down for bed. I would respond if I saw any questions. However, recently, especially because I am pregnant with our second little boy, I had to take a step back during my first trimester. You know how it is, the first trimester can be rough and even though it wasn't terrible, I still felt total exhaustion. I felt this pull to check Slack when what I really needed was to be present with my family.

That's when I decided to send a voice message to Hannah, the ops manager on my team, expressing my concerns. I wanted to know if they were feeling like I wasn't responding quickly enough to their messages. Transparency and open communication are crucial within our team, so I wanted everyone to feel comfortable bringing up any issues, questions, comments, or concerns. What we ended up deciding is to shift Hannah into more of a leadership role as we prepare for the arrival of our second child (due in December).

Now in our organizational chart, you'll find me at the top, with Hannah directly below me, and all other departments and team members falling underneath. Which basically means, if the team has any questions, they can go to Hannah. If Hannah has questions, she comes to me.

Hannah and I also have bi-weekly check-in meetings where she can bring up any issues or concerns. She created a project submission process in ClickUp, which is really cool. It helps me prioritize tasks and know what's most important and urgent, instead of me logging onto Slack once a week not knowing where to turn first. I can see everything the team needs from me, organized by due date and urgency. Each task is also tagged with an estimated time for completion. This allows me to manage my time effectively throughout the day.

What do you do in an “emergency” situation?

We have a crisis management system in ClickUp. If X happens, we follow a specific process. For example, if our website goes down, certain actions need to take place and specific people need to be notified. Normally, our team doesn't share phone numbers or communicate through calls or texts to maintain a healthy work-life balance. However, in certain crisis scenarios, using each other's phone numbers is allowed, which is all outlined in ClickUp.

What advice do you have for someone trying to manage their schedule and work less hours?

I've had to limit the number of meetings on my calendar. I need to have one day a month without any meetings. My calendar gets really full when I only have four days for calls. I have a podcast and do interviews, discovery or sales calls with clients, team meetings, and random pop-ups. When every Wednesday was filled with meetings, I noticed that I wasn't getting enough time for big picture thinking because my days were filled with meetings.

So, we decided to cap the number of meetings on Wednesdays which ultimately forced us to find opportunities for team members to host certain meetings. For instance, today is the quarter wrap-up with team reviews. My calendar was packed with podcast interviews and all the team reviews and while discussing it with Hannah, we realized it would make sense for her to start hosting the team reviews for our ClickUp Setup Specialists and similar roles. Then, I will just be responsible for hosting Hannah's team review, which lessens the number of meetings I need to be involved in.

Thoughts on Team Meetings

There is something to be said for asynchronous communication. Nobody really likes being in meetings—at least, not that I'm aware of. So, on our team, we strive to have as much asynchronous communication as possible. This way, we can maximize the efficiency of our meetings and make the most of our time. When we do need to have a meeting, the agenda is prepared days in advance, and everyone submits the necessary items beforehand. This ensures that when we come together, we have a clear list of what needs to be covered and can make it as efficient as possible.

You’re a great example of someone who has truly stepped into the CEO role, and have moved away from building a personal brand. Would you agree with that?

100%. We just actually went through a huge rebrand back in March, specifically for that reason because I could not be the face of the business anymore. It can't be a personal brand. It needed to be an agency with me as the founder, and then there was a team of people doing the work.

How did you decide what roles and tasks only you can do?

That's a good question. It all started when I had my baby Luca in September 2021. My initial plan was to take an eight-week maternity leave and gradually get back to work behind the scenes before returning to client work. However, as my maternity leave was coming to an end, I realized that I was nowhere near ready to dive back into work.

For context, my husband and I don't have any family nearby. His family is in Europe, and my family is in Missouri. We didn't have someone we could rely on to help with childcare. Transitioning my business became more of a necessity. I had two options: either close the business or find a way to make it work on a limited schedule. I made a list of tasks that I felt couldn't be delegated, although I now realize that it was more about my fear and comfort level rather than actual limitations.

Obviously we are big systems people so we approached the problem systematically, and tried removing emotions and finding the solutions. One example was sales and discovery calls, which I knew I wanted to outsource or train a team member on. We created guides, scripts, and FAQs to equip my team with the necessary resources to handle these tasks effectively.

Another area was client communication, where I struggled with letting someone else handle it as I did. So, we developed a client communication SOP that covered drafting messages, using positive language, organizing information, and setting clear expectations. The goal was to ensure that my team could provide the same level of care and understanding to our clients as I felt like I did. So that's how it all started - identifying what I could delegate and supporting Hannah and the team in taking over those tasks.

How many team members do you have right now? Do you bring on additional contractors for things like podcast editing?

I have four team members and they are all contractors right now. We try to keep as much “in house” as possible, and we typically do not bring in outside contractors. Someone one the team does all of our podcast editing!

Are you ever worried about someone on the team leaving?

Yeah, I mean, that's always a possibility, right? It's always possible for someone to leave. But that's why we have systems and processes in place. In case someone does leave, we have a video recorded for every step of the process. So, if Hannah, Haley, or anyone on the team were to leave, we would have everything ready to replace them. Now, that doesn't mean we might not have to pause the podcast for a couple of weeks or do some damage control. But we do have a well-established process in place that makes it easy for others to step in when necessary.

Do you feel like keeping everything in house is cutting costs for you?

I would say it's primarily about cutting costs. As an agency, we have to be mindful about profitability. With the type of projects we handle, project scope creep is always a possibility. We need to be cognizant of where we invest our time and resources and make sure we are focusing on moving the business forward. That's why we prefer to handle everything in-house.

With that said, we do acknowledge that there are certain areas where specialization is beneficial. For instance, sales requires specific expertise. As for podcast editing, although it's a specialization, we were confident in our technical abilities. We had a podcast editor train our team based on the knowledge passed down from a podcast agency.

What are some mistakes you see entrepreneurs make when growing the team?

I think the first thing to avoid is hiring management roles too early. Instead, prioritize hiring implementers who can effectively execute tasks in your business. When I focused on building efficient systems, I found that the more streamlined my business became, the less I was needed in a managerial role (when I was an OBM). Using tools like ClickUp can provide an overview of what's happening in your business from a management perspective. While having an operations manager on my team now is crucial for my business's functioning, it's important to start with hiring individuals who can get things done and move the business forward. Once you have the capacity and see the need for a manager, then you can bring someone in to handle that role.

Why did you make the decision to work one day per week instead of hiring more child care?

I believe it comes down to personal preference. We reside in a small town with limited childcare options. The area we live in is touristy and wealthy near the beach, which impacts the prices of everything. Childcare prices here are exorbitant. We also just wanted to be there for Luca. I didn’t want to feel like I was missing out on anything. Ultimately, I would have chosen to give my business up if necessary.

If someone is listening thinking that they want to scale down their business and work less, or maybe even prepare for a new baby, where should they start?

This a good example. Thankfully, we had already done the prep work because I had Luca already, but now that I'm expecting a second baby, we're going back to the drawing board to make sure everything is covered. We actually have a freebie on our website that relates to being able to stop doing the stuff you hate and we even have a course about preparing to take an extended leave.

Basically, we use ClickUp to build a transition timeline. We make a list of tasks and responsibilities, decide if I'm delegating, pausing, or automating them. Then I assign a team member for the ones I'm delegating. We set start dates for their training and the date they take over. I give some leeway so I can be present when they start. We create a takeover plan on ClickUp and execute it.

Are you doing anything different to prepare for this maternity leave than your last one?

I am planning to take a longer break this time. Last time, I would try to work when my child was napping, but it didn't work out and just made me overwhelmed. So this time, I’m going to extend my leave and have a better structure in place. Thankfully, I have some idea of what to expect when I come back, although having two kids instead of one might bring some changes. Fortunately, the team is used to working without me and can execute tasks even when I'm not around. So yeah, I am looking forward to this break with a clearer mind.

Rapid Fire Questions with Courtney Lazar

What’s your favorite ClickUp template in your shop?

Our lead and client management tracker is probably my favorite. We create a lead capture pipeline in ClickUp that can also convert to an active client pipeline. It's really good because I can see all our leads and where they are in the process. Once they become a client, I can easily track their progress. The lead and client tracker is definitely one of my favorites.

What have you become better at saying no to?

Everything. I feel like I have this natural mama bear instinct that makes it easier to set boundaries. If something doesn't have a positive impact on our personal life or family, or if I feel spread too thin, it's a clear indicator that it's a no. Meetings, for instance, have to be scheduled around my toddler's needs. I can't always be available, and that's just the way it is. Sometimes I have to say no, or someone on the team needs to step in if they can.

What is a purchase of $100 or less that's positively impacted you in the last six months?

I actually bought a car organizer that hangs over the backseat of my driver's side chair where my son's car seat is. It's designed to keep his toys, books, snacks, and water bottle organized and prevent them from scattering all over the car floor. As a type A systems person, this probably makes sense. However, it has truly been a game changer as it helps to keep my car clean.

Want More From Courtney with SystemsUp?

Check out our website or say hi over on Instagram @wearesystemsup. We offer a free circle community where we chat about all things systems, and inside the community, you'll find templates and courses to help you out.

Before you go - do you want to discover the driving forces behind every purchase or new client you get?

Seriously - do you want to transform your marketing game with a fun exercise in crafting irresistible copy? I just created a brand new freebie featuring a marketing exercise and a 16-page printable workbook for you! This is the same exercise I've done for years in my business to help me in creatively marketing my services and products in a way that actually touches on the reasons people make buying decisions. Get instant access to your FREE copy right here.

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The post The One-Day Workweek: Building a Multiple 6-Figure/Year Business as a Stay-at-Home Mom with Courtney Lazar from SystemsUp appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

3 Subtle Shifts That Make a BIG Difference When Growing Your Team

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 06:00:54 +0000

Reading Time: 7 minutes

I have been working with others in my business for years now. And trust me, initially, I didn't see myself as someone who ever wanted a team. I imagined myself as a solopreneur when I first started out. However, I have come to realize that having a team is the best decision, and I cannot run this business without them. That being said, managing people, whether they are contractors or employees, is not always easy. There are challenging moments, particularly when it comes to a remote team. So today, in this short episode, I'm going to share three strategies for enhancing communication with your team. Whether you're struggling with your team or even if things are going really well, these tips can help improve company culture, team communication, and your relationship with individual members. Doesn’t that sound good?

And hey - these are small tweaks. They're tweaks that I'm thinking maybe you haven't considered before, as I know they weren't on my radar years ago when I hired my first team member. But now, managing people day in and day out, I think about them constantly.

I also want to clarify what I mean when I say "team." I don't necessarily mean a W-2 employee. They don't have to be on your payroll service. All I mean is people in your business, paid by your business, who work for you on a regular basis. They could be contractors, or business owners themselves whom you hire, or they could be a W-2 employees. The strategies we're discussing apply to all scenarios, as long as there's that team dynamic within your business.

Before we dive in - are you in the Breakthrough Brand All Access Facebook Group yet? It’s free to join, and it’s where we take conversations like this one about team communication and go even deeper. Pop in and ask questions, share insights, and even peek behind the scenes of my own business and what I’m trying lately. I would LOVE for you to join!

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1. Don’t fix (or “tweak”) things without communicating with your team members.

When a team member makes a mistake, big or small, and you want to fix it, consider this: don't just silently correct the error. If you do, they might feel discouraged, thinking, "Why bother doing well if my boss will just change it without telling me?". Or alternatively, they might not even notice the change, which means they won’t do it differently next time. Over time, this can create a bottleneck in your business at best and strain the relationship with your team members at worst.

As a business owner, you don't want to be constantly fixing everything. So instead, communicate about the mistake and work together to prevent future errors. There are a couple of ways to do this:

When you fix a mistake, tell the person what you changed and why you changed it. Let’s use a Canva graphic as an example. If a teammate has designed Canva graphics and you're the final step, exporting and publishing, you might come across issues like text misalignment, color combinations you don’t love, fonts that are too big, or cropped images. You can go in and edit, but also highlight and comment on the graphic with an explanation of the changes you made. Let them know you made a few changes (and explain why), and then let them review the updated graphic at their convenience.
Ask them to change it themselves. Instead of going in and editing it directly, provide clear instructions on what needs to be changed. Use tools like Loom, a screen recording software that shares a link. Record a video with or without your face, where you showcase your screen and explain the changes to team members. Then you can ask them to let you know when it’s ready to review again.

All of this to say, do not create a habit of secretly editing someone's work. When you first hire someone, make sure to schedule dedicated time to OVER communicate with them. This will lead to better team communication overall. This includes explaining how to perform tasks, having frequent meetings, creating loom videos, and providing detailed written instructions. Sharing your processes through various means like tutorials, meetings, and written directions helps align expectations from the start, reducing the need for corrections later on. This approach leads to a stronger working relationship, increased clarity on expectations, and ultimately helps avoid you becoming a really big bottleneck in your business.

2. When there is a problem, the first time someone hears about it shouldn’t be when you’re firing them.

This might seem obvious, but it's often skipped. You'd be shocked by how many people leave a position and only find out it wasn't going well when they're told, "Hey, this isn't working out. We're not going to work together anymore." There are usually no prior signs where the boss says, "Let's work on this. What's not going well?"

If you're having trouble with a team member and considering letting them go, there could be many reasons - work performance, relational issues, etc. You may decide to let them go or not. Regardless, they shouldn't hear about the problem for the first time when you're firing them. As a leader, you need to have better team communication skills than that. Address those problems, have improvement plans, and provide coaching and mentoring. Talk to them, let them know what's not going well.

As a business owner, check in with yourself - is your heart in this? Sometimes, when things aren't going well with a team member, it's like you could have given up on them months before actually letting them go. If your head is going to that place, I suggest either changing your mindset or terminating their employment earlier. Don't spend months operating with someone you feel is doomed without taking action. Instead, create improvement plans, provide more coaching, and communicate clearly about the issues. You want to avoid silently resenting them and counting down until you can let them go.

Supporting New Team Members

Something I like to do with new hires is meet 1:1 every 30 days for the first 90 days just to discuss how things are going. These are on top of the regular meetings we may have scheduled and are dedicated specifically for us to talk about how things are going, and they are encouraged to let me know ways I can improve too. I’ve found it to be a big help to have intentional time to talk about things that aren’t going well. If you feel like you never have an opportunity to critique and tell what’s not working, implementing something like this would be a good idea!

Here are some examples of questions to ask:

How do you feel that the job is going?
Is there anything that isn't going well for you, big or small?
Is there anything you feel like needs to be changed?
What's your single favorite thing you've done so far?
Is there anything you don't enjoy doing that I've asked you to do?
Do you feel like the hours you're working are sustainable? Do you want more? Less?
How do you feel about the work schedule and deadlines on things?
Is there anything I can do to better communicate with you and better lead you?
Could you come up with one to three ways that could better support you?
Could you come up with one to three things you want to do in this position that we haven't done yet?

Something else to note: I am sending these questions in ADVANCE of our meeting. I highly recommend doing this with team communication so that when you both come to the meeting, it won't be like you're asking how she feels about the job and she feels put on the spot. It's not the first time she's seen the questions; she was able to think about them and make some notes.

3. Change your language from “I - this” and “I - that” to “THE BUSINESS” or “OUR CUSTOMERS”

If that sounds confusing, let me explain. This is one of my favorite tips for team communication. It's a matter of aligning the business or our client's needs with my role as the business owner. For instance, when a team member does something I don't like, I’ve found it more effective to discuss it in terms of the business or our clients. Instead of saying, "I need you to respond faster to emails" or "I need you to have more attention to detail," it's better to communicate it in terms of the business, our clients, the brand, and the company's standards.

The main point is not to make things about personally pleasing yourself or doing things “your perfect way.” As a business owner, when you ask someone to change something that isn't working, it's for the benefit of the business, not just for yourself.

For example, if a team member is not responding to emails quickly enough, don’t say, “I would like you to respond quicker,” say, “As a business, we value customer service and quick response times. Is there anything you need from the business to help you respond faster?”

Another thing I'll add is that using inclusive language like "our business," "our company," or "our product" gives ownership to your team and makes it clear that you're all working together. I've used this approach with my team for years, saying "our" instead of "my." It might feel unnatural initially, but it's a subtle shift that emphasizes the collective effort we're all putting into creating and improving everything.

Which of these strategies will you use for better team communication?

Here’s a quick recap:

When a team member makes a mistake, don't just fix it without explanation. Communicate what was fixed or encourage them to fix it themselves.
Don't wait until you're firing someone to address a problem. Consider implementing regular check-ins, like a 90-day meeting, to address concerns early.
Shift your language focus from "I" to “the business” and “our customers”.

I hope these tips are helpful to you! I know growing a team can be challenging at times, but it is SO worth it (like I said at the beginning, I originally saw myself as a solopreneur and can’t imagine a business without my team now!).

Are you looking to upgrade your website without redesigning everything from scratch?

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