As you may remember reading from my latest installment of Entrepreneurial, last month I learned a valuable lesson that progress comes from taking action! In my situation, last month, I waited around for a while hoping creativity and inspiration would strike me, but it never came. So, this month, I am taking things into my own hands and taking action to stay inspired in whatever ways I can. Of course, since I am an audiophile, one of the first things I did was create a fresh Productivity Playlist for April filled with some action-packed and inspiring music that I’ve been loving lately. If you want to check out my new playlist, you can click here to visit Spotify or you can click the audio player below to enjoy the music as you catch up on my blog posts!
Well, let me know what music you have been listening to, or feel free to tweet me a link to your latest Spotify playlist @MissTrenchcoat!
The Essential Business Planning Inserts that Keep Me Productive, Organized & Stress Free!
I get a lot of questions from people in my community about the best planners and inserts to use, especially from current or aspiring business owners who are looking to streamline their planning system, so today I want to share with you the inserts I use in my planner, why I like them and why they may be a good option for you if the standard planner insert options aren’t cutting it for you!
My Business Planning Inserts
The calendar inserts that I use in my (self-made) planner are the A5 Charmed Life Planner Inserts from TheCharmedShop.com. They are printable planner inserts that combine month on two pages, week on two pages, monthly task and expense sheets in a continuous monthly format. These inserts work well for me for a number of reasons:
1. The inserts are a complete, all-in-one system that work together beautifully with a dedicated place for everything that’s important to me. I can track my business goals/marketing/editorial calendar on the monthly calendar, keep track of my project tasks on the monthly task list, track income and expenses on the financial log, and plan my day to day in the weekly spreads.
2. The weekly spreads are vertical list style, which works best with my list loving brain! The weekly pages include a dedicated top 3 space, a good sized ruled center column for lists/schedules/notes/etc and a open lower flex section to be used as I see fit! The clear planning hierarchy built into the weekly spreads almost forces you to prioritize your day and “work smarter, not harder” as I like to say!
3. Because the inserts are so well designed and utilize space seamlessly, I find that I don’t feel the need to dress them up with decorations, but there is room to do so if I choose! Obviously, adding stickers and washi tape don’t make your planner more useful, however, there is something to be said for the fact that it does help you feel more motivated when you are looking at a well designed “pretty” planner spread. Well, these inserts are beautiful with or without added decor which is a major plus for me!
Now, other than my calendar pages, I also have a section in my planner that contains my business projects. In this section, I use inserts from the project planning bundle also found at TheCharmedShop.com. Specifically, I use the Yearly Goal Planning Tracker and the Project Planning Pages. On the Yearly Goal Planner, I map out my business and marketing goals and outline promotions, projects, and areas of focus for different periods of the year. So, it’s essentially a year at a glance business plan! Then, on the Project Planning Pages, I break out each promotion, project and initiative into the manageable tasks that I will need to perform in order to see the project through to completion. Using these project planning pages is excellent because it gives me enough space to outline a full project which I would not have the space to do in my calendar pages, and then I can transfer individual items from my project planning pages to my monthly task lists in the calendar section so I know what items I need to focus on for the month!
Will these inserts work for you?
When it comes to finding the best inserts that work for each of us, the struggle is certainly real! There are so many options out there when it comes to planner inserts, and options can be good or they can be paralyzing to some. For obvious reasons, its impossible for me to determine whether the inserts I use will work for you, however, if you identify with any of the situations below, I think these inserts may work for your life as they do for mine!
1. If you find that your current inserts don’t keep you organized because they lack structure, the Charmed Life Planner inserts may be a welcome change for you!
2. If you find that your current inserts don’t seem to work together, perhaps you have created your own system by curating inserts for a variety of places but they don’t feel like they interact with each other properly, the Charmed Life Planner inserts may be a solution that will work for you!
3. If you have a hard time prioritizing within your planner and find that although you make a list of tasks each day, that few of the important tasks get completed, the Charmed Life Planner inserts should solve that problem for you!
If you are looking for a complete business planning solution, pick up your Business Planning Bundle for just $35 today and you can get started immediately printing out your inserts and getting them organized into your planner!
How has your February been? This month has been filled with excitement for me, I love celebrating Valentine’s Day with my Husband and of course, Galentine’s Day with my besties! I hope your month was wonderful and that you are ready to go for a new month of fun and FREEBIES!
Okay, so let’s talk March Freebies, shall we?
As per the usual, I have a March Dashboard for your planner, along with my Make Your Own Luck March monthly task list! They are both in the same shop listing, so you only need to check out once and you get both designs in both personal and A5 size.
Also made a new set of monthly Tech Wallpapers. In celebration of my birthday on March 13th, these wallpapers are a mix of my two favorites, white marble and stripes! It’s the same pattern I use for my Charmed Life Planner Cover and my Macbook Air skin! I hope you enjoy these wallpapers and that they keep you inspired for the month. I know I love making them for you!
If you download any of these items and put them to use on your gadgets or inside your planner, I would LOVE to see them in action, so please make sure to share your photos on social media, tag me @MissTrenchcoat and use the #CharmedGTD so everyone in the community can see your photos and like them as well!
I don’t know about you but nothing inspires my productivity quite like a good Instagram Photo Challenge! Last March I debuted my #CharmedGTD Instagram Photo Challenge and so many of my productivity loving followers participated that the month proved to be an epic success! March is a super important month to me because my birthday is March 13th, so I love celebrating the month with my friends.
If you love Instagram and would like to participate in this challenge, here’s all you have to do!
Step 1: Right Click on the graphic above and email it to your smartphone to post on Instagram announcing your participation! (Or you can open this webpage on your smartphone and save the graphic directly to your phone’s camera roll)
Step 2: Read the prompts on the graphic each day, take a picture that illustrates the prompt of the day, and post it to Instagram. Make sure to add a fun description to your image that includes the hashtag #CharmedGTD so everyone participating can see each others pictures!
Step 3: Make sure to follow me @MissTrenchcoat and interact with the other participants by liking and commenting on their images!
Instagram is one of my favorite ways to interact with my community and the #CharmedGTD photo challenge is all about inspiring you everyday to Get Things Done! (Get it #CharmedGTD = Charmed Gets Things Done, inspired by my favorite productivity book Getting Things Done by David Allen!) If you have been curious about trying a photo challenge but haven’t ever participated before, I’d love for you to join- remember, this is just something fun to do on social media so if you miss a day or days, don’t sweat it! You can always catch up or skip prompts as needed, the point is just to get involved, let the daily prompts inspire you and of course, HAVE FUN!
If you would like to participate, again, make sure to repost the graphic above to your Instagram account and of course, let me know that you are joining! I can’t wait to see your pictures and I hope we all have a wonderful and productive March!
I think it’s been a few months since my last full playlist post, so this is completely overdue, but I just wanted to share the tunes I’ve been listening to lately. This is a pretty random mix, but I like it and I hope you do too. Happy listening and I hope this playlist brings you some inspiration and productivity as we close out February!
Enjoy!
So what have you been listening to lately? Let me know on the comments!
January is about to come to a close and I have a collection of interesting articles from around the web that you may want to check out if you are looking to set yourself up for success in the New Year. Looking for some interesting books to add to your “to-read” list? Perhaps you are looking to map out your path for the year either personally or professionally. This link-roundup has a little bit of something for everyone, and plenty of motivational inspiration to spare!
I hope you enjoyed these selections and hopefully found something interesting to read that you hadn’t seen before. If you have any other suggestions for articles that you think I need to check out, feel free to link them below or send me a tweet @MissTrenchcoat!
How has your January been? I feel like it’s been a minute since I’ve last chatted with you. I know I was a bit MIA this month on the blog, which I sincerely apologize for. I spent the month in a frenzy of creation for my latest product, The Charmed Life Master Class, which I launched yesterday via YouTube… click here to watch the launch video if you are curious about the class!
Okay, so let’s talk February Freebies, shall we?
As per the usual, I have a February Dashboard for your planner, along with an updated 29 Ways to Love Yourself monthly task list! They are both in the same shop listing, so you only need to check out once and you get both designs in both personal and A5 size.
Also made a new set of monthly Tech Wallpapers. In celebration of Valentine’s Day, February’s wallpapers are an adorable oversized heart polka dot! I hope you enjoy these wallpapers and that they keep you inspired for the month. I know I love making them for you!
If you download any of these items and put them to use on your gadgets or inside your planner, I would LOVE to see them in action, so please make sure to share your photos on social media, tag me @MissTrenchcoat and use the #CharmedGTD so everyone in the community can see your photos and like them as well!
One of the awesome parts of being an entrepreneur is that no two of my days ever seem the same. Although that brings a lot of diversity and excitement to my work, it can also represent a challenge to my planner. What I need from my planning system on a day to day basis can change, but I have no interest in using multiple planning methods to keep up with my business, which is why back in July, I designed my Charmed Life Planner; a complete printable planner that included everything I need to plan my days, no matter what work needs to be done or how crazy (or simple) my schedule looks. The meat of this planner is a vertical week on two pages layout that allows me to see my whole week laid out in front of me, but also gives me the ability to really make use of every inch of space in the individuals days of the spread without feeling like I need more room to write. So, I wanted to take a moment to show you how I use this layout and the tips I have for you to optimize your day in your own planner.
1. Set Your Top 3: When you jump between too many tasks or activities in a day, you end up lowering your productivity. Instead, focus on your top 2 priorities and put those at the top of your list! My printable Charmed Life Planner has a dedicated space for your top 3 sitting right on top of the page.
2. Create a schedule or task list: Depending on your work for the day, you may need either a schedule or a task list. Use the ruled column below your top 3 to break out your appointments or list out lower priority tasks and reminders.
3. Add function with stickers: Stickers aren’t just for decorating anymore! With my line of printable planner stickers, you can add flexible function to your planner by adding a sticker or two to designate special information to help you manage your day.
To stay productive and create a theme for the new year, some people choose a word. That word becomes their word of the year and they will keep that word plastered around them as much as possible and turn to that word for encouragement and guidance as the unexpected twists and turns of life conspire to push us off course. That works for some people, but it doesn’t necessarily work for me. Instead, I choose a song- an anthem if you will! Something that’s more than a word or even a mere collection of words because music speaks to my soul. I’m just that kind of person.
I don’t ever set out to “find” my song of the year, in all honesty, it just sort of finds me which is exactly what happened when I first heard Bird Set Freeby Sia during a live performance on SNL last month. The song immediately stirred something inside of me and I knew, and actually said to myself while the performance was still going on, “this is my song for 2016.”
If you have never experienced this song, I’d recommend it. It definitely has a powerful message that I hope will help keep me strong even when things get tough this year- and I know this year is going to get tough. The best years always do!
If you are someone who also sets an anthem for yourself for the year or perhaps you want to now that I’ve introduced you to the idea, I’d love to hear (haha, so punny) what song you choose! Let me know in the comments or tweet me a link to a music video @MissTrenchcoat!
As a blogger, youtuber and online business owner, it’s important for me to stay focused on my online marketing to make sure I get my content and my products out there into the world to the people who need them most. So, of course, I do a lot of reading and research on the subject of marketing, and although I find that, generally, much of the information is very repetitive, every once in a while I find little gems that I believe are very important to remember. Since many of my readers also happen to be bloggers and small business owners, I thought it would be helpful for you if I shared a few key bits of marketing wisdom that you may not be familiar with, so here are the 5 Marketing Tips you Might have Missed!
1. Consistent messaging is most helpful when targeted at a consistent person: No matter what your business is, whether you’re a blogger, an online business owner or a social media guru, you probably already know that consistency in your messaging is key. However, what you may not have known is that your consistent messaging is most effective when you are targeting your ideal customer consistently. We all have our ideal or target customers, members of our communities and those model consumers we are looking to attract, after all, no one business can cater to 100% of the population! Once you understand who your ideal customer is, what their needs and motivations are, you can then better direct you messaging towards them and reap the rewards.
2. Come on strong: Although coming on strong isn’t something you may want to do when it comes to real world marketing, when promoting yourself on the internet, it’s a must! Why? Well, because online communication is hard. It isn’t a traditional form of communication where you are interacting one on one with your target customers, it’s a sea of people who have literally a thousand other things to pay attention to. So if you want to be seen and heard on the internet, it’s important to talk loudly and carry a big microphone! Put your content and messaging out there everywhere it is relevant and as often as possible. Do things in a big way to create more buzz around you and your business, and don’t be afraid to reach out directly to those you believe will benefit from your products and message!
3. Use rhyming phrases, they are more persuasive: Apparently it has been statistically proven that people inherently believe phrases that rhyme are more accurate that non-rhyming phrases. Weird, huh? Well, I think it just proves how persuasive a good turn of phrase can be, especially when it’s lyrical. So, consider how you can use rhyming phrases in your messaging to your benefit!
4. Anticipate objections and overcome them: As someone who spent years working in sales for a fortune 50 company, I know that anticipating objections is an important part of direct selling. However, when it comes to online selling, we don’t have the benefit of talking one on one with our prospective customers to hear out their concerns and then put their mind at ease. Instead, in online business, you need to anticipate the objections your customers will have, address them and then overcome them in your messaging. This is a perfect example of why it’s important to
5. Give people things to share:In this modern online world of ours, you may have noticed that people love to share. This is one of the major reasons social networks like Facebook and Instagram are so popular. People love giving their opinions, sharing things they like, and feeling like the things they share are helping those around them. Deep down inside, people have a need and strong desire to feel important and valuable. This is a need that you can leverage to help you market your content and business, if you make an effort to create items that are sharable online. Give your customers and community items that they would be proud to share in their social feeds. Things like thoughtful articles, beautiful images, helpful tips and tricks. If you sell a product, give away freebies online like digital items that supplement your products, something people can admire and share with friends. You may have to put in some extra work, but those little extras will pay off in the end!
I hope this post taught you a new tip or trick for marketing yourself or your business online! Let me know in the comments what resonated most with you, and feel free to share your best marketing tips as well!
xoxo,
This article was first published on Strange & Charmed on December 8th, 2014 and is being reposted as part of my Holiday Prep Hiatus! For the months of November & December I will be recycling some vintage S&C content that you may have missed in order to give myself some extra time to finalize projects and spend time with my family during the holiday season. All reposted content will be marked as such. I hope you enjoy this blast from the past blog post!
