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ENTREPRENEURIAL: Executing My CEO Strategy

Welcome to April 2020 my Charmed Ones!

What a month we had in March?

I do hope that all of you are doing well, staying safe and healthy inside as we continue to collectively fight the global pandemic that has hit the world. My thoughts and prayers are with you and yours during this challenging time.

With that said, I hope it’s not insensitive for me to proclaim what a great month March really was for me. Yes, March is my birthday month, so there was that (although my birthday festivities were canceled due to social distancing guidelines) but I also really stayed focus on executing my CEO strategic business plans to revive my business and things really paid off for me.

Never under estimate the affect that some solid planning and dedicated effort can make in your life. A month after writing that last installment of Entrepreneurial and I feel like my business is now in a completely different place.

Let’s quickly recap some of what I think went very well for me in March- hopefully you can learn from my experience and take away some great tips for yourself.

1. I created a ton of great content: From experience I know that creating great content isn’t just great for your business and community building, but on a personal level as a creative entrepreneur, creating is motivation for my spirit. There is no better feeling to me than having an idea and turning it into reality. For me, writing blog posts, creating videos and designing new fun things for you to enjoy is how I create best. It gives me purpose, confidence in my abilities and a bit of catharsis that can only come from bringing an idea to fruition.

2. I launched a bunch of new products: Last month I believe I had a total of three new items hit The Charmed Shop. The High Vibe Bible Digital Planner Inserts, the updated Master Meal Planner Insert Bundle and the CEO Strategy Planner. All three of these inserts are right now bound in my own personal planner and having them for myself has been such a great way for me to stay organized across all the areas of my life. Yes, of course, launching new things is great for my business and revenue, but really for me just having those new tools created for just myself to use is a game changer for my planning. If you haven’t noticed, ever since I went back to a discbound system with my new Chanel Agenda cover, my planning and productivity has hit a new peak and these inserts have everything to do with that!

3: I hosted a super successful business planning workshop: If you’re following along with my content, you know at the end of March I hosted a Live Planning Class where I taught my complete business planning process. A lot of preparation and work went into that live workshop, of course part of it was tied into my launch of the CEO Strategy Planner which was incredibly well received during the event, but part of the class was just an opportunity to bring my community together and I was so blown away that over 200 of you were present with me for the workshop. I know 200 might not seem like a big number in comparison to my overall following but I know for a while there attendance at my live classes and views on my video content had been shrinking. So to have an event go so well and be so well received was really a high point of my month. The success of that live class has really given me the motivation to continue with these live workshops and bring some awesome topics to you that I have been holding off on for some time.

So, what’s the plan for April?

Continue with the content creation.
Continue spreading the good news of all my latest products that have seriously helped me transform my productivity, life and business in March alone.
MORE LIVE WORKSHOPS! Specifically geared towards business topics as I think I have a lot to add to the conversation of online business, especially with all that is going on in the world I think online business owners are struggling in a way that I may actually be able to provide some little relief and strategy to help them through! Plus I just love interacting with you all live and seeing each of you interact together during a workshop as well. Presenting is my strong suit and if it’s what I can do to serve my community during this time, I’m committed to it!

So, with that being said, I’d like to make a few quick announcements while I have your attention!

→ Saturday, April 4th, 2020 I am hosting another LIVE Workshop I’m calling KNOW THYSELF. This is a workshop I have been eager to create for you for some time now, because it is about a topic that is near and dear to my heart- learning and understanding more about yourself! In this workshop I am going to walk you through a few of my favorite personality typing systems like Enneagram, Myers Briggs Type Indicator, and Gretchen Rubin’s 4 Tendencies. As a business owner and someone who is obsessed with personal development, I love using personality typing systems to get to know myself on a deeper level. Self-awareness is a crucial part of success in life, but according to psychological research, it’s a trait only about 5% of the population have. So, join me live on Saturday at 2pm EDT over on my YouTube channel to learn more about what makes you, you, and how we can use that knowledge to maximize our strengths and become more aware of opportunities for personal growth! If you would like email reminders and a direct link to the workshop emailed to you, make sure you are on my list by clicking here!

→ I wanted to make sure each of you knew that today, April 2nd is the final day for the introductory pricing deal on the CEO Strategy Planner. Right now the planner bundle is priced at $49 but tonight at midnight eastern time the price goes back up to the full retail of $75! So, if you are interested in the strategic business planner, now is the time to buy before the price goes up! So far, feedback on the CEO Strategy Planner has been phenomenal, so click here to act now before the deal ends!

Okay, well with that here’s to another great month ahead! I hope this post has been insightful for you and I’d love to hear more about what you are working on this month in the comments below!

xoxo,

Online Business

ENTREPRENEURIAL: HOW I’M REVIVING MY STAGNANT BUSINESS

Welcome to March 2020 my Charmed Ones!

Today I am bringing back a series that used to be part of my monthly editorial calendar: Entrepreneurial. Entrepreneurial is my monthly entrepreneurship journal entry that I make public to give insight to my community, and lead by example for fellow entrepreneurs to see the highs and lows of running an online business. Each month, I generally have a topic that I want to share on that relates to the state of my business or my current priorities. This month we are going to talk about how I plan to revive my stagnant business.

Over the last few years my business has felt like it hit a ceiling. Now I fully understand that this ceiling has been the manifestation of my own limiting beliefs around my business and truly has nothing to do with my business itself and it’s scalability. Although I make a great income from my business, and a mostly passive one at that, I’ve been wanting to take my business to the next level financially for some time, but I’ve made a bunch of mistakes along the way to find what my next level version of business success looks like. Hence, feeling like I’ve hit a ceiling.

I think its normal for people to hit a ceiling like this in their business and perhaps to, like me, feel trapped or boxed in to certain achievements and expectations. If you’re not careful though, hitting this imaginary ceiling can cause you to actually start declining if you aren’t careful, and I feel like my business has been declining in some sense but I know it doesn’t have to. I know that the decline I am feeling has come from a rut I allowed myself to get into.

I spent so much time thinking and researching on how to get myself past the ceiling I felt like I hit to make it to my next level that a few negative side affects started popping up. First, I was doing way too much researching and thinking and not enough executing on what I had learned. Ugh! I know some of you can relate to this. Not taking action because you feel like you don’t know enough to make the best choice yet, or starting down a new path based on information you learned but then finding conflicting information that leads you to continually change course. Double ugh! I definitely spent the last few years in this cycle. Knowing I needed to make a plan for the next level, doing the research, coming up with that plan, and then either chickening out or changing the plan so many times that I started things but left them incomplete. This was disastrous for me and it definitely lead me to make some poor decisions with my business that ended up hurting my revenue, not growing it like intended.

The second negative side affect I experienced was massive burnout. What is interesting about this side affect for me was that I had been working and creating content at a feverish pace for a long time before the burnout hit. And when I think about it, it wasn’t the pace or amount of work that ended up causing the burnout, but truly I think it was a symptom of the overall problem that I wasn’t growing. Anyone who creates any sort of content online can probably relate that when you are creating a lot but getting a lot of great feedback or activity on your content, it fuels you to want to create more. But when you are creating and not seeing the feedback you expect, it can be disheartening and draining. That’s where my burnout came from. For a while there I was creating content but not seeing the response I wanted over and over and over again. Because of that I burned out and became disillusioned by certain platforms.

Despite all this however, I have to remind myself how freaking grateful I am to even be in this position and that I still have a functioning business that earns me a full time income from home. The fact that despite these issues my business is still working and new customers and community members are still finding me is such a testament to the power that great passive income foundations can have in a business. My top performing content and existing funnels have been shouldering the marketing load for my sales and keeping my income consistent as I research, plan and experiment with ideas, even bad ones!

So, it’s with that gratitude and perspective in mind that I consciously decide to keep moving forward and turn to a fresh page with my business. Here are some things I’ve been doing recently to revive my stagnant business:

Back to Branding Basics: I’ve been asking myself a series of foundational brand questions to get super clear on my direction moving forward.

What do I want to be known for?
How can I be of service to others?
Who are my people?
Why do they come to me?
What do I do?
What do I NOT do?

That last one is very important because it’s easy for someone like me to feel like I need to be and do everything for my audience, but that will spread me thin and it already did!

Auditing my Business: I’ve been reviewing different aspects of my business processes over the past few years to understand my strengths and weaknesses, and where investing my effort has or hasn’t paid off. As you may know, I’m a solopreneur and although I’ve worked with a virtual assistant in the past, I’m now considering how or where I might actually need more support in different areas.

What worked for me in the past, what didn’t?
What was I doing very well?
What was I avoiding that I may need help with?
What was I doing poorly out of expectation that I may just need to let go of?

Reviewing my Funnels: Finally, I’ve been reviewing my funnels to see what content, calls to actions and products have been most successful.

What content was I producing at the height of my growth?
What content had the best reception, which did not?
Which products have been most successful?
Where are my sales coming from?

So, those are some steps I’ve been taking to revive my stagnant business and create some solid plans to help me push through that imaginary ceiling blocking me from my next level of success. Realistically, I know I also need to do some mindset work to bring down the blocks alongside doing the work of identifying and executing on my next set of business plans. For now, I would just like to cultivate the vision for where my business is going in 2020 as a first step and get those essential plans laid out. I’m also committing to thinking and researching less, and sticking to the plans I make moving forward. Hopefully, I have some positive updates for you in next months installment of this series!

*Looking for more great resources for your Online Business? Click the image above to get the Female Entrepreneur Online Business Toolkit today!*

I hope you’ve enjoyed this first new installment of Entrepreneurial and that it gave you some food for thought if you too are a business woman like me! I’d love to hear more about the things you have been working on or struggling with in your business so that I can create some content geared towards providing you solutions based on my experience.

xoxo,

Online Business

Entrepreneurial: Laying a Solid Foundation

Entrepreneurial: Laying a Solid Foundation

If you recall from reading last month’s installment of my entrepreneurial series, you know that I got something of a slow start to the year. Thankfully, however, February was a much more productive month for me in many ways. I would say possibly transformative, but it’s honestly too soon to say. What I can say for sure, however, is that I spent much of February laying a solid foundation for the future of my life and business. I was recently talking to a member of my community about Empire Building and entrepreneurship and how I really believe that what makes an entrepreneur successful is their devotion to the idea that they need to live their life in a particular way so their routines and days set them up for success. In many ways, I feel like I took a step up on my execution of this idea and it certainly had positive affects on my success this month. So let’s get into what I did this month to make it all happen.

What I Didn’t Do

1. Overwork: Perhaps it was a left over from January, but I made sure I didn’t overwork myself this month. Did I get everything done? Of course! But I didn’t push myself to work just for works sake, and I made a lot of time for myself, rest and self care.

2. Switch my focus between multiple priorities: I had a pretty single focus this month, which was the upgrade launch of Empire Building. Nearly everything I worked on in February was related to the launch or supported it. I really liked this approach because I feel like everything I did was moving that project forward and I was able to dive deeper into the topics of my launch because I had spent so much time thinking about it and working on it without switching to a different priority or focus.

3. Pressure myself to execute new habits: I know building my magnificent seven habits was a goal for myself this year, but I didn’t worry about those too much this month. Some items, like self care, where done daily, but others like journaling were pushed to the side. I’m okay with this because I know that had I forced myself to check a box

What I Did do

1. Hosted a webinar: It’s been a few months since my last webinar and I have to admit, I was a little nervous about how it would all turn out. Luckily, everything ran smoothly the day of the event and because I was keeping a single focus on the launch this month, I was able to spend a good amount of time creating key marketing materials around the replay!

2. Launched an upgrade: Like I already mentioned, my Empire Building Upgrade Launch was my primary focus this month. This was the biggest upgrade to Empire Building so far and transformed the program from a workbook based course to a video module based course. With the addition of a new 6^th module on Business Administration, I know Empire Building is now an even stronger and info packed program!

3. Talked one to one with my community and customers: Again, having that single focus this month gave me a lot of time to get creative with marketing and promotion. One of the things I was happy I had a chance to do this month was actually schedule some one-on-one chats with potential Empire Building students in order to help them decide if the program was right for them. It’s very important to me that I get the right people into the course

What I Learned

1. Single focus is a magical state: Because I was able to keep a single focus on an important project this month, I was really able to find success with my new launch and lay the ground work for long term business success through different marketing collateral and assets I built up. Purposely making sure you have less items or priorities on your plate so you can spend dedicated time on a key priority really makes a difference in quality of output!

2. To keep it simple: In order to ensure I had the time to dedicate to my single priority this month, I also made sure to keep everything else about my life and days as simple as possible. I meal planned all month, making bulk meals for lunch and dinner to make sure I had my food situation in order, and I kept my other obligations to a minimum.

3. A well laid plan is the key to success: As much as I am all about planning as a time management and success tool, I often get into ruts or states of mind where I don’t believe the plan will work. It’s like, because I can’t see the outcome, I begin to fear failure. This happened to me once again this month with the launch of my upgrade. I began to worry that things weren’t going to work out, but instead of panicking and changing the plan mid-stream, I told myself that I had to stick it out and if I failed, I failed and it would be a lesson. Of course, I was proven wrong in the end. The plan did pan out, and by sticking to it, even in those tough moments, I was able to ensure I stayed on the path I had so intentionally laid out before my journey began.

Again, I hope you have found this post insightful and if anything in particular stood out to you, feel free to tell me about it in the comments. I’d so love to know how your month has progressed, so feel free to share some details as well!

xoxo,

Online Business

Entrepreneurial: Starting is the Hardest Part

One month down, eleven more to go, the new year has officially started! I almost feel like it’s useless to count the months down because they just keep recycling anyway to no end, but one point of significance I would like to point out is that this post represents a completion of a full year of Entrepreneurial posts and the start of round two. A full year has passed since my first installment of this monthly public entrepreneurship journal and I’m very pleased that time and time again, you within my community comment on how much you enjoy these posts. So, I guess I’ll just have to keep doing them! After I wrote the outline for this post, I actually went back into my archives and reread last January’s post, and it’s so interesting to me that some of the things I was struggling with last year came back up with this installment. Namely a sense of introspection and solitary reflection. As I will go on to explain in this post, I do think this is just par for the course for me and January. It can be a challenging month for various reasons and I do hope that if any of you felt the same way, this post provides you will a sense of comfort that it isn’t just you who is struggling to get into their groove and workout a sense of uncertainty and unease. So, let’s jump into my review of the month.

What I Did

1. Put myself first: Without a doubt my focus for the month of January was me. This wasn’t the original intention of the month, but pretty early on into the New Year I realized that I was going through something mentally and emotionally that needed time to play itself out. So, I chose to be graceful with myself and loosened my expectations for what I would get done and work on this month. It definitely helped me make progress with myself, even if I wasn’t giving my full attention to my other priorities.

2. A lot of Soul Searching: Because of aforementioned struggle, I ended up doing a lot of soul searching. I spent a lot of time with myself thinking, practicing self-care and putting my attention on matters that concerned my immediate wellbeing and mental health.

3. Participated in an Online Summit: I said no to a lot this month, both to myself and others, but one thing I did say YES to was participating in an online summit called the Go For It Summit. It’s organized by one of my Empire Building Alums and although I was being very careful with what I agreed to do this month, I felt like my participation in this event was so in line with my overall goals for 2017 that I had to say yes! I gave a great video interview and the summit, which is going live in early February, is open for registration if you are interested- it’s FREE. Click here if you’d like to sign up!

What I Didn’t Do

1. Make any videos for YouTube: This was probably one of the biggest shocks for me this month. I knew I was going to take a week or two off at the start of the year because that is what I usually do, but ending the month with no videos was unplanned. It wasn’t that I didn’t try to film- I did a few times, but for one reason or another, I was displeased with the footage or in one case, the footage was corrupted. I just didn’t end up having the mental energy to force myself to create a video against the flow, so I just let it be what it was going to be.

2. Use my planner much: Back in December I was so excited to start using my planner for the New Year, but once January came, I barely touched it. In fact, I had to force myself to use it at time to outline work I needed to do. Again, this all has to do with my own personal struggle with the month, and I know I will be back in my planner soon, but with no clear direction for how I was spending my time this month, it wasn’t necessary.

3. Finish any projects: I’m not sure if I regret this or if I’ve just accepted it, but I didn’t finish any projects this month. Now, I didn’t have any that were due, but it was weird for me not to complete something in a month.

What I Learned

1. January is a tough month: I think as the years go by, I am beginning to see that January is a tough month for me, and I bet others as well. I think after the high of the holidays in Q4, once the new year hits, I fall into a lull. I’ve always said that productivity is like a wave, it ebbs and flows, and for me, Janauary is just a low energy, low productivity month. It makes sense if you think about it- the start of anything is always the hardest part, why would the start of a year be any different?

2. I don’t want to keep doing what I’ve been doing: After all the soul searching I did this month, I think the biggest thing I realized is that I don’t want to keep doing what I’ve been doing with my life and business. I think after so many years of hustling to make my business work and pushing myself, I am seeing that I’ve built a pretty self-sustaining business. Despite doing very little public facing work this month, I still ended up earning a very good passive income, and that’s the point right? I built this business so that I would make money without having to do much. This month has proven to me that I can pull the reigns on the pace I’ve been keeping and focus on projects that will continue to support the ongoing growth of my passive income streams.

3. Uncertainty is normal: As a type A personality, I struggle with accepting uncertainty. I like to know what is going on and where I stand, but this month was a sort of limbo for me. It really upset me early on in the month, but once I realized that the uncertainty was a struggle I had to face by allowing it to just be, I just accepted it. There is still a lot of uncertainty clouding my mind right now, but I can’t let it upset me because it will end up wasting more of my time.

xoxo,

Online Business

Entrepreneurial: Entrepreneurship is the New Black

Entrepreneurial: Entrepreneurship is the New Black

Three hundred and sixty four days. That is how long it has been since 2016 began, and with just two days left in this 366 day leap year, there is so much for me to look back on over my life and business, but even more for me to look forward to. I’ve spent the last few weeks of this year collecting data, analyzing results, and getting in touch with myself to process what I’ve accomplished and get crystal clear on my vision for 2017. So for this final installment of Entrepreneurial for 2016, I want to recap the big picture items of 2016 and what I want going forward in 2017!

In 2016 I:

1. Worked Smarter, Not Harder: This year, I really made progress embodying the philosophy of work smarter, not harder. I can say without a doubt that this year I hustled less, managed my time better, accomplished my work more productively and saw better results. Despite creating just three new products over the course of the year, producing less video content, spending less time on social media, and taking a hiatus over the summer, my business still grew! I accomplished much streamlining my business in 2016 but I still have more work to do!

2. Bought a Home: The biggest event of the year for my husband and I was definitely the purchase of our home. It represents a lot for us as a couple, but also gives us a new foundation to build our lives and even my business upon. Purchasing a home is a big life milestone, one we sacrificed towards for the past few years. We know we were in an a perfect situation to buy that most couples our age aren’t in, as we have no school loans or other personal debt between us, but we are also very smart with our money and made what we hope will end up being a great investment in our future.

3. Grew into myself as a woman and an entrepreneur: When I turned 30 this year, I started seeing myself in a completely new light. I’ve always been confident and mature for my age, but this year I began to see myself less as a girl and more as a woman. I started to own myself, who I am, and what I want, and wasn’t as hesitant doing for myself and giving to myself the things I wanted and needed. Throughout this year, I’ve gained new insight into my business, let go of certain expectations holding me back, and consciously made the decision to put myself first so that I am in a position to help lift others up.

In 2017 I will:

1. Continue to put myself first: With the impact I want to make, it’s crucial that I put myself first to prevent a situation of overwhelm or stagnation. To do this in the future, I will continue to set boundaries that will protect my time and energy from being drained and establish routines to ensure I am reenergizing my mind and body for maximum output!

2. Positively impact more lives: 2016 gave me a real glimpse into the impact my work and business has had on the lives of members of my community and in 2017 I am setting more aggressive goals to serve and teach as many of my community members as possible.

3. Fail Better: I don’t fail enough, this was a fact I came to recognize this year. While not failing may seem like a good thing, I actually think it’s pretty shameful. If I am not failing, that means I am not pushing myself outside of my comfort zone. It means I’m not taking risks with my ideas, and it means that I’m not truly growing. I acknowledge that I play it safe with my ideas, especially with my content and business, because I’m afraid that pushing the envelope may push people away from my brand, but I think I need to just let go of this fear and try to accomplish some ambitious goals with the intent to make them so big or scary for me that my expectation would be failure. If I fail, then clearly I hit the mark! But if I don’t fail, and I don’t hit the mark, it means that achieved something great. I want to try this in 2017, and consolidate my time as much as possible with the everyday minutiae of my business so I can devote significant time and energy towards this.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and the Entrepreneurial Series in 2016! If you want to look back at more installments throughout the months, click here. I also want to know how your year went for your business and what your big picture goals are for next year. Please let me know down in the comments!

xoxo,

Online Business

Entrepreneurial: I’ll Rise Like the Break of Dawn

Entrepreneurial: I’ll Rise Like the Break of Dawn

I know I have mentioned more than a few times that when it comes to writing my blog posts, I tend to batch the work and write my content at least a week ahead of time, but when it comes to this blog post, my monthly entrepreneurial journal entry, I try to hold off on writing this until the end of the month. So, I’m writing this the day before the post goes live- this is as close to living on the edge that I like to come with my blog, but let me tell you, living on the edge is something I did ALOT in November! In so many ways, this month felt like a metamorphosis for me. I actually don’t understand how the person sitting here at the computer right now typing this post is the same person who woke up on November 1^st thinking this was going to be the same old same old type of month for me. If I had to select a theme song for November, it would be Let It Go from Frozen, because like the beloved snow queen Elsa, I let a lot of sh*t go this month!

What I Didn’t Do

1. Let myself get distracted: November was a very transformative month for me and as soon as I realized that I had a lot of work to do to reach the other side in one piece, I turned on hermit mode and kept myself lazer focused on the tasks in front of me. I definitely didn’t lock myself in a room all month to avoid distractions, but I gave myself permission to delete or silence the apps, alerts, and even people that often take up too much of my mental energy. Truthfully, it felt like one of the most selfish things I have ever done, but it was too freeing to let other things slip away and just focus on myself. I seriously need to do this more often!

2. Let Fear hold me back: I tend to be the type of person who hates disappointing others and fears letting people down, but I overcame a lot of fear this month to do the things I knew had to be done. I almost feel a little ruthless with some of the decisions I made this month, some of the people I blocked and some of the projects I dropped, but I just mentally blocked out the fear.

3. Give a F*ck: I apologize for being so crass with this one, but vulgarity seems to be the best way for me to sum this up! I still can’t believe some of the things I did this month to make it to the finish line. It wasn’t that I did anything bad, I just did things and made choices I have never experienced before and it was completely liberating to me and my business. Looking back at the month, I almost feel like I was a little too reckless at times, but even now, seeing how things turned out, I feel like I needed to be a little reckless and I’m curious about how things could have turned out if I had been even more reckless! It really was a major change for me when you keep in mind that I’m normally so deliberate and buttoned up.

What I Did Do

1. Ran two promotions (simultaneously): This idea was a little nuts, required a lot of work and preparation on my part, but it completely paid off. So, I ran two promotions that overlapped; one for my Online Business Bundle as part of that Free Workshop I hosted mid-month, and one for my Annual Holiday Sale in my shop that ended yesterday. Because of this decision, I had my best month EVER in the shop… and that was BEFORE the second promotion even started! Financially speaking, I exceeded all kinds of goals I had set for my business, not just in November, but also for 2016 as a whole! After a period of months where I felt like my business had stagnated after my summer off and my move, it was like my business was in full acceleration and forgot to hit the brakes. Of course, I’m now curious to see how I parlay this success into December, but any way I cut it, this year is a major win for me no matter what happens next month!

2. Closed a Facebook Group: Remember how I said this month’s theme song would be Let it go? Well, my #CharmedBiz Collective Facebook Group was one of the things that I let go this month. For a long time I felt like this group didn’t shape up the way I had intended it, and it was completely my own fault. But after spending months trying to keep it alive in one way or another, I finally decided to cut off the dead weight so I could move on with a lighter load. I’m so thankful for this opportunity because now I don’t need to spend mental energy and precious time worrying about the future of the group- it wasn’t working, so I let it go, and now I can pour my energy into bigger and better things.

3. Celebrated my success: Because of the great success I had in the shop this month, I gave myself permission to celebrate my milestone with a big purchase. Something I have been wanting for a while, but was always a little concerned about buying because of the expense and the lack of necessity. This was one of those reckless moments, but I said F it, did what I wanted and I’m really happy I did. Life is short, we should ALL get in the habit of celebrating our success and milestones while we have the chance!

What I Learned

1. Let it go (and set boundaries!): I definitely have a hard time letting go, but I managed to conquer this fear and let go of nearly everything that wasn’t serving me this month. I feel like I have emotionally, spiritually and physically cleaned house, and it’s one of those amazing feelings where I don’t regret a single thing, and in fact, want to find more things to let go of! By letting go of that which did not serve me in the past, I was able to clear out space for wonderful new things to come into my life. It’s funny how that works! I let go of a lot of random stuff holding me back and I was bestowed a wonderful gift. The universe strives for balance, if you are carrying around too much, it doesn’t want to give you more than you can handle. You need to unpack what you don’t need before you can get all the shiny new stuff the universe wants you to have instead. And in order to keep myself from picking back up anything I let go of this month, I also needed to make sure to erect some boundaries for myself. Boundaries are a new concept for me as well this month- I tend not to use them, but going forward, much of the work I know I need to complete for myself and my own personal development revolves around setting boundaries so I do not let myself acquire too much baggage that doesn’t serve me in the future.

2. Trust the process: I’ve said this before, but trusting the process is a lesson I am constantly learning. We can’t see the future, so making decisions, taking risks, acting recklessly, it all feels uncomfortable. But I have seen time and time again that when I show up and do the work, it all pays off. Even if I do the work and it doesn’t result in success, I always get something important from it. I need to stop playing it safe all the time, and trust the process more, because I know what works for my life and my business, and the more I can focus on doing the work that matters, the more I’ll be rewarded in the end.

3. Luck results when preparation meets opportunity: To sum up this whole month and the big picture lessons I’ve learned, I am reminded of this quote. “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” If you are looking at my life and my business and thinking “she’s just lucky” you seriously misunderstand what it takes to create success in your own life and business. Although this blog post and those like it are my attempt to pull back the curtain so others can get a glimpse at what it takes to be successful in online business, make no mistake that you do not see it all, especially the hours of hard work that go into making my successes a reality. Tweeting, vlogging, and sharing on Instagram are the things I do when I am not heads down with my eyes glued to my work. There is no such thing as luck, we all get exactly what we work for in one form or another.

I hope this rather irreverent installment of my monthly entrepreneurial journal has inspired you to let some things go in your own life and business, and to create a plan to move forward and collect all the rewards that are waiting for you on the other side of that sacrifice! For me, this month has been so transformative and absolutely freeing. So, I’m sure I can expect some challenges to come next month as I adjust and strive to enforce the changes I’ve made this month. I’d love to hear how your month went and what lessons you picked up along the way, so please make sure to share those in the comments below or let me know how my experience this month has inspired you to act!

xoxo,

Online Business

Entrepreneurial: You Win Some You Lose Some

Entrepreneurial: You Win Some You Lose Some

Oh October! In so many ways, you are my favorite month. You signal the true start of fall in my world, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that with the change in weather this month, you also brought a lot of change to my business. There is a quote I love that goes “It’s so strong that autumn is so beautiful; yet everything is dying,” and this almost perfectly sums up my month. It was a beautiful month in many ways that brought me clarity and even personal change, but in order to get here I had to watch certain things die. As they say, you win some, you lose some!

What I Didn’t Do

1. Spend enough time prioritizing myself: Maybe it was because last month, September, was so self-care focused, or maybe it was because once I got back from vacation I felt the time crunch to get work done, but this month I really dropped the ball on taking care of myself. For most of the month my meal schedule was out of wack, dinners were take out, and “me time” was minimal. Because of this, I was sick for most of the month (residual from a cold I caught on my trip), and then around the mid point, I struggled with anxiety and stress as I prepared for my 2017 insert launch. Luckily, the universe is always so kind as to keep challenging you when it knows you need to learn a lesson, so after a few sleep deprived days led me to the edge, I finally realized that what I had been missing was white space, rest, and lush baths!

2. Finish a project that was scheduled: New inserts were not the only product I was hoping to complete this month. I also had a second project on my list that had been there all year, researched and ready to be completed, but I ultimately decided to let it go until next year. I had even spent much of the month working on, trying to make it work and get it done by the due date, but after breaking down from stress and anxiety and lack of self care, I decided that it needed to be shelved. It was a very scary decision to make because my heart wanted to complete it but my head and timing said no. Once I made the decision I felt like a massive weight had been listed and began to see a path out of the overworked mess I was in.

3. Get out of my comfort zone: I know this may sound a bit odd to be on a business recap, but there were things I did and didn’t do this month out of fear and I don’t really advocate living your life or running your business this way. Now that we are at the end of the month I can see that there are some tough or uncomfortable choices ahead of me that if I am able to break out of my comfort zone and reach for them, it could be a major boost for my business. Or I could let myself be controlled by fear and doubt and keep doing what I’m already doing. I’m not doing bad right now, in fact, I think I’m doing pretty well! But I need to face myself going forward and decide if I want pretty well or if I want great and how far I am willing to reach outside my comfort zone to achieve it.

What I Did Do

1. Launched a new product: I was very excited to launch my 2017 inserts because with them came a new addition to my existing lineup. A Full Size US Letter/A4 planner design that had been highly requested by my audience for a while now. It actually took me a long time to really understand and decide what I wanted to do with this design to make it unique, but one day the vision hit me and I was off executing immediately!

2. Ran a promotion: With my 2017 insert launch, I also ran a promotion for my email/newsletter subscribers. Promotions are great, but I had been struggling with how I could give more value to those within my community who are the most invested in me and my business. Ultimately, I decided to give my email subscribers a special discount code in addition to some bundle deals that were made public. It was simple but effective and my insert launch was very successful this year outside of a major tech issue that occurred on launch day.

3. Invested in necessary upgrades: Overall, my insert launch and promotion went great this month in terms of engagement and sales, which I am always grateful for, but when high volumes of traffic came to my shop that morning, it ended up crashing my site! This had happened to me once before with a promotion so I knew what was going on, so I spent the morning on the phone with tech support and ended up investing in some upgrades to my site hosting that would allow for more traffic and resources to be allocated to my site during peak times. It wasn’t necessarily money I was expecting to spend, but I had it and knew it was going to be a good investment for the future of my site.

What I Learned

1. I need to always prioritize myself first: I know this, this isn’t anything new to me and if you look back over the year of these posts, self-care is something I have been working on all year. I wouldn’t say that this month was a self care fail because it’s not a topic that one can fail at if they are constantly trying and learning. You really only fail when you refuse to try or give up completely.

2. Sometimes all signs can be pointing to yes, but the answer is still no: I consider myself a pretty reasonable and logically person, so I run my business with common sense and strategies I see working for me or others in a similar situation. When it comes to my products especially, I love to create, that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who follows me on different platforms, and when I feel like a product or offer is right, I usually get so excited and worked up about it that I am able to make a plan and execute quickly. But, I’m also an intuitive person, and even when everything seems to be right, right product, right time, right plan, I can always sense when something is off and I need to take a step back. This is basically what happened to me this month with that second project. I loved it, it was the right time, I had a plan that seemed flawless. Logic and reason would tell me, move forward right now with this, work hard, get it done but the more I worked on it, the more I felt like this wasn’t the right time for me to do this project. I have nothing logical to point to, except that I don’t feel like I am able to execute my best on it right now. So for quality sake and for mental clarity’s sake, I put it away and hopefully, I can come back to it in 2017 and knock it out of the park.

3. How important it is to stay on brand: This is another concept that is by no means a new idea to me, but you’d be surprised at how distracting social media and the online business world can be even for someone who is pretty crystal clear on their branding and goals. I’m not sure if this month was a success or a flop for me and my business. On one hand I had a great launch, brought in a respectable income and brought some quality content and products to life. But on the other hand, I had to let go of a project I was passionate about for a very vague reason, and I also felt like I got caught in a trap set by social media that ended up distracting me. That’s why the title of this post is “You Win Some, You Lose Some.” With tools like Instagram and Snapchat its easy to share and consume so much different content. To be honest, most of the content I consume online, is actually not related to the content I create. That may seem odd, but I find that it’s easier for me to create great content when I have kept my eyes on my own paper, and because of that, I like to use different platforms to enjoy content that is more passion or interest driven for me than it is business related. But watching different content means I start wanting to share different content because social media makes you want to share. Then before you know it, you’ve been knocked off course and off brand, and I think this is actually what causes a lot of online businesses and blogs/youtube channels specifically to fail because they had a good thing going that was them, but then they let the world influence them to the point that it changed them. I saw myself falling into this trap this month and made a hard and fast decision to break out of it. I deleted Snapchat off my phone, made some decisions about how I will be using a few other platforms as well, and have basically sworn to myself that I will stick to my content, my brand and my main platforms to give them and my existing following there more time and attention.

Looking back at my month now that I’ve reached the end is a funny thing. There was a lot of struggle this month, but from where I am standing right now, I feel more empowered and prepared than ever for the future. Most of all, I feel very clear on where I am going, a feeling I don’t often get in my business, and one I am sure I will soon lose as I begin working on new plans and projects. So, for now, I am going to do what I can to capture my ideas and goals for how I want to move forward for the end of the year and what I want to achieve moving into 2017!

xoxo,

Online Business

Entrepreneurial: Planning for Success

Entrepreneurial: Planning for Success

September has really been a very successful month for me and my business in a number of ways. After getting back into the groove of work and productivity in August, I have not only kept the ball rolling, but I have also taken some positive steps to help me build habits and routines for success in my life. Here is a summary of how it all went down in September!

What I Didn’t Do

1. Let Myself Get Stressed Out: This month my husband and I had a few unexpected issues with our new home that really shook us up, and although I definitely had a few ugly cry moments, I was surprised at how well I handled the stress that can come with unexpected home repairs. If you follow me on Snapchat you probably know, things actually ended up working out better than expected, but I was impressed by how I managed to keep a positive mindset during the whole ordeal and take things one day and one minute at a time.

2. Worry About Being Perfect: I’m not perfect, you’re not perfect, my business isn’t perfect, homes aren’t perfect! Although I have always been a fan of the quote “Done is Better than Perfect,” I feel like I lived through that a bit more this month. Two specific things that I applied this to were my Planning for Success Master Class and my Work Week Vlog. I realize that I am pretty good at product development, but I ALWAYS worry when I launch a new info product about how it will be received. After all, when it comes to information and knowledge, there is so much out there and a lot of it is free, so I tend to get a bit neurotic when I launch a class. But I actually took some time during the process to sit and think about how I go through this cycle with every info product and it really helped me to quick breakthrough the fear so I could create. In the end the class was a smashing success and the reviews are through the roof with positive feedback! Same goes with my Vlog that went live on the 18^th. I don’t like to vlog, I don’t think I’m good at it, and as the clips began to add up I was concerned that no one would want to watch it because it was close to an hour and that everyone would think the content was trash. But, done is better than perfect, so I hit publish and was pleased to see another positive reaction from my audience. They really are the best, but I just need to keep reminding myself that fear is part of the creation process and use previous examples to keep me focused on getting the job done!

3. Confuse My Priorities: Priorities were a pretty major topic in my life this month and I took many steps to be crystal clear with mine. I did a really good job of keeping those priorities in balance and because of it, this month really felt like my life was falling into place. I never really thought of my life as feeling out of place or out of sync, but keeping my priorities straight really brought a profound sense of clarity to me that I can’t say I have experienced thus far in my life.

What I Did Do

1. Focused on Self Care: It was Self Care September, after all, and so I specifically took action on self care items I had been neglecting. This all goes back to my priorities and that my number one priority is ME! If I’m not taken care of, I can’t do much for anyone else or for my business.

2. Established a Regular Meal Routine: This was one of the big self care items I tackled this month and I’m very proud to say that all month, I did an excellent job eating regular and healthy meals! You may think this is an odd thing to have to build into a routine, but for me, I have a tendency to wake up and get to work and forget to eat until nearly dinner time. This bad habit ended up creating a terrible cycle of binging and overeating that led me to weight gain and a lack of structure in my day. Meal times are so important to help you structure your day, I think most people may take this for granted. Regular work breaks are necessary and for most people, a growling stomach would be an internal alarm to stop working and get a bite to eat, but for me, there is some disconnect between my belly and my brain that makes this hard for me. Luckily, I have started this great routine for myself and will regular oversight and maintenance, I hope to keep it going strong!

3. Took a Vacation: Earlier this summer, my mother, sister and I planned a girls trip to celebrate my sisters 21^st birthday (yes, we are nearly a decade apart in age). At the time, I thought to myself the end of September would be a good time because it was near her birthday and by September, I thought I would have everything in order with my new house. Of course, that was wishful thinking, but despite moments where I have felt like canceling on this trip due to work or house obligations, I’m glad I didn’t. I’ve been reminded so many time this month that there is no “right time” for any specific thing. We have to make the time, keep the plans, and live or else our lives will pass us by.

What I Learned

1. To Shake it Off: Something I have been noticing lately is how I don’t seem to let little everyday issues upset me as much as they may have before. Overall, I think my stress level has just plummeted recently and because of it, I don’t let the drama or negativity that is prevalent on the internet affect me personally. I think when you stop taking things personally you end up being so much happier.

2. The Importance of Taking Care of Myself: It’s pretty much common knowledge that taking care of yourself is important, but honestly, for me it was never really a common practice. Yes, I did engage in self care regularly in the past, and take time off for myself and spend time on my own hobbies, but I think that there is a mindset shift that happens when you truly understand that you haven’t been taking care of yourself and you really need to. So far my progress has been good, I’ve visited my Drs for some lingering health issues that I have been ignoring, I’ve started eating regular balanced meals, and I’ve kept up this mindset that I’m a priority and need to deal with my issues first and not last. I’d say it has resulted in this reduced stress, positive mindset I’m currently in. Will it last forever? Probably not. But am I seeing first hand the positive effects that routines and good habits have in your life? Absolutely. So when I do eventually fall off the wagon, which I’m sure will happen one day, I think this experience will help me get back on quicker.

3. To Optimize My Space: Now that we are settled into our new home and this feels like a more permanent home to me than any of my apartments ever did, I have spent a good amount of time this month understanding how I can optimize my space. Not just in my office and my home, but even in my business. If you watched my Work Week Vlog you may have seen my new robotic vacuum cleaner that I ordered in order to optimize my home care after I was faced with the problem of having so much more space and surfaces that need care. Hopefully, the robot will help me automate some of my chores so I don’t feel like taking care of my home is my second full time job! In terms of my business, I’ve been asking myself how I can optimize my brand, my income streams, my work, all to help me remain clear on my goals and find a direct path to execute on my plans. I’ve outlined and brainstormed a few projects and general plans this month that I want to work on through the end of the year to really help me start the new year with a fresh take on my business.

So that is my recap for September. I hope you found some nuggets of information in their and some examples that may help you think about managing your entrepreneurial lifestyle a little more productively. Of course, I want to hear how your month went, so please share your insight from September in the comments.

xoxo,

Business

Entrepreneurial: Getting Back In the Groove

My husband and I (and Starbuck) have officially lived in our new home for a little over a month and I’m very glad to report that we are really getting back into the groove of life and work, at last! We’ve completed many home projects, purchased a lot of new furniture, and although our work is far from done, that anxiety I get when things are completely out of place has dissolved. August was my first month back to work full time at my biz after my very long and exhausting summer of moving and home ownership prep. I’m surprised that I was able to transition back into my old work habits pretty quickly, but then again, when the alternative is obsessing over unfinished home projects, work really seems like a welcome treat!

What I didn’t do

1. Wake up early everyday: I think this is one part due to my new home and the lesser amount of light that comes into our bedroom, but I’m also not forcing myself out of bed in the morning. Although I don’t plan to keep up this routine much into fall, I think that with the exhaustion of moving and all the extra home projects, I just need more time to sleep. So I am giving myself permission to sleep more if I want to.

2. Work 8 hours a day: I go through periods of time when I work full days and then periods when a few hours of work is all I need. Since I have been keeping my workload light this summer, I haven’t been working full days as of yet. After sleeping in and allowing myself to take it easy in the morning, I have started working around noon and ending work around 4pm.

3. Focus only on work: Right now I have more on my plate outside of work, so again, I have given myself permission to spend time on things that aren’t work related. Some of that is establishing new routines in my home. Some of that is taking care of random new home things I never had to manage before. I only have 24 hours in a day and when new essential items are added to your life, it’s important to take measure of what you can scale back on so that you remain balanced and not overwhelmed.

What I did do

1. Set my priorities: All of the recent home life changes have meant that I needed to reevaluate my priorities. In doing so I was able to determine the areas of my life where I would be able to cut back without causing a crisis. Taking the time to sit down and think about your priorities and what you are trying to achieve is crucial whenever you’re managing change.

2. Enjoyed my evenings: In establishing new routines for our home, my husband and I have been focusing a lot on enjoying our evenings. We have a patio with a gazebo where we like to spend some time with a drink in hand to unwind. We also have a larger living area and more spaces without our home to use and enjoy and we are really trying to make the most of it. Especially now that we aren’t renting a little apartment and have a place of our own, I really want to enjoy our space and the fruits of our labor.

3. Started a weekly newsletter: So this was the one business project I kicked off this month! I have been wanting to do a newsletter for a while and I actually scheduled it out on my project plan to get this started at the end of the summer. I have been taking steps to arrange this for a few months now and it feels great to be on track with my business projects even if I’m not thinking business 24/7!

What I learned

1. Making progress in your personal life will trickle over into your work: It might seem like common sense that if you want to improve a certain area of your life, you should focus on that area alone, but I think that perspective ignores the bigger picture. For me, I have found that by spending time on my personal life and getting that in order, I have made progress in my work life. The more time I spend relaxing in the evenings, the greater my capacity for work is the next day. The more I get my eating habits under control, the more structured I find my workday. When you think work-life balance, I think there is a misconception that it’s all about shuffling around tasks and priorities until you find equilibrium, but I think that simply taking action to take care of one area of your life will tilt the scale for other areas of your life as well.

2. To take advantage of my flexible schedule: This was my big a-ha moment this month. Obviously, since I work from home for myself, I have a flexible schedule, but I don’t usually take advantage of that flexibility. I normally insist on creating a consistent workday schedule that might mimic a normal 9-5. This month, I challenged myself to understand why. Why do I force myself into that mold if I have created a business and lifestyle where I have the ability to legitimately break out of that mold? I know it comes down to old habits and expectations, so this month I loosened those expectations and gave myself permission to sleep in, start working later, and finish up with time to spare in the evening without hopping back on to my computer in bed! Flexibility in your schedule is only a blessing if you use it and I want to use it!

3. Patience: I don’t think I have ever been a particularly patient person. I like immediate gratification, I tend to rush and I don’t like not having control over situations that affect my life. But holy cow! If buying a home doesn’t teach you patience, I don’t know what does! Not just patience with the process of purchasing, but from the moment we bought our home there were a few dozen projects and repairs that I needed to manage and if you follow me on snapchat you might already know that seriously, nothing went according to plan! Every contractor encountered issues beyond what we were already facing. Every important delivery or installation was botched. I have lived in my home for over a month now and we are still dealing with contractors that haven’t finished their work from the first week of move in. It’s crazy- apparently this is normal- but because of all of this, I have learned to let go and be patient. I’ve had to turn my obsessiveness off and just accept things for what they are.

Let me know in the comments how your month went!

xoxo,

Business

Entrepreneurial: How My Online Business Survived My Month-Long Hiatus!

Welcome back for another installment of Entrepreneurial, my monthly journal entry chronicling my experience as an entrepreneur, my victories and failures each month, and the lessons learned along the way.

How my online business survived my month-long hiatus!

As some of you may already know, July was a big month for me and my husband because we bought our first home and then moved into it. Thanks to all of you who sent your congratulations and words of encouragement and support on this major life milestone of ours, we truly appreciate it! I know that I am incredibly blessed to run my own business and therefore, I alone am the sole manager of my time, so when my husband and I were preparing for the purchase of our home and the major project which was preparing it for our arrival and then moving into it, we decided that I was going to pull back from my business for a few weeks. Initially, this meant that I was still going to be working but that I would stop doing certain time consuming tasks (like filming for YouTube) in order to spend time on this event which was our #1 priority.

Quickly, however, that plan went out the window when, despite our best attempts to plan and manage the new home situation, unexpected issues and stress took my mind off of my business and kept me preoccupied with a litany of house related obligations. So, as it turns out, I ended up doing little to no work for my business in July, a very scary, but also incredibly necessary choice I had to make. I was of course worried that this would damage my business and my brand. Although I built my business to be a passive income producer in theory, I had never really left it alone to its own devices. So this was a big test for me and how well I had built my business to run without me.

The results of a month away from my work were pretty unexpected. My business still brought in a steady income, not the amount I usually earn each month, but about 1/3^rd of it. Still enough for me to pay my bills and keep my head above water without having to dip into savings, and although with the major expense of the move, having my usual full income would have been great, I was pleased that things were running sustainably without me and that the time away didn’t cause a financial burden. In terms of my following, I was very pleased to see that after a hiatus of 6 weeks on YouTube, my channel was still growing at the same rate it had been and that my views were comparable to the same time frame last year. Even my blog traffic stayed consistent during this time which was great, and my Instagram, Twitter and Facebook following all grew at about the usually rate as well.

So, other than a dip in my income, it doesn’t appear that the month away did any damage to my brand, and I think I have some good solid reasons why!

#1. Having a backlog of high quality content kept my SEO and discoverability consistent so that new followers and customers were still flowing in. If you are a new business that doesn’t have much content built up on their platforms, I wouldn’t recommend taking an extended period of time off, but with hundreds of blog posts and hundreds more YouTube videos in my history means that there is lead generating content available at all times.

#2. Being transparent with my existing audience meant that everyone understood why I was gone and that I would be back! I really think this was a big reason my followers didn’t drop me during my time off and were actually excited for me to get back, because I let them know what was going on, why I was taking time off and when I would be back in business. I received many messages and emails during my time off expressing support and excitement for me and my husband, and sharing anticipation for me to come back with new content.

#3. Using social scheduling tools helped me to push out and promote existing content and products consistently, so that my accounts didn’t go completely dark. Although my Blog and YouTube weren’t being regularly updated, some of my other social feeds were, so my closest followers were still connecting with me and my content while I was gone and new followers were still able to find me, my content and my products!

#4. I regularly checked my email to remain connected and responsive to those who reached out. I’m a true believer that it’s very important to reply to your emails because for me, its a sign of respect that if someone spent the time to message me, I am going to spend the time to reply back, even if its just a short response. Although my email response rate was slower than normal, I did regularly check my email and reply as quickly as I could to customer service inquiries, questions and the outpouring of love I was receiving from my community!

So, that is my recap of July aka that time I took a month off and my business was still okay when I got back! I definitely learned a lot about life and business from the process of buying a home, moving and trying to manage my business in the process, which I will be sharing with you more in future posts and emails, so if you are not already subscribed to my newsletter, sign up here! Don’t forget to let me know how your July went, I can’t wait to catch up with you all over the next few days and weeks as I settle back into my work routines and start defining some new ones!