I truly feel like March has been a big game changer for me in a lot of ways, and I am beginning to feel infinitely spoiled by the universe. I know that all the good news and positivity can’t last forever, but I have decided that I am going to make the most of all these gifts while I can. As you may already know, March is my birth month as well, so I feel like the last few weeks have been one big celebration, marked with a lot of hard work, dedication and focus. So this month, my playlist is a collection of some of my favorite songs, some old inspirational tunes I can’t live without, as well as a few new hits that I have been playing on repeat. I wish I could say their was a clear theme for the playlist this month, and I think for me there is, but I’m not sure how someone outside of my head would categorize these. For me, these songs are all poetically inspirational, sending me subliminal messages to keep focused on the mission ahead of me. I hope you find something within this collection that speaks to you in the same way.
FourFiveSeconds by Rhianna, Kayne West and Paul McCartney
Habits (Stay High) by Tove Lo
Black Coffee by Peggy Lee
Have you ever seen the rain? by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Kashmir by Led Zeppelin
Killer Queen by Queen
The Downeaster “Alexa” by Billy Joel
Pink Moon by Nick Drake
Tennis Court by Lorde
Born to Die by Lana Del Rey
Make sure to head on over to Spotify to listen to the full playlist for free! Then you can let me know what you thought of this months collection and of course, tell me what you have been listening to and loving this month! Click here to check out previous installments of My Productivity Playlist as well, and I would love to see pictures of you enjoying this playlist at home or at work, so snap a pic, post it to IG and make sure to tag me @MissTrenchcoat and #ProductivityPlaylist so I can see them, like and comment!
Some of the people who know me best have told me that I have incredible focus. Now, I think this is probably the most wonderful compliment an entrepreneur can get because it means that I know how to get things done and execute! As you might imagine, I have a number of balls in the air when it comes to the many facets of my business and I have managed to find a sense of balance in order to get the most important tasks accomplished and chip away at larger projects that might take a period of time in order to complete.
I believe that at the heart of focus and execution is prioritization. Now I will admit that prioritization is a skill that needs to be developed and honed in order to be affective. It’s not always easy, even for me, to know what to prioritize and when, but in my 5+ years working for a fortune 50 company, I have pretty much learned how to prioritize, even when things get messy.
So I’m sure, if you’re like me prioritization isn’t hard when you don’t have much going on, but its when two or more things begin to collide and complete for priority that you get stuck deciding what to do. This feeling of being stuck can often lead us to not make a decision and not take action. So, to combat that, lets talk about two variables that can help you draw the line between competing priorities.
These two variables are values and expectations! Now, your values and expectations are variables because they will vary from person to person. What I value may not be what you value, and expectations you set for yourself may not be the same as the expectations I set for myself. For the purposes of this video I am going to give you some insight into my values and expectations, to understand how I prioritize and ultimately execute in my day to day, but please make sure yo base your own values and expectations off what works for you!
Okay, so when it comes to my values, my first priority is myself, my personal and spiritual health and well being. After that comes my family and business, and finally the greater community outside my front door. Now, I know saying that putting myself first is a very controversial statement, but its one that we really need to demystify! When I say that I put myself first, it is not in a selfish or self centered manner. In fact, I have a great analogy that I like to use to explain why I choose to put myself first. You may have heard me say this before if you follow me on my blog, but to me, it all comes down to something we are taught when we fly in airplanes. If you have ever taken a commercial airline flight you may recall the portion of the preflight where the attendants go over safety features of the flight. Their is a great part of the safety presentation where they explain that in the event of an emergency, oxygen masks will deploy from the ceiling and you must secure your own oxygen mask first before assisting others around you. This is so important people, secure your own mask first! Why? Because if you don’t take care of you, and then things get out of control, you may not be in the position to help anyone else. Not you family, not your friends or the passengers near you who may need you. Lets extrapolate that to life shall we. If you are not getting enough sleep, eating well, and developing good self care habits, you will not be able to perform well in your daily life when it comes to your own or other peoples expectations! You just won’t. So, let’s together try to break this cycle and the stigma of putting ourselves first because in the end, we can’t help anyone if we can’t help ourselves.
Now in terms of my own personal expectations to support that value, I have some pretty straight forward expectations of how I will execute this value. First of all, I need sleep. So I prioritize getting the right amount of sleep per night. I also expect that I will take my vitamins and allergy pills everyday, because when I don’t I feel like poo because I have bad year round allergies! I also have recently developed a new habit of waking up early and drinking a fruit and veggie smoothy Monday- Friday for breakfast. But it has helped me to really start the day off right, make sure I am getting key nutrients and its just been making me feel better. On a side note, my choice of drinking a green juice is just that, my own, and its not open for discussion, so no comments down below debating the legitimacy of drinking green juice or smoothies, I’m good with that decision and I’m not looking for input. I’m just sharing these as examples for you guys to take and then extrapolate to your own lives.
So, prioritizing myself first has really enabled me to make sure I am in the right condition to actively participate in my life and my business. There is no doubt in my mind that I am able to stay focused because I have set clear values and expectations and the greatest of those values, my self care regimen, actually supports my focus in a very direct way.
Now, if you would like to know more about my views on Focus and hear a little more behind the scenes details about my values and expectations associated with them, make sure to check out my latest installment in my Plan Like an Entrepreneur Series. In this video I outline the same basic information here, but I also provide examples from a different value and expectations, as well as outline my top 5 tips for keeping balanced when priorities compete! If this topic interests you, definitely check out the video because you will learn a lot more through that!
I hope this post and this video are both helpful tools for you as you work to improve your own focus. This isn’t a process that can be taken care of in a single day, but the longer you work at it, the more experience you get under your belt making decisions and prioritizing, the easier it will be for you to focus on what matters to execute against your personal and professional tasks! As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic down in the comments, so don’t be shy, let me know what you thought and if this was helpful for you!
I realized something very important in the last few months. After I launched the Strange & Charmed Shop, things began to rapidly change for me. I was no longer focused on the same things that had once held my attention. My income streams had been turned upside down in a matter of weeks after the shop was up and running, and the fate of my blog held in the balance. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am NOT about to tell you that I am closing the blog OR that I am going to stop blogging, that just isn’t going to happen! However, a shift in my perception left me thinking about how I use my blog, the things I share through it and the legacy that I want to create with it. Once it was clear to me that the shop was driving a large portion of my income, I lost a lot of anxiety around my blog and stopped actively seeking out sponsorships and ways to monetize the site. Once I became someone who was creating products, rather than merely someone who shared other people’s products, I realized that I was no longer a blogger. Instead, I am a business owner who blogs.
What is the difference between a blogger and a business owner who blogs?
To a member of my online community, the difference is subtle and perhaps barely even recognizable. When I was a blogger, I was intending to generate income from my writing and seeking the support of sponsors and advertisers in order to produce revenue. Because of this I was spending a good deal of time vetting emails from companies and brands that wanted to place products on my site as a form of advertising, or seeking out and building relationships with brands that I thought my community would want to see me working with. I was much more focused on creating content where I was showing my audience products, things to buy, and hoping to attract sponsors as well as new readers based on the products I was sharing.
Once I opened the shop and that began generating a regular income, it became clear that it was more effective for me to spend my time creating products and services that helped my customers, than simply curating items from other companies. Even though I had always held myself to a high standard when it came to what I shared, once I had the power to actually help solve issues that members of my own community were having through my products, a whole new world of possibility opened up to me. I am not sure if you have noticed, but lately, I have been much more focused on sharing tips, information and even glimpses into my life, more than I ever have before. Content creation back when I was a blogger was always focused on creating valuable content, but it was also compulsory that I found a way to integrate outside brands and companies so that I could monetize and sustain my work on the blog. It was so empowering for me once I made the shift from blogger to business owner who blogs, because I now had my priorities in order and my blog (and YouTube channel) had a new purpose.
I hope that over the last few weeks and months you have been enjoying these subtle changes in my content. For the most part, I doubt you can really feel the shift as a reader, but inside my own mind and at Charmed HQ things seem worlds away from how I used to approach content. It’s so much more relaxed for me to simply share knowledge with you all, give you my best tips and tricks and not have to worry about paying the blogging bills because I have a stream of income that is supporting not only my blog, but also myself and my family! Of course, I only have you, my readers and community, to thank for the success of my shop because you have really made so much more possible for me through your support!
I absolutely loved being a blogger, and for those of you who have never taken on the task you may not truly appreciate the time, effort and mental anguish that can sometimes come with being a full time blogger. If you have a favorite blogger out there on the internet that is constantly producing great content and working with brands and sponsors regularly, I highly suggest going over to their site and giving them a virtual hug and let them know how much you appreciate all they do to keep their content rolling in day after day and week after week. Bloggers sometimes get a tough rap and take a lot of slack for all the hard work they do to publish their content, so spread the love today and make your gratitude known. Thank you all so much for being here with me, and for giving me the opportunity to make this subtle career shift. I appreciate you all more than you will ever know!
I am asked very frequently for book recommendations, specifically, which business books have been the most influential as I have built my own online business. As someone who reads a lot of non-fiction, particularly on the subject of business, marketing and advice, it’s hard for me to narrow my list down so I have chosen today to share with you my top 10!
7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey: Probably the first business and productivity related book I ever read, I still draw inspiration from this book on a regular basis, not just in my business but also in life in general.
The $100 Startup, by Chris Guillebeau: When I first realized that I wanted to start an online business, I did a lot of research into a good book to read on the subject and this was one that kept popping up over and over again. If you want to start a business quickly and inexpensively using the power of the web, this book is filled with examples and case studies to help you make your own way.
Blog Inc, by Joy Cho: Joy Cho of Oh Joy! was probably one of the first bloggers to make it big and parlay their online brand into the real world, so when she came out with this book, I was intrigued. I wouldn’t say the information in the book is life altering, however, if you want to pick up a book about blogging that is a solid choice, this is the one to go for.
The 4-Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferriss: I guess you could say that this book really started it all. I’ve been a long time fan of Tim Ferriss from his association with Kevin Rose and the tech industry in general and this book seriously made me reconsider everything I thought I knew about the modern workforce. I have said before that I believe creating an online business is the new American Dream, because it affords you not only financial security, but also the ability to work whenever from wherever. Once I read this book, I knew I was going to one day work for myself from my laptop, exact location, unknown!
Getting Things Done, by David Allen: Another of my favorites and a classic productivity book that is useful for everyone, not just professionals or business owners. I do believe, however, that putting into practice organizational systems such as the method put forth in this book is a must for any business person. You can’t be successful without a system, and you may not like David’s, but he gives plenty of wiggle room for you to create a process and workflow of your own.
How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie: Although this isn’t what you would call a business book, this is a book all business people should read. It’s all about the art of persuasion, something that an online business owner had better have in spades if they expect to make a living in cyber space. Learning the motivations behind human decision making processes and how to angle yourself so that you are more appealing are priceless skills.
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, by Gary Vaynerchuk: If online marketing is like a prize boxing match, in order to win you have to use a sustained strategy of wearing down your opponent and then knocking them out once you have gotten them to drop their guard. Except with online marketing your opponent is your community of potential customers and your best punches are valuable content and information that your community wants and needs. Gary V tells it like it is and gives you a real strategy to achieve your business and marketing goals.
Empire Building Branding Blueprint, by Alexis Giostra: Okay, so this is a bit of shameless self promotion, but I include this for good reason! If you haven’t been able to tell, I have read a lot of books and done a lot of research into the art of online business, because, well, it’s my job! Not everyone has the time, energy or the focus to do as much reading and research as I have in order to learn the very important lessons about business that I know, so I have done all the hard work for you and put everything I know into my Empire Building Blueprints. The first Blueprint on Branding is now available if you want a crash course to creating your own solid business brand without wasting time, money and resources you just don’t have!
Steal Like an Artist, by Austin Kleon: Another question I get asked a lot is how I continually come up with fresh new content for my Blog, YouTube and social media feeds, but newsflash, everything has been done before in one way or another, so creating new fresh new content requires perspective and ingenuity. This slightly controversial book explains how to steal like an artist so you are always ahead of the curve with content creation.
Hope these books piqued your interest and gave you some ideas for some new reads this Spring! Let me know what your favorite business books are in the comments and if you have a book recommendation for me, please let me know because I am always looking for great new non-fiction reads!
Sunday was a very exciting day for me. If you follow my YouTube Channel or my Instagram Account, you may already know that I have officially launched a new coaching program for members of my community who are looking for guidance building their own business online. The program is called Empire Building, and it was designed by me using all the knowledge I have acquired over the past few years building my own online business from a simple blog and rarely updated YouTube channel to an online community of over 30,000 followers and another 50,000 individual users who visit my site on a monthly basis!
I have to admit, my path to entrepreneurship has been an interesting one, especially when I take into account the fact that I have no specialized business training, nor have I participated in any of the popular online marketing courses you hear about. I’m definitely not against a business degree or taking a dedicated course on the subject of online marketing, but it just wasn’t something I ever did, and terms like hooks, listing building and lead pages still baffle me to this day. No, my success didn’t come from any fancy business or marketing strategies, but rather from doing what I thought was the most logical way to attract an audience and build a community. I created content that was of value to people, stayed consistent with my brand and focus, and treated my followers like I wanted to be treated. Apparently, I had inadvertently stumbled upon the golden rule of online business success.
Although this lesson was a long time coming for me, if you are looking for your own online success, I want to ensure you save as much precious time as possible, which is where Empire Building comes in! The Empire Building Program is a 5 Pillar Method for building a business online using tried and true methods that I have learned over the past 6 years of trial and error online! The Core of the Empire Building Program are 5 Blueprints (or workbooks) each covering one of the 5 Key Pillars to online business success. The first Blueprint, Branding, is currently available on my shop if you are interested in getting started on your own journey to online entrepreneurship, however, Empire Building doesn’t end there!
Over the past 6 years, I have learned much about myself and my own strengths. One of those strengths is my sincere ability to help others and provide focused, practical advice and assistance to those who need it. This is the true reason I created Empire Building, because I wanted to design a program where I could coach members from within my community either on a group or one-to-one basis. So, in addition to the Blueprint workbooks, I am also offering two Coaching Paths to you so that I can use everything I have learned to help you build a successful business online. Now, I am not going to go into the details of these programs here in this post, however, if you are interested in learning more about those programs or the Blueprint workbooks, please head on over to my dedicated information page for the Empire Building Program! This page outlines the program in more detail and is the best place to start if you are interested in working with me, but want to find the option that best suits your needs!
Of course, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly via email. I would be happy to answer any and all questions you have regarding the Empire Building program to ensure you make a choice that works for you! I am so excited for this amazing opportunity to work directly with the wonderful members of my community and help turn dreams and aspirations into reality! Thank you so much to all those who have already joined the program, I am beyond grateful for the chance to work with you!
As far as I’m concerned, photography is a life skill like swimming or driving. You don’t have to be someone who makes a living from photography for it to benefit your life, everyone takes and keeps pictures throughout their lives and the sharper your skills, the better visual memories you will be able to capture! So, here are five of my best tips for becoming a better photographer no matter what your current skill level!
Practice, Practice, Practice! Take as many photos as you can, whenever you can. Practice makes perfect!
Review your own work frequently, and note which methods, times of day, setting on your camera, etc gave you the best images. This is truly the only way you will learn as your progress with photography.
Study and critique the photography of others. Go on Flickr and search through images, figure out what elements stand out to you in great photographs and the style of photographs you like the most. This will help you develop your own person style and help you to create more compelling images.
Learn to engage your subjects. A lot of times whenever you are meeting with a professional photographer, they often ask a lot of questions when they are photographing their subjects. This helps the subjects relax and get engaged with the photographer, which always makes for better photos. Obviously, you will do different things to engage different subjects, you wouldn’t treat an adult the same way you would treat a child or even a pet if you wanted to engage them.
Continue to research and learn. Photography is such a wide subject and there are always new techniques and photographers out there for you to learn about, so if you get stuck or you don’t like a certain style of photography that you find yourself in, dive into the online community, find some new inspiration and get a fresh perspective on your craft!
A great way for your to hone your photography skills would also be for you to jump in and participate in my current Instagram Photo Challenge #CharmedGTD! Don’t worry if you missed the first few days, just pick up with today and get started working on your photography skills while also inspiring productivity in your own life!
As a creative business owner, I have to wear multiple hats throughout the day. It’s not uncommon for me to work on new designs, marketing plans, spend time on photography and images, and then end the day working on expense sheets. I feel like most days I am using all of my brain power to manage details of my business from the creative side to the practical business side, but luckily for me, my one woman show is made easier through the use of some powerful tools in the form of smartphone applications that allow me to manage my workload from home or the coffee shop without missing a single beat. So here are the apps I recommend for the creative business owner.
DocScan: I have written before about my love for this workhorse of an app that basically turns your phone into a scanner. For a few years, this was the only scanner I actually used because it was easy enough for me to use the app to take a picture of a document if I needed to email it to a customer, sign it for a client or just store it for my record keeping. As a creative business owner, I use this handy app to save images of business related receipts, and to open and annotate PDF documents regularly, in order to keep my business working wherever I am.
Followers +: There is no doubt in my mind that my number one favorite social media platform is Instagram, and I consider my community on IG to be a major priority of mine. It’s not just about creating excellent images to keep my followers inspired and informed, but I also get great insights into the way my business in performing by watching in real time my communities response to my images. Followers + is a great app that helps you track your IG photos so that you can see how your customers are interacting with you on Instagram, which photos they are liking and to help you pin point gaps in your community.
Analytics: Analytics is another app that I have written about before because it is a great way for me to manage my website’s statistics on my smartphone. If you use Google Analytics to track your website or blog, you should definitely have this companion app on your phone for those moments when you want to see how well specific content is performing. And if you aren’t yet signed up for Google Analytics to track your site, you need to make that happen asap!
Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a very handy little app that really helps me to batch my work and stay on top of my social media marketing campaigns by scheduling tweets and Facebook posts. Although, admittedly, I am more involved with my Instagram account, I still find Twitter and Facebook to be valuable marketing and community building resources at my disposal and for me, I do best when I am executing in those platforms through marketing campaigns that I can pre plan and preschedule through the use of Hootsuite.
Dropbox: Cloud based storage systems are a godsend for the creative entrepreneur who may need to have any number of media files, documents or images in their hands at a moments notice. Dropbox really helps me to organize important or frequently accessed business and marketing tools from not just my smartphone but also from my iPad or any other computer I have access to. It’s like having a filing system that just floats around in your system where you can refer to items or share them with clients or contacts at a moments notice without having to waste precious storage on your device.
If you are a creative entrepreneur, I highly suggest checking out these apps to help you with your workload so that you are spending less time on the business and marketing of your creative business and more time creating, which if you are anything like me, is your favorite part! Let me know down in the comments if you have ever used any of these apps or if you have any others that you consider a lifesaver for your creative business. If you are looking for more tips for creative business owners and entrepreneurs, make sure to check out my new series, Plan Like an Entrepreneur on YouTube for some behind the scenes action and insight into how I plan for my business! If you are not a creative business owner, feel free to check out this article I wrote called my Must Have Apps for Working Professionals!
As I sit in my living room writing this post to you all, I’m all bundled up in layers of pajamas, blankets, and a warm little puppy on my lap, also trying to fight the cold and snow that’s roaring outside. Like they say, March is in like a lion, and I hope it goes out like a lamb sooner rather than later! But it doesn’t matter how cold and icy it is outside because March is here and it’s one of my favorite months of the year. Why? Because my birthday is in March, which I am looking forward to. Friday the 13th this year, which would perhaps be a bad omen for some people, except for me, 13 has always been my lucky number, and I consider Friday the 13th an auspicious day! I think I may throw myself some sort of horror movie themed birthday party or at least dress up like Wednesday Addams that day! Feel free to leave me some good party ideas down in the comments, they would be appreciated!
This month I also have a few important projects going on, like my #CharmedGTD photo challenge on Instagram that you still have time to get in on! I was blown away to find that by the first day, there was already over 120 pictures using the hashtag and so many more added every hour! I’m blown away by the support of my friends in the planner community, so thank you all if you are participating. I honestly can’t thank you enough for helping me celebrate this month in such a fantastic and inspirational way!
Also, if you missed it, I already announced my March Free Printable entitled “Make Your Own Luck” which you can check out here. And of course, I also recently announced a new addition to my online shop, Printable Inspirational Wall Art. If you are looking to add some positive motivation to your office or home, check these out and start your own gallery wall!
Since March is such an important month for me, I have planned a lot of great content for you all on my blog and YouTube channel. If you haven’t already seen it, I recently started a series on YouTube called Plan Like an Entrepreneur, where I show you how I plan for my week and then answer your questions about business and entrepreneurship! On the blog this month, I have some great productivity tips coming your way, including tips on how to be a better photographer, books you need to read, and my take on staying inspired as a creative! This month is going to be packed with great content, so I hope you stop by regularly to see what I have created for you!
The time has come once again for me to announce my Free Printable for March and this month I have decided to something a little different! First of all, this month I have created my monthly free printable in both personal and A5 size! I know this has been a request from many of you, so when you download the insert, you will actually have access to two inserts, one for each size! So, the second thing that is a little different this month is that I have created a 31 step process for creating, following and executing your goals, so you can Make Your Own Luck from now on! Don’t wait around for your life to change and your big dreams to just magically happen, you need to do the work yourself if you want it done! Luck is something you control when you work hard and make a game plan!
If you do download these free inserts, please let me know about it by taking a picture and tagging me on Instagram with the special hashtag #MakeYourOwnLuckMarch so I can see how you are making use of these inserts in your own planners. I love seeing your pictures, and I can’t wait to like them and interact with you on IG! Make sure you’re following me @MissTrenchcoat!!
Get excited everyone, because I am very pleased to be announcing my very first Instagram Photo Challenge is taking place in March! March is a very important month for me, my birthday is in March (Friday the 13th!!) so I thought this would be a great time to celebrate with a fun #POTD activity. Of course, because I wrote all the prompts, the theme is productivity! I hope that this challenge helps you to get more productive and organized in March. I know that as the months pass after New Year’s Day we tend to loose a bit of steam with our efforts, and with Spring Break right around the corner, now is the time to work hard so you can play hard once the warmer weather rolls in!
Please feel free to save the above image and repost it in your IG feeds! Make sure to tag and follow me @MissTrenchcoat so I can see who is participating and use the tag #CharmedGTD as well! As you post your images day by day, continue to tag me and use the hashtag so everyone can follow along, see your pics and get inspiration from each other!
I can’t wait to see all of your pictures on Instagram!
