I wanted to share a little experiment with you that I’ve been doing for about two weeks now. Maybe not quite two weeks, it started out as a seven-day experiment. It went so well, I don’t think I’m ever gonna stop, and, I had to share it with you. Did you know that when you get interrupted during your day, maybe you’re sitting at your desk ,you’re working on projects, maybe you’re trying to do follow-up calls, creating content, putting together your marketing, whatever it is you’re doing in your day to day activities, when you get interrupted, studies have shown it takes 12 minutes to get back into whatever you are doing. Now, some studies show it takes 15 minutes. There’s other studies that I found it says seven or eight minutes, but the most consistent that I’ve seen and the most recent I’ve seen is 12 minutes. So, if you get a text message from a colleague, a friend, a family member, if you get a facebook notification or something on messenger, I know I use the app called boxer with my clients and colleagues, if a boxer message comes in, if a phone call comes in, and you get a phone call even if you don’t answer, and, you send it to voicemail all of those all those notifications that are happening cost you 12 minutes. One of the experiments, I’m one of the days I calculated that I was losing 2 hours a day. Simply because of these notifications getting my brain back into the gear, back into the project that I was working on, that’s a lot of time. When you’re working for yourself, and, we don’t have time to waste we got a lot to do. The world needs our work. We got to be focused. So, all these apps that keep us connected, while that connection is good, sometimes too much can prevent us from doing the work that needs to be done. and from being our best selves at work.
So, here’s the experiment. I challenge you to give this a try. This scared the crap out of me when I first said yes to doing this. Go seven days with no notifications. Go to your smartphone, like I use the iPhone. Go to settings, you’ll see notifications scroll through your apps for your text message, your phone call, your Facebook Messenger, Facebook mail boxer, slack, whatever you’re using, turn those notifications off! Turn them off now. You’ll still get the messages. They’ll be sitting there waiting for you. But now, you get to determine when you want to respond, and, review, and, read those messages. So, what I did, because I this was not something I was used to responding right away. “Oh, there’s a text let me see, let me respond. Oh! my team needs me! There’s a boxer, let me respond! I was reacting and responding immediately because I thought I was serving my team, my friends, my family, my colleagues, but I was taking time away from me. So I went into my calendar, and, twice a day mid-morning mid-afternoon, I put on my calendar: check all messages. In those dedicated slots, that’s when I went into my texts, my Facebook, my boxers, my voicemails; I reviewed them, my emails, I reviewed all of them, and, then I responded when I was in this space.
I’d be curious to see what your experiment reveals. What I have found is, my energy is freer. I’m not distracted by all those red, little notification dots on my phone, trying to get them cleared out because I’m afraid somebody’s missing something. So, that fear, and, that anxiety is gone. Which frees up my energy to put in creating content marketing, Facebook lives, facilitating with my clients.
The other thing I’m noticing is that I’m more present with the people that I’m with. My husband, for example, maybe we’re driving down the road or sitting in the living room, and, it’s so easy to see those notifications and get distracted. Now, I’m not present with him, now I can be present with the people that I’m with, and, not distracted or rushing to respond too quickly. So, I challenge you to a seven day, no notification challenge. A bunch of my colleagues and I have been doing this, and I got to tell you, I thought: “Oh gosh! I hope I make it to the end of the seven days!” But now that I have, I’m never giving this up. It’s a whole new way of working.
I can’t wait to hear your experience with this challenge as well. So post below! Do you already live without notifications? And remember, this is not just for your phone, but for your desktop, too. I, always from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. do not disturb. I don’t get those notifications flashing on my computer. I don’t get those notifications popping up on my phone. I’ve a choice when I go see it. I want to hear from you as you do this experiment. What do you notice? What are you experiencing? What are the results and the impact on your life personally and in your business? So, go do that if you dare. Come back here, but make sure schedule in your calendar at least 2 times where you are prompted and reminded: “Oh, yeah, I gotta go check my messages!” Because it’s a new habit you’re creating, have fun, savoring all of this time and energy, you’re about to get back and I can’t wait to see the impact on your business.
You know, a lot of times when I talk with startup coaches or startup business owners of any type, one of the things that I hear a lot is: “I need more confidence.” “I’ve got to put myself out there, be seen be heard, and, I I just need more confidence because it makes me so nervous.” I hear a lot of variations of that. And it’s interesting when we think about confidence, when I hear people talking about they need more confidence, what that’s telling me is that – when they’re presenting whether you’re doing a facebook live, whether you’re doing a 60-second commercial at a networking event, whether you’re on stage doing a presentation, wherever you’re speaking, if you are super nervous, and, you’re talking about needing more confidence, what that tells me is that you’re putting all the attention on you. How am I gonna sound? Am I gonna get it right? Will I screw this up? Will they like what I have to say? It’s all about you, and, your nerves go through the roof. When we can turn it around and make it about connection, instead, who you’re serving, who you’re helping. Now, your nerves begin to dissipate not all the way, but they do begin to dissipate a little bit. So, focus instead on when you’re standing there, talking to somebody, who is it that you’re going to be helping. Because I know you. I know you love to help and be of service to people, right? So, put your attention on connection, not confidence but connection is where you want your emphasis and your attention to be. Now, you don’t want your nerves to go away completely.
You know, growing up I was a flute player, took private lessons within the orchestra and the symphony, and, all of that. In my private lessons, I was talking with one of my my private instructors one time,
and I said I’ve got to stop being super nervous on stage. Now, she helped me really master my skill, so that I knew what I was doing, and that helped a little bit. Ultimately, what she told me was, you don’t want your nerves to go away completely, because what that tells
me is if you’re not nervous. When you get on stage to do your performance, then you’re either taking it for granted or you don’t care anymore. The nerves fight nerves, not out of control nerves but slight nerves are an indicator to make sure you’re prepared, to make sure you’re passionate, and, plugged in to what really matters, and, that your heart, and, your entire being is showing up. So, we want to be a little bit nervous to keep us on our game. When you can put your attention on the connection, who you’re serving, how you’re helping them, how they’ll benefit because of what you’re sharing, now you can be of service to people!
So, when you’re making that presentation, when you’re doing that Facebook live, when you’re on stage, imagine that one person or two or three people. Have their faces in your mind, know them by name, speak to them, make it personal. It’ll make all the difference in the world.
I can’t wait to hear how it goes for you. Comment below and let me know what it’s like when you put your attention on connection rather than needing more confidence.
The Coaches Console is now a multi-seven-figure business (can I get a “woohoo”?!)—and I can tell you this: it’s built on a solid foundation of networking. Now, you may think you’ve got networking all figured out: go to an event, give a business card, take a business card, and voila! You’re building your connections, your network, and your company. Right? Wrong! There’s one major rule of networking, and I think you should break it, every time! Watch the video below to see what it is, and what I suggest you do, instead.
Now that you know what not to do at networking events, and how to ensure you leave each one in complete control of the follow up, you’re on the right track to grow your business efficiently through networking. Which means you’re also on the right track to improve your chances of booking sample sessions, growing your mailing list, and increasing your conversion rates. (So exciting!)
Next, I’d like to offer you a complimentary resource designed to teach you the step-by-step process to brand and launch your coaching business and generate consistent income. It’s The Ultimate Coaching Business Blueprint: The Behind-the-Scenes Magic That Creates a Smoothly-Running Coaching Business, and its accompanying training video. Download both, at no cost, here:
Hey, good morning! It’s Melinda here and I’m sitting out here in the early morning on my back porch, overlooking my backyard and I’m just taking it all in, because we just finished our three-day live retreat with our Accelerator Coaching Program. And I was asked many times throughout this program: “How ar you keeping your energy up?” Because not only did we meet and have sessions from 9:00 to 5:00 every day, but then after one day we all loaded up and went to Kate’s house and had a cookout and dinner. And in the next day we all loaded up and came to my house and had a full-moon fire circle and dinner and we connected and had a lot of fun. And so it was non-stop, consistently for the past three days. And people were asking me: “How are you doing this? How are you facilitating the sessions? How are you then still staying connected with us and keeping your energy up?”
And here’s my secret: it’s all about the self-care. People over rate and overlook this and you cannot miss this one thing. And here’s how I do it: I make sure, before this ever begins, before we ever come into this event I have done self-care and I have filled myself up so much that I am giving of the overflow with my energy, my emotions, my brainpower, so that when the event starts I’m from the place of overflow, so I have a lot to give right from the beginning. And then throughout the event I’m doing little significant things to maintain my self-care; it might be take five minutes, go out, walk outside barefoot in the grass and soak in some vitamin D and sun, it might be taking a few dance breaks privately on my own and moving the energy through my body so it’s not staying stuck anywhere. But I maintain my self-care throughout it all. And then I have already planned my self-care afterwards, so I know I don’t have to worry about being depleted because I’ve got my self-care plan in place, so when this is done I’m taking care of myself to rejuvenate again.
So that’s today. Our live event ended yesterday, I had my team over here for one final debrief digestion and ritual last night, we were here until about ten o’clock, and now today, tomorrow, Monday – complete self-care, total relaxation, juvenation, doing that which lights me, up so I can bring myself back to overflow. So when you maintain your self-care you can maintain your energy even when you’re on or delivering. A lot of the facilitators and teachers that I’ve been around, they do it in peaks and valleys; they’re on, give, give, give, deplete, deplete, deplete, then they crash and burn. And they have to be disconnected, they can’t interact with their people. And a lot of times I hear other teachers and facilitators say: “Well, after I’m on the stage I have to go away and I’ve got to recoup and I can’t be around anybody or else they’ll suck the energy out of me. I’ve got to protect my energy.” And my belief is that when you practice extraordinary self-care in the
midst of what you’re delivering, what project you’re working on, what job you’re in you can be on because you are taking care of your energy and yourself.
So I just wanted to share that with you as I’m in the midst of my self-care. This is the only work I’m gonna be doing, but this was really heavy on my heart and I wanted to share this with you, because I think a lot of people can benefit this. So remember: self-care is not a reward for what you do or a project completed; it’s a requirement for what’s to come. Let’s self-care be on both ends and throughout everything and you’ll maintain your energy. Alright, I got to go do nothing.
I’m confident that if you’re here, it’s because you want to be successful. And I want that for you, too! Which is why, in this quick video, I’m sharing three things you’ll never catch successful people doing. In other words, if you are serious about launching and growing a thriving, profitable coaching business that empowers you to help your clients transform their lives, then stop doing these three things immediately!
Now that you know which habits to break in order to supercharge your success, take the next step. I’d like to offer you a complimentary resource designed to show you exactly what you need to do now (and later) to brand and launch your coaching business and generate consistent income. It’s The Ultimate Coaching Business Blueprint: The Behind-the-Scenes Magic That Creates a Smoothly-Running Coaching Business, and its accompanying training video. Download both, at no cost, here:
What comes first—the confidence or the action? When we’re just starting out, so many of us believe we need to build our confidence before we start putting ourselves out there. But I’m telling you now that that is actually not the case. If you believe you need more confidence before you can begin building your business, then I’d like to invite you to change your perspective. I explain in a brand-new video I made for you. You can watch it here, now:
Now that you know a shift in focus and perspective can empower you to serve, starting immediately, you can begin to take action to grow your business! You don’t have to wait for more confidence or better skills—you can just start serving. Next, I’d like to offer you a complimentary resource designed to teach you the step-by-step process to brand and launch your coaching business and generate consistent income. It’s The Ultimate Coaching Business Blueprint: The Behind-the-Scenes Magic That Creates a Smoothly-Running Coaching Business, and its accompanying training video. Download both, for free, here:
