Do Weekly Podcast

Welcome to year one of the quarantine! Year one!? Let’s hope it’s just one year. Because this is not year fun, 2020 can go home.

You’ll notice that when you listen to this, it’s April. 2020. And yet we’re still talking about Analog January and if you’re keeping score that shit was back in January 2020. We finally finished it out.

We had to make some stuff for this challenge, which is the last bit we covered for Analog January.

I’ve been drawing a lot. In fact, you can see that here…

Aside from drawing, I have also been making

As for Natalie, she’s a crafty gal. She’s making me a blanket and has been baking a lot, doing the whole cookie route which I whole-heartedly approve of.

Natalie also opined…

The amount of happiness in your life is directly related to how many hours you spend in a “state of flow.”Natalie MacLees or some other person

What is a state of flow? According to Wikipedia: In positive psychology, a flow state, also known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.

The short of it is to find activities that you enjoy and lose yourself in the process; that means your mind is content

Educational Product Check-in

Natalie has been a beast about building out her course out. She is building an accessible site and then a non-accessible site, each is taking a long time to build out.

I have not done a damn thing about my educational product. =(

Next Week’s Challenge

Headshots. It’s not just something you get excited about when you shoot an opponent in the head while playing Call of Duty with your friends. It’s probably the one thing that should be on your website that isn’t your personality. What is that? You guessed it, a damn headshot!

Yep, we’re getting our headshots did. Given that we’re in a pandemic now, this is going to be extra challenging. If you don’t live with a professional hairstylist, then you gotta go full metal FLOWBEE.

I tell you, it doesn’t get much better than that. Amirite?

Also, having access to a professional photographer is always groovy, too. But that’s not always possible. If that’s the case for you then consider using your phone’s portrait mode. What else are you going to do?

Keep it doable and we’ll see you next week!

Need help? Ping us on Instagram or Twitter @doweeklypodcast.

As always, don’t forget to leave us that gushy 5-star review on Apple Podcasts on Apple Podcasts. And remember, kids, keep it simple and most importantly Keep it Doable!

Welcome back, dear listeners to yet another episode of Do Weekly Podcast-ery. Are you ready to level up and become more awesome?

We kick off this week with some serious failures. Natalie shares a tale of woe. She promised a client of hers that she would get something done. She told the client not to touch the site until the thing was done. The client was like cool beans. The client even had a couple of people standing by for notification when they could use the site again. But Natalie dropped the ball and didn’t get the thing done. Life happened and she kinda forgot about the thing she had to do. Nat’s client was okay with everything but was less than pleased.

Here’s the thing folks. Everybody poops. We all mess up. You just have to own your mistakes. I’ve nuked client databases on live; I’ve sent frothy angry emails accidentally to the wrong people.

Don’t worry folks, our challenge this week isn’t to mess up and piss off your clients. Nope!

Last Week’s Challenge

We’re late. So sorry. Even though it’s April, we’re STILL doing the whole Analog January Challenge. This week we talk about moving, be out in the world without your phone for fifteen minutes. COVID-19 of course says that we should all be staying home or observing social distance. So keep that in mind when you’re deciding to go out and do something active.

That said, we talked about moving and getting outside without our phones. I was fine with this before the Pandemic hit. Natalie did well, too, but opted to keep her phone on her for safety reasons.

In fact, you can use this time of increased home bodied-ness to do meditation or even yoga. Something that helps you clear your mind and address any anxiety that surely exists in these crazy times we’re living in.

Educational Course Update

I have not worked on my course, since everything that’s been going on. Plus, I had a project that required a lot of attention. So I haven’t made any progress and I just haven’t gotten things finished.

As for Natalie, she got stopped up on a large chapter. She’s doing an ebook on accessibility for small business owners. She got stopped on creating content due to the inherent complexity of writing about accessibility for small biz owners.

Next Week’s Challenge

The challenge is to use the time we have now to get things done and push the educational product across the finish line.

Need help? Ping us on Instagram or Twitter @doweeklypodcast.

As always, don’t forget to leave us that gushy 5-star review on Apple Podcasts on Apple Podcasts. And remember, kids, keep it simple and most importantly Keep it Doable!

Howdy ho, Children of the Corn! Welcome back to another week of the Do Weekly Podcast.

We kick off this week’s episode by talking about bugs in your ear. We’re straight-up talking about nasty shit without a trigger warning. You’re welcome!

Last Week’s Challenge

We talk about Part 4 of our Analog January Challenge. If you recall, the basic points of the challenge are to: read something, move, talk to people, make something, join something that meets regularly and also updating on our educational product challenge.

Last week, we emphasized talking to people; connecting with them over coffee, having phone or skype conversations, basically avoiding text-based conversations. So we’re making it a point to twenty different people (not just twenty different conversations).

The idea is that we’re trying to connect with folks we haven’t spoken to in a while. It’s nice to catch up with old friends and have a real conversation. Social interactions and staying in touch that way really misses the point of maintaining a connection. It requires real effort to make time to chat with someone. And the conversations tend to be more intimate on the whole. Who doesn’t want that? We’re human beings and we thrive on connections with other humans. So how did you do on this part of the challenge? Let us know!

Educational Course Update

Natalie is nearly half done with her e-book. Natalie noticed that Mac’s Pages app has the ability to export a doc to an ebook format like epub, which is easy to export to mobi format for Kindles.

For myself, I didn’t do a thing. Busy stuff, work stuff, ugh stuff.

Next Week’s Challenge

Guess what? We’re still doing that whole Analog January challenge. We’re reading more, we’re walking every day (and without our phones), and creating real conversations with several people we know (without using text).

Focus on reaching out to folks moving and making. That is, go out for a walk, fifteen minutes, without your phone (or at least avoid using it and don’t listen to music or podcasts); then make something. Whether it’s drawing or painting or cooking. Anything you could make try making!

Let us know how you’re progressing with everything.

Need help? Ping us on Instagram or Twitter @doweeklypodcast.

As always, don’t forget to leave us that gushy 5-star review on Apple Podcasts on Apple Podcasts. And remember, kids, keep it simple and most importantly Keep it Doable!

Howdy once again party people! Welcome back to our website and podcast thingy-majig!

Last Week’s Challenge

We’re deep, deep into our Analog January challenge (deep, deep into February obviously).

For last week’s challenge, we’ve decided to focus on joining groups that meet regularly. Committing to specific, regularly scheduled, meetings require a commitment of course.

Natalie chose to joint a knitters group, a board game meeting group, joining a Unitarian Church, which is something she already enjoys doing. Whereas I chose to join a different running group, which is something I know. To that end, could I find something different that I don’t already know how to do? Is there a group that I could join where I’ll learn something I don’t know.

What groups did you join? Let us know in the comments or smash the Tweet button on our Twitter Profile.

As part of the challenge, regarding the reading part of this challenge, Natalie’s read six books!!! SIX!!! I’ve ready all of ONE book. I imagine I’ll get through two-and-a-half or possibly three books if I’m really bookin it. See what I did there.

Educational Course Update

We’re each about a quarter of the way toward finishing our respective educational products. We’ll continue to share our updates here.

Next Week’s Challenge

Guess what? We’re still doing that whole Analog January challenge. We’re reading more, we’re walking every day (and without our phones), and creating real conversations with several people we know (without using text).

Focus on reaching out to folks who you might otherwise just text and talk with them on the phone instead. Also, don’t forget to work on your educational products!

Let us know how you’re progressing with everything.

Need help? Ping us on Instagram or Twitter @doweeklypodcast.

As always, don’t forget to leave us that gushy 5-star review on Apple Podcasts on Apple Podcasts. And remember, kids, keep it simple and most importantly Keep it Doable!

Last Week’s Challenge

If you’re minding your Ps and Qs then you’ve been working on our Analog January challenge. We’re kicking things off with our fearless co-host, Natalie, sharing an old note she took where she writes that I hate cats, have awful hair, and I am a notorious mansplainer. All the bad stuff. And let me tell you that only no parts of that are true!

So, where were we? Oh yah, Analog January challenge. Have you gotten a start on it? Just as a reminder, let’s share the tenets of Analog January and what you should be doing it.

First off, read three to four books. For me, that’s a lot of books. But the idea is to replace that screentime with other lovely activities (like reading).Take a walk at least 15min, without your phone. Observe the world around you.Commit to having real conversations with real people, at least twenty different people. They can happen over skype or phone, just no texting. Make something. You could do a drawing, knitting, take up an instrument.Also, join something, like a group that meets at least once per week.

Natalie and I are tracking our Analog January habits. I’m doing a traditional habit tracker bullet journal style. Natalie is tracking what she’s doing, like she’s tracking the number of books she’s read. For me, I just track each day that I do one of the Analog challenges.

As long as you have the means to track your activities you’re fine. Just use whatever works for you.

Natalie is a power reader; I’m not so much of a power reader. I’m somewhat active, so the activity challenges have been easy for me to do. Be kind to yourself and get your challenges done.

Update on Our Educational Challenge

Don’t forget, we still have the educational challenge that we’re working on, too. Natalie and I are continuing to make progress on our educational progress, even though we’re both swamped with work. I’ve gotten a start on a couple of educational course modules.

Next Week’s Challenge

For the next part of this challenge, just keep going on your Analog January challenges. Let us know how you’re getting on with your challenges!

Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash

Need help? Ping us on Twitter @doweeklypodcast

As always, don’t forget to leave us that gushy 5-star review on Apple Podcasts on Apple Podcasts. And remember, kids, keep it simple and most importantly Keep it Doable!

Last Week’s Challenge

Your challenge, last week, was to schedule out creating your educational product and commit to a time to getting it all finished. Of course, we expect you to take the time you need. Natalie estimates six to seven weeks to finish her ebook. I think I might need about the same time or a little less. We each looked at our outlines to make our commitment and come up with a time estimate.

Sometimes, in order to get things done on time, it’s important to find mechanisms to help you accomplish the work you have to do. Case in point, Natalie, when she was writing her jQuery book, would meet up with her roommate and together they would work on their stuff together and hold each other accountable. Accountabilibuddies is a term you may have heard about, it’s just a fancy term for an accountability partner, someone who will help you meet your goals. Going somewhere else to get the work done can help you focus if you have trouble focusing at home.

Doing new things in new places. Break your routine up!

Next Week’s Challenge

Folks, we’re taking a break from our regularly scheduled challenge to give you yet another challenge!

Have you heard of Analog January? (Yes, we know it’s February already).

Cal Newport (someone who Natalie is a big fan of), who writes about focus and productivity, has a challenge for the month of January (you probably correctly guessed where we’re going with this) and we’re going to take part in the challenge (and of course so are you).

Let’s talk about our digital lives, people. We use tech way too much; it’s affected our brains, it’s affected our emotions in so many ways. What’s a person to do? Let’s do less tech and less apps together!

via GIPHY

What’s included with the Analog January challenge anyway?

* First off, read three to four books. For me, that’s a lot of books. But the idea is to replace that screentime with other lovely activities (like reading).* Take a walk at least 15min, without your phone. Observe the world around you.* Commit to having real conversations with real people, at least twenty different people. They can happen over skype or phone, just no texting. * Make something. You could do a drawing, knitting, take up an instrument.* Also, join something, like a group that meets at least once per week.

Your first task is to tackle the whole more reading thing. Get it and do it. =)

You have your challenge and now you just have to do it.

Need help? Ping us on Twitter @doweeklypodcast

As always, don’t forget to leave us that gushy 5-star review on Apple Podcasts on Apple Podcasts. And remember, kids, keep it simple and most importantly Keep it Doable!

Last week’s challenge!

We had a baby step challenge last week. We pre-wrote our sales/landing pages for our educational products. Pretty cool right? These pages help your audience understand how you can help.

I started with some basic boilerplate: Who I am; what I’m doing for you; and why you want it. Super straight forward. I also, figured out what marketing automation was in place.

Natalie went full metal accomplisher! She wrote an outline for each of her headings regarding what her product is, who it’s for, and why they want it. She wrote a paragraph for each heading. Additionally, she wrote out possible objects to her product and answers to each of them.

Nat advises that we spend most of our time on content talking about what the customer will get out of what you’re selling to them.

Next Week’s Challenge

Our challenge next week is brought to you by Pantheon Hosting. They’re pretty great if you’re using Drupal or WordPress for your website.

For our next challenge, we’re going to create a production schedule to create the content for our educational product. Maybe you get up early one day and drink all the coffee and write out your schedule. You could even get started on producing your product. But that first step is really just scheduling things out and getting that first bit of content down.

Stay on target, folks! Get an accountability partner (like what Natalie and I have) — someone who will help you stay on target with your stuff.

Need help? Ping us on Twitter @doweeklypodcast

As always, don’t forget to leave us that gushy 5-star review on Apple Podcasts on Apple Podcasts. And remember, kids, keep it simple and most importantly Keep it Doable!

Last week’s challenge!

We asked you, last week, to come up with a title and format for your forthcoming educational product. Did you do the challenge? We certainly did!

I came up with a title that I used several years ago, from a talk that gave at a conference. Given the topic is marketing automation I’m going to use marketing automation (email marketing drip campaign) is the vehicle for delivery.

Natalie settled on doing an ebook. She thinks her audience doesn’t have an interest in a course. Natalie is a big fan of workbooks and that’s what she’s looking to do. Her title is Website Accessibility Website Owners. How good is that? Simple and to the point. She threw out the title of Will My Website Get Me Sued? Nat cited her ethics and values for not using the second option. She’s not down with scare marketing.

This Weeks Challenge

The next challenge in our educational product series is to: Create a Landing Page for educational product!

Think about your copy, think about the value your product provides, think about how your educational product helps someone attain a better tomorrow. This is just for making a rough draft. Just open a text doc or write it down on in your favorite notebook.

Natalie recommended a resource from this website: makealivingwriting.com.Which states your product should answer these five questions:

* Here’s what I’ve got* Here’s who I am* Here’s what customers say about it* Here’s what you get* Here’s why you need it right now

Also, it’s a good idea to invite people to self-select. Explain who the product is for and who it is not for.

You have your marching orders folks. Get to it and let us know how you’re getting on!

Need help? Ping us on Twitter @doweeklypodcast

As always, don’t forget to leave us that gushy 5-star review on Apple Podcasts on Apple Podcasts. And remember, kids, keep it simple and most importantly Keep it Doable!

Last week’s challenge!

In our continuing challenge series for creating an educational product, we had a challenge you all were supposed to do! Last week, we were going to create an outline for our educational product. Did you do it??

Nat and I needed to hunker down on something that we know well. For myself, marketing automation is the thing I know weel and what I’ve been doing a lot of the past couple of years. This informed by the requests I get and the conversations I have with leads and convos I have at the Small Business Development Center. I reviewed emails, my CRM, and other notes I’ve taken to identify things people have asked me over the years and recent months.

Natalie, started by doing a mind map for the topics she wanted to cover and then began mapping out all the things that related to the various topics she was into. She went with a mind map so she wouldn’t feel constrained by her ideas. She did what felt right. One idea led to the next idea, to the next, and then to the next idea.

This Weeks Challenge

We’re doing two things this week: Choose a format and a title for your educational product. Simple. Right?

You’ll need to decide on a format for your educational product. Will it be an e-course, a video series, an e-book, maybe a proper LMS course (we recommend LearnDash). Think about what you’re most likely to commit to and make a choice.

For the title, try to come up with something snazzy or catchy. Here are a few examples for you:

30 Days and 30 Ways to Eat a Taco Cat!Web Accessibility and Your Small BusinessAutomating Your Sales and Conversions by Using Smart Marketing

Need help? Ping us on Twitter @doweeklypodcast

As always, don’t forget to leave us that gushy 5-star review on Apple Podcasts on Apple Podcasts. And remember, kids, keep it simple and most importantly Keep it Doable!

Last week’s challenge!

Last week we decided to revisit a challenge that we didn’t finish. We decided to break it up into bite-sized chunks!

The first step for this challenge, and what we did last week, was to come up with a topic for our business. Natalie decided on accessibility as her educational product. For me, I decided on marketing automation strategies for small business (although I flip-flopped between that and SEO).

Accessibility, specifically for websites, is a hot-button topic these days and especially considering the recent court action with Dominos. Lots of businesses want to get onboard with accessibility, Nat’s on the cutting edge of that push! If you do something that solves a problem you can make money.

Marketing Automation is something not too many small businesses utilize. I’ve used it to help stabilize my business and it’s something that I think there are basic things folks can do to help their own businesses.

This Weeks Challenge

Once you have an idea for your educational product, now all you have to do is come up with the different topics you want to cover in your educational course. You can use a groovy mind-mapping tool, which are great. You could just write a bunch of stuff down in your notebook! It’s easy; don’t overthink it!

So get to work and start organizing and outlining what you’re thinking about including in your course!

Need help? Ping us on Twitter @doweeklypodcast

As always, don’t forget to leave us that gushy 5-star review on Apple Podcasts on Apple Podcasts. And remember, kids, keep it simple and most importantly Keep it Doable!

Photo by CoWomen on Unsplash