The Huddle podcast - Small talk for big business | Online Marketing | Business Strategy

Join us as we answer more listener questions,

Join us for a Q&A and a few well timed tangents, plus an appearance from Cer's dad!

Q1. Nicky Williams - spinninplates.com If this fits with your Q&A. I would like to know ... do all blogs benefit from building their own unique community?

Q2. Kelly Kemp schoolrunshop.com and kkvaservices.com How can I promote my VA biz without spamming groups on Facebook?

Q3. Kim Scotland www.raisingaragamuffin.com/ and thebloggenie.com How should you go about building a facebook group from scratch? How to get people to join and keep them engaged once you've got them

Q4.Lauren James inspirecreateeducate.co.uk How much sway does internal linking structure have with DA?

Q5. Jade Karly Staff mummieswaiting.com and theblogassistant.com

Do you concentrate on one social media platform over the others? Do you switch it up? Or put less effort into them all?

We delve into the answers to all these questions as well as going on a few (useful!) tangents!

We will be answering the rest of the questions we received next week.

We chat about the journey we all go through while building our businesses. The peaks and troughs and the importance of keeping the faith if you still feel passionately about your idea - even when you hit a bump in the road. We chat about Ceri's new venture to launch a print magazine - go and support that here - and check out her new YouTube channel on which she is documenting her journey setting up a media company.

It's totally ok to pivot if you realise you've changed your direction, but it's that passion that should be the deciding factor to whether you give up or not. Not the fact that things get tough. We chatted about building you own support system of people who will help you, as our families often don't 'get it'.

We discussed the value of showing up with authenticity day after day. Not being self-serving (dropping links everywhere!), but rather helping and supporting people just to be nice not to promote ourselves. Eventually, people will start to seek you out and you will get more reader, viewers or clients. Play the long game. Go over and above what is necessary or expected, just because. This is what makes you stand out. People are often lazy and go into FB groups with the wrong attitude. Think of the connections and friends you could make rather than the couple of views you might get from just dropping a link.

We also chatted about the possibility that Ceri's partner James might be a serial killer (listen to find out!) and the fact that Aby watched Amy's video in which she said sleeping in your make-up for one night ages your skin 8 days! Yikes!

We must set our goals, objectives and direction based on what we want, not what someone else wants for us.

Failing to define success on our own terms and trying to pursue someone else's path, will mean we will end up frustrated, unhappy and not feeling unsuccessful at all.

Ask yourself - What makes me happy?

We are all different and so ALL have a different opinion as to what success is.

It's also essential to remember that in many ways, we already are successful.

If we assume that we are failures until we reach a specific goal, we will never be happy. We have to recognise all we have already accomplished. Celebrate the small (sometimes daily) wins!

Bruce Lee said, "Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself; do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it."

Don't copy someone else's version of success because you're not on their journey. It ultimately won't make you happy.

Ask yourself:

• What successes have I had in my life?
• How can I continue building on that success?
• What lessons have I learned from those successes?
• What have I learned about myself from those areas?

Success is both a goal and a journey. When we reach certain milestones, that is an element of success. But we don't stop there. We push higher and harder, striving for more and to bet better. This can definitely be staged and you might only be able to see the next step of success for you.

We must be able to clearly answer questions:

• What really matters to me?
• What are the things I'm passionate about?
• What do I want to make of my life?
• What lifestyle do I want to achieve?
• Who do I want to be?
• What do I want people to say about me after I die?

Automation is a way by which businesses take out the complex, most redundant steps from their processes and streamline them for simplicity.

Automation is moving the needle of business efficiency. Businesses which embrace automation have cut costs and saved time.

When you automate a process, you identify the series of tasks that must be done to complete the workflow. Then find the parts that can be done by a machine.

Benefits of automation

Streamlines communication - An automated workflow enables your teams to work together around individual items, rather than having notes and post-its stuck all over the office.

Accountability - assign tasks to people so everyone can see who is doing what and when it is due.

Easier to check progress towards goals

Reduces costs and human error

How do you start?

Identify the tasks that you do over and over again

Identify the tasks which are $10 tasks or less and not CEO/Money making tasks.

Use tools like Asana/Trello - Project management tools - free

Zapier allows you to connect programmes and apps.

Alfred - Shortcuts in much the same way. Copy & paste clipboard is what I use most often.

Saving yourself time, possibly finances (as you're not outsourcing to a VA) but you are also reducing your cognitive load. The more we clear the info we have to process the more we can focus on the high level tasks that will move the needle forward in your business.

What to do when overwhelm rears its head

In this episode we talk all about the inevitable overwhelm. It happens to all of us at some point and we discuss our strategies for overcoming it.

We cover:

• It's totally bloody normal
• Don't be a victim
• Focus - One thing
• Break tasks down
• Give yourself a break & reward for getting stuff done
• Talk to a friend
• Remember why you started this in the first place

In this episode we chat about how important community has been for us personally in our businesses. We share why we think it is so important and we give you our top tips on how you can nurture your own community.

This week we're chatting all about niche. What it actually is, whether you need one and how to figure out what yours could be. Join us for awesome biz chat that will help you move forward.