Your Dream Business

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• Why goal setting is so important
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• Where people go wrong with goal setting
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• Why you need to align your goals with your values
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• My experience of not goal setting for my own business this year
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• Why you need to plan your goals for next year, now
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• How I can help you goal set for 2023
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Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing? So, we are getting towards the end of the year terrifying as that thought might be cuz actually it has gone really fast this year. It's time to start thinking about next year. And a little while back, I did an episode on the Science Behind the Woo, and you might wanna go back and re-listen to that in terms of why we goal set, why we plan, why we have vision boards, why we think to the future, why we imagine what our future could be like.

There is real science behind those things, which is one of the reasons why I do it every single year. Now I say this, and last year I didn't do it. I normally head out to Nashville and work with Mary. We do some kind of group mastermind thing, and I'm very lucky that we have Michael there and Megan there and, and they talk us through different exercises to plan our following year.

And I didn't do it last year cause I missed the date when I, when I was out there, I'd already missed it, which was a real shame. But I thought to myself, Oh, I'll use some time and I'll definitely do it and I didn't. And the first quarter and a bit of last year, not last year, sorry, this year for me, was not all that. From a so many points of view not just from an income point of view, but from a, I didn't know where I was going. I didn't know what direction I was doing. And it's like, you know, they always like saying, it's like having a map of somewhere that you don't wanna go to. Yeah, you can follow up, but you're gonna end up in the wrong place.

So we need to know where we're trying to get to. We need to know what is it we want for our business. What are our goals? What do we wanna achieve? And not just one business personally, what do we wanna in the following year. And it's not so that we can beat ourselves up about it, when we get to the end of the year and we haven't done it or might not have done it, it's so that we've got a direction.

It's so that we are working towards something. And I think this is often where people go wrong with goal setting because they don't do it the way I do it. They do it a kind of, Okay, these are your goals, this is what you're going for done. And you just set these goals and they just sit there kind of hovering over you for the whole year.

And you don't necessarily think about, Well, how am I gonna actually make them happen? What actions am I gonna do and how am I gonna take that massive annual goal and bring it down into a quarter and bring it down into a month and bring it down into a week and bring it down into a day? And that's the difference, that's what I do. But the other thing that I do, when I do goal setting is we look at what is in an alignment with you and your values, because you can't set goals.

You can't think about what you want for the world or what you want for your world without making sure it aligns with your values. So for instance, one of your values can be that you like ethical selling. And actually, one of your goals could be that you wanna make a million and you're gonna do it by getting loads of numbers.

It's just not gonna add up. You've gotta make sure that whatever your values are, match with your alignment, match with your goals. So that's what I do and that's what I'm gonna be doing with you hopefully on November the 30th. I have a session that's going to be about three, three and a half hours long that you can join me for where we can review your 2022 and we can set up and think about what do we want for 2023.

Now, like I said, the reason I didn't do this this year, Or the beginning of the year, it's cause I didn't have someone to do it with, you need someone to do it. We tell ourselves, I'm gonna take that time out, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna go through the motions. We don't, I don't, and I teach this stuff. So, if I teach this stuff and I don't do it, then I promise you it's really, really hard to do on your own.

So what we're gonna do on that day, on November the 30th, is we're gonna review your 2022. We're going to look at what our values are, what we want from the world, and we're going to create goals based on those values. Now, if you're not sure what your values are, that's fine. I'm gonna help you with the really cool exercise. We're gonna work through them. I'm gonna look at how those values sit in with what goals you've got for the year.

We're not only gonna look at your goals, but we're also gonna look at each parts of your world. You know, what is your true north? What, where are you truly aligned with every kind of major aspect of your life and business. So home life, financially, relationships, business wise, you know, personal development or spiritual wise. We're gonna look at those different areas as well.

And then we're going to look at some strategic planning. Okay? We're going to look. So we're gonna do the kind of the coaching side and the more practice side in terms of the goal setting and the values and the what do we want from the world.

But we're also going to look at the strategic side. So we're gonna sit down and we're going to look the year. I've already started planning my year for next year. When are we going to sell things? When are we going to promote things? Where are we gonna put our focus in different things? So for me, we're going to look at the kind of real strategic and practical side of our business.

Because it's both. It can't just be the, let's put a goal out there and let's go I really want that goal. We need to look at how we're going to work towards making this goal happen. And then what we're gonna do is we're going to look at how we break down the goal into the actions. Okay? Because that's the key thing.

Now, with the goals, and I've said this many, many times, we can't always guarantee we're gonna get it. So if I set myself a huge growth goal for the podcast, well, I can't guarantee that that goal is going to happen. I certainly can't guarantee that goal's gonna happen if I take no action. So what actions can I take in order to start me getting towards that goal?

Now, these actions can be, the thing that we target ourselves by at the end of the quarter or the week or the year or whatever timeframe we're talking. So at the end of the year, if I have taken all the actions I wanted to take, I can high five myself and tell myself, brilliant! You've done amazingly. Even if the goal hasn't quite come to fruition, that's okay.

So it's about kind of like I said, taking two sides. It's about taking the practice side, the mindfulness, the mindset side of goal setting and looking at who we are and what we want from the world, but it's also the practical side. And after the three and a half hours that you're gonna spend with me, you're gonna come away with a plan, okay?

A very clear plan in terms of what you want from your business. You're gonna come away from a plan in the fact of what you are going to do when in the following year. And how that looks broken down quarterly and maybe monthly. So you're going to come away with your plan and you're going to have your overarching view of 2023.

And you're gonna be motivated and you're gonna be inspired, and you're gonna be ready to set those things in action. And we need to do that before the end of the year. We need to think about where we're gonna go. We don't wanna go into 2023, not knowing what we have planned for that year. We want to go into 2023, fired up, excited, ready to achieve the things that you wanna achieve, and I want to help you do that.

So not only can you join me for these three and a half hours, but also following on from that. In January, we're going to have a check in. So we're going to have a group, our call check in to see how you're going. And this might be the little bit of a motivation you need because you've had Christmas, you've got your plan, it's probably on your desk somewhere, and now you need a kind of, you know, revival of that plan.

A bit of a wake up call, a bit of a motivation. And these are the things I do with the executive club members. So this is how I've had members have their best ever year. In fact, one of my executive members this year has already hit her financial goal. And I'm recording this in October, so that's what I want for you.

That's what I wanna help you with. I want to work with you to help you look at what you've done this year, identify where some of those blocks are, and what is stopping you from getting to that next goal. How can I help you move to that next goal? How can we set those goals and what actions can be put in place?

So, If you want to join me for this day and then get this hour in January with me, the cost is 111 pounds. 1 1 1 You know I'm loving all these numbers. If you are a member of the club now, if you're a member of executive club, you don't need to pay to do this. You can come along for free. Because we do this work anyway, and if you wanna join us for an extra day, that's fine.

You will have your own day. If you are a member of the club, we won't go into this in this detail, so you will need to sign up for this. If you want to do it in the detail, we're gonna do it. Now, if you're a member of the club, you know we have saw, which is our online event in December. I think it's a week after this, but we'll be covering different things, but members get a discount, so members get 20% off, so they will get it for 88 pounds and 80 pence. And if you're a non-member, you get it for 111 pounds.

So I'm really hoping you'll join me. I really hope you are investing in yourself. And this is the thing I've invested in myself years after years after years in order to make sure that I achieve the goals I want. And I have, I have been especially very lucky. I've not been very lucky. I've been strategic, I've been mindful and I've worked hard at it, and I'm helping you to do the same. So we're gonna put a link in the bio, in the show notes, but, and you'll find it on my social media. But if you head to teresaheathwareing.com/2023 ie 2023.

You can come and join me on that day for that session, and let me help you plan out next year. Okay? That's all I wanted to say. Today, we're back next week with a interview. We've got the lovely Sigrun, and if you don't know who she is, you will wanna come and check her out. She, she's really good in terms of business strategy and getting your goals and that sort of thing.

So it's kind of act based on what I've just talked about. But it's a really, really good episode and like I said, we've only got a handful of interviews left. In fact, I think it's probably gonna take up, take us up to the end of the year, which is kind of cool. And then we will be starting all solos next year, which is Ace.

Okay? Have a lovely week. Hopefully you can sign up and join me on that planning session. Like said, go to teresaheathwareing.com/2023 and I will see you there. Have a great week and I'll see you next week.

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing?

Okay. I think I've told you recently, or if you've been watching my socials or on my emails, that I've been doing quite some reviewing of my business and it also stemmed from the fact of when I went to Nashville and I was on that retreat. And often what happens when you take time out is your brain starts to kick in, you really start to think about things.

And I've started working with my amazing coach Mary again, and I've been working with a couple of other business owners who are coaches. And I basically have been taking some time to review stuff, look at everything not only in my business, but also in my life, and just question myself about what makes me really happy.

What's the thing that I love to do? What is in alignment with me? And this might sound a bit kind of heavy and a bit serious, and you might think, really, do we have to do this? But when was the last time you did that? When was the last time you sat and thought, Why am I doing the thing that I'm doing?

Is it what I wanna do or should I be doing something else? So that's what I've been doing over the past, God knows how many weeks, and it's been a bit of a journey and a tough one really, because I've had to question stuff that I've been doing for a long time and have had to ask myself, is it really working?

I've had to look at my products, my services, my team, how I show up, how I sell things, what price I sell them for, and I've just had to review a whole load of stuff. When I say have to, I haven't had to, but actually it has felt, the process has been hard, but it's felt so good doing it. And also when you've been doing something as long as I have, you know, this podcast is on episode 200 and whatever I just said, 67.

It's a long flipping time. I've had the membership for four plus years. It's a long time in this world, so I think it's really worth sitting and considering things. So that's what I've been doing and that's kind of my, I dunno, my question to you about when did you last do this? Have you done this?

Now later in the year, and I know we like in November already, I think by the time this comes out. Yeah, we are in November. Just I am actually gonna be doing a day, well, it's not a whole day, it's a few hours and it's gonna be online where we do a workshop where we can plan next year and do a review of your business. And it just gives you the head space just to sit and with some guidance from me, go through stuff and question stuff, and then also have that community of people for that time period in which you can say, this is my thought, what do you think? And you can get some feedback from them. So I am actually gonna be offering that, but I will tell you about that in later podcasts and in a few weeks time, once we've got everything sorted for that. But I am excited about that cause I do love doing this kind of thing.

And the people that I work with who do this kind of planning and goal setting and strategy and just thinking about them and their business, they're the ones who I've seen make the biggest moves and the biggest impact. And have got through those blocks because sometimes we need to review those things to see where we are being held back, to see where our business is not succeeding and where we can make a change. And sometimes that changes to us. Sometimes we have to make the change and it's us. That's the problem, as is most often the case, if I'm honest, especially in my business.

So today, what I wanna talk to about today, I wanna talk to you about pricing and how in my undercover work that I've been doing, I have decided and discovered that me and my pricing are not in a line, and there are many reasons for this.

So I know working out pricing is one of the hardest things for me and my business. It really, really is difficult to work out. How and what I price at, and I know it's the same for everybody else, but the thing is I can do it for other people with ease. In fact, it's one of my things I love doing the most.

I love doing the math. I love working stuff out, and I love giving my members, my community, the confidence to go out and charge what they charge. As a side, and I wasn't gonna talk about this actually, but it was such a nice example. I had a session with one of my members the other week as she won an hour with me.

And in that hour we wanted to go through pricing and basically we spent the hour. In fact, we ended up spending one hour, cause I'm soft and can't help myself. But we did it over a couple of sessions. We went through all her pricing and we looked to everything and we worked on her confidence in terms of how she could charge more.

And it's not always as simple as just charge more. That isn't always the case, it has to be a considered thing. I have to know who you are, what you do, how much you charge to know whether you should be charging more. But in her case, she should be. So we went through and we kind of not only did a very practical exercise, but also a more coaching exercise to give her the confidence to then look at how she put her pricing up.

And then I did it in a really strategic way. So I literally helped her create a spreadsheet and I created this spreadsheet where she just plugged in the various elements of what she offered and that gave her her price. She did something that was very, she was a wedding stationary designer, so things like adding on the cost of a ribbon, you know, was pretty straightforward.

So we did that, and we went through and we created this spreadsheet and it kind of took the nervousness away from her cuz she could literally just plug in the pricing and then it would go, This is what you have to bud them or this is what you should charge them. So she did it and her first two came back and the first one actually said they'd been to someone else, so she sent the pricing. So that was the first thing, like the bravery and that amazing. And she messaged me going, Oh my God, I've just sent this pricing. And I was like, Brilliant. She said, I'll just wait and see what they say. I said, Well, that's, that's by the buy almost at this point.

So one, one came back and said, Can you do it for cheaper? And we then looked at how we could negotiate in terms of not just dropping the price, but what can we change about their order in order to make it cheaper. Then the other person came back and said Yes and didn't even question it. So I was over the moon and that's what I mean when it's easy for me to look at someone else's business and go, this is what you should charge. It's so much harder for me to do it for myself. So in this episode, I'm gonna talk you through how I have come to the conclusion about my pricing and how I've changed it and why I've changed it.

But also, before we jump into that too much, I want to update you on something else. One of the other things I've changed, through this whole business review. So the podcast, like I said, I've been doing it for a really long time and I've interviewed some of the most phenomenal people. I have been very lucky.

You know, if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, I've had the likes of Michael Hyatt, Mary Hyatt, Megan Hyatt. I've basically had the whole Hyatt family, which is pretty phenomenal. I've had a Porterfield Ding, Graziossi, Denise, Duffel Thomas. I've got Sigrun coming up in a few weeks time. I've got, I've had James Wedmore.

I've had, oh God, I can't even think so many amazing people. So, and people who are top of my, their game and some people who I was a huge fan of and now I'm not so much a huge fan of, and some people who I just discovered kind of later on. And so anyway, lots and lots of different people, different thoughts.

And in the last few kind of, I don't know, . I was gonna say years, but I guess it is years. I've been really picky about who comes onto the podcast because I only want the best people and also the people that I'm having on now has changed. So some of the people I've had on in the past, I wouldn't have on again.

And given the choice, they're not my bag anymore, but that's fine. People change, we learn different things, we discover different things, and we decide. You know what we like and what we don't like. But like I said, I've been really picky, but recently I've been thinking, how can I shake up the podcast? I've been doing it for a long time.

How can I just, I don't know, make it fit with me a bit more? How can I make it easier? And this is a question I ask my members all the time, and especially in the executive club when they are struggling. You know, I asked them to think about what if it was easy. So I did this with the podcast and I was like, well, what's the difficult bit about the podcast?

Well, the difficult bit is we get an absolute ton of applications, like not even joking, anywhere between one and three a day, and the processing of those applications is huge. And also there's a lot of people, I don't want to come on the podcast cuz I don't think they serve you as well as I would like them to.

And also because I am interviewing people that I don't necessarily know anymore. It's really tricky, it's not been an easy thing. Sometimes I interview someone and think, Oh, and you're really not my bag, or, that wasn't as good as I'd have hoped. And there's that whole thing about do I allow the episode to go out?

Do I not allow it? Do I upset the person? It's hard. And then there's the whole, like I said, work that goes along with a processing all these applications, managing them all, booking them in. And it just got exhausting. So I surveyed some people, I reached out to some specific people that I know listen to the podcast cuz they, they speak to me about it and I asked them what do they like?

And they all said they like short episodes. And I get it right, the world has changed. No longer are you on long drives to offices or to a different office. You're working from home. You're probably listening to this well, doing something else as I always do, getting ready in the morning or making some food or whatever it might be.

Maybe it is on the school run, but a school run isn't gonna be an hour long or hopefully not. So I've decided to make some changes. The first change is I'm not interviewing anybody else anymore. Now I have got some interviews in the bag that need, that I will honor and put out, and I think that's about a four.

So you've probably got another few weeks of interviews that are coming up. So I've got, still got some interviews, but after that I'm going to take a break. And it's not to say that I'm never gonna interview anyone again. It might just be the case of. I don't interview anyone for a while, or if someone amazing comes along like Brene Brown, Anytime you want Brene, you can come on the podcast.

Glen and Doyle, I'll love to interview you too. Like there are some amazing people I would love to interview and if they come along great, I will obviously bite their hand off, but I am not interviewing as a normal standard thing. So my episodes are now going to be so low and they're going to be short to the point and fairly practical.

And sometimes I'll talk about, you know, practices that I do personally and mindset wise and mindfulness wise. And sometimes I will give you very practical advice about marketing and social media and strategy and business. So it's going to be a bit of a mix, but I'm just gonna try it and see what I think like, and I think this is the message I'm trying to put out to you in terms of this and when we get back to the money conversation is it's your business you get to decide. So that's what's happening with the podcast. I wanted to update you that I know I was literally starting one conversation and I've jumped into this one, but I wanted to make sure that you know where we're at with that. Okay. But like I said, next few weeks, I think probably still about four episodes that our interview still to come. So it, it'll be a little while yet until that stops.

So let's get back to the pricing. So how do you know that you're in alignment with you and your pricing? So one of the things I did is I wanted to think about, why I price at the price that I do. And I was asked this and I had a coach help me with this.

The amazing Mary help me with this. So this isn't a, something that I did on my own because as I've already said to you to do it on your own is very difficult. So I basically sat and talked to Mary and we went through a session and we looked at why I price the way I price, and is it in alignment to my values and me.

Some of the things I had to do to work this out was think about why I've put it at that price. Now, As I've said to you before, and I was really honest about why I stopped the $19 level. I was trying to meet other people where they were and that wasn't in alignment with me and who I am. I have been in marketing a very long time, as I constantly talk about, you're probably bored of it now.

I have a degree in it. I've worked for some of the biggest brands on the planet and I consult at, at a high level or have consulted at a high level. And now I have some, you know, amazing programs that I offer right to people which vary in cost and start at a lower cost, but, what I'm trying to do or what I have been trying to do is meet people where they're at.

And the other reason I priced the way I priced was not only to meet people where they're at, because I'm trying to be affordable for people who can't necessarily afford a lot of money, or they're just new in their journey and they're starting up. But also, I didn't wanna be seen as unethical or immoral.

So, you know, I have a real be in my bonnet about the way that people sell online and how people sell and some of the tactics that they use. And actually, it's never about the tactic, it's the intent behind it. And I think that basically I started off my journey, and again, this was all through coaching with Mary that we discovered this. I started off my journey and I was following what the expert said because I didn't know any better. And so I'm one end of the pendulum, and then I realize I don't like what they're saying. And actually this doesn't, this isn't in line with me. I don't want to feel that, you know, I'm doing this sleazy, horrible selling, and I'm using underhand tactics. So I basically swung from one end of the pendelum.

Right the way through to the other end, and then suddenly offered a very low price thing. Felt like I had to be available to everybody all the time, and it was almost like I literally did the complete opposite of everything that they said, which I'm not saying is a bad thing. I'm just saying I'm explaining my journey, but I took it to be that if I was being moral and I was selling ethically, I couldn't charge a higher price. I took it to mean that doing that meant you sell at a low cost and that isn't the case. And I had this kind of brainwave the other day when someone was interviewing me and we were talking about cars and, and also I'd written some emails that'll be coming out this week where I'm talking about handbags, right?

So two examples. One, we went to Turkey, my husband and I, I wasn't expecting the whole day to be all that. And it was actually, it was really, really lovely. Turkey's lovely place. Well, we were over in Turkey. There is a mall called Quality Mall. Now, if anything's got the word quality in front of it, fairly confident it's not.

And I got there and seriously, and I do not know how they get away with this stuff, but everything in this mall was, came to fit or fake or, and literally, I dunno, how do they get away with it? Anyway, so my husband and I are walking around, obviously not knowing that this is what this mall is about, but literally like, you know, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, all the watches, all the jewelry, all the bags, even clothes, like everything. And my husband joked with me and he went, Do you want a Louis Vuitton handbag? Cause he knows I would like a Louis Vuitton handbag. And I was like, Yeah, no. Yeah, I want one. I do not want a fake one. I want the, the knowledge that I can afford to buy one of those handbags.

The same thing came in the example I gave on the podcast interview with cars. You know, I have a very nice car, but I would quite like a Tesla. And I got my stepson, who is car mad to speak out what I would want in a Tesla, and it came in about 120 grand, 110 grand, something like that. And, I thought to myself, if Tesla said, Oh, you can have a car for seven grand, would I want it?

No, I wouldn't because again, I want the 110, and I would think if it was either cheap or fake, I'd think, well, it's not the real thing or it's not as good as the real thing. And I think that was the problem because when I look at all my, who I am as a person, and my personality and my values, and the example I give in my emails this week is I talk about the different things, the different personality tests I've done.

So I'm an enneagram three, which is described as self-accepting, authentic, being a role model, and inspiring others. I'm an E N F J on the Myers Briggs. Which are born leaders, they can be found as politicians and coaches and teachers they're passionate and charisma allows them to inspire others, not just in their careers, but in every arena of their lives, including relationships.

And it says things like, you know, they wanna

Hello, and I really will welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing? I hope you're having a good start to your week or have had a great week whenever you are listening to this. So, this week I want to talk about the world of Woo. Right, now don't switch off if you're thinking, no, I can't bear this stuff.

Recently, have kind of come to a thought that I want to stop using the word Woo. Cuz to me that word implies silliness, not real fantasy, flippant. Just not, yeah, it just doesn't, say like what it is really, it just kind of makes it like it's a silly, stupid thing. And I've been doing, as you may know, I've been doing a coaching qualification, a spiritual coaching qualification, and during the process of doing that and during my own process of going through things and looking at things, there is actually a ton of science behind this woo stuff.

So what I've been doing over the past week or so prior to putting together this recording, I've been googling and searching and looking and looking at case studies and reports and various other wonderful things to kind of understand the science behind some of this stuff. And I want to go over with you today how this stuff is scientifically proven even if you think it wasn't, and I've picked a few of the obvious things that we will look at or that people might describe as woo. So buckle in, we're about to learn some stuff.

Okay! So the first thing you need to know is there's something called neuroplasticity. Now this is, this happens, right most of the things I'm gonna talk about David, which is why I'm talking about it first. So it's known as brain plasticity and it's basically the brain's ability to change and adapt. As a result of an experience, and this is important because actually so many of the things that we do, this is where it is changing our brain. So this isn't just a, oh, that's nice to do, and is it really doing anything? A lot of this stuff is changing our brain and it's doing it through this thing called neuroplasticity or that's what's happening to our brain.

So for instance, let's start with meditation. So I did some research and I found a study that basically scanned the prefrontal cortex. So the prefrontal cortex is where we have cognitive control over things such as memory organization and executive decision making. And the brain is made up of gray matter and white matter. And the gray matter is the bit that serves to process information and it's where most of the brain's cells are. So, it has been proven that as we get older, our brain shrinks and the gray matter shrinks, and the prefrontal cortex obviously being part of the brain also shrinks.

And a study was done with people who meditated. And it showed that a 50 year old had the same gray matter as a 21 year old, so the 50 year old that meditated had the same gray matter as a 21 year old. And the same can happen with things like gratitude. It helps your brain deal with resilience, it helps change the brain through that neuroplasticity and helps your brain reshape itself and helps you become more resilient.

Now, another part of the brain is called the amygdala. These names like, I'm not good at reading these names. So the amygdala is responsible for emotions, emotional behavior, and motivations. It's the fight or flight, and basically what they showed was according to neuroscience research, mindfulness, are a sort of meditation, gratitude, practices dampen activity in the, I'm gonna say it again, amygdala, and increases the connection between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. Both parts of the brain help us to be less reactive to stresses and recover better from stress when we experience it. So, Meditating and being grateful actually can change your brain so that you deal with stress better so that you don't forget things that you can make decision making, you have better memory. So these all proven things from research that I found online from like real places.

Okay, so let's talk next about journaling. Okay? So obviously one of things I talk about, I didn't explain meditation cause you know that one of the other things I do is I journal. And there's a few different things it's also sometimes called morning pages if you've read the artist's way. And journaling is basically, it almost comes from like writing a diary, but you tend to talk about more emotion led things when you journal or figuring things out. So I found some research on the science behind journaling and it said keeping a diary has a big impact on the, on your overall happiness. As well as supporting conditions like depression and anxiety, it, this has a knock on effect like your general stress levels and your quality of sleep. So not only will you be a bit calmer, but apparently you sleep better if you journal. There are many cognitive benefits from journaling for those looking to boost their memory function. The habit of expressive writing has a strong link to increasing memory capacity, and there's also a link to personal performance on a kind of how self-reflection can help boost your productivity. So doing that self reflection and that's what it is. And in fact, that for me, that's what kind of the mindfulness stuff is and the practices that I do. It's all about the awareness of self and awareness of you and what you do and how you do it.

It also went on, another study went on to say that basically a groundbreaking study of writing. Writing's physical effect appeared in the Journal of American Medical Association. Three years ago, the study led by Smythe basically took 107 asthma and rheumatoid arthritis patients and basically asked them to journal out on their emotions. And they asked them to journal about their most stressful events of their lives. And then with another group, they basically got them to write about a neutral subject. And then four months after write, after the writing exercise, 70 patients in the stressful writing group showed an improvement on objective clinical evaluations compared with 37 of the control panel, which were the people who just wrote about their day neutral stuff. In additions to those who wrote about stress improved more and deteriorated less. So basically he wrote that, so writing helps patients get better and also keep them from getting worse, which is just insane to think that writing can actually improve your health.

Okay, another study also showed that writing could help cool down our brains and therefore, control our state of worrying and that we wouldn't worry as much. Okay. What else have I got here? So the other thing I did some research on was manifesting because that I think can be fairly seen as a fairly woo thing and you know, is manifestation really a thing.

So what is manifestation? So it basically means that you turn an idea into reality. So research by Carol Dweck clearly shows that believing you can do something makes it more likely that you'll successfully do it. And then another research said that ultimately the science suggests that our beliefs can bring about behaviors that will lead to the outcomes we desire. So if we believe that something is gonna happen, I, we manifesting it, then that can help bring about behaviors that will then bring about the results.

Research shows that our expectations, positive or negative, tend to be confirmed. This is known as a self-fulfilling prophecy. So if we expect to bring our idea to life or reach a goal, we are more likely to. So it's that whole thing and I always give the analogy, which is a good one, that basically says, the whole thing of like, you know, when you are looking to buy a particular car in a particular color, suddenly you see that car and that color everywhere. And it's not that suddenly there was more cars on the road, it's just that your awareness is heightened to it. So because your awareness is heightened to it, it means that you are looking out for those things. The same way is if you do a vision board or if you have, if you manifest, if you do any of those things, then you are basically going to be looking out for more opportunities to be able to fulfill those goals.

Then there was some research by Dr. Barbara Fredrickson showed that positive emotions enable us to think more creatively. Similarly, another doctor has shown that happiness leads to success and not the other way around. So people who are generally happy and positive attract more opportunities and have better relationships and seem to be able to manifest what they set their minds to more easily.

So again, it's that whole thing of, you know, when you think about, you know, positive mental attitude, manifesting, dreaming, imagining, you know, I, I think I've told the story. I definitely told it on a few podcasts that go, but it was last week. How funny is that? When I was talking to Dan about when I took that first class flight, like I dreamed and imagined and saw every single thing of it, it was so clear in my head, and I'm not saying that's what got me onto the flight or whether it was just really quick processing by the esta people, but I really love the idea of having that positive thought. And this morning Phil and I had a executive club coaching call and we were talking about this, we were talking about what's going on in the news at the moment and what's going on in the world. And, and I'm very cautious when I talk about stuff that's not to belittle it and not to make out, like it's not a real thing and it's not important that, you know, the UK are having a bit of a financial crisis.

However, I personally don't watch any of it because the only thing I can control is me and whether, you know, living in my little bubble of the world that I choose to see is real or not, or has an effect or not, it actually just feels nicer. So that's why I decide to stay there. Whether it's doing the thing that it should be doing, I, if you're manifesting and I'm dreaming of big amazing things, whether it actually works or whether you just do it so you're not worrying and you're not thinking about those things. I mean, either way, I am happy.

Okay, so then what else have I got? I also did some research on vision boards, so just in case you're not short, a vision board is basically, it's a bit like. Well, you can do it various ways. You can either do it digitally in something like canva and basically you find pictures of the life you want and things you want and you know. So on my vision board I had that, I wanted to do a TEDx and I did do a TEDx and I had like, I wanted to speak it inbound and I did, and then, not that I admit this to her, but on there was a picture of Force Field and I was like, I wanna become friends with her and I did. Like, and I'm not necessarily saying it's all down to the vision board, but this is the science behind vision boards. So basically you imagine what you want your life to look like or what goals you wanna achieve, and you physically either cut out images from magazines or print them off and stick them onto a board, or you create a digital board of like what your, your vision is for the future.

So the research that, this all might sound quite mystical, but vision boards are in fact rooted in neuroscience. Neuroscience is so clever. So, tara, swart. Swart? Is that what you say to the name? I dunno. S W A R T. I guess so. Explains Looking at images on a vision board, primes the brain to grasp opportunities that may otherwise have gone unnoticed. This is because your brain has a process called value tagging, which imprints important things onto your subconscious and filters out unnecessarily information. Your brain assigns a higher value to the images than written words on a to-do list. And the more you look at those images, the more the images move up in importance.

And then she goes on, say, and there's a way that you can boost this activity. For example, if you look at your board right before you fall asleep every night, the images will be imprinted even further. That's because your brain is very impressionable as it rest into sleep. And so if you focus your attention on something during that period, particularly on something new, those images are more likely to feature in your dreams and thoughts.

So again, it's the same kind of thing as when we talk about manifesting and it's very similar, it's just two different methods that basically the more we try and bring our brain into focus and think about these things, the more they will look for opportunity for us to try and, and find them and actually fulfill them.

There was also a really interesting study that basically took some pianists, some people who played the piano, brought 'em into a, into a lab, and got them to play the piano, and while they were playing the piano, they scanned their brains and they saw what part of the brain lit up for the point in which they were playing the piano so they could see when they played the piano, this part of the brain lit up.

Then they got 'em back in and they got them to sit there and imagine they were playing the piano. Imagine they were doing the same thing, but just with their hands flat. Just sat there with their eyes closed, and the same part, their brain lit up as when they were actually playing the piano. And the reason this was so powerful and the reason that this was so important was because of the fact that it proved to a degree that your brain doesn't know the difference between imagination or reality.

Now, I'm sure there's some brain scientists out there who would go a bit deeper and, and explain a bit more about that. But what this means is the more that we can imagine, the more that we can dream, the more that we can visualize, the more that we have a chance of actually getting there. Whereas if you never dream about it, never think about it. And that's why things like we do goal setting, that's why you have things like vision balls. That's why we meditate and journal and manifest and do all of those things.

So, I wanted to give you just a real quick overview of some of the science behind some of the practices that I talk about. Which I will be trying my absolute utmost not to call Woo, from now on because there is proper science behind why these things work. So it's not as silly and as frivolous as maybe people once think. Okay, I'm gonna leave you to it. I'm back next week with a podcast interview. Until then, have a wonderful week.

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. As I mentioned last week, I am still in Nashville. I'm recording this at the same time as I recorded last week's and we're having another interview because of the fact of, well, one, I forgot to and didn't forget, I ran out of podcast episodes and I had to do some recording over here.

And because I don't have my normal setup and things, I didn't really want to do a solo. Because it requires me recording more and thinking more. And for some reason my brain isn't working today. So I'm doing some interviews, but these are great interviews. And you know what's funny? Because I pre-record the interview so far ahead, I literally have to go back and re-watch them to remind myself what we're talking about.

And. Finka's episode today, the lovely Finka who's being interviewed. We talk about coming from love when you're selling, thinking about service, when you're selling and doing things that align with our values and the energy in which we come from. So it's quite practical in terms of, you know, marketing strategies, but also it's a little bit woo woo in terms of like thinking about the energy that we bring when we sell.

And I recorded this at the point The Club was just per open permanently, and obviously now The Club has been open permanently for quite some time, and it's really interesting to hear some of those conversations and actually how some of those conversations have impacted me going forward on what I've done.

So if you are concerned about feeling and looking a little bit sleazy, salesy type thing, or you want sell from love and sell from service, but sometimes that doesn't give people the motivation to actually buy from you. Then this episode is gonna be perfect. So I will hand you over to the lovely Finka and I will speak to you soon.

Okay. I am really excited today to welcome to the podcast Finka Jerkovic. Finka how are you doing?

Finka: I'm doing wonderful, Teresa, thank you for having me.

Teresa: Oh, my pleasure, my pleasure. We've just been having a really nice chat before we got on about all sorts of things. Mainly the weather, cuz I'm British and that's what we talk about.

Finka: And I'm Canadian and that's what we talk about.

Teresa: So we're very well suited. Very well suited. Finka before we get started, we always start the same way. Could you please tell my audience what you do and how you got to do that?

Finka: Ah, I am a sales coach and expert, so I talk to people about how to sell, how to get their work out there, how to get clients, and how to grow their business through this skill of selling.

Something that we weren't taught to do but are expected to do and know how to do for our businesses shows a super, super important thing that we know how to do. Feel authentic in doing it, and that for those of us that it has felt awkward or uncomfortable, how do you get at ease with doing it? So hopefully we'll talk a little bit about that.

How did I get to doing this wonderful work? I've been, I spent most of my career in corporate financial services, and I was either a salesperson, a sales leader, worked sales strategy, and then eventually became a sales coach. All of that done through two and a half decades in banking. And when I started my business back in 2013 as a part-time gig, and then in 2015 kind of said, Okay, let's put my big girl panties on. Let's do this thing.

Teresa: I love it.

Finka: You know, it was so funny because this thing that I had done all my life so naturally and so easily, I completely forgot how to do when I started my own business. And I had a theory about it, and I think I know two things. I have two theories. Number one, is it okay if I just jump in like this?

Teresa: Cool. You carry on. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Finka: Good. So theory number one is whenever we start something new, we get amnesia. We forget that we already have skills and expertise and transferable skills. We all of a sudden, like they seem so unrelated, like, I've done all this stuff in the bank and then all of a sudden I'm starting my business.

Apparently I can't do anything. Like I, I don't even have to tie my shoes. Like that's how bad it got, right? The other thing that had happened is that there is something uniquely different when you're selling a product that someone else made versus something that I made.

Teresa: Ugh, completely. And obviously my background is marketing. I'd marketed every type of business you could imagine from the most wonderful to the most ridiculous. And I know marketing, I can market myself. Yeah, no, no I couldn't no. Cause like you said, it's not when you're doing it for someone else. It's not you. It's not, you're not going out. They're going, I'm pretty amazing actually.

You're saying something about a product or someone else and it's easy to say. So I'm guessing like, did you fall into sales back in the corporate job or is it something that naturally you are very good at. You liked? Cuz that when you think salespeople, you think a certain type of character and I'm not getting that vibe from you.

Finka: So when I ended up in sales, I ended up, because I love to help people. I love solving problems. I loved helping people get what they want. And that's what's, I get goosebumps right now in my whole body's just kind of vibrating. That's what selling's about. And somewhere in our history, So, so I did my research, so the word sell.

Prior to the 11th century. So it was sell on, which meant to give. Somewhere around that 11th century is shifted. And it shifted to get something for the thing that you give. And so there was this transference of how this word initially was meant to be. That's why we feel like we can, we wanna serve, we wanna help, we wanna help people get what they want.

That's the source of the word selling. And later in years, you know, it shifted to me like, there's this exchange of goods and services. I give you this, you give me that, I get you this, you get me that. And so, that shifted in the after the 11th century. Hence why now we have these two very different experiences in selling.

I wanna help people, Oh, but then I gotta do this thing called selling. I don't wanna do that thing cause that feels icky and uncomfortable. But that's not what we're doing. We're actually just go out there, be yourself, show up. Genuinely wanna help people. Try to help them get what they more, more of what they want and the more we can forget about ourself in that sale. I'm gonna preface in quotations. The better we're gonna be at it. And now it was the problem that I ran into when I was selling my stuff. Because when I was selling my stuff, I was selling a course, I was selling a workshop, I was selling a keynote, I talk, or whatever it was. Part of it was I was selling me because I had a personal brand.

I had a type of way I was gonna deliver the content. The other thing I was selling in there was my thought leadership, because I had ideas of how we could solve these problems. There was a lot of me invested in my workshop, a lot of me invested in my program, and then it was so much more of I wasn't selling the solution I was selling me.

And that was the problem. Because now what if they don't like this product? It means they don't like me. If they don't buy this product, they don't accept me. And that relationship is very, I, I still get trapped in it every now and then, but I'm more cognizant of it to catch myself sooner than getting deep in the weeds and, you know, and I getting.

Teresa: I totally get it. You're so right. I think there are, you know, I have these conversations with myself, with my students, with people in my world, and it's like, you know, we did some exercises on value and we were talking about, you know, who, where do you get your value from? And it's like you need to get it from inside you, cuz if you're waiting for someone else to validate you through a purchase, then there's a million reasons why they might not purchase, which have nothing to do with you.

But even though I could talk about it and teach it, the the part that's still you, that's like, why isn't anybody joining? Or why isn't anybody buying? Or what is it that like, and, and especially, and I dunno whether you get this and I hope you do, but like, if you have someone doing something similar and you know, you know the quality is not like your quality.

One thing that I have always. Like, I'm all about quality. It's gotta be the best. If it's not the best, I don't wanna do it. And like, so you know, someone is not providing a quality service or something as good as you can do it, and yet someone's going to them than you. That is so hard to get away from. It's me, isn't it?

Finka: Mm-hmm. It is. It's hard. It's so what, what's different here? You know, you are, what you're doing is, is more qualitative that they can. And so what, what's what? What happens next? What? What do you think? So I'm like, so that's, it's the story I make up about it. Like it's the story I'm making up about it and that I'm making up that they are better than I am and we've personalized it again.

And again, why they chose that person has nothing to do with us.

Teresa: Nope.

Finka: Has nothing to do with us. And so I think if we can see that and understand that there was something else that happened that motivated them to go that way than your way.

Teresa: Okay. So can I just pick up on something you said then, because actually this is something that's been playing on my mind for the, my own point of view.

So I've recently, by the time, well at the time we're recording this, I've recently changed the model of my membership. So I used to do an open and close, so the doors had opened, four days closed. Open four days, closed, like twice a year, and that didn't start to sit with me as well as I would like because it felt that I was using some tactics that, I mean, they weren't underhand and they weren't sleazy and they weren't any of that.

Cause I wouldn't have allowed them to be. But it still didn't feel as, as giving and as sort of, you know, coming from a place of wanting to help because I wanted to help. I'd leave it open all the time for when someone's ready to join, which I now have done. But that motivation, you know, the thing I'm struggling with, and it's only just, we've only, literally, the doors have been open like less even a week, but that motivation of how do I make that motivation happen without those deadlines, without the FOMO, without the kind of things that are sometimes a little bit icky feeling.

Finka: Like, like I countdown clock or only a few limited seats. And, and I think there's a place that those are. They're useful because for the right person, they're gonna energetically get them motivated to say, I better say yes to this cause I need this change, I need this transformation. I think that place where you and I and people like us is like we start questioning, am I going to get people who aren't yet ready?

Teresa: Yes.

Finka: And because of the FOMO is gonna activate them.

Teresa: Yeah. And I don't want that.

Finka: I don't want, you don't want that for them because, you know, when I think about selling from love, so that's the, the contracept, we had to sell from love, but we sell from fear, right? Like, so the fear is I don't wanna be selling from that energy.

So even that place of, I will put the, the time clicker, you'll put, you know, limited seats because in genuinely there is limited seats. There is only so many days. All these things.

Teresa: Totally makes sense. Yeah.

Finka: Totally. We can totally still do that. But we have to go back to ourselves and say, Okay, the energetic experience you're having right now, does it feel fear based for you as a seller, the person putting it out? Cuz you're afraid of enough people won't buy in, enough people won't say yes, you won't hit, hit your how many people you need to run this program. You spent $50,000 of advertising and you gotta recoup those costs. Like see all those little variables? There's so many and they can affect how we sell and market our stuff.

And then, Right. Yeah. So then the other thing is we have to look at our client's experience, like what we just talked about. I don't want my clients buying from fear. I want you in this thing because it's the right thing at the right time, right now for you. Because the fear experience, we just breed more of it.

We breed more of it. And, and I believe like we are at this place of shifting how we market, how we sell, how we build relationships, not only us as providers of those services, but our clients, the, and I'll put in quotations, buyers. Cause I, I don't like that term, I don't like buyers and I'll like consumers, but that's the term that, that's, we know what we're talking about.

But our potential clients, our potential clients, they're more educated. So, you know, so they're more informed when they're making their decisions. So like we don't need to dumb it down and we don't need to, I don't know. It's such a scarcity, primitive, very much plays into our old brain thinking. I'd rather let's stick to their prefrontal, corti, our executive function.

Our new brain. Let's continue evolving that. And how we do it is how we show up this energy of love. I'm here to serve and do some really good work, amazing work with people, and I wanna find the right people. And that's our work up. Why we market that? Why do we advertise? Cause I wanna find them. I want them make it easy for them to find me so they can, we can work together and get this match.

Teresa: So you said something there that I wanna pick up on. You talked about coming from fear rather than love it being the opposite. And I, and I've done a bit of work with this with the members where I've talked about, you know, when we come from fear, we make some stupid decisions. Because like if you are coming from, I and I have done it many times when I had my agency, If I was losing a client or needed another client, then I would say yes to work that I didn't know how to do, or I'd say yes to work with people that I didn't wanna work with.

So coming from fear, Is is not a great thing. However, how do you, when you're in that fear, so when you are like, doors have opened, I'm inviting people in. I know I can help them. It's brilliant, amazing. You know, the people in it love it and people aren't buying. How do you then go. Okay. I know you are sat there literally panicking your head off because no one's buying, but we need to come from love. Like how in the moment do you swap that? How do you change that?

Finka: Mm-hmm. , you don't, You do not. You do nothing to swap it because we cannot deny the experience we're having. And the more we resist that experience of fear, more magnet, more energy we give it. And so Susan Jeffers has this beautiful book.

I love the title, read the book, Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway.

Teresa: I've read that it's very good. Yeah.

Finka: Right. So, So the same thing, we wanna use that mantra. You just noticed the fear. And you observe the fear and you sit with the experience of fear and you follow through and you look at, okay, how can they bring a little...

Hello and a very warm welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. Now. If I sound a little different and if there's background noises that aren't all the same, it's because I messed up a little bit. And you know me authentic to the core. I will always tell you what's happening in my world and where I mess up because it's really important to know that because we are business owners, we make mistakes.

No one is perfect. And when we look at these people [00:02:00] online and think, Oh my God, they're so amazing. No, no, they're not. Like it's great show they're putting on, but everyone has failures, everyone makes mistakes. So I had a really busy couple of weeks. I had, well first I was off cause I had an operation, which I'm all recovered from.

All good now, which is great. Then I went straight into an in-person event that I held in Birmingham. Then from that event, I went straight into a week on of insider experience, which was phenomenal. So if you missed it this time, we're gonna do it again in January. So make sure as soon as I have the dates, I will get that in your diaries.

And then because I'd been off and had these various things, all my meetings and all my calls and everything got pushed into one week. And then I was going to Nashville the Monday this week. And I thought I was organized. And then I sat at the airport on Monday morning and turned right to my husband and was like, OMG.

I haven't recorded the podcast like I'm normally so far ahead. [00:03:00] The interviews are so far ahead, but I just like everything I'd done ran out and I hadn't recorded it. So I sat here in the lovely Mary Hyatt's house where we stay when we come to Nashville, and she's very kindly found me one of her microphones cuz luckily she's a podcaster too.

And in fact, I'm gonna link to Mary's podcast in the show notes. So she very kind of got me a mic. It's early in the morning, we're about to go out and get breakfast, and I thought I better get these episodes recorded. So what I'm gonna do for the next three weeks, because we are so far ahead on the interviews and I feel like I just feel really disjointed when I interview so far ahead and I'm about to do a whole another batch again.

I thought, do you know what? To help me and help the interviews. I'm just gonna do the next three weeks as interviews. So the next three weeks are all interviews. They're all really good. You're gonna get so much good stuff from it. But that's what we're doing cuz it's so much easier for me to do the intro and outro while I'm not at home.

And then when I get back home, I'll get back to doing solos. And I might do a chunk of solos. But also if you listen to the podcast regularly, last week I did [00:04:00] say, How do you want me to mix it up? Do you want me to mix it up? Do you want me to change it? I did have a DM from someone saying they much prefer the solo episodes, so let me know.

But for the next three weeks we've got interviews and if you do like the solo episodes, do listen. They're still gonna be great. So today's interview is with Amanda Warfield, who talks all about content, long form, short form, how to be consistent, gives us her ideas on it. So I'm always happy to have a conversation about content because it is something that is always constant in our world.

So, Obviously do take a listen to this one. She's got some good ideas and I think this is gonna be really helpful even if it just refocuses you back onto, Okay, where am I going with my content? Cuz I know it's something that we look at all the time. Anyway, I'm gonna hand you over to the lovely Amanda. Enjoy.

Okay. I am really looking forward today to talking to Amanda Warfield. Amanda, how are you doing?

Amanda: I am great, Teresa. I am so excited. I know we've been trying to connect with this interview for a while, so I'm really, really [00:05:00] excited to be here with you today.

Teresa: It's been a, it's been a long time coming, hasn't it? So it just feels like, yeah, time just flies in one way, but also you do things and you think, "Oh, I'm not gonna do that for ages." and then suddenly it's like, "Oh no, we're there already." So, yeah, And this is meant to happen at the end of last year. And anyway, we're here, which is the main thing. So Amanda, we always start the podcast exactly the same way by asking you to explain to my lovely listeners who you are and how you got to do what you're doing today.

Amanda: Absolutely. So, hi, I am Amanda Warfield, as Teresa said. I am a simplicity focused content marketing strategist and honestly, it's kind of funny the way that I got into this because when I first started my business, I was very much focusing on simplified living capsule wardrobes and things like that. And then the longer I was in business and the longer I was doing that, that evolved into time management for business owners, which.

Then evolved into the content marketing strategy side of things, which [00:06:00] pulls in the simplicity focus where I started, and also the time management side of things. Because my mission is to help women entrepreneurs in particular, really fit their marketing into their business without it taking over their business.

So a lot of what I focus on is, okay, this is content marketing strategy, but with the lens of simplicity and time management just piled on top.

Teresa: Love it. So when you say, you know, when you started off talking about simplicity, does that mean you're super organized?

Amanda: I mean, yeah. Yeah.

Teresa: I love the other thing.

Amanda: I can toot my own horn, but yeah.

Teresa: No, I love that. I did once watch Marie Kondo and it lasted, well, I looked at my drawers the other day and I have to pull 'em out every six months and redo them again because it, yeah, it doesn't quite continue that way. But I try really hard, cause it does. When things are simple and organized and tidy, it generally does make your life so much easier, doesn't it?

Amanda: It really does. And I am [00:07:00] organized to the point where my husband, when he doesn't want me to throw something away, he will hide it in our attic where I won't find it so that I don't find it. And every time I go out there, there's something new. I'm actually, Where did this come from?

Teresa: I love it. I love it. Okay, so let's talk about the content side, because one thing. I think a lot of my lovely listeners wouldn't necessarily think is simple and content, because content is an absolute beast. So first off, let's start right at the beginning. What do you mean when you say the word content?

Amanda: So content to me, I look at is three main things. You've got long form content, which is podcasting, YouTube, blog posts. Then you've got email newsletters. They're just kind of a beast in and of themselves. And then you've got social media, which is short form content. So content is anything that you're putting out that is free advertising and free marketing for your business.

Teresa: So, Okay. So let's start with, if we think about the, the long form content, that in itself is like a [00:08:00] huge thing, isn't it? Because you know, You've got a podcast, I've got a podcast. You know what this is like, it's, you know, it's a big, big thing. So how do you see simplifying some of those bigger process things?

Amanda: Well, the first thing that I want to give permission to all of the listeners to do is to put out less content than you think you really need to. I know a lot of us will look at, Okay, I'm gonna start let's say a podcast. What are best practices? How often do the experts say that I should be putting out the podcast?

But for those of us that are solopreneurs, we are one person shows, right? One person teams. We have to do everything, and it's not realistic to expect ourselves to actually keep up with best practices. And what your audience is looking for isn't necessarily best practices, but instead to other really important key factors of your content, which is consistency and quality.

And if you're putting out so much content that [00:09:00] you either can't be consistent or you can't put out quality content, it's not really doing anything for your business, so it's better to back off and do less so that you can be consistent and put out that quality content, and that's gonna actually be more for your business in the long run.

Teresa: And how did they know what quality content looks like? So, you know, we, we are both in this world and we see lots of posts and lots of things and some stuff is amazing and some stuff not so much. So how did they know whether it's quality content that they're putting out?

Amanda: That's a really great question. And. I want to start by saying that not everything you put out needs to be perfect. I don't want to let the perfectionist get in their own way with this. Not everything that you put out needs to be a hit. It is absolutely okay to experiment with your marketing. But your gut knows if what you're putting out is quality.

If you're sitting down and you're just throwing something together to get something out, you know that it's not really quality, right? So there, there's a [00:10:00] difference between perfect content and content that is viral and does amazing, and content that is quality. They, they're not synonymous. So if you know that you're sitting down and you're putting in the time to actually create the content then you can count that as quality.

Teresa: Mm. Okay, Cool. So those two words together, consistent and quality, feel like they might fight against each other. But what, when you say consistent, how consistent are we talking? Cause this is the question I get asked all the time. Sorry, just to interrupt you. I get asked whenever I do any training, when I speak, when I do anything I think people are like, "How often should I post?"

And it's like, well, you know how often. How long's a piece of string let's you know, it depends, doesn't it? So, yeah. What would you say you mean by consistent?

Amanda: So what I mean by consistent is that you're putting out on some sort of schedule. Whether you say, I'm going to post one podcast episode a month, I'm gonna post every other week, I'm gonna post weekly. I'm gonna post twice a week. Don't post twice a week. [00:11:00] That's crazy. But, That's a lot of content that's really unnecessary in your eye, isn't really gonna be able to queue up with. But consistency just means that you are putting it out on a consistent basis, not a constant basis. So those two words right there are a huge difference.

Some people think if I post a best practices, that means consistency, but you can put out one podcast episode a month. As long as you are consistently putting out every single month, whether it's the first Tuesday of the month or the last Friday, whatever your posting schedule looks like, let your audience know what to expect and then stick to that schedule that you have created.

But I think the real question that you're asking is more so how often should people post and you should be creating content, as much content as you can realistically create within one week. So what I suggest to all of my students and what I spend a lot of time teaching out is actually content batching where you sit down and you create a month's worth of content at one time.

Obviously, you batch all of your podcast episodes. [00:12:00] If you cannot sit down and create all the content you're trying to create in one week, whether you work five hours a week or 60 hours a week. Whatever your one week looks like. If you can't create all of the content in that time period, you're trying to create too much for your business.

Teresa: So a week would translate into a month's worth of content.

Amanda: Yes.

Teresa: And I'm just thinking about that. So for me, obviously I have a podcast, so each podcast probably a good hour by the time I've started and finished and whatever, whatever. And then, but that doesn't include me editing or doing anything else. So that's kind of like four hours, maybe five hours straight off the bat.

Then obviously all the social stuff, all the other content. We are now starting to do blogs because we've taken our favorite podcast episodes and we've put them into blogs. So I think, and I'd be interested to get your take on this in terms of. I think what happens is people look at people like me maybe and you, and they go, Oh, well look what they're doing.

We should be doing that too. But it's not like that. That's, [00:13:00] It's not as easy as that, is it?

Amanda: No. Yes, 100%. For those that are listening, you can't see me, but I'm just like vigorously shaking my head, this right here. We look to those people that we see it as success in our industry, and we think we've got to do what they do.

But your business is not their business, and I know we hear that all the time, but you have X amount of time and you are in one specific place in your business. And business is a long road. It is a long journey. You have to start somewhere. When you get to a place of being able to hire team members or outsource, then you can add on more content.

But for now, you have to do what you're actually capable of doing because if you are trying to create content all month long, every single week, every single day, you're not gonna get anything else done. You're not gonna actually be able to move that needle in your business to get clients, to serve clients to grow digital offers, anything like that, you won't have the time. All as you're doing is marketing yourself. Your marketing has to fit into your business. So yes, if you can outsource at some point, great. Phenomenal. [00:14:00] I just started outsourcing my podcast editing within the last year, and that's been great, and I've been able to create more content because of it.

But it took me growing to a place of being able to afford to outsource and saying, You have team members. So you can do a podcast and blogs and this and that. But everyone has to start somewhere. So don't be afraid to start small and then if you have time, add on later.

Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And I think as well, you know, like you said, when I was just thinking about the week actually, if I had to edit the podcast, do the show notes to the podcast, do the social media for the podcast, you're probably talking realistically more like four hours per podcast because it just, you know, it all takes time, doesn't it? So how do you know which content is best for you?

Amanda: As far as the type of content that we putting in?

Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. So because like I think one of the problems we have as well as, business owners is, there's so much content. There are so many cool [00:15:00] things. And then you hear everyone saying that they did this one thing and it really works.

And that could be a YouTube channel, that could be a podcast, that could be reals, that could be going live, that could be TikTok like, and it's, And then. I think what happens is people are like, Oh, I need to jump on that and do that. Oh, I need to jump on that and do that cuz that's the golden ticket.

That's the magic formula. Which as we know, it's...