September 10, 2023 • 36 mins
This week’s episode of The Ambitious Introvert Podcast is Episode 155. Can you believe we've made it this far? It feels a little crazy to think about! Whether you've been with us since the beginning or are new to the show, there's plenty of valuable content for you to explore. With 154 other episodes covering a wide range of topics, you can binge-listen to your heart's content!
Today I'm thrilled to be sharing my decision savers for business, and the top 11 (yes, 11!) ways I keep my decisions to a minimum (and my energy at the max), including:
- Choosing set days for my marketing activities
- How committing to a strategy for 90 days lead me to consecutive 5 figure months
- Prioritisation and planning for success
- How limiting decision-making helps avoid overwhelm
- Why reduce decision fatigue leads to more efficiency
- Why self mastery is key for business success (and how Quiet Power - The Minimind can teach you how to cultivate it)
I’m sharing a LOT of tips in this episode so I hope you’ll find a few that boost your productivity and preserve that precious energy.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Ambitious Introvert podcast,
created especially forintroverts, empaths and highly
sensitive entrepreneurs to helpyou build, grow and scale a
successful, sustainable business.
I'm your host, emma Louise Parks, business and mindset coach for
ambitious introverts.
After 17 years working as anair traffic controller the
(00:26):
ultimate fast-paced,high-stimulus, extrovert
friendly role my mission now isto show introverts that they too
can create big results andsuccess because of who they are,
not in spite of it.
I focus on introvert friendlybusiness and marketing strategy
to help you switch overwhelm forclarity, confidence and clients
(00:47):
.
Hello and welcome to episode155 of the Ambitious Introvert
podcast.
I have just been doing somepodcast admin here and going
through the folder and I sawthat we were to 155, which feels
a little bit crazy.
So if you have been here sincethe start, it's possibly how
(01:11):
many times you've listened to me, and if you are newer to the
show, you have 154 otherepisodes that you can go back on
all types of valuable topicsand binge on, should you so
desire.
So happy Monday.
I'm recording this just oneweek before release and we are
in the middle of a heatwave herein the UK, so my window is open
(01:34):
.
You may hear the birds, whichhopefully is a good thing, but
if you do hear any noise, thatis why I wanted to make the most
of the fresh air, because it'sabsolutely scorching here for
September.
So last week's episode aboutdecision fatigue clearly struck
a nerve, because it's only beenas I'm recording this.
(01:54):
It's been out for less than 12hours and I've already had three
emails about it.
So I'm very glad that so manyof you found it relevant and I
hope that you are back here nowto find out the things I do in
my business and my life to tryto eliminate this decision
(02:14):
fatigue that I talked about lastweek.
If you haven't listened to lastweek's episode, I suggest you
go back and listen to thatbefore you go any further in
this, because I'm giving a morerounded view of decision fatigue
what it is, why it happens, why, as introverts, we want to
avoid it.
So if you haven't alreadylistened to that, it's just to
pop back and do and then comeback and join us here.
(02:36):
But for those of you thatalready heard and you're like
Emma, just tell me.
Just tell me the things we'regoing to dive right into them.
Originally it was going to be10 and then, just before I
started recording, I went oh, soyou get a bonus one.
So we're going to 11 thingsthat I do in my business very
intentionally, which helps me toavoid making too many of the
(02:57):
same decisions over and over andover again and exhausting
myself out.
So this is for business.
If you are someone listeningwho is an employee, you're in a
career rather than a business.
Absolutely there will be someof these that are transferable
over to your job and your role.
You can get a little bitcreated maybe with how that
(03:18):
would work, but there will beabsolutely things that you could
move over into an employee typesituation.
So number one decision saverfor my business literally
probably the best thing I everdid for my consistency and also
for my business is choosing setdays for certain marketing
(03:41):
activities.
That in and of itself, it's theeasiest thing in the world to
do and it changed everything forme.
And the heads up I'm going togive you here is I didn't even
overthink it.
There might be a perfect day tosend a newsletter.
It might be that newslettersent on Tuesday, open that you
(04:02):
know.
Send it 10 o'clock, get moreopens or click throughs or
whatever.
I didn't care about any of that.
Yes, if your business isthriving and growing and scaling
and you have the team and thecapacity to start making those
micro changes to see you knowreal difference in metrics, go
ahead.
But if you're struggling withdecision fatigue and you're like
I'm not even getting mymarketing out, just choose a day
(04:24):
and don't even worry about it.
So some of the things I chosevery early on was what day with
podcast go out.
It would go out on a Monday.
There was zero logical thinkingbehind that.
It was just Monday came to mind.
So podcast goes out on a Monday.
Originally my newsletter wentout on a Tuesday and the reason
for that is that I didn't haveat that time any of the
(04:45):
marketing going out on a Tuesday.
I used to market four days aweek and Tuesday didn't have
anything going out on socials,so it seemed like a good idea to
send something on that day.
It since moved to a Friday, butat that point it just made
sense.
I just went Tuesday.
And then, with things likeInstagram posts Mondays and
(05:05):
Wednesdays, I think, the daythat the Instagram, the podcast,
so it gets posted ontoInstagram there are different
days that it goes on to Facebookand in Facebook groups, the
different day it goes on toLinkedIn.
There's a different day.
It goes out by email.
All of those things were justdecided and when I was in charge
of all of that myself in theearly days, it was really easy.
(05:26):
It was just like what day is it?
Great, I share that there.
Done, I'm going to go on a teamagain.
Really easy, because I can justsay right, there you go.
There's the content for themonth.
These are the days it getsshared.
There are the links to thesocial profiles, to the email
software, whatever, and it justhappens.
It means that it means twothings.
(05:46):
It means I don't waste timethinking, oh, should I put this
post out?
What day should I put it out?
Oh, should I bother puttingthat one on LinkedIn?
It just happens.
It just happens without methinking.
It also means that it puts alittle bit of pressure on me if
I am behind with creatingcontent, which does happen.
She says recording this one weekbefore it's going out, that I
(06:07):
know it's going out.
Honestly, I know it has to bedone on a certain day.
I can't say I don't feel likerecording the podcast this week.
I'm just going to wait and I'lljust release it on Tuesday
instead, because if I did thatwith everything in my business,
I wouldn't have a business.
I would just be doing thingsbased on my energy and what I
felt like week and yes, we wantabsolutely some flexibility, but
(06:27):
our business is a separateentity which needs to run, which
needs to be marketed, whichneeds to serve clients.
It has to have these things inplace.
So, very long way of sayingprobably the best thing I ever
did for my business and mymarketing was to set certain
days for certain marketingactivities non-negotiable, and
that just happens.
The next thing I did was commitinto a strategy for 90 days as a
(06:52):
minimum.
I was a real flip-flopper inthe early days of my business.
I was very easily distracted.
I was spending a lot of timeonline.
It was the start of thepandemic.
People were selling things left, right and center about do this
, do that, this is how you getsix figures, blah, blah, blah
blah.
So I was like ooh shiny andwould seal these things and want
to do them, and it was thecommitment to a certain strategy
(07:16):
for a minimum of 90 days thatactually got me my first
long-term clients and probablygot me into consecutive 10, 8
months, consecutive 5 figuremonths where I'd had the odd,
like bursts here and there, butwhen I wasn't being consistent,
it wasn't coming inconsistentlyand it was that commit into a
(07:38):
strategy for 90 days, becausewhat enabled me to do was stop
thinking about the next thingand what should I change and
what should I do.
And I've seen this a lot, wherepeople commit to something and
they only see it through for twoor three weeks and then they go
.
It's not working.
It's not working and they theydo something else, but they
never gave it the chance to work.
And the strategy that I usedfor that 90 days was very simple
(07:59):
it was posted on Instagram,posting in Facebook groups and
it took actually a little over90 days to work.
But by then I had the beliefand I could see the traction it
was gaining and I was like, okay, I haven't signed a client, but
I can see that this is working.
I can see the benefits of it.
So If you don't want to bedeciding, what do I need to do
this week or how should I dothis, choose your strategy,
(08:21):
whether that's feel marketing orfor the type of offers that
you're talking about, and justcommit to it for 90 days and it
takes away instantly.
You don't even have to thinkabout that side of it for a
whole quarter, then, of course,going to reevaluate how is it
looking, how does it feel?
Do you enjoy it?
Is it working?
People respond into it and thenyou know if no.
That's the whole otherconversation.
(08:42):
But until we give somethingtime, we don't know.
And taking away that decision,decisions about that was
honestly one of the best thingsI have done.
Number three I decided that Iwould only work with one coach
at a time, and when I work witha coach I tend to Go kind of all
(09:05):
in and to the point of I'lleven unsubscribe from other
coaches newsletters or you knowand follow them on social media,
simply because we can getdragged in so many directions.
It's not that what they'redoing is wrong or it's bad, but
if I'm working with a coach andthat coach has this suggestion
of a certain way to do things,like the point above, I need to
(09:29):
commit to that and give it a goand see if it works for me.
And it's no good me going allwith a person over there does
this and all.
Maybe I'll Do it half, I'llkind of dip my tone, but I won't
go fully in because I want todo what this other person said
here.
It's really, really exhausting,and I have been on the other
side of this, where clients workwith multiple coaches and we
(09:49):
can map out a strategy and theycome back and they, like all my
other coach said, to do it likethis and it just puts people on
the side.
It puts people in an impossibleposition, because you don't
need multiple inputs telling youwhat to do, because that just
makes your own decision makingso much harder.
So for me, it's working withone coach in a similar area at
the time, like, okay, if you'reworking with a marketing coach,
(10:11):
could you work with a mindsetcoach?
Absolutely, but if you'reworking with two coaches on
business strategy, so you have aone on one coach and you're in
a mastermind.
Just be very conscious ofDifferent information coming at
you or be very intentional aboutokay, coach a is what I go to
this for and I trust for thisand I use their advice for this,
(10:33):
and coach be.
It's more about you know X, yand Z, because then you're in a
position where you are empoweredand you don't have to make the
decision, which is what this isall about.
All about not making decisions.
Number four know your priorityand stick to it.
This is the one that I added inbefore recording.
So if my priority, my business,was audience growth and I got
(11:00):
invited to be part of a summit,that is a hell yes, because I
it's going to grow my audience,so it's great, it's perfect,
it's aligned.
It doesn't require a decision.
If my priority, my business, issome time away spaciousness to
be creative, spend as much timeas possible away from the screen
(11:20):
, which it has been in my summer, and someone wants to connect
for a virtual coffee, that'sgoing to be a no.
That's an easy no, because it'sgoing to take me away from my
priority of being away from thescreen, right.
So when we know what ourpriority is, is it building a
team?
Is it?
Is it more revenue?
Is it actually getting out backand sorted out in our business?
(11:41):
Is the priority to be morevisible?
Is the priority to take moretime off?
When you know what yourpriority is, it's really easy,
when you get invited or asked tothings, to know if it's a yes
or no.
I turned down a number ofsummits a few years ago because
(12:01):
they had really tired me out.
I'd done a lot in quicksuccession.
I hadn't seen great resultsfrom them.
I just made a decision thatwhere I was at that time it was
a no and some great peoplereached out and very kindly
invited me to do it.
But the priority was not that.
I've also had to make decisionsat certain times in my business
(12:23):
where the priority was havingmore spacious mornings or making
sure that I'm off tech at 6pmso I might turn down certain
invitations or clients incertain time zones at those
times, because it goes againstwhat my priority is.
So know what season you're in inbusiness.
Are you in season of makingsales?
Are you in a season of growingyour email list?
Are you in a season of growinga community?
(12:48):
When you know what it is, it'svery easy to instantly see if an
opportunity or a task goestowards that or take your energy
away from it.
And kind of tied in with thatis making a quarterly plan.
When you have a plan it's somuch easier to stick to, funnily
enough, than when you don't.
And it comes down tointentionality, it comes down to
(13:11):
knowing where we're going, whatthe focus is, all of that.
So when you know what yourpriority is, you can make a
quarterly plan around that likewhat's going to be happening in
these two weeks, what's going tobe happening in the following
two weeks?
If you break it down, what doyou want to achieve by the end
of that month?
If you have a launch, say inthree months time, when do you
need to start talking aboutcertain things?
(13:32):
When do you need to startpromoting it?
So, once that is planned andset, you don't have to make any
decisions.
All you do is simply open up adocument that tells you exactly
what needs to be posted on whichday.
And that is where a lot ofpeople's energy gets drained,
and I have done this numeroustimes as well.
(13:52):
When it comes to the day andyou're like oh my God, I got to
write something.
I don't know what to write.
I need to send something.
I don't feel inspired.
What should I do?
What should I start or whatshould I talk about All of those
can you see how many decisionsI just just said in like 10
seconds?
It's so bad for us.
So, when we have that plan andthings are already out, so much
(14:15):
more likely to just open it upand say, oh, today I post a post
about this, ok, great.
Those of you that are morecreative might be thinking oh
well, I like to do, and ifyou're inspired or you know all
of this, in that case I wouldsay have a bank of content so
that if you really only want towrite when you're inspired, that
(14:36):
you have content that you canpull from.
But this is the thing.
We've been introverts.
We have to work with our energy, not against it, but we still
have to be consistent in thatbusiness.
Okay, so number six, in asimilar vein, it's mapping out
your week.
Some people like to do this ona Sunday night, some people like
(14:57):
to do it Monday morning.
Some people it's run somerepeat because their schedule is
very similar.
But what does your week looklike?
Map it out when are you goingto be on calls?
When are you going to make timeto do your marketing?
When are you going to make timeto do your mindset work?
When are you going to switchoff?
When are you going to becompletely taking time off?
All of these things they'redecided in advance.
(15:18):
It's so much easier to stick toagain because it's there, it's
a schedule, you can see it andyou know when things are
happening.
And it takes away this.
What should I do now?
Or, oh, I need to do this.
When should I do it?
Do I feel like now?
Or what about here?
What about here?
And that's really when thingsdon't happen, in my experience
(15:40):
anyway.
So mapping out the week againjust takes away so many
decisions.
Because it's done, it's mappedout, it's like you've created
yourself a wrote up or aschedule and you can just
consult it and say what am Idoing this morning, what am I
doing this afternoon?
And we know that everything isdone.
Next is a little bit of what Idived into earlier on.
(16:04):
Have any yes and no list andI've talked about this on the
podcast before when you knowthat certain things are a yes
and certain things are a no, itmakes it so much easier.
So, as I said, there was a timewhen I said no to summits.
Summits were just a no.
I had some lovely people reachout about some really aligned
summits, but at that point in mybusiness, summits were a no.
(16:27):
So it was an easy decision.
I was like thank you forthinking of me, but I'm sorry
I'm not participating at themoment.
An easy yes at various times inmy business has been podcast
interviews.
I love being interviewed.
Podcasts really enjoy theconnection, really enjoy talking
about what I do.
So for the most, if someoneinvites me on a podcast, that's
(16:48):
a pretty easy yes.
So know what these things are,know that there are things that
should maybe 99% of the timewill be a yes, because they
align with your energy.
They're good, you don't need tothink about it too much.
Something like that might be ifsomeone said to me, do you want
to do an IG live?
I'd be like, yes, great, happydoing an IG live.
(17:10):
If someone said, oh, do youwant to come and do this like
video podcast, and it's going tobe two hours long and it's in
the evening, like I, might belike no, I don't work in the
evening.
So having that yes and no ofwhat you will pretty much likely
know that you will agree to andthe things that are just like
no, they're just a hard no, theydon't even get any
(17:32):
consideration.
That cuts down the amount ofdecisions that you've got to
make so much.
Okay.
Next is one that I have beenchatting to a client with
recently actually and that is ifyou are using content
engagement as a visibilitystrategy.
So if you are using LinkedIn,say you're making meaningful
(17:53):
connections on LinkedIn and thenyou're commenting on people's
posts, which the algorithm loves.
On LinkedIn, other people getto see you, get to, you know,
start conversation with theperson who posted it.
All of that good stuff worksreally well in Facebook groups
as well.
Works a little less well onInstagram, just because,
generally, unless someone clickson that post and then reads all
the comments, they're not,they're not going to see it,
(18:15):
just the person that you knowwho's posted is.
But you know LinkedIn, facebookand really great engagement
strategy that a lot of peopleuse.
If you use this, decide inadvance whose content you will
engage on and how often you willdo it.
When I was chatting to a clientof mine, she's like you know, I
don't mind doing it, I know I'vegot to do it, I know it's
(18:36):
really good for my business, butI'm like, oh, I've got to think
up a meaningful comment andthen like, oh, whose posts shall
I look for?
Who shall I look at?
Which posts shall I comment on?
What shall I say?
All of this?
Yeah, you're still going tohave to decide what to say, but
if you have a group of, say, 10accounts that you know you
always comment on and you justgo straight to those accounts.
(18:56):
You don't have to scroll, youdon't have to find something.
It's taken that away, just like.
Oh, I always comment onEsmeralda's account, so you just
hop on, you look for Esmeralda,you go to her latest post and
see what it inspires in you andyou leave a comment.
That is much easier than havinglike a whole feed and going, oh
, now I've got to find somethingthat I want to respond to.
(19:19):
So decide in advance who areyou going to engage with, how
often are you going to do it,which days of the week?
All of these things, knowingthat and treating that as, like
I've said before, as a marketingtask in your business versus oh
, do I feel like doing it thatwill make a big difference,
because you just cut out so manydecisions and you basically cut
(19:40):
down from like the whole ofLinkedIn to these 10 people that
you know you always comment on,makes it much faster, much more
efficient, much better for ourenergy.
Number nine if content creationis an issue for you and by that
I mean you may be lackinspiration, you judge yourself
(20:00):
quite harshly when you'rewriting things, or you just find
that it's the thing thatslipped by the wayside in your
business, then don't feel badabout using templates or prompts
, because staring at a blankGoogle doc is really not going
to help you get things out thereand get in front of your
audience.
(20:20):
So a lot of people say, oh,templates sound too wooden, they
cheat in.
Or you know, oh, I'm justwaiting to be.
Inspired is like when we hear alot.
But honestly, it's got.
Really a case of done is betterthan perfect in this case.
So if you don't want to bemaking too many decisions, if
you don't want to be thinking,okay, what shall I write about?
(20:41):
How shall I start it?
What call to action should Iput at the end?
All of these things?
Use templates or prompts.
There is absolutely nothingwrong with doing that, because
it's better to get content outthan using your precious energy
in making all of these decisionsand then maybe not even writing
something in the end.
Number 10, limit decisions aboutthings like software tech to
(21:08):
three.
Now, this one always kills me,because I remember being very
new to online business andlooking for the best email
software provider.
And, of course, when you'relooking for the best on Google,
everyone thinks they're the best.
So there are many, many blogssaying why they're the best and
(21:30):
then many people that usecertain software.
They also think the software isthe best because if you buy it
through their link, they get apayment, which is great.
So best email software provider2019, or something like that,
actually brought up a blog postfor me that said the 39 best
(21:54):
email service providers.
Now I immediately feltoverwhelmed.
I did not even open that blog,because do I want to read
through 39 different types ofsoftware in the pros and cons
and make a decision?
No, because I would be out ofaction for two days.
I would be so overstimulated byinformation.
Now, realistically, does itmatter?
(22:14):
No, it really does, especiallynot when you're new to business.
It's much better to make adecision from a small pool and
just make the decision and gowith it.
For that reason, in theambitious introvert academy,
which is my program for brandnew entrepreneurs who are
starting their business fromscratch, I mentioned three email
(22:37):
service providers and I give abrief overview of the pros and
cons of each and then I saydon't overthink it, just choose
one of them and get going,because people lose weeks and
weeks because they say well, Ihaven't done anything because I
can't decide which one to useand you'll see this not I'm
(22:58):
using email as an example, butyou'll see this with people with
websites or all kinds of things.
It's our brain likes to say, oh, I've got to make a decision
here, so I'm just going to staystuck for a little while,
because it's very safe for us tostay stuck where we are.
If the more you limit it down,the more you cut it down and you
make that decision from a smallpool, it will be more likely
(23:21):
that you take action soonerrather than later, which is
exactly what we want in business.
So that is something that I do.
I limit it down to three.
If I'm giving clientsrecommendations for something,
if I'm looking at somethingmyself, it's very rare I will go
past three, because I know thatthere will be something in that
that meets 85% of my needs andit will be absolutely good
enough for what I need it to do.
(23:42):
And then number 11 should havebeen 10, but is now 11.
Controversial one, but again, Ithink we have to look at the
macro picture of our businessversus getting really stuck in
all this like minutiae that canreally take our bandwidth and
our energy.
So keep things the same anddon't stress about them being
(24:08):
perfect.
My examples of this are subjectline in email.
They will say do not use thesame subject line in your emails
.
You have to change it becauseotherwise people won't open.
I have the same subject linefor, I think, two and a half
years and I had a 40% open ratebecause people knew that my
weekly email was coming.
The subject line said somethinglike your introvert, friendly
(24:30):
weekly roundup.
It did what it said on the tin.
So, yes, people tell you, makeit interesting, mix it up, put
emojis in, do all these thingsin the subject line.
That's great if you have thecapacity for that and it's not
going to cause you to leak timeand energy in doing it.
But if it's going to cause youto leak time and energy, just
keep it the same.
Just keep it the same and don'tstress about it being perfect
(24:54):
because, as always, done it'sbetter than perfect.
Another example of this could behashtags.
It is something that people canspend an inordinate amount of
time researching and trying toget right and getting the mix of
the niche ones and the mediumones and then the really popular
ones and changing it for everypost.
Okay, great Again if you are ahuge Instagram account, if you
(25:19):
are tens and tens of thousandsof followers.
That kind of thing could be areally great time investment and
you would probably get anexpert doing it, because if you
can see an increase in reach byone or 2% per post, that's going
to be really significant to you.
If you're new to business, ifyou're not aggressively going
(25:41):
for big social media strategyshe's the same hashtags it's not
a big deal.
So I think I've seen it a lotwhere people do get so caught up
in these weeds I'm going to saywith oh, let me spend half an
hour finding the perfect trendin audio or finding the hashtags
that are perfect for this post.
(26:03):
It's often not a good return oninvestment because if you're
spending even half an hour twicea week doing that, you're
spending four hours a month onthat, which at most stages of
business, it's probably not thebest use of time, unless you're
a social media manager, ofcourse.
But if it's for your ownbusiness and I would invite you
(26:24):
to say, like, where else is abetter use of my time?
Where can I stop making thesedecisions and wasting energy on
it and where can I put my timeand energy instead?
So that was a very quickrundown and I will recap them
for you.
Number one set days for certainmarketing activities, so you
don't have to decide whenthey'll happen, because you've
(26:46):
already decided.
Number two commit into astrategy for a minimum of 90
days, so you don't have todecide whether you should change
it or not, because you don'tchange it until 90 days is up.
Number three only working withone coach at a time in a similar
arena, or if you do work withmore, know what each coach is
for and know where you get youradvice from for certain things.
(27:09):
Number four know what yourpriority is and stick to it.
Really, say yes to things thatget you closer to your priority.
And number five within that,make quarterly plan.
When you have the plan, youknow what you're trying to
achieve in that quarter and it'sbroken down whether it's into
weeks, two weeks, months mucheasier to stick to.
(27:30):
Number six map out your week.
Decide when you're having timeoff, decide when you're doing
certain activities.
You might want to do this on aSunday.
You might do it first thingMonday morning.
You might have a completelydifferent week or you might do
the same things at the sametimes every week, but having
that schedule is going to saveso many decisions for you about
how to spend your time duringthe week.
(27:52):
Next is having a yes or no listfor invites that come into you.
So, whether it's, do you wantto do a summit?
Do you want to be a guest on apodcast?
Do you want to join this bundle?
Do you want to do a guest blog?
It's really easy when we have ayes or no list and we know
which things drain us, whichthings energize us, which things
(28:14):
work really well in ourbusiness or which things
actually don't give us results.
When we have that, there's farless decision making going on,
because it's just easy to saythank you but no or yeah, I'd
love to.
Then, if you are someoneengaging on social media, decide
whose content you'll engage onand decide how often.
Cut down that huge decisionfatigue of I'm just going to go
(28:36):
onto the platform and scrolltill something catches my eye
which is exhausting itself.
Just know to go straight tothose accounts and make those
connections.
Next, if content creation is anissue, it's okay to use
templates or prompts.
It's much better than staringat a blank Google Doc and it
will mean that you writesomething and post something
(28:58):
versus nothing.
Then it is well, well worth it.
Number 10, limit decisions aboutthings like tech software
providers to three.
Just look for the top three andmake a decision from there.
Do not read the whole 39,because you'll feel like you can
never make the right decision,which I think is key here.
(29:18):
We saw, often think I need toget it perfect, I need to get
the right one, whereas oftenthere'll be numerous options
that will serve us really,really well.
It's just a case of making thatchoice and moving forwards.
And then lastly, number 11,don't feel like you have to
change everything and stressabout it being unique and
bespoke and personalized everytime.
(29:41):
Things like hashtags, thingslike newsletters because the
most important thing is that youare consistent and that they're
out there and for the most, asI explained, it's not going to
make a huge amount of difference.
The time and energy andbandwidth that you use on
(30:01):
researching hashtags or trendingaudio or coming up with a
really great subject line atmost stages of business are not
going to be worth it.
So really consider where youhave been making a lot of
decisions about those smallthings actually on big needle
moving tasks in your business.
(30:22):
That was a lot.
I'm sure there are more, butthat's what I brain dumped, and
I know that all of those thingshave had a massive, massive
effect on me.
I am someone that gets hugelyoverstimulated by information.
I get hugely overwhelmed, andthe more options I get, the
(30:43):
harder I find it to choose,which is also a psychological
phenomenon that they've donemore and more research about.
So I know that if I can cut mydecision making down, that's
going to make me more efficient,it's going to preserve my
energy and it's going to meanthat I am better when I'm doing
the things are important in mybusiness, like recording this
podcast, coaching clients, allof that good stuff.
(31:04):
So I really hope that thisepisode has given you some food
for thought and some ways thatyou can implement this into your
own business.
If so, I would love to hearfrom you.
Please let me know.
You can pop me DM on Instagramat emiluparks, or pop me an
email, also at emiluparkscom.
(31:26):
Now, before we wrap up, I justwant to remind you that Quiet
Power, the mini mind, is openfor enrollment and we start on
September 26.
I have never launched anythinglike this before, for a number
of reasons, three actually.
Firstly, it's a eight weekprogram.
(31:48):
I've never run such a shortprogram.
I am someone that loves depth.
I love to get really involvedwith clients.
However, I've also seen fromall of my private clients and
clients I've had in groupprograms before, the same things
come up over and over and overagain, and what I wanted to
create was a program that equipsthem with the tools so that
(32:11):
they can take them away aftereight weeks and go and use them
themselves.
So think like self coaching,but we do it in a mini mind
container where you get weeklycalls with me, you get hot seat
coaching, you get the supportand you get the support of the
other members of the mini mindas well.
Secondly, I have never doneanything like this because it
(32:34):
does not involve businessstrategy.
This is pure and simple selfmastery, mindset and energetics.
It is all of the things that weneed to be working on alongside
our business to make us thebest business owner we can be,
to keep our energy and ourbandwidth in the best place it
(32:56):
can be and to really be able tomaster ourselves and to
cultivate those skills that weneed to see, those like
resilience and confidence.
And so, quite how, the minimind has no business strategy in
whatsoever.
This is literally about youtaking the tools that I'm going
to share, working through themtogether for eight weeks and
(33:17):
then knowing that you have thetoolkit, the skill set, to be
able to use those over and overand over again in any situation
that comes up for you in yourbusiness and in your life.
And the third reason it'sdifferent from anything that
I've done before is theinvestment.
I wanted to make this a nobrainer investment.
(33:38):
It's $950 for eight weeks ofcoaching with me, which,
compared to my one on one,compared to the price of the
quite power mastermind, issignificantly lower.
Yes, there's no businesssupport in there, but, as I said
, that's not what it's designedfor.
So I wanted to make sure thatthis was a price point that was
(34:01):
more accessible wherever you arein business, because maybe
you're in the really, reallyearly days and you can feel all
those mindset wobbles and youcan feel your energy go in and
everything I've talked about inthis episode about feeling
depleted and the bandwidth go inand you're stuck in all this
overwhelm.
It's going to help with all ofthose things.
Or, if you're alreadyestablished and you're well on
(34:23):
your way to multi six figures,this is still going to help you
because you are a human andevery client that I've worked
with, at whatever level inbusiness, needs this toolkit to
be able to come back to and theyneed the practices that are
just their go to so that theycoach themselves around things,
so that they can have the selfawareness to see what's really
(34:43):
going on under their thoughtsand make the changes so that
they can take action.
So, if you like the idea ofjoining us and quite power the
mini mind, as I say, we start onSeptember, the 26th.
I will pop the link in the shownotes.
I would love to have you inthere and be able to share all
of this, all of this wisdom,with you.
(35:05):
I'm going to say that I'vegained on a 20 year personal
development journey now and thatI've shared with literally
scores of one on one privateclients over the years.
So I would love to see you inthere if that feels like
something that would be a goodfit for you and your personal
and business growth in thefuture.
So I will bid you farewell.
(35:29):
I will see you next week, whereI'm going to be sharing my
decision savers for life.
So yet we covered business thisweek.
Next week I want to talk all ofthe things I do outside of
business.
I'm not making decisions all ofthe time in life which lead to
things like not knowing what I'mgoing to eat in an empty fridge
(35:50):
, which I have been guilty ofnumerous times.
So please tune in.
Next week I'll be sharing thatand for now, have a wonderful,
wonderful week.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of the ambitious
introvert podcast with me, emmaLouise Parks.
If you enjoy this show, please,please subscribe, rate and
leave a review on iTunes as athank you.
(36:12):
One lucky reviewer each monthwill win a 60 minute one on one
coaching session with me, whereyou'll get the clarity and
confidence to attract your idealclients.
And if you know someone whocould benefit from listening to
the show, then please do shareand help me reach as many fellow
ambitious introverts aspossible.
Welcome to the Ambitious Introvert podcast,
created especially forintroverts, empaths and highly
sensitive entrepreneurs to helpyou build, grow and scale a
successful, sustainable business.
I'm your host, emma Louise Parks, business and mindset coach for
ambitious introverts.
After 17 years working as anair traffic controller the
(00:26):
ultimate fast-paced,high-stimulus, extrovert
friendly role my mission now isto show introverts that they too
can create big results andsuccess because of who they are,
not in spite of it.
I focus on introvert friendlybusiness and marketing strategy
to help you switch overwhelm forclarity, confidence and clients
(00:47):
.
Hello and welcome to episode155 of the Ambitious Introvert
podcast.
I have just been doing somepodcast admin here and going
through the folder and I sawthat we were to 155, which feels
a little bit crazy.
So if you have been here sincethe start, it's possibly how
(01:11):
many times you've listened to me, and if you are newer to the
show, you have 154 otherepisodes that you can go back on
all types of valuable topicsand binge on, should you so
desire.
So happy Monday.
I'm recording this just oneweek before release and we are
in the middle of a heatwave herein the UK, so my window is open
(01:34):
.
You may hear the birds, whichhopefully is a good thing, but
if you do hear any noise, thatis why I wanted to make the most
of the fresh air, because it'sabsolutely scorching here for
September.
So last week's episode aboutdecision fatigue clearly struck
a nerve, because it's only beenas I'm recording this.
(01:54):
It's been out for less than 12hours and I've already had three
emails about it.
So I'm very glad that so manyof you found it relevant and I
hope that you are back here nowto find out the things I do in
my business and my life to tryto eliminate this decision
(02:14):
fatigue that I talked about lastweek.
If you haven't listened to lastweek's episode, I suggest you
go back and listen to thatbefore you go any further in
this, because I'm giving a morerounded view of decision fatigue
what it is, why it happens, why, as introverts, we want to
avoid it.
So if you haven't alreadylistened to that, it's just to
pop back and do and then comeback and join us here.
(02:36):
But for those of you thatalready heard and you're like
Emma, just tell me.
Just tell me the things we'regoing to dive right into them.
Originally it was going to be10 and then, just before I
started recording, I went oh, soyou get a bonus one.
So we're going to 11 thingsthat I do in my business very
intentionally, which helps me toavoid making too many of the
(02:57):
same decisions over and over andover again and exhausting
myself out.
So this is for business.
If you are someone listeningwho is an employee, you're in a
career rather than a business.
Absolutely there will be someof these that are transferable
over to your job and your role.
You can get a little bitcreated maybe with how that
(03:18):
would work, but there will beabsolutely things that you could
move over into an employee typesituation.
So number one decision saverfor my business literally
probably the best thing I everdid for my consistency and also
for my business is choosing setdays for certain marketing
(03:41):
activities.
That in and of itself, it's theeasiest thing in the world to
do and it changed everything forme.
And the heads up I'm going togive you here is I didn't even
overthink it.
There might be a perfect day tosend a newsletter.
It might be that newslettersent on Tuesday, open that you
(04:02):
know.
Send it 10 o'clock, get moreopens or click throughs or
whatever.
I didn't care about any of that.
Yes, if your business isthriving and growing and scaling
and you have the team and thecapacity to start making those
micro changes to see you knowreal difference in metrics, go
ahead.
But if you're struggling withdecision fatigue and you're like
I'm not even getting mymarketing out, just choose a day
(04:24):
and don't even worry about it.
So some of the things I chosevery early on was what day with
podcast go out.
It would go out on a Monday.
There was zero logical thinkingbehind that.
It was just Monday came to mind.
So podcast goes out on a Monday.
Originally my newsletter wentout on a Tuesday and the reason
for that is that I didn't haveat that time any of the
(04:45):
marketing going out on a Tuesday.
I used to market four days aweek and Tuesday didn't have
anything going out on socials,so it seemed like a good idea to
send something on that day.
It since moved to a Friday, butat that point it just made
sense.
I just went Tuesday.
And then, with things likeInstagram posts Mondays and
(05:05):
Wednesdays, I think, the daythat the Instagram, the podcast,
so it gets posted ontoInstagram there are different
days that it goes on to Facebookand in Facebook groups, the
different day it goes on toLinkedIn.
There's a different day.
It goes out by email.
All of those things were justdecided and when I was in charge
of all of that myself in theearly days, it was really easy.
(05:26):
It was just like what day is it?
Great, I share that there.
Done, I'm going to go on a teamagain.
Really easy, because I can justsay right, there you go.
There's the content for themonth.
These are the days it getsshared.
There are the links to thesocial profiles, to the email
software, whatever, and it justhappens.
It means that it means twothings.
(05:46):
It means I don't waste timethinking, oh, should I put this
post out?
What day should I put it out?
Oh, should I bother puttingthat one on LinkedIn?
It just happens.
It just happens without methinking.
It also means that it puts alittle bit of pressure on me if
I am behind with creatingcontent, which does happen.
She says recording this one weekbefore it's going out, that I
(06:07):
know it's going out.
Honestly, I know it has to bedone on a certain day.
I can't say I don't feel likerecording the podcast this week.
I'm just going to wait and I'lljust release it on Tuesday
instead, because if I did thatwith everything in my business,
I wouldn't have a business.
I would just be doing thingsbased on my energy and what I
felt like week and yes, we wantabsolutely some flexibility, but
(06:27):
our business is a separateentity which needs to run, which
needs to be marketed, whichneeds to serve clients.
It has to have these things inplace.
So, very long way of sayingprobably the best thing I ever
did for my business and mymarketing was to set certain
days for certain marketingactivities non-negotiable, and
that just happens.
The next thing I did was commitinto a strategy for 90 days as a
(06:52):
minimum.
I was a real flip-flopper inthe early days of my business.
I was very easily distracted.
I was spending a lot of timeonline.
It was the start of thepandemic.
People were selling things left, right and center about do this
, do that, this is how you getsix figures, blah, blah, blah
blah.
So I was like ooh shiny andwould seal these things and want
to do them, and it was thecommitment to a certain strategy
(07:16):
for a minimum of 90 days thatactually got me my first
long-term clients and probablygot me into consecutive 10, 8
months, consecutive 5 figuremonths where I'd had the odd,
like bursts here and there, butwhen I wasn't being consistent,
it wasn't coming inconsistentlyand it was that commit into a
(07:38):
strategy for 90 days, becausewhat enabled me to do was stop
thinking about the next thingand what should I change and
what should I do.
And I've seen this a lot, wherepeople commit to something and
they only see it through for twoor three weeks and then they go
.
It's not working.
It's not working and they theydo something else, but they
never gave it the chance to work.
And the strategy that I usedfor that 90 days was very simple
(07:59):
it was posted on Instagram,posting in Facebook groups and
it took actually a little over90 days to work.
But by then I had the beliefand I could see the traction it
was gaining and I was like, okay, I haven't signed a client, but
I can see that this is working.
I can see the benefits of it.
So If you don't want to bedeciding, what do I need to do
this week or how should I dothis, choose your strategy,
(08:21):
whether that's feel marketing orfor the type of offers that
you're talking about, and justcommit to it for 90 days and it
takes away instantly.
You don't even have to thinkabout that side of it for a
whole quarter, then, of course,going to reevaluate how is it
looking, how does it feel?
Do you enjoy it?
Is it working?
People respond into it and thenyou know if no.
That's the whole otherconversation.
(08:42):
But until we give somethingtime, we don't know.
And taking away that decision,decisions about that was
honestly one of the best thingsI have done.
Number three I decided that Iwould only work with one coach
at a time, and when I work witha coach I tend to Go kind of all
(09:05):
in and to the point of I'lleven unsubscribe from other
coaches newsletters or you knowand follow them on social media,
simply because we can getdragged in so many directions.
It's not that what they'redoing is wrong or it's bad, but
if I'm working with a coach andthat coach has this suggestion
of a certain way to do things,like the point above, I need to
(09:29):
commit to that and give it a goand see if it works for me.
And it's no good me going allwith a person over there does
this and all.
Maybe I'll Do it half, I'llkind of dip my tone, but I won't
go fully in because I want todo what this other person said
here.
It's really, really exhausting,and I have been on the other
side of this, where clients workwith multiple coaches and we
(09:49):
can map out a strategy and theycome back and they, like all my
other coach said, to do it likethis and it just puts people on
the side.
It puts people in an impossibleposition, because you don't
need multiple inputs telling youwhat to do, because that just
makes your own decision makingso much harder.
So for me, it's working withone coach in a similar area at
the time, like, okay, if you'reworking with a marketing coach,
(10:11):
could you work with a mindsetcoach?
Absolutely, but if you'reworking with two coaches on
business strategy, so you have aone on one coach and you're in
a mastermind.
Just be very conscious ofDifferent information coming at
you or be very intentional aboutokay, coach a is what I go to
this for and I trust for thisand I use their advice for this,
(10:33):
and coach be.
It's more about you know X, yand Z, because then you're in a
position where you are empoweredand you don't have to make the
decision, which is what this isall about.
All about not making decisions.
Number four know your priorityand stick to it.
This is the one that I added inbefore recording.
So if my priority, my business,was audience growth and I got
(11:00):
invited to be part of a summit,that is a hell yes, because I
it's going to grow my audience,so it's great, it's perfect,
it's aligned.
It doesn't require a decision.
If my priority, my business, issome time away spaciousness to
be creative, spend as much timeas possible away from the screen
(11:20):
, which it has been in my summer, and someone wants to connect
for a virtual coffee, that'sgoing to be a no.
That's an easy no, because it'sgoing to take me away from my
priority of being away from thescreen, right.
So when we know what ourpriority is, is it building a
team?
Is it?
Is it more revenue?
Is it actually getting out backand sorted out in our business?
(11:41):
Is the priority to be morevisible?
Is the priority to take moretime off?
When you know what yourpriority is, it's really easy,
when you get invited or asked tothings, to know if it's a yes
or no.
I turned down a number ofsummits a few years ago because
(12:01):
they had really tired me out.
I'd done a lot in quicksuccession.
I hadn't seen great resultsfrom them.
I just made a decision thatwhere I was at that time it was
a no and some great peoplereached out and very kindly
invited me to do it.
But the priority was not that.
I've also had to make decisionsat certain times in my business
(12:23):
where the priority was havingmore spacious mornings or making
sure that I'm off tech at 6pmso I might turn down certain
invitations or clients incertain time zones at those
times, because it goes againstwhat my priority is.
So know what season you're in inbusiness.
Are you in season of makingsales?
Are you in a season of growingyour email list?
Are you in a season of growinga community?
(12:48):
When you know what it is, it'svery easy to instantly see if an
opportunity or a task goestowards that or take your energy
away from it.
And kind of tied in with thatis making a quarterly plan.
When you have a plan it's somuch easier to stick to, funnily
enough, than when you don't.
And it comes down tointentionality, it comes down to
(13:11):
knowing where we're going, whatthe focus is, all of that.
So when you know what yourpriority is, you can make a
quarterly plan around that likewhat's going to be happening in
these two weeks, what's going tobe happening in the following
two weeks?
If you break it down, what doyou want to achieve by the end
of that month?
If you have a launch, say inthree months time, when do you
need to start talking aboutcertain things?
(13:32):
When do you need to startpromoting it?
So, once that is planned andset, you don't have to make any
decisions.
All you do is simply open up adocument that tells you exactly
what needs to be posted on whichday.
And that is where a lot ofpeople's energy gets drained,
and I have done this numeroustimes as well.
(13:52):
When it comes to the day andyou're like oh my God, I got to
write something.
I don't know what to write.
I need to send something.
I don't feel inspired.
What should I do?
What should I start or whatshould I talk about All of those
can you see how many decisionsI just just said in like 10
seconds?
It's so bad for us.
So, when we have that plan andthings are already out, so much
(14:15):
more likely to just open it upand say, oh, today I post a post
about this, ok, great.
Those of you that are morecreative might be thinking oh
well, I like to do, and ifyou're inspired or you know all
of this, in that case I wouldsay have a bank of content so
that if you really only want towrite when you're inspired, that
(14:36):
you have content that you canpull from.
But this is the thing.
We've been introverts.
We have to work with our energy, not against it, but we still
have to be consistent in thatbusiness.
Okay, so number six, in asimilar vein, it's mapping out
your week.
Some people like to do this ona Sunday night, some people like
(14:57):
to do it Monday morning.
Some people it's run somerepeat because their schedule is
very similar.
But what does your week looklike?
Map it out when are you goingto be on calls?
When are you going to make timeto do your marketing?
When are you going to make timeto do your mindset work?
When are you going to switchoff?
When are you going to becompletely taking time off?
All of these things they'redecided in advance.
(15:18):
It's so much easier to stick toagain because it's there, it's
a schedule, you can see it andyou know when things are
happening.
And it takes away this.
What should I do now?
Or, oh, I need to do this.
When should I do it?
Do I feel like now?
Or what about here?
What about here?
And that's really when thingsdon't happen, in my experience
(15:40):
anyway.
So mapping out the week againjust takes away so many
decisions.
Because it's done, it's mappedout, it's like you've created
yourself a wrote up or aschedule and you can just
consult it and say what am Idoing this morning, what am I
doing this afternoon?
And we know that everything isdone.
Next is a little bit of what Idived into earlier on.
(16:04):
Have any yes and no list andI've talked about this on the
podcast before when you knowthat certain things are a yes
and certain things are a no, itmakes it so much easier.
So, as I said, there was a timewhen I said no to summits.
Summits were just a no.
I had some lovely people reachout about some really aligned
summits, but at that point in mybusiness, summits were a no.
(16:27):
So it was an easy decision.
I was like thank you forthinking of me, but I'm sorry
I'm not participating at themoment.
An easy yes at various times inmy business has been podcast
interviews.
I love being interviewed.
Podcasts really enjoy theconnection, really enjoy talking
about what I do.
So for the most, if someoneinvites me on a podcast, that's
(16:48):
a pretty easy yes.
So know what these things are,know that there are things that
should maybe 99% of the timewill be a yes, because they
align with your energy.
They're good, you don't need tothink about it too much.
Something like that might be ifsomeone said to me, do you want
to do an IG live?
I'd be like, yes, great, happydoing an IG live.
(17:10):
If someone said, oh, do youwant to come and do this like
video podcast, and it's going tobe two hours long and it's in
the evening, like I, might belike no, I don't work in the
evening.
So having that yes and no ofwhat you will pretty much likely
know that you will agree to andthe things that are just like
no, they're just a hard no, theydon't even get any
(17:32):
consideration.
That cuts down the amount ofdecisions that you've got to
make so much.
Okay.
Next is one that I have beenchatting to a client with
recently actually and that is ifyou are using content
engagement as a visibilitystrategy.
So if you are using LinkedIn,say you're making meaningful
(17:53):
connections on LinkedIn and thenyou're commenting on people's
posts, which the algorithm loves.
On LinkedIn, other people getto see you, get to, you know,
start conversation with theperson who posted it.
All of that good stuff worksreally well in Facebook groups
as well.
Works a little less well onInstagram, just because,
generally, unless someone clickson that post and then reads all
the comments, they're not,they're not going to see it,
(18:15):
just the person that you knowwho's posted is.
But you know LinkedIn, facebookand really great engagement
strategy that a lot of peopleuse.
If you use this, decide inadvance whose content you will
engage on and how often you willdo it.
When I was chatting to a clientof mine, she's like you know, I
don't mind doing it, I know I'vegot to do it, I know it's
(18:36):
really good for my business, butI'm like, oh, I've got to think
up a meaningful comment andthen like, oh, whose posts shall
I look for?
Who shall I look at?
Which posts shall I comment on?
What shall I say?
All of this?
Yeah, you're still going tohave to decide what to say, but
if you have a group of, say, 10accounts that you know you
always comment on and you justgo straight to those accounts.
(18:56):
You don't have to scroll, youdon't have to find something.
It's taken that away, just like.
Oh, I always comment onEsmeralda's account, so you just
hop on, you look for Esmeralda,you go to her latest post and
see what it inspires in you andyou leave a comment.
That is much easier than havinglike a whole feed and going, oh
, now I've got to find somethingthat I want to respond to.
(19:19):
So decide in advance who areyou going to engage with, how
often are you going to do it,which days of the week?
All of these things, knowingthat and treating that as, like
I've said before, as a marketingtask in your business versus oh
, do I feel like doing it thatwill make a big difference,
because you just cut out so manydecisions and you basically cut
(19:40):
down from like the whole ofLinkedIn to these 10 people that
you know you always comment on,makes it much faster, much more
efficient, much better for ourenergy.
Number nine if content creationis an issue for you and by that
I mean you may be lackinspiration, you judge yourself
(20:00):
quite harshly when you'rewriting things, or you just find
that it's the thing thatslipped by the wayside in your
business, then don't feel badabout using templates or prompts
, because staring at a blankGoogle doc is really not going
to help you get things out thereand get in front of your
audience.
(20:20):
So a lot of people say, oh,templates sound too wooden, they
cheat in.
Or you know, oh, I'm justwaiting to be.
Inspired is like when we hear alot.
But honestly, it's got.
Really a case of done is betterthan perfect in this case.
So if you don't want to bemaking too many decisions, if
you don't want to be thinking,okay, what shall I write about?
(20:41):
How shall I start it?
What call to action should Iput at the end?
All of these things?
Use templates or prompts.
There is absolutely nothingwrong with doing that, because
it's better to get content outthan using your precious energy
in making all of these decisionsand then maybe not even writing
something in the end.
Number 10, limit decisions aboutthings like software tech to
(21:08):
three.
Now, this one always kills me,because I remember being very
new to online business andlooking for the best email
software provider.
And, of course, when you'relooking for the best on Google,
everyone thinks they're the best.
So there are many, many blogssaying why they're the best and
(21:30):
then many people that usecertain software.
They also think the software isthe best because if you buy it
through their link, they get apayment, which is great.
So best email software provider2019, or something like that,
actually brought up a blog postfor me that said the 39 best
(21:54):
email service providers.
Now I immediately feltoverwhelmed.
I did not even open that blog,because do I want to read
through 39 different types ofsoftware in the pros and cons
and make a decision?
No, because I would be out ofaction for two days.
I would be so overstimulated byinformation.
Now, realistically, does itmatter?
(22:14):
No, it really does, especiallynot when you're new to business.
It's much better to make adecision from a small pool and
just make the decision and gowith it.
For that reason, in theambitious introvert academy,
which is my program for brandnew entrepreneurs who are
starting their business fromscratch, I mentioned three email
(22:37):
service providers and I give abrief overview of the pros and
cons of each and then I saydon't overthink it, just choose
one of them and get going,because people lose weeks and
weeks because they say well, Ihaven't done anything because I
can't decide which one to useand you'll see this not I'm
(22:58):
using email as an example, butyou'll see this with people with
websites or all kinds of things.
It's our brain likes to say, oh, I've got to make a decision
here, so I'm just going to staystuck for a little while,
because it's very safe for us tostay stuck where we are.
If the more you limit it down,the more you cut it down and you
make that decision from a smallpool, it will be more likely
(23:21):
that you take action soonerrather than later, which is
exactly what we want in business.
So that is something that I do.
I limit it down to three.
If I'm giving clientsrecommendations for something,
if I'm looking at somethingmyself, it's very rare I will go
past three, because I know thatthere will be something in that
that meets 85% of my needs andit will be absolutely good
enough for what I need it to do.
(23:42):
And then number 11 should havebeen 10, but is now 11.
Controversial one, but again, Ithink we have to look at the
macro picture of our businessversus getting really stuck in
all this like minutiae that canreally take our bandwidth and
our energy.
So keep things the same anddon't stress about them being
(24:08):
perfect.
My examples of this are subjectline in email.
They will say do not use thesame subject line in your emails
.
You have to change it becauseotherwise people won't open.
I have the same subject linefor, I think, two and a half
years and I had a 40% open ratebecause people knew that my
weekly email was coming.
The subject line said somethinglike your introvert, friendly
(24:30):
weekly roundup.
It did what it said on the tin.
So, yes, people tell you, makeit interesting, mix it up, put
emojis in, do all these thingsin the subject line.
That's great if you have thecapacity for that and it's not
going to cause you to leak timeand energy in doing it.
But if it's going to cause youto leak time and energy, just
keep it the same.
Just keep it the same and don'tstress about it being perfect
(24:54):
because, as always, done it'sbetter than perfect.
Another example of this could behashtags.
It is something that people canspend an inordinate amount of
time researching and trying toget right and getting the mix of
the niche ones and the mediumones and then the really popular
ones and changing it for everypost.
Okay, great Again if you are ahuge Instagram account, if you
(25:19):
are tens and tens of thousandsof followers.
That kind of thing could be areally great time investment and
you would probably get anexpert doing it, because if you
can see an increase in reach byone or 2% per post, that's going
to be really significant to you.
If you're new to business, ifyou're not aggressively going
(25:41):
for big social media strategyshe's the same hashtags it's not
a big deal.
So I think I've seen it a lotwhere people do get so caught up
in these weeds I'm going to saywith oh, let me spend half an
hour finding the perfect trendin audio or finding the hashtags
that are perfect for this post.
(26:03):
It's often not a good return oninvestment because if you're
spending even half an hour twicea week doing that, you're
spending four hours a month onthat, which at most stages of
business, it's probably not thebest use of time, unless you're
a social media manager, ofcourse.
But if it's for your ownbusiness and I would invite you
(26:24):
to say, like, where else is abetter use of my time?
Where can I stop making thesedecisions and wasting energy on
it and where can I put my timeand energy instead?
So that was a very quickrundown and I will recap them
for you.
Number one set days for certainmarketing activities, so you
don't have to decide whenthey'll happen, because you've
(26:46):
already decided.
Number two commit into astrategy for a minimum of 90
days, so you don't have todecide whether you should change
it or not, because you don'tchange it until 90 days is up.
Number three only working withone coach at a time in a similar
arena, or if you do work withmore, know what each coach is
for and know where you get youradvice from for certain things.
(27:09):
Number four know what yourpriority is and stick to it.
Really, say yes to things thatget you closer to your priority.
And number five within that,make quarterly plan.
When you have the plan, youknow what you're trying to
achieve in that quarter and it'sbroken down whether it's into
weeks, two weeks, months mucheasier to stick to.
(27:30):
Number six map out your week.
Decide when you're having timeoff, decide when you're doing
certain activities.
You might want to do this on aSunday.
You might do it first thingMonday morning.
You might have a completelydifferent week or you might do
the same things at the sametimes every week, but having
that schedule is going to saveso many decisions for you about
how to spend your time duringthe week.
(27:52):
Next is having a yes or no listfor invites that come into you.
So, whether it's, do you wantto do a summit?
Do you want to be a guest on apodcast?
Do you want to join this bundle?
Do you want to do a guest blog?
It's really easy when we have ayes or no list and we know
which things drain us, whichthings energize us, which things
(28:14):
work really well in ourbusiness or which things
actually don't give us results.
When we have that, there's farless decision making going on,
because it's just easy to saythank you but no or yeah, I'd
love to.
Then, if you are someoneengaging on social media, decide
whose content you'll engage onand decide how often.
Cut down that huge decisionfatigue of I'm just going to go
(28:36):
onto the platform and scrolltill something catches my eye
which is exhausting itself.
Just know to go straight tothose accounts and make those
connections.
Next, if content creation is anissue, it's okay to use
templates or prompts.
It's much better than staringat a blank Google Doc and it
will mean that you writesomething and post something
(28:58):
versus nothing.
Then it is well, well worth it.
Number 10, limit decisions aboutthings like tech software
providers to three.
Just look for the top three andmake a decision from there.
Do not read the whole 39,because you'll feel like you can
never make the right decision,which I think is key here.
(29:18):
We saw, often think I need toget it perfect, I need to get
the right one, whereas oftenthere'll be numerous options
that will serve us really,really well.
It's just a case of making thatchoice and moving forwards.
And then lastly, number 11,don't feel like you have to
change everything and stressabout it being unique and
bespoke and personalized everytime.
(29:41):
Things like hashtags, thingslike newsletters because the
most important thing is that youare consistent and that they're
out there and for the most, asI explained, it's not going to
make a huge amount of difference.
The time and energy andbandwidth that you use on
(30:01):
researching hashtags or trendingaudio or coming up with a
really great subject line atmost stages of business are not
going to be worth it.
So really consider where youhave been making a lot of
decisions about those smallthings actually on big needle
moving tasks in your business.
(30:22):
That was a lot.
I'm sure there are more, butthat's what I brain dumped, and
I know that all of those thingshave had a massive, massive
effect on me.
I am someone that gets hugelyoverstimulated by information.
I get hugely overwhelmed, andthe more options I get, the
(30:43):
harder I find it to choose,which is also a psychological
phenomenon that they've donemore and more research about.
So I know that if I can cut mydecision making down, that's
going to make me more efficient,it's going to preserve my
energy and it's going to meanthat I am better when I'm doing
the things are important in mybusiness, like recording this
podcast, coaching clients, allof that good stuff.
(31:04):
So I really hope that thisepisode has given you some food
for thought and some ways thatyou can implement this into your
own business.
If so, I would love to hearfrom you.
Please let me know.
You can pop me DM on Instagramat emiluparks, or pop me an
email, also at emiluparkscom.
(31:26):
Now, before we wrap up, I justwant to remind you that Quiet
Power, the mini mind, is openfor enrollment and we start on
September 26.
I have never launched anythinglike this before, for a number
of reasons, three actually.
Firstly, it's a eight weekprogram.
(31:48):
I've never run such a shortprogram.
I am someone that loves depth.
I love to get really involvedwith clients.
However, I've also seen fromall of my private clients and
clients I've had in groupprograms before, the same things
come up over and over and overagain, and what I wanted to
create was a program that equipsthem with the tools so that
(32:11):
they can take them away aftereight weeks and go and use them
themselves.
So think like self coaching,but we do it in a mini mind
container where you get weeklycalls with me, you get hot seat
coaching, you get the supportand you get the support of the
other members of the mini mindas well.
Secondly, I have never doneanything like this because it
(32:34):
does not involve businessstrategy.
This is pure and simple selfmastery, mindset and energetics.
It is all of the things that weneed to be working on alongside
our business to make us thebest business owner we can be,
to keep our energy and ourbandwidth in the best place it
(32:56):
can be and to really be able tomaster ourselves and to
cultivate those skills that weneed to see, those like
resilience and confidence.
And so, quite how, the minimind has no business strategy in
whatsoever.
This is literally about youtaking the tools that I'm going
to share, working through themtogether for eight weeks and
(33:17):
then knowing that you have thetoolkit, the skill set, to be
able to use those over and overand over again in any situation
that comes up for you in yourbusiness and in your life.
And the third reason it'sdifferent from anything that
I've done before is theinvestment.
I wanted to make this a nobrainer investment.
(33:38):
It's $950 for eight weeks ofcoaching with me, which,
compared to my one on one,compared to the price of the
quite power mastermind, issignificantly lower.
Yes, there's no businesssupport in there, but, as I said
, that's not what it's designedfor.
So I wanted to make sure thatthis was a price point that was
(34:01):
more accessible wherever you arein business, because maybe
you're in the really, reallyearly days and you can feel all
those mindset wobbles and youcan feel your energy go in and
everything I've talked about inthis episode about feeling
depleted and the bandwidth go inand you're stuck in all this
overwhelm.
It's going to help with all ofthose things.
Or, if you're alreadyestablished and you're well on
(34:23):
your way to multi six figures,this is still going to help you
because you are a human andevery client that I've worked
with, at whatever level inbusiness, needs this toolkit to
be able to come back to and theyneed the practices that are
just their go to so that theycoach themselves around things,
so that they can have the selfawareness to see what's really
(34:43):
going on under their thoughtsand make the changes so that
they can take action.
So, if you like the idea ofjoining us and quite power the
mini mind, as I say, we start onSeptember, the 26th.
I will pop the link in the shownotes.
I would love to have you inthere and be able to share all
of this, all of this wisdom,with you.
(35:05):
I'm going to say that I'vegained on a 20 year personal
development journey now and thatI've shared with literally
scores of one on one privateclients over the years.
So I would love to see you inthere if that feels like
something that would be a goodfit for you and your personal
and business growth in thefuture.
So I will bid you farewell.
(35:29):
I will see you next week, whereI'm going to be sharing my
decision savers for life.
So yet we covered business thisweek.
Next week I want to talk all ofthe things I do outside of
business.
I'm not making decisions all ofthe time in life which lead to
things like not knowing what I'mgoing to eat in an empty fridge
(35:50):
, which I have been guilty ofnumerous times.
So please tune in.
Next week I'll be sharing thatand for now, have a wonderful,
wonderful week.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of the ambitious
introvert podcast with me, emmaLouise Parks.
If you enjoy this show, please,please subscribe, rate and
leave a review on iTunes as athank you.
(36:12):
One lucky reviewer each monthwill win a 60 minute one on one
coaching session with me, whereyou'll get the clarity and
confidence to attract your idealclients.
And if you know someone whocould benefit from listening to
the show, then please do shareand help me reach as many fellow
ambitious introverts aspossible.
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