December 14, 2023 • 53 mins
In this episode Accountability Coach and Author of "Why Not You," Amanda McKinney shares tips, tools and resources with VEST Members on how to achieve goals through discipline and accountability systems. We also talk about the struggle we all grapple with: self-doubt, fear of failure, and decision fatigue. We share strategies to overcome these barriers and discuss how honesty about our fears and seeking support from trusted individuals can be game-changers.
We delve into how tracking progress and finding support networks can supercharge your success. We unpack the science behind accountability and its effectiveness, and discuss various levels of accountability - from using technology as a tool for repeatable actions, to investing in a coach or program. Amanda also shares how to set and track goals effectively, and provides a comprehensive guide to managing your time and boosting productivity.
About Amanda McKinney
Amanda is an Accountability Coach, Podcast Host (The Unapologetic Entrepreneur), and Best Selling Author (Why Not You? An Accidental Entrepreneur’s Guide To Success) on a mission to help passionate accidental entrepreneurs make progress towards creating a profitable and productive business that they’re proud of. Amanda is also a recognized thought leader and coach on Accidental Entrepreneurship & Accountability, author of Amazon Best Seller, Why Not You? An Accidental Entrepreneur’s Guide To Success and host of The Unapologetic Entrepreneur Podcast. She has personally helped hundreds of passionate, yet doubtful, entrepreneurs from around the globe step through self-doubt and create the business that integrates into their life instead of taking it over. She is the founder of a self-built, profitable and debt-free business and it’s through this experience along with her Masters degree from the University of Florida and past corporate experience that she is widely regarded by passionate female entrepreneurs. As an accountability coach she helps entrepreneurs navigate self-doubt and life’s twists and turns so they can continue to make continued progress towards their business goals.
Show Notes
- Traction, get a grip on your business
- Amanda's Weekly Accountability Sheet
- Goals Toolkit Huberman Lab Podcast
About VEST
VEST is an investment fund and peer network for women. We invest in women-led companies providing solutions that enable employers to build more inclusive workspaces and support women's labor force participation. We also connect and provide executive coaching to women professionals across industries, regions and career levels so that together we can build the future of inclusive workspaces. Learn more at www.VESTHer.co
If you enjoyed the episode share it with a friend, leave us a review and don't forget to hit the subscribe button. If you are ready to take your career and business to the next level, apply to join our community of professional women, all eager to help you get there and stay there. Check out our VEST Membership and apply today! www.VESTHer.co
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey everyone, this is Erica Lucas, your host and
founding member of Vest, anorganization connecting women
across industries, regions andcareer levels so that together
we can expedite the pipeline ofmore women in positions of power
and influence.
Welcome to another episode ofthe Vestor podcast, where we
(00:23):
explore the investable barriersholding women back in the
workplace and share stories ofwomen building power
collectively.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
You are 95% more likely to succeed by directing
accountability to a third party.
By having a goal, you're 10%more likely.
Consciously deciding that'sthat internal, you know
motivation that's really helpfulgets you to 25%.
Making a plan is 50,.
Committing to someone else is65, but it's weekly
(01:04):
accountability check-ins thatgets you to 95%.
So the data tells us that if wehave accountability, if we know
we have accountability in place, we're going to make more
strategic decisions.
We're going to get to a 95%more likely to succeed if we
have weekly check-ins.
But in order for accountabilityto work, we need what's really
(01:25):
considered a weaker connection.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
In this episode, accountability coach and author
of why Not you?
Amanda McKinney, providesVestMember's tips, tools and
resources on how to achievegoals through discipline and
accountability systems.
Special thanks to VestMemberand founder of Tinch Beauty,
courtney Brooks, for moderatingthe session.
This episode is made possiblethanks to our venture arm, vestr
(01:52):
Ventures, a venture capitalfirm investing in women-led
companies, building tools,products and services that
enable women and workingfamilies to try both at work and
at home, and by our Vestmembership, a community made up
of professional women acrossindustries, regions and career
levels, working together tocreate the future of more
(02:13):
inclusive workspaces.
If you're interested inlearning more about Vestr
Ventures and Vest Peer Network,go to wwwvesthurtco.
If you enjoy the episode, shareit with a friend and don't
forget to leave us a review.
This episode was part of a moreintimate coaching session with
(02:35):
VestMember's and has beenrepurposed to accommodate this
episode.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Today we're talking about accountability, and really
this is such a sweet moment intime that we get to think about
setting goals, because it's theend of the year Now I know this
is recorded so you might bewatching this in July and you
can apply this to July too.
But there is a moment at theend of the year that you kind of
(02:59):
take a breath to really thinkabout what has happened this
year and what am I going forwardwith.
And so I have a few things that, if you're anything like me
which I have a strong feelingthat all of us could be BFFs,
because we are really drivenfemales that wear a lot of hats,
and so if you and I are thesame, we kind of suck at
(03:24):
stopping and pausing andreflecting.
We're really good at goingforward, we're really good at
setting the goal and moving theneedle forward on things, but so
often we don't take the time tolook back, and looking back is
the thing that actually sets usup for better success in terms
of quicker or more efficientsuccess when we think about our
(03:48):
time, which is such a preciousthing, and so things of asking,
asking yourself things like whatworked and what didn't, are
typically what we start with.
But as you are thinking aboutthis today and going forward, I
would also encourage you tothink about what has brought you
joy and what has brought youstress.
I know not everyone here is anentrepreneur like I am, and so a
(04:10):
lot of my content on my podcastand my book is all
entrepreneurship-based.
But all you have to do is thinkabout your professional goals,
your personal goals, and Ireally want to challenge you to
go a little bit deeper than justthe metric because, again,
we're really driven people.
So we look at things like ROIand we think about things like
did this give me the financialsuccess that I was looking for?
(04:33):
But I want you to think aboutwhat brought you joy and stress
a little bit deeper than thatwhen you're reflecting.
So one of the things thatCourtney said when she
introduced me was that we gettogether once a month, and
several years ago I reallystarted asking myself what
brings me joy and what brings mestress.
And what brings me a lot ofstress is packing my calendar
(04:56):
back to back with things.
I'm sure you can all relatewhen you're running from one
thing to the other, whether it'svirtual or in person.
That is really stressful for me.
Maybe it's great for you, but Itry not to do that anymore but
one of the things that I foundthat brought me tremendous joy
in my heart and in my life washaving long lunches with friends
and finding those people whocan fill your cup, and so that
(05:20):
was something that I prioritized.
And all of us are really busy.
We all have things that justour calendars get packed,
especially this time of the year.
But what I realized was thathaving a long lunch with
Courtney and other people thatfill my cup actually made me
more successful in the long run,because I had the quality of
(05:41):
life and the joy, and so Ireally want you to think about
that as you're reflecting on theend of this year and going
forward is not just the metricsbut what gives you that quality
of life.
And I like to say that I learnedjust as much from my clients as
they learned from me, and sothis last question actually came
from one of my clients that isreally good at self-reflection,
(06:04):
and she would come to me and shewould tell me these things and
whatever was going on in herlife, and I thought how in the
world did she come to this?
And she told me this questionthat she reflects on every year,
which is when things felt likethey were really in flow.
What contributed to thathappening?
And I thought, gosh, what abeautiful question that is.
And so I'll give Katie thatshout out because I did not come
(06:26):
up with this question.
But what a great question, andthese questions don't have to be
the perfect ones for you, buthopefully it gets you started
and it gets you thinking abouthow can you reflect on what's
happened this year so that youcan do more of what brings you
joy as you go forward andachieve these goals.
So one thing that maybe you'rethinking about now, or you've
(06:48):
thought about previously, iswhat's hindered you, and I would
love for you to put some thingsin the chat Now I don't have
the chat open right now, but Iwill and what I'd like to see is
what's hindered you fromachieving a goal, and I want you
to be really courageous andshare this, because it's
something that we need to figureout, and I really realized that
(07:10):
I was wrong about this veryrecently, because first and
maybe you're like me and you saythis as well what I always said
was lack of time, and I wouldsay I don't have time, and the
reality is we're all busy, andso time is something that we
have to work with.
But what I realized was thatsomehow, when I really, really,
(07:33):
really, really wanted something,I somehow found the time to
figure it out.
And I had to get really honestwith myself, and this was really
brought to light when Ipublished my book.
So people ask me all the timehow in the world did you get
these things done?
And for some reason, the bookwas one thing that, as soon as I
told people I was writing abook, they were like how in the
(07:54):
world are you doing this?
And it was especially thosepeople like Courtney and my life
who know more about my lifethan just what's on Instagram.
And so what Courtney knows, andyou're about to know as well,
is that as soon as I started towrite my book, my father-in-law
got really, really sick and wemoved him in.
And not only was I theentrepreneur running a business,
(08:15):
a wife, a stepmom, a friend,all of these things I became a
full-time caregiver which, bythe way, I realized I'm not that
great at, but I did it right.
Like, sometimes we just have toput on those hats and do the
thing because life happens.
But somehow in those monthsthat we had him living at our
home, I also finished the firstdraft of my book.
(08:38):
So I wrote a little over 30,000words in three months.
When I tell people that they'relike how in the world and you're
seeing a few snapshots of how Idid that is I went really off
script for my typical ideal lifeof waking up.
I'm a morning person, so I doreally well in the morning, but
(08:58):
I'm also in bed typically by8.30 or 9 o'clock.
Like I'm not a night person atall.
But you're seeing pictures hereof me writing at night, and
what you don't see because Idon't have pictures of it, is me
writing when I was sitting nextto him on the couch and I would
write seven minutes at a timebefore he needed something else
or whatever it was.
And so I realized in thisexperience that time wasn't the
(09:21):
problem.
What really hinders mepersonally is if I'm pursuing a
goal that I think I shouldversus the one I really want,
and I realized very quickly thatI wanted to write that dang
book because I was figuring itout.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Absolutely.
There's so many good chat noteshere.
So first, self-doubt, fear offailure, saying yes to things
that I don't really enjoy doing,but do it out of guilt.
Fear of the unknown,prioritizing the wrong tasks my
own self-doubt time, personalfear spreading myself too thin,
(09:57):
decision fatigue, lack ofplanning and accountability, not
feeling prepared, poorcommunication, improper
prioritizing, having unclearobjectives, fear of failure and
letting others down.
Self-doubt and fear of failure,letting go of control.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
You all showed up.
This is like the best groupchat I've ever been a part of.
Thank you so much.
I feel like sometimes it'sreally hard to be honest and to
share Like.
I'm really loving this groupright now, so thank you for that
man.
Self-doubt over commitment, fearof it not working out my gosh.
I was just on a podcast I thinkit was like two weeks ago.
(10:38):
It was released about what ifit doesn't work out.
It's something I talk about allthe time because it's really
hard, because the answer reallyis it's probably not going to
work out how we think.
So that fear comes into playpretty quickly and the reality
is we just have to push throughand keep going, and you've done
it so many times.
If you look back on what'sworked and what's not, and when
(11:01):
you've achieved things, the pathwas never probably what you
thought it would be, but yousomehow made it there.
But it's so hard to pushthrough that fear and keep going
.
It's so hard.
So thank you for being honestabout what hindered you in
figuring out how to achieve agoal, because when you know what
hinders you, you can actuallycreate the successful experience
(11:25):
.
On the other end, becauseyou're honest about what's
hindering you.
And so on the other side ofthat, once you know what's
hindering you, asking yourselfwhat's helped you.
So I'd love to we'll do thatexercise in the chat again of
what's helped you and I'll sharemy experience as you're putting
things into the chat and Iwould love for you to reflect on
maybe a time.
(11:45):
So I'm going to use self-doubtas one, because several people
said that maybe there's been atime where you did have
self-doubt.
How did you push through?
What helped you in thatexperience?
That you felt it but you keptgoing.
So what hindered you in thatspecific experience is going to
be really helpful when you digin.
And so for me, I'm going totake that publishing experience
(12:07):
because we've already talkedabout it and I'll bring forward
the things that helped meactually publish the book, and
it was that I committed to agoal that I truly wanted.
It was intrinsically motivating.
This is something that I couldgo on a whole other session
about intrinsic versus extrinsicmotivation, and it's something
(12:29):
that I continue to learn aboutbecause it's so helpful when I
work with people, but when wehave an intrinsic motivation for
something.
So I really wanted to writethis book, for I mean sure I'd
love for it to make me amillionaire, but that wasn't the
reason.
I wanted to publish the book,like that would be a cool
benefit, but that was never thegoal.
It was not the goal at all.
(12:50):
It was to speak to the personthat I remember.
I was in 2017 when I was tryingto start a business and scared
out of my dang mind, right.
I didn't know what to do and Ineeded to put one foot in front
of the other and I wanted tobuild a business that integrated
into my life, instead of justtaking it over and me over
committing another one of thosethings that hinders us all the
(13:13):
time, and so I really wanted todo that.
I was intrinsically motivatedto support even just one person
in this experience.
I also joined a program.
I did not know how to write abook and I knew I could not do
that on my own because it was abrand new experience.
So I needed the accountability,and you heard me say I wrote X
(13:33):
number of words.
It was actually a little over30,000.
But the thing here is that Itracked it.
I found a metric that wasreally motivating all the way
through, because, as you seethat number go up.
It's very, very helpful, and so, no matter what my goal is, I
always find a metric now, andsometimes it's a number, like a
(13:54):
revenue goal or something likethat, but sometimes it's time
spent on something and learningsomething spending that time.
So I'd love to know what worksfor you.
Courtney, would you like toshare what's in the chat?
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Yes, absolutely.
There are so many great thingshere.
Erica said one thing no intoletting go of control.
Perrin one-on-one conversationswith people I trust.
Sue being open about struggles.
Michelle said getting outsideperspective on what I am stuck
on.
Perrin also said blocking offat least one hour of focused
(14:31):
time each day.
I love that.
Jay said intentional rest.
Jennifer working through myfears with a trusted friend or
my husband.
Perrin deciding not to scheduleany meetings on Mondays before
noon.
I love that.
Might have to steal that one.
Stephanie, a great mentor andthought partner, getting into
(14:53):
routine every day and allowingtime for breaks and breakdowns
Wow, that's good.
Erica, only doing 15 and 30minute meetings.
Bella, realizing that smallfailures are okay and it is
something you can grow from sopowerful.
Kendra said what's helped memost is getting honest about
fears and sharing those goalsand fears with those that I
(15:16):
trust and really trying to takein and listen to their
encouragement, reminding me whoI am and what I bring to the
table.
They're great about holding themirror up for me to see what I
was too afraid to see.
Also, I truly learned thatbeing busy is not a personality.
That's so good.
I love that.
One Delegating and thendelegating more and then
(15:39):
delegating more, setting up aplan and routine, but also
establishing my why, checking inon how I'm feeling, being
mindful that sometimes thingsaren't going to go perfectly, so
being okay with that and goingeasy on myself.
And then Shelley had a questionto you about can you speak more
about finding tracking metrics?
(16:00):
I have a hard time breakingdown goal.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Oh, yes, that is so good.
Can I put a pin in that untilthe end, because I have a lot to
share on that and that'll takeus on a tangent and I will not
finish what I'm actuallysupposed to say, but I would
love to tackle that one.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah, awesome, that sounds so good and in the
meantime it's so exciting to seewhat people are saying in the
chat, so I love that.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Oh my gosh, you all are so good.
You all are so good with reallyengaging and interacting.
Thank you for being so openwith what's helped you.
I love how many of you talkedabout sharing and talking to
other people, those trustedadvisors, whomever it is in your
life.
That is so incredibly helpful.
(16:46):
We have to do that and findthat support, whatever it is in
your life, to take that nextstep, because we need to be
reminded of things Again, it'spart of all of our personalities
most likely of moving forward,but we don't take that time to
remember what we've actuallydone.
So that's really helpful tohave mirrored and told to us
(17:07):
sometimes.
So what I have found.
I've worked with clients now forsix years as a coach and these
are the things that I've reallyboiled down into what has helped
people and you all talked aboutall of them but it's really
setting realistic goals that youcare about, because you can
(17:27):
pursue anything, but if youdon't care about it, you're
going to be miserable even ifyou get it.
So really pursuing somethingthat you care about, tracking
and celebrating progress whichI'm super pumped that someone
asked me about that and talkingabout tracking metrics so we'll
come back to that one andfinding the support you need in
that accountability, and there'sdifferent levels that I'll
share with you that I'verealized that are super helpful,
(17:49):
but chances are so many of usincluding myself can hear
stories, can hear examples ofthings that have worked for
other people, but in the back ofour mind we'll say, sure, it
worked for her, but it won'twork for me.
And so what I have found isthat when this comes up for me,
(18:09):
and often when it comes up formy clients, relying on data and
science is a really cool tool todo so.
I'm going to give you somethings that you can pull out of
your back pocket when your mindtells you that, because science
tells us accountability doeswork and it will work for you,
no matter what your circumstanceis.
And so the first study that Iwant to bring your attention to
(18:30):
is from Science Direct back in1999, and it talks about how, if
someone knows that they willhave to justify a decision in
front of other people it saysaudience here, but it doesn't
have to be an audience, it canbe an accountability buddy the
likelihood that you'll make theright decision for you is
significantly higher.
That's pretty amazing, justknowing that if you have someone
(18:54):
that you're going to talk to,that friend you're going to have
lunch with that trusted advisorthat you're going to talk to.
If you know that they'll askyou why do you want to pursue
that?
That you are going to make abetter decision for yourself.
Just knowing that is soincredibly helpful.
So you're already set up forsuccess because you know you're
(19:15):
going to have to explainsomething.
In a kind way it's not likethey're going to be mean to you
you just have to explain why youwant it.
And then the American Society ofTraining and Development found
that get ready for this.
You are 95% more likely tosucceed by directing
accountability to a third party.
(19:36):
When I read this I was likeholy bananas, this is the thing
that I need to dig into, becauseI could not believe it was
proved by science.
I was like I've seen this workin everyday life, but this is
really happening.
And so they actually did astair step here.
By having a goal, you're 10%more likely Really deciding.
(19:57):
That's that internal motivationthat's really helpful Get you
to 25%.
Making a plan is 50.
Committing to someone else is65.
But it's weekly accountabilitycheck-ins that gets you to 95%.
Pretty incredible, because if Isaid to you, if you and I were
sitting and chatting and I saidI can get you to 95% more likely
(20:17):
to achieve your goal, you'd saytake all my money and tell me
what to do, amanda, right, likethat is exactly what you would
do.
And here it is, like the answeris a weekly check-in, which is
really cool, and I'm going togive you all the tools you need
for it today, which is myfavorite part, and so that you
can move forward with this andachieve the goal that you really
want to.
(20:38):
So I don't know if you've heardof the Huberman Lab podcast.
I am a huge fan of his podcastand, because I'm a dad and nerd,
he is a Stanford professor andhe is in the neuroscience and so
it's all about the brain.
These are like you go to acollege class that they're like
between one and three hourepisodes.
One of them is like the lengthis really long but you learn so
(21:00):
much.
And so he talked about in theGoals Toolkit episode that when
you announce your goal tosomeone and just like, tell
someone, like I'm going to run amarathon, I'm going to exercise
five days a week or whatever itis when you announce it
typically this is on socialmedia or to a group of people
(21:22):
that you immediately get adopamine hit because people are
encouraging and that's exactlywhat you wanted.
People are going to say, yeah,go, that's awesome, you can do
it.
You get a dopamine hit.
Well, the problem is, our brainwants more dopamine hits.
This is how we have addictions,and so we actually diminish the
probability that we will takethose actions when we start with
(21:45):
this, because if we announceI'm going to do this thing this
year and then we get thedopamine hit, and then on Monday
morning, when we need to putthose shoes on and it's snowing
and we need to go on that run,we don't have the dopamine hit
when we need it, and so it canreally throw our brain off.
However, he goes on to say thataccountability, having an
(22:09):
accountability buddy, that thereis a person who is going to ask
you the question did you dowhat you said you were going to
do?
That is what will help you.
That's the thing that will helpyou.
It's not bad to tell peoplewhat your goal is.
It's just that you have to bestrategic and know that you need
to have someone that's going tosay did you do what you said
(22:31):
you were going to do, and that'swhere it comes in.
So the data tells us that if wehave accountability, if we know
we have accountability in place, we're going to make more
strategic decisions.
We're going to get to a 95%more likely to succeed if we
have weekly check-ins.
But in order for accountabilityto work, we need what's really
(22:51):
considered a weaker connection.
Several of you mentioned talkingto your spouse or best friend
or mentor, that sort of thing.
Those are all really helpful,but you have to find an
accountability buddy that'sgoing to ask you the hard
question and push you a littlebit more.
Because if I told my husband,hey, honey, I want to drink 64
ounces of water a day and I madeit to 34 ounces or something,
(23:16):
and he would be like it's okay,you can try again tomorrow.
He's a very supportive person.
He's not going to be a jerk tome, right Like he's going to be
encouraging.
However, if I told anaccountability buddy, I want to
drink 64 ounces of water a day,but I made it to 34, the
accountability buddy is going tosay what stopped you so that we
can make it better tomorrow.
(23:36):
So you have to be reallycareful with who that person is,
but it really helps you.
So I want to quickly talk aboutthe different levels of
accountability, because this iswhere you're all bought in for
accountability and you're like,how do I make it happen for you?
And so the different levelsthat I have identified and this
is all my thoughts, and so, fromwhat I understand from myself
(24:00):
and analyzing what has reallyhelped, I've come up with three
levels.
We can have accountabilitythrough tools, accountability
through connection andaccountability through payment,
and I'm going to talk about allthree of these and I'll be very
clear and say I use all threeevery day, so it's not like you
can only use one, but what youhave to identify is what level
(24:24):
do I need to achieve this veryspecific goal?
It'll make more sense when Iexplain it, but all of them are
great.
There's not one that's betterthan the other.
So accountability through toolsis using the technology and
tools that we have access to tohelp us.
It's not another human being,it's another piece of technology
, and so technology can drive uscrazy sometimes, but it can
(24:47):
really help us as well, and sohaving a tool, a piece of
technology to help you is greatfor repeatable actions.
So I told you, I have a podcast.
I've had the podcast for threeplus years, and so a weekly
episode comes out every week andI don't need someone to ask me
(25:07):
if I'm going to do it.
I have a repeatable processthat I use in every single
Monday.
If you go to your podcast appand you've subscribed, you'll
see another episode from me.
You can set your clock by it.
They happen at four o'clock inthe morning, so don't check it
at four o'clock in the morning,but they're released every
single week without fail, andit's because I have a tool in
(25:29):
place that helps me do that.
I use a project management tool,and that's my suggestion for
you.
Calendars are great for thingslike meetings, but for those
repeatable tasks in yourbusiness and your life, a
project management tool isamazing.
I use it for everything,including, like grocery shopping
, so I use it across the board.
For myself, I use a tool calledClickUp.
(25:50):
Everyone always asks me what Iuse, so I always tell them now.
But there are so many out thereAsana, trello, basecamp, monday
I could list probably 20 rightnow.
Find the one that works for you,put blinders on and don't worry
about the rest of them, becausethey all work just slightly
different, but they all do thesame thing, and so find the one
that works for you.
(26:11):
But this is something.
This is the level you'll want.
If something is repeatable, ifsomething is not new or
nerve-wracking, if it is scaryto you, if it is a little out of
your comfort zone, a piece oftechnology is usually not the
answer.
You're going to need a littlebit more for that.
So that brings me to level two,which is connection.
(26:32):
This is using another person orgroup of people to help you
follow through with what yousaid you were going to do.
This is a great when you areslightly out of your comfort
zone or it's something that youwant to do and someone else is
doing something similar.
So, let's say, courtney and Ihave decided that we both,
(26:52):
independently, want to grow ouremail list in our business, and
so we decide to meet everysingle week to say, hey, this is
what I did to grow my emaillist this week, this is what
worked, this is what didn't.
I'm going to do this next week,and that's all we'd have to do
is check in with one another,like that.
She's doing the same thing.
We can learn from one another.
So if you're doing somethingsimilar.
(27:13):
It's just really fun to dothings together and you can
learn and try different things.
So my suggestion here is findsomeone, invest.
You have an amazing group righthere that you can say, like I
mean, put it in the chat.
If you're looking for someone,put it in the chat right now and
start connecting, because youhave a group of people who are
(27:36):
more than willing to be theaccountability buddy that you
need.
You don't have to be doing thesame thing, but you can be.
So find the person that youneed, because you have the group
already here.
Then the next level isaccountability through payment.
Just being very honest, we allneed this at some point.
This is when you say you'regoing to do something and you
(27:57):
just don't do it, but you reallywant it.
My example of this is Pinterest.
I wanted to learn Pinterest andhow it could help me grow my
business, and I said this for anentire year I'm not kidding
Every quarter I had it on thelist.
I'm gonna learn and implementPinterest in my business, but I
was not doing it, and I don'tknow why I wasn't doing it at
(28:19):
that time, but I wasn't doing it.
I was spending time on otherthings, but I truly wanted to
learn Pinterest and have itimplemented in my business.
So then I was like, well, I'mnot doing it myself, I'm going
to hire someone to help mefigure this out.
And so I had to find someoneand invest my money in order to
(28:40):
move the needle forward.
So if you've been trying to dosomething and you haven't done
it and you really want to do itlike that's the key, you have to
really want the thing, want theresult.
Find a coach, find a liveprogram, find something to help
you, and when you pay likeyou've probably heard this
before when people pay, they payattention.
(29:02):
Well, I'll take it a stepfurther and say, yes, you pay
attention, you also take actionbecause you have something
holding you accountable, andit's not just another person.
It is another person, but it'salso your financial investment,
which hurts a little bit morewhen we don't follow through.
So my suggestion is to find acoach or a live program, like a
(29:25):
mastermind or a program thatwill help you achieve whatever
it is that you want.
Now I always give the caveatwith this of this is not a
course or a template that ifthere's not a live component to
it, it will not have theaccountability in it.
Courses are awesome I'm a hugefan of digital courses and
(29:46):
learning but if you aren'tfollowing through, you need a
live component, so there's gotto be something in there that
you can have one-on-one call.
There's live coaching calls orsome sort or it's more of a
mastermind type of a feel.
So I'd love for you to take amoment.
You can share it in the chat ornot.
This is really up to you is toreally think about what you want
(30:09):
to do in 2024, whatever that isthat's on your heart right now.
What level of accountability doyou need in place?
Because that's the thing that'sgoing to move.
The needle forward is whateverlevel of accountability you need
.
You have to identify it, behonest, and it will change over
time.
When I first started my podcast,I needed a human to help me
(30:32):
figure it out.
I didn't know how to start apodcast and I definitely didn't
know what all needed to happento get it to go live, so I did
need a different level.
I needed the coach.
Now, three years later, I don'tneed a podcast coach anymore.
I need the tool that helps mehave a repeatable task.
So things do change.
So find whatever you need rightnow and something that, if you
(30:55):
start to listen to my podcast orlearn from me in any way,
you'll notice, I always give anext step.
I never want someone to walkaway from working with me or
listening to me and not knowwhat to do, because I love for
progress to happen.
I love for you to move theneedle forward.
I don't want you to just listenand not know what to do.
And so the next step, no matterwhat level it is that you need,
(31:17):
and then, after I share this,we can talk about questions and
everything that you have, but itis the weekly check-ins.
This is getting you to the 95%.
If you wanna achieve a goal in2024, which is why we're talking
about this today if you'removing forward and thinking this
is what I wanna do, whatever itis, and 2024, I want you to get
(31:38):
there and I want you to be 95%more likely to achieve it.
And so it's weekly check-insthat you have to have.
It can be with yourself or itcan be with someone else.
So deciding what level you needand then creating that weekly
check-in.
So if you chose, if you neededonly level one, which is you're
gonna use the technology and thetools.
(31:58):
Then you have to have yourcheck-in by yourself, which is
fine.
I do this every single Fridayand what you can do is create a
form and a reminder I use GoogleForms, but you can use Type
Form or any kind of form thatyou want and a reminder in your
project management tool or yourcalendar to actually fill out
the form.
And so for me, for the things Ido this every single Friday,
(32:23):
just to have a check-in, is youwanna create the form and a
reminder and then every singleweek, whatever, whenever you
wanna do it is you fill it out.
So for me, it's Friday mornings, if you are going with level
two or level three, you wannaschedule your weekly call.
So you gotta find that group,find that buddy and get it on
the call.
(32:43):
Get a call on the calendar,find your coach, find the
program that you need, whateverit is, and get those on your
calendar so it actually happens,and then implementing this
weekly.
So you're probably thinking whatquestions do I ask myself every
single week?
And I have a form for you.
It's actually, or I have a PDFto give you that.
(33:03):
If you would like this, go tomy website.
It's amandamacinneycom for itslast weekly and you'll be able
to download this PDF.
It has all of the questions init that I ask myself every
single week, and this is goingto put you on my email list, but
you can unsubscribe at any time.
I always give that caveat.
I'm not trying to trick anyoneinto anything.
This is just already on mywebsite, so it was the easiest
(33:25):
way for me to get it to you, butyou can unsubscribe anytime,
and then what you'll do isyou'll ask yourself these
questions every single week sothat you can move the needle
forward on whatever it is thatyou want to achieve next year.
And so, before we dive intoquestions, I want to leave you
with something that I alwayslike to say to everyone, and it
(33:46):
is I believe in you.
I have no idea what's on yourheart right now.
I have no idea what you want toaccomplish and what you want to
do in 2024.
But what I do know is that itwould not be on your heart if
you couldn't do it.
The path is gonna look weird,it's gonna be different.
You're gonna hit someroadblocks.
I can assure you all of thesethings, but I know that you can
(34:09):
get there, and I want you toremember that when you don't
feel like you, can you havesomeone who believes in you, and
it is me, and I believe in you100%.
If I can support you in any way, I am always here to talk about
those options and to give youthe encouragement, but I want
you to remember that you can dothis.
You've got this for sure.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
Thank you so much, Amanda.
That was so helpful and Icannot wait to get your guide
and dive into kind of thoseweekly touch points and
questions.
The chat was lighting up mostthe entire time and I'm just so
inspired and ready to tackle2024.
And wanted to circle back firstto Shelley's question.
(34:49):
And, Shelley, did we get yourquestion answered on speaking
more about finding trackingmetrics?
Her question was can you speakmore about finding tracking
metrics?
Do you have a hard timebreaking down goals?
Speaker 5 (35:02):
I have a hard time narrowing it down to obtainable
goals.
It's kind of like there's somany projects going on at once.
I just get overwhelmed by thatproject that I got to tackle
each week, by the many projects,and then it's like if I
wouldn't get overwhelmed by that, maybe I could chip it off.
You know what I'm saying andit's like.
(35:22):
So when you said those trackingmetrics, I'm like aha, I've got
to find my tracking metrics,because I am motivated by that,
like if I see the needle moving,you know, I mean, I think
everybody is, I don't think it'sprobably an aha, but so much.
But for me it's like I just gotto figure out those metrics.
(35:42):
I think she hit something there.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Yes, thank you for sharing that.
I love when something resonatesLike that's always a really fun
thing.
So I'm going to kind of go alittle higher level and then
drill down to the metrics.
So one thing that I've reallyidentified as helpful and I
don't know how you personallyset goals and we've been talking
about 2024, like I keep sayingthe whole year, I'm not opposed
(36:08):
to yearly and these annual goalsthat people set and having a
yearly intention.
They're awesome.
But what really, really, reallyworks and I have like tried to
see if it didn't work withsomeone and every single time it
does work is setting 90 daygoals.
If you can look at 90 daysversus one year, our brains can
(36:30):
achieve, our brains can reallythink through that.
I'm going to take it even astep further.
In last week I believe it waslast week on the podcast I'll
have to look and see if it was.
I'm thinking it's episode 219,but don't quote me on that one,
I'll have to check it and I talkabout how to set a 90-day goal
and I go through very detailedinformation about this and it's
(36:52):
really looking at your calendarto see how many days you have to
work within 90 days, becauseyou don't have 90 days to
achieve a 90-day goal becauseyou're not working on whatever.
It is 100% of the time.
So we have to take out weekendsand doctor's appointments and
lunch with friends and all ofthese things and we have to
(37:14):
figure out actually how manydays do I have to work on this?
And that's the biggest piece,because you said unattainable.
One of those words wereunattainable.
When you set an unattainablegoal, we end up feeling like a
failure and that's not what wewant.
But it happens all the dangtime and we do it to ourselves
all the time.
I mean, I did it for so longand then I was like what?
(37:35):
I have 32 days and 90 days towork.
That's why I was feeling like afailure all this time.
So you identify the number ofdays you have set that goal.
Then it's identifying themetric.
Now what I've realized and Ihaven't.
There's been a few things thatI've seen that I'm like still
(37:56):
trying to figure this out.
The metrics really are.
Typically, when I think aboutbusiness or even personal goals,
it's a lot of.
It is financial.
A lot of people's goals fallinto a financial number.
So it's either a number ofmoney, number of, like currency
you want to make.
It's a amount you want to save,amount you want to pay down on
(38:20):
debt.
That's typically it Like.
If I had to put a percentage,the majority of people would
pick a financial goal and it's adollar amount if you're in the
US, right.
The next is usually apercentage, a percent.
So sometimes we look at oh, Iwant to increase my business
(38:41):
revenue by 25%, I want todecrease my time spent on
Instagram by 25%.
There's a percentage, so youcan do that.
Then there's the catch all foreverything else and it's time I
want to and I feel like someoneeven said it in the chat.
And now I'm going back and itwas like spending one hour, like
(39:03):
dedicating one hour tosomething.
That's the next one.
It is I will learn aboutPinterest for one hour a week or
whatever the thing is.
It's time spent on a goal.
That's typically now.
Someone can definitely prove mewrong here and let me know, but
those are typically the metrics, financial.
So a currency amount,percentage or time.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
What system you use to break down annual goals into
quarterly, then monthly, thenweekly, monthly and weekly.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Typically speaking, when I work with 90 days, I then
come up with three milestones,because it's 30, 60, 90.
So I typically look at that andsometimes it works in that
Sometimes it's like milestonesof if I want to get to a certain
, I want to create a newoffering.
(39:53):
Then the milestone is reallylike I got to figure out exactly
what that offering is.
I then need to test it withsome people and then I need to
release it.
So that would be the threedifferent levels.
That may not be 30, 60, 90, butit's the milestone that I would
be looking at.
Then, each and every week, whatI do is ask myself what is the
(40:17):
most important project that Ican accomplish this week to get
me closer to that goal.
Every single Monday I askmyself that most important
project.
What is the most importantproject?
And sometimes that is sleep.
I need to prioritize sleep, andI know that sounds really silly
, but I think we all know thevalue when we have a really
(40:39):
crappy night of sleep and we'relike, okay, I didn't do anything
productive today.
I was somehow busy all day, butI didn't do anything that was
helpful, and so sometimes themost important project is more.
It's harder to track, if thatmakes any sense, but it's the
most important thing I can dothat week, but it's the most
(41:01):
important thing I can do thatweek.
Sometimes it is to block myschedule and not take any calls
or whatever the case is, so it'sreally focusing on what is the
most important project that Ican do to get me closer to that
goal.
And I even taught this wholething very recently on how I use
(41:23):
my project management system.
And this is because Courtneyand Amy the three of us who sat
at lunch Courtney said Amanda, Ijust don't know how you do it.
Like, tell me how, whensomething throws you off, what
exactly do you do with yourcalendar?
And so I actually taught this.
And so it's really askingyourself what's the most
important project of the weekand then daily.
(41:45):
If you have more than two tothree things that are the most
important thing that you have todo that day, it's probably too
many.
It sounds really silly, butwe've got to.
I mean, several of you saidover-committing in the chat
today, so we have to berealistic with what's important
each day.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
So helpful, Amanda.
On that note, I would love ifyou can share a little bit about
how you set your calendar upfor success.
Like to meet your goals everysingle week Because I know you
touched on Friday, so thosereminders and just check-ins,
but I think the way that youreally map your calendar up to
just reach success in a week isso mind-blowing and amazing.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Well, thank you, and I like to give the caveat.
So I told you I just sharedthis, I taught it recently in
the feedback that I got was likewhoa, that was a lot.
And so I'm going to actuallystart today by saying the words
that are about to come out of mymouth happened over the last
six years, so I did not startwith this on day one of running
(42:52):
my business.
And so the super organized I amvery organized, so that's a
natural gift that I have.
I know that's not a gifteveryone has, but it is one of
mine, so I am naturallyorganized.
And then I realized what washelpful.
So me asking myself what bringsme joy, what brings me stress.
(43:12):
I ask myself these questionsall the time because I can then,
on the other side, reflect andsay, oh, this is helpful,
because I'm about to share mycalendar and I was like, can I
actually pull this up?
Let me see if I can.
And I can, so I will show youmy calendar, because what I do
(43:33):
is I use a combination of acalendar and a project
management tool, so my calendaris set up to where I know where
to show up every day, like Iknow exactly what to do.
My project management systemhas my to do, like in my task,
what I realized is that I dosomething different than a lot
(43:53):
of people do, which was reallyinteresting for me to understand
.
And it was actually again oneof these lunches like I learned
so much from lunches withfriends and I realized that most
people have a to do list.
I have a to day list, so I onlyknow what I'm working on today.
Like if you said, my husband,michael, asked me all the time
(44:14):
what are you doing tomorrow?
And I was like I don't knowthat answer until I open up,
click up, because I don't know.
I don't know.
I mean, I know things like this, like I knew I was going to do
this today, but like, typicallyspeaking, I'm not, I don't focus
on it, because I'm focused ontoday of getting things done,
and that's really helpful for me.
(44:35):
So here's how my week looks onSundays and now I promise I'll
show you my calendar in a minute, but on Sundays, one for one
hour I come into my office and Iplan for the week and I look at
what's in my project managementtool that tells me what I'm,
because I've already assigneddates to everything, so like
there's very specific dates.
So I look at it nine times outof 10.
(44:56):
I've over committed on Monday.
I don't know why I assigned somany dates.
I've been doing it on Monday.
I don't know why I assigned somany things to Monday, thinking
that I'm going to be like a rockstar, don't know what I do it.
And so I, on Sunday, I open upthe whole week and I see, oh my
gosh, I have 20 tasks on Monday.
That's a ridiculous amount.
I should probably spread thatout.
(45:18):
I then spread everything out.
I'm looking at my calendar tosee kind of audit like what I'm
committed to.
And then the week is set andthis is something and I'm going
to be like that's not possiblefor me and I didn't think it was
possible for me either, but itis.
This is a big one Once thatdate happens on Sunday.
(45:39):
So my one hour like Sunday workis what I call it.
Nothing gets added to mycalendar that week because my
week is set and I swore thiswould not be possible and then I
tried it and it actually is.
Now, if you work for someoneelse, chances are things might
shift a little bit.
You don't have a total controlof your calendar.
(46:01):
I have a little bit morecontrol because I'm running my
own company, but the reality isthings come up all the time.
I have people say hey, amanda,I'd love to meet with you.
I can meet with you onWednesday all the time.
And now I just simply say I cando it next week.
Here's my availability, Eventhough I technically have time
on Wednesday to do it.
I technically have the time,but I've set myself up on Sunday
(46:24):
and so it screws everything upfor the rest of the day if I
throw it off.
So that's my Sunday work.
And then I have themed days.
Again.
I know like some people aregoing to hate this and some
people are going to like it, andit works for me.
If it doesn't work for you,just ignore it.
So I have themed days.
This is where I'm going to showyou my calendar.
At the very top here you cansee that I have themed days.
(46:49):
So Mondays are my creation days.
I am more creative at thebeginning of the week, so I know
if I need to create something.
So the PDF you may havedownloaded from my website, I
created that on a Monday simplybecause I needed to do something
creative.
Tuesdays, or client days, have alot more meetings on those days
(47:09):
.
I do not.
I was actually out of town, butthis week looks a little
different.
Wednesdays are content days.
Typically speaking, this iswhen I'm working on my podcast,
and so I work on podcast-relatedtasks.
It doesn't necessarily mean I'malways recording.
Sometimes I am, but sometimesI'm doing other things.
I'm coming up with ideas, I'mresearching, I'm doing things to
(47:33):
create the content for mybusiness.
Thursdays are connection daysfor me.
I had to move a lot this week,so it looks a little different,
and that's okay, because lifehappens.
I have coaching calls tomorrow,more so than normal, because I
was out of town on Tuesday.
(47:55):
Because of that, I then movedeverything.
Again, life happens.
You have to change things, butthis is an odd week, but I have
connection times.
If I know I want to have acoffee date with someone, I put
it on Thursday.
Always.
It's always there.
Fridays are CEO days, and you'reactually seeing this on a very
(48:16):
odd week because I say like I donot take meetings on Fridays
and I am adamant about that.
However, you see a coach andcall on my calendar.
So I'm calling myself outbecause I was out of town and
it's December and we're tryingto pack it in.
I promised someone I would getthem in, and so I broke my own
rule.
But the thing that I want tobring attention to here is that
(48:40):
it's the exception, not the rule.
On Fridays, I do not typicallytake meetings, and so that's my
CEO day.
Courtney mentioned somethingabout Friday, and so Fridays are
the days where, let's say, onTuesday, I think of oh, I need
to apply for that grant orwhatever.
(49:00):
I just made that up.
I never apply for grants.
I have no idea why I even cameup with that, but the idea of,
like, you think of something ona Tuesday that you need to do
Now what I've learned is that ifI let that thought turn into an
action on Tuesday, it throws myweek off.
Because I've already planned myweek.
I immediately, when I think ofsomething, put it as a task to
(49:23):
do on Friday.
I don't actually do that task onFriday.
What I do is on Friday mornings.
The first thing I do on Fridaymornings is I fill out my weekly
update, my weekly check-in.
I do that first.
The second thing I do is I lookat this massive list of things
I do on Fridays, or I'veassigned to Friday in my project
(49:44):
management tool because when Iassign it to Friday it goes out
of my brain.
Then on Friday morning I thendecide okay, when do I want to
do that?
I assign it to a real date butit captures the idea, so I don't
have to think about it anymorethat Tuesday it's out of my
brain and into a task managementsystem or the project
(50:04):
management system.
I realize I just gave you a lotof information, but it's
learned over time how to managemyself in a way that works.
The overall message here islearn how you work best For me.
I cannot hold things in mybrain.
I have to get it out and Icannot have a massive list or
(50:27):
I'll never feel like I didenough for the day.
I have a two-day list insteadof a to-do list.
Speaker 3 (50:34):
I love that so much.
Amanda, thank you for sharing.
I feel like, personally, somuch of my time is dedicated to
looming and dooming just in myown internal brain, because that
list is really building andbuilding.
I love the idea to cast it toFriday and then, on Friday,
assign a day to get it done andknock it out.
(50:54):
That's so smart.
Speaker 2 (50:58):
I want to hear what you're about to say, courtney,
but I'll also make sure I saythis is not just work stuff.
This is order the birthday gift.
Send that card to say thank youto that person.
It is anything that pops intomy mind.
It is not just work.
I say that because it's easy totry and separate everything and
compartmentalize.
(51:19):
But let's be honest withourselves.
Us women, we're wearing a lotof hats and it's real freaking
hard to do that.
It's so hard.
You're going to be in a meetingwith a whole bunch of people
and think about oh shoot, Ididn't send that thank you card.
Just write it on a piece ofpaper and put it on that task
list later and really do it.
(51:41):
Don't beat yourself up for thefact that you thought about
buying that birthday gift forthe kids party on Saturday in
the middle of a meeting.
Just write it down, get it onthe task list to do, assign it
to yourself whenever you need to, because it's all integrated
together.
Remembering to pick up cheeseat the grocery store is equally
(52:03):
as important.
Speaker 3 (52:06):
I love that.
That's such a great example andso true.
Jennifer had a question aboutyour book.
Jennifer, do you want to hopoff with me?
Speaker 4 (52:13):
No, it's just curious .
You had mentioned that you tooka class before you wrote your
book, and I was very interestedin hearing if you had a
recommendation on a class to 10.
Writing a book is somethingthat's always kind of been on my
bucket list.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
Yay.
Well, congratulations, jennifer, for saying it out loud.
That's a huge accomplishment.
I cannot wait to celebrate youpublishing that book, no matter
how long it takes.
It's awesome.
I am happy to share that.
I will you know what.
I can probably just grab itreally quick.
The program I work through iscalled Manuscripts and it is a
(52:49):
book writing program and Ihighly recommend it.
I loved it.
It really helped me.
I went from idea and just soyou know, I did not have a full
fledged idea when I joined theprogram.
I just thought I think I wantto do this thing.
They took me from I think Iwant to do this thing, but I
(53:11):
don't even know all of it to.
I published a book within ayear.
That was a really, really greatexperience.
I don't know when they open uptheir cohorts, but I just put it
in the chat.
I do not have any affiliationin terms of like.
I'm not getting a kickback ifyou go into the program at all.
I just know I went through it.
It was a wonderful experiencethat I went through and I highly
(53:34):
recommend it.
Hey everyone, this is Erica Lucas, your host and
founding member of Vest, anorganization connecting women
across industries, regions andcareer levels so that together
we can expedite the pipeline ofmore women in positions of power
and influence.
Welcome to another episode ofthe Vestor podcast, where we
(00:23):
explore the investable barriersholding women back in the
workplace and share stories ofwomen building power
collectively.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
You are 95% more likely to succeed by directing
accountability to a third party.
By having a goal, you're 10%more likely.
Consciously deciding that'sthat internal, you know
motivation that's really helpfulgets you to 25%.
Making a plan is 50,.
Committing to someone else is65, but it's weekly
(01:04):
accountability check-ins thatgets you to 95%.
So the data tells us that if wehave accountability, if we know
we have accountability in place, we're going to make more
strategic decisions.
We're going to get to a 95%more likely to succeed if we
have weekly check-ins.
But in order for accountabilityto work, we need what's really
(01:25):
considered a weaker connection.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
In this episode, accountability coach and author
of why Not you?
Amanda McKinney, providesVestMember's tips, tools and
resources on how to achievegoals through discipline and
accountability systems.
Special thanks to VestMemberand founder of Tinch Beauty,
courtney Brooks, for moderatingthe session.
This episode is made possiblethanks to our venture arm, vestr
(01:52):
Ventures, a venture capitalfirm investing in women-led
companies, building tools,products and services that
enable women and workingfamilies to try both at work and
at home, and by our Vestmembership, a community made up
of professional women acrossindustries, regions and career
levels, working together tocreate the future of more
(02:13):
inclusive workspaces.
If you're interested inlearning more about Vestr
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Speaker 2 (02:39):
Today we're talking about accountability, and really
this is such a sweet moment intime that we get to think about
setting goals, because it's theend of the year Now I know this
is recorded so you might bewatching this in July and you
can apply this to July too.
But there is a moment at theend of the year that you kind of
(02:59):
take a breath to really thinkabout what has happened this
year and what am I going forwardwith.
And so I have a few things that, if you're anything like me
which I have a strong feelingthat all of us could be BFFs,
because we are really drivenfemales that wear a lot of hats,
and so if you and I are thesame, we kind of suck at
(03:24):
stopping and pausing andreflecting.
We're really good at goingforward, we're really good at
setting the goal and moving theneedle forward on things, but so
often we don't take the time tolook back, and looking back is
the thing that actually sets usup for better success in terms
of quicker or more efficientsuccess when we think about our
(03:48):
time, which is such a preciousthing, and so things of asking,
asking yourself things like whatworked and what didn't, are
typically what we start with.
But as you are thinking aboutthis today and going forward, I
would also encourage you tothink about what has brought you
joy and what has brought youstress.
I know not everyone here is anentrepreneur like I am, and so a
(04:10):
lot of my content on my podcastand my book is all
entrepreneurship-based.
But all you have to do is thinkabout your professional goals,
your personal goals, and Ireally want to challenge you to
go a little bit deeper than justthe metric because, again,
we're really driven people.
So we look at things like ROIand we think about things like
did this give me the financialsuccess that I was looking for?
(04:33):
But I want you to think aboutwhat brought you joy and stress
a little bit deeper than thatwhen you're reflecting.
So one of the things thatCourtney said when she
introduced me was that we gettogether once a month, and
several years ago I reallystarted asking myself what
brings me joy and what brings mestress.
And what brings me a lot ofstress is packing my calendar
(04:56):
back to back with things.
I'm sure you can all relatewhen you're running from one
thing to the other, whether it'svirtual or in person.
That is really stressful for me.
Maybe it's great for you, but Itry not to do that anymore but
one of the things that I foundthat brought me tremendous joy
in my heart and in my life washaving long lunches with friends
and finding those people whocan fill your cup, and so that
(05:20):
was something that I prioritized.
And all of us are really busy.
We all have things that justour calendars get packed,
especially this time of the year.
But what I realized was thathaving a long lunch with
Courtney and other people thatfill my cup actually made me
more successful in the long run,because I had the quality of
(05:41):
life and the joy, and so Ireally want you to think about
that as you're reflecting on theend of this year and going
forward is not just the metricsbut what gives you that quality
of life.
And I like to say that I learnedjust as much from my clients as
they learned from me, and sothis last question actually came
from one of my clients that isreally good at self-reflection,
(06:04):
and she would come to me and shewould tell me these things and
whatever was going on in herlife, and I thought how in the
world did she come to this?
And she told me this questionthat she reflects on every year,
which is when things felt likethey were really in flow.
What contributed to thathappening?
And I thought, gosh, what abeautiful question that is.
And so I'll give Katie thatshout out because I did not come
(06:26):
up with this question.
But what a great question, andthese questions don't have to be
the perfect ones for you, buthopefully it gets you started
and it gets you thinking abouthow can you reflect on what's
happened this year so that youcan do more of what brings you
joy as you go forward andachieve these goals.
So one thing that maybe you'rethinking about now, or you've
(06:48):
thought about previously, iswhat's hindered you, and I would
love for you to put some thingsin the chat Now I don't have
the chat open right now, but Iwill and what I'd like to see is
what's hindered you fromachieving a goal, and I want you
to be really courageous andshare this, because it's
something that we need to figureout, and I really realized that
(07:10):
I was wrong about this veryrecently, because first and
maybe you're like me and you saythis as well what I always said
was lack of time, and I wouldsay I don't have time, and the
reality is we're all busy, andso time is something that we
have to work with.
But what I realized was thatsomehow, when I really, really,
(07:33):
really, really wanted something,I somehow found the time to
figure it out.
And I had to get really honestwith myself, and this was really
brought to light when Ipublished my book.
So people ask me all the timehow in the world did you get
these things done?
And for some reason, the bookwas one thing that, as soon as I
told people I was writing abook, they were like how in the
(07:54):
world are you doing this?
And it was especially thosepeople like Courtney and my life
who know more about my lifethan just what's on Instagram.
And so what Courtney knows, andyou're about to know as well,
is that as soon as I started towrite my book, my father-in-law
got really, really sick and wemoved him in.
And not only was I theentrepreneur running a business,
(08:15):
a wife, a stepmom, a friend,all of these things I became a
full-time caregiver which, bythe way, I realized I'm not that
great at, but I did it right.
Like, sometimes we just have toput on those hats and do the
thing because life happens.
But somehow in those monthsthat we had him living at our
home, I also finished the firstdraft of my book.
(08:38):
So I wrote a little over 30,000words in three months.
When I tell people that they'relike how in the world and you're
seeing a few snapshots of how Idid that is I went really off
script for my typical ideal lifeof waking up.
I'm a morning person, so I doreally well in the morning, but
(08:58):
I'm also in bed typically by8.30 or 9 o'clock.
Like I'm not a night person atall.
But you're seeing pictures hereof me writing at night, and
what you don't see because Idon't have pictures of it, is me
writing when I was sitting nextto him on the couch and I would
write seven minutes at a timebefore he needed something else
or whatever it was.
And so I realized in thisexperience that time wasn't the
(09:21):
problem.
What really hinders mepersonally is if I'm pursuing a
goal that I think I shouldversus the one I really want,
and I realized very quickly thatI wanted to write that dang
book because I was figuring itout.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Absolutely.
There's so many good chat noteshere.
So first, self-doubt, fear offailure, saying yes to things
that I don't really enjoy doing,but do it out of guilt.
Fear of the unknown,prioritizing the wrong tasks my
own self-doubt time, personalfear spreading myself too thin,
(09:57):
decision fatigue, lack ofplanning and accountability, not
feeling prepared, poorcommunication, improper
prioritizing, having unclearobjectives, fear of failure and
letting others down.
Self-doubt and fear of failure,letting go of control.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
You all showed up.
This is like the best groupchat I've ever been a part of.
Thank you so much.
I feel like sometimes it'sreally hard to be honest and to
share Like.
I'm really loving this groupright now, so thank you for that
man.
Self-doubt over commitment, fearof it not working out my gosh.
I was just on a podcast I thinkit was like two weeks ago.
(10:38):
It was released about what ifit doesn't work out.
It's something I talk about allthe time because it's really
hard, because the answer reallyis it's probably not going to
work out how we think.
So that fear comes into playpretty quickly and the reality
is we just have to push throughand keep going, and you've done
it so many times.
If you look back on what'sworked and what's not, and when
(11:01):
you've achieved things, the pathwas never probably what you
thought it would be, but yousomehow made it there.
But it's so hard to pushthrough that fear and keep going
.
It's so hard.
So thank you for being honestabout what hindered you in
figuring out how to achieve agoal, because when you know what
hinders you, you can actuallycreate the successful experience
(11:25):
.
On the other end, becauseyou're honest about what's
hindering you.
And so on the other side ofthat, once you know what's
hindering you, asking yourselfwhat's helped you.
So I'd love to we'll do thatexercise in the chat again of
what's helped you and I'll sharemy experience as you're putting
things into the chat and Iwould love for you to reflect on
maybe a time.
(11:45):
So I'm going to use self-doubtas one, because several people
said that maybe there's been atime where you did have
self-doubt.
How did you push through?
What helped you in thatexperience?
That you felt it but you keptgoing.
So what hindered you in thatspecific experience is going to
be really helpful when you digin.
And so for me, I'm going totake that publishing experience
(12:07):
because we've already talkedabout it and I'll bring forward
the things that helped meactually publish the book, and
it was that I committed to agoal that I truly wanted.
It was intrinsically motivating.
This is something that I couldgo on a whole other session
about intrinsic versus extrinsicmotivation, and it's something
(12:29):
that I continue to learn aboutbecause it's so helpful when I
work with people, but when wehave an intrinsic motivation for
something.
So I really wanted to writethis book, for I mean sure I'd
love for it to make me amillionaire, but that wasn't the
reason.
I wanted to publish the book,like that would be a cool
benefit, but that was never thegoal.
It was not the goal at all.
(12:50):
It was to speak to the personthat I remember.
I was in 2017 when I was tryingto start a business and scared
out of my dang mind, right.
I didn't know what to do and Ineeded to put one foot in front
of the other and I wanted tobuild a business that integrated
into my life, instead of justtaking it over and me over
committing another one of thosethings that hinders us all the
(13:13):
time, and so I really wanted todo that.
I was intrinsically motivatedto support even just one person
in this experience.
I also joined a program.
I did not know how to write abook and I knew I could not do
that on my own because it was abrand new experience.
So I needed the accountability,and you heard me say I wrote X
(13:33):
number of words.
It was actually a little over30,000.
But the thing here is that Itracked it.
I found a metric that wasreally motivating all the way
through, because, as you seethat number go up.
It's very, very helpful, and so, no matter what my goal is, I
always find a metric now, andsometimes it's a number, like a
(13:54):
revenue goal or something likethat, but sometimes it's time
spent on something and learningsomething spending that time.
So I'd love to know what worksfor you.
Courtney, would you like toshare what's in the chat?
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Yes, absolutely.
There are so many great thingshere.
Erica said one thing no intoletting go of control.
Perrin one-on-one conversationswith people I trust.
Sue being open about struggles.
Michelle said getting outsideperspective on what I am stuck
on.
Perrin also said blocking offat least one hour of focused
(14:31):
time each day.
I love that.
Jay said intentional rest.
Jennifer working through myfears with a trusted friend or
my husband.
Perrin deciding not to scheduleany meetings on Mondays before
noon.
I love that.
Might have to steal that one.
Stephanie, a great mentor andthought partner, getting into
(14:53):
routine every day and allowingtime for breaks and breakdowns
Wow, that's good.
Erica, only doing 15 and 30minute meetings.
Bella, realizing that smallfailures are okay and it is
something you can grow from sopowerful.
Kendra said what's helped memost is getting honest about
fears and sharing those goalsand fears with those that I
(15:16):
trust and really trying to takein and listen to their
encouragement, reminding me whoI am and what I bring to the
table.
They're great about holding themirror up for me to see what I
was too afraid to see.
Also, I truly learned thatbeing busy is not a personality.
That's so good.
I love that.
One Delegating and thendelegating more and then
(15:39):
delegating more, setting up aplan and routine, but also
establishing my why, checking inon how I'm feeling, being
mindful that sometimes thingsaren't going to go perfectly, so
being okay with that and goingeasy on myself.
And then Shelley had a questionto you about can you speak more
about finding tracking metrics?
(16:00):
I have a hard time breakingdown goal.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Oh, yes, that is so good.
Can I put a pin in that untilthe end, because I have a lot to
share on that and that'll takeus on a tangent and I will not
finish what I'm actuallysupposed to say, but I would
love to tackle that one.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah, awesome, that sounds so good and in the
meantime it's so exciting to seewhat people are saying in the
chat, so I love that.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Oh my gosh, you all are so good.
You all are so good with reallyengaging and interacting.
Thank you for being so openwith what's helped you.
I love how many of you talkedabout sharing and talking to
other people, those trustedadvisors, whomever it is in your
life.
That is so incredibly helpful.
(16:46):
We have to do that and findthat support, whatever it is in
your life, to take that nextstep, because we need to be
reminded of things Again, it'spart of all of our personalities
most likely of moving forward,but we don't take that time to
remember what we've actuallydone.
So that's really helpful tohave mirrored and told to us
(17:07):
sometimes.
So what I have found.
I've worked with clients now forsix years as a coach and these
are the things that I've reallyboiled down into what has helped
people and you all talked aboutall of them but it's really
setting realistic goals that youcare about, because you can
(17:27):
pursue anything, but if youdon't care about it, you're
going to be miserable even ifyou get it.
So really pursuing somethingthat you care about, tracking
and celebrating progress whichI'm super pumped that someone
asked me about that and talkingabout tracking metrics so we'll
come back to that one andfinding the support you need in
that accountability, and there'sdifferent levels that I'll
share with you that I'verealized that are super helpful,
(17:49):
but chances are so many of usincluding myself can hear
stories, can hear examples ofthings that have worked for
other people, but in the back ofour mind we'll say, sure, it
worked for her, but it won'twork for me.
And so what I have found isthat when this comes up for me,
(18:09):
and often when it comes up formy clients, relying on data and
science is a really cool tool todo so.
I'm going to give you somethings that you can pull out of
your back pocket when your mindtells you that, because science
tells us accountability doeswork and it will work for you,
no matter what your circumstanceis.
And so the first study that Iwant to bring your attention to
(18:30):
is from Science Direct back in1999, and it talks about how, if
someone knows that they willhave to justify a decision in
front of other people it saysaudience here, but it doesn't
have to be an audience, it canbe an accountability buddy the
likelihood that you'll make theright decision for you is
significantly higher.
That's pretty amazing, justknowing that if you have someone
(18:54):
that you're going to talk to,that friend you're going to have
lunch with that trusted advisorthat you're going to talk to.
If you know that they'll askyou why do you want to pursue
that?
That you are going to make abetter decision for yourself.
Just knowing that is soincredibly helpful.
So you're already set up forsuccess because you know you're
(19:15):
going to have to explainsomething.
In a kind way it's not likethey're going to be mean to you
you just have to explain why youwant it.
And then the American Society ofTraining and Development found
that get ready for this.
You are 95% more likely tosucceed by directing
accountability to a third party.
(19:36):
When I read this I was likeholy bananas, this is the thing
that I need to dig into, becauseI could not believe it was
proved by science.
I was like I've seen this workin everyday life, but this is
really happening.
And so they actually did astair step here.
By having a goal, you're 10%more likely Really deciding.
(19:57):
That's that internal motivationthat's really helpful Get you
to 25%.
Making a plan is 50.
Committing to someone else is65.
But it's weekly accountabilitycheck-ins that gets you to 95%.
Pretty incredible, because if Isaid to you, if you and I were
sitting and chatting and I saidI can get you to 95% more likely
(20:17):
to achieve your goal, you'd saytake all my money and tell me
what to do, amanda, right, likethat is exactly what you would
do.
And here it is, like the answeris a weekly check-in, which is
really cool, and I'm going togive you all the tools you need
for it today, which is myfavorite part, and so that you
can move forward with this andachieve the goal that you really
want to.
(20:38):
So I don't know if you've heardof the Huberman Lab podcast.
I am a huge fan of his podcastand, because I'm a dad and nerd,
he is a Stanford professor andhe is in the neuroscience and so
it's all about the brain.
These are like you go to acollege class that they're like
between one and three hourepisodes.
One of them is like the lengthis really long but you learn so
(21:00):
much.
And so he talked about in theGoals Toolkit episode that when
you announce your goal tosomeone and just like, tell
someone, like I'm going to run amarathon, I'm going to exercise
five days a week or whatever itis when you announce it
typically this is on socialmedia or to a group of people
(21:22):
that you immediately get adopamine hit because people are
encouraging and that's exactlywhat you wanted.
People are going to say, yeah,go, that's awesome, you can do
it.
You get a dopamine hit.
Well, the problem is, our brainwants more dopamine hits.
This is how we have addictions,and so we actually diminish the
probability that we will takethose actions when we start with
(21:45):
this, because if we announceI'm going to do this thing this
year and then we get thedopamine hit, and then on Monday
morning, when we need to putthose shoes on and it's snowing
and we need to go on that run,we don't have the dopamine hit
when we need it, and so it canreally throw our brain off.
However, he goes on to say thataccountability, having an
(22:09):
accountability buddy, that thereis a person who is going to ask
you the question did you dowhat you said you were going to
do?
That is what will help you.
That's the thing that will helpyou.
It's not bad to tell peoplewhat your goal is.
It's just that you have to bestrategic and know that you need
to have someone that's going tosay did you do what you said
(22:31):
you were going to do, and that'swhere it comes in.
So the data tells us that if wehave accountability, if we know
we have accountability in place, we're going to make more
strategic decisions.
We're going to get to a 95%more likely to succeed if we
have weekly check-ins.
But in order for accountabilityto work, we need what's really
(22:51):
considered a weaker connection.
Several of you mentioned talkingto your spouse or best friend
or mentor, that sort of thing.
Those are all really helpful,but you have to find an
accountability buddy that'sgoing to ask you the hard
question and push you a littlebit more.
Because if I told my husband,hey, honey, I want to drink 64
ounces of water a day and I madeit to 34 ounces or something,
(23:16):
and he would be like it's okay,you can try again tomorrow.
He's a very supportive person.
He's not going to be a jerk tome, right Like he's going to be
encouraging.
However, if I told anaccountability buddy, I want to
drink 64 ounces of water a day,but I made it to 34, the
accountability buddy is going tosay what stopped you so that we
can make it better tomorrow.
(23:36):
So you have to be reallycareful with who that person is,
but it really helps you.
So I want to quickly talk aboutthe different levels of
accountability, because this iswhere you're all bought in for
accountability and you're like,how do I make it happen for you?
And so the different levelsthat I have identified and this
is all my thoughts, and so, fromwhat I understand from myself
(24:00):
and analyzing what has reallyhelped, I've come up with three
levels.
We can have accountabilitythrough tools, accountability
through connection andaccountability through payment,
and I'm going to talk about allthree of these and I'll be very
clear and say I use all threeevery day, so it's not like you
can only use one, but what youhave to identify is what level
(24:24):
do I need to achieve this veryspecific goal?
It'll make more sense when Iexplain it, but all of them are
great.
There's not one that's betterthan the other.
So accountability through toolsis using the technology and
tools that we have access to tohelp us.
It's not another human being,it's another piece of technology
, and so technology can drive uscrazy sometimes, but it can
(24:47):
really help us as well, and sohaving a tool, a piece of
technology to help you is greatfor repeatable actions.
So I told you, I have a podcast.
I've had the podcast for threeplus years, and so a weekly
episode comes out every week andI don't need someone to ask me
(25:07):
if I'm going to do it.
I have a repeatable processthat I use in every single
Monday.
If you go to your podcast appand you've subscribed, you'll
see another episode from me.
You can set your clock by it.
They happen at four o'clock inthe morning, so don't check it
at four o'clock in the morning,but they're released every
single week without fail, andit's because I have a tool in
(25:29):
place that helps me do that.
I use a project management tool,and that's my suggestion for
you.
Calendars are great for thingslike meetings, but for those
repeatable tasks in yourbusiness and your life, a
project management tool isamazing.
I use it for everything,including, like grocery shopping
, so I use it across the board.
For myself, I use a tool calledClickUp.
(25:50):
Everyone always asks me what Iuse, so I always tell them now.
But there are so many out thereAsana, trello, basecamp, monday
I could list probably 20 rightnow.
Find the one that works for you,put blinders on and don't worry
about the rest of them, becausethey all work just slightly
different, but they all do thesame thing, and so find the one
that works for you.
(26:11):
But this is something.
This is the level you'll want.
If something is repeatable, ifsomething is not new or
nerve-wracking, if it is scaryto you, if it is a little out of
your comfort zone, a piece oftechnology is usually not the
answer.
You're going to need a littlebit more for that.
So that brings me to level two,which is connection.
(26:32):
This is using another person orgroup of people to help you
follow through with what yousaid you were going to do.
This is a great when you areslightly out of your comfort
zone or it's something that youwant to do and someone else is
doing something similar.
So, let's say, courtney and Ihave decided that we both,
(26:52):
independently, want to grow ouremail list in our business, and
so we decide to meet everysingle week to say, hey, this is
what I did to grow my emaillist this week, this is what
worked, this is what didn't.
I'm going to do this next week,and that's all we'd have to do
is check in with one another,like that.
She's doing the same thing.
We can learn from one another.
So if you're doing somethingsimilar.
(27:13):
It's just really fun to dothings together and you can
learn and try different things.
So my suggestion here is findsomeone, invest.
You have an amazing group righthere that you can say, like I
mean, put it in the chat.
If you're looking for someone,put it in the chat right now and
start connecting, because youhave a group of people who are
(27:36):
more than willing to be theaccountability buddy that you
need.
You don't have to be doing thesame thing, but you can be.
So find the person that youneed, because you have the group
already here.
Then the next level isaccountability through payment.
Just being very honest, we allneed this at some point.
This is when you say you'regoing to do something and you
(27:57):
just don't do it, but you reallywant it.
My example of this is Pinterest.
I wanted to learn Pinterest andhow it could help me grow my
business, and I said this for anentire year I'm not kidding
Every quarter I had it on thelist.
I'm gonna learn and implementPinterest in my business, but I
was not doing it, and I don'tknow why I wasn't doing it at
(28:19):
that time, but I wasn't doing it.
I was spending time on otherthings, but I truly wanted to
learn Pinterest and have itimplemented in my business.
So then I was like, well, I'mnot doing it myself, I'm going
to hire someone to help mefigure this out.
And so I had to find someoneand invest my money in order to
(28:40):
move the needle forward.
So if you've been trying to dosomething and you haven't done
it and you really want to do itlike that's the key, you have to
really want the thing, want theresult.
Find a coach, find a liveprogram, find something to help
you, and when you pay likeyou've probably heard this
before when people pay, they payattention.
(29:02):
Well, I'll take it a stepfurther and say, yes, you pay
attention, you also take actionbecause you have something
holding you accountable, andit's not just another person.
It is another person, but it'salso your financial investment,
which hurts a little bit morewhen we don't follow through.
So my suggestion is to find acoach or a live program, like a
(29:25):
mastermind or a program thatwill help you achieve whatever
it is that you want.
Now I always give the caveatwith this of this is not a
course or a template that ifthere's not a live component to
it, it will not have theaccountability in it.
Courses are awesome I'm a hugefan of digital courses and
(29:46):
learning but if you aren'tfollowing through, you need a
live component, so there's gotto be something in there that
you can have one-on-one call.
There's live coaching calls orsome sort or it's more of a
mastermind type of a feel.
So I'd love for you to take amoment.
You can share it in the chat ornot.
This is really up to you is toreally think about what you want
(30:09):
to do in 2024, whatever that isthat's on your heart right now.
What level of accountability doyou need in place?
Because that's the thing that'sgoing to move.
The needle forward is whateverlevel of accountability you need
.
You have to identify it, behonest, and it will change over
time.
When I first started my podcast,I needed a human to help me
(30:32):
figure it out.
I didn't know how to start apodcast and I definitely didn't
know what all needed to happento get it to go live, so I did
need a different level.
I needed the coach.
Now, three years later, I don'tneed a podcast coach anymore.
I need the tool that helps mehave a repeatable task.
So things do change.
So find whatever you need rightnow and something that, if you
(30:55):
start to listen to my podcast orlearn from me in any way,
you'll notice, I always give anext step.
I never want someone to walkaway from working with me or
listening to me and not knowwhat to do, because I love for
progress to happen.
I love for you to move theneedle forward.
I don't want you to just listenand not know what to do.
And so the next step, no matterwhat level it is that you need,
(31:17):
and then, after I share this,we can talk about questions and
everything that you have, but itis the weekly check-ins.
This is getting you to the 95%.
If you wanna achieve a goal in2024, which is why we're talking
about this today if you'removing forward and thinking this
is what I wanna do, whatever itis, and 2024, I want you to get
(31:38):
there and I want you to be 95%more likely to achieve it.
And so it's weekly check-insthat you have to have.
It can be with yourself or itcan be with someone else.
So deciding what level you needand then creating that weekly
check-in.
So if you chose, if you neededonly level one, which is you're
gonna use the technology and thetools.
(31:58):
Then you have to have yourcheck-in by yourself, which is
fine.
I do this every single Fridayand what you can do is create a
form and a reminder I use GoogleForms, but you can use Type
Form or any kind of form thatyou want and a reminder in your
project management tool or yourcalendar to actually fill out
the form.
And so for me, for the things Ido this every single Friday,
(32:23):
just to have a check-in, is youwanna create the form and a
reminder and then every singleweek, whatever, whenever you
wanna do it is you fill it out.
So for me, it's Friday mornings, if you are going with level
two or level three, you wannaschedule your weekly call.
So you gotta find that group,find that buddy and get it on
the call.
(32:43):
Get a call on the calendar,find your coach, find the
program that you need, whateverit is, and get those on your
calendar so it actually happens,and then implementing this
weekly.
So you're probably thinking whatquestions do I ask myself every
single week?
And I have a form for you.
It's actually, or I have a PDFto give you that.
(33:03):
If you would like this, go tomy website.
It's amandamacinneycom for itslast weekly and you'll be able
to download this PDF.
It has all of the questions init that I ask myself every
single week, and this is goingto put you on my email list, but
you can unsubscribe at any time.
I always give that caveat.
I'm not trying to trick anyoneinto anything.
This is just already on mywebsite, so it was the easiest
(33:25):
way for me to get it to you, butyou can unsubscribe anytime,
and then what you'll do isyou'll ask yourself these
questions every single week sothat you can move the needle
forward on whatever it is thatyou want to achieve next year.
And so, before we dive intoquestions, I want to leave you
with something that I alwayslike to say to everyone, and it
(33:46):
is I believe in you.
I have no idea what's on yourheart right now.
I have no idea what you want toaccomplish and what you want to
do in 2024.
But what I do know is that itwould not be on your heart if
you couldn't do it.
The path is gonna look weird,it's gonna be different.
You're gonna hit someroadblocks.
I can assure you all of thesethings, but I know that you can
(34:09):
get there, and I want you toremember that when you don't
feel like you, can you havesomeone who believes in you, and
it is me, and I believe in you100%.
If I can support you in any way, I am always here to talk about
those options and to give youthe encouragement, but I want
you to remember that you can dothis.
You've got this for sure.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
Thank you so much, Amanda.
That was so helpful and Icannot wait to get your guide
and dive into kind of thoseweekly touch points and
questions.
The chat was lighting up mostthe entire time and I'm just so
inspired and ready to tackle2024.
And wanted to circle back firstto Shelley's question.
(34:49):
And, Shelley, did we get yourquestion answered on speaking
more about finding trackingmetrics?
Her question was can you speakmore about finding tracking
metrics?
Do you have a hard timebreaking down goals?
Speaker 5 (35:02):
I have a hard time narrowing it down to obtainable
goals.
It's kind of like there's somany projects going on at once.
I just get overwhelmed by thatproject that I got to tackle
each week, by the many projects,and then it's like if I
wouldn't get overwhelmed by that, maybe I could chip it off.
You know what I'm saying andit's like.
(35:22):
So when you said those trackingmetrics, I'm like aha, I've got
to find my tracking metrics,because I am motivated by that,
like if I see the needle moving,you know, I mean, I think
everybody is, I don't think it'sprobably an aha, but so much.
But for me it's like I just gotto figure out those metrics.
(35:42):
I think she hit something there.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Yes, thank you for sharing that.
I love when something resonatesLike that's always a really fun
thing.
So I'm going to kind of go alittle higher level and then
drill down to the metrics.
So one thing that I've reallyidentified as helpful and I
don't know how you personallyset goals and we've been talking
about 2024, like I keep sayingthe whole year, I'm not opposed
(36:08):
to yearly and these annual goalsthat people set and having a
yearly intention.
They're awesome.
But what really, really, reallyworks and I have like tried to
see if it didn't work withsomeone and every single time it
does work is setting 90 daygoals.
If you can look at 90 daysversus one year, our brains can
(36:30):
achieve, our brains can reallythink through that.
I'm going to take it even astep further.
In last week I believe it waslast week on the podcast I'll
have to look and see if it was.
I'm thinking it's episode 219,but don't quote me on that one,
I'll have to check it and I talkabout how to set a 90-day goal
and I go through very detailedinformation about this and it's
(36:52):
really looking at your calendarto see how many days you have to
work within 90 days, becauseyou don't have 90 days to
achieve a 90-day goal becauseyou're not working on whatever.
It is 100% of the time.
So we have to take out weekendsand doctor's appointments and
lunch with friends and all ofthese things and we have to
(37:14):
figure out actually how manydays do I have to work on this?
And that's the biggest piece,because you said unattainable.
One of those words wereunattainable.
When you set an unattainablegoal, we end up feeling like a
failure and that's not what wewant.
But it happens all the dangtime and we do it to ourselves
all the time.
I mean, I did it for so longand then I was like what?
(37:35):
I have 32 days and 90 days towork.
That's why I was feeling like afailure all this time.
So you identify the number ofdays you have set that goal.
Then it's identifying themetric.
Now what I've realized and Ihaven't.
There's been a few things thatI've seen that I'm like still
(37:56):
trying to figure this out.
The metrics really are.
Typically, when I think aboutbusiness or even personal goals,
it's a lot of.
It is financial.
A lot of people's goals fallinto a financial number.
So it's either a number ofmoney, number of, like currency
you want to make.
It's a amount you want to save,amount you want to pay down on
(38:20):
debt.
That's typically it Like.
If I had to put a percentage,the majority of people would
pick a financial goal and it's adollar amount if you're in the
US, right.
The next is usually apercentage, a percent.
So sometimes we look at oh, Iwant to increase my business
(38:41):
revenue by 25%, I want todecrease my time spent on
Instagram by 25%.
There's a percentage, so youcan do that.
Then there's the catch all foreverything else and it's time I
want to and I feel like someoneeven said it in the chat.
And now I'm going back and itwas like spending one hour, like
(39:03):
dedicating one hour tosomething.
That's the next one.
It is I will learn aboutPinterest for one hour a week or
whatever the thing is.
It's time spent on a goal.
That's typically now.
Someone can definitely prove mewrong here and let me know, but
those are typically the metrics, financial.
So a currency amount,percentage or time.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
What system you use to break down annual goals into
quarterly, then monthly, thenweekly, monthly and weekly.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Typically speaking, when I work with 90 days, I then
come up with three milestones,because it's 30, 60, 90.
So I typically look at that andsometimes it works in that
Sometimes it's like milestonesof if I want to get to a certain
, I want to create a newoffering.
(39:53):
Then the milestone is reallylike I got to figure out exactly
what that offering is.
I then need to test it withsome people and then I need to
release it.
So that would be the threedifferent levels.
That may not be 30, 60, 90, butit's the milestone that I would
be looking at.
Then, each and every week, whatI do is ask myself what is the
(40:17):
most important project that Ican accomplish this week to get
me closer to that goal.
Every single Monday I askmyself that most important
project.
What is the most importantproject?
And sometimes that is sleep.
I need to prioritize sleep, andI know that sounds really silly
, but I think we all know thevalue when we have a really
(40:39):
crappy night of sleep and we'relike, okay, I didn't do anything
productive today.
I was somehow busy all day, butI didn't do anything that was
helpful, and so sometimes themost important project is more.
It's harder to track, if thatmakes any sense, but it's the
most important thing I can dothat week, but it's the most
(41:01):
important thing I can do thatweek.
Sometimes it is to block myschedule and not take any calls
or whatever the case is, so it'sreally focusing on what is the
most important project that Ican do to get me closer to that
goal.
And I even taught this wholething very recently on how I use
(41:23):
my project management system.
And this is because Courtneyand Amy the three of us who sat
at lunch Courtney said Amanda, Ijust don't know how you do it.
Like, tell me how, whensomething throws you off, what
exactly do you do with yourcalendar?
And so I actually taught this.
And so it's really askingyourself what's the most
important project of the weekand then daily.
(41:45):
If you have more than two tothree things that are the most
important thing that you have todo that day, it's probably too
many.
It sounds really silly, butwe've got to.
I mean, several of you saidover-committing in the chat
today, so we have to berealistic with what's important
each day.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
So helpful, Amanda.
On that note, I would love ifyou can share a little bit about
how you set your calendar upfor success.
Like to meet your goals everysingle week Because I know you
touched on Friday, so thosereminders and just check-ins,
but I think the way that youreally map your calendar up to
just reach success in a week isso mind-blowing and amazing.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Well, thank you, and I like to give the caveat.
So I told you I just sharedthis, I taught it recently in
the feedback that I got was likewhoa, that was a lot.
And so I'm going to actuallystart today by saying the words
that are about to come out of mymouth happened over the last
six years, so I did not startwith this on day one of running
(42:52):
my business.
And so the super organized I amvery organized, so that's a
natural gift that I have.
I know that's not a gifteveryone has, but it is one of
mine, so I am naturallyorganized.
And then I realized what washelpful.
So me asking myself what bringsme joy, what brings me stress.
(43:12):
I ask myself these questionsall the time because I can then,
on the other side, reflect andsay, oh, this is helpful,
because I'm about to share mycalendar and I was like, can I
actually pull this up?
Let me see if I can.
And I can, so I will show youmy calendar, because what I do
(43:33):
is I use a combination of acalendar and a project
management tool, so my calendaris set up to where I know where
to show up every day, like Iknow exactly what to do.
My project management systemhas my to do, like in my task,
what I realized is that I dosomething different than a lot
(43:53):
of people do, which was reallyinteresting for me to understand
.
And it was actually again oneof these lunches like I learned
so much from lunches withfriends and I realized that most
people have a to do list.
I have a to day list, so I onlyknow what I'm working on today.
Like if you said, my husband,michael, asked me all the time
(44:14):
what are you doing tomorrow?
And I was like I don't knowthat answer until I open up,
click up, because I don't know.
I don't know.
I mean, I know things like this, like I knew I was going to do
this today, but like, typicallyspeaking, I'm not, I don't focus
on it, because I'm focused ontoday of getting things done,
and that's really helpful for me.
(44:35):
So here's how my week looks onSundays and now I promise I'll
show you my calendar in a minute, but on Sundays, one for one
hour I come into my office and Iplan for the week and I look at
what's in my project managementtool that tells me what I'm,
because I've already assigneddates to everything, so like
there's very specific dates.
So I look at it nine times outof 10.
(44:56):
I've over committed on Monday.
I don't know why I assigned somany dates.
I've been doing it on Monday.
I don't know why I assigned somany things to Monday, thinking
that I'm going to be like a rockstar, don't know what I do it.
And so I, on Sunday, I open upthe whole week and I see, oh my
gosh, I have 20 tasks on Monday.
That's a ridiculous amount.
I should probably spread thatout.
(45:18):
I then spread everything out.
I'm looking at my calendar tosee kind of audit like what I'm
committed to.
And then the week is set andthis is something and I'm going
to be like that's not possiblefor me and I didn't think it was
possible for me either, but itis.
This is a big one Once thatdate happens on Sunday.
(45:39):
So my one hour like Sunday workis what I call it.
Nothing gets added to mycalendar that week because my
week is set and I swore thiswould not be possible and then I
tried it and it actually is.
Now, if you work for someoneelse, chances are things might
shift a little bit.
You don't have a total controlof your calendar.
(46:01):
I have a little bit morecontrol because I'm running my
own company, but the reality isthings come up all the time.
I have people say hey, amanda,I'd love to meet with you.
I can meet with you onWednesday all the time.
And now I just simply say I cando it next week.
Here's my availability, Eventhough I technically have time
on Wednesday to do it.
I technically have the time,but I've set myself up on Sunday
(46:24):
and so it screws everything upfor the rest of the day if I
throw it off.
So that's my Sunday work.
And then I have themed days.
Again.
I know like some people aregoing to hate this and some
people are going to like it, andit works for me.
If it doesn't work for you,just ignore it.
So I have themed days.
This is where I'm going to showyou my calendar.
At the very top here you cansee that I have themed days.
(46:49):
So Mondays are my creation days.
I am more creative at thebeginning of the week, so I know
if I need to create something.
So the PDF you may havedownloaded from my website, I
created that on a Monday simplybecause I needed to do something
creative.
Tuesdays, or client days, have alot more meetings on those days
(47:09):
.
I do not.
I was actually out of town, butthis week looks a little
different.
Wednesdays are content days.
Typically speaking, this iswhen I'm working on my podcast,
and so I work on podcast-relatedtasks.
It doesn't necessarily mean I'malways recording.
Sometimes I am, but sometimesI'm doing other things.
I'm coming up with ideas, I'mresearching, I'm doing things to
(47:33):
create the content for mybusiness.
Thursdays are connection daysfor me.
I had to move a lot this week,so it looks a little different,
and that's okay, because lifehappens.
I have coaching calls tomorrow,more so than normal, because I
was out of town on Tuesday.
(47:55):
Because of that, I then movedeverything.
Again, life happens.
You have to change things, butthis is an odd week, but I have
connection times.
If I know I want to have acoffee date with someone, I put
it on Thursday.
Always.
It's always there.
Fridays are CEO days, and you'reactually seeing this on a very
(48:16):
odd week because I say like I donot take meetings on Fridays
and I am adamant about that.
However, you see a coach andcall on my calendar.
So I'm calling myself outbecause I was out of town and
it's December and we're tryingto pack it in.
I promised someone I would getthem in, and so I broke my own
rule.
But the thing that I want tobring attention to here is that
(48:40):
it's the exception, not the rule.
On Fridays, I do not typicallytake meetings, and so that's my
CEO day.
Courtney mentioned somethingabout Friday, and so Fridays are
the days where, let's say, onTuesday, I think of oh, I need
to apply for that grant orwhatever.
(49:00):
I just made that up.
I never apply for grants.
I have no idea why I even cameup with that, but the idea of,
like, you think of something ona Tuesday that you need to do
Now what I've learned is that ifI let that thought turn into an
action on Tuesday, it throws myweek off.
Because I've already planned myweek.
I immediately, when I think ofsomething, put it as a task to
(49:23):
do on Friday.
I don't actually do that task onFriday.
What I do is on Friday mornings.
The first thing I do on Fridaymornings is I fill out my weekly
update, my weekly check-in.
I do that first.
The second thing I do is I lookat this massive list of things
I do on Fridays, or I'veassigned to Friday in my project
(49:44):
management tool because when Iassign it to Friday it goes out
of my brain.
Then on Friday morning I thendecide okay, when do I want to
do that?
I assign it to a real date butit captures the idea, so I don't
have to think about it anymorethat Tuesday it's out of my
brain and into a task managementsystem or the project
(50:04):
management system.
I realize I just gave you a lotof information, but it's
learned over time how to managemyself in a way that works.
The overall message here islearn how you work best For me.
I cannot hold things in mybrain.
I have to get it out and Icannot have a massive list or
(50:27):
I'll never feel like I didenough for the day.
I have a two-day list insteadof a to-do list.
Speaker 3 (50:34):
I love that so much.
Amanda, thank you for sharing.
I feel like, personally, somuch of my time is dedicated to
looming and dooming just in myown internal brain, because that
list is really building andbuilding.
I love the idea to cast it toFriday and then, on Friday,
assign a day to get it done andknock it out.
(50:54):
That's so smart.
Speaker 2 (50:58):
I want to hear what you're about to say, courtney,
but I'll also make sure I saythis is not just work stuff.
This is order the birthday gift.
Send that card to say thank youto that person.
It is anything that pops intomy mind.
It is not just work.
I say that because it's easy totry and separate everything and
compartmentalize.
(51:19):
But let's be honest withourselves.
Us women, we're wearing a lotof hats and it's real freaking
hard to do that.
It's so hard.
You're going to be in a meetingwith a whole bunch of people
and think about oh shoot, Ididn't send that thank you card.
Just write it on a piece ofpaper and put it on that task
list later and really do it.
(51:41):
Don't beat yourself up for thefact that you thought about
buying that birthday gift forthe kids party on Saturday in
the middle of a meeting.
Just write it down, get it onthe task list to do, assign it
to yourself whenever you need to, because it's all integrated
together.
Remembering to pick up cheeseat the grocery store is equally
(52:03):
as important.
Speaker 3 (52:06):
I love that.
That's such a great example andso true.
Jennifer had a question aboutyour book.
Jennifer, do you want to hopoff with me?
Speaker 4 (52:13):
No, it's just curious .
You had mentioned that you tooka class before you wrote your
book, and I was very interestedin hearing if you had a
recommendation on a class to 10.
Writing a book is somethingthat's always kind of been on my
bucket list.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
Yay.
Well, congratulations, jennifer, for saying it out loud.
That's a huge accomplishment.
I cannot wait to celebrate youpublishing that book, no matter
how long it takes.
It's awesome.
I am happy to share that.
I will you know what.
I can probably just grab itreally quick.
The program I work through iscalled Manuscripts and it is a
(52:49):
book writing program and Ihighly recommend it.
I loved it.
It really helped me.
I went from idea and just soyou know, I did not have a full
fledged idea when I joined theprogram.
I just thought I think I wantto do this thing.
They took me from I think Iwant to do this thing, but I
(53:11):
don't even know all of it to.
I published a book within ayear.
That was a really, really greatexperience.
I don't know when they open uptheir cohorts, but I just put it
in the chat.
I do not have any affiliationin terms of like.
I'm not getting a kickback ifyou go into the program at all.
I just know I went through it.
It was a wonderful experiencethat I went through and I highly
(53:34):
recommend it.
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