You are listening to "Grow a Thriving Practice" podcast. This is Episode 90: "Summertime Productivity". My name is Gillian Faldmo, and I am the business and life coach for sound and energy medicine practitioners who want to turn their practices into aligned careers that point toward freedom, flexibility, and fulfillment. This is "Grow a Thriving Practice" podcast.
Well, hello there! Welcome to today's episode. This is Episode 90, which means that we are approaching 100 episodes in the near future. So, thank you so much to my loyal listeners, and if you're listening for the first time, I welcome you to this episode.
We are going to be discussing managing your time during the summer months, and the intention of this episode is to show you how you can be productive with your business and have a fun and enjoyable summer. But first, a couple of things.
Speaking of loyal listeners, I want to give a shout out to somebody. A2PVJ wrote a review on Apple Podcasts, and I would love to thank this person and also read their review. And I just want to say, I... um, my husband was telling me that his dad works with someone, and this person was searching his name, Frank Faldmo, and my name came up in the podcast, and this person's been listening to the podcast ever since. And that was just so fun for me to hear. So, I'm also wondering if this is the same person.
So, the review title: "Excellent Coaching Advice for Any Aspiring Small Business Owner". I have listened to every episode of the "Grow a Thriving Practice" podcast, and have found Jillian's content to be so helpful, relevant, and on point for anyone who either has a small business or aspires to create one. That is so awesome. Thank you so much, A2PVJ. I really want to thank you for listening and leaving that review. I love reading your reviews, so if you haven't reviewed yet, please send one in. That'd be amazing.
Okay, one more thing before we get into today's topic. I am offering a free live webinar on how to turn your social media followers into paying clients. And the reason I'm offering this 1-hour training is because I see so many of you putting endless hours into your social media without getting any new clients, or some of you just getting frozen at the thought of doing social media. And the reason that both of these things are happening is because you don't have a clear strategy.
Now, you've probably been taught or heard thoughts about growing your social media pages, but if you're only depending on those to grow your business, you are 1) missing a step and 2) putting your business at risk, because those social media pages are owned by the platforms. So, the platforms own your audience, right? And the algorithms are always changing, so not everyone is going to necessarily see your posts.
I've actually heard of quite a few people building their audience on social media only for it to be completely hacked one day, and I don't know exactly how that happens, but they end up losing everything. So, if that's the only way you're following your audience, it is a liability.
What I recommend doing and what I'm gonna show you in this webinar is all about growing your email list, and we're gonna use social media to do that. So, the reason why I believe so strongly in growing your email list is that you own your list and you can reach out to them anytime you want to. And the chances that they see your content that you share with them is gonna be much higher because you're sending it in their email.
So, I've got some amazing strategies for how to turn your social media followers into your email followers, which turn into your paying clients in this training. I'm going to teach you my exact strategy that I used to get to $100,000 in my business, and you will learn what exactly to put in your bio, what kind of content to create deliberately, how to get your audience to consume more and more of your content, and how to get those on your email list into a consultation call with you.
This is happening next week, Friday June 23rd, at 11:00 am Pacific Time, and it will be recorded. But when you attend live, you will also get two special bonuses, which you can find out about more when you sign up. So, to sign up, go to JillianFaldmo.com/getpaid. That's G-E-T-P-A-I-D.
All right, let's talk about how to make the most out of the summer months for your practice. This is a time of year when I hear of practitioners slowing down with their practices. For some, it's because they themselves want to slow down, and that's fine. They want to enjoy the beauty of summer and be with their families. And for others, it's because they believe there's not going to be as much business because other people are slowing down.
And I just want to offer that if you plan to slow down with your business during the summer months, do it very intentionally, not from a place of scarcity. That's kind of what I'm getting at today. I want to speak to those of you who are slowing down or stalling from a place of scarcity, from a place of believing that there's not going to be as much business and nobody wants sessions. That is coming from lack, and truthfully, the universe answers to that. It says, "Okay, I hear you saying you don't want clients now, so let's slow things down."
Don't use summer as an excuse to stall or slow things down because, in reality, summer can be the most productive time of year. Because we are naturally influenced by the longer days and the sunny weather, the energy in the summer is, in general, more abundant. If I were to choose a time during the year to slow down, it would definitely be winter because, you know, it's inherent in us to want to hibernate.
Now, the purpose of this episode is not to tell you you shouldn't be slowing things down. It's not to tell you to go out there and hustle. It's to show you how you can be the most productive, even though schedules might be changing or you have vacations planned, and to really enjoy the time that you have.
I have learned to get much more done in a shorter amount of time by making powerful decisions, by planning ahead, and honoring that plan. And so, that's what I'm going to talk with you today about. So let's talk first about making powerful decisions.
This has to do with really looking at your priorities for the summer. What do you want to accomplish in terms of your business and your life? And to think, you know when I ask this question, it's like not based off of what I think is possible or what I think other people are gonna want or what other people want me to do, but what do you want to accomplish? And if you could have it all, what would that look like? And to go from there.
So for me, summer looks like business as usual, even with a couple of vacations in the mix. And when I think about those vacations, I think about really maximizing the family quality time and really, you know, being free from obligations or responsibility, just being in the present moment with my family, having the most fun.
And in order to do that, I need to make the powerful decision that those two weeks this summer will be absolutely work-free. And for me, that doesn't necessarily mean working harder during the rest of the summer. To me, it means doubling down on my focus, using the hours that I do spend at the office and at work very intentionally. And that's another powerful decision - that I will use my time in the office very intentionally.
So what does that even mean? To me, that means making lists, plugging things into my calendar, and being aware of when I might slip into unconscious, time-wasting behaviors like scrolling on Facebook or Instagram. Can you relate to that? I actually did it today. I have a very productive day ahead of me, and let me just tell you, even today my hours are 11 to 3. I've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 clients. These are coaching clients. Um, and I'm getting things done in between. And I can do that because I know exactly what needs to be get needs to get done.
Now I caught myself scrolling for about two minutes, and I just brought awareness to the situation. I went, "Oh, look at what I'm doing. I'm scrolling. I'm not doing what I said I was gonna do." I stopped that behavior and I got back to it. Now if you haven't heard, um, what a powerful decision is, it means making a decision that you will follow through on no matter what, okay?
Each time we make a powerful decision, that decision is followed up by more powerful decisions. And so what would that look like for you? What's a powerful decision for you look like this summer? Consider what you want to accomplish with your practice, with your life. Do you want to have a practice be launched by the end of the summer, by September? And if so, what would that mean for you? What are the powerful decisions that come after that?
Would you need to plug in some time into your calendar to work on your business? By the way, if you are wanting to launch anything, I recommend spending at least 3 to 4 hours per week of dedicated time, distraction-free, that you can work on that project. You would actually be really amazed at what you can accomplish in just one hour without distractions.
And can I let you in on a little secret of mine? Sometimes I wake up at 5:00 am to work on a project for an hour before anybody else is up. And it might sound really painful, but that time is so precious. And I don't do it all of the time because, 1, I like to sleep in much longer than that, and two other times, I like to use that time to take a distraction-free bath. Early morning baths are the best.
Okay, back to you. What would a powerful decision look like for you this summer? Maybe it's to offer some workshops or events. Make the powerful decision to see it through. Let's talk about the second thing: planning ahead. This one is essential because we can say, "I'm going to do this thing. I'm going to make this thing happen," but if we don't plan our action steps ahead of time, guess what happens? This thing comes up and that thing comes up, and before you know it, your date is fast approaching, your goal is fast approaching, whatever you want to have accomplished. It's like here, and you're feeling behind.
So make a list of all the things you'll need to do to reach your goal and plug them into your calendar. And I don't mean put them on your 30-day wall calendar, like get a daily planner. You could even use the Apple Calendar. That works for me, um, and you create an actual time slot to make those little things happen, even if you want to see a certain amount of clients per week, you need to make time in your calendar. There's something about being very specific that tells the universe exactly what you're wanting. And when you leave the days and times completely open and just, you know, really vague, you're less likely to get clients booked. I know it's weird, but I see it all the time.
So let's say you want to spend more time with the kids in the summer, and you also want to see clients. You're wanting a carefree summer, and you're also wanting some income. Here's what you need to decide: which days will be totally carefree and decide which days will be for clients. If you want to see 10 clients in a week, you can make four days completely free and see your clients in three days, but you have to decide ahead of time which of those three days they'll be. Tell the universe exactly what you want. And when I say "tell the universe," I mean write it down, like block it in your calendar, and that also shows your brain exactly what you want.
And if you're seeing that you don't have those clients booked for that week and you want those 10 clients booked for that week, don't fill in that time with stuff that's not related to the clients. Like, you can use that time that you blocked out for those clients to brainstorm ways to bring those clients in. You will come up with something. You will find ways to go meet people and make offers to help them, right?
Here's another secret of mine. I'm telling you all my secrets today. If I don't plan ahead and plug in time to create and record and publish a podcast episode, and I leave it to myself to do it when I feel like it, guess what? It doesn't get done. I have to plan ahead. I have to look at my weekly schedule and plug in the time between clients to work on episodes. It really is how I stay the most productive and the most focused. I have to plan ahead. That means thinking ahead. I make a list each week of all the things I need to do and I plug them into my week.
And then here's the next part:
Honor it. You gotta honor it. Don't just write it down and ignore it. That just teaches your brain that you know, you don't trust yourself to follow through on a plan.
Think about it this way, just like you would plug a client into your calendar and wouldn't miss the appointment unless something really urgent came up, do the same thing with what you put in your calendar.
Why do we honor other people over ourselves? Right, we do it. We wouldn't miss a lunch date with a friend, but we would miss the thing that we committed to ourselves for.
This is a practice, and there's a little finesse to it. We don't want to overschedule ourselves, making it hard to honor. When you do your planning, you want to make it doable. Have a plan that you will honor, right?
And the excuses are gonna come up, right? 'Cause when you make a plan for today, for tomorrow, for sure, you're not gonna wanna follow through with that plan in the moment. And here's why that's so important to understand.
When you plan something out a day ahead of time or a week ahead of time, and um, you just have such a better emotional adult process than on the day of, on the day of, you'll want to make excuses. You'll want to respond to how you feel in the moment. And how you usually feel in the moment is your primitive brain, you know, telling you that this is uncomfortable, "I don't wanna do this, right?" It shows you the doubt and fear. It brings up the confusion. It brings up the overwhelm because not doing it in the moment is like there's more comfort on some level, right? Like, let's go sit on the couch and watch Netflix or, "Let's go ride a bike. Let's go for a walk." Those things aren't bad, but when we say we're gonna do something and we tell ourselves we're gonna do something, we have to really just stay conscious when our brains offer us that.
We don't want to question it like, "Why? Why don't I want to? Is it because I just don't want to do something hard right now? Is it because I want pleasure? Instant pleasure?" Remind yourself that you want that long-term gratification. The reason that you put this in your calendar is because your adult brain had an adult process that said, "This is in the best interest of your future self." The primitive brain does not have the future self in mind. It's like, "No, let's play. Let's do something that'll be more fun."
Here's the thing, though. If you put something in your calendar and you honor it, even when there's fun involved, there's something else that might be fun that you would rather do, I promise you, it is so fun to show yourself that you can make a plan and honor it.
It happens with food too. So, I'm a, for those of you that are following my weightlifting journey, I have another competition at the end of July, and I've started cutting weight, which means that I've started to change my diet and eat, um, eat according to a certain way so that I make weight for the powerlifting meet. There are weight classes, and I want to be at the top of my weight class, which means that I don't want to be at the bottom of the weight class above me.
So anyway, probably don't need to explain all this stuff, but I'm trying to show you how important it is to me to get to a certain weight and to maintain it. Now, we have gone, you know, out a few times. We went and got my family wanted cheesesteaks the other day. And so what I've committed to is a certain amount of fat, carbs, and protein. And I put in my little Myfitnesspal app the amount of fat, carbs, and protein I need to have, and I log my food, so I make sure that I stick with it.
Now, the primitive brain in me, when we went to go have cheesesteaks, wanted, you know, wanted a half a cheesesteak, right? But it wasn't gonna be according to my plan. So, I realized I can have a quarter of a cheesesteak. Other so good, by the way, if you're ever in Sisters, Oregon, the Philadelphia Cheesesteaks place. I know the Philly people are probably gonna be like, "Yeah, right!" But no, they're really good. But anyway, I had a quarter of a cheesesteak. It was hard in the moment. I got through it, and I was so proud of myself and that, that I'm talking about this, and it probably sounds so silly. It's real, it's a real experience for me. I was so proud of myself.
I had so much. I think I had more fun knowing that I could move through that experience with integrity and grace and saying, "I'm gonna do what I said I was gonna do" and then I would have eaten the actual cheesesteak. So, it's that difference between that instant gratification and the long-term gratification there, the long-term gratification. I swear, like every experience I've had where I've put off the instant pleasure and I have kept in mind the long-term gratification and gone there, it has been so much more fun. Wow, that was a little bit of a tangent.
So if every time you want to plan something using your prefrontal cortex to, you know, plan ahead, that part of your brain sees the vision of your life, right? And when you don't keep that vision in mind and you give in to the instant gratification or the primitive brain, then you just keep spinning in the life that you currently have. So, you know, I hear people all the time say, "Well, I just want, I love spontaneity. I just wanna go with the flow." And I truly believe that by planning ahead, you can also experience spontaneity and going with the flow. It's like sometimes flow needs structure, right? And when you're, when you are constantly spontaneous and constantly going with the flow and never planning ahead and just going like through life, I find that that can keep us spinning in a life that we currently have that we're not always so happy with.
Oh, I wish I would have made time for this. Oh, I wish I would have made time for that. I really want to get to here, and I shouldn't have done, you know, anyway. I'm feeling a little tangentially.
If you make plans and follow through on those plans, you get better and better and better at overcoming the primitive brain and that instant pleasure, instant gratification construct. And the better you get at also building integrity with yourself, strengthening your relationship with yourself, and having your own back, your own back. Alright, my friend, by adopting the strategy of making powerful decisions, planning ahead, honoring your commitments, you can absolutely maximize your productivity in a short amount of time, achieve the success that you want, all during the summer months.
Embrace the energy and the abundance of the season, see your practice moving forward, and create a fulfilling, fun, and successful summer for yourself. I'll see you in the next episode. Bye!
Are you a sound and energy medicine practitioner who wants to grow your business but don't know where to start? Maybe you're feeling confused, overwhelmed. Maybe you're feeling self-doubt. Well, I've got the perfect resource for you, and it's free. Head on over to JILLIANFALDMO.COM to get the harness your emotional awareness to grow your business roadmap. It's a roadmap that's designed just for you to turn those emotions like confusion, fear, whatever it is that's stopping you from growing your business into emotions that will actually fuel the action to grow your business.
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