Conquering Business Challenges: How Planning Makes the Difference
Nov 28, 2023Episode 28
Karalee Gault
Navigating the twists and turns of life and business can be overwhelming. But what if there was a simple way to pave a clear path to your desired outcome? Join me, Karalee, as we unfold the magic of planning, a powerful tool that can transform chaos into clarity. From setting realistic goals to breaking down projects into bite-sized pieces, I'll share how harnessing the power of planning can lead you to personal growth and business success.
As a podcaster, I've firsthand experienced the lifesaving role of planning. Imagine waking up sick and still ensuring your listeners don't miss out on their favorite episode - that's what staying ahead with podcast planning can do for you! We'll chat about making your thoughts organized, the art of streamlining processes, and how a little help from a mentor can go a long way. So, let's embark on this journey together, mastering planning, not just for a successful podcast, but a successful life!
Have a question, want to chat with Karalee? Send a text to (419) 721-6037 and let's chat!
BONUS, want added to the email list to not miss out on all the goodies, sign up HERE.
Navigating the twists and turns of life and business can be overwhelming. But what if there was a simple way to pave a clear path to your desired outcome? Join me, Karalee, as we unfold the magic of planning, a powerful tool that can transform chaos into clarity. From setting realistic goals to breaking down projects into bite-sized pieces, I'll share how harnessing the power of planning can lead you to personal growth and business success.
As a podcaster, I've firsthand experienced the lifesaving role of planning. Imagine waking up sick and still ensuring your listeners don't miss out on their favorite episode - that's what staying ahead with podcast planning can do for you! We'll chat about making your thoughts organized, the art of streamlining processes, and how a little help from a mentor can go a long way. So, let's embark on this journey together, mastering planning, not just for a successful podcast, but a successful life!
Have a question, want to chat with Karalee? Send a text to (419) 721-6037 and let's chat!
BONUS, want added to the email list to not miss out on all the goodies, sign up HERE.
Hello, hello, amazing humans, welcome back to Neurodivergent Bites. I am your host, Cara Lee, and today we're going to be talking about the extreme importance of planning, and I'm going to be sharing with you a story today about how I have learned and I still struggle with this. Okay, so the importance of planning is simply that you have something that you're working toward, you have a direction that you're going, which means you have clarity. Usually, okay, usually, if you have a plan, you have some clarity, and when you don't have a plan, you're normally walking around, floundering, wandering, you know, aimlessly, all over the place, right? So the plan allows you to not walk around aimlessly. You have a direction in which you are going. It's like a map, right. When you know exactly where you're going, what do you do? You open up your Google and you put in where you're going and it uses your GPS and it tells you exactly how to get there and tells you step by step directions, right? So being able to have a plan is like a map, a GPS, alright. So if you're like, oh man, there's no way I'd be able to get to, you know this place that I need to go if I didn't have my GPS. That's like me, when I drive pretty much anywhere that's outside of where I usually drive, I need a GPS. I'm reliant on that GPS. So if you're also going into business, right, you want someone that said GPS right. Either that's a mentor, right? Or a coach, or someone that has been there before you. It is helpful to have that someone to be able to help you. So, in comparison to this planning things out in your business what you're going to launch, who you're going to serve, how you're going to reach out to them you need to have a plan in order to do this right. Just like that GPS gives you step by step instructions to get to where you're going, this plan, when you break it all down, is going to be able to give you step by step instructions to get to that desired outcome. Does that make sense? I hope it makes sense, alright.
Speaker 1:
So this is a very different way of looking at a plan, in my opinion, and so being able to do that it has been game changer for me, because I've always been why shouldn't I always? But I have accumulated a has a learned skill to be very good at breaking things out into bite size pieces. When I was younger, I used to have to help my sister with math, and so I used to say all the time that I was able to explain the same thing five different ways, and that was actually accurate. I could explain a way to do a math problem five different ways because I was able to come at it from different Perspectives, and so I've been able to explain things in different ways, which has translated into adulthood and Helping you guys right, helping you amazing humans being able to break things down into bite-sized pieces, being able to explain the same concept in five different ways, has helped me monumentally. So, basically, I'm very good at taking a Concept and explaining it different ways, but also when you are just talking, bringing things out, expressing like how you're feeling or what you're trying to accomplish. I'm also very good at putting all the pieces together To make it make sense for you and then being able to break it down and give you a roadmap, that plan, to be able to Get you to that desired outcome that you desire. And if your desired outcome just it's not realistic, I'm also able to rein you back in and be like, okay, we're gonna set ourselves up to fail if we go for this desired outcome at this moment. That doesn't mean that that's not the ultimate desired outcome, but we're gonna go with little, bite-sized milestones, right, that we're gonna track to be able to start building up to that bigger desired outcome, because sometimes we like to create these really big, massive goals and, well, it doesn't always work out Okay. I've learned that if we make it a lot smaller, we have a lot more celebrations, so there's a lot more wins and we actually celebrate those wins, a lot more milestones. If we're celebrating, right, then we're able to then have a much better outcome.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so I Want to tell you my story, because that's what I said. I was gonna do my story, all right. So you guys, you might not know, but I started this podcast in June of 2023 and I decided that I was gonna come out with one new episode every single week and we were gonna throw guests in there, however Frequently I desired, right, but I was gonna have one episode every week period and it was gonna be released on Tuesdays. That's what I decided back in June and I was like I got this because I can talk. I'm good on camera or not camera, it doesn't matter. I'm really good at at just talking with few notes. Okay, so I was like okay, we're gonna start this podcast because people have been asking for it for a year.
Speaker 1:
The thing is that I don't always follow my own advice, so, in theory, if I'm telling you to start a podcast, I'm not gonna tell you to record the episode and edit it and do all the things tonight before. I'm not gonna tell you to Do that, I'm gonna tell you that you're gonna set yourself up almost for failure Every single week. If you do that, does that mean that you won't hit that deadline still and get it uploaded and available? That's not what that means, because I do that almost every single week. I record my podcast episode the night before, and I, at one point in time, I was three weeks ahead, and I'm gonna tell you I'm telling you the story intentionally, because you can still have a successful business. You can still have a successful podcast and Record the episode tonight before if you are good at recording and editing and doing all those things yourself. Okay, I am.
Speaker 1:
I have been doing this for since since I started, right, but been editing videos and all those things for even longer. So what I'm saying here is, though, is that there was one week Well, I should say there was one month in there I don't remember what month it was, but I was like you know what I think it was July because I was gonna be in Florida On a business trip and so I needed to have the episodes recorded beforehand. So I wanted to make sure that the episode the week before when I was prepping for the trip, the week of and in the week After, we're all recorded beforehand, because I didn't want to have to have that on my plate While I was trying to get ready for this trip and then recovering from this trip, right. And so I got three weeks ahead. I actually think I got four weeks ahead. I think I actually created another one, which ended up being a blessing, and so I was able to then quote unquote be ahead. But my brain was like you're ahead, and Because you're ahead, you don't have to record this week. You, your head, you're fine, you can just wait.
Speaker 1:
Well, what ended up happening? And I'm sharing this because this is where you end up having a better plan in place to prevent this so I didn't record it. I got one back straight to that Monday night after I had already had all of those done and I was ahead and I didn't record anymore. So I was back to recording the Monday before, maybe a couple of days before, but it was not far in advance and no matter how I explained it, it was not far in advance, okay. So I'm telling you this because I still, to this day, I'm recording this, if you're watching this, as this releases yesterday at 7.30 pm.
Speaker 1:
Okay, I could have done it weeks ago, I could have done it yesterday, I could have done it, you know, whatever it doesn't matter, but it's the day before, like, this episode releases less than 24 hours from now and I'm recording it now. And exactly why I'm having that? I'm talking about this part because I have noticed that it has started to become an issue. Why? Because I woke up this morning and I was sick. I am feeling much better now, thank goodness, but there's no way. If I was down for the countless entire day, what do I do? I could repurpose something for tomorrow's podcast. I could not post a podcast, but I have downloads, I have people counting on me, right? I could do a lot of different things. I do have Plan B, and that's repurposing something else I've already recorded and maybe adding a little intro-outro type of thing. Maybe, I don't know.
Speaker 1:
But the reason I've finally decided I am going to record podcasts very far ahead, at least four weeks ahead, is because I want to have weeks where I don't have to record podcasts. I want to have weeks where I can just, you know, have them off, and it's not. I want to be always be that ahead, regardless of there's a holiday or if I have a trip or something. I just want to have it be ahead period. And in order to do that, I have to have those things planned out. So an example for this would be step one is that okay, what do you need to do in order to have a plan for the podcast? And so that's the question.
Speaker 1:
Now I'm going to take it a bit farther and I'm going to be like okay, well, I need to have a place where I write down or type out right, keep track of Mine would be in ClickUp what the episodes are going to be about, okay, when they're releasing, when they need to be recorded by things like that, and so, inside ClickUp, I would then go and click up and I would keep that running talent. And then I need to put deadlines in place for myself. You need to have X recorded each week. Right, you need to have it recorded by this date in order to hit your goal of being four weeks ahead. Okay, and you also saw that I created that goal. How far ahead do I want Now? Four weeks ahead is actually a big, hefty goal, especially if you're just starting out, but I know I can do it with this new software that I use. I know that I can do it with a lot of different things that I use, the systems I've put into place. I now am able to do those things.
Speaker 1:
Another thing that you could do is have an external accountability of some sort. Okay, whether that be an agency that you're hiring to edit the podcast, whether that be someone like a VA that you're having do that with somebody else that is keeping you accountable to do a thing by a certain date, or you're going to have to do it yourself, right, so I don't have that external thing right now. However, fingers crossed that that will be in the works here really soon, that I'm going to have someone be able to edit my podcasts, my YouTube videos, all those fun things, okay. So that is the next external accountability that I am willing to put money into, because it is going to make me be more ahead, because when other people are waiting on you and they in order for them to do the job that they need to do, your brain perceives it as something that's more urgent than when there isn't. That Okay For me, having the podcast recorded doesn't become urgent until the night before and Probably the evening.
Speaker 1:
To be honest with you, you know it's on my radar but it still is an urgent Like I'll like put other things before it because it's not quote-unquote urgent Yet. And then suddenly I'm like, oh crap, I have to record it, and then I have to edit it, and then I have to create the upload it, and I have to upload it to YouTube as well, and then I have to do this and I have to do that and you start going oh my gosh, it's gonna take a while. Now I do have this down to a science it's about an hour, of hour and a half at most, depending on the length of the episode, but really it's about an hour from start to finish, and that's because I I can freely talk. It's not necessarily scripted, so I don't have the prep time, just the idea part, and then I have to record it. So the length of the recording right whatever, however many minutes that is, and then you have to edit it, depending on the software used, depends on how fast that is right. The software I've invested in it's called Riverside. That has allowed me to actually edit faster, which has been game changer, and that also helps me get some Some reels from it as well. So that is also faster that.
Speaker 1:
So I can also repurpose things a little bit more. So I have to upload it to Buzzsprout, which is my podcast provider, and Create the cover art and all that stuff, schedule it. Then I have to upload it to YouTube, which then putting the intro and outro on it and uploading it to YouTube and scheduling that as well and creating the cover art. For that I have templates, I have a system, I have a process. I have all the things mapped out, figured out to where. Now I'm to the point of how do I streamline it, how to make it even more efficient, what systems or tools do I need to invest in to make it more efficient? Which is why I invested in Riverside and now to record things a lot faster. I'm able to share it with more people, I'm able to hire someone to come in and edit it a little bit simpler all Around. All these things are so much easier.
Speaker 1:
So back to point one of why is planning important? Because I woke up this morning sick. I was not feeling great and I was in bed until 1 pm and Then my husband helped me put with other things. I did the bare minimum and then I ended up feeling a lot better, which is why I waited so long to record this podcast. But what if I couldn't do it? Right, that's what we need to really think on. I need to have a plan in place for being ahead. So if you do get sick, you are already ahead. Right, you already have things planned out. So to run you through the steps here one more time is that you need to ask yourself the right questions what do I need to make this happen? And brainstorm it all down, right. And then you need to go. You break it down even farther, right.
Speaker 1:
Where are you keeping track of the episode names, what you're talking about? And having them recorded earlier, maybe bringing on someone to edit them, but being my goal was being four weeks ahead, right Before they air. Have it recorded? Those are the different things. Do I want to do it all in one day? Do I want to record four episodes in one day? You know? Do I want to do two one week and then two the next week? And that still gives me four weeks ahead. But you know how do you want to break it down?
Speaker 1:
There's so many questions, and so if you are someone that, whatever you're talking about, whether that be for a content plan, whether that be for a podcast recording, whether that be for how in the world do I keep track of my tasks, whether that be like I just need a freaking plan period? I don't even know what that looks like. You know, whatever questions you're asking yourself, like I would absolutely love to be able to see how I can support you and being able to make this simpler for yourself. Ok, there are so many things that you can do to make planning easier and to make actually taking action even simpler when you have something to start with, which is that plan. But sometimes creating that plan is difficult. It just depends on if that's a strength or not, or that's something you really struggle with. Like there's so many different things. And if you even have the time to create the plan, what's realistic, what's your capacity Right, what your energy and time look like. That's what your capacity looks like. So many questions, and if you're like I, would love to just be able to sit down with someone and go through that.
Speaker 1:
I have two options for you, and they both begin with just heading to the show notes. You can click on the links, you can check them out. Number one is a capacity club. This is all about the planning. It's specifically all about the planning, one on one and even help supporting you with system implementation to an extent, ok. Option number two is a VIP week, which really breaks it down, and the VIP week is really structured toward your system implementation like hardcore, and so we're really going to be able to help put those systems into place together in a way that works for your brain. Ok, that is the thing we're creating systems that work for your brain, not against it. So if either of those things sound amazing right, being able to have one on one support, either implementing the systems, walking through what you need to do what's the what's that roadmap look like, right for your systems? Or the planning part right, what does that roadmap look like for your planning? And these two things can go hand in hand, ok, so we have the capacity club, which is the planning, the VIP week, which is the systems, implementation together. All right, so all of them are one on one. I love one on one. So much simpler for me to be able to customize the systems to work for your brain when I know you very, very well and we have a conversation. So go ahead and check those out. I sent me a DM or an email and I would be happy to get back with you about what would work best for you. Ok, so you can find all those things in the show note.
Speaker 1:
I am going to make a pact with you, live right now. I am going to record this week for podcasts so I can be four weeks ahead and I can. I'm recording them. That's the step. That's going to be four weeks ahead, not necessarily editing them all. Ok, just to be clear. But I'm recording for podcasts this week so I can be four weeks ahead on the recording process and then I can take all of December off from recording any podcasts. All right, that would be a lot of fun. What in it? Let's hope it works out really well.
Speaker 1:
Ok, as long as I'm feeling better, the rest of the week. If I'm not feeling better, the rest of the week. You know what we're still going to do the four podcasts. We might have to move it because my capacity might look different this week, which is great, which is why you should be four weeks ahead, or at least a week ahead, right? But there is my declaration here that I'm going to be four weeks ahead before the end of December, easily. I'm going to be four weeks ahead in recording of these podcasts, so that way I can have things more efficient and I can have a week where I don't record if I'm not feeling it like this week. Ok, all right, I hope to hear from you. Have an amazing day and if you found this podcast super helpful, totally leave a review as well. So bye for now.
