Family of 7, Team of 10, Countless Clients, and the 4 Strategies Which Keep Me (Somewhat) Sane
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Fellow mompreneurs, some days I don’t know how we do it. By “it”, I don’t mean run our businesses, teams or homes. I mean maintain sanity through it all.
Take this morning, for example. My three youngest are twins who are about to be four and a five year old. They’ve reached the age where they believe they can do it all, and I want them to try, but…
“I’ll put the toothpaste on.” Drop of tube, squish with foot, toothpaste squirted all over bathroom floor;
“I can pour it, Momma!” Cats spend the rest of the day in a blissful milk coma;
“Can I play with your phone?” iPhone locked for the next hour.
And I hadn’t even been to my desk yet.
Thankfully, I know my team and systems are working behind the scenes to keep the business going while I feel another grey hair poke out above my left ear.
Yup. There’s another one.
“How does she run a business with all that going on?!” I know you may be thinking this, and I’ve had clients and prospects ask me the same.
Sometimes I wonder the same, however I also know there are times I have the ridiculous ability to focus through anything. One day, for example, my daughter Nevaeh, cracked a dozen eggs on the kitchen floor. I know it may make me seem like a bad mom, however I didn’t hear a thing because I was in the zone.
On the flip side, there are days when they are sick and only want momma, or they’ve decided they’re jungle monkeys and I’m the tree. On those days… I need help.
So here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how I keep some semblance of sanity.
Family of 7, Team of 10, Countless Clients, and the 4 Strategies Which Keep Me (Somewhat) Sane
>> Childcare
My husband is also an entrepreneur, and when the kids are home, we split child-taming responsibilities. Many days, however, the kids are in preschool.
We can’t do it all ourselves, and often it’s our own admittance of this which propels us forward.
I realized shortly after the twins were born that there was no way I would be able to grow the business when them constantly underfoot (underdesk?) Thus, the littles started daycare and (with only a couple exceptions) it’s a decision I’ve never regretted.
>> Team Awesome
I have a phenomenal team supporting me, the business and our clients. Again, we can’t do it all ourselves, and there are MANY times I wish I realized this earlier in my entrepreneurial journey. From podcast production to research, client care/support to administrative work, there are more activities in the business that I DON’T do than there are activities I DO do.
>> Standard Operating Procedures (aka SOPs)
The moment we begin documenting the work we repeatedly perform in our business, step-by-step, is the moment we give ourselves freedom. This is freedom to grow, thrive and survive, but it won’t be given when we’re constantly in the “I’ll get it done faster if I do it myself.” mode.
Let go and let your business grow. Learn how Team Awesome can help you get your SOPs set up HERE!
>> Business Systems and Automation
Team Awesome employs various systems which keep the business running, even when we’re sleeping, spending time with family or celebrating holidays. Although I don’t always personally invest in my own self-care as I should, the care of my team is of utmost importance. I routinely invest in systems which improve our performance and provide more time for… Us!
The systems which keep me (somewhat) sane include:
>> Infusionsoft
I don’t have time to be manually processing orders, segmenting opt-ins or sending podcast notifications to guests. Furthermore, I don’t want members of Team Awesome doing this manual work either. (Come on, we have much better things to do… Like sleep!)
So, we’ve eliminated HUNDREDS of hours of manual monthly work by automating it!
I’ve chatted with a ridiculous number of entrepreneurs who told me, “I’m not ready for Infusionsoft.” To me, that’s like saying, “I’m saving money to have kids.” If we wait for that, will it ever really happen?
My business couldn’t have grown the way it did if I hadn’t implemented the automation I did. Know, however, that it was a painful investment until I had it working for me and the business.
Yes, we spend hundreds of dollars a month on our Infusionsoft subscription. But if the same work was performed manually, it would be costing us thousands per month.
Want to talk about whether or not Infusionsoft™ is right for your business? Let’s chat!
>> TeamWork
Previously, Team Awesome used multiple apps for project, task and file management and team communication. It was a mess, to say the least. I was constantly distracted in Skype, couldn’t find the files I needed for tasks, and there was no way to automatically send tasks to project boards from conversations.
TeamWork may cost more than other project management systems, but I can say I gave the others a chance. I just didn’t like them.
Need an incredible, all-inclusive project management system? Sign up for TeamWork HERE!
>> ScheduleOnce
If we had to play email tag every time we tried to set up an appointment with a client, prospect or podcast guest, only a quarter of the appointments would ever happen! Online schedulers are amazing, and although not the easiest to use, ScheduleOnce is awesome.
With other tools like TimeTrade, Acuity and AppointmentCore you may be wondering why I’m using ScheduleOnce. Simply put, it integrates with Infusionsoft without needing any additional tools (like Zapier). The ease of being able to enter people into the appropriate campaigns, especially consulting clients or podcast guests, is worth a little more complicated initial set-up.
Ready to simplify scheduling? Sign-up for ScheduleOnce HERE!
>> Harvest
My parents were both accountants, but I can’t stand dealing with finances. Bookkeeping, invoicing, checkbook balancing, you name it… It drives me nuts. So when I discovered how simple Harvest is, I fell immediately in love.
Harvest allows us to track the time Team Awesome spends on client work, but it has the added bonus of retainer based projects. Previous invoicing tools did not have the capability of tracking time against retainer payments, which made invoicing a scary nightmare. As an added bonus, Harvest Integrates with both Teamwork and Quickbooks, which my team will soon be using to track expenses (cough cough, in a more effective way).
Interested in knowing more about Harvest? Click HERE!
>> LeadPages
Although we use a great WordPress theme across all our sites (Divi by ElegantThemes), we use LeadPages for the majority of our landing and sales pages. Yes, it’s an additional expense (pssst… The two year standard plan works out to $17/month!), however the time saved on the creation of the pages we need it worth it times 1000.
By the way, yes, I do realize Infusionsoft™ has it’s own landing page builder. However, their landing page builder was not around when I signed up with them, and at this point we have sooooooo much set-up in Leadpages that it’s not worth investing all the time necessary to switch them over.
Want a fast and easy landing page solution for your business? Click HERE!
>> PopUp Ally Pro
I had a very specific reason for signing up for PopUp Ally Pro. I wanted a lead box tool which would allow us to segment prospects BEFORE they opted in for the freebies we offer. PopUp Ally Pro not only offers this, but also a wide variety of lead box options, including pop-ups and embeddable lead boxes, AND they play nicely with Infusionsoft™.
Note: Segmentation is important to me because it allows all messaging which follows the opt-in to be specific for the prospect.
It was suggested to me to consider segmenting after the opt-in, by asking the segmentation question in one of the indoctrination emails, however (wisely) ignored the suggestion. It’s difficult enough to get prospects to open the first email in an indoctrination sequence, and the further in to the funnel we get, the lower the open rate.
So I did it my way… And saw up to a 70% conversion rate on segmenting pop-up! (20-40% is typically an acceptable conversion rate, so I’m THRILLED with anything higher than 30%!)
Are you interested in getting PopUp Ally Pro? Click HERE!
>> Tailwind
In 2016, I faced a major turning point in my business. I realized I was spending too much time on social media, particularly Facebook, looking for clients and also gawking over the successes of others. Anxiety and depression took over due to lack of results, until one fateful night when everything changed. Since then, I have been engaging in smart marketing and have greatly reduced the time I spend scrolling.
Smart marketing, to me, means marketing which can be automated, evergreen, and for the most part be hands (or thumbs) free. I don’t want Team Awesome or I to have to spend hours scrolling, clicking and commenting to increase our visibility.
Tailwind makes this possible. Although there is still some manual work required, Tailwind allows us to gain more visibility on Instagram and Pinterest in less time. Let’s look at Instagram, for example. The team and I can upload pictures to Tailwind for my personal as well as the Positive Productivity Instagram profiles, and then write the captions in there — with our keyboards rather than our thumbs. After the captions are written and hashtags are added (with Tailwind’s help), we can schedule posts to go out. With their auto-post feature, Tailwind takes it all from there.
Tailwind also greatly simplifies and magnifies our Pinterest performance. We can schedule pins in advance, to as many boards as we want, and also use their SmartLoop feature to repost pins in the future. In addition, their tribe feature allows us to increase visibility through the help of fellow tribe members. Basically, we share the pin of other tribe members and in return, they share ours.
Are you ready to invest in smart marketing? Get started with Tailwind HERE!
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Since 2012, I’ve learned that marketing and business automation has contributed significantly to my business’ success. I’d love to hear what you strategies have worked for you, and what you think about my strategies.
