33. Quarantine Productivity Hacks for Online Entrepreneurs

There's no right way to run a business through a pandemic, just try your best to focus on what’s most important and give yourself a lot of grace.

As we figure out this new way to work, I thought it might be helpful to hear how others are navigating life, business and family.

I’ve rallied up 5 of my online entrepreneurial friends to share how they’re showing up during this time to offer productivity and time management tips for running business, while keeping your sanity through quarantine.

In this episode, you’ll hear from:

• Brittany Krystle - Personal Branding Growth Expert, Host of Beyond Influential Podcast
• Emily Reagan - Mom of 4, Military Spouse, Digital Course Creator, Marketing Unicorn
• Meg Wheeler - Business & Financial Coach for Creative Online & Service based Entrepreneurs
• Scarlett Cochran - Wealth Expert and co-founder of One Big Happy Life
• Tarzan Kay - Email Marketing Queen & Launch Expert

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Transcript

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spk_1:   0:00
You're listening to Finding Your It Factor - Episode 33. Today, I've rallied up a few of my favorite online entrepreneur friends, and we are sharing our productivity in time management tips for running your business and keeping your sanity through this quarantine. Here we go.

spk_4:   0:19
Have you ever wondered how some people just seem to have a way with words? They have this spark that lights you up when you're near them. They have the It factor. And while most people think it's something that only a few are born with, I believe that you can find it so it can become your superpower to grow your business. It's about you bringing your brand to life by becoming a magnetic communicator in person and on camera, showing up with confidence, authenticity and inspiration. So are you ready to become magnetic? I thought so. I'm Heather Sager, and I'd like to welcome you to Finding Your It Factor.

spk_1:   1:10
Well, hey Friend, welcome back to another episode Heather here. Again, recording another episode from my house, which is totally normal. I record all episodes from my house, but the difference is we haven't really had a chance to leave our house as much these last couple weeks halfway.  I I had this realization that for some, life has drastically changed. Being quarantined, social distancing, whatever level of isolation you're in right now. It looks a little different for everyone, depending on what part of the world you're in, which region of the U. S.  you're in, rural or suburban? Whatever it looks like. All of us have a little bit of a different experience going on. When I was thinking about how things have changed in my house having an online business, it's still online. So for me, business has been mostly running as usual, with the big exception that my kids are home with me all the time and it's completely changed the way I work. What's interesting is there's been some really beautiful things that have come from that, but also it's It's been really challenging. I could only imagine that you are also experiencing some change, whether that's huge, drastic change in your world or minor inconveniences. Things were different. I wanted to be able to share some insight around getting stuff done when our schedules are different or we have littles at home or you just can't leave the house. And I thought, it's nice to hear somebody else's perspective. Sometimes that someone doesn't have a life like ours. For me, for example, maybe you don't have young kids at home. If I were to share with you some tips and strategies that might not necessarily be relevant. I wanted to have an episode designed about talking about this current way that were needing to work and run our businesses. I decided, why not call on some of my friends. Many of you who you've heard from before on the show and I ask them, hey I want to do this episode to help listeners with stay in focused and in the right headspace at home, but also really, practically speaking, how the hell do we get the work done in this environment?  Let's offer some practical tips and share how we're coping with this new schedule and what's working for us. I brought on five guests today, and I wanted to give them the opportunity to share some words of wisdom with you and some insights around how they're managing their business right now, managing their homes and their family, in hopes that one, you know you're not alone. Two, maybe there's something that you can pick up that will help you with running your business and managing your time with your family. I'll say this with the big caveat that when I originally had the vision for this episode, for me, not a lot had changed. To be perfectly honest, I've been very fortunate living here in a bubble where I can have my kids at home and I do run my business online. Yeah, I have used a little bit of screen time, a lot of bit of screen time in the afternoon to distract my five year old while my baby sleeping so that I could get work done and do stuff like this right now, like record a podcast. While things have been on inconvenience and I'm out of toilet paper and we've shopped differently and things air surreal. I sent out this no to my friends to have them provide some input. In the time I sent them the ask and then they send me the recordings in a big thing happened for me and my family. My youngest kid, Levi, who I talked about before he's  turned two the time this episode comes out. He'll be two tomorrow. We call him Baby Tank because he is one husky child. So adorable. He had an accident the other night where he and his brother were eating ice cream. Baby tank was kind of annoyed that he plowed through his ice cream so quickly and wanted to get some more from his brother and got into an argument and got mad, and he fell over backwards, off of the kitchen stool he was sitting on. Now this is not a normal thing. This kid climbs and falls all the time. But this time was different because how he fell, he fell on his arm and completely shattered his elbow, which led to the most dramatic 24 hours that we've had in a really long time. It led to a call to 911. It led to a first responder team, a giant fire truck and an ambulance coming to our house to us having to talk to them on the front porch because first responders aren't allowed to come into your homes at this point. Led to a conversation where they shared with us that they had just transferred a COV-ID patient to the hospital that morning and feared for us riding in that same ambulance. In full fire gear, completely covered in whatever they had to do to keep their faces away from other people. They help strap my screaming two year old with a twisted, very dislocated and broken arm into his car seat so his daddy and I could drive him to the hospital. My five year old ran to the neighbor's house and got distracted by blueberries and games and any other things that my neighbors could do to keep him safe and distracted. We got the hospital and he had X rays, and it turns out it wasn't dislocated. It was completely shattered, and he needed emergency surgery. Now, I tell you all of this, not because I want you to feel bad for me because my kid had surgery. It was scary. 100%. It was a scary thing. If you have kids, you know, watching your kids go through hard things and be hurt is one of the heaviest things on your heart. I wanted to share this with you today because I had that moment at the hospital where I realized that I've been pretty distance around distanced, around what's happening with the COV-ID virus. Where it's one thing to read about stories and articles online and hear about how people are affected and even here and see the tweets and the blogger posts of people who were actually fighting through it right now. But there's something about it when you read about strangers on the Internet that you're able to keep yourself a safe distance, as we should for our own mental health and wellness. I had this moment walking through the hospitals where it was so eerily quiet. You're required to wear face masks. All of the doctors had faced mask all the time. As someone with a hearing loss, I could not see their mouth. Therefore, I really couldn't understand what they were trying to communicate to me about my son and needing surgery. You can tell the level of exhaustion and, quite frankly, sadness and frustration of these medical professionals because they could not help patients in the way that they wanted. These were patients, like mine, who had nothing to do with the virus but everything to do with it because they couldn't actually sit there next to them and be close and do their jobs.  I had this realization that things were so different and my eyes were opened up so wide that it just got really real. Though fast forward, Baby Tank had surgery. He's totally fine. We're home now. He's napping right now. But just before naptime, he was running around one arm in a cast in a slaying with his brother running all over the house. They're having a great time together. He's doing fine. He's on Tylenol. He feels great. I share this because the original tenth of this episode was to share with you tips and strategies around how to manage working from home with this new schedule. But I also wanted to share with you today that I hope that this episode serves as a reminder, one, to have compassion to understand that other people are experiencing this different than you. Other people have different experiences, different levels of fear, different levels of not fear their their distance from it. They don't necessarily have inside of what's happening, and maybe that's their level of protection, and that's okay. We all can experience this in our own separate ways. There's no right or wrong way, to to do the pandemic. There's no right or wrong way for us to to run our businesses.  I think ultimately you have to make a decision around how you want to show up, how you want to protect your own headspace, how you want to operate your business for you and your team and your customers during this time. Any tips and strategies that we share today, you have to apply the filter of, is this feel good for you and this is an alignment for you. I hope that you'll find some great value and insight from this. Let me tell you who you're going to hear from today. First, you'll hear from my good friend Britney Krystal. You might remember her as the personal reigning expert that I brought on in Episode 19 here on the show. Love her insight. You're gonna love hearing from her. Next up, we have Emily Reagan. She's one of my students in Speak Up to Level Up program, and Oh my goodness, she's a mom of four, military spouse. She's got a lot of things going on and an incredible business. You're going to love her perspective for sure, being a mom, running a business and having a team. Next, you're gonna hear from Meg Wheeler, who you'll remember as the financial expert I brought on in Episode 10. She's followed by Tasha Cochran, who you might know from the very successful YouTube channel One Big Happy Life. Both Meg and Tasha are great friends. Also, students of my Speak Up to Level Up program. Lastly, you'll definitely remember the one and only Tarzan Kay. She's the 'Email Empress' was featured in Episode 24. We had conversations around getting more visible in your business. I hope that their insight is helpful for you. And please, please be sure to connect with these women if they resonate with you and you want to build that sense of community at this time where a lot of us are feeling isolated and alone. Connect on Instagram. Each of them share their handles They're also in the show notes here. Let's connect and I would love to hear from you. How are you managing your time and balancing all the things or none of the things during this pandemic? We're in this together, so let's get through it together.

spk_0:   12:11
Hello, I'm Brittany Krystle. I'm a personal brand and growth expert and hosted the Beyond Influential podcast. I helped busy entrepreneurs and business owners build a brand online that get you the real life results you want. I really want to thank Heather for inviting me. It is an honor to be able to share any insights that I've learned that might be of value to you in your business. So for context, the majority of my business was online and remote. Now, given current circumstances, it is 100% online and remote for the foreseeable future. Some of you might relate to this is online business owners. The reason I specifically designed my business this way was so I could have the freedom to work from anywhere and flexibility in my schedule and control of my future. But I'm gonna be very honest here. I'm very comfortable working from home. But I have definitely been struggling with not being able to leave. If you started your business for freedom and flexibility right now, you might be feeling anything but free and needing to be a whole lot of flexible. Which is why, before I give any kind of advice, I just want to say that no one's business is business as usual. Everyone has adjustments to make, whether it's changes to your marketing, offerings, your physical workspace, schedule, your workout routine, diet, all of the above and more. There's just so much change happening across the board for everyone at scale. It's unreasonable to expect yourself to be feeling a certain way or feel like you need to be doing something in particular. With that being said, now, we can talk about being productive during this time because if business is not business as usual. We can't expect what we were doing before to necessarily work right now. Since everyone operates differently and productivity tips are specific to each person, what works for me might not be what works for you. Here's what I do think is true across the board. Productivity is a duality on one side. Productivity really is a mental game. It is really hard to be productive if you aren't taking care of yourself first, and that includes your physical and mental health.  I'm gonna be very up front with you. This is something I've really had to work on since I started working for myself. I have a very difficult time shutting off for my business because I love what I do and it's even harder when you live where you work. There have been times where I've just felt mentally and emotionally exhausted and burnt out. That's what it took to actually get me to make the changes that I needed to make. As hard as it is, it's important to figure out what stepping back looks like for you right now, because it is going to be different for everyone.You need to be able to turn off your work brain and relax. I know I can't show up the way I want to or need to for my team or the people who rely on me.,if I am not taking care of myself. It's the whole put your own oxygen mask on first principle. You can start meditating or could be a simple as making sure that you go outside for 20 minutes a day, or even just the hot shower. You don't need a whole, you know, journaling routine. Just as long as whatever it is, does not feel directly related to work. It's important to figure out what that is now. Self awareness in general is a critical part of optimizing your productive time. As you're figuring out what helps you take your mind away from work, you shall also be paying attention to when you really do feel like working and when you have a lot of energy to focus.  This is gonna help you take advantage of the other side of productivity, which is creating the system, structures and routines that work with your energy levels. I know for myself I work best in the earlier half of the day, so when I do have work that needs creative energy and focus, I really have to make sure it happens during that time. Once that window has passed, I've been really strict with myself about it. I know it is just better to wait until the next morning to finish it, and I hold myself to that. I know this isn't always possible, but the more that you can protect the windows of time, where you know you are the most productive, the better. Speaking of things that might not be possible, identify and write out the top 3 to 6 things I want to get done each day and then pick one of those things that if all else fails, and that's all I get done that day, I feel like I've accomplished something. Everything else on my list is just a bonus. Another thing that I found helpful after writing out my priorities is physically writing down five things I'm grateful for. It really helps me keep perspective that I don't have to work on my business, I get to build my dream business. The more we can remind ourselves of what we do have right now, the better. I hope you find this helpful. If you want to hear more about building a brand business or influence online, or you just want to say hi, you can find me on Instagram @brittanykrystle, B-R-I-T-T-A-N-Y-K-R-Y-S-T-L-Eor head to brittanykrystle.com, and you'll find links to everything you might need there.

spk_4:   16:57
Hey there, I'm Emily Reagan. I am a mama for a military spouse, and I'm also an online entrepreneur. I have my own course, and I also do digital marketing for my clients. So my at workdays just got cut down from about eight solid hours a day to probably two or less. Now that I'm home with four kids, I'm trying to balance the home school, which has been a little bit of a mess with our school district. It's just really been frustrating because they take over my devices. I can't work when I want to, and I can't count on the recording time. or the quiet time , or the brain time when I need it. I have definitely had to adapt. I wish I could say I did the whole Rachel Hollis thing and had this wonderful morning where I got up at 4 a.m. and got everything done before the kids wake up. But my kids were young, 10, 8, 5, and 3. They wake up the second they hear me. So not much is getting done right now, and I'm trying to be okay with that. The beauty of this whole Corona virus shut down is probably I am really forced to prioritize my time. I cannot work on every little thing that I want to in my business. And when I sit down, I have to get my top priorities done like no questions asked. I do not have time to dawdle, especially with the lack of resources and three kids needing to get online to do their work. That's been really hard. The bright side of this is I have two women on my team who are making everything possible. One of them has older kids. One of them has no kids. They're the sole reason that I am able to keep my weekly blog's going, that I was able to do a flash sale this week, that I can keep my Facebook group organized. They're keeping me on track and they have freed up so much time. I'm used to doing a lot of things on my own. I like to. I'd like to do the tech. For instance, even my own IGTVs, I do not have time to edit those anymore. I just hired somebody to help me out with those over the next couple weeks because I can't get it all done. Really, I have to coordinate with my husband. He's working at home now. He has conference calls. I have Facebook Lives. I'm being very forgiving If somebody walks in during the middle of alive. I'm trying to set the kids up for success and have a routine. But honestly, to get things done, I am utilizing the movie hour after lunch. I can plan on getting a little bit of work done.  I also can get work done in the morning when the little kids watch a little bit of TV. Yeah, so I'm using screen time to get things done. I don't really have the brain function right now to work in the evenings like I used to, and like I said, I can't get up early in the morning to get things done. I'm just trying to be forgiving and coordinate with my husband when I really need to get something done so he could take the kids out for a walk or take them out into the backyard. My best advice right now is to stay positive. I look at this like a last minute TDY or deployment where my husband has to leave. I'm gonna use it as a gift of time. I'm gonna see it as a gift of time with my kids. Extra time to spend with them, to get one on one time. Although I struggle with being a workaholic and wanting to move forward and get things done and have tangible results, I'm learning to stop. Bake cookies with them, play Lego, go outside on walks and just move at a slower pace. These four kids are in school 830 to 5 every day because of our best system. They're having a much needed break. They're getting time outside on their bikes when the weather is good and I am just trying to be relaxed. I think if you have a positive attitude about it and see the good and any kind of negative situation, good will come from that situation. That's how you get through life. Find something positive, use this time to make yourself better, to get something done, get organized work on a big goal, start a big book, do something that's good for you. That's all I have. I wish you all the best. I know how hard it is. Feel free to reach out to me on Instagram @emilyreaganpr. I have a lot of fun over there, and you can watch me build Lego with my kids.

spk_5:   21:22
Hey Friend, it's Meg Wheeler, business and financial coach for Creative Online and Service space Entrepreneurs. I would love to share my productivity tips with you for navigating this COV-ID 19 Pandemic. This has been quite the life shift for myself in my family. I normally work from home, but my husband is not. He's home now. Our three year old son is now home. He's normally in daycare five days a week, so this has been quite the change. But I'm still trying to get some things done, even with everything that's going on. The first thing I'm doing is that I'm choosing just one thing every single day to focus on. I know I've got a lot more I need to get done. But if I focus on just one thing, I find that I can usually get it accomplished in the day and then I feel really productive, and I'm not so hard on myself after that. The other thing that I would recommend is to be flexible. It's not worth it to try to fight, to get the work done. If I'm sitting here trying to work on something and my son really wants to hang out or really wants to show me something, I don't fight it. I just go with it. They cherish the moment. I know that there will be plenty of other moments where I can come back and do that work, and I really just kind of enjoy the time with my family. Those are my two tips that how I'm getting through. But here's the thing I would say is, do not beat yourself up. This is an unprecedented time for everyone. We're not gonna be as productive as we were before and you know what, that's okay. We're gonna do our best. We're gonna do the things that absolutely need to get done and the other stuff we can push off until everything goes back to normal.  I would just focus on what you need to do to stabilize your business, to stabilize your life, to get through the days totake care of your mental health and your self care, because that is so incredibly important right now. And just frankly, to get through this healthy and safe. Those are my tips. I hope you're hanging in there and doing well know that we will get through this, that we will be better on the other side of this, that our businesses will be stronger. We will be stronger for having gone through this experience. Just know that I'm rooting for you. If you want to follow me, you can find me on Instagram @mekwheeler. See you soon!

spk_1:   23:54
Hi, my name is Tasha Cochran, and I am a wealth expert for people who like nice things. Three weeks ago, my family of four started self isolating. That's me, my 18 year old daughter, Alexis, our four year old, Reeves and my partner, Joseph, who is still working full time. While we are super lucky in that we live a house with plenty of space so that we're not on top of each other, and we live in a neighborhood where we can get outside and take a walk and still maintain social distancing. It has been a challenge, especially trying to continue to run my online business. While Joseph is working full time, Alexis is switching over to classes online and then trying to do online preschool with a four year old. The first thing that I did to really help me cope with what was going on was just to give myself permission to do nothing. For me, that is a total challenge because I am normally like, What is my next goal? What's the next thing that I'm pushing towards? To give myself permission to just step back and not have a next thing, to just veg out on the couch for a few days, enjoy being with my family and not feel like I automatically needed to go into, 'let's fix this' mode was just such a gift for my mental health during this time. The second thing that I did was to recognize and be grateful for this opportunity. The opportunity to be at home as a family and spend this much time together, especially with an older child who is about to go away to college when this all ends. I just had to step back and say, Wow, I am lucky that I actually get to spend this much more time with my partner, with my children. And yes, I wish it was under better circumstances, but I'm all about silver linings. The third thing that I did that really helped was to play a little mind game with myself and to say, 'Well, what if the way things are right now, what if that is what life will be from now on?' Instead of spending my time wishing that things were different or remembering the way that things were, what if I just accepted that this is my life? And so how do I want to show up in this life, assuming that this is what life is. The minute I started accepting that this is what my life would be like for the foreseeable future, it allowed me to let go of the tension and the frustration and stress and just focus on living my life. Those three things have really helped me work through the tension and stress that I was feeling when all of this started to come to a place of acceptance and yes, returned to productivity's so that I could continue to work in my business while enjoying this new life that I have at home with my family. When I talk about personal finance, I always say for people to remember that life is the thing that happens between your goals and now is no different. Because, yes, we are in a major upheaval right now. Life is still happening in between all of this turmoil. I always encourage people to find your joy and show up in your life the way that you want to live it, no matter what is happening around you. I would love to connect with you over on Instagram @onebighappylife. Of course, over on YouTube. We will all get through this separate but together.

spk_1:   27:59
Hey I'mTarzan Kay, email marketing expert and writer of some of the best e mails around. Right now I am one of the lucky ones because I have a full time child care. My husband is a stay at home dad. On the other hand, I am responsible for making all the money. I also have two full time employees and another one who is pretty much full time. Of course, my own salary to take care of. So I have got to keep the lights on. I'm in the middle of a launch right now, which I have been working on since December.  We suspended all of our promotions to promote this one product right now, which means we were really counting. We are really counting on it to make money for us so we can keep the lights on. There's some pressure. And of course, the climate is very unusual, to say the least. We don't know what's gonna happen. One thing that I am working on right now and I think is really important for all of us business owners is surrender. I think we have to find our own way to do that and even find her own definition of surrender. But for me, it is surrendering to what is and what will be. We don't know how the promotion is gonna go, but I surrender. I am doing my best. I'm doing what I can, and I'm just gonna resolve to be okay with whatever happens. For those of you who are scrambling to get things done and feeling like you're wishing that you could get more work done or that you could make more sales, I invite you to think about the idea of surrender. Surrender is different from self care. We need to do the self care too. We got to take care of ourselves, but even surrender. I can't take a shower today because things are crazy. Surrender. It's okay. Those are my words of encouragement. I do want to say, given that I'm recording this on Day two of this promotion we've been working on since December. It is a $3000 product and people are buying. People are buying it. Our sales are slightly lower than our pre-corona virus projections, which we knew they would be. But people are absolutely buying, and not only are people buying, they're excited about spending money. So keep going. Keep selling. I know it's a weird time to be selling, but It doesn't help for you to shut down your business right now. If you can keep going, keep going. And if you got to take care of the kids either way, surrender

spk_2:   31:03
Alright, Friend. Well, I hope that this different perspectives and insights from Britney and Emily and Tarzan and Tasha and Meg have been helpful for you. Helpful in maybe giving you some tips, but also just a reminder that we're all going through this in our own individual ways. And it's okay to scale back what you're working on. It's okay to ramp up what you're working on. It's okay to use this time to learn and grow. It's okay to use this time just for space and reflection and playing Legos with your kids. There's no right way to do the pandemic. The only way is just to make sure that you're focused on the things that are most important to you and you give yourself a lot of grace.  

spk_2:   31:47
If you enjoy this episode, please be sure to subscribe so you can hear future episodes and it would mean the world if you could help us get this episode into the hands of more online entrepreneurs. So, please, please, please share this episode on social media. Be sure to tag me and any of my friends that I add on here today if their message took out with you. Appreciate you so much and I'm looking forward for you coming back next week because next week's episode, I'm going to continue the parade of bringing some of the incredible friends I have in this space onto the show to bring you their expertise. Next week you're going to hear from my friend Melanie Dyann Howe, as we talk about live streaming strategies for your business, specifically different show formats that you can use for live streams like Facebook Live so I can't wait to share that one with you. It is a great one. I will see you again next week. Same time, same place,

spk_4:   32:49
guys. Thanks so much for listening to finding your it factor. And, hey, if you have a top coming up, you have to check out my free resource. It's called Nail. Your Next talk. 10 must ask questions before taking the stage so you can show up as an authority and turn that talking to future business. These are the questions that I use myself to prepare for my life talks, and they're

spk_3:   33:11
going to help you ask the right

spk_2:   33:13
questions of the person who booked you for the event. So the meeting planner or the

spk_4:   33:17
client and it's going to help you serve your audience to the best way possible. It's gonna help you anticipate potential tack or 80 snags. Turn the Q and a time into a strategic place for content and make this speaking opportunity a lead generator for your business. So go get it Now. What are you waiting for? Its over at heather. Sager dot com forward slash 10 questions.