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Today, we're talking about your fall freedom plan. You may have thought you just had freedom in the summer, wanting to stay in July and August forever. But we're coming into fall, September, a fresh start. It's time to reclaim that leader within you.  If you’re lucky you got to be a bit of a follower over the summer with others making the plans. I'm hoping you were able to balance both productivity and fun. (If you grabbed the Summer Productivity Playbook, it would have helped you to be balanced, and it’s good for any time of year. If you haven’t yet, grab your access to the mini course here.) Summer Shows Us Where We've Been Surviving Summer often shows us where we've been surviving. We finally get a break. A lot of things finish up. Maybe sports are slowing down or finishing, volunteering commitments wind down, networking groups take a hiatus. There's often a lot more breathing room when you don't have everything happening at once. First, celebrate that you made it through summer! Whether it was hard with kids at home, bouncing from place to place, or maybe you didn't really get a summer break and worked through the whole thing. Now you get a chance to lead on purpose. The Back-to-School Energy Yes, we have the back-to-school chaos that happens. Even if you're not part of it because you're not going back to school or don't have kids, there's still that energy in the air. All the back-to-school sales, the streets getting busier when school starts. It's a time when everybody talks about fresh starts and renewed ambition. I want you to tap into that energy, but pay attention to any lingering burnout. If you didn't get a chance to have a proper summer break, you might still have some burnout lingering, or maybe you feel like you need a vacation from your vacation. That's totally possible, too. The Fresh Start Myth September can feel like a fresh start or give you pressure of a fresh start, but there's a myth here. Just because it's a new season doesn't mean you have to start fresh, unless you want that and you're going to make space for it to happen. Too many leaders just jump into fall saying, "Let's go! Let's go!" without resetting. I did another blog about having a look at what you're keeping, what you're cutting, and what you're creating, I encourage you to check that out. But as a leader, you need to jump into fall only after resetting. Are you planning from the intention of "This is actually what I want to happen in the fall" or are you planning from burnout? Where are you right now? Are you really ready to plan with intention, or do you not have the bandwidth to make that happen? It's okay to wait to fully jump in and make sure you get the rest you need so you can have that fresh start and tap into the excitement of the new season. Your Three-Area Fall Freedom Plan  There's inner work that can happen as part of your fall freedom plan. Let's look at three key areas: 1. Time What does freedom look like in your calendar? For me, I don't like to book meetings, coaching clients, or sessions until 10 AM. That's because the chaos of my kids going to school ends just before nine, and that gives me time to ease into my day, do my devotion, have a walk in the forest, or go to Pilates twice a week in the morning. What would ideal freedom look like for you? Not just "maybe I could do this" realistic thinking, but really, what's the ideal? Then work backwards from there. Ask yourself: Is your schedule serving you, or are you serving it? Do you feel like you're running from one thing to another or flipping from meeting to meeting without any space for yourself? 2. Team Are you supported in a way that actually lifts you up? Does your support help you reach your goals and move the needle toward time freedom, work freedom, and financial freedom? Or is it just keeping your head above water, just enough support, but not getting the results you need? (If that’s the case, reach out to me and let’s talk about how my program Virtual Assistant Made Easy can help you.) If you have better people on your team, it's going to give you freedom to work on high-impact, high-quality, high-income-producing tasks. That's what I want for you in Q4. 3. Energy Where do you leak energy? Look at your upcoming calendar or think back to April and May (since June might have slowed down). Are you leaking energy with a person you don't want to work with, a client, a project, volunteering commitment? It might even be scrolling social media. On the flip side, what's trying to come back in? Remember, a lot of things take a break for summer, like networking groups, volunteering commitments, and sports. What's trying to come back in that you need to create space for, and which things do you just need to let go of? Focus on Being, Not Just Doing By examining your time, team, and energy, you'll have a better idea of how to create more freedom. This is a time for personal reflection, not just diving into list-checking mode. It's about tuning into your own alignment this fall with where your resonance is, rather than dissonance. It's less about the logistics of what you're doing and more about who you're being and how it feels. I want you to always feel like you can just breathe, that there's space for you. There's a difference between filling your calendar with busy work and fueling your mission. You have a mission. You have an impact you want to make in the world. Avoid the Burnout Warning Light We don't want the burnout warning light coming on before you've even really started. You want to be able to end the year strong. If you're already burnt out before fall begins, your system isn't broken. It's just begging for a rest. Have a rest before you say yes to bringing everything back in. You're also out of practice. Over the summer, you've had a slower pace, and now you can't just go from zero to 60. You don't want to white-knuckle your way through, thinking "I'll just get through this until Thanksgiving," and then white-knuckle it again until Christmas. That's not how we want to finish the year. Create Something Sustainable and Soul-Led Instead, let's make something that feels stronger, more sustainable, and more soul-led. When you're in resonance and alignment with your soul, you're going to have more energy. That's a given. It might mean passing things off so you can stay in that great place and have more time freedom, work freedom, and financial freedom.  What Resonates with You? What from today's message most resonates with you? Is it looking at your time, team, and energy to figure out where your fall freedom plan will come from? Is it focusing on being rather than just doing? Maybe you are realizing you actually need a rest before starting fall. Just because society is pushing that September means "hit the ground running" it doesn't mean you have to follow that timeline. You get to lead your own life. You get to decide and then lead as that confident, rested, soul-led leader come fall. I'm curious what has resonated with you. Feel free to email me at [email protected] or send me a message on your favorite social platform. Remember, we have Virtual Assistant Made Easy where we can match you with one of our vetted, experienced VAs so they can take a load off and give you the freedom you deserve. Until next time, stay dynamic!
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Do you know that there's a moment every August where you either reclaim your role as a leader or get swallowed by your own to-do list? I've been seeing women straddling these two energies: control and capacity. Which are you going to choose?  Two Competing Energies: Control vs. Capacity Control means doing everything, covering everything, and being on top of everything, but it eventually gets overwhelming because there's just too much. In control, you still try to do it all. You're still on that treadmill, and you're still going, and you want to make everything happen. Capacity is where you know, "I've done everything I can, and I just don't have enough hours or energy in the day." With capacity, you're starting to set some boundaries and see what you can achieve within your time frame. In both, there's the invitation. Release control over things so you gain capacity. I hear a lot of people say, "I just don't have the time for that. I don't have the energy for that. There aren’t enough hours in the day." September is for Leading, Not Cleaning Up As we enter September, it's not the time to be cleaning up. August is. September is the time to lead boldly. Think of it like Olympic track athletes getting ready for the 100-meter race. You want to be in the blocks, ready to go as soon as September hits (or at least after you've had your final long weekend in Canada). The Real Problem with Waiting There's a real problem with waiting to outsource or pass tasks off. Most people don't realize the weight they carry until it breaks something or someone. When you are overwhelmed with all the different tasks, it can break your focus, creativity, and joy. It can break your spirit for what you're doing. Sadly, sometimes we reach a point where we can no longer work. I've seen this happen to several people close to me who've developed physical ailments due to overworking. That pressure of "I'll just do it myself, it's just easier" leads to:
These can also lead to breaking you financially. The Emotional Load of Undelegated Tasks It’s a good time to reflect on how this mindset is creeping into your life, even when you know better. I've been working with two Virtual Assistants for over four years, I have to check myself constantly and ask: "Why am I doing this? Why am I not passing this off?" There's an emotional load that comes with undelegated tasks. When you have a list of unfinished tasks, it's like they're telling you, "Hey, you're behind. You're not good enough. Can you really do this?" You can feel guilt for not keeping up, thinking "I didn't get this thing done on time," or the guilt of "I know that's still sitting there unfinished." It might not be just stuff in your business; it might be things in your personal life because professionally, you're eating into your personal time. If you feel that guilt and then hear the whispering of "you're behind, you'll never catch up," paired with the shame of not asking for help, this is a leadership drain of your ability to move your business forward. It's not just time-consuming, but it's identity-eroding. It's eroding your confidence and your leadership ability, and once gone we can't always get them back in the same way, or the same strength they were before. A Real Example: Freedom by the Pool There was a client of mine working with one of my VAs from Virtual Assistant Made Easy, and we were actually on a trip together, and she decided that she would just sit by the pool and not bring her computer or do any work. This was the first time that she had done this because her virtual assistant was able to take things on. She chose to delegate because there was a lot of stuff going on, and she didn't want that chaos to hit when she was trying to have a vacation, which she wasn’t able to take very often until she had this virtual assistant. Since I’ve had support for a while, I've been so far removed from the feeling like you can't get away. It was really good for me to see that emotional relief that she had, that renewed sense of clarity on things, the confidence to unplug. It makes a big difference when you can say, "Yeah, I'm not weighed down by my business. I can actually step away and have some time freedom." Yes, there have been a lot of tactical gains, a lot of business results, from increasing her income to the highest she's ever had, bringing on more clients than before, and many awards she's gained. But the key thing here was just the pride that she had of being like, "Wow, this is possible. I can actually take time for myself." Can You Take Time Off? Are you able to feel that peace that comes with knowing that you don't have to do it all yourself? I want to reframe something for you: Delegation isn't just a trust exercise of "Can I hand this off, or not?" Delegation isn't just a to-do list. It's not necessarily about the action of handing off tasks. It's about what you get to do when your hands and mind are free.  I often joke with my new clients in Virtual Assistant Made Easy: "You're going to get these hours back, but that doesn't mean you now go and scroll Facebook." Actually use these hours in a way that's going to move you towards your goals, both personally and professionally, because what you get to do when your hands and mind are free is going to create that time freedom, work freedom, and financial freedom for you, for your business, for your loved ones, for your life. Your Choice Point You can ask yourself: What's it costing me holding on to things that don't need to be mine anymore? Am I reaching a point of overwhelm, or am I choosing to outsource? If you're interested in the outsourcing route, please reach out to me. I have a team of vetted virtual assistants, all from the Philippines, with great English, lots of experience, and they can do everything from social media, content creation, video/audio editing, tech support, graphic design, content repurposing, research, inbox and calendar management, and the list goes on and on. As a coach, trainer, speaker, podcaster, and author, my VAs handle all the behind-the-scenes work, including creating and distributing the content I'm producing like this blog. You're probably a great leader. And I know that with a few more free hours and a little more peace, you’ll be at the right capacity, which will help you lead even better. Your Action Item Here's my invitation to you:
This is your chance to choose to lead your life and your business how you wish, not just tick off the boxes on your to-do list. Reach out to me and get a VA through Virtual Assistant Made Easy, and we'll make it easy for you to gain your time freedom, work freedom, and financial freedom. If you haven't yet, share with a friend and check out all the other summer blogs I'm doing which are short, to the point, one action item, and continue on this journey with me as we go into the fall, where I'm going to be talking more about how to have a strong Q4, how to be confident, and a ton of other topics. If there's something that you'd like to specifically hear about or have me cover, or you want to reach out to me about having your own VA, you can reach out to me: [email protected]. Until next time, stay dynamic!
If you're looking for fall to just hit the ground running, and for the last quarter of the year to be really successful so that you can end the year strong, then you're going to want to read this blog where I talk about how your fall breakthrough starts now.  I know we're still in summer, the nicest time of the year for me. I live in North Vancouver, BC Canada, but I'm hanging out in Ontario right now. I'm going to go over how your fall breakthrough starts now, and what I'm keeping, what I'm cutting, and what I am creating. Use Summer as Strategic Space Often, people think summer is a pause because it's beautiful outside and you want to take a vacation, which is great. But it also creates space for you to pause differently, as a prep ground for your Q4 success. It’s the last opportunity before the end of the year to reach your goals, to be able to have the wins you're wanting, and that financial success. The Hard Truth: Most People Wait Too Long Here's the hard truth: most people wait too long. They wait until September comes. But then in September (in Canada, anyway), we have a long weekend that starts the whole month, and then school starts. Usually, you don't feel like you're actually in September until the second week, or maybe midway through the second week of September. Well, waiting till then is going to kill your momentum. High-level leaders are taking action now to get ahead, rather than waiting. By doing it now, you probably have more brain space because you're not rushing here and there, you're not doing a ton of projects. You have more brain space right now to be able to focus on it, to think clearly, to have more capacity and bandwidth to really make some good decisions about your final quarter. My Three-Part Fall Audit Here's my three-part audit, my fall audit. It's really simple: what you’re keeping, what you’re cutting, what you’re creating. When you go through that, even just to take two minutes on each part, you'll be amazed at the clarity you get.  What You’re Keeping You look at your calendar, you look at your business, you look at what you have going on professionally, but you also look personally at what you have going on in your life. In your business, you might look at your offers, the different systems you have, your team members, clients, and so on. On the personal side, you might look at habits, rituals, behaviors, how you spend your day, how you spend your time, and where you invest your focus. You’re going to look at all of that and ask yourself, “What am I keeping out of all these things? What still gets the check mark from me?” If it doesn’t get the check mark, then maybe it moves into another category—cutting—or maybe even just weaning off of it. What You’re Cutting Are you cutting certain tasks? Is it time to delegate things? Are there mindsets you need to cut? Any negative programming that says, “I can’t do that,” or “I can’t charge that amount,” or “I’m not good enough to do that”? Or maybe it’s the mindset of, “I’m so amazing I don’t need to do anything.” That’s another one you probably want to get rid of. Are there any commitments that are draining you? Look ahead—maybe you’ve taken a break from some of your commitments. Your board meetings might end, your exercise class might wrap up, your book club might pause, or networking groups you’re part of might take a break. Many activities slow down over the summer, even volunteering. Ask yourself, “Which of these commitments will come back and which drain my energy or are no longer aligned?” Maybe they’re no longer aligned with you, your business, or your personal life. It might be time to cut them. What You’re Creating Finally, what are you creating? Based on your goals, what do you need to create to get there? You may need to create new offers to meet your financial targets. Maybe you need to come up with more content to bring in leads. How about creating more systems to help your business run smoother? Or building more partnerships to grow financially, expand your content’s reach, or help you create the systems you need. So, what are you keeping? What are you cutting? What are you creating? If you spend just a few minutes on each one, you’ll complete your fall audit and get yourself into a really great place. If you don’t have a business, do this for your life. If you have a career, do it for your career. Do it for your whole life because as a professional coach, I can tell you that looking at all 10 areas of life is the way to truly be balanced. How My VA Helps with This Process Once I have my keeping, cutting, and creating, then I'm going to look to my Virtual Assistants. I have two main VAs I've been working with for over four years, and on my team, I have more VAs who can help you as well. Let me share what I'm doing. Before the summer, we did a lot of behind-the-scenes content batching. The reason is I was going to spend 10 days in Kenya, a couple of days travelling there, and then three weeks in Ontario. I pre-recorded seven videos, enabling my team to create my YouTube videos with a consistent background. They could also then publish my podcasts and create these blogs. This gave me the space to enjoy the summer and also complete tasks like my fall audit. Content batching is a great idea. You can even do it now to give you more freedom this summer or get ahead for the fall. We're not too far along. There's still time and space to do it.  Another thing that I have asked my team to do is to go into our systems and clean them up. First into our project management tool, our boards there, clean that up, archive anything that's done, bring back to the top anything that still needs to be finished off. Looking at our systems that we have, like how we do things, can we do it more efficiently, faster? Can we maximize our time in other ways, so that as we go into Q4 we can gain back some of that time? Also doing things like launch prepping and website updates. Having these sorts of tasks done now is really helpful for Q4. Then when I look at my keeping, cutting, creating, a lot of the cutting is either me delegating it off to them, or cutting because I'm not going to do it anymore. Also, a lot of my creating is I come up with the idea, but then they implement it. They make it happen. That's how my VAs are helping me to not only prepare in the summer for Q4 but to make Q4 amazing, because a reminder that success is not solo. It's not just you. It doesn't have to be you. Big companies have so many employees because you need all the little pieces to keep the machine running, and that helps you to stay in your zone of genius, in your core competencies and on high impact, high income-producing tasks, which is where you need to be. Your Action Step Spend that time, ten minutes on each area or at least a minimum of one minute on each area: keeping, cutting, creating. Just do it as long as you need to and maybe come back to it a few times. You can get deeper answers. Once you have that, if you're like, "Oh, I have so many things I want to delegate," or "there are mindsets I don't know how to shift," or "goals and systems I don't know how to create," reach out to me. So twofold: you get my coaching on one side, enabling you to have the business success you want, but then the life satisfaction you crave. Then, on the flip side, you get a virtual assistant. A vetted virtual assistant from my team who is already trained on so many of the different things. If not, there's a lot of my IP, my intellectual property, my training videos, my systems, my checklists that I give to you, and you work with one of my VAs, so you can just copy-paste and have them do similar to what my VAs do for me. Set an intention, do this action, and reach out to me, [email protected] or on your favourite social platform, and let's have a chat about how we can help you make Q4 give you the time freedom, the work freedom, and the financial freedom that you've been craving. Until next time, stay dynamic!
The most common thing busy people tell me when I meet them is "there's just so much to do." I say, "Get someone else to do it or pass it off." They're like, "Ah, it's just faster to do it myself." Have you been guilty of saying that? Probably. Or maybe you think delegation takes more time than doing it yourself? Maybe you're thinking of the corporate way where to pass things off, you had to develop full trainings, teach people, and test them. Or maybe you've had bad experiences trying to pass things off to people who weren't the right fit, or maybe your instructions kind of sucked.  So, how do you delegate in 10 minutes or less? I'm going to give you a more fail-proof way that I've found working with my two main Virtual Assistants (VA) for over four years (before that, I had Canadian assistants and contractors for six and a half years), and what my clients do with their VAs every single day, every week of the year. Tens of thousands of hours of delegating for these entrepreneurs can't be wrong. There is an easier way. You don't have to sit there and train all day. The Mindset Shift This really comes down to a mindset shift. If you're thinking, “I don’t even know what to delegate,” don’t worry — I’ve got you. I have other blogs and podcasts episodes that walk through that. But if you don’t want to figure it out alone, that’s exactly what we do inside Virtual Assistant Made Easy. We’ll work through it together. I won’t just hand you a big list of possible tasks — instead, we’ll start with your goals. What do you want to achieve in the next quarter? This year? From there, I’ll help you identify exactly how a VA can support you so you reach those goals faster and with less strain. If you're hoping for 10 clients, can we get you 20 clients? If you're hoping to launch the new course three months from now, can we do it in one month? Who knows? But that's the possibility when you have support. The Simple 3-Step Process Let's look at it. You've got something you want to delegate. Maybe you went to an event and have all these business cards or connections, and now you want to add them to your database, message them, add them on LinkedIn, whatever it may be.  Step 1: What's the Task? First thing, what is the task? What is the thing you do that you want to pass off? As you're going through your day, just write down the things you want to pass off. Step 2: What's the Outcome? Figure out what's the outcome you want. There are many different ways to do something to get to that final result. For example, "I want to add people" or "I want to document the information from these leads." The outcome is that they're in one of your databases, or you're connected on social media, whatever it may be. Step 3: What's the Format? Then it's the bit in between, what you're going to tell them. How are you going to tell them this information? Are you going to write them a checklist? Make them a voice note? Make them an email? Or record your screen and show them? Screen Recording One of the easiest ways to train your VA is with a simple screen recording. They can watch exactly what you're doing. No need to be on camera or worry about your hair or makeup. Just talk through the steps as you go, like: “I’m logging into my CRM, going to Contacts, clicking this button…” and so on. Your VA sees your screen and follows your mouse. That’s it. You don’t need to create a formal SOP or write out instructions. If your VA is trained properly (like ours are), they can turn that screen recording into a documented process. No need to practice, re-record, or make it fancy. Just hit record, walk through the task, explain what you're doing and why. Then send it off with any files they need (like images of business cards) and say, “Go for it.” It really can be that easy. The Multiplier Effect If you think, "Well, it's just faster for me to enter these 10 cards than it is to make that recording," think about this: What if the recording was you adding the first one in, and then you passed off the other nine cards to be done? And then every other time you have other contacts, you can do the exact same thing?  What if it wasn't business cards? What if now you go to an online event and you've got the Zoom participant list, or you have a directory of people you're supposed to reach out to, or you have an email with people's email addresses you're supposed to be putting in, or you have a signup somewhere that didn't quite get into your CRM? Do you see where I'm going with this? You recording that one video is showing them the process of how to do something in a very simple way… not polished, nothing fancy. They're going to be able to do it for you. Your Action Step What do you think? Does that sound doable? Does that sound easy? What if, for the next week, every time you come across a task you want to delegate, you just hit record and capture yourself doing it? You’ll start building a library of videos you can pass off. These recordings will cover those recurring tasks you no longer have to do yourself. I’ve already shared two other blogs on delegation. One was called “What Would You Do with an Extra Five Hours a Week?” Another was “The One Thing That You're Still Doing That Your VA Should Do.” And now this one shows you how to delegate in ten minutes or less. Like I said at the start, this really comes down to mindset. Thinking delegation takes more time than just doing it yourself is a myth. That belief will keep you stuck in the wrong tasks. The truth is, you started your business for more than just work. You wanted time freedom, money freedom, and the ability to choose how you spend your days. Let’s make sure your actions match that vision. Your Next Step If you loved this tip, and you’re wondering, “What else can I delegate? How can I have my VA create my SOPs, systems, and processes for me?” or even thinking, “Can I just copy what Diane uses?” Yes, you can! SOPs for speaking, training, coaching, course creation, book publishing, podcasting, YouTube, social media, content, editing, presentations, and events. The answer is yes. If you'd like access to my full library of videos, training materials, SOPs, checklists, and more, please don't hesitate to reach out. I’ve built all of this over the past 15 years in business, and it’s ready to go. Currently, we have four open client spots available. If you're ready, connect with us. I have a team of skilled, vetted virtual assistants from the Philippines, ready to support you. They’ll take the busy work off your plate so you can finally move faster, get ahead, and enjoy your life more. Instead of feeling like there are never enough hours in the day, you’ll be saying, “Wow, we are moving at full speed, and I’m so glad I didn’t have to do all of this myself.” Let’s give you the time, work, and financial freedom you started your business for. Reach out to me, [email protected] or check our website for Virtual Assistant Made Easy so that you can jump on board and have me just do it all for you. Okay, enjoy everyone. Until next time, stay dynamic!
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