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Today, I'm talking about how, once I started to do this, I had consistent social media content.  Which are you with regard to your consistency on social media? A. “I do put out stuff. I put out something once a week.” B. "I have to post today and I don't know what to post!" C. "Wow, when I look at other people's social, they've got more going on." D. "How can someone be on YouTube and have a podcast and have a blog and have social media content?" E. “My social media is amazing, and I post frequently.”
All of these things are so stressful. But really what you want is to just have a consistent social media presence. If you're like, "Actually, no, Diane, I want to be making money off of every single post and every bit of marketing material, or every bit of content I put out there," well, great. But maybe you should just start with being consistent online and have it be a stress-free process. The Solution I tell you, if you're going to hire people to do this, it’ll be a massive team. You'll be putting out money for:
And on and on and on. It gets expensive for a business owner. It's so time-centered that you're spending so much of your time hiring people, getting them to do the content, managing all of these people, and then giving them feedback on things. It's wasting not only your time, but your energy, and your money. You don't want to do that, right? What is the thing that I started doing that has just been a game changer for me? I started creating one piece of anchor content and then repurpose it across all mediums, and all platforms. The Process Let me just give you an idea of the extent to which this has grown. If you want to know the whole process, the ins and outs and how to do each part, I encourage you to grab the Content Multiplication Magic program. I do have that as an option to share this whole process with you.For those of you who are already in Virtual Assistant Made Easy, or you're thinking about getting a virtual assistant, I do bonus that in for you. PLUS, I will give you a copy of every single step in the process with training videos, checklists, so that your virtual assistant can do these pieces for you. Content Multiplication Magic is magic because it’s taking one piece of content and repurposing it across all these different platforms. I'll give you an idea of the extent to which I do this now:
Using this one piece of anchor content has so many benefits. In the past, I used to write a blog, go live or do a video, and then record the podcast, doing three main pieces of content. Then, I still had to create the social media posts, the newsletter, and the blog, all by myself. In the beginning, when I started doing this, it cut down on the time because it was only one main piece of content, that I was creating. Repurposing meant I didn't have to create new content for all the different platforms. Benefit 1: This diminished the workload by five. Benefit 2: The great thing about it was that each piece was in my voice without paying a writer. I used to hire someone to write social media posts for me. She was so good at figuring out how to speak like me and how to write like me, but her rates kept going up and up and up. But I paid it. Eventually, I accidentally coached her out of working for me by following her dreams and goals. For me to go and find someone else who could match my voice was going to be hard, and it was going to be expensive. A lot of companies do this. A lot of people have copywriters, social media writers and scriptwriters for their videos. That's fantastic. But if you are a solopreneur, or a small business owner, or someone who's trying to do business on the lean, or somebody who just likes to reduce expenses and not have a lot of people to manage, this is a great concept for you to put in place. Repurposing your anchor content When you do it this way, that one piece of anchor content gets repurposed. It is your voice. It’s always going to be your voice. You don't have to worry about someone else not matching your voice or someone else using ChatGPT, or someone else plagiarizing. The other benefit is it's all your messages. In the beginning, I thought, "No, I must have a different YouTube from my podcast, and from my blog. Everything has to be unique." Well, no, it doesn't. Because when you think of it, people are inundated with content. Do you really think your ideal customer, your ideal client, your community are going to watch your video, read your blog, listen to your podcast, and look at every single social post? More than likely they won't. What if you put out that consistent message every week and just pulled different content from it? It’s still different, but the people who love to watch things will watch your YouTube. People who like to listen will listen to your podcast. People who like to read will read your blog. People who want short, easy-to-digest content will be on your social media. You can just do that one piece and then pull from it.  It's funny because I'll have people read the blog after they've watched the video, and they haven't fully clicked in that it's the same content. They catch new things or different things from it the second time. That's the first pieces to how I did it: I use that one piece of anchor content to create all of my assets for the week. Then, I grew up in my business. I hired someone to edit a lot of these things. I hired different companies to do the different pieces for me like publishing my podcast, as well as I had a Canadian assistant who did many of the pieces I did. It was amazing because passing off my recording to be done in all these different places was great because then I could focus on higher impact, higher income-producing or generating tasks. I could focus on follow-up after meetings and meeting with people. I could work on the business stuff, and the vision and the future of my business, rather than getting into the weeds of repurposing content. That's what I did for a while. Then almost four years ago, I hired two Filipino virtual assistants who are still working with me today. Plus, I now a team of 14 virtual assistants where a lot of my clients are using my Content Multiplication Magic system in order to do this for them. The key second piece is pass off what you record, pass off that anchor piece of content, so that it's not you who is doing all the repurposing. That's key. Because you need to pull yourself out of this type of time-consuming task, and leverage the time so that you can increase your income, increase your profits, because you're doing more of the client work and more of the sales.  The last piece was fully having things repurposed. I know I've already mentioned repurposing, but I mean, fully. People think, “Well, how are you repurposing?” I've already talked a little bit about it.
The video goes onto YouTube, the audio on the podcast, then the copy into the blog. But then there are things like repurposing that content, cutting a long form video into short form video into stories into reels into social posts, like quote posts. There are all these different nuances of how you can use it. When we repurpose a video, especially if we're repurposing an interview someone has, we can break that down into 30 plus assets, usually we do 30. That's a very generous amount of assets from one 12-15 minute interview. *Side note, if you want one of your interviews repurposed, we're happy to do that. My team of virtual assistants from the Philippines does a phenomenal job. How this benefitted me and can benefit you too It's so great, because it has saved me, not only time, money, energy., but also stress. It really saves me stress. By having my team develop my weekly content, it has given me that consistency online. People tell me…:
Key thing is, I don't do it all myself. I'll let you know that this summer 2024, we are opening up some spots for a program I call Your Content Made Easy, where every week we take one of your videos, and we repurpose it into social media content for you. (If you want everything like YouTube, podcast, blog newsletter, all that stuff, then talk to me separately.) But if you're just like, “Diane, I just want social media posts.” Great. We take that one video. We repurpose that content for you. It can be a recorded video. It could be a live video, and we're going to repurpose it into every single week 12 different pieces of content. Seven will be for daily posts, and five will be for the story section so that you can hit both areas. Every month, you give us 4 videos and we make 48 social media posts or stories for you. What this is going to help you do By being more consistent online, you're going to be able to grow your audience, because people are going to see more of your content. It's going to expand your reach because there's more chance for them to connect with it. It's going to save you time, especially during the summer, if you want to enjoy yourself. The cool thing is, if you wanted, we could pre do your content all the way to the end of the year, or pre do your content for the rest of the next 12 months. Our virtual assistant team is ready to help you to repurpose your content so you can use it on all of your social media channels. Then you get to focus on what you want to focus on and build your business. I think that's a triple win. There is a very special invitation when you join now. I encourage you, click the link and go through it. What we do is we just get these four videos from you. You maybe already have recorded videos. If you don't know how to record, I will give you a program to be able to teach you how to record very easily and for free so that when you give us those four videos, we create 48 pieces of content that you didn't have to make and all you need to do is post it up. Even then, if you're like, “I don't know how to post them or I don’t want to be the one to schedule them.” Okay, we can talk about that and talk about my team doing this for you. But I only have seven spots, that's because my team is busy. This came because some people I talked to about getting a virtual assistant said, “Diane, can't you just have the VA make the content for me, and you manage them?” Exactly. I can totally do that. Because I have been doing it this way for many years. The whole thing too is this is original content. This is not you buying social posts from someone. This is not repurposing and just changing a design from someone else. No, this is 48 pieces of original content, your content, in your brand colors, your font, and your voice. I hope you'll check it out. You're going to get a lot from it, for sure. As you go through this, think again about the power of having consistent social media content by taking this one piece of anchor content and passing off what you record then having it repurpose into all the different pieces. Game changer for my life. I hope you put this into practice because it is going to solve a lot of the things business owners struggle with…
It's really going to solve a lot of those problems. Thank you for reading this week’s blog. Know that I do this every week because I want to make your life easier and your business and life better. Read my other blogs: 1. 3 Actions for Better Social Media Results 2. 3 Reasons Why You’re Not Posting Consistently on Social Media 3. How to Direct Message on Social Media Without Being Salesy
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You need to stop chasing success if you want to have happiness now. This is something I had to learn the hard way. My whole life, I have been a top achiever. I've always been chasing success:
 Whatever it may be, I've been going for that thing. I've put that thing on a pedestal, the success that society is saying that I should have and you should have. I've been recently working with a client who has had a lot of success professionally, a lot of success in her personal life around the home that she was able to build. What I'm noticing in her, and I've noticed in a lot of high-achieving women, is we are sold this story that to be happy, we need:
But these things don’t make us automatically happy. That's the hard truth because we're being pushed, driven, and signed up to this false reality that when you have these specific things happen to you and reach these particular successes, you will be happy. I can remember the very beginning of my coaching journey. I put it out there that I was offering coaching services, even on Craigslist, and someone reached out to me. It ended up that they had just sold a business two years earlier. They had built up this business with two other friends and sold it for 75 million to another major company we use daily (you probably know the name of the company and the name of their business, but for confidentiality, I won’t share.) His cut was 25 million, and he was just in his 30s when the sale happened. At this point, it was ending the time of the transition from passing it off to the new owners. He was free to do whatever he wanted with $25 million. The problem and why he hired me is he said, “I'm not happy. Everything in my life was culminating to this moment of building this company and selling it, and I've done that. I've achieved that. Now, I'm at the point where I'm like, ‘Why am I not happy? Why is there a void in me?’” I coached him to switch from measuring life according to success to measuring life according to satisfaction. This happens repeatedly in my clients. Just recently, this client bought into the idea of “have these successes, and then you'll be happy.” But after facing burnout on multiple occasions, the switch had to happen! This is a story I see over and over and over and over again. It might not be burnout. It might be…
 It's this moment of, “Is this what I signed up for? Because if so I don't like it.” Then you don't want to say anything because you'd be ungrateful to have…
All the boxes are checked. Yet, you are…
I've been there. I’ve felt it. It's not just for those in a nine-to-five. It can happen in your business as well as in life. It can happen in the perfect career or the perfect business. That feeling of, “Why am I not happy?” As I mentioned, you dare not say anything to anyone because it would seem like you are so ungrateful. I know another woman who built up a business. I won't say what business it is because that could potentially give it away to people who know me. She built up a business, and then she decided to sell it. People said, “Oh, I'm so sorry, it didn't work out.” She replied, “No, it did work out. I'm selling it because I'm not happy. I'm moving on to something else. I was happy with what it was and the time is done.” People think when you end something, you couldn't keep it, or it didn't work out. But I have clients who…
They stepped away from all these situations because it wasn't what they wanted anymore. Sometimes we paint a vision for ourselves of “this is what I wanted”. Which makes it hard to make a new decision later down the road. Not as a completely new person, but with a different value system or stronger dialled in values, more of a vision for what's important in life. We have this moment where the person you are today wants to make a different decision than the person of the past. That stuff doesn't matter anymore because you've learned something, and there's wisdom that has come in. Some people might say, “Oh, that's too bad that you couldn't keep it going” Or “That was a bad decision for leaving that. You'll never get that type of career/position. You'll never have that kind of money again.” Well, what would I say? It's worth testing out, worth taking the leap. Some of my clients have grieved
But was it what they wanted or what their ego told them to go for? We have this fine line of: "This is good for you,” and “This is a jail that you're going to be trapped in.” I felt that years ago, before I started my business. I would come home at night and reach for the wine, eat junk food, be tired, and wonder, “Why am I unhappy?” Everything on paper was successful. I looked at my list and check, check, check.
Everything was getting checked off. I was on the success path. “Why do I feel this restlessness? Why do I feel empty?” I thought, “This was supposed to be exactly what I wanted.” But the thing is, I needed to figure out what the vision really felt like for me. Over my path, different pieces have come in, piece after piece, and it's started to reveal a new vision for my life. What happens with clients is that once they stop measuring their life according to their success and start measuring it according to their satisfaction, their contentment increases. Their happiness, values, and lives become rich, energetic, happy, joyful, fulfilling, and precisely what they want. But they had never really asked themselves the coaching questions I ask to give them the clarity and vision. Are you going to break free from what society tells you is successful for you? What is important to you? If you really break it down, these other things are what matters most. I've heard from many people who have gone to third-world countries and helped people.
They say, “I can't believe how happy these people are without much. They’re much happier than I am. I thought I was coming in and teaching them things. They taught me things.” That's because these people don’t measure their life according to their success. They are looking for…
Yes, they may not have lavish homes and amazing careers that bring in a lot of money, but they're happy. You need to stop measuring your life according to your success.  I know it's hard. It's so hard. I'm a recovering perfectionist. I am a recovering high achiever. I still achieve, but slowing down has been one of the greatest gifts in my life and relationships. My clients say to me, “Wow, it's so good to choose me and what I want. Not to be pressured by keeping up with the Joneses or what others think would make me happy.” It's not about the ego of how life looks. It's more about how it feels to live your life. That's the key thing. Sure, you've heard many times over. People on their deathbed, they don't say things like…
What they say is…
You have that choice now, whether you are 7 or 70, 19 or 90. I love when my clients have that moment of “Wow, this is what it means to live. This is what it means to be happy.” I had been living in black and white before. Now, I get to choose what I want to have. Stop measuring your life according to society's belief of success and start looking at what will make you truly happy. Have that vision for your life and what you want it to be like.  It's sometimes just about the simple things. That's why I find I'm happiest on the weekends having lazy days. When we don't have a big list of accomplishments and we're not pressured to have expensive experiences, instead it’s the simplest things. Just ask yourself, “What brings me joy?”
I'm super passionate about this because I'm so grateful for my experience with my coach about 14 years ago, where I saw the difference between these two. It's funny. I just did the Wheel of Life with one of my clients, whom I've been working with for years, and she didn't click in that The Wheel of Life is a professional coaching tool that measures satisfaction, not success. See how strongly it’s ingrained in us! If you want to go through that experience, I have two one-on-one coaching spots right now. We can figure out where your wants and your needs are and the vision for the life you really want to have. You’ll know how to bring that spark back to you, and you’ll be satisfied not just when you've achieved success, but now and every day on the way to success. We don't want to keep waiting for those “when” days, the “if” days. When I get that… If I get that…. We want it to be happening now. Because some of our goals are big. They'll happen five years from now, or 10 years from now. What does that mean for this life in the moment? That client I had who had 25 million was able to look at all areas of life and determine, “What do I really want in those areas? What values matter to me?” What came forward was family, being connected with someone else so that they could share their life with them, develop things like their language from their culture and background, and form more family bonds because they've been working so hard for so long. I ask that of you. What is it going to take for you to stop measuring your life according to success and instead measure it according to satisfaction? This is one of the biggest switches, maybe even the biggest switch, that I made 14 years ago, that has made the biggest difference in my life and is the biggest difference in every client's life. You may think, “That's simple, I can do that.” You could, but the switch isn’t that easy. It's much easier with someone else looking into your life, giving you that hard truth, the no BS, and taking you through it. I tried to find happiness myself. Even as a coach, I need someone else to hold me to a higher vision for myself. I'm happy to be that person. As I said, I've got two spots right now for one-on-one coaching. Let's do this. Let's spend the next little while figuring out what that vision is for you and helping you be happy every day. Read my other blogs: Today, I am going to share the three things I wish I was told when I started my business. Around 14 years ago, I hired a coach, and after about four months, I realized, “Wow, coaching is what I want to do. This will bring together all of my talents!” When I was younger, I didn't know what career I would have. When they asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” My answer would be, “I don't know. A teacher? A speaker? A broadcaster? I don’t know.”  Putting all of these little pieces together, I finally became a life coach and speaker, and all this came together with the desire to empower women. I actually did my coaching certification while working full-time, then got pregnant—that was all the plan—and then ended up on maternity leave building the business, and I never fully returned because I was building the business. Leaving a nine-to-five job was a great experience for me, and thankfully I was successful in my business. Over the years, because I've been building my business and having success, people have come to me and asked:
Over the years, I've done a lot of business consulting and taught people how to do these different things. Even though it’s been amazing, I still have days when I'm like, “Why am I doing this?” Maybe you have also felt that way in your career or business. “Ah, this is not a good day. Why am I doing this?” It may come on because you don't get a client, a proposal is not approved, or whatever the case may be. Something happens, and you go, “Okay, this is why,” and it's very obvious. But what do we do on the other days? On the days when things feel bad, or you're not on your A game, and you're wondering, “Why is this happening?” These are the three things I've experienced over the years that I wish someone had told me about. Lesson #1: You won't always have the energy. People say, “Oh, do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life.” Even though you love what you do, some days are a grind. If I have to fly somewhere for a speaking engagement, and then maybe there was a delay in the flight, and now I'm arriving late, and I don't get to sleep well. Then, in the morning, I'm doing a tech check, I'm meeting people, and then I'm at the event and then I give so much. They say one hour on stage is like eight hours of work. Then you're still schmoozing, talking, giving, and doing, and then you get to bed late, but you must wake up early to fly back. I don't always have the energy for that. That's just my own physical limitations. Maybe you're feeling like, “Some days, I don't have the energy, and I wonder if I'm going to be able to get everything done,” because your to-do list seems super long. I want to let you know that that's okay. There are days when you won't have the energy because maybe you've already given it, or maybe it's a task you don't love doing. It's very common for us to be in that place of “I don't have the energy,” which might be emotional, physical, or mental.  Ask yourself, on a scale of one to 10, where is your physical energy, emotional energy, and mental energy? Which one do you have a lot of? Which one do you not? Knowing that is important so you can take the next steps around it. I also want to let you know I am creating a mini-course called Summer Productivity Playbook. It's being put together right now. You can purchase it for just $7 until I finish it. Once I do, the price will increase to $47. It's just something fun I want to do around these three different things I wished I was told and their solutions. Lesson #2: You're not always going to feel focused Isn't it annoying when you don't feel focused? When you have a massive list of things to do, and you're like, “Where do I even start?” Or you have to work on something with a deadline, and you just can't get your head to stop floating around. The thoughts in your brain are all over the place. It's frustrating because you only want to get your work done. A lack of focus can come from many different reasons. It could be that you're not working on the right things. It could be that you've got a lot going on emotionally, mentally, physically, or in other areas of your life. When you lack focus, you can't get things done. Then, you start to feel your confidence diminish, and you experience a lack of self-belief and frustration because you want to move forward but can't. Have you felt that? Sometimes, the focus just doesn't last the full day. Maybe you have pockets of focus, like first thing in the day, maybe after lunch, or in the evenings, late at night, when you really should be sleeping and can focus. I wish I knew that this would happen. Sometimes, in my business or my days, there might be weeks when I'm just having difficulty focusing on the task. As much as you want to believe that you can separate your work and life, they are completely intertwined. How you feel and how things are going in your life will affect your business. I guess that would be something I didn't think of as much when I started my business. Lesson #3: You won’t always get stuff done, and you might not even get the right stuff done. When I started my business, I knew I needed a logo, a business card, a website, and all these things. I got them done, but sadly, I didn't get them done right. If you've ever been in my program, the Million Dollar Woman, I share how things started, what my website looked like initially, and how I thought it needed to be custom-made. I invested a ton of money. Then, a little while later, I realized, “Wow, that was not the best decision.” I made decisions as a coach, not as a business owner.  In your business, you're not always going to get stuff done because you wear many hats and you aren't the expert on everything. In the book, “The E-Myth” Michael E. Gerber defines this well, sharing that everyone who owns a business basically has to be the CEO, the manager, and the technician. But many people come in as technicians who are good at the skills that clients are paying for.
You're an accountant doing the accounting work. You're a social media creator doing the social media work, but that's the technician role. Not only that, but you also need to be a manager of the project, a manager of the people if you hire others, a manager of the clients, and you have to manage all the business workings. Then, you also have to be the CEO, the one working on the business, in the vision, the goals, and the timeline. You sometimes don't get the right stuff done because you're too busy as the technician, too busy as the manager, or too busy as the CEO. Then you're not the technician enough, or you're not in sales enough. Getting stuff done when your business's organizational chart is so massive, with your name in most of the roles, is hard. It's really hard. Then there are also these things that will stop you from getting things done…
How are things going to get done? Thankfully, I have people to help me get things done. As soon as I finish recording a podcast, it will be sent to Karissa and Kristine, and they'll take care of all the pieces afterward (like this blog), which is amazing. But I didn't know in the beginning that in order to get one thing done, many other things have to be done like if I'm going to have a podcast, there’s a lot of work that goes into it:
It goes on and on and on. There are so many things to get done. Normally, you won't get the amount of stuff done that you want. That's just the reality of having your own business and of also being just a high-achieving, driven woman. That's kind of how it goes. There's always going to be something on your to do list. Wrapping Up These are just three things I wish someone told me when I started my business. I wish they had told me because these would be things I would struggle with because I couldn’t plan for them or know it’s normal. It's like being pregnant or having a baby where no one wants to tell you the hard truth, the stuff you should do, and the stuff that you should watch out for. Not having energy, not being focused, and not always getting stuff done are realities of having your own business. Make sure that you go to this link so that you can get in on the solutions to these three different problems that I see in many business owners as I do a lot of my consulting work or even in professional women, high-achieving women, and corporate leaders. I see these things with them as well. In this mini course I will share the solutions to these three things, and how to easily get things going again, so you don't want to miss it. It's $7 before it is fully created. Once it's created, the price is going to go up. You want to make sure that you're grabbing this right away. P.S. Don't forget to nominate the Dynamic Women Podcast in the Podcast Awards for Best Female Hosted Podcast and People's Choice Award. I would really appreciate it if you did. Read my other blogs: We've all been there. We’ve all had a day when something didn't go right. Maybe…
 We feel like we're in a mood, and we're down. All we want to do is cancel everything in our day and just do nothing. Well, that's not always a possibility. Even when we have the time and space, it's not necessarily how you want to be functioning. These are quick tips to get you out of a mood so that you can continue your day. But I'm also not suggesting you ignore your feelings or just keep putting band-aids on a problem. There are other techniques to properly deal with the underlying nature and emotions that bring you into a mood because maybe some examples aren't even why you're in the mood, and you don't know why. You don't know what's causing you to be in a mood. That's okay, too. That happens. But sometimes, we have responsibilities and things we must do, and we don't have the privilege of time and space. Try out these three techniques. Let me know which one works best for you. They're the things that I like to do that move me out of a mood, at least temporarily. Quick tip #1: Give your feelings some space If you have just had something happen or feel like you're in a mood, give yourself a certain amount of time to be in that mood. It might be 15 minutes or an hour, but give your feelings space. What we definitely don't want to do is suppress our feelings and completely ignore them. If you're in a meeting and someone said something upsetting, or you're in the middle of a soccer game and you're frustrated, take that time. Maybe you excuse yourself during an office meeting and go into the bathroom for a few minutes to give yourself some space. I've done this on the soccer field before. I've asked for a sub just to get off the field because mentally, I'm in a mood, or someone ticked me off, or we've just had something, and I just can't perform at my best level at that moment, so I need some space. I don't come off and then talk with everyone. I come off, and I'm in my zone for a moment to just be able to deal with what's there. Giving feelings space could also mean for you…
We had a frustrating soccer game recently, and I re-injured my hamstring. It wasn't fully healed, and I did something that hurt it again. I was completely frustrated, so I called my husband before driving home and said, “Hey, heads up. We had a bad game. I'm injured. This is why the game was bad. This is how I got injured. When I get home, I don't want to talk about it anymore.” But that gave me the time to go home in the car, to have my own space with the feelings, and to allow them to move around and for me to move through them. We often have unwanted emotions. It’s ok. They're telling us something, and we just need to listen to them to be able to move through them. If we try to push them down, they’ll get bigger and worse. Quick Tip #2: Get moving The second tip is to get moving and, ideally, enjoy nature. Sometimes, when I'm frustrated by my day or can't focus anymore, I'll just say, “Diane, go for a walk.” My favourite place to go for a walk is in the forest. Walking in the forest calms me. Moving my body helps release endorphins and gets me in that feel-good place again. Now, I'm not always feeling 100% afterward, but at least it pulls me out of the mood slightly. Getting a little bit of that blood flow going really helps. In those moments, I make sure not to listen to a podcast. Music is okay as long as it's keeping me in the space, usually Christian music because I know it's going to be positive, and it's not going to be anything too heavy or with lyrics that will jar me. Maybe you're in a space where you can't do these things. Even in a building on a rainy day, you could go and walk stairs. I don't mean run stairs. I mean, walk stairs. You can even go and walk the floors. You could walk the parking lot, just getting your body moving. If you only have a few minutes, and you are physically able, maybe it's 10 jumping jacks. Just something to get your body going and to move you out of your head.  You need a mood booster. Many people turn to donuts, cookies, alcohol, or caffeine drinks, but that isn't always the best choice in the long run. If you can get your body moving, it's going to help to pull your brain away from the moment and allow you to move physically from the negative mood that you were stuck in. Quick Tip #3: To do something you enjoy Something you enjoy could be reading, coloring, painting, listening or dancing to music, talking with a friend, or going to a gallery. The list goes on and on. But it's doing something you enjoy and not completely numbing your mind. This is not watching TV. It might be watching comedy because you want to laugh. But it's not scrolling aimlessly through social media. Have some intention about it. Is there something specific that you enjoy about social media or about TV? Then maybe that could be a good fit for you. Maybe you have a favourite show, comedy, or something that just makes you feel good. This is not binge-watching.  This isn't about losing yourself in it. These are intentional activities that boost your mood. You could bake, cook, or sew. There are so many hobbies out there.
If you had a day off, what would you do with your time? You would not go and clean your house unless you really enjoy cleaning it. Hey, who am I to judge? Doing something you enjoy will naturally boost your mood and help you feel better. Even if you're like, “I don't have time. I have a business meeting, I have to get back to it,” could you have a phone call with a friend for a few minutes? Can you watch one positive video? Can you do one small thing that will help improve your mood? I know you can do it. Wrapping Up These are the three quick tips to get you out of a mood. Give your feelings space, getting you moving, preferably enjoying nature, and doing something you enjoy. If you have something that is a bigger mood, a long-lasting depression, anxiety or such, these tips are only going to give you brief relief. They are not going to get to the heart of what's going on with you. I do encourage you to get support, get a counselor, talk to your health care providers, have a coach, have something in place to bring you consistently up. Then you can tap into these quick tips to get you out of a mood because you're already at a higher baseline. These tips are things I do when I've just had a rough time and especially before my family gets home. These are the things I try to do so that my family gets the better version of me, not the one that's going to take them down. They'll get the wife, and mother that has the opportunity to show up as they need me to be. Taking that time is important. Sometimes, I'll say to my hubby, “I just need to go for a walk. I need some space.” Going for a walk in nature actually checks off all of these tips: it gives my feelings some space, gets me moving, and I really enjoy being in the forest. If you want to discuss this further and get some coaching support, you can email me at [email protected] or reach out to me on any of the platforms where I am. Comment below with some other quick tips to get out of a mood! Read my other blogs: 1. 3 Ways You’ll Get Left Behind by NOT Being an Author 2. How to Boost Your Confidence 3. Steal My Strategy for Delegating In this blog, I'm going to talk about the step you're missing on the way to achieving the success you want. It's funny because it's the final step, and it's the overlooked step. A lot of times in life, we have so many things we want to achieve in so many different areas of life. Yet, do you know what we forget? We forget the part that's the most fun, the part that's actually the most crucial to capturing the learning, locking in the feeling and building our confidence. What is it? It’s celebrating and making a big deal out of an achievement. I'm going to give you an example that kind of sparked this conversation for us today.  My daughter’s baseball game My daughter plays baseball. Will she one day play professionally? Will she get all expenses paid scholarship for university? That’s not the goal. It’s about having fun and getting the benefits of playing organized sports. But she's not going to be the MVP of every game. She's in it because she's having fun. She's got friends there. She is pushing herself athletically. She's getting all the benefit. We feel like she's already won in that regard. But one game, recently, she caught a hit that was above her head. If you can imagine in baseball, even if you haven't played, you know that when someone catches the ball, and when it's straight hit from the batter, and they catch it, the player is automatically out. It was a pretty big hit. It was going to go into the outfield, and she put up her glove, she caught it. Yay, win number one! But then, she was standing between second and third, keeping it super simple for my non-baseball friends here, so the runner from second was going to third. She caught the ball, brought it down into her glove, and tagged the runner from second to third causing them to be out as well. It was a double play by her, solely her. This is a pretty big deal, especially at her level. Double plays don't happen very often. If they do, they're in a combination of different players, one passing to another, throwing to another. For one person to get a double play, it doesn't happen very often. There's not as much play when you're 12 years old and playing in the under thirteen's. But we wanted to make a big deal out of this. At the end of the game, I said to her, “Wow, that was an amazing double play. We need to celebrate.” She's like, “Oooh, what's that mean?” I said, “Well, we’ll celebrate! You can get something from the concession stand. We could get a McFlurry from McDonald's, or we could go get whatever you wanted at Dairy Queen.” She said, “Oh, can I get a blizzard?” “Of course, family blizzards”. We as a family after the game went to have blizzards in her honor. You may think, “Oh, no big deal. She didn't win the championship. She wasn't MVP. But for us, it was important for us to make that into a big deal – a celebration.  You might be judging, “Well, that's not very healthy to be giving ice cream.” Whatever. We wanted to mark this special occasion and have her be the center of our attention for this moment based on this extraordinary performance – and ice cream is special for kids. Yes, we talk about committing to the team and playing well and doing your best and all that. But that was a special moment. When I think back, I remember the times when others celebrated me, and I was celebrated for what I did. My hope is this is something that sticks in her memory. You know what the fun thing was? She started hitting better the next game. She started being more confident as a player in the next game. Since then, she has become a higher-level player. Other people are noticing her confidence in the field and her ability. She's caught more balls. Now instead of this surprised face that she did on that double play, she's loving it. She's really embracing this kind of new level of success for her – and I see the celebration made a huge difference. Time to ask yourself It made me think, how often do you make a big deal about yourself or allow others to make a big deal for you out of common everyday occurrences?
 Now every time it doesn't have to be “Hey, family, we're going for blizzards.” But could it be, “Ah, that's amazing. I'm going to go sit in the forest or I'm going to go walk on the beach because that's what I love to do.” Celebrating Boosts Your Confidence Do you actually celebrate? Because doing that action of celebrating will give you exactly what it gave my daughter. It will boost your confidence because you are being honoured for something good you did or for being able to get over a hard time. Your confidence and belief in yourself will go up, and that's huge. Also, your self-efficacy, the belief that you can do hard things or that you can apply yourself to different situations, will go up. What I've seen with clients is the ability to transfer achievements and skills. Your self-efficacy transfers over to you believing you can do things in other areas of life. I believe the confidence my daughter gained by being honoured for that achievement is going to carry over to other areas of her life as well, which is so exciting. Think of what can happen for you if you were to also do that. The next time you're doubting yourself, you'll be reminded of how it felt to be in that moment when you were celebrated. Your self-esteem, in general, will increase as well. The way you view yourself as a winner, or as an achiever, or as someone who can do good things, whatever you want to call it. That's going to help you when you're in the valley of another goal, the hard part of another achievement, or in another area of life, that feels hard. That's going to help you not get stuck because you're going to say, “I can do this. I can get through this.” You're going to be able to look over the waves, look past the storm, to the place where you say, “I'm going to get there. I've done this before, not in the same area of life or situation. But I've been through hard things. I can do this.” Celebrate your success Unfortunately, people don't celebrate their successes. They don't acknowledge any milestones or achievements, and they just barrel past to the next goal. I'll tell you, you're missing this crucial step. Celebrating is such a crucial step. That's why we have a launch party every time we do a collaborative book. Now, the first time we had a launch party, both in British Columbia and in Ontario, because the majority of the authors were there, and then with COVID, we started to do virtual book launch parties. The reason why we continue to do virtual is because our authors are from all over the place. It makes more sense because we can't bring everyone together and I want everyone to be celebrated by having a virtual party, not just a book launch, but a party! (Sidenote: Doors are open for authors for Leadership Secrets, the fourth book in the Dynamic Women Secret series.) What I found with the launch parties is that is when people actually felt like an author. That's when they stepped into that place of, “Whoa, I actually did this. I wrote something, and I put out a book.” Even if they're not the ones who published the book, and they didn’t layout the book, or edit it, and all that stuff because we do all that: they felt so great as an author. They got to feel like authors, and that exact moment they held the book was super powerful. But the moment they were honoured at a party, that's when they really got to step into being the author. If you want to feel that next level of success, that additional title, that credibility, that expert status, you need to celebrate that moment. The holding of the book was one moment for people to celebrate, but the next was publicly being honoured.  For you, what I hope is that you look at the moments where you've done well and write down what you learned. Ask yourself these questions:
You can use my Dynamic Year Journal. It prompts you every week to record your achievements and lessons learned, as well as a bunch of other things that will help you have the most dynamic year. But this is crucial. Celebrating is crucial for you to move forward faster. I've mentioned confidence, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and the ability to persevere to the next goal, but also to achieve more faster because in that celebration piece, when you claim that title, you claim what you have accomplished, and you move yourself to that next level. This is crucial. It is crucial for your growth and for you to reach more goals to maximize the time that you do have. I'd love for you to be part of the next book. We will celebrate you and honour you with a book launch party, and we will have a lot of fun in the process. This week, look at how you can celebrate something you've achieved in any area of life. Read my other blogs: The Signs of Being an Imposter and Strategies to Prevent Yourself from Feeling like a Fraud.6/19/2024 In my previous blog, I shared the six common factors that can cause you to feel like a fraud. As promised, today, I’ll share the common signs of being an imposter and the strategies you can use to prevent yourself from feeling like a fraud.  Common signs of being an impostor If you're not sure if you are feeling like a fraud, then let's look at some common signs of being an impostor. 1.) Overwork You may overworked and be doing it on purpose. You take on more work to compensate for feeling inadequate. 2.) Attributing success to luck Do you attribute your success to luck rather than skill? You find yourself saying, “No, I just got lucky. Right place. Right time. Great team.” You don't actually just receive acknowledgment. Do you give your success to others? 3.) Fear of being found out Do you have a fear of being found out? For example, that people will find out that it's your first time writing a report or taking on a big client? Or you're waiting for that email where the client will say. “Actually, no, I don't want to work with you anymore” because you feel like that's coming. These are some signs that maybe you are feeling like a fraud. What I’ve seen When I put out the Dynamic Women Success Secrets book with 52 other authors, it was fascinating because a lot of the authors didn't want to promote the book. I asked, “Why not? This is a big accomplishment.” I didn’t get a clear answer. When it came to the party, not only were many of the authors not inviting their family, friends, network, clients—they weren't even going to show up themselves. That was shocking for me because I was thinking, “This is a major accomplishment. You need to be there. We want to celebrate you and have you autograph the books.” Eventually, I learned from some of the authors that they didn't feel like real authors for many reasons.
In your life, maybe in some place, you feel like a fraud. Maybe you're hiding things. Maybe your career isn’t what you want it to be. Maybe your marriage isn't that great, and you're hiding that because there's no right place for you to share it. That's okay. I encourage you, though, to go find somewhere where you can share about these. With my coaches and the ones who support me in a really deep way, I joke with them and say, “I think I just pay you to hear me cry.” Because when I go to them, I bring my mess. I bring the rawness. I bring the pieces that are the hardest for me to handle so that I can be magnificent in the world. I'm not going to divulge every single little thing that I'm struggling with. But that helps me to be able to be real with you about things I'm going through. If you feel like a fraud and are not being real about how you feel, please make sure you have someone in your life who can support you. Strategies to prevent yourself from feeling like a fraud. I'm going to discuss some strategies for getting over feeling like a fraud and some real solutions so you can start stepping into the confidence of being in that position. Here are the three main things: Strategy #1: Change your mindset. Anytime you have these negative beliefs, limiting beliefs, saboteurs that come up, you need to challenge what they're saying to you. For example, if these authors’ saboteurs said, “You're not really an author,” then challenge that. “Am I really an author? Yeah, my book is on Amazon. I have a book in my hand. I'm autographing the book. My name is in the book. I am an author.” Challenge the negative thoughts. If you think you didn't write something worth reading, ask someone. “What do you think about what I wrote?” Ask me, “Diane, why did you put me in the book? What did you think about my piece?” Get that feedback so you can overcome those negative thoughts. Practice some self-compassion Treat yourself with some kindness. Be like, “Okay, I feel a little bit off here. I feel like I maybe don't belong here.” I've had those thoughts, maybe being at a party where everyone is wearing all the top brands and talking about facelifts or botox or whatever. I'm like, “Well, I definitely don't fit in here. I've got some work to do, or things to buy before I can.” Then I just gave myself some kindness and understanding that I am who I am. I don't have to be like everyone else. Being myself, I can speak freely as myself and I don't need to pretend that I'm anything else. Celebrate your achievements. I talked about this a lot, especially in the Dynamic Year program and the Dynamic Year journal, because by writing down every week all your achievements and positive feedback that you get from others in that journal, you're going to start to lock it in your brain that you're pretty amazing. There are all these reasons why you’re amazing. Instead, a lot of times we're looking at finding all the negative reasons why we're not that amazing. But if you have all of these really great reasons why you're great and have accomplished, you start to build that confidence. Strategy 2: Seeking some support. I've already kind of mentioned this a bit. Have people in your life where you can be real, and you don't have to feel like a fraud. You have friends, obviously, but then make sure you have some professional friends if you're in a career, make sure you have mentors at work, who you can get support from, who can help you when you do feel like a fraud. For example, you say, “I have to give this presentation. I've never given this type of presentation. I've never worked with this high-end client type before. Can you help me? Can you look things over? Can you give me feedback?”  Then, have a coach or someone who can help you through these feelings. They will be able to call out your brilliance, give you valuable perspectives that you can use, and they’ll reassure you. I have people and coaches in my life whom I can reach out to and say, “Tell me why I'm awesome. Tell me I can do this.” I get in those places where I think that the first step didn't go very well, so this next thing won't either. You need people to cheer you on. If you don't believe in yourself, hire people who do. That's going to really make it easier. Plus, when you're part of a group, or you have a coach who can support you, they can also give you strategies. They can also be good brainstorming partners. They can also share their experience of how they did things, and even how they were worried about something. Strategy 3: Be practical Potentially, you're not going to be on the New York Times bestseller list with your very first book. The very first video you make, you're not going to get a Grammy for it. You're not going to go viral on your first video. Some people will, but most people won’t.  Set realistic expectations for yourself because it's not going to all be perfect. You're not going to be mastering something the very first time. Just focus on continuous learning one step after another.
If you have a disappointment, grab the learning from it and just grow from it. Anytime you have to face challenges, it's not a challenge, because you're a fraud. It's a challenge because you haven't experienced it yet. You haven't learned it yet. You can focus on this being a moment of, “Oh my gosh, they're going to find me out” or “Oh, wow, this is a cool opportunity for me to improve, for this to make me more competent and be able to master it.” Wrapping Up I just want you to remember that so many people experience feeling like a fraud or a fake. It's okay to feel this way. It's really normal to feel this way. Many times, every time I level up and get into a bigger pond and around bigger players, I feel like a fraud wondering, “Do I really fit in here? Am I really a high-income earner?” In the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS) community, “Am I really someone who is a VIP level and gets to attend this event? Am I really this person?” Don't let that stop you from recognizing your true worth and value in the world. You're not alone. Many people have felt this in many parts of their lives, even at the top success levels, you're going to feel it. Don't think you've got to outgrow it. You're going to keep feeling it. You just need to put the tactics into place so that it doesn’t stop you. The key is to not let it define you. Yes, it's maybe a feeling of “Oh, I feel like a fraud.” You feel like a fraud, but you are not a fraud. If you're saying, “I'm a doctor,” and you're not really a doctor, then okay, yes, you're a fraud. If you say you're a coach, but you didn't take any training to be a coach, then you're a fraud. As long as you are authentically doing what you say you're doing, then that's fine. I encourage you to share. I would love to hear how you have felt like a fraud and where in your life. If you have other coping strategies, I'd love to know them as well. The Dynamic Women Global Community on Facebook is a really great place where we can support each other. You're going to be able to share those thoughts there. Share in the group how this blog has impacted you. And if it did, feel free to share this blog with someone who might benefit from it. I also wanted to make sure you heard that we're starting to put together the next collaborative book, Dynamic Women Leadership Secrets book. We are doing a call for collaborative authors right now. If you'd like to learn more about that, join our free info session on June 26. Save your spot here. If you feel like a fraud about being an author or writing a book, this is a great opportunity for you. Don't feel like a fraud. Put some of my strategies into place and stay dynamic! Read my other blogs: Have you ever felt like a fraud, a fake, or an imposter? In this blog, I’ll share the 6 common factors that cause you to feel like one. In my next blog, I will share the common signs of being an imposter and the things you can do to prevent yourself from feeling like a fraud  Why you should care Well, because we are dynamic women, feeling like a fraud, a fake, or an imposter will stop you from reaching your goals. I want you to get rid of that nagging feeling of “I'm not really as competent as others perceive me to be.” Now, you may use the words “impostor syndrome.” It’s similar, but I'm going to talk a little bit more about feeling like a fraud. Do you feel like a fraud? Feeling like a fraud is holding us back. It's stopping us from achieving what we want. We shouldn't have to feel this way. I have personally struggled with feeling this way at different points in my career, life, as an athlete, and as a first-time mom. I know how isolating it can be to feel this way. I want to help you to stop feeling this way by understanding it better. As I said, you feel this way because you think you are not as competent as how other people see you, perceive you and view you. Maybe you feel you shouldn’t be on the pedestal that they put you on. This happens even though you've probably had accomplishments, experiences, or been chosen to be in that position. The funny thing is, that studies say that about 70% of people will experience this feeling at some point in their lives. Even high achievers, famous people or celebrities, and people who have won awards can feel like this. The 6 factors that can cause this to happen I’ll start with 3 Internal Factors:
You already have extremely high standards that you've either set for yourself, or other people have set for you. Maybe growing up, a parent, a coach, or a teacher gave high standards for you, so you feel like a failure when you're not absolutely perfect all the time. I can remember in high school, getting excellent grades, and always handed everything in. Somehow, I missed a homework assignment, so on my lunch break I was in the library trying to quickly get it done, knowing, I was not going to be able to get it completely finished perfectly. I started crying because I was like, “I'm going to lose a percentage because of this”. In the big scheme of things, it didn't matter, but at the time, perfectionism really hit me hard. 2. Fear of failure Another thing that could be making you feel like a fraud is a fear of failure. If you feel like, “I don't deserve the successes I've had,” you may go on to say, “I'm not going to be able to have these great results.” Being worried about not succeeding will cause you to lose confidence.  You may feel that your previous good results came from luck or from other people's support rather than your own abilities. Low self-esteem or self-efficacy can also really impact how you feel and cause you to feel like a fraud. 3. Low self-esteem When you have low self-esteem, it can cause you to self-doubt to not believe that you're good enough. Brené Brown has researched that the number one limiting belief is “I'm not good enough”, even though you might have all the evidence to prove differently. I see this a lot in my programs as the #1 limiting belief. Those are some of the internal factors that could cause you to feel this way. Let's look at some external factors. 1. Society’s pressures and expectations of you What about society's pressures and expectations of you? How many times have you judged a mom for being on her phone on the playground? I'm sure you have, or kids that are on screens while they're at dinner.  There are expectations of how we need to be in every single role in our lives, and if we don't meet those expectations, then we're not amazing, and we'll feel like frauds. The problem is everyone’s situation is different, and we wear so many hats that we can’t meet every expectation for every role.
2. Comparing ourselves to others Have you ever been scrolling, especially doom-scrolling on social media, and you see the perfect family in matching outfits? You see the amazing business owners with awesome successes happening in the business and all the money they're making? There's so much marketing BS out there about how much people are making and pretending that “Things just happened.” Successes don't just happen—they are made with strategy and work. I can remember in one of the presentations I do, I share a photo of my family. Everyone thinks, “Wow, such a perfect family.” The truth I always tell everyone is that it’s three photos that were digitally edited together to make sure that everyone was looking at the camera and smiling. There you go, I think I was the only original face and everyone else's was added in. When we compare ourselves to others, we feel like frauds because we don't know their backstory or everything else that's happened to help them get there. 3. Super competitive and unsupportive culture The last one is being part of a super competitive and/or unsupportive culture. This could be in your business network or workplace, where people point out the things you're doing wrong and make you feel inadequate. When others often tell you about your mistakes and shortcomings, it’s hard to see the accomplishments, growth, and skills you have. I wish we could all work in places where others are truly happy for your success rather than feeling the need to compete or cut you down. Wrapping Up Those are six factors that could be making you feel like a fraud. In my next blog, I will share the common signs of being an imposter and the things you can do to prevent yourself from feeling like a fraud. Plus, if you’re feeling like a fraud and think that you can’t be an author, then I’d love you to join my free webinar on June 18th where I’ll share with you all about the world of co-writing. It will explore your audience, establish your authority, and you’ll be able to leave a legacy. Save your spot here. Read my other blogs: 1. 3 Main Things to Look for in Collaborative Book Opportunities 2. What Are You Waiting For 3. 3 Ways You’ll Get Left Behind by NOT Being an Author Are you feeling like you have so much to do? In this blog, I’m going to share my strategy for delegating. I hope you steal it. I hope you use it. I hope you've stopped doing everything yourself. Recently, on my Instagram and Facebook stories, I talked about how we keep doing too much in our businesses. I'm speaking to you, the high-achieving, successful, A-type, driven woman who has a lot going on and who wants to achieve a lot. We're doing way too much in our businesses. What we need to do is get really good at delegating, give ourselves permission to release control, and bring someone on to help us out.  If you didn't know yet, I actually have two main virtual assistants, Kristine and Karissa. They're absolutely amazing. I've been working with them for over three years. I'm so excited I get to meet them in September. I'm going to the Philippines when I'm over in Bali for the Global Speakers Summit, as well as maybe popping into Japan. (If you're in any of those places, let me know and let me know what I should see.) Anyway, let's go to the strategy. Let me share first what I see people doing. Then I'm going to share my 6P Process of Delegating. I also shared that in my stories and I was getting a lot of DMs about…
I discuss this with my clients in the Virtual Assistant Made Easy Program. As a side note, we have three spots open right now for people to come on and be matched with one of my virtual assistants. I have a team of 14. If you're interested in that, send me a message at [email protected]. Doors are closing this Friday, June 7, at 11:59 p.m. PDT. Message me, and we'll have a one-on-one chat about what you need and whether this is a good solution for you. What I see people do For a long time, I have heard people ask, “What should I delegate? Should I delegate my email? Maybe they can make some videos for me. What else should I delegate? I don't know. Maybe they can do some research or some cold calling.” They throw some tasks at their assistant, VA, contracted person, or whoever it may be. They give tasks that aren't actually what they need to be done to reach their goals. Not only that, but they don't already have a process or a standard operating procedure (SOP) for it. They're trying to reinvent the wheel, giving them some tasks to do, which aren't actually moving them forward in their business. I want to give you my 6 “P” Process of Delegating. I'm going to talk through each piece. I often share this when I'm doing a session about working with a virtual assistant in the VA Made Easy Program, and so if you're a client of mine, you have access to this as well. The 6 “P” Process of Delegating  First P: Pause When should you pause? If you're starting to delegate, then you want to “pause” in the beginning. If you have already been delegating, you can also use this step of pausing anytime you get overwhelmed or too busy. Then, every quarter, you should plan to pause. Definitely do this at the start of a new year and any time anything has changed, or you bring on someone new. Why do we hit the pause button? Well, because we want to have that time to get a bird's eye view of how things are going, so we’re not scrambling, and so we can just take time to ask, “Is this what I should be doing right now?” You want to be thinking about that, right? You want to ask yourself,
These are some really great questions to answer. Then, after we pause, we plan. Second P: Plan Ask yourself:
The first piece is pause in order to just take a breath and to have clarity and time to figure out what the plan is. In the planning, then you look at, “What am I needing to do in order to reach my goals that I actually want to achieve?” not just things that you think you have to do. From there, you can then start to pass off work. Third P: Pass Off Ideally, you can pass off to someone on your team like a virtual assistant who. The benefit is they already know about your business and about you. There's less of a learning curve when you already have someone on your team. It's much easier to pass off tasks because you don't have to go find someone to do it. You already have someone there. You can pass off daily, weekly, monthly tasks and even better full systems! If you don't have someone already, we can have a conversation because I can match you with a virtual assistant who I've already vetted, hired, trained in many tasks, and who was already working with my CEOs. But once you pass off, the next P is “Protect”. Fourth P: Protect What are we protecting? Our time. We just cleared stuff off of our plate by passing it off to someone else. We want to protect our time. Not only that, but we want to make sure we're saying yes to things that will move our business forward and no to the things that are wrong for us and wrong for our business. The wrong tasks are other people's agendas, ones that take us away from what we already want to be achieving. It also doesn't mean that you go and organize your closet. Focus on what you need to use the time for the most. For example, if you need more clients, you go and do cash flow activities to bring on new clients etc.  If you need to increase sales of your products, you're putting energy into that. Maybe it's the marketing or the copywriting. You're going to be able to put energy into the things that you need to do because your VA can take on tasks and take other “to dos” off your plate. One of my clients came to one of our monthly CEO calls. One of her wins was that she got three new clients the previous week. I said, “How'd you do that?” She said, “Well because my VA took on this one project, I was able to focus on following up with my leads.” Oh, my goodness, how amazing! She just followed up with leads and she got three clients. Imagine she'd been doing that earlier. How many more sales, recurring sales, or more clients could have happened? There may be a lot of leads who fell through the cracks because she wasn't on top of it. But now she gets to be because she is freed up because she protected her time to focus on the things that mattered most. Fifth P: Persist Now, why do you persist? Because I'll tell you, sometimes, when you pass things off, the results you get are not what you were looking for and it could be because you didn’t give good enough instructions. You'll learn from that. But you have to persist by giving them better instructions and by not saying, “Forget it, I'm going to do it myself.” Look again at your instructions. Make sure that you're giving feedback that will continuously help move your business forward. For example, don't just say, “I don't like that.” Give the feedback of “Why?” What's going on with it? What changes need to be made? So that they not only learn for this task, this project, this thing you're passing off, but they learn in general about how you want things done. If you said, “On this landing page, we always need a hook at the top. A question or something to draw in the person that is looking at this.” Now they know every landing page needs a hook. They know that because you've just taught them the what and why rather than just saying, “Put a question at the top.” We know what it's supposed to be. Now, they can apply that to every future task. Trust me, it gets easier. It gets so much easier when your virtual assistant can start thinking, “What does my client want? What are they looking for?” One of the most amazing parts with my team is watching how they have learned and how they call me out sometimes. When I say, “What about this?” They're like, “Hey, remember, we want to do this?” I'm like, “Right, right.” That persistence that you'll have will make things run so much smoother. Speaking of when thing run smoother, that gets into number six. Sixth P: Push Number six is you get to push on the gas pedal. This means that if your VA does a task well, then have them do it more. If they've done a bunch of social media posts for you, and you think, “Yes, you've got my brand. You've got the aesthetic. I like what you're doing with the quotes. You're learning how to pull them properly.” Push on the pedal. Have them do that more or weekly or create a system around it.  You don't have to throw 10 or 100 new tasks at them now; just have them do more of the same. If they did five good posts, have them do 25 posts, 50 posts, 500 posts, and continue to do it to build that skill. Then more time and space will be freed up for you while you enjoy the results of their work. Why it’s a cycle That’s my 6 “P” Process of delegating. Then the reason why it goes back to pausing again is because things will get busy again. Now, why? Because…
Therefore, you need to pass off more. You need to give more of your tasks. When I have this feeling, I know I have to pass off more things. The great thing is because your VA and you have also persisted, they're getting faster and more efficient at their tasks. We can maximize their time and give them more because…
We can give them more tasks without having to add more hours a lot of the time. We get back to that Pause and we say,
We look at the plan again. Then we pass off more. We protect our time. We persist because these are new items we’re delegating. You can even pass off decision-making! The last time I paused, I realized I needed to pass off more decision-making to Kristine and Karissa. Since then, I’ve seen how they're doing an incredible job on this. But we had to persist a bit because decision-making is so dependent on the situation, and now I'm pushing on the pedal in a lot of cases. One of them just happened today. I said, “Hey, should we do this?” I got a response, “No, I don't think we should do this for XYZ reason.” It was amazing. I was like, “Yes, I agree.” In this 6 “P” process of delegating, I promise you'll become more efficient at delegating. You'll be able to maximize your team's time. You'll be able to open up more of your own time to be inspired, create, and do the things that have you in your zone of genius, your core competencies, and your sweet spot. That resonance, that energy will come up. As I said, we have three spots for Virtual Assistant Made Easy. You can book a call with me to learn more. In the Virtual Assistant Made Easy program, I help you figure out what to delegate, how to delegate, how to train, and how to have your VA create your SOPs for you because they're going to document your processes. You don't have to come into the program knowing what you want to delegate yet. I've got that covered. We even have a list of 229 tasks that you can delegate, as well as a PDF booklet that has the tasks you can delegate when you're busy, on holiday, or sick. So many of the tasks I have given to my VAs for the different aspects of my business - coaching, fee-paid speaking, women's community, running events, podcasting, YouTube, my social media, my collaborative books, my own books, my workshops, and the list goes on and on and on. Don't do it alone. Having someone on your team, as my clients have said, has been the best investment in themselves in and their business. It's probably a lot less than you thought it would be. Especially less than hiring someone local to work with you or a specialist. We hire general virtual assistants that can do a wide range of tasks. You don't even have to worry about the hiring process because I take care of that for you. Then I'm in the mix. I support both sides to have a long-lasting relationship. Because, that's what we want, right? We don't want these one off projects with people. We don't like it when people ghost us. We want someone as invested in our business as we are. True or true? Very true. I hope you'll steal my strategy of the 6 “P” process of delegating, and that you'll start bringing this in every quarter. A bonus to the Virtual Assistant Made Easy program is that every quarter, we have our very own strategic planning session where I ask you these questions. I help you to pause and then ask you what do you want to achieve in the next quarter. Then help you plan what are the goals are and therefore what can we pass off. If you want to be part of it, we have our next quarterly session at the end of June 2024. If you want to be in, you will be invited to that as well. P.S. I hope to see you over in the Dynamic Women Facebook Community. It is free to join. I'm going to be going live there a lot more. It's where I like to share a lot of my inside tips and tricks for having a business and a balanced life. Read my other blogs:
One of my friends and clients, Tanya Steele, asked me, “I know all of your guests have been extraordinary. I've listened to many of the podcasts. But if you could pick one of your favourites, I know they're all spectacular, but one of your favourite moments with one of your guests. Who was that guest and what was that really great memory for you?”
Sometimes, I've been caught off guard, and I've actually become very emotional with people's stories or what they're sharing, or I've heard myself in what they're sharing. It was really hard to stay professional and not be like, “Oh my, I’m crying because of what you said”. That's the one side and the other is the tips where I learn. As hosts, it's our job to pull the information out of the guest. Sometimes we ask questions that we already know the answer to because we either train it or we just know, or we've read books or we've worked with this person, but we still ask those questions because our listener needs to have the privilege of the answers to those questions as well. Sometimes, I already know because I've done a pre-talk with them as well. But when I can ask something where I learned something completely new, where I'm like, “Whoa, I never thought of that?” Those are the ones I love the most because I get something really big out of it. What I learned in running my podcast
We have a member from the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS) community, David Gouthro, who just started a podcast. He just wants to have great conversations with cool people to get different perspectives. That's wonderful. That's a passion project. But if you're doing this as part of your business, you need to have a strategy for why you're doing it. That could be…
I’ll share more, my two virtual assistants Karissa and Kristine, repurpose the video that I'm doing into the podcast, onto my YouTube, into my newsletter, onto my social, into my blog, and then into my email. It goes across the whole board. But you really have to know, “Why am I doing this?” and then build it based on that. Really, that's the secret to a good podcast. The other is making it something that just naturally fits into your life or your business. Maybe you need to do it every single week. Maybe you prefer to batch them, like do four at a time. It's much easier, and you don't have to be thinking about it every week. Doing whatever it takes to be able to have it be manageable because the worst thing is to start a podcast, do some episodes and then your listeners are hooked and then they go,
The listener is going to go find a different podcast and you could lose them. Consistency is crucial, and for you, if it's once a week, great. If it's every day, good luck. I'm sure you have a plan for that. Tanya understands all this, as she is also a podcast host for her podcast, Safety Debris. She said that she records her episodes in batches. They film five to six episodes in one day, and then they release them once every three to four weeks. They’ve been doing it for two and a half years. “We started just in the middle of COVID and I’ve got a cohost Richard Dulong, who's also a CAPS member, and we just have a lot of fun with our guests just like you do. Thanks, Diane. Really, I just wanted to be you when I grew up, so I'm just trying to follow in your footsteps because you're awesome.” One of the hardest things in doing a podcast One of the hardest things about doing the podcast is bringing on people who take a position or stance on a topic that is opposite to me or that I agree with, but I don’t feel I can publicly take that stance. Having the podcast, I'm very careful about who I bring on. I interview guests every other episode or for a while, I've just been doing it all myself, but I'm always cautious about, “Is this person's values, beliefs, morals in alignment with mine?” I care about my listeners, and I don't want them hearing something that's not in alignment or worse, is disrespectful. So that's been one of the hardest parts for me is if the guest is going to say or do something that isn't in alignment, “What am I going to do in the moment?”  I'm not looking to be confrontational. I think that's been one of the hardest pieces about the podcast, is vetting people properly. I also don't want them to be all sales like, “Here's this product I have, and here's another product, and here's why you should buy for me”. That's not fun. And I think that's why I like the vulnerability story pieces more. Secret to a Good Podcast What I'd like to say is that over the past five years, I think having good topics makes a good podcast. Sometimes my titles are a little bit trickier like, “Sometimes I feel alone”. That title might have drawn you in because you're like, “What? Diane feels alone?” That's true that I do, but I'm also speaking for others. Another is “The Best and Worst Gifts My Mom Ever Gave Me.” My husband, who doesn't listen to the podcast, said to me, “Okay, I haven't listened to it. But just tell me what are the best and worst gifts your mom has ever given you?” I had to tell him because he thought it was like an actual item rather than the gift of belief in me. It's important to have keyword-driven titles for your episodes. What are your main people typing into search engines? This isn't to trick or trap them. This is to give them what they're looking for. Don't be super clever with your titles where they don’t know what you’re really talking about. Give them the things that they're actually looking for. As I said before, consistency is key. Batch your episodes if you need to be consistent. What I've also learned, which is kind of interesting, is doing my own episodes is actually less work. It's less work to have just me do it to record it than organizing a guest and the back and forth between my guests and Kristine, who does a great job of that. I often just choose to do my own episodes. But I also know the value of having guests, not just for my listeners to have another perspective, but also in a strategic way. They're now opening my podcast up to more listeners. It is a good thing. It's a win-win. My intention in doing the podcast is to always be able to reach and serve my audience. Then over the years, I've realized it's also a content machine, and it’s how I prefer to create my content. I don't love writing, so it's much easier for me to speak into the podcast, and then to edit that into the blog, which is way easier than when I used to write the blog and then try to do the podcast from that. It was less from the heart and more from my analytical brain. Then I guess the last piece is to figure out what your ideal audience wants to know and it's kind of sad because I don't always know what you guys want because I don't hear from you. Email me at [email protected] to let me know or if you don’t know what you want to hear about, then tell me what you have heard that you love and want more of or your goals/obstacles, and I’ll come up with something to support you and your success. Whatever it is, I'm open to hearing it. The last thing I'll say to anyone wanting to do a podcast, who has a podcast, who's written books, who's put anything out there, even social media posts, LinkedIn articles, whatever it may be, you don't always know that people are consuming your content. I can remember when I stopped my weekly newsletter for a little bit. I had someone reach out to me and say, “Hey, did I get off your list somehow? I'm not getting it.” I didn't even know that person was reading them. Likewise, I bump into people at events or when I’m on stages and people will say, “I loved your recent podcast.” But they never comment! For those of you who are actually commenting, writing reviews, giving me feedback that you love the episodes, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. For those of you who haven't yet, why not? Tell me what you like. It helps to spur me on to do more of that. For those of you out there who have put stuff out and you're just feeling a little frustrated, because you're not getting that feedback, there is a chance that your people are listening. They're just so busy they haven't replied or they didn't think you needed it. So keep it up! Read my other blogs:
In most of my blogs, my topics are very education-centered or education-driven. There are how-tos. Sometimes, I share stories. Sometimes, they get real, raw, and vulnerable. This is going to be one of those.  Who is saying “Sometimes I feel alone” Where did this comment, “Sometimes I feel alone,” come from? Well, women have said this to me at events, when we're doing the hallway chats or the bathroom lineup talks. Or they come and see me after I've spoken on stage or done a breakout session. They come up to me, and we talk about it. Sometimes tears are shed. They say, “Sometimes I feel alone.” Clients have said this to me in coaching sessions, group sessions, or when they've come to Dynamic Women events. They've said, “Sometimes I feel alone. I come here, and now I don't.” I sometimes feel this, and it can be really strange for me to deal with and for people to even understand. The people who say this are often leading full, busy lives, with lots of people around them and lots of things happening. They have a lot of responsibility. They're strong leaders and high achievers. For me, I've got my soccer team, my friends, my business community, my family, my church community, my Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS) community, and on and on. Why I say it sometimes How can we feel lonely when we have such full lives and so many people around us? Well, because we're strong, leaders, high achievers, and confident, oftentimes people think that…
A lot of times, in the roles that we play in the different organizations we're a part of or the teams we are in charge of, we are the ones that others look to, to lean on, to get support from. Often, I'll be in an educational setting where I am not the leader and it's not my material, I'm there as a student, but I see others struggling, where I understand something or where I'm feeling good about where I'm at in the program, I will lean in and support others. But what I find is I then take that role on, and then I don't get the support I need from whoever's leading it because they're also looking to support the people who are struggling more. This was always the case in school. I was always sat beside the struggling kid, the new kid, the ESL kid, the bullied kid. My job was twofold. One, to help them to be able to learn the material, maybe by sharing it in a different way or going a bit slower or using different words. Then the other piece is bringing them into the fold of the group. I have such a heart for bringing people in. The funny thing is it comes from my own feeling of not feeling included. You may think, “Diane, how are you not included?” or “You just have the confidence. You can work a room.” Well, I have to force that because it's not always easy. I find that strong, independent, high-achieving successful women don't have other people to lean on in the same way, and don't have the same support system. They are the ones who carry a lot of other people. I'm not saying other people are to blame. I'm just saying this is often the situation.  There are a lot of things that are going to come up for me in 2024 that I'm putting together right now for these women. Because I hear them say:
There is a need for this. This is what I'm putting together. For now, I'll just let you know, there are a couple of spots in the She’s Goaled 2.0 program. This is an amazing place where…
All with the aim to support you to achieve your own goals, not the goals of others, because everyone's on their own goal journey. Where you can achieve your own goals without the need to carry others. There are still a few spots. I'll keep those open so that we can have the greatest group possible. What you can do What now for you if you say that sometimes I feel alone, and you're in this category, this group of people that I'm talking about?
We don't see geese flying alone because nature isn't meant to be that way. You need the synergy of a group.  Find your group, find your people, find others who are just as strong as you, or stronger than you, who challenge you to be better, where you're not the biggest fish in the pond. 2. Get a leader or a mentor, a coach, or an advisor. Someone who you can learn from. A guru or whatever it is, who is ahead of you, or who you can put your full confidence in. There are a lot of people in my life that I pay to be part of my team, so different coaches and such. Sometimes they're just there to hear me cry. Sometimes they're there to remind me that I can do hard things. Sometimes they're there to tell me what the next step is when I don't have the clarity. 3. Add in some support structure. Not just some random people in your life, but an actual structure where you're part of a program or you agree to meet certain times to have that accountability or that check-in. Because that's where a lot of times the “I feel alone” comes from is that everyone thinks you're fine. Everyone thinks you're good. It's not that you're putting it on, or you're faking it, but you’re self-reliable, you’re independent, you’re capable, you’re successful. People don't feel like they need to baby you or check in on you. But feeling alone is a really sad, sad place to be because then you cocoon in. Being alone and feeling alone are different because you can feel alone in a massive work environment or with tons of family and friends around you. If this is your place, then seek some support as well. Make sure you have a coach, a counselor, or someone you can confide in. I often say to my clients, “Bring me your mess, so you can be magnificent in the world.” We're not meant to be perfect. We're not meant to have everything fall in line and be exactly how it needs to be. If you're feeling alone, then take that step to not feel alone. Even just telling someone else, “I feel alone”, and if I'm that person, great, email me, [email protected] or send me a message on social media. I don't ever want anyone to feel alone. It is a hard place to be, and you can't use your gifts in the best way and do what you were meant to be brought here on Earth to do if you're in that place. Don't feel alone anymore and do something about it. If you are one of these strong leaders, high achievers, independent, self-reliable women, make sure your name is on my radar because I'm putting together some really amazing projects. I'm putting together an invitation list for the women who feel this way who are wondering, “Where are my people? Where are the other strong women where I get to maybe show more vulnerability around or I don't have to carry others?” If you're curious about that or wanting to know more, please email me [email protected] to say, “Hey, I'm one of those people. I read your blog, ‘Sometimes I feel alone’, and I'm one of those high achievers and looking for my flock.” I'd be happy to share some cool new initiatives that I'm doing. Read my other blogs:
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