This week’s podcast episode is going to help you simply your life and business. The stress of chaotic schedules and spaces keeps us from living effectively. I know for me a few practical tips can make all the difference. Our guest this week has personally helped me simplify my own life through simple, easy-to-do daily changes. One small change got me thinking beyond my personal life to business.
I can’t wait to share a few tips to simplify your business today!
In addition to a laundry mountain, I have mail mountain. It piles up high for weeks or months until I finally address it and sort it into neat stacks.
What if we had permanent stacks?
What if there were permanent places where those things go?
What if we created, like my friend April Perry calls it, a Command Center?
You probably already know the main categories of paperwork you encounter throughout the month in your business.
Just start there.
Do a little bit of work on the front end, and create spaces to sort your paperwork as it comes in! Whether it’s your email inbox, your computer desktop, or a few literal spaces, this strategy is going to help reduce stress in the long run.
When my husband Matt and I were planning our wedding and had a larger invitation list than our budget would allow, our wedding planner provided us with a challenge: cut 10%. We eliminated 10% of our list by eliminating from each category.
The same challenge can be applied to your workspace. What if you cut a percentage of what was there? Let’s say 30%. Go into your work space and choose 30% of the items taking up space to sort, store, or throw away. Junk, clutter, and the seventeen pieces of artwork from your children are overwhelming your space. It’s time to approach your workspace with an elimination mindset.
Imagine creating a workspace you actually want to work in. You’ll enjoy your work more when you've created a space that you love.
Related: How to Have More Time
When it comes to your customers, less is more. In products, design, and content, it’s important to create clarity. If it’s complicated to you, it’s even more complicated to your customers.
You want to make sure you have a clear path for your customers. A million options with a million varieties is not clear for your customers. It’s overwhelming.
Research shows the more options you give people, the less likely they are to buy. People do better with limited options.
Get rid of anything in your product offerings that wastes space, doesn’t sell, you don’t enjoy making, or has a horrible profit margin. You’ll leave more space and fewer options for your customers to actually buy what they want.
Just like with your product offerings, your website needs to be simple and clear for your customers.
My friend Donald Miller says, “People don’t buy the best products and services; they buy those they understand the quickest.” People understand the fastest when you give them a few simple words. Everything needs to have a purpose and a point—every tab, landing page, and product description. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t need to be there.
When I’m writing a talk, I challenge myself to write the “one sentence.” What’s the one thing I want people to know? Then everything I say points back to that one thing.
Your website should be just like that! Your website is a source of communication with your customers. Make it as clear as possible.
What landing page, words, or images are not the most important things you want your customer to know?
What words are confusing? What words are a distraction?
Similar to your workspace, you can approach your schedule with an elimination mindset. Set a goal and take a percentage right off the top.
It’s time to find some margin, and the best way to do that is to be honest with yourself about what you have to do, and what you just think you have to do.
You don’t have to do a lot of what you think you do. That’s how we get burnt out: doing all the things halfway. You made that to-do list. You can cut some of it.
What if you created margin to do the things you wanted to do, and then did them really well?
Related: How to Create Your Perfect Schedule
You can make these changes. You can stop perpetually running ragged. I firmly believe that you can slow down and begin to do less and do those things better.
I’m speaking to myself on all of these things. In order to do the things that matter most to me, I have to create margin.
If you have followed me at all, you know I am always encouraging you to organize and simplify, and that’s why I am thrilled to have Emily Ley as our podcast guest.
Emily Ley is the Founder and Creative Director of Simplified®, a brand of planners and organizational tools for busy women. Emily has authored two books: Grace, Not Perfection: Embracing Simplicity, Celebrating Joy and the national best-seller, A Simplified Life: Tactical Tools for Intentional Living.
Emily grew her business from the ground up while remaining a debt-free company (p.s., YOU GO GIRL!)
After finding success online, Emily Ley’s brand quickly grew to be carried in retail outlets all around the world. Emily’s success didn’t come without learning curves and tough decisions to maintain her company’s values. In fact, she recently had to make the decision to cut down on wholesale to be able to better connect with the customer.
Related: Business Values: What Your Business Should Be About
I am thrilled that Emily Ley will be a speaker at our Business Boutique 3-Day Event in Nashville this November!
In this episode, Emily Ley and I talk about:
I’m going to give you some encouragement for something that I’m not always the best at.
Y’all know me. I am a mover and a shaker. Because I love what I do, there are times that I choose to work even when I don’t have to. If I’m not careful, I can become a workaholic. I can get so driven, focused, and goal-oriented that I forget why I do all this in the first place. I do this to spend time with my family, have fun, have a life, and rest.
We’re really good at setting goals in our business, aren’t we? But I think we neglect setting goals in one major area. Rest should be a goal too. Recuperation, recovery, and rejuvenation are also metrics we should also value.
How do I feel?
How are my husband and I?
When did I last spend time with my friends?
Have I had quality time with my kids today?
I don’t know where you are in this busy season. But I want to remind you that rest and recovery aren’t just things for the summer. It’s something for us to incorporate into every season of our lives.
Related: The Truth About Work-Life Balance
“He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters.” Psalm 23:2 (NIV)
I love this verse because of that word makes. God knows that sometimes I won’t lie down unless He makes me.
Don’t push the pedal to the metal so much that you lose track of the things that give you rest and rejuvenate you most.
Don’t forget that I love hearing from you! Give me a call on my new toll-free line at 844.944.1074. You might hear your question on a future episode!
1:30 How to Simplify Your Business
17:11 How to Simplify Your Business with Emily Ley
41:52 #AskChristyWright
46:03 Encouragement to Rest
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To save $10 on any Business Boutique Nashville ticket, use the code BBWRIGHT.
Sign up for the Business Boutique Academy waitlist at BusinessBoutique.com/Academy.
If you have a success story you would like to share with the Business Boutique community, email me at podcast@businessboutique.com.
New podcast episodes are available every other week.
If you want to go anywhere in business or life, you’re going to need to get outside your comfort zone and try something new.
In 2016, when Business Boutique was just starting, my team and I decided to try something new. We knew we wanted another format outside of our event to share the message of Business Boutique. We decided to start a podcast. And to be honest, it wasn’t my first choice. I would have much rather focused my attention and efforts on creating more video content.
There were a few things that factored into our decision to pursue an audio format over video format, but one large factor was that I was pregnant with my second son, Conley. We knew that it would be difficult to record videos and maintain a consistent production schedule through my pregnancy and my maternity leave. So we decided to try something new with this whole podcast thing.
Luckily it’s worked.
But when we first started recording the podcast, the format was hard for me.
It was recorded. It wasn’t live. There was no audience for me to interact with. It was just me. With a giant microphone in my face. Alone in a room with my podcast producer, Chris.
To put it plainly, it was outside my comfort zone.
I’m comfortable speaking to a live audience or on video. I felt limited with the audio format. I didn’t know how to translate my emotions and my facial features over an audio podcast. I was afraid that my energy and excitement wouldn’t translate. It was something I’d never done before.
Despite my hesitation, I trusted my team. And I’m so glad I did. We tried something new and we’ve seen an incredible impact.
We’ve reached over 2 million downloads and recorded 54 episodes.
We’ve heard so many stories from listeners who have taken what they’ve learned and started businesses, grown beyond their wildest dreams, and made money doing what they love. Think of all the people who have been inspired because we chose to communicate information in a way that could be listened to in the car, on a run or while doing the dishes.
It was all possible because we tried something outside my comfort zone.
What does that look like for you?
Related: Ep. 46—Use Your Gifts to Make a Difference
We think of our comfort zone as something scary. But it’s not just that. Pursing something outside your comfort zone doesn’t mean that you always have to do something scary.
It doesn’t have to always be bigger or involve more risk; it might just be something that you’ve never done before—something that you’re not comfortable with. That’s why we call it a comfort zone.
When we choose to live inside our comfort zones, we make statements about ourselves.
I’m not a writer.
I’m not business minded.
I can’t do it.
I don’t have enough time.
We put limitations and labels on ourselves and then we live within them.
But what if God doesn’t agree with your labels?
What if God wants to do something new in you—something outside your comfort zone?
What if He doesn’t have those same limitations for you?
Related: Don’t Let Fear Stop You From Starting
When you choose to step outside your comfort zone, the thing that used to scare you actually becomes a part of your comfort zone. One day you look up and think, I can’t believe I’m doing this. It all happens one baby step at a time as you learn, grow and become your new self. But it only happens outside your comfort zone.
As you become more you can do more, and as you do more you can go after more things!
In this episode I’m going to teach you:
I know that in my own life, every time I’ve stepped outside my comfort zone I’ve been equipped to take on even bigger things. Doing the thing I’m most scared to do often empowers me to take on new things, reach new heights, and achieve things I never thought possible.
The same will be true for you too. It’s time to get outside your comfort zone and try something new!
Y’all, when I say this woman is a powerhouse, I am not EVEN kidding!
Sarah Jakes Roberts is a take-charge businesswoman, writer and media personality who expertly balances career, ministry and family.
In Sarah’s 2014 memoir, Lost and Found: Finding Hope in the Detours of Life, Sarah shared her story in a completely transparent way that people can’t help but to gravitate to her.
Her father, Bishop T.D. Jakes, is a megachurch pastor, bestselling author and film producer, and her mother, Mrs. Serita Jakes, is an author, media personality and business executive. Sarah and her husband, Touré Roberts, pastor a dynamic community of artists and professionals in Hollywood, CA, while also raising their five beautiful children.
I am so excited that Sarah Jakes Roberts is speaking on “Living Out your Purpose” at our Business Boutique 3-Day Event in Nashville this November!
In this episode, Sarah Jakes Roberts and I talk about:
Related: The Fastest Way to Grow in Your Gifts
I also have a challenge for you to stop saying the word "little" when you talk about your business. Lastly, don’t forget that I love hearing from you! Give me a call on my new toll-free line at 844.944.1074. You might hear your question on a future episode!
1:21 How to Push Past Your Comfort Zone and Try Something New
17:11 Interview with Sarah Jakes Roberts
41:52 Challenge to Stop Saying the Word "Little"
46:03 #ASKCHRISTYWRIGHT
Get Christy's Fear or Wisdom Filter by filling out the form here!
To save $10 on any Business Boutique Nashville ticket, use the code BBWRIGHT.
Sign up for the Business Boutique Academy waitlist at BusinessBoutique.com/Academy.
If you have a success story you would like to share with the Business Boutique community, email me at podcast@businessboutique.com.
New podcast episodes are available every other week.