Full Episode Transcript

Hey, hey, Erin Kelly here. So happy start to a new week. And the topic that I decided on for today is actually very much related to what I ended last week with in terms of really staying intentional not falling into the hustle mode. And not forcing yourself to stick to a schedule of self imposed milestones or deadlines, if it is burning you out.

And so always being open to small tweaks, that would make a big difference in terms of how you're experiencing your workload. So today, I'm really thinking about staying intentional, versus falling into being reactionary. And this can look like a lot of different things it can be, you get an email in your inbox, and it immediately like throws your day off, because now you're thinking that you need to deal with this other thing. Or maybe it's maybe it's not negative, maybe it's positive, maybe somebody sends replies to an email that you sent.

And they're like, Oh, my gosh, like, I wish that you did this, or you had this or that you offered it like this. And it like, totally hits a nerve with you. And you're like, yes, like, I want to do this. And I want to do it right now. And you get so focused on that, that you let go of what other intentional things that you had planned for your day.

So that's one way that it can look, it can look like having so many things on your to do list that you're completely overwhelmed and scattered and you weren't sure which one is the first priority. And it makes you feel like you're not making for progress, because you're trying to attack all of these different things. And none of them are.

None of them are necessarily yielding like a specific result yet. Or, you know, even showing that there's anything happening. Sometimes that can be emailing your list, or it can be growing your list or showing up on social media.

And so you can feel like you're putting all this effort out and you're not really getting a lot in return. podcasting is also like that, you know, this podcast, I have not gotten a ton of feedback yet. I've gotten some feedback. But then I know from previous podcasts that like, I won't get any immediate feedback.

But then a month later, someone will post in our Collaborative user community on Facebook, and they'll be like, Oh, my gosh, Erin's episode on this made me like, inspired me to do this thing that has created this in my life. And it's like, oh, my gosh, like, I had no idea that was happening.

So a lot of times, the things that we're putting effort out into the world with can feel like nothing's happening, and that you're putting all this effort out, but then nothing is really coming back yet. And so it can make you feel like, why am I even doing this thing, and I feel really scattered, and I feel really overwhelmed, etc.

And so today, you know, for, for us, like we've been making some big decisions for MemberVault. In terms of the background code that it built on, we've been making some big decisions about our team. You know, we we hire, we just recently hired a new developer who is awesome, and we're really, really loving that. And so that's kind of changed the team dynamic and like, okay, like, are we going to hire another developer? Like, when do we need a designer like, it's we're having lots of like big picture decisions and discussions, which can feel a little overwhelming, because there's definitely a lot of growth and comfort zones being pushed, and change.

And so we just finished, we kind of pretty much have finished our Action Lab push. So we, we aren't really managing that project now. We're kind of in the optimization stage of like, okay, like we did this thing, it's getting a good response, like, how can we make sure that it's optimized, I'm looking at our onboarding for new users and wanting to improve that. So there's like a lot of different projects is what I'm trying to share here. There's a lot happening behind the scenes over here.

And I'm sure the same can be said about your business, there's a lot of decisions that you have to make, there's a lot of actions that you want to do. There's a lot of opportunities that you see. And when you are in that stage, because it's like, when we were doing Action Lab, I was so focused on getting that done that it was very clear. You know, it was like project management brain.

These are the tasks that we have to do to hit this deadline. And nothing else can, nothing else can fit in because there's, this is what we're focused on right now. But when you're done with a big project, or maybe like a big client, retainer, something like that, it can all of a sudden, like all of these things that kind of were pending, or that you weren't thinking about because you had to do this, not crisis mode, so much as like deadline focused thing.

Now they're kind of all rushing into the same time. And so it can be very easy to fall into reactionary mode where you're trying to do all the things but you aren't being intentional about why you're doing them. You know, another another thing is I'm you know, I'm looking at we have Have two communities on Facebook right now we have the Collaborative user community. And then we have the Maximize your MV community, which is for paid users. And that's where we do like some of the things that we've done in the past that were for only paid users that we wanted to have community involvement in.

And so, you know, looking at what has worked, this is I've been showing up in February, every day, pretty much inside of that community. And it's been really fun, and I really enjoy it, and the users are really happy. And there's been a lot of action taking, which always makes me happy to see what people are doing in their accounts.

And so there's a lot of things I've been reflecting on like, okay, like, how are we going to continue this after February. And one of the things that has come up is really looking again, at using the Circle community tool, which takes you off of Facebook, we could embed it into our member vault, it makes sense for our long term plans, etc, etc, right. But it also kind of falls under a shiny object, because it's not the most important mission.

And it kind of has come about because of my thinking around, you know, the success of the Action Lab and the success of the engagement that's been happening in February, inside of the Maximize community, but knowing that that's not sustainable for me to do, just like having an open ended. And so this is, I think, this is definitely where you can get just like very much caught up in oh my gosh, there's all these decisions I have to make. And there's all these things, and there's always opportunities and like, Ah, you know, and then you're not feeling like you're actually making a lot of forward progress.

And so I checked in with myself when I was doing my kind of To Do List journal slash you know, just mental defragging this morning. And I was like, okay, like, I, I can see that I have a lot of different decisions, you know, making sure that we have a transcript workflow for the podcast, like all of these kind of like, disconnected decisions that need to be analyzed, I need to really prioritize those and make sure that I am doing the one that directly impacts our most important mission.

First, and our most important mission right now is we're really wanting to optimize our onboarding. So the new users can very, very immediately understand and people that are kicking the tires too, can very much immediately understand what MemberVault can do for them. And then once they sign up, it's very clear how to actually execute that. And so we've always been, you know, working on this, obviously, it's very important to have clear onboarding for your business.

And that goes for you, too. You know, when someone signs up for a freebie, are you making it very clear how they can work with you and like how they can take advantage of, of your brain and gets your support and everything. So onboarding is really important. And so we haven't really, we haven't put a lot of attention on that.

In the last like, quarter, we've been focusing on other things. And so it's like, okay, like, this is where we need to kind of come back to and like, really track our metrics a little bit better, and know that we're actually improving this, and etc, etc, right. So it's like, all of these other decisions, like the circle thing and everything. Yes, they're important, but they are not the first important high impact things going to address the most important mission for us, which is optimizing our onboarding.

And so that is how I am going to be stepping away from being reactionary, and into intentionality, which also will help me feel like I'm more in control that I know what I need to do. And that if I don't get to some of these other things, that it's okay, for today, or this week or this month, because they will still be there. And we will be able to address them at the right time, right place.

And so I thought this was a really good topic, because I think that I know, from working with a lot of people that it is very easy to get stuck in overwhelm, and uncertainty and like, this was one of the discussions inside of Maximize community this last week, where, you know, actually a couple of different people pose different questions.

One person was like, should I offer a payment plan for this? and other person was like, I have a PDF, how should I put it inside of my MemberVault, and really, like, make the most of it. And there was a lot of ideas and opinions that were flowing on those posts, which is awesome.

But I could see that both of those people that were were like, ah, like, which one should I like, which idea which opinion should I take and run with? And there was even one person that replied to my comment on the PDF post that was like, Oh my gosh, like, this is like what you shared is such a great idea. I feel like I need to start from scratch with the thing that I was working on. And I'm like, No, no, no, like, your idea is great. Like keep moving forward with it. Don't stay in.

Don't stay stuck in uncertainty or indecision mode, or feeling like you know, even though I'm almost done with this thing, actually, this other idea is better or this other tool is better, or whatever, because that is being reactionary, not intentional. Because you can always finish the thing, get it out there and then optimize it and change the tool or change how you're delivering it or whatever.

And so I thought that this would be a really good topic because I know that a lot of people struggle with this are struggling with this, it might be you right now, it might be due next week. And this is me being very transparent, and that I struggle with it too. And it's, so it's not that I'm perfect.

It's just that I have learned over time to not stay stuck in this place. And that when I'm starting to feel like Ah, my to do list has like so many different like elements and so many decisions, which one's the most important that that's a sign that I need to check back in with the most important mission and make sure that I'm taking that I'm putting my best energy and my time towards the thing that's going to make the most impact towards the thing that I've deemed most important in the business right now.

So hopefully, that's helpful. And who knows what I'll talk about tomorrow. But yeah, if you have any thoughts on this, I'd love to hear them again. Because feedback is awesome. You can email me at erin@membervault.co.

Or if you're in our user community on Facebook, the Collaborative you can just search that or you can go to membervault.co/collab. I'd love to hear from you hear your takeaways, you know if this helped you, or if you disagree with me, any of those things would be awesome. And I'll check in with you tomorrow.

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• [Transcript] If you’re feeling scattered or stuck, this one is for you!