Episode 16: How to Create Your 8-hour workweek

Hello. Hello everyone, and welcome back to the podcast. Today we're going to be talking all about how to create an eight hour workweek. I know that this is a highly, um, sought after topic because so many people see me and you know that I travel a bunch with my business. I am also in the process of planning a wedding and, uh, they wonder how I am doing all these things, while my business doesn't seem, and it isn't missing a beat. And so we're going to get into talking all about the eight hour work week. But I wanted to let you guys know something very exciting. Enrollment is about to open for the six figure systems mastermind. It's where you take all the things that I'm about to talk to you about and you actually implement it with support and accountability to make sure that six months from now you have a business that is flowing, that you've got the work life balance that you're wanting to create, and you're also creating the income without having to sacrifice one or the other. So if you would like to apply for the mastermind, go ahead and use the link in the show notes. I would love to see you there. And I'm actually going to be doing an entire webinar all about this topic called the eight hour Workweek webinar. And that is going to be on August 5 at eight. Ah, PM. Definitely. Make sure you register for that as well because I'm going to be going over more mastermind details and explaining, um, everything I'm about to talk to you about in more detail, even including things like calendars, so that you can actually create your eight hour workweek exactly from the webinar. And so I hope to see you there. And without further ado, let's chat about what the eight hour work week is. So in this episode, we're going to discuss the exact components that you need to optimize the back end of your business. Then I'm going to talk about why systems are so pivotal in prioritizing your, what I call revenue return on investment activities. What are the things that are actually driving revenue for your company, and how to optimize that. And last but not least, how you can start to create work life balance and customize the structure I'm going to speak about for you and your business needs. So first things first, let's talk about what are the components that create the back end eight hour workweek. Now, this is something I want to be super clear about when you are serving people in your business. I have many different service space providers that are coming to me. M so mostly I work with many coaches, but also depending on what kind of coaching style you do or if you provide a different service, let's say graphic design, if you are a personal stylist, things like that, you might not be serving your clients at, uh, the same time every week. You might be serving people for a longer duration. And I wanted to make sure that the eight hour workweek was applicable for every single service based industry. And that means that we're only going to be talking about the backend, not about you as a service provider, because you're already incredible and doing a phenomenal job with that. But we're going to be talking all about the back end of your business and exactly what you need to do to make sure that the back end is running while you are doing the thing that you actually love, which is providing your service. So those, when we're thinking about the backend of your business, you want to think about your business. And this goes for any business in the form of a funnel. So every single business has a sales funnel, whether it's Google, Apple, or you and your personal business, every single business has a different way. They bring people in. And I want you to understand that structure, because that structure and understanding that is the key for you to create a backend that really flows seamlessly within the things that you're doing each week. And so if we think about a funnel, it's like an upside down or it's like a triangle with the point at the bottom. And you want to be thinking about that funnel and making it flow consistently. So what are the components of a solid sales funnel? And everybody has one, even if it's not solid currently, it's going to get there. I, uh, promise the first thing that you want to be thinking about is marketing. That is going to be the big, overarching top piece of your business. And this is how people see and get involved, warmed about what your service is, what you do, what makes you different, and why you would be a perfect fit for them. So when you're thinking about creating a sales funnel, um, you absolutely need to be thinking about marketing as a huge piece of the way that people find out more information about you and come into your business. So, m that's the first component that you need to have a, that you are having to create a business that flows. It has a solid back end structure. The second piece of that is a subset of marketing. So when we're thinking about marketing, there is the view that, like people see when they come to your instagram. Maybe they're seeing your blog posts. Maybe they're seeing you on LinkedIn, on YouTube, wherever, hearing you on a podcast. Those are all big, overarching pieces of your business, and we call that one to many marketing. That means that you are marketing as yourself, and you're kind of presenting just like I'm doing on this podcast where I'm speaking to all people and I'm explaining more about what I do and how it works. So that's the first piece. You want to be thinking about that as the top piece of your funnel. Um, then the next piece, which is a critical thing that has been a big shift in the market and marketing that we're doing now as service providers, is managing leads. This means that you are building one to one connections with the people. So they see you on the big screen, and then they come in and they either opt in or they build, start to build a relationship with you. This is something that I'm seeing. I even, um, I found a book like a shoe company that I enjoyed, and I even get text from them. You're going to see a lot of trends within the recent marketing that are trending to focus more on having that one to one connection to building a relationship, building that know, like and trust factor, so that then people actually buy, which is the third piece of the sales funnel. So the next piece is managing leads. And there are actually two subsets of managing leads. So if you were to break down that little triangle of your funnel, there is m, uh, managing your leads and nurturing your leads. So that means that you are supporting the people who are already in your audience. These might be people on your email list. These might be people who are on Facebook, in a group that you have anything like that. That's where you're managing leads and talking to them, because they're already in your circle, in your sphere. Then there's another part of managing leads after you go through the nurturing piece, and that's called generating leads. So that's where you want to be going out and actively finding new people, always to make sure that your business is being replenished and that you have more people coming in every single round, so that they are getting the support that they need and that your business doesn't stagnate. It always has a way that you keep growing and keep bringing people in to. So that's the second piece. We've got marketing at the top, one to many. Then we have the one to one marketing, which is managing leads with two subsets of generating leads and nurturing leads. And then last but not least, there's your sales portion, where they're either going to opt in on just buying from your website, or they're going to do a consultation or a one on one sales call with you, and from there, then they're going to be working with you on the back end. So that's what you want to be thinking about, is the sales funnel. And you want to be making sure that that sales funnel and those components are running flawlessly. You want to be making sure that you are focusing on that one too many marketing and then also have a way that you can talk to what people on a one to one level, and a way that you're bringing new people in and then making sure that they are progressing to take the next step with you and actually work with you. So when we are thinking about those components on like the bigger overarching scale, one of the things that you want to be thinking about is, how do I make those things work? Not only that, but you also want to be testing the validity of each of your subsets. You want to make sure that you're planning and taking time to think about, okay, which of these components do I need to optimize? Which of the which are doing well and which could use improvement and making changes every single month to make sure your business is flowing and functioning as the best it possibly can be. So one of the things, the second piece of this episode that I wanted to touch on is this is why systems are so important. If you were to create a completely new way of doing your marketing every single week, every single month, and every single, like, quarter, let's say, um, what you would find is a very chaotic business. It would not be great. You would find yourself kind of like throwing spaghetti at the wall. You're really not sure what kind of things are working. And this is where I found myself at the beginning of my business, too. So this is, I'm not calling you out, I'm just saying in a loving way, I want you to imagine that if there was a company like Google and they're trying to get more information out about their business and they try something new all the time, it is not going to work. You've got to make sure that you have systems in place to make sure that you are actually getting the return on your investment, aka all the energy that you're putting in, is something that you want to make sure that you're getting back in return. You're making sure that, um, you're not just doing things in your business, that you're actually creating money and revenue from it. And I know that's crazy, but I never had this explained to me before. And I know that some of you guys are, might be having like, these light bulb moments as I'm speaking about this, because it just makes sense. This is why we need systems, to make sure that there isn't a, uh, chink in the, in the gear that is making your machine of your business work. We want to make sure that things are flowing pretty flawlessly, and we also want to do that in a way that is really, really easy. So what happens is, one of the reason things I see is that if people don't have systems, if they are someone who is m trying to build their business, grow to their first six or multiple six figures, what I've found is that I see people who have the way that the gears kind of like stop turning is they'll experience things like inconsistency. So every time you go on a vacation, maybe your kid is sick, maybe you, um, um, just feel tired, like it could be for no reason at all. What happens is, without a system m to continue your business while you're traveling, while you holidays are happening, what happens is you don't actually do the things that make the people come for sales calls. So it might look like, okay, I'm going to do six posts a week for this week, and then three posts a week for this week, and then I'm not going to post this week because I'm going to go to Europe, and then I come back, and then we got a sick. And so then we're going to also not post for this week, but then I'm going to, hey, everybody, how's it going? What happens is you create this funnel that looks kind of like a wonky triangle that you really can't get valid data from. There's no way to see what's working. And this is where you'll see a lot of times that people won't have that consistency. And what happens is they get really disconnected. So they'll see that they have different pieces of their marketing that are kind of resonating. And what happens is, if you're disconnected from your audience, you're going to experience things that I see so many people coming to me and, like, working with me, where it's like I've gotten consults, but I have no clue where they came from. Or it's like, I posted before, but I don't know what is. Actual shifts to make my posting something that is really working for me and something that I can batch out so that I don't have to worry about it every single week. Those are the things that I see and why I would highly recommend putting in systems in place to make sure that you're consistent. You also want to make sure that you're communicating with your people. So, uh, and I fell into this gap too, but a lot of times when I was missing, I didn't realize that managing leads was even a part of my marketing strategy. I thought, market, it's like you just posted and people just showed up on a sales call and that is a thing of the past. That is no longer the way a lot of marketing is working, especially before your first six figures. You need to build that know, like, and trust. And the best, fastest way to do that is through communication. I want you to think about your relationship with somebody before they start working with you, before they pay you. You want to show up as consistently as if they were paying you. You want to actually get to know them. You want to provide genuine interest. And one of the things that I found is that if you aren't, if you don't have a system, what will happen is like, oh, I talked with Sarah and I know that she could probably use my help, but then it's like I kind of forget about it. And then I've got travel and then I don't have, um, um, it's like, oh, and then the dog got sick and we got all these things to do. What's going to happen is Sarah, uh, is not going to feel cared for. There are so many, there are many other service providers that are in the industry and people want to work with people who are showing up and, like, actually caring about them. They want to actually see, especially if your product, if your offer is thousands of dollars, they want to see that you're going to go the extra mile for them even before you work together. Now, I think that this is just a tenant of the way I want to show up as a business owner in general, I'm sure it's the way that you want to show up as well. And it's not because you don't care. It's just because you don't have a system to communicate consistently. So you want to make sure that you put into place a system because you're going to be able to track that one person from your first point of contact to the sales call. You're going to know how long it takes for them to convert to a sales call. You're also going to know how many, um. Um, a lot of times, it takes a certain amount of time for people to get your feel, to understand what you're like, to get to know the kind of way that you show up. And those are things that can take people from a potential customer to a for sure buyer. The last piece of, uh, why I would highly recommend putting in systems into place so you can actually prioritize these revenue return on investment activities. The revenue generating activities is constraint. What I see so many people do, and I did this as well. I spoke about this a couple of weeks ago, is just throwing spaghetti at the wall. When we think about all of the different things that you can do to market your business. There is a plethora. There is also so many ways that you can contact people. What happens is, if you provide your brain with all these different alternatives and you don't give it a routine, what's going to happen is you're not going to be as efficient. What's going to happen is you, your back end isn't going to be optimized, because, like, okay, what should I do today? Should I make a webinar? Should I reach out to potential, um, collaborators? Like, what do I do? I'm not quite sure. So, you want to make sure that you are creating a system to constrain yourself, staying focused so that you know what you're tracking, so you actually can make sure you progressed. And you also want to make sure that you are feeling that constraint so you don't get exhausted. This is where I see so many, so many service providers, specifically coaches, that get so burnt out because they're trying so many different things, when really constraint is key to make sure your business goes further. So, what I would recommend is, you want to think about those three components, marketing, managing leads, and then the last component is planning, making sure, actually testing out those things, and actually tracking your metrics to know what works and what doesn't work and what do you need to do differently. So you want to make sure that you have a system for all three of those things. Now, how does that fit into an eight hour work week? So, for me, the reason why I was so enticed by the eight hour work week and the concept of working on the back end, um, of my business for such a short period of time was because I saw many of my mentors, and they would talk about this three hour or three day workweek where they were working three days in their business and making millions. And I was like, what is that? That's incredible. I would like to do that. That seems pretty nice. Would like that. In my life, especially since I had aspirate, I still have aspirations to have children and things like that. I would like to be, uh, like, the, one of the reasons why I started this business is so I could have the flexibility to work from home. And also because I love coaching humans and it's just the best. So if I could have the best of both worlds and I could create this, these systems to make sure my business is up and running, and I also can have like, a life outside of my business, I was like, where is this? I need this. So it took me figuring out how their businesses were working, figuring out how my business was working, and looking at larger examples in, uh, just in general. And it took me taking those different components, and I really had to figure out what are the key things that it takes to make a business work, especially at the first six figure stage and then multiple six figures. I'm like, if I can figure out that, then we're, we're running cooking with fire. I think it's like the phrase is there. So what I did is I thought about marketing, managing leads and planning and sales is obviously a component of that, and I'll be sharing about that in a second. But I was like, okay, if these are the things that I need to do to make my business work, how can I make sure that I'm doing so in a consistent way that is constrained and communicating effectively with my people? So what I did is I realized that for me, getting my post done and making sure that I had my content created as far in advance as possible was really critical so that I wouldn't have to worry about posting once a week. That was something that was taking up so much of my time. I don't know if you guys have done this, but when I first started my business, I was literally, I kid you not, which might be where you're at right now is I was writing a post day of like, literally, it would be like I would wake up on a Tuesday morning and I'd be like, what do I want to write about today? Thinking about just like, everything under the sun that I could write about. Instead, I had to create a system to make sure that my marketing was really effective and I focused on different pieces. And when I was able to think about that and so far in advance, what I could do is I could actually batch out my content, get all the videos, get all the topics made, and then each week, the week before I would write out the captions. So I figured out, and I, over the course of, I've been using these systems for, since 2021. So now, three years, I realized that it takes me about an average of an hour and a half to get three posts and three reels with their captions done every single week. So that became my marketing time. I actually put on my calendar an hour and a half to get my marketing done. And again, I'll explain a lot more of this on the webinar, but I create an hour and a half for marketing. Then I realized that the biggest piece that was making a difference for me and my business and what I'm seeing, every single, every single one of my clients, if they just talk to people, their business works, because so few businesses are actually talking to people. It's going to be the differentiator, and it'll be the, this will be the decision that they're like, oh, I actually know you on a one on one level versus this person. I'm going to choose a person that knows me better, knows my business's needs, actually cares enough to figure out more about me. And I realized I was so, y'all, you know, I have adhd, so I would go and I would talk to somebody and like, six months later get back to them, and I was like, this is not what a six figure business owner does. This is not how it's going to work, and I'm not going to be able to have eight hour work week unless I can figure this out. So I figured out that for 30 minutes in the morning and then responding in 30 minutes in the evening. So about an hour a day, 5 hours a week, that's another component where it took me doing that consistently to manage my leads. Again, if you want to hear more about, like, exactly what I do in that time, how I respond to people, I'm breaking it all down on the webinar, so make sure you're there. And then, uh, last but not least, I needed to make sure that I was planning effectively, that I was making sure that I wasn't. I felt like for the first, like, year of my business, that I was truly just like, building the plane as I flew it. It was like, okay, we're just going to try this, what we see everybody else doing. I swear, I was doing everything that I could see. I started a, uh, podcast. I had a group coaching program. I started an email funnel. I started freebies, like, all this crazy stuff that I did not need to hit my first six figures. And I have not seen, uh, is a need for any of my people who have crossed the six figure mark is that I wasn't planning effectively because I didn't even know what I was tracking. I didn't know what were the key pieces. I think they're called key performance indicators, or KPI's, but I had no idea what they were. I was just kind of like floating through an entrepreneurial space. Like, we're just trying our best. We're being really positive, but this is kind of like a mess. It was a mess. And so what we want to do is you really want to create a structure that you can, uh, really focus on specific activities and make sure you're planning them. So, for me, I take an hour and a half to do that. Hence the eight hour workweek, an hour and a half for planning, an hour and a half for marketing, and 5 hours, 30 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes in the evening for managing your leads. It's so simple. But I really do believe that the back end of your business can be that simple. Every single person in my mastermind, I make sure I'm tracking their hours, and I make sure that every single person gets there, making sure they know how to do the back end of their business so efficiently that by the end of the six months we work together, they're like, oh, yeah, I know how to do this. I've figured out a way to get my marketing out really consistently. I'm talking to people. I've got this on luck. Now, the next question I usually get is, how can I create work life balance within that structure? Right? How could I, like, let's say I'm going on vacation, I'm sick, I need to make amendments to the plan, and that's exactly what I would recommend. So every as it, uh, if you don't know with the systems that I teach and systems that you create, they are meant to amend and change as your business grows. So what I tell my clients is I'm like, I don't want you to have to work and create systems for yourself. That would take, I mean, it took me, like, really solidly three years to get there. I don't want you wasting any time. So I just give them my systems. I'm like, do this. It's worked for me and every single one of my clients. Just do these things, and your business will work. So that's what they do. And then they take those on, and they either adopt them completely, so they are just like, yep, this is me. I'm rolling with the six figure systems, we are good or within the six months we work together, we need to adapt them a little bit or they abandon my system and create something that's similar but something that works more for them within the business. So again, I would recommend you doing the exact same. Now, when we're creating work life balance as a entrepreneur, you want to make sure that you have ways to customize this plan. You don't want to feel so structured that you feel like you a have to get things right. Exactly right the very beginning of the time. And what you have to do is you want to move around those activities. Those things are fluid and flexible. We just want to overall be getting a little bit more consistent. So a lot of times people are like, oh my God, do I need to be doing 8 hours right away? I don't know if I have time for that. I need to make sure I can actually put this in my calendar. Absolutely not. That is why we scaffold things. So there are some people that might be doing marketing consistently already that you can, you can see how you can put this into practice already. And if not, we start and scaffold, go and start with like one post a week, and then we think about adding another post a week, then we think about taking the third post a week, then we repurpose those into reels so you get a little bit more confidence and experience with that. You want to create that work life balance and you want to make sure your business structure is so customizable so that you don't feel stressed about creating an exact structure every time. You want to make sure that it's something that you scaffold and something that you create over time. Because currently, as you're listening to this, there are things that your business is already doing that are working. We don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water for lack of better raising. You want to actually create a system that is flexible and fluid so that you can also do vacations. Hence why I'm planning a wedding right now. I'm actually in this launch right now, and I'm going on two trips during my launch and I'm going on another trip when I get back a couple weeks later. And I have the systems to make sure that nothing is going to skip a beat. I know exactly how to fix things and I don't. I do not want to work on vacation. A lot of the times I'm like, nope. I want to focus on my people. I want to focus on being. Not that you guys aren't my people. But it's like, I want to focus, I mean, with my family, being with friends, and I want to make sure that you guys are also getting phenomenal content and still have ways that you can communicate with me in a way that doesn't feel draining or exhausting. So that is what I've created. And when you ever, when you're thinking about your business, there are going to be clients that come in, there are going to be sales calls that you need to move things around, the schedule around for, and that's exactly what we do. So I want you to know that creating an eight hour workweek is absolutely possible for you and work being the back end of your business. So people are like, oh, my gosh, I want to like, just work 8 hours and make six figures. And I'm like, no, no, no. This isn't the back end of your business. You still have to provide a service to people. You have to have a front end facing part of your business as well. But I do feel insanely confident that if you put these systems into place, if you, you have these components that are ready to optimize the back end of your business, and you know exactly how to prioritize those revenue generating and those return on investment activities, you are going to create the work life balance that you've been looking for, and you're also going to create a business that, ah, functions so well that you're going to be able to have the structure to hit six and multiple six figures. It really is the secret to my success and the success of all my clients. So with that being said, that is the eight hour work week, how you create your eight hour workweek. You got to think about the components needed with that sales funnel. Then you need to think about how to systematize those return on investment and the revenue generating activities. And last but not least, utilize those systems in a way that's flexible to create work life balance and customize the structure to fit your business and your life. So with that being said, if this sounds like something that you're like, I need more of this in my life, I would love to welcome you first and foremost to the eight hour workweek webinar. Again, that's going to be on August 8 or, uh, August 5 at 08:00 p.m. august 5, 08:00 p.m. eastern. So I'll include a link to that in the show notes. If you are listening to this after August 8, August 5, 2024, I'm going to be. I'll include the replay there for you as well. Just you can get a little glimpse into what things were like in 2024 and see a little bit about, um, and the way that you can structure your business. And I would also love to invite you if you are someone who is a really feeling so passionate about the work you're doing, you want to help people, and you also want to create the lifestyle that you really have been looking for. I know that six figure systems is the program for you. When I work with people, I am, um, always going to bat with them for them. I want to make sure that you are not only getting the systems that you need to scale to your first six figures, but to multiple six figures that you have the CEO skills that can take you, take you, could take with you wherever you go. And I would love to invite you to join this round of the mastermind. Within the mastermind, there's going to be a systems week that's going to be a new thing where you're going to get a, uh, boot camp of essentially every single system that you need. So that's going to be on August 12 through the 16th, and then the weekly calls are going to start the week of the 26th and go all the way through February. So within the time that I'm recording this, this is the second half of the year, I want you guys to kick it into gear. And whenever you listen to this, let this be a reminder that you are ready, that you could achieve your goals. Kick it into gear. Let's go. And if you would like to be a part of the six figure systems mastermind, I would love, love, love to help you take your business to the next level. So all of those, the link for the webinar is in the show notes, along with the six figure systems enrollment link. Definitely check out those things there. And I cannot wait to see you in the next episode.