Summer Behind the Scenes Part 3

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hey friends. Welcome back to part three of my behind the scenes series that I'm doing this summer for this podcast, compassionate side hustle strategy. I'm trying to show some of the things that I'm doing as I'm juggling lots of projects but also trying to have a lot of compassion for myself.

[00:00:17] So I am actually excited because this week I have a lot of Happy news. I, it was a good week for me. Not because I worked a lot, which is really nice because I usually only feel satisfied when I work a lot, but I actually worked very little. And I focused the time that I did spend working on things that are important to me.

[00:00:39] So I have a few updates for you. And some things I just want to share. Fun things that I found randomly in my browsing and scrolling too much and or doing my research.

[00:00:50] So the first thing that I am celebrating is that I am working on a workbook. Basically, I've been working on this thing for several months now. And the content inside is not new. It's just me putting together my whole process of, you know, what I do with one-on-one coaching clients. And putting it into a workbook that, first of all, I can sell. Because I'm tired of not being able to help people unless they can afford to hire me one-on-one.

[00:01:18] But also it's just really nice to have my work set in words in the right order. And then also what I've done for myself, just to make sure that it makes sense is I've been having beta readers go through it.

[00:01:34] So I did what first round, which was just them answering the prompts in it so no explainers, no chapters, really. And they still got a lot out of it.

[00:01:43] And so and by the way, I am paying them to read this and test it out because I have found that pretty much 100% of the people who I paid to to read this, actually do. You know, read it and go through it and then give me feedback on it. I want to say that some of them did a better, more thorough job than others, but you know what, that's just kind of how it rolls, right.

[00:02:09] Oh, but in comparison, I did before I started looking for paid beta readers, I went through all of my Facebook groups and I asked around in the ones that are, that I'm mostly active in. So I would be a familiar face or familiar name in the group. And I asked around for volunteers. And I thought that it would work because, you know, like people are always saying that they need help growing their business and getting organized and just like figuring out how to do this whole online marketing thing.

[00:02:41] And I'm not happy to report that 0% of them got back to me. And I'm not saying that this is how it's going to be all the way around, but like really? I got in contact with all of them, either via email or, yeah, none of them got back to me.

[00:02:57] And I'm trying not to read too much into that because, you know, ultimately what I needed was feedback on my workbook. And so I'm not doing a whole dissertation on paid versus free opportunities and how that works.

[00:03:11] But I am a little disappointed. But then I am really satisfied with the act of like paying people to go through this workbook and then You know, just work on it for themselves.

[00:03:24] So they benefit, but then they're also giving me feedback.

[00:03:27] So it was just been really cool. And I, I went about the process the same way that I would look for a virtual assistant and all that.

[00:03:33] So if you are curious. About learning my process for finding people to pay, to do little things like this for you

[00:03:42] then you should check out my swipe file that I have for sale. It's called find your unicorn virtual assistant .

[00:03:50] And this, I mean like, technically they're assisting me virtually, but I followed the same process and I shared, you know what I do to find people like that and to get these really good results from people that I've hired.

[00:04:05] But yeah, all in all, it's been really good. And I, I will say, you know, just like any, any job, any project that we're going to be some people who go all, all out, above and beyond, and then some people who kind of call it in a little bit. But that's why you hire multiple people, right? Because you're not, especially for something like this where I'm testing things and I want feedback from different kinds of personalities.

[00:04:26] Well, just because someone doesn't respond in the way that I wanted them to respond doesn't mean anything just in itself, right? So I can consider whether my work didn't really speak to them. I can consider whether they were targeted well. Like maybe they just aren't my ideal client, but I had them paid to read you know, it's something that is for my ideal client.

[00:04:47] So that's just been a really good experience overall though. And I just got my round two stack of readers feedback back. And now I am going to be printing it out and going through it for myself for my own business. So kind of getting a little meta with it.

[00:05:06] And I'm seeing how that goes. And then I'll either go for a third round.

[00:05:13] Or I'll just go right into like making it cute and pretty and ready to sell. So that's pretty cool.

[00:05:19] Something else that I wanted to share is something that went viral this week that may have crossed your timeline, maybe. But it's, it's actually really cool. It's this woman who had put this specific statement in her email signature, and I don't know if you know this about me, but I am all for not being tied to your phone and not being the you know, immediately I'll get it done within 24 hours kind of person.

[00:05:45] Like, you know, even for virtual assistant stuff. I really do think that it's a lack of planning that makes people think that it's okay to just need things and on an urgent basis. And I say that with the background of being a virtual assistant, having my own virtual assistants, having worked with a lot of people who were like, had really high expectations of corporate workplaces where, you know, like, You know, those are the people where you're just thinking. It's not that big a deal. Like go home and relax and don't worry about it.

[00:06:18] So I'm bringing to mind all those people. And I just really wanted to cheer her on, because this is by Meg. Oh, I don't know how to say her last name. Meg Saint esprit. Maybe. And her email address is this:

[00:06:31] please note, I may be slower to respond to email in the month of June, July, and August due to the United States inability to provide affordable childcare for working mothers.

[00:06:42] And I thought that that was just like so rad because you know, we need people to just point things out now. And if it takes putting it in your email signature for people to, to just get the, get a clue, right? Like don't expect me to respond right away and then to also kind of I don't know, I guess it's a little passive aggressive, but, but then it only is if you're you work for the United States and you've personally decided not to give you know, any, any help to working mothers who need childcare.

[00:07:15] But anyway, I just love the attitude behind it. Like, bring that fire wherever you are and do it in quiet ways, like quiet fire. Quietly rebellious actions. I'm all for it.

[00:07:28] Oh, I do want to update you on the art artistic front. So last week, I believe I had shared that I wanted to do a little more art and I figured out a way to work that into my schedule. And I'm really proud of myself. So I have been in Gauri Yardi's creating energy course. It's not really a course. It's a once a month call about basically giving you're creating energy for yourself to do your creative work. And I know that I've been trying to focus more of my energy on being artistic and just like reviving that side of me. And no matter what I did I couldn't quite get myself to do creative things.

[00:08:11] Which is a little silly to say because my entire brand is pretty creative. But in my head in my world, that's just like par for the course, right?

[00:08:19] This is just how Rochelle does things.

[00:08:20] But I knew that I was missing out on just my own quiet time. And I figured out how to do it.

[00:08:27] I do a warmup doodle as my warmup for starting working on my business.

[00:08:34] So instead of grabbing, you know, like turning on my computer and going straight into like Facebook and Instagram and going right into the networking and answering questions and leaving insightful comments and all this stuff that you're supposed to do when you're networking online.

[00:08:52] Instead of doing that, the habit I put together is that I sit down and do some scribbly art every day. Before I start working and it's so it's good because it, it tackles two different problems that I have, right? First I wanted to build the habit of just making art, even if it's little scribbly art that isn't like art show worthy, which is still art right.

[00:09:16] And then on top of that, it's a really good way to warm up my brain. Cause you know, like even when you're working on your own business, the business that you want to work on, that you want to grow and that you actually care about versus like a day job that you might not care so much about. It's still work, right? And sometimes you just have to get your brain to warm up and, and kind of get on board with what you're trying to do with your mission and your daily steps in your marketing. And so over me Warming up my brain with art is a fantastic way to do it. And so it's been working and it's really cool.

[00:09:50] And. Yeah, so.

[00:09:53] If you're watching the video version then you'll see the I'm holding up this is the cover of it. And I had just colored that in today as my warmup. It used to look like the back. see. It was just like plain. And then I drew some trees on it.

[00:10:08] So simple things like that. And it's, it's actually, it actually worked really well for me.

[00:10:12] Okay. I have two more things to share with you. The first one is a quick share of something that I ran into on a pretty positive rabbit hole, you know, how you just like, kind of run through the internet and you start learning things and clicking on things. And so I've been, I mean, I'm familiar with the idea of mutual aid and how everyone's like helping each other.

[00:10:34] I participate in trans Santa every year and buy Christmas gifts for trans kids through that platform. And, you know, I have helped in various mutual aid call-outs on social media. And so I got a little more curious about it because I feel like mutual aid can have its place also in the business industry.

[00:10:56] I heard about this author Dean spade, who is a trans author. And he wrote a book called mutual aid.

[00:11:04] Mutual aid, building solidarity during this crisis and the next. And I actually heard about this book. As mentioned by someone else that I was looking, I was listening to on a podcast. Talking about mutual aid.

[00:11:17] So I am listening to the audio book mutual on mutual aid and how it works, because I honestly, I would like to see if I can incorporate that somehow into my business, because I feel like we still.

[00:11:29] You know, there's, there are statistics that show that certain businesses started by certain kinds of people, especially in the United States don't, the businesses just don't make it.

[00:11:39] And it's not for any fault of their own, but for like the resources that they have or don't have access to you. And it's Unfortunate. And I feel like building your own business has so much potential. But the failure rate is so high that I think that I don't know, no one really takes it seriously, unless you'd like your total tech bro in Silicon valley and you have the right people who probably conveniently look a lot like you and talk like you and make the same products as you.

[00:12:08] So. I want to incorporate mutually it's somehow into my business model, whether that's creating a network or creating some kind of thing or participating in mutual aid as part of my business.

[00:12:25] In fact, the long-term plan for me is that I would love to be. What do you call it? Certified. Certified? As a B Corp. I didn't know what it is. But B Corp once I am ready for that stage. Just so that I can kind of keep myself accountable because I do want to make a lot of money with this business, but I also. I want to do good things with it.

[00:12:49] And I feel like you know, certifying as a B Corp. Wood. Be a good way to keep myself accountable to that and not change my mind if for some reason, future Rochelle decides to change her mind and doesn't want to be. Service oriented, then that might be a really good thing to have in place.

[00:13:06] But other than that, I just really want to do good social work with my business in the longterm. So I'm going to be listening to that mutual aid book on audio book over the coming weeks. And I don't know, maybe I'll come up with something and a way to incorporate that.

[00:13:22] And then on a final note, I am learning how to create content for LinkedIn. I spend most of my time, these days on Instagram, but I'm really feeling this call to move over to LinkedIn, especially since the people that I can help usually feel like they can't make business work because they're working full-time jobs.

[00:13:46] And so like creating content for more of a professional, in more of a professional environment, at least virtually on LinkedIn versus you know, being influenced into making casual, informal reels for Instagram.

[00:14:03] It just feels like a, a good move.

[00:14:05] I really like carousels. Carousels are probably my favorite kind of content to make on Instagram. But the reach on Instagram just kind of sucks.

[00:14:13] Honestly, I'm not too concerned about reach because I know that Instagram relies on like you being on the app and doing all of the things that Instagram wants you to do for them to believe that they should show your, your content to people.

[00:14:28] So like I'm not part of the whole, like, my reach is so low, please help me type of crowd, but also I don't know that I'm spending my limited energy in the right places. So I really like using Instagram for my own personal use and I use it mostly in the stories capacity.

[00:14:51] Either using it or, you know, like scrolling or with creating my own content. So if I'm just going to be creating content on stories, then that means that I don't really have to hold myself to making like reels and posts. And all that stuff.

[00:15:06] So it's really just a matter of closing up. Not like unofficially closing, closing up shop, which means in my head creating the posts that I want to have on my profile, doing the highlights, and then just kind of leaving it and. Focusing more on stories and interacting with other people's content. And then producing content more for the LinkedIn platform.

[00:15:34] So that's the transition I'm going through. We'll see how it goes or if I changed my mind, cause I often changed my mind before I finish anything.

[00:15:41] So that's the update for me. I hope that you are doing well and that you're finding these episodes at least interesting, if not helpful for your own your own work behind the scenes in your business.

[00:15:54] Cause I know that you've got a lot going on for real life or professional life. And then for self-employed professional life, there's just a whole range of tasks I know that you're probably buried under, so!

[00:16:07] Take breaks. Work less.

[00:16:10] Do the most important things and then see if you can get away with doing none of the less important things, and see how that works.

[00:16:18] I know that that's not possible for everyone, but you know, it might be worth it to try it out and just see how little you can do to get a little further with your business. So, if you want to chat about this, go ahead and reach out to me, but I'm rooting for you over here.

[00:16:34] Keep going right. I'll see you next week.