If time is money, does that make productivity pure gold? I say heck yes. The more I can get done, the more I can automate, the more I can simplify... THE BETTER LIFE IS. Ya with me?
In today's episode, I brought in the Productivity Specialist herself. Amber De La Garza is a sought after productivity guru and she teaches driven entrepreneurs how to execute actionable solutions to maximize profits, reduce stress, and make time for what matters most! In today's show we go through the 4 buckets of productivity, how you can increase your production and get more *ish done, sis. Enjoy. Love and light, Stef P.S. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to share a screenshot in your IG stories! I will shout you out on my stories! Yeahhh!!!!!
Full transcription available at the bottom of this blog post.
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Show Notes:
Today's very special guest, Amber De La Garza is the Productivity Specialist! Amber helps Helping driven entrepreneurs execute actionable solutions to maximize profits, reduce stress, and make time for what matters most! You can find out more about amber on her website, https://amberdelagarza.com. She also has an amazing podcast called Productivity Straight Talk, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/productivity-straight-talk/id1239598006. Wanna do a coaching session with me?! From power-hour calls to monthly and annual packages, there's an option for you. Email us for the coaching menu at support@stefaniegass.com Launch your podcast with ease. Follow the PROVEN system for scaling to success! Join the dozens of women who have launched TOP 30 RANKED shows using my exact system inside of Podcast Pro University. JOIN now and you'll get FREE, life-time access to the membership community, too! Hurry, this offer expires soon. Thinking about podcasting? Learn EVERYTHING you need to know at my free Start a Podcast Training Page (https://startapodcast.gr8.com)! Or, Snag my launch strategy + checklist at podcastchecklist.gr8.com Confused about what to do FIRST in your business? Download my Mompreneur Biz Blueprint and find out the exact order of operations to build your business. What to do, when: bizblueprint.gr8.com All of my recommended programs & software can be found at stefaniegass.com/resources FB Community: bit.ly/successsupportgroup Instagram: @stefaniegass FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION: Welcome to episode number 66. This is all about productivity hacks as a mompreneur business owner and wearing all the hats, doing all the things, Amber De La Garza, who is our very special guest, is going to break it down for us and teach us how to become more productive in the small slots of time that we have to work our businesses. She teaches us all about the four buckets of productivity, how to figure out which tasks are your most high pay off activities. And you guys, it was just a ton of fun. I loved interviewing Amber, and I know you're going to totally be obsessed with the show. I'm going to tell you all about her in just a minute, but before I do, I want to read you the review of the week. This review was left by Amy. It's a five-star review and it says, I just love this show so much great stuff for both moms. It's certainly not always easy to juggle all the things at once, but these real talk episodes are such an amazing way to remind ourselves that we are allowed to have some grace and be human plus follow our dreams to the top. Thank you so much, Amy. I really, really, really appreciate this. And if you haven't left a review for the show post this episode right now, mama boss, and please head on over to iTunes because it is such a passion project for me to carve out two to three hours per week and create the content for you. That's going to light you up, lift you up. I work really hard on securing amazing guests, and it's such a passion project that I'm pouring out from my heart. It really is. And I'm going to continue pouring out until I literally have nothing left to give, because I know inspiring you, motivating you, helping you leap forward and conquer your goals and reach for your dreams is my calling. But if you leave me a review and show me how much this means to you, it helps to keep me excited and showing up for you with my absolute best. So thank you so much for doing that for me. I appreciate it. What's up mama boss. Welcome back to The Mompreneur Mastermind Show. I'm Stefanie Gass, success strategist and passive income queen creator. If you're ready to step into your God, led potential, create profit from your passions and capture the success that is already yours. This podcast was made for you as always. You can find out more and connect with me over at stefaniegass.com. So grab that cup of coffee or fill up that glass of wine. And let's dig in to today's show today. Well, we are welcoming Amber De La Garza, the productivity specialist herself. She is a sought after coach trainer, speaker writer, and she hosts the productivity straight talk podcast, which I absolutely love. She's also the creator of stop. The entrepreneur's success solution. Amber helps driven entrepreneurs execute actionable solutions so they can maximize profits, reduce their stress and make time for what matters. Amber is also a mama and a wife, and she totally gets us. And all of the things we struggle with when it comes to productivity, I am super excited to have her on the show. Let's dig in. Oh my gosh. I was super excited. Y'all we have the productivity specialist herself. You heard all about her in the intro, how amazing she is, but I'm so excited to welcome Amber to the show. Thank you so much for having me. Hi Stephanie, or just having a great day today. Aren't we? Yes, we are. We have recorded for Amber show. You guys got to go listen to that. When we talked all about Instagram productivity and I'm just so excited because truly I feel like the number one struggle. I hear Amber and we'll get into all of this first. So to your story, but Oh my gosh, how do I run a business and be proactive and do all the things. And so you're going to help us with that today. We're pumped. Thank you for being here. You're welcome. I mean, anytime I can jam out about productivity, I'm there. Yay. So let's start with, you know, I want to hear in your own words, share with us your story. How did you get to become the productivity mastermind that you are kind of tell us about you and what you do? Yeah, so a little bit about myself. So personally I married and I have a son that's eight turning nine in just a couple of weeks. I have one son. I have been in business for seven years and I started my business because I actually worked for a real estate company and I was a real estate business coach. So I worked with the top 20% of sales executives within our company. And we had like 1200 agents total. And, you know, we were teaching them how to scale and build their teams and just really take success to the next level. And one of the common themes and things that I experienced was that they had these resources right at their fingertips. They could take everything that we were coaching them on and sharing and training with them and really take their business to the next level. But there was one constant theme and that was that they would come back to each session and they would say, this is so great, so wonderful, but I'm so busy working in my business. I have no time to work on my business. I am so overwhelmed. I am successful. And, Oh my gosh, it's kind of like in spite of myself, like how do I do this on purpose? So I'm already working with high achievers, people that are getting results. And we were looking at well, how do we get more? How do we do more? And when these themes just kept servicing fast forward, probably like eight to 10 years, to be honest, I really had a deep desire of helping entrepreneurs and small business owners. And I saw them just literally kind of like a flame that's being stifled out, burnt out, you know, have this burning desire to do this thing that you're uniquely skilled at or something you want to bring to the world. And yet lack of time management and productivity skills is creating what was a dream kind of like a nightmare for some people. So I have been on the pursuit of helping people with learning the skill set of productivity, every sense so that they can really enjoy being a business owner and enjoy life, enjoy all of the things that they intended to when they set out to be a business owner. That's amazing. And I want to dissect what that means really quick because helping people with productivity that's so broad, like what are the things about productivity that you teach? Do you have like, give us some examples of the things that you teach your clients and The people that listen to your show? Oh my gosh. So Stephanie you're right on productivity has kind of been, is this a clean podcast by the way? Yeah, it is. I'll ruin my ex my Nanex. Okay, good, good, good. I don't let me break it. Cause if you head on over to mine and it's not, I want to say that productivity has been kind of, people just use it as like a flipping word, like, like, Oh, I'm doing this, I'm productive and this and that. And so I'm going to invite your listeners to my definition of productivity for at least the duration of this episode. And then if they like it, they can keep it. So productivity is in my definition is investing your best time into your best activities. And so what is your best time and what are your best activities? Your best time is distraction focused time that you're working on your best activities, which are the ones that propel you towards achieving your goals. Okay. Oh, that's good. And so it is your job for you to define what your best time is. You know, for me, when I first started in business, because I came from corporate and I was in management, so I had cubicles outside of my office and any good manager, you know, has their door open. I came home to work in my quiet office and thought, Oh, I'm gonna play it. And I was cussing at the birds that were out by the window. I'm like, Oh my gosh, like the mailman, the person walking, their dog, like everything caught my attention. And so when we're looking at finding your best time, you have to lean into how you work your best and stuff. Yours is going to be different than mine and to each of the listeners and then the activities, which I think we have every intention of diving into, like, how do you actually find your best activities are simply the ones that allow you to achieve those goals. And I love this definition because it lays over personally and professionally. So as mompreneurs, we have you know, personal goals, which could be fitness or spirituality, or, you know, for me, it's my relationship with my son. I consider that a goal. Like I envisioned a particular relationship with my son and that takes time investment on a consistent basis to that happen. So productivity shows up everywhere, not just personally and professionally, I could not agree more. I could not agree more like productivity is in every piece of our day. It's it's in social media, like we talked about on your show, right? It's productivity with like I time block and people may be maybe think this is crazy, but I even time block out the play time with my kids, I have a one full hour of distraction free. My phone is gone, my laptop is put away and we are doing something that they choose a puzzle books. We're playing sequence for kids the other day, like, you know, productivity is, is just every single piece. It's not just, what did I get done today? What did I check off the list For you for your goal? Like that is your most productive activity. So you are Reem productive during that hour. I have a similar 30 minutes at the end of the day, you will find me and my son's bed at eight 15, unless I'm out of town on the occasional date night or girls' night out. Like that is my non-negotiable. So, and for me it's the same thing. Like you're no times rings or dings, you know, keeping the phones out of it and just really, really focusing. And that investment on a regular basis will propel me towards my goal of my relationship with my son. And so that is my most productive activity during that time on my day. Okay. That's so good. So let me tell you a bit about my audience and then we want to hack your brain brain about how to help us now. Here's what I hear. We, if you were to ask any of these mompreneur groups on social media and they say, guys, what's your biggest struggle when it comes to your business over and over and over again, I hear I don't have enough time or because I'm a work from home mom or I have a full-time job and kids, or it's the overwhelm of all the things to do every single day it's being well, how can I, how can I do stuff when I'm, I'm just reactive? You know, I've got to post on all on social media and then my kids calling my name and like, I just can't be all things. So these are the biggest struggles that my community and my listeners are facing. And we want to hack your brain, like help us be more productive. What do you think? The first things that pop in your mind that we need to change so that we can shift this complaint that we have about, you know, just not being productive, not being able to be successful. Right. Well, I love the term shifting and I think that the best place to start as your mindset and your relationship with time, when we, you know, let me just take a little bit step back and then we'll dive into that. Productivity is not just about the next app or strategy or technique. I start and end and everything has everything to do with mindset. And so I really believe in affirmations in, as your listeners may or may not know like affirmations are, you know, words and phrases that we say to affirm something to ourselves. So affirmations in the way that we've heard it, maybe in common language or personal development is that it's positive, but affirmations. And the way that they work on our brains actually work with positive and negatively. So if you are having a conversation with yourself in your head saying, I don't have enough time, there's never enough time and constant like recording of that. You will make that your reality plain and simple. It does not matter what strategy I give you. It doesn't matter how your circumstances change that will be lived out. So the first place I love to start is just changing the script. Mm Oh my gosh. So here's a momma saying I don't have time to run a business and be a good mom. How would you reframe that affirmation? Like what would you say? So one of my personal affirmations, I can share that, just start with that is that I always have time for what matters most. I love that. So it's so simple, but it's like, you know, we're constantly telling ourselves these lies yet and your subconscious is perpetuating it. Yes. And so when I say, I always have, have time for what matters most that puts the ownership on me to be really clear about what matters most. And the belief that, you know, your husband's lunch is going to be perfectly made your kid's lunch is going to be perfectly made dinners on the table. At the same time every day, the house is spotless. Your business is thriving, your fit. Like, can you just list whatever it is in our head of what it looks like to like slay the day in the week. And I'm saying this from a hundred thousand percent experience, okay, is that you have to, you have to decide what matters most. And one of the ways that I did this personally, and this can really bring me to tears, just thinking about it is when I realized I was burning myself out. So I was efficient and effective and knew the ins and outs of productivity, but I didn't always ask for help. And so earlier on in my business journey, like I was trying to do all the things because I felt that my business had to make a certain amount of money or it needed to be, you know, X, Y, and Z in my head, I had these stories before. It made sense that the chores around the house were split evenly around, you know, between my husband and I are whatever that looks like. And again, they were all non-validated stories. And so when I went on my journey of, you know, needing to come to the place where I can not do it myself, I started asking for help. I asked for help, but I also asked my husband and my son, what mattered most to them and me doing the laundry did not matter most to them, me cooking the dinner didn't matter. But me being at dinner mattered who got the groceries didn't matter, but that there was groceries and food in the fridge did matter. And so when I asked them, like, what makes you feel loved? Like seriously, I asked my son, what things make you feel loved? And your children will tell you, Oh, when you get on the floor and play Legos with me or this and that. Well, my love language is acts of service. And so I was trying to acts of service my way to love to everybody like my community and my friends and my business and my, you know, my son and my husband, and like all the things. And that was not the way that they felt loved. And so this was a huge turning point as a mom printer was to get really, really clear about how do the people that matter most, to me feel loved, how do I do more of that and cut the stories and the responsibilities of that. I have to be the one to do all that. Oh, wow. There was so much gold in that I like, I can't even act like it's first and foremost, Amber sat down and had an actual conversation with her humans. I was like, listen. Right. Like, so we don't do that. And I'm actually, it's so funny. Say Amber, cause I'm the same, I'm acts of service. So I show them love through cooking meals and having a full fridge, but instead it's mom just play the game with me, you know, like play the sequence game. And so it's hard for me cause it's not natural. So I have to intentionally choose. And I think that brings us to the first thing you probably outsourced to become more productive in your life was the home stuff. Same for me. Yes. And so that brings up a good point. My first revenue goal. So let's take it back seven years. Yeah. I had enough profitability to hire a housekeeper that came in twice a month. That was my very first, like in my head business expense. And that was me winning. I felt like, Oh my gosh, like I have now fired myself from cleaning my house on Saturdays that I could outsource it Exactly the same for me. And I do want to say that when you're looking at outsourcing, especially as a small business owner or a solo printer, is that you'll get a lot more time back for your money. When you outsource personally than in your business, when you first start, I couldn't agree more. And I think also people always, they think, Oh, I just have to outsource the business stuff because that's what makes sense. But I also ask you to ask yourself, where do you love to spend your time? Like where do you feel fueled and excited. Like I'm obsessed with my work, but I am not obsessed with going to the grocery store and with, you know, cleaning my house. So if you are obsessed with those things, outsource your business. But if not like look at the home stuff because, and again, like, I don't know how you feel, Amber, but I feel like if I pay X amount of dollars per month to have my house clean, I've just opened all of this space. I mean, eight to 10 hours that I can now produce, create, and ultimately make that money back tenfold. Yes, that is very, very true. And I think that the more that we spend in our places that bring us joy, like you said, we're going to be more productive. So for me, you know, the house cleaners come in, there's two ladies and they spend three and a half hours. So that's seven hours and they are effective and efficient. Like this is jam. I would probably take 10 hours because, or it would never be done exactly as well as they do because it's not my zone of genius. It's not the thing that I love to do. One of the mindsets again, I want to bring this back to mindset is that you do not have to be working for those hours, that they are in your home, cleaning your house or whatever. However, you find help. You could be investing in yourself. You could be at the gym, you can literally be having downtime or relaxing or playing a game with your kids. It does not need to be like a one for one where like, Oh, you're outsourcing in your home. So you need to be adding those hours into your business. I think we are as a whole. And it's all gray line as small business owners is that you know who we are personally and who we are professionally and where we spend our time. So again, don't think that it has to look a certain way. If you are getting help in the home. I think that's so important to highlight because I know for me, I always feel maybe inadequate unless I'm doing yeah. Yes, of course. Cause we're achievers on the other end. The other thing, like, I feel like I'm like wasting space on this world if I'm not doing something, but I've worked through that. I've been working through that Struggle, but I think you're so right. Because even if I'm getting the ha like, literally right now, I'm at my mom's recording. Cause my house was getting cleaned. So this is so funny, but you know, I don't have to be working. I couldn't get the spa. And I think giving yourself permission to say, how do you want to best show up in the time you've allocated. That is productivity. Even if it's your self-care hour, even if it's, you know anything, because when you do set the productivity time for the work, you're really showing up with no distractions, dig into that for us. So let's shift gears, a little Amber to they're working. Hey there, they're like, okay, I hear Seth. I hear Amber. They're always talking about focused, dedicated time blocks to getting stuff done. How can they make these time blocks more productive and efficient? Do you have any hacks for us? Here are tips. Yeah. So again, I just want to preface this, that nobody is made or born. This is my opinion made or born, or do we expect you to be productive all day? Every day when we do that, it dilutes the meaning of pre being productive. So when we're talking about investing your best time into your best activities, I mean, come on, we still have to do all kinds of stuff, balance our checkbooks. You know, there's things that are not directly bringing revenue or reaching our, our business goals. So I first want to say that when we're looking at being our most productive selves, that means we're doing the exact activity that matters, and then we're doing it with all of our attention. And so how do we do that? We shut off our times readings endings. Now, if I wouldn't have said that without the preface of there's only blocks of time, you're most productive. You'd be like Amber, I'm running a business. Like how do I shut off all the notifications and emails and text messages? Well, you're not going to all day. You'll do it for your specific blocks of time that you want to get your most important work done. Okay. So the first one is just shutting off the chimes ring endings, another great way to find focus. Well, first don't expect that this is just a skill set you possess in this day and age. I think that the skillset of being able to have focus for a long duration is becoming much more fleeting and, and not as popular. So if you currently find yourself, distracting yourself, 30 minutes into a task, then maybe you set it for 20 minutes. Your goal is to be distraction free by yourself or others. Interruption free for 20 minutes. And you do that on a regular basis, maybe a few times throughout the day. And then you build up to 30 minutes and then 45 minutes as you're building up. And if you're looking at it as a skillset, that's being developed like a muscle that needs to be built up, then maybe you'll get to 60 minutes or 90 minutes where you can do some really deep work without feeling like you are distracting yourself or jumping on social media or getting bored. Whoa, that is something I've never thought of ever, ever, ever. And I, I love it. Yeah. I mean any muscle, like to actually focus and get something done versus, well, I have to work for an hour, so I'm going to kind of work and I'm going to kind of get distracted, but I worked for an hour. Like, no, that's not the point. Right. And so we're all unique, right? Like I can do a solid 60 minutes to 90 minutes now, meaty. You'll never get there, right? Like I'm never going to get to running a marathon. Like that's not a hope, a dream, a desire. I don't even want to work my way up to the marathon league. That's me personally. And so if you're currently thinking I literally squirreling off and I can not focus for more than 15 minutes, then you do the best 15 minutes. You can do give yourself permission to take a break and then dive into your next, most productive 15 minutes and just see how that feels. It will become something that's gets feeding you like those good feelings where you're going to desire more of it. And then you just build on top of it. Oh, that's so great. So I love that tip you guys. Oh my gosh. Do do, do, do, do that. Now they sit down and let's say, they say, okay, I know I've worked up to 30 minutes. They have this to do list 20 things on it. What do we do with this? Like where do we start? And I know you've mentioned, okay, you're doing your best work in this distraction free time. How do they determine what is the best work what's first on this to-do list. Right. Okay. So thanks for the question. I actually teach this finding your high value activities and as a business owner. So this is just like one bucket of your world, right? Like, so you're, you're mom, you're a wife volunteering your community, but we're just having the hat on that. You're a business owner. And in our businesses, our work is going to help people like that is just inevitable. Like we are good people. We want to help people. So our goal, we have one singular goal as a business owner and that is to make money. Okay. And not just money, not just revenue, but profitability because with money, we can have the freedom to have more time to volunteer, or we can use our money to, you know, give back to causes and churches or we can provide for our families. So when we are in business, this is not a non-profit, it's not charity work. Your one goal is to create profitability. So with that being said, when you're looking at your high value activities and these all funnel up to profitability, and those break down into four buckets that I'd like to share with you, I'm excited. Okay, cool. So I want you to think about, literally these are like buckets, like silver buckets with cash coming out of them. Okay. So the very first bucket that needs to be filled up and running over is going to be your marketing and visibility bucket. So what activities lets the world know that you were in business and you can help them, whether it's your service or your product or whatever, like you need to let enough people know that it run us over and you are doing these activities on a consistent basis. So some examples of this would be obviously we just talked about it would be like showing up on Instagram, right? That's marketing and visibility. It's not there that you're asking for the sell or servicing your clients. You are getting, letting more people know about you. For me, it's what we're doing right here. Podcast interviews. This is an investment in my marketing and visibility bucket. So for you, and it depends on the business, it depends on the business's strategy. So you could have two businesses that have the same exact service, but what, how they fill up their marketing visibility bucket is determined on them, their personality, their strategy, what they want to lean into. Okay. Okay. So when that is running over, then you get to fill up the second bucket, which is asking for the sale. You won't have anybody to ask to do business with, if you're not filling up your marketing and visibility bucket. So when we are asking for the business, now this is not having coffee with somebody and they know what you do. And you think if they wanted to work with me, they would ask. So we're just going to enjoy coffee does not get a tick Mark off in the sales bucket. So this is having the conversation of how can I work with you? Will you work with me? This is how I can help you literally going in and asking for the sale. So if you looked on your calendar and your time and you are having a sales conversation, a discovery call and maybe at the luncheon or coffee, and you're asking for the business, that's a very high value, highly productive activity. Oh, so good. That makes perfect sense. I love that. You're saying the marketing starts first because I think a lot of people start with the sale or the spammy post or that market, this no, like it's gotta be. And instead of just saying, putting value out, cause I think that confuses people, it's marketing and visibility. That's the key terminology. So it's Clarify that. Okay, great. Great. Okay. So we've got these buckets and so we're in bucket. One bucket to bucket three is servicing the client. So whatever this means, and maybe it's about creating the course or creating the content that's in the program that you're teaching or you're actually doing the coaching or you are making the product that you're selling. How are you servicing the client that just said, they're paying you, that's a high value activity, highly productive right now, before we jump into number four, I want to explain why these three buckets are, need to be filled up on a consistent basis. Like I want you to think about like pouring water over marketing and visibility. And then when that bucket is full, it's filling up the second bucket. And when that gets full, it's filling up the third bucket, which is servicing your clients. Because what generally happens is that we are like, Oh my gosh, we do really good at, you know, marketing. And then we do really good at sales. And then now we're, we're focused on servicing the client and we neglect bucket number one, or we neglect bucket number two and then it's this vicious cycle. So now we're done serving the client and we have to start all over, filling up bucket number one and then filling up bucket number two. And then you have these because there's inconsistencies with your activity. There's inconsistencies in the bank account. Wow. Wow. I never thought about that. Like the correlation between, cause that's what, what I used to do would be super reactive to, Oh, I was always focused on the sale and I happened to show up on live. Ooh, I should do a live. And then I would notice these dips and these ebbs and flows in profitability. And then roughly like, I dunno, whenever I started the podcast is really when I dedicated myself to consistently putting into marketing and visibility first consistent, consistent, cause like that was first before everything else. And that's when I noticed the rise in profitability, the rise in the growth, the rise in the income, like everything else was related to me showing up in that first year. Yeah. Consistently. And so I know you're also doing that on Instagram because I just interviewed you on my podcast. So you're doing it on your podcast and on your Instagram and I'm sure elsewhere, you know, other places as well, but that is no matter how many clients you get and you're servicing, you're consistently showing up on Instagram, you're consistently putting out podcasts. And so then that means you're consistently hopefully asking for opportunities to work with people. And then that consistently creates operas. You know, that we're servicing the clients. Now why I like to share these buckets is because again, I feel like people use and throw around the word of being productive and that, and then if we're like, okay, yeah, I hear you Amber, your highest value activity, but then it's still blurry. And so if you just start off with like, what is an activity you want to do consistently in each of these buckets and you're committed to it and you make the time for it, then you will see the rise in your business growth. Now I said, there's four buckets. There's really five, but we're going to go into the fourth bucket. So the fourth bucket is leadership. And so if you are doing really, really well, and you're consistently showing up in buckets, one, two, and three, then at some point you shouldn't be Manning all the buckets. Like at some point you can start outsourcing some of the activities that show up in marketing and visibility, or maybe your strength really isn't going in for the sales. So you bring someone on your team to have sales conversations or her Habs. The very first place you're going to outsource is actually servicing the client or somebody else is making the product or the widget. And so then that means that your high value activity, as you're building your team is investing in your team, training them, showing up for them, you know, giving them the vision and the work to actually be able to multiply your results. That's so good because it's duplication and automation, which you can't scale without. Right? Yeah. And I think that leadership kind of gets left because it's close to a direct line of like where, how not affects your revenue. Right? But every business is going to plateau. If you're not building a team and you're only going to make so much revenue, you can automate and become as efficient as possible. But at some point it makes sense to bring people on your team so that you don't have to wear all of the hats. And so then it's your responsibility as the business owner to show up as a leader regularly, Because it's funny. Cause we were just talking about that too. How I just started outsourcing stuff. And like, it was like this huge weight lifted off my shoulder. And why did you hold onto that for so long? I had like, no, why I do cause I'm a three on the Instagram and I'm a control freak. I've got to give it away. And once I did, I'm like what's support inbox. I don't even go in there. Like this is amazing. So just as an example, so let's just say you outsource five hours of work, right. And it's not like, like just five hours, you, maybe you're investing an hour to get back four hours or, you know what I mean? You're investing an hour to get back five hours. Right. And so that's when you're in the leadership bucket. And what I have found is that people that grow their teams, they still say, Oh, well I don't have enough time. So they're not regularly showing up for meetings with their team. They're not communicating on a consistent basis. They're not delegating off activities on a consistent basis because of the story of, I don't have enough time. But if we shift that and say, actually that's the best use of your time as you're building your team, then you can sit in that seat and then be, you know, happy being your most productive self. I love it. Okay. And then, and then just a fully bring this full circle. So, but lastly, I would be remiss to say that there's a fifth bucket, which is the other bucket, which is where everybody loves to be. And it's the busy bucket and it's the administrative. And it's the things that actually do take that take running your business, but they're not a direct line to increasing your revenue. So the other bucket needs to be seen and it needs to be as effective and efficient as possible, but you can't live in that bucket. And so when we're looking at outsourcing, I think one of the best places to start is the other bucket. If you're outsourcing the other bucket, it lets you sit in the first four buckets and then you build up and then you can outsource one of the other buckets and it's stepping stones. You know, no team was built overnight, no delegation. I mean, you could literally take your business. If you think today, I'm going to outsource all the things it's just not sustainable. So StepStone through that, as you want to build your team, That's so good. And I don't know what you use Amber, but for those people that are struggling with, Oh, I, I, you know, there's no way I can afford to outsource. So first of all, reframe that and use a positive verbiage. Like Amber is taught us. I started with just Fiverr and searching within there and looking for people that were freelancers and there's stuff out there you can get done for five, 10 bucks, 15 bucks an hour. I mean, it's not expensive and this is the stuff that you're doing it every week it's in the, out in the others bucket. It's repetitive tasks that they can knock out super quick. Yes. And so I have a lots of tips about all of that, but I think that definitely, you know, starting with project-based is a great way. So something that's not your expertise. So maybe it's project based like rebranding or graphic design or your website where they're owning a particular piece. Another great way to start out is, like you said, with minimal hours in this day and age, like my whole team is other than my personal assistant that's here. My whole team is everywhere. Right? And so that's great because they get to work for other people as well. And I don't need to have the responsibility of keeping them busy 40 hours a week. So you can hire out five hours, like you said, and first teach on the repetitive stuff. Because what that means is you may teach them for 90 minutes, but every time they do a task past the 90 minutes, it's a return on your investment. And it's a lot easier to train repetitive tasks than it is. One-Off tasks. I agree. Oh my gosh. Like I thought I was productive you guys until I met Amber. I mean it like, she already helped me learn stuff about streamlining my podcasting interview process from Amber, my scheduling. Like she's amazing. You guys have to go check out her show, but that brings me to, you have this really cool tool for the listeners and you were talking to me about it. Can you share with us a little bit about it? It's called the high value activity finder and then where they can go snag that? Yes, absolutely. Okay. So it's a two pager and it's a two page PDF and the first one is the buckets. And a lot of people just love to print that out and have that, you know, around them, friends over the bucket laminate it. Exactly, exactly. And it's just a good reminder and you can keep asking yourself these great questions of like, am I investing my time and my best activities? And then the second sheet is to help you answer that question. It's a worksheet and I break it over the five buckets and you can keep it at your desk. And as you work through your day, you can be adding in the things that you're investing your time in. That's one way to use it, or you can use it to just brain. Okay. What are the activities that are considered marketing and visibility in go through all the buckets and then reverse that and now add those activities to your calendar on a regular basis. So it's a tool that I actually use with my one-on-one clients that I'm sharing with you guys on how to identify your high value activities in each of the buckets. How does pure goal do you guys need that? Where can they get that? Amber? You have the link. Yes, absolutely. So you can go to the productivity specialist.com forward slash Steph gas. So S T E F G a S S. And that will be waiting for you. There is a free gift. Yes. And I'll put that in the show notes, you guys, and then Amber, where can they find you? They've got to be like, just as obsessed with you as I am. Tell us about your show and your website and where all the gals can come and connect with you on social as well. Oh, okay. Awesome. Thank you. So you, my website is the productivity specialists.com. There you'll find my podcast and blog and all the ways that well, everything and my podcast is called productivity straight talk. So wherever you're listening to this episode here, just click on over and search productivity, straight talk. And I talk all about productivity and business and all of that kind of stuff. And then because they just interviewed staff on my podcast. You can find me over on Instagram, which I love, but she's helping me grow it so you can find yet @amber_delagarza. Oh my gosh. Well thank you for your time, Amber. It was invaluable. Thank you for all of the incredible gifts you're pouring out into the world and helping as many people as you are. And it means the world to us that you came on and shared. Thanks so much. Thank you so much. Have a great day. You too. Bye bye. Hello, how amazing was that interview? I learned so much about prioritizing my productivity time. Also recognizing that productivity doesn't just live within work, but it's also home and self-care and spirituality and all the things. And I just loved Amber is really tangible tips on becoming really focused and better at all of these productivity, setbacks that we face. I hope you loved it as much as me. It was so good. Now I just want to thank you so much for being part of my community. You light me up, you lift me up. I love you. I'm squeezing you over the air. I appreciate you. And I just want to pray over you that you find all of the excitement, energy, and, and happy vibration that you need today to be your best you to live fulfilled and manifest your destiny and your dreams. And don't forget to pray over your business today, to pray over your peace and patience and kindness and ask God to guide you, lead you and hold your hand through this journey and this gift that he has given us called life. I'll see you soon as always love and light, Stef.
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Stefanie GassLots of fancy unused education. Podcast Coach, Clarity Coach, & Top #25 Ranked Podcast Host for Christian Entrepreneurs.  Archives
March 2021
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