or tell me about your vision.
Yeah, thank you.
So I'm here to help small business owners
ditch the hustle and grind
and learn how to use their time,
their time, their talent and their tactics.
So the three T's effectively,
because there's too many small business owners
stuck in the weeds doing so many things,
too many things to be honest with you
and not enjoying the business that they've created.
I know I had a client come to me once and she goes,
I've created this monster
and now I don't know how to control it, right?
So yes, entrepreneurship is a journey.
We're now gonna get there on the first day,
but we want to aim towards being able to run our business
without being stuck in it 24 seven.
And I have found for myself and for my clients
that actually focusing on those revenue generating tasks
really makes a difference in moving our business forward
and being very intentional with our time.
Huge, that monster that gets created is so often
what the beast of broke, we should call it.
Mm-hmm.
That's what I'd say.
I'm a big fan of the same, busy as broke.
Yeah, right.
We've got to be able to get smarter, wiser,
do the right things in the work.
James Malachek says it, I love his quote.
He says, don't do the hard work,
don't do the smart work, do the right work.
And I heard that I was like,
I was like, what if I did the hard work and the smart work
and I did the right work?
I was like, that would be a good move.
Not the hustle and grind though that you talk about.
I'm very grateful for what you're spreading there.
Where did your vision come from?
Where'd you unlock this?
Yeah, so I think a little bit of trial and error
and learning for myself to be honest with you
because when I started my business,
it was great for me, I was happy, right?
Working whenever, all the time,
but I enjoyed what I was doing.
It was wonderful.
And my family and friends were like,
Donna, when can we see you?
My kids are like, mom,
are you gonna make it to this week's baseball game?
Oh yeah, just one more email, just one more.
And to be honest with you, I was on a road to burnout.
I just couldn't see it, right?
But I was headed in that way with no doubt.
And so it was really my husband saying,
something's gonna change here.
Or this family and this thing we got going on
is gonna break.
Healthy boundary.
Yeah, you need to figure out what you're doing
because this is not working out.
And I didn't like it, to be honest with you,
I didn't like it one little bit, right?
It was hard to swallow, but he was right.
And so I really had to take a step back and say,
how can I still continue to grow this business
without being in it all the time?
And that's when I had to start to look outward
to what big CEOs were doing.
Was I Microsoft?
Nowhere near it.
But how was Microsoft CEO handling his day?
Because, right?
They've got a lot more on their plate than I do.
And what nuggets and tidbits can I take from them
and then institute in my business
for a small business owner perspective?
And so that's when I really developed some,
what I like to call CEO habits,
which helps small business leaders be successful.
That's phenomenal.
I love that you referenced Bill Gates,
or at least the CEO of Microsoft.
And his mini-documentary series on Netflix is just awesome.
And in it, it showcases the amount of time that he takes
to go on retreats by himself,
taking a giant stack of books and paperwork with him.
But he takes sometimes one to three weeks
to go and study what wants and needs to study.
He has a pretty darn awesome balance.
And some people can contribute to that and say,
well, he's a billionaire, he can do that.
We've got to learn to discipline ourselves and say,
I mean, I know that if I've got to eat
and I need to grow crops to do it,
then I need to grow crops to do it.
I can't just keep going and doing the same thing,
maybe begging day after day.
There's lots of disciplines.
And so if you're in that position
where this is hurting you to hear,
know that it's just like a doctor
trying to bandage up a wound.
Feel good to go through,
but that might be something that you can get help
from somebody like Donna to understand,
well, how do I go about this for me?
And maybe not hurt yourself so much
in the process of learning to make this shift.
So how did you get started then?
So a husband has a healthy boundary.
He's like, hey, we need you here.
He's concerned for sick, your family.
And how did you make the transition?
Yes, yes.
So it certainly wasn't easy, no doubt.
And it's still a journey I'm on, right?
I've certainly come a long way from where I was,
but those old habits still want to creep in sometimes.
But really, really started with saying,
okay, it's a mindset shift.
I have to think of myself as the CEO of my business.
And to some people, especially solopreneurs,
they're like, no, I'm not a CEO.
I don't, you know, I'm not managing.
I don't have a board of directors.
No, it looks different, of course,
but I'm responsible for the strategy and the vision, right?
Where this boat of my business is going
in the next 12 months, the next three years,
the next five years is my responsibility.
And if I'm not clear on that, it's gonna be chaos, right?
So that's where I had to start was to say,
okay, what is my vision?
Where do I wanna go?
And then what steps do I need to take
to get me closer to that?
And it's not about, I mean, I'm sure you can agree with this,
not about creating that vision
and then stuffing it in the back of Google Drive.
It's about having it front and center, right?
So that when new shiny objects come in that need-
I didn't mean the podcast that because of that.
Right, yes, exactly.
And so it's, you know, when those new shiny objects-
What were some of those first steps you took?
Okay, yes.
Do you remember still?
Yeah, for sure.
I know I had to be clear on my vision.
And then the other thing I had to do was look at all
the things that I had to do in my business
and be strategic with my task list.
Because what I was doing is saying,
oh, I'll start at the top and just plow through, you know,
as many as I can get done.
Or the other ways, depending on my mood,
sometimes I would just cherry pick
those things that I wanted to do.
But I had to be strategic and say,
what things are actually going to move the needle forward
and make sure I have time in my week to do those things
each and every week, right?
So being realistic about my time
and how I was going to spend that time.
That was a big one to start with.
Another thing was looking at my calendar
because I had my calendar wide open.
You could book whatever you wanted
whenever you wanted, pretty much, right?
And so again, I had to be strategic about that.
No, I have dedicated time
when I'm working on my marketing system,
dedicated time when I'm working on my sales,
dedicated time for client delivery.
And you know, those are non-negotiable.
Those are booked into my calendar.
I also have dedicated time for my family and my life.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.