The ULTIMATE Business Time Saver

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Welcome to Uncomplicating Business. I am Sara Torpey. I am the host here on this podcast. And I am a business coach for people who want things to be less complicated, particularly those of you out in the world who are teachers, and helpers and givers who want to serve others who want to give big, but also, like, have businesses that provide for you and your family. And where you don't work 80 hours a week, just saying. So today, what I want to offer you is what I think of as my ultimate business, timesaver. This is hopefully going to be a fairly short episode. Not that like you're offended by length, but I you know, this one is pretty straightforward. This is, you know, four years into this business, cash seven or eight years into entrepreneurship. Now, this is the thing that I find has saved me the most time and energy in my business day in and day out over and over and over again. And it is one simple question. So this question saves me a ton of time, because when I ask it, I get to know the answer, right? Like when I ask it, and I answer it, I have less drama, I worry less. It is something that takes out the spin a lot of the time in my business. And when I don't spend time spinning. Honestly, I get a crap ton more done, right. Like less spin means less drama, less worry, less, questioning, less, repeating steps, less, less doing things over that you wouldn't have normally have done over, because you were spinning around wondering if you were doing the right thing. So in that aspect, I really, this is the question that takes all of that out for me. And it took some practice, right. It's a question I asked a lot. And it is a tool that I use to, you know, reinvent less, because when I look at the world through this question, I get time back, I get energy back, I get progress back. So here's the question. Ready? I know it's good. And there are a couple of you that listen, people that are clients, people who are regularly in my world, you probably know what I'm gonna The question is the question that I constantly ask myself, that really does save all of the time and energy and honestly, actually saves me a crap ton of money too, because I don't buy stuff to fix things because they're not broken. The question is, what's working? Like it is two words, with a question mark, what's working? Here's the thing about this question. It is magical. Honestly, it is the ultimate business timesaver because our human brains are really, really effectively trained to look at the world around us and think what's broken? Right, think about the way you approach your day you think, what's on fire? What do I have to fix? Who do I have to help first? What order do I have to attack this in order to help all the people that need what they need? It's it's a it's sort of this firefighting focus, right? It's the Forever playing catch up. Were constantly asking myself, what's working and constantly asking my clients this, like, people that have worked with me when I'm on people in group coaching, like they get really good at coming to calls prepared to talk about what's working, it starts off being a struggle, right? Where I ask people this question initially, and they're like, Oh, my God, nothing. But that's never true. And over time, they get really good at like, here are the things that are working right now, here are the things I want to do differently, it becomes a lot easier. And when you know what's working, you know, what's working, the base level assumption that your brain is making, that you have to go fix all the things changes, because it leads instead with like, there are things right now that are working, things are going to plan. And that's an entirely different approach to showing up at work showing up in business showing up in your day to day than most of us lead with most of the time. But showing up from this, like what do I have to fix mindset, as soon assumes that there's something broken? assumes that there's a problem. This is when we start to question stuff. When we start with an assault notion that nothing is working, that something needs fixing, then we're always looking for the right tool. We're always looking for a different tool, we're always looking like, should I restart this? Can I do it differently? Can I start over? Do I want you? And I'm not saying that when I that I don't look at data. And I don't look at things that happen and think like, how do I want to do this differently. But it's very different. To go from a place of like, nothing is working, something is broken, I have to figure out how to fix this. Instead of from a place where I, I tend to be, which is more like this worked really well. How do I want to make it work better? Right? Very, very different. There is not nearly the amount of spin in the second set. So when you ask yourself what's working, you can do this in a million different ways. This is the it's like the white t shirt of business questions, right? It goes with everything. So you can be very general, sometimes I just think like what's working, and let my brain offer all the things and sometimes their business things and sometimes their life things. And sometimes they're just like, the sun is out today. Because sometimes days are like that. It's like, okay, what's working, I am breathing, the sun is out. The kids had breakfast, like sometimes it's just that it's more than that always. But sometimes that's kind of what I got to say. So you can though Be more specific. And sometimes I am and often with clients I am. So it's like, Okay, what's working right now, in your business that's like slightly more specific, what's working in your marketing, what's working in your sales process, what's working in your email list? What's working in your social media posts, what's working in your Facebook group, what's working in how you're showing up, what's working in networking, what's working, and how you're connecting to people, what's working, and how you're spending your time, what's working, and how you're taking care of yourself, what's working. But the base level assumption here is that something is working. And that's the key to this. It's shifting the base level assumption from something is broken. And I have to figure out what it is to, most things are working most of the time. Now I can just make them better. And I know that you might listen to this and be like, Oh, God, I hate her. It's not really a Pollyanna kind of thing. And is not meant to be ridiculously optimistic. I don't really roll like that as a human being like, I am not overly anything. Like I kind of run in the middle as a person and a temperature. So I, you know, this question is really about stripping out noise. It's about stripping out excessive energy that you put towards fixing things like I've been having this conversation with a colleague over the last couple of weeks, and she keeps looking, you know, she keeps asking people what tools they're using to do things. She's like, well, I need to figure out how to measure what I'm doing better. Well, why, like, why isn't it working now? Like what's not working? But like? What is weed? How, how are you measuring success right now? What tools do you have that you're really using? Well, you know, she's coming at it from like, A, if I can measure it better, I'll know how to fix it. Because clearly, something's not working. When you know, for me, you know, the version of this that I think is more helpful as a business owner and certainly less frustrating and less burnout feeling and less drama filled is okay. Here are the things that are working, what do I want more of, you know, it is a very different kind of approach to thinking about this. And it's really this simple. Like, I sometimes ask myself this twice a day, when I'm, we all have those spans of time. We're like, I don't know what's working, everything is broken. So when I think that I may I get out my notebook, and I make myself write down five things that are working like this is a habit. And sometimes I'm mad at it. But that's when I do it more, because that's when I know I needed more. And I'm stubborn like that. Like, I'm not going to let myself fall into the little hole of despair here. Because I know that the vast majority of what I'm doing is working. The vast majority of what you're doing is working you checked nine things off your to do list and you didn't get number 1011 and 12 and you're like crap, I broke it. You didn't break it. You didn't truly so that is the question. This is it for this episode. This is everything thing, but really, truly, if you start asking yourself this question on a regular basis, it will save you time. Time, like so much time, I can't even begin to explain to you how much time this question saves me how much energy I don't spend in drama, and how much money because I'm gonna go buy the tools that I'm trying to fix things with. Because I know things are working, I don't need the tools. Right, I am sort of weirdly militantly anti extra tools in my business and an overly Stover kind of way. But it's because I know things are working as they are. Not all I need to buy my way to fixing them. That's just not the way I need to do it. So for you think about how often you want to ask yourself this and how you can make it a habit, because that's where it starts. This shift takes work, but it is worth it in the long run. And if you're not in my Facebook group, you should come. It's called Uncomplicating Business for Teachers Helpers and Givers just like this podcast in a couple of weeks on November 17. I am doing a free webinar that you should come to it is called uncomplicated change. It is about Uncomplicated Change. So many of us go through career transitions, big changes in business, big changes in life. And it is a webinar that is really about understanding what's so complicated about change why we make it so hard on ourselves and how to ease it. Because it does not have to be as painful as we make it. And it would be really nice for it to be a little less complicated. So please come into my group, go into my Facebook feed,come into my email list come to the place or send me a note and say, Sir, when the heck is this webinar, it is November 17, at 330. Eastern in the afternoon, and it requires registration. So you gotta sign up if you haven't signed up. And listen, if you want to practice what's working in you want accountability for this coaching is the way my clients get really good at this. And I, they will be the ones to tell you that it turns down the noise. That is why they continue to show up telling me things are working because it just changes your whole perspective on your business. And things make more progress when you see progress. Looking for progress helps you find more helps you make more. So if you are ready for coaching, and coaching is magic, it really is send a message send a carrier pigeon, like find me on Facebook, find me on LinkedIn. And let's talk about it. Like let's talk about how you can use what's working to leverage more of what's working. Because really like you're not broken, nothing's wrong, you aren't you're not wrong, you. We can leverage what's good and just do more of it. We can do your best things better. That's everything. So any of those things and if you're enjoying this podcast and it's useful for you, please please please rate it on the platform you listen to on iTunes or wherever else and so it will help other people find it or leave it a review. And that's all so go off. Ask yourself what's working and I'll see you next week.