Keeping it Simple in 2021

Welcome to this week's episode of Teachers in Business. So this week, we're going to talk about simplicity, and keeping business simple in 2021. For me, simplicity is really one of my core business and really life values. Simply simple is better. Honestly, from my perspective, it makes everything from day to day life to work to everything in between just that much easier. So this week, we're going to talk about how to approach growing a business in 2021. Without making it's so freaking complicated all the time. Because I know from personal experience, from clients, from everything in between, that it really is possible to keep it simple and thrive all at the same time. So I want to start this week with a little bit of a story. I personally am someone who likes to have, you know, a couple of pots at the boil at any given moment. It's probably been six years, maybe seven, since I had just one job at a time. And even when I did, I always had some kind of extra project that I was working on. A few years ago now I'd say 455, I guess I left my corporate job, to go back to teaching and to start my own first business. And during that time, especially the fall after I left, I said a lot, a lot, a lot of yeses. And I said yes to all the extra things. And none of them are necessarily bad. But what happened is things got really, really, really complicated. I was moving in a lot of directions, a lot of different things all at the same time. None of them were super coordinated. And I really was just doing what I could to survive. I had described someone on at the time, as like, I wasn't even the captain of the boat. I was swimming behind the boat waving at it, hoping it would come back and rescue me. In this time, I was surviving, but my body freaked. It was like Yep, nope, this sucks. I'm done. And that was my first but not last brief encounter with Virgo. And it was scary. And so the message I got from that time, volleys years ago now was really to simplify and slow down. And I did it took me a while to figure out a couple of years. And honestly, I think coincidentally 2020 was the first year that I really got the hang of simplifying, personally, because it was forced on us and 2020 like we had to simplify, we need to go anywhere. And I had to be all things to everybody for a while. So I think I finally have the hang of doing multiple things. For me right now that's teaching and running my coaching business as well as my others. kids and family, exercise, sleep all the things in managing to keep it really simple. So today we're going to talk about exactly what this looks like in my business. And how you can apply the same principles in your life and in your business to keep it simpler all the time. I think for me that keeping business in life simple really starts at the very top. I give myself one goal per business per area, like I have a goal for my coaching business, I have a goal for my other business, I have a fitness goal. I have sort of a how I want to walk through the world goal. But each area only gets one. This is something I've actually talked about on the podcast before so if you're new, you can actually go back last week to Episode Seven, to learn about setting that one goal. And for me, the reason that having one goal is so important is because it helps me to do a couple of things better than I would be able to if I had a handful first helps me to focus and I have a lot going on. So everything that helps me to focus is good. Like I'm all of those things are welcome. It helps me know what matters. Second, having that one goal really helps me to prioritize everything I do. Gets decided on whether or not it relates to the goal at hand. Right? I have a lot of choices that I have to make in a given day because I've a lot of things on my to do list just like you do. There is never a case where all the things get done. It's just not going to happen. And so I do have to go like Okay, which one of these things matters more right now. Having one goal really makes me able to make those decisions and know what matters most. And then finally, having one goal really helps me to not get lost in the weeds of things. Because it helps me to think like, Oh, wait, I'm just trying to do this goal. I don't need 47 tools, I don't need tons of research, it means I just get to choose what I want to do and move forward. Now that sounds easier than it actually is sometimes. And you're probably thinking, Okay, great. Sounds wonderful, Sarah. But how the hell does that actually work? And that's a fair question. So for me, as I was thinking about this, I realized that it all comes down to two questions. The first one is what we were just talking about. So let me set the stage a little bit. Imagine you have probably don't have to imagine real hard, that you have a whole list of things to do just laid out in front of you. And you're thinking, Okay, what do I do now? So I asked myself, these two questions. The first question is what we were just talking about, what's my goal? And one of the things on these on this list gets me closest to that goal right now. There are other versions of this question. And I actually use all the versions. Sometimes I find myself working along, and I've sort of lost track of my goal. And I fallen down some fun little rabbit hole of like, try this tool lost on Facebook scrolling through, in when I catch myself, I use a version of this question, which is, is what I'm doing right now getting me closer to my goal? Now the answer is no, I redirect. So I'm continuously like, does this have anything else to do with my goal? If the answer is no, I don't do it. That's part of simplifying, simplifying is doing less things, in a lot of ways. So sometimes, when you look around you go, does this relate to my goal? If the answer is no, you got to go? Not forever, but maybe just for now. And then the second question is really direct. It's what's the simplest way to do this? This one is the killer, like it is the cast killer. Because here's what happens. I know my goal, and then I'll have an idea. And actually, as I was planning this episode, This podcast was a really good example. Here's what happened. When I started thinking about doing this podcast, I thought, okay, that's going to help me reach more people. I'm going to start a podcast, let's go. And then my immediate next thought was, I need to figure out how it works. Which tools I need, sign up for a course or three, buy some stuff, get some checklists, and off, I went, and I did, like, sign up for a class, got seven checklists, read all the stuff, got all the different input, and then all of a sudden, I was like, oh, a podcast is so overwhelming, I'm never going to be able to do it. And I was like, Oh, wait, hold on. Because I've sort of taught myself to do this. My next thought was, wait, what's the simplest way forward here. And it was to do what I already knew how to do. So the first thing I did was bought a fancier microphone, because my headphones weren't going to cut it, the dog keeps chewing on them. I record on zoom, because I know zoom. I looked at all the checklists, I got all the freebies and all the nonsense, and I picked the one checklist I like best. And I literally tossed the rest into a folder in my Gmail. And then I reached out to a friend who has a podcast, and asked which tools she uses. And if she loves them, she told me which tool she loved. I bought those. Like that was it. As I've recorded more episodes, I've found that the transcripts were causing me problems because I have a process for transcripts that I use with my college kids to pull them out of YouTube. And it was just getting really daunting with the podcast. And so I reached out to another friend who does lots of audio things and said to her like, hey, what tool Do you use for transcription? She said, here's my tool, and I bought that. I didn't spend any kind of time comparing the tools. I didn't spend really any energy, evaluating them other than like, can I afford this? Does it seem like it will do the job? It's really allowing myself to make it less complicated in any way that I can. The question is there a simpler way is that it's permission to do whatever the hell you want. There is always a simpler way. Our brains love to make things complicated. But if you are constantly asking yourself, what's my goal, and what's the simplest way to do this, a lot of that complication sort of naturally leads away that Really what my processes? And if you ask yourself those two questions, and you're like, still kind of stuck, ask for help. You can see from the podcast process I just shared with you, that's totally my process. What's my goal? How do I make it simple? If I'm not sure I asked, like I went to a friend who was an expert, and trusted and use the tools she suggested, like, I asked for her advice. And then I actually took it. That's the trick there. Because a lot of times, we'll say to people, like what's your favorite tool? And then what's your favorite tool? And then what's your favorite tool? there? No, ask the person you trust for their tool. And then by that one, don't make it harder. The biggest obstacle that I think that we come to in this search for simplicity, and it is one I trip over time and time again, like all the time, is that we lose our grip on the main goal. For me, sometimes what happens is like a silver result, a sub goal comes into play, and it becomes my focus more followers, more sales, more clients, more posts, whatever it is. And then when that sub goal takes precedence, and I lose sight of my higher goal and what my mission is, then the focus falls off and the prioritization falls off. And then things start to feel really complicated. And then I get stuck. It's normal, it happens to everybody. But you got to be able to recognize it. Right? It's it's tricky to get to that place, and then be like ups, and now I'm done. You can't sit there. So when you get to that spot where you feel stuck, really going back and reconnecting to like way, way, way. What's my goal here? And what's the simplest way for you to achieve it? is really how we can use the magic that is simplicity, because you don't need any more than that. So every time you're stuck, if you say to yourself like Okay, wait, what's my goal? How can I make this simple? You'd be amazed at the pincher get yourself out of Believe me. And when we start to feel complicated, or we start to feel defeated, or we wait, or we get overwhelmed, like no, that's fun. These two simple questions can break that up, like, like breaking up frozen ice, right? Okay, so that really is simplicity in a nutshell. I'm not going to overcomplicate it, huh. That's all it is. And the thing that's lovely about it, it is completely within your power to keep your business simple. It's just what's the simplest way forward from here? You know, do I need this tool? Well, what's the simplest way forward from here. And if you're looking for more information about how to keep things simple, or this resonates with you feel free to come and join my Facebook group, if you haven't already. It's also called Teachers in Business. Because simplicity is really one of my core values. It's something I talk about a lot in there. Because it's matters. We don't want it, we all have plenty to do like we don't need to make things harder than they already are. And if things are feeling crazy complicated for you, we're just struggling to get out of your own way and live this simple existence in business. This is my jam. I can help. Let's talk about it. Feel free to reach out on Facebook via messenger on LinkedIn via message or go to my website, which is Torpey, t o r p e y coaching.com and book a time or even just send me an email at Sara@torpeycoaching. I'm happy to talk about how coaching might help you to really simplify this. I'm really good with clients that like do you really need that? Is there a simpler way to do this and helping you get out of that cycle of overwhelm? So that's it simple this week, right here is to an incredibly simple and profitable 2021 See you soon.