I’d checked out Teambox a while ago and was intrigued but not quite impressed – I just decided to take another look at them a few weeks ago and I really like some of the changes they’ve made to make it an easier to use, more streamlined experience. In fact, I’m now using Teambox as my main project management tool.

Strong points:

•  Teambox is one of the only full featured project management tools (up there with Siasto) where you can semi-customize the appearance of the user interface. We all know I’m a big design geek so this is important to me!
• Calendar view with tasks laid out on it (though no option to view by week instead of month – that would be a nice addition; it’d also be great if it was color coded by project/organization)
• Time tracking & Gantt charts (not something I use – I love Harvest for my time-tracking – but nice additions nonetheless)
• Conversations & group chat functions
• Task list templates
• You can view task lists in a column view with drag & drop flexibility – great option for people who like Kanban style tools but want something more full-featured than most of the available Kanban style tools out there
• Fairly easy Google documents & Google calendar integration
• Mobile apps for iPhone & iPad available (haven’t tested the iPad app, but the iPhone app is very easy to use)
• One of its strongest points is the ability to go from a high-level overview (with the organizations view) to a really granular view (task lists within projects).
• Because of the organizations function, Teambox would be a great tool for businesses doing agency-style work – where you need different team members working on different projects/with different business clients.

Weak points:

• The Google docs integration is a little clunky – you have to attach the document to a comment on a particular task, and then if you want to see that particular document in the cloud (as opposed to downloading it – after all, that’s the whole point of Gdocs), you have to navigate back to that task/comment/attachment to view it online.
• I wish the UI was a bit more customizable – more background choices (black damask, anyone?) or the ability to color code things/choose a color scheme would be fantastic.
• No recurring tasks – but this is due to be added before the end of the year. This would be a dealbreaker for me if it wasn’t due to be added so soon, so I can only hope that the previously stated timeline is accurate!
• No way to star tasks or set specific tasks as higher priority than others.
• The way the pricing is set up ($25/month/organization), it could get pricey – but the free plans are fairly extensive (five projects, a gigabyte of storage, five users).
• Something I didn’t note in the video, because I hadn’t been using Teambox regularly at that point, is that if you have projects or task lists that are named the same (say, “General” or “Ongoing/Maintenance” or “Administrative”), it can be kind of a pain in the ass to add tasks from the quick-add function, because it doesn’t show you what organization you’re adding it to, just the project/task list names. This is also a problem with the iPhone app.

Why I switched to Teambox

You might remember from a while ago that I had been using Rule.fm for my project management. After rediscovering Teambox & giving it a go, I decided to switch to Teambox for two main reasons:

• I wasn’t using a lot of features inside Rule – I’m not sure if that would have changed if I had stuck with it (I’m working on some internal changes that will affect how I use project management tools, more on that soon), but as is, I was essentially using Rule for the color coded calendar view, and not using the CRM, wiki, or conversation features. The conversation/chat features are probably something I’ll be using inside of Teambox in the future, but I don’t really need the CRM or wiki functionality, so Rule was starting to feel like not a great fit.
• Integration with tools I already use. The wiki features inside Rule.fm are really cool (and I think they’d be fantastic for creating multimedia, internal operations manuals) but Google docs is really where the majority of my needs-to-be-shared information is stored, so integration with that – even if it could be improved upon – is really useful. Also, I haven’t tested it out yet, but Zapier promises integration between Teambox & Evernote – which, if it worked out well, would be fantastic. (Probably going to be digging more into Zapier & reviewing it or featuring it in a tool roundup soon; stay tuned.)

In other words, it pretty much came down to the features I actually used – Teambox has more of those than Rule does. I wound up putting off switching everything into Teambox for about a week and a half but once I got down to it, it only took about 30-60 minutes, and so far, Teambox works really well with my workflow. (I do wish it had a prioritizing function – that and recurring tasks would make it pretty much perfect, barring my UI nitpicks.)

So there’s your latest review + behind the scenes update – any questions about Teambox or why I switched? Let me know!

Siasto is fairly new to me – I hadn’t heard of it before but I really like it. Here’s an overview:

Pros:

•  Fantastic UI. Seriously. Probably one of the best user interfaces/aesthetic feels I’ve seen out of any full-fledged project management tool. Easy to use, intuitive, nice to look at – five stars.
• Not only is the overall design great, but it’s customizable. Oh yeah.
• Seamless Google Docs integration – you can easily attach docs to projects, and then you can edit those Google Docs from within Siasto if you want.
• It also integrates with Dropbox and Box, though I haven’t tested those integrations as much as the Gdocs one.
• Project templates!
• The number of projects you can add isn’t limited by plan. Instead, the plans are user-based.
• Easy-add task function, & you can sort tasks by tags.

Cons:

• Really, the only constructive criticism I have is that I wish there were task lists & recurring tasks. I talked to one of the founders & he said they’re working on recurring task functionality, but they don’t have an ETA for it.
• I noted in the video that I thought things could get weird or complicated, price-wise, if you only needed users for specific projects, or if you only worked with someone for a fairly short amount of time on one project (since the pricing is user-based). So I mentioned it to Nic (the co-founder) & he said that you can invite users as guests to projects, and that this will allow them to only see what is within that project and not access the team space. Also, if you have someone as a user for less than a month, the charge ($8/user/month) is pro-rated, and that the user invite/editing process is designed to be easy to use.

So, although I hadn’t heard of Siasto before, it’s definitely one of my top recommendations now for creative, design-oriented types who need a full-featured project management tool that’s still easy to use and overwhelming. If this is you – definitely check it out & let me know what you think!

First things first: I’m running a free class on zero-panic launching, just for those of you who are launching something after the holidays & don’t want to spend your holidays panicking about it. Check it out & sign up here. On to the review!

Out of the GTD-based task management tools that I’ve seen, ThunderTask is one of my favorites. It’s what a streamlined Wunderkit would have looked like, I think.

Great: 

• Really, really intuitive interface with drag and drop functionality, super easy to use/figure out
• Prioritization!
• Recurring tasks (as I look at more & more tools it just baffles me when they’re missing this)
• Collaboration
• Task lists

Things I’d tweak: 

• No way to view your tasks across workspaces
• No smart scheduling (meaning, you can’t type in “Write blog post today” and it automatically assigns the date to today)
• No calendar view

I gotta say though, ThunderTask looks like it’d be great for small teams (solopreneur + VA) or collaborations, especially if you don’t need or want a calendar view. And best of all? It’s free with no cap on collaborators, projects, or tasks, as far as I can tell!

It’s kind of a running joke among service providers – everyone’s had that client, the one who pays you, wants to keep working with you, even seems to like you on a personal level, but for whatever reason, adamantly refuses to get their shit together.

They’re slow in acting on your advice (if they ever do indeed act on it at all) and sometimes they appear to be actively sabotaging the project’s progress. People far smarter than I have talked about self-sabotaging behavior and I won’t pretend I have anything new or insightful to add to the conversation around “Why do people behave this way?”, but I do think there’s an interesting opportunity for a side conversation.

What is our duty, as business owners, when we have clients behave this way?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I’ve had my fair share of clients who are looking for a magic bullet solution – they want to find the system. You know, the one that will make it so that they don’t have to do any work and everything always happens perfectly, automagically, without any work from them. (But, of course, without actually handing control off to someone else, ’cause that’d just be weird, yo.) They rotate through tools (Basecamp and TeamWorkPM and Dropbox and Google Docs, oh my!), not realizing that the broken component is the fact that they can’t ever seem to get around to doing their part of the process.

I also thought about this recently when I went to a trial krav maga class at a local gym. After the trial class, I talked to Jessica, the manager, about their membership program. Having never actually checked out a gym before, I didn’t know what was normal, so I was surprised to find out that they only had a monthly payment plan. The way it works, she explained to me, is that you pay a flat monthly fee and can go to unlimited classes (not just krav maga, but also yoga, Brazilian jiu jitsu, crossfit conditioning for fighters, and muay thai).

I asked if there was any kind of a per-class rate, and she explained that no, they didn’t have a per-class option, and that there was a specific reason for that. See, for people to get the kind of results from the classes that the gym owners wanted them to get (enough training to be able to actually defend themselves & have the moves in their muscle memory), members need to go more than once a week or every other week, which is what tends to happen when people pay per class.

It was really interesting to me as a business owner & service provider to note my reactions as a potential client/customer. Going in to the sample lesson, I had been very resistant to the idea of paying a monthly fee.  Because of my no-car sitch & where the gym is located, they’re not really easy to get to for me, and I’m a busy person anyways (in between work, attempting to have a social life, and keeping up on my Netflix & Hulu queues). I had figured I’d be happy as a clam to pay per class. Then I could go to two classes a week and that would be about as much as I could handle and that, my friends, was that. 

But, I had also done my research and knew that this was really the only gym in Austin I wanted to go to for these classes. I’m going to krav maga classes because I want to be able to legitimately kick someone’s ass and get away safely if I have to (& because I wind up having creepy encounters probably every other time I go out, which is a whole ‘nother blog post), not because I want to get a cardio workout. Their credentials were really important to me – as much as I had decided I didn’t want to do a monthly membership option, I had also decided that I wanted to continue taking classes there (barring the possibility of my trial class being epically awful, which it wasn’t at all – they made the whole process as un-intimidating as possible for a total noob like me).

I thought really hard about it, and looked at the schedule that Jessica gave me, and my average week/social commitments. And decided that, you know what? I think it’s actually feasible for me to make it to three or four classes a week after all. 

They structured their membership plan to get a specific level of accountability and a specific level of commitment out of their clients. The very fact that they structured their membership that way made me, a potential client*, totally willing to up my internal game + level of commitment.** Does it turn some people off? I’m sure it does. But we all know that an uncommitted client or customer can be a massive pain in the ass, and this weeds out those folks right at the start.

Back to us, as business owners, & askholes. 

The way I see it, we have two options:

#1: Totally detach yourself from what your clients do after they walk away from you.

I call this the “I wash my hands of it!” option. I don’t know why, it just makes me think of someone getting off a phone call and saying “I wash my hands of it!” while dramatically flailing their hands around in the air. Probably because that’s something I’d do. Or might have actually done. Ahem. Anyways.

#2: Do everything you can to ensure that you’re holding your clients accountable and working with committed people.

Including firing those clients who consistently don’t follow through. I read an anecdote in The Referral Engine (an excellent book, by the way, and the original spark of inspiration for this post, though I might be botching some of the details of this story) where he talks about a consultant he knew who consistently had issues with clients not doing the homework that was assigned to them.

John’s suggestion? Fire those clients. “You can’t expect clients to take their work with you seriously if you don’t take it seriously enough to hold them accountable.” That sentiment has stuck with me for a reason – it really resonates. I want to work with committed people. I want to work with people who are not only ready but willing to take action. I want to work with people who want to work with me, specifically because they know I don’t fuck around & when I’m on a project, things get done.

I think taking either of these roads 110% of the time could lead to frustration.

If I checked in with every person who’s every bought any of my planners and asked if they were still using them, I’m sure there would be a fair amount of them who bought them and then didn’t use them – and I can accept that. If you pay for something that doesn’t involve my time + energy (after the up-front creation process), I find it much easier to be detached from what happens afterwards. I don’t really know if there is a healthy way (meaning: one that doesn’t involve obsessiveness on the part of the provider) to involve accountability in things like that.

But when someone is working with me (taking up my time and energy), and not holding up their end of things, it feels like they’re actively wasting my time & energy, even if I’m still getting paid. And I imagine this is at the crux of why a lot of service providers find this situation so frustrating – not just the ego side of things (“They aren’t doing what I said? How dare they?!”) – but the fact that in the end, I’m not doing what I do just to make a buck, I’m doing it for the high I get when I see a project finished and the satisfaction that comes from knowing there’s more awesomeness out in the world as a direct result of work I put in.

I know that I can’t control what people do and I’m okay with that. (Well, I’m working on being okay with that. Give it time!) I know that attaching myself this much to the actions of my clients is going to lead to frustration sometimes. But I simply don’t find the alternative acceptable. 

What about you? I think this is a really juicy topic ripe for discussion and I’d love to hear your input. How do you deal with accountability when it comes to your clients? Do you think that as ethical business owners we owe it to our clients to hold them accountable, or are you okay being more detached? Should business owners as a whole hold their clients & customers more accountable than they do?  

*A very stubborn potential client who is normally pretty averse to changing her mind, in point of fact.

**Total transparency note: I haven’t signed up yet, mostly because my new tattoo has spent the last two weeks healing & I figured there was no point in signing up if I couldn’t actually attend classes for tattoo-related-reasons. But I have every intention of doing so ASAP.

Hat tip to Nick Armstrong for, if not coining the term “askhole”, introducing me to it.

Any.Do is for you if:

• you’re a solopreneur
• who uses Chrome
• who wants a simple, minimalist task management app that’s always there when you are

I have a hard time seeing it working for anyone else – maybe a contractor or freelancer who only has a few clients. Don’t get me wrong; I think it looks promising (especially once they add the smart date feature and a web app), I love the design, and it’s easy to use – but it’s not really equipped to handle large or complex projects, or teams of independent workers. And it doesn’t seem intended to, which is good – I feel like a lot of the task/project management apps that fall short are trying to be too many things to too many people & just end up being a confusing mess instead.

Used Any.Do? Any thoughts on it or suggestions for future reviews? Let me know in the comments or send me an email!

Nobody’s perfect. This isn’t news to any of us (ever since the first time mom forgot to pack your lunch, or that awesome guy forgot your birthday even though you told him the day before). I have preached about self-care and time-management quite a lot, and you know what? I still have days where I beat myself up in my head and days where I do nothing but dick around on Facebook and Twitter and Netflix.

So, when I start talking about people not practicing what they preach, I want to make it clear that I know nobody practices what they preach 110% of the time.

But, when you’re…

• a consultant or coach who helps people live their dreams and make a living doing what they love who balks at paying your contractors or employees a fair, livable wage
• a life coach all about self-care who expects your team members to be at your beck & call 24/7, with a two hour turnaround time
• a coach who specializes in unfucking money relationships but constantly haggles on prices with service providers and is always driving for a better (i.e., cheaper) deal

(Covering my ass note: none of these scenarios are based on people I’m currently working with; rather, they’re slightly exaggerated amalgamations of past experiences of myself & my acquaintances, created for the sake of examples.) 

I think the concept of Taskk.it is absolutely fascinating and this is the first time I’ve seen a tool like this not only created, but developed so that it (appears to throughout my testing, at least) works great. The idea is that you put in your tasks & a time estimate of how long they’ll take, along with how many hours you can work each day, and after you prioritize your tasks, Taskk.it automatically plans out your next several weeks for you.  They have free plans (up to 20 tasks) and a paid plan ($12/month, unlimited tasks, daily agenda email, and ability to create tasks by email).

Like I noted in the video, I see a few potential pitfalls here:

• Switching cost (that 5-15 minute buffer time between tasks where you’re not fully engaged in either one)
• People are notoriously bad at estimating how long something takes
• People are also notoriously bad at estimating how many hours of actual work they can get done in a day

I think that a user could modify their time estimates/weekly templates to compensate for these accordingly, though.

I see Taskk.it as being primarily ideal for solopreneurs or people coordinating with small teams – I do think the collaboration features would eliminate a lot of email back & forth and help keep everyone on the same page when it came to things like deadlines and priorities. I’m not sure how well it would work for larger teams (3+ people) or projects that needed a lot of notes/discussion – you’d need to have a really good system set up in Google Docs or Evernote for team notes and discussion to keep from creating a wild amount of email confusion. I’m not sure if that’s something they’re planning on addressing in future releases, but either way, Taskk.it is an interesting idea done well that could be really useful for the solopreneur with time management issues.

(PS: Yeah, this is the first video review where you can see exactly how messy my bookmark bar/tab list is. Don’t judge me.) 

We’ve talked about why you’re not too busy, and how to overcome SOGOTP syndrome; this week we’re going to dive a bit more into overwhelm and how to banish it from your business once and for all.

Yes, overwhelm. That creeping, nagging, did-all-the-oxygen-just-leave-this-room? feeling that lurks at the back of your mind. Or at the forefront of your mind, beating out everything else. As a business owner, you’re probably very familiar with it. The bad kind of familiar.

Not only is overwhelm straight-up unpleasant, but it also causes plummeting productivity. Which, in turn, makes you even more overwhelmed just thinking about all the stuff that isn’t getting done…because you’re sitting there on the couch being overwhelmed. It’s a vicious cycle, is what I’m saying.

However! It doesn’t have to be that way. When you know how to deal with overwhelm fast, you can nip it in the bud before it turns into the Cycle of Stress and Hyperventilation. Next time you feel yourself starting down that path, here’s what I want you to do:

Let it all out.

Take a notepad or open up a fresh window where you can type, and just write, totally stream of consciousness, for about 5-15 minutes. Maybe more like 20, depending on how stressed you are. Write down what’s freaking you out and why it’s freaking you out, until you feel like you’ve got to the heart of the matter.

If you’re feeling less write-y and want to do something else, you can also map out what’s bothering you using a mindmap – writing down how you feel (“overwhelmed” is a big umbrella – are you stressed out? confused? sleep deprived? frustrated?) and then teasing apart what specifically is making you feel that way.

Now that that’s done, it’s time to…

Get a reality check.

Oftentimes I find (and I know I’m not the only one), that I have the perception of having a lot of things to do, but not actually that much to do. When I know why I’m feeling overwhelmed, I’ll write that down, and then write the objective reality of the situation next to it.

For example, “I feel like I have too many clients right now” on one side of the paper, and then on the other side “I’m working with three clients this week, not the rest of them” on the other. Or, if I feel like I have too many appointments, I’ll get a big piece of paper and physically draw up what my week looks like, with tasks and appointments laid out on each individual day with time estimates. You get the idea.

A lot of the time, this is surprisingly useful. Overwhelm is by & large a mind-game, and once you know that your fear or stress was blowing things out of proportion, you can move on. However, sometimes you need to…

Fix your reality if you don’t like it.

Sometimes, you really did put too much on your plate. Instead of a well-balanced meal you have a plate piled so high it’d make you sick to eat it all. That’s okay. Let’s fix it.

Looking at the list of things you have to do, ask yourself:

• What can I move? Is next week or month less busy? Is this a project that has to get done right this instant, or would it be better moved to next quarter, when you don’t have so many craft shows to attend? If you can move something, do it.
• What can I delegate? Are any of these things that absolutelypositively need to get done by you? Can you get an assistant to do it? FancyHands and TaskRabbit are both useful solutions here. This is definitely a problem that business owners start to encounter as they get more successful, feeling like they still have to do everything themselves – but they don’t. Relinquish the need to handle every small detail and the stress that comes with that need.
• What can I get rid of entirely? Is this thing that’s stressing me out even important? Do I still actually want to do it? Do I need to do it? Or was I going to do it out of some misguided sense of obligation? We tend to take on a surprising amount of crap – one of the great things about becoming more busy is that it gives you a fantastic reason to let go of obligations and things you don’t actually want to do.

An ounce of prevention…

So, you know what caused the overwhelm, and you got rid of it. Awesome! However, let’s not leave it there.

Instead, look at what caused the overwhelm, and what caused that. For example, one thing that I commonly see (and that I sometimes do myself), is overwhelm caused by taking on too much work. Which, in turn, is often caused by not having an accurate way to gauge the current and future workload.

Now, figure out how to prevent that from happening again. In that example, you need to create a system for deciding how much work you’ll take on, and for assessing your current/future workload. You might decide to create a wall calendar that helps you out. Or you might decide to tell everyone “let me check my calendar” before committing to anything. It doesn’t matter what your actual solution is, just put some thought into it & stick to it.

Overwhelm doesn’t seem to be something we can banish entirely & forevermore – chances are you’ll see it again. But now, you’ve got a handy toolbox of tips to send it on its way ASAP, without the near-hyperventilation. Enjoy!

TODAY’S MY BIRTHDAY, Y’ALL. You know what this means, right? It means that all day I am going to totally abuse the phrase “It’s my birthday, I do what I want!” Including as justification for wearing a sexy villainess dress that will probably require double-sided tape to keep everything decent (it’s supposed to get here today, so I can’t confirm this yet…but c’mon, look at that thing*) for a low-key get together at a pub. Yup. It’s my birthday, I do what I want.

It also means, sexy birthday dresses aside, that:

1. I am going to do one of those “(insert number) things” posts. Because it’s my birthday & I do what I want.
2. I’m doing an early bird special with charity benefits for the Systems 201 class. More deets at the bottom of the post. Or you can just click here.

Ready?

24 Things I’ve Learned About Life & Business

(in a little over three years of busting my ass & working hard to work for myself)

One: Nobody ever knows what the hell they’re doing.

You’re looking at someone elses’ business from the outside, and think they have it all together? They almost certainly don’t. Even if they aren’t on the verge of total chaos (and a lot of them are, trust me on that), they have days where they think to themselves “I have no idea what the fuck is going on. I am going to ruin this. Everyone is judging me. I’m going to change my services and people will think I’m a flake. I’m going to up my prices and people will get pissy.” You think you’re the only one that has days like that, but you are soooo not. Getting to the point where you know this makes a huge difference in your peace of mind. And makes it easier when you do have days like that.

Two: On a related note, people are going to look at you and think you have your shit together.

When this happens, it is generally considered bad form to laugh hysterically and explain to them all of the myriad of ways that you emphatically do not have it together. At least until you’re down a few drinks – then it’s somewhat more acceptable.

Three: Support systems are vital.

Not just things like “remembering to take breaks” and “eat breakfast before you start working” (ah ha ha, like I’ve ever forgotten to do that…ahem). Though those are obviously important. But things like having a snuggle buddy who doesn’t care how your business is going or someone to go to networking events with you and make them entertaining is huge. I love my friends who aren’t located near here, but the first year in Austin was one of the hardest of my life because I didn’t feel like I had any kind of support system here. Don’t do that to yourself.

Four: Your family, and some of your friends, might never “get” what you do or why people pay you for it or how you’re “qualified” to do it.

That’s okay. As long as they aren’t being judgey assholes about it, just ignore it and love them anyways, like they love you. (If they are being jdugey assholes about it, sit down and have a talk about boundaries. Or something. I haven’t had to do that yet, thankfully, so I’m not the one to ask.)

Five: It’s really surreal the first time someone actively seeks you out for advice.

It doesn’t get any less surreal, but you get used to it and learn to step into it.

Six: Nobody ever feels like a grown up.

One of my friends posted something on Facebook once: “Conclusion: Every adult I know is convinced s/he’s a sixteen year old wearing a grown-up-suit and they’re going to get found out any minute now.” True dat.

Seven: Nobody ever winds up doing what they started doing.

This doesn’t make you a fraud or a flake, it makes you human. (I started out as a freelance writer-slash-style blogger. Yeah.) 

Eight: Try to stay grounded in reality.

We all forget that we’re totally immersed in this little bubble of the world and that 95% of the people out there don’t know who Chris Guillebeau or Danielle LaPorte are and why it’s so awesome that they knew your name or talked to you or linked to you in a blog post. (I use those two examples because they *are* grounded in reality and are perfectly aware that “famous on the internet” is not the be-all-end-all of life, the universe, and everything & they’re also some of the nicest people you’ll meet; I don’t think Chris could be egotistical if he tried.)

Nine: Buy yourself nice things.

Screw practical. I make it a habit now to buy myself something every time I have a business win, and I used to make it practical things – “Oh, I can wear this dress every day”, blahdiblah. But sometimes, you just need to buy yourself something nice, whether it’s practical or not. (See aforementioned “sexy villainess” dress.)

Ten: Impromptu play breaks = necessity.

Your work will still be there when you come back in 10 minutes and it’ll probably be better off for you taking that break.

Eleven: Don’t waste time waiting for the other shoe to drop when things are good.

Everything goes in cycles and things might not be as good as they are now later, or they might be better. But dwelling on it won’t do anything except suck all the fun out of what you’re doing right now.

Twelve: If it’s important to you, it’s important enough.

Don’t minimize it or be dismissive of it. (Thanks to Lisa for pointing this out to me earlier this week when I was referring to my love of aesthetics as “silly” or “geeky”.) 

Thirteen: When in doubt: make a pot of tea, wait 24 hours, and come back to whatever you’re freaking out about.

It will probably look like not nearly so big of a deal. (See also: ask yourself, “In five years, will this matter?” – thanks Alex!)

Fourteen: People love enthusiasm, even if you’re worried about coming off like a dork.

Tell your new client you’re superexcited to work with them and that they’re your dream client. They won’t judge you.

Fifteen: It’s okay if you don’t want to read something deep and meaningful at the end of your work day and you’d rather watch Buffy instead.

I promise that doesn’t make you shallow. (Or, if it does? You’re in good company, ’cause I’m shallow too!)

Sixteen: The world doesn’t stop turning if you take a day off work.

Really for-reals.

Seventeen: Worrying about your competitors is a waste of time.

It’s much more fun to be friends with them instead.

Eighteen: For the love of everything good and holy, spend the extra time, effort, and money to make sure your workspace is set up correctly.

Your back, ass, and massage therapist will thank you for it.

Nineteen: Yoga is a good idea.

Twenty: In general? People are paying much less attention to you than you think they are.

At least in that hyper-critical way we’re all afraid of. If you change your copy or switch up your service structure or whatever, you are not going to get a flood of emails criticizing you for being a massive flake and demanding the old way back.

Twenty One: On the total flip side of that, people are noticing you (in a good way), even if you don’t feel like it.

People notice hard workers and people who are genuine, and if you fall into those categories, you’re showing up.

Twenty Two: It’s almost never about you, it’s about them.

People react to things based on their experiences, personality, history, and what kind of day they’re having. Sometimes this is obvious and easy to remember (“Hey guys, I’m having a sale!” “WHAT?! How dare you try to take my money, you charlatan!”), sometimes it’s not. But it’s always worth keeping in mind.

Twenty Three: If it’s not about you, don’t make it about you.

(And, as noted in 22, it’s almost never about you.)

Twenty Four: It’s all going to be okay. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end. 

And on a related note, I want to also say a massive THANK YOU for the people who have helped me out in various ways too many to name, who’ve supported me and listened to me and given me advice and loved me: Shenee, Kathryn, Erika (& the other Daily Whip alum, a fantastic group of women), Megan, Dyana, my family, my various friends who are not immersed in the business world but are supportive and loving and helpful anyways, my puppy-dog, my awesome clients, and…YOU, for reading and being here and following along. Even if you’ve never bought a planner or signed up for a class. I know you’re there and I want to say THANK YOU.

This past year has not exactly been a cake walk, it’s involved a lot of self-doubt and tears and loss, but also involved a lot of coming in to my own, growth, and learning how to be independent and interdependent without sacrificing one for the other. I’m really, intensely, snifflingly grateful for my life today. And I couldn’t have done it without support.

Okay, now that the touchy-feely stuff is over: the birthday sale!

Remember Systems 101? I created a follow-up workshop, Systems 201, which goes on sale today! It’ll take place in mid-October and from now through midnight on the 30th, I’m having an early bird sale + charity benefit. Right now, the workshop is $25, and 30% of all sales (between now and midnight on the 30th) will go to Women for Women International. After the 30th, the price goes up to $35. So get in now, get a good deal, & help a charity out to boot.

Here’s to another fantastic year!

*I feel it’s necessary to update this post and say two things: 

1. Look at the birthday dress! Eee! I loved it!
2. It actually didn’t require double sided tape, if you can believe it. Can I get a hallelujah for super-stretchy fabrics? Modern technology, y’all. Gotta love it. 

Recall the post earlier this month, about the difference between ambition and a pipe dream? I mentioned SOGOTP syndrome (that’d be “shit or get off the pot”) – that thing we do sometimes where we talk about an idea, potentially an amazing idea (our eyes light up when they talk about it, our enthusiasm is infectious) that’ll not only help clients, but move our business forward & make some sweet moolah in the process. But, instead of starting on it, we just…let it sit. Indefinitely.

Obviously, this is not okay with me. Taking an idea and turning it into a concrete reality – or watching someone else do the same – is something I find incredible every time it happens, and the thought of all these amazing product/service/business ideas just sitting around drives me up the wall. And when I talk to people suffering from SOGOTP syndrome, they aren’t usually wildly happy about their idea going unused either – but the fact remains that they just can’t seem to get started.

These blocks to getting started usually fall into one of three categories: psychological reasons, busy-ness, or logistical reasons.

Psychological reasons

Unsurprisingly, this is where a lot of people run into issues. They’re afraid of starting. Or they’re afraid of finishing. They’re afraid of failure or they’re afraid of wild success. Often, without you even realizing it, your lizard brain will manage to attach itself to some ridiculous fear that then sits in the back of your mind, looming over the brilliant idea and dulling it.

The first thing to do if you think this might be an issue is what I call the “two year old technique”, for reasons that will soon become very clear. You can either have a friend help you out with this or journal it out by yourself. Simply sit down and ask yourself (or have your friend ask you) why you haven’t started this yet. To every answer you give, the reply is “Why?”

Example: “Why haven’t you started working on this idea yet?” “Well, I’m not sure how it’d be received.” “Why?” “Because I’ve never done anything like this before.” “Why does that bother you?” “I don’t want to be a laughingstock – what if other people think it’s stupid?” Bingo.

Simple? Yes. Surprisingly effective? Yes.

Oftentimes, just naming these fears will make us realize how silly they are. But, you know what, sometimes putting yourself out there is just plain scary. In which case, the antidote is excitement.

This idea must excite you or you wouldn’t want to work on it, right? (If this idea doesn’t excite you, let someone else do it and find one that does. Life is too short not to work on exciting things, y’all.) Figure out why it excites you. Why is the end result going to be so awesome? Is it going to boost your credibility? Or connect you with more people who need what you do? Will it help people while giving them a juicy taste of what it’s like to work with you (thus, bringing you more clients)?

When you actively work on figuring out and articulating why this idea excites you so much, you can use that to motivate you through your fears or worries. Whenever you start to doubt, return to your motivations and remember why you’re working on this idea in the first place.

“I’m too busy” and/or overwhelm

“Busy” is the new black. Especially with solopreneurs & entrepreneurs, we tend to wear our “busy-ness” as a badge – a sign of “Oh, I must be doing well, look how busy I am! See?!” (I’ve got more on why you’re not “too busy” here.) 

Now, I’m not saying you aren’t busy. Running a business is hard work. But even the busiest people can and do make room for new projects on a regular basis. If they can do it, so can you.

On the flip side is the fact that often, “busy-ness” is a state of mind and not an actual reality. If you’re booking more appointments than you really should be, not leaving any breathing room for anything else, or working on “busy work” (you know – things that make you feel like you got something done but do jack-all for real-world results), then this might be the case with you. Raise your prices. Re-think how many appointments you can realistically do per week – set a limit and then stick to it. Keep track of what you actually do on a day-to-day basis  to figure out what you’re doing for busy work or what’s sucking up your time – social media is important, but spending 3 hours a day on Facebook or Twitter isn’t.

Overwhelm is the evil twin of busy-ness. But if busy-ness is often a state of mind, overwhelm always is – I like to say that if anxiety is caused by living in the future, overwhelm is caused by living in the future of your project. When you’re overwhelmed, you’re worrying about things that aren’t even a factor in reality yet. (More on overwhelm, from the fabulous Danielle LaPorte.)

Instead of being overwhelmed, be prepared. Know what needs to happen in the future – have a plan – but instead of thinking about what you’re going to do in the future, think about what you’re going to do right now and what you’re going to do next. Period.

Logistical reasons

You’d be surprised, but more often than not, sitting on an idea has much more to do with the first two obstacles than with this one. You’d think that logistical reasons would be at the top, but I often find after talking with someone, that they’re actually at the bottom.

However, when they do come up, these obstacles can still be a big pain in the ass. And so, here’s three ways to nip ’em in the bud:

• Bring the idea down to earth. Here’s what I mean by that: figure out what the essence of the idea is, and then find a way to recreate that essence on a smaller scale. For example, let’s say you have this some-day vision of putting on a large-scale health & wellness conference. People will come to speak about exercise, food, nutrition, and all sorts of other yummy topics. Instead of just letting it sit on the “someday” backburner, you can turn that idea into a webinar series with guest speakers, and sell the finished recordings as a bundle. Or, if you want to put on a retreat, do a digital one first – you’d be surprised what you can do with technology nowadays. At an event that I co-hosted at the beginning of this year, we had a yoga teacher lead everyone through a live session using streaming video. Think about how you can honor the core of this idea with the tools + resources you have on hand right now. 
• Brain clean & pick step #1. Write down everything you can think of that you’ll need to do to complete this idea. Every single step. Often, we don’t know where to start with our ideas, but that’s because we haven’t really thought about it. Once you have your task list, a starting point will usually stand out – one thing that has to come before everything else. No single starting point stands out? Then start anywhere. All too often, we paralyze ourselves with choice when it’s not the choice that matters, it’s taking action. 
• If you don’t know where to start, ask someone who does. Find someone who’s done something similar to what you want to do, and ask them how they got started. Of course, you’ll want to be respectful of their time and energy – and requesting a lengthy, detailed email isn’t. Say something like “I really like what you did with (project x). I’m working on something similar and I’m having a hard time getting started. Can you tell me what you did first to kick things off?” Don’t ask for an outline of everything they did, just what they did first. People are often perfectly willing to share useful tips.

And there you have it! The three main problems that crop up, and how you can defeat them.

So…tell me now; what idea have you been sitting on? And what are you going to do today to start turning it into a reality?

Photo credit: Namelas Frade