Simplify Your Approach
I just ended an engaging phone call with one of my best friends.
He serves a purpose in my life as a friend, a business colleague, and as someone, I dissect ideas with daily. Our relationship has a strong foundation in talking through ideas and behavior and giving each other support as we grow. We are two creatives who work in different fields, but we have the same struggles and victories, we both have similar desires to create meaningful content.
At The Crossroads
He has been at a crossroad in his business for what feels like is a year. I believe that the key to his freedom, happiness, and a path to higher profits is to simplify his business. In this essay, I will share the practical changes that I made within my company as we have grown over the last few years and how those changes helped me move away from the same crossroads that I, too, felt a while back.
If you are not an entrepreneur or business owner, that is fine; this is still applicable to you because YOU are still a business. What I am sharing can help you in your creative adventures, your chores at home, and, most importantly, your level of personal responsibility.
What Makes You The Happiest?
What Actions Make Your Business Move?
Let's take a look at the first question, and I will share from my personal experience as an example.
Videos
I LOVE being in front of the camera and doing videos. I love figuring out what I am going to talk about, which honestly – I never overthink it – I go with what has recently been on my mind, or I randomly open a page of my book or a notebook, and I allow that to inspire my flow. I found a great read on creativity here; you can bookmark that and read it later.
I started my YouTube page in 2011, but I had been doing video work my whole life. When I was a kid, my father would always let me use the camera. I was mainly in the camera's view, and he would film as I would do random young child antics. I think he knew that I was a creative kid, and he would let me act out different scenes to empower me.
Getting in front of the camera is fun, it's inspiring for me, and it allows me to get energy off my chest. But then, there's the other part of this work: editing. Editing is like a puzzle piece that you can make fit, or it's a puzzle that makes you want to throw the pieces at the wall.
You ponder, "What doesn't fit in this puzzle, and what do I need to get rid of?" I may even go so far as to say that editing is an overthinking process. I'm not particularly eager to overthink; I like flowing, I like simple methods. I love to do critical thinking, but to edit, at least for me, does not feel like creativity. It feels like a necessary evil to be creative, or is it necessary? Let's go one level deeper and find out.
And here's the other part. Yes, I love doing videos for my creative outlets, and yes, it is apart of my business model. However, the essential part of my business that needs the most attention is my writing ( I want you to copy this sentence below and write it in your notes.) This sentence will give you freedom as you introspect your life,
Sentence to note: The most essential part of my ____________ that needs the most attention is my ____________.
I have a video editor on my team now who handles all video editing projects. After editing my own for years, I realized the process took up more time than I care to give it, and honestly, it wasn't inspiring me the way I wanted to. Let's take this one step further to illustrate why finding these pockets of self-awareness are so crucial for you.
Goals and Time
My goal is to get out one video a week on my Youtube channel and one to two videos a week on my Instagram page. My goal is to release a course every quarter or so. I want to publish one to three books a year, write essays for my website, record and release one podcast episode per week, and the list goes on and on.
Time:
Podcast: 2 hours per week
Writing: 12 Hours per week
Shooting Videos: 3 hours per week
Editing Videos: 20 hours per week
Here, I present an extempore estimate of how much these tasks cost as far as time. And here's the thing, at least for my business they don't all pay the same either. Let's give each task a dollar value so we can see what it's worth from a timing perspective and financial.
Cost:
Podcast: $0 per hour
Writing: $250 per hour
Shooting Videos: $50 per hour
Editing Videos: $0 per hour
As you can see, the main driver of my business is writing and getting the video shot. The editing still matters, but it takes me 20 hours to edit, and I make no money while doing so. It stresses me out, and some people have more talent than I do, so logic tells me that I need to empower them and delegate this task to someone. Let's get wild!!! Change those $0 values to -$50, and now, you'll see I am losing 20 hours per week x a $50 loss = $1,000, and if you multiply that by four since there are usually four weeks in a month, that becomes a $4,000 loss.
A $4,000 loss. Woah!!
Serious question: how many $4,000 losses can a business take before it is no longer around? Let's not even talk about business, let's just talk about you. I dare you to open your banking application on your phone and send $4,000 to one of your friends, randomly, just because you want to get it out of your account, Ha! RIGHT! You're not going to do it because if you are giving up $4,000, you need GREAT RETURN on your investment. See, you have no problem spending $4,000 on something. However, you expect value, services, and products to come your way.
That is why I hired an editor. Even if I pay him $1,000 a month, I am still winning. I have just repurchased my 20 hours ( rich people repurchase their time). I learned that when I listened to the audiobook of The Millionaire Nextdoor.
And since he is a professional, it will only take him 4-5 hours for the same work. I just bought back 80 hours over the month by letting go! I just increased my happiness and decreased my workload by letting go.
I don't make money off of my podcast because I use it as a space to learn and to connect with others. I don't need to make money from it, yet. Plus, the investment there is only two hours a week. I do one hour of filming with a guest or alone if I'm doing a solo episode and then another hour of editing. I do my podcasts on Thursday because I love having consistency, and then, I release them every Sunday. Again, consistency. Sometimes, an episode will come out on Monday, but I allow myself that space, especially since, like I said - I don't get paid for it at all.
My time needs to go into my writing for two main reasons. Let me bring these questions back in case you have forgotten:
What Makes You The Happiest?
What Actions Make Your Business Move?
Answer 1: Writing gives me the most happiness. I love doing essays like this. I love writing and releasing books. I love sharing my writing on Instagram and tweeting thoughts and ideas. Putting words together to inspire other people is a puzzle that motivates me and does not feel like overthinking. I get a lot of personal fulfillment out of writing.
Answer 2: If we take the equation above, Writing: $250 per hour x 12 Hours per week = $3,000 per week, which is $12,000 a month. What would you rather have, the $4,000 loss or the $12,000 gain? And since we decided to get wild earlier, let's get wild now!
Get Your Time Back
What if, because I repurchased my time, now I shifted that time towards writing more. I could take my expected value of $12,000 a month and turn it into $24,000 by writing 24 hours a week. If money is your motivation, then you HAVE to follow this breakdown and do this math for your own life.
Okay, and maybe money isn't the motivation, but you would love to keep and maintain an excellent bill of health like me. If you get rid of the tasks that don't inspire you, the responsibilities that drain you, the tasks that hold you back, you GIVE YOURSELF more time for healing. You give yourself more time for creativity and dancing, more time for sex, and laughing—more time for drawing and playing with your kids. You create more time for what you want, and that is what life is supposed to be. It should be what you want it to be. This exercise here is about CHOOSING, where your time goes.
This is how business owners have to look at the time, resources, and where we CHOOSE to spend our energy. This is why you, too, need to do the same. Figure out how to simplify your life, your business, and the processes that you do in life. I challenge you to dive deep into your personal life, into your business or job, and into your hobbies. If you can find small spaces where you can simplify your experience, I am willing to bet that you will multiply happiness, income, and decrease stress.
Thank you for reading and investing in yourself!
I have created a new course that teaches Balance and Purpose. My students, thus far, have loved it. This essay is in perfect alignment with the course. I believe that you will get a lot of value out of the course with all of my heart. Here is the link for you to get registered.
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