BIRD WILLIAMS: You're listening to Bird Means Business Episode 67

Hey, hey, hey! Welcome to Bird Means Business podcast. I'm your host, Bird Williams and I am so glad you're here. Can y'all believe it's March? It's just blowing my mind that we're already in the month of March and that the first day of spring is officially in just a few days, on March 20. 

So, I thought it would be really great to do some good old spring cleaning. I don't know about you, but it feels so good to declutter my closet or clean out the pantry. And guess what? We need to do some of the same cleaning in our businesses. Why? Because y'all know it is so easy to get uber focused on a marketing effort or a new product release. Or maybe you're onboarding a team member, and when you finish that project and finally look up, stuff is a hot mess. Files are all over the place. You don't remember where you saved this or that. And we often just move on to the next thing on our list because there's so much to do, and we don't ever actually clean up the mess we made, right? And whether you feel it or realize it or not, having clutter in your mind, in your physical space, and in your business systems, will affect your creativity and your ability to make space for the new. And just like we don't reserve a good old deep cleaning in our homes, only for the springtime. We can clean up our businesses at any point in the year. So whenever you might be listening to this episode, you're going to really pull some great tools from it. It's going to be super helpful to you. Okay?

You know I was thinking, why is it called spring cleaning? Why do we associate cleaning in this season of the year? I think it's because spring is all about preparing for the new, right? New life. New growth. Sort of bringing back to life what may have been dormant in the past season. We actually saw this sort of rebirth situation play out in our gym business. So for those of you who don't know my very first business is a circuit training gym here in Houston called The League. And when we launched The League in 2013, we assumed January would be the biggest month of the year for us because everyone's starting the new year. It's like new year, new me. But what we actually found, year after year is that springtime is when we saw the biggest increase in memberships. It was so interesting. It was as if people would get really excited about the new year and make these aggressive fitness goals, but wouldn't actually commit. But then in the spring, the springtime, these same people would start to think about those summer vacation plans and stuff got really real. It went from passion to purpose, you know. It went from, I'm pumped up in this moment. To make these idealistic fitness goals too. Yo, I need to get in the gym right now. I have a why. I have purpose. I'm about to be half-naked in front of people at the beach, or on that cruise in this swimsuit. So let me get my behind in the gym for real. 

Now I should point out, I do not agree with this line of thinking, as I really do believe fitness should be a lifestyle. But let's also keep it real, that that's what really happens, right? Like in real life, when you actually have a deadline in front of you, when you actually have meaning behind what you're trying to do, you're so much more motivated to reach your goals. And you know what? I think this happens with our business goals too. 

In our annual meeting at the end of the year, we'll list out all of our goals for the next year. And there's so much passion in this moment because we see the new year as a new opportunity, as a clean slate to start over and start fresh. But how often do we actually go back and review those goals throughout the year? Or even see and check if we're actually on track? But the truth is, most people simply don't. They don't even check in on their goals or they wait until the end of the year to actually see what happened. 

So, I have a real treat for you. A few weeks ago on Instagram, I was getting feedback from this post I had shared. And from the feedback, I realized folks really need to reset their goals before heading into Q2, the second quarter of the year. We need to sit down and look at those annual goals and kind of assess what happened in Q1, right? What happened in the first quarter of the year? And then say okay, what are the solid and actionable goals for the second quarter of the year based on where I am right now? And, and this is super important, y'all are going to be held accountable by me. 

I'm super pumped to announce that I'm hosting an exclusive workshop on Saturday, March 27. It'll be on Zoom, and, you know, it's gonna be all about your goals. It's going to be like a work session. I'm going to actually be pulling my sleeves up with y'all. I'm going to be in it too, and we're going to really drill down and make this super-duper practical. I'm going to send you a workbook, as soon as you register for the event. And there's going to be things that you'll do ahead of time, and then also during our session in this workbook, again to make this really practical. 

And like I said, I am going to be holding you accountable. I'm going to check in with everyone who attends, at the end of Q2 to see where you are on those goals that you listed. I'm going to help you keep motivated. If you can't tell, I'm super-duper excited about it because I really believe that this will be a helpful exercise and time well spent at this really crucial time in the year. Before you look up and we're at the end of the year and you haven't even reached your goals. 

There will be limited spots because again, I want to make this super impactful. I really want to get in there with you. And so if you're interested, make sure that you're subscribed to my weekly emails because, as with all of my news and updates, the email tribe is always the first to know. So you can go to birdwilliams.com/join to sign up for my weekly emails, and you'll be hearing about this Goals Realignment Workshop, very soon my friend. It's gonna be good. 

All right, let's dive into the episode. So today we are spring cleaning our businesses. And we're gonna focus on cleaning three areas: our mind, our physical space, and our business systems. First, there's cleaning your mind. This is all about refocusing mentally because you can spin your wheels trying to clean up your business systems. But if you aren't in the right headspace, it’s going to take you so much longer. It's going to be a whole lot harder. And ultimately it’s going to be less fruitful. 

Did you know that research shows that 47% of the time, our thoughts are not focused in the present moment? This means most of the time that we're thinking, we’re either thinking about what's happened in the past, or what's going to happen in the future. So what does that mean for our present moments? My husband and business partner, Terry Williams, brought up this statistic during the mindset coaching session that he led us through in Episode 63. In part of this session that he led, he also led us through this exercise called Hold That Thought. It was really powerful and this is where he wove in that statistic. 

So if you need help with cleaning your mind. If you're like yeah, this sounds like exactly something I need. You're going to want to make sure you check out episode 63. I'll be sure to link it in the show notes, and there's even a free downloadable guide that goes along with the mindset coaching session. I promise you it will be time well spent. 

So, we start with cleaning up and clearing out our minds so that we can be effective and efficient in those present moments as we focus on what we need to do to clean up our business systems later. But before we get to business systems, we have to clean up our physical space too. Our space is so important because environment is everything. Your environment is talking to you, even if you don't know. So you need to be asking yourself, how can I set up my environment to support me, to inspire me? Because are your creative juices perhaps blocked because your physical space is communicating clutter and disarray and chaos? So we're gonna look at three different examples of what physical space can look like, okay? 

First, there's going to be your workspace. This is your office or your place of business, or the area of your home where you do most of your work. And if you have a brick-and-mortar business, like a physical location, this is also where your team works. What I want you to do is look around and ask yourself if it supports and inspires you or your team. I'm gonna keep it really real with y'all right now. I'm looking around in my workspace. I'm like, no, this does not support or inspire me right now. So I'm keeping it real and I'm in this with you. I'm going to be doing all of these cleaning efforts in my mind, in my space, and in my business systems as well. 

I once heard Patrice Washington talk about space, and it was a beautiful conversation. She talked about how space is one of the pillars for wealth, actually, which was really interesting. And she said this. “Clutter is the physical manifestation of chaos in your mind.” I'm gonna say it one more time because it's really powerful. “Clutter is the physical manifestation of chaos in your mind.” So, how do you expect to be able to write another chapter of that book, when your desk looks like it's been through war? Or you're trying to squeeze in a spot on your couch to get stuff done with all the laundry piled up everywhere, right? In this same conversation with Patrice Washington, she said that she took a look around her messy cluttered workspace and asked herself, “Is this a money-making space? Is this the space of a best-selling author? Is this the space that you would expect to see an internationally renowned speaker in? And her answer was, “No”.  

You see, she had these dreams of being this incredible businesswoman and speaker, and author. And she wasn't actually seeing that reflected in the space where she spent most of her time. And she had this lightbulb moment. Now, you might be thinking, “Yeah Bird, it would be really great to redecorate my office and make it super inspiring. But I can't afford that right now.” Look, we're not talking about redecorating. We're talking about decluttering and really just doing the best that we can with what we have because y'all know $50 can go a long way at Target. So just look at your space, see what you need. See what you need to kind of clean up, throw away, organize. And I promise it will help free up so much of your headspace that you can focus on what matters most in your business. 

Now, another way to clean your physical space is to check in with your morning routine. So, why should you have a morning routine? You might hear that and think, “That's dumb. I don't need a morning routine.” Let me tell you from experience, there is something powerful about starting your day strong by centering stillness and gratitude through your morning routine. So, before the kids wake up, or you have to take out the dog, or you have to rush to the office or jump on a call, you've already carved out space to take care of you, to be still, to be grateful. 

All right. So here's a moment of transparency. Back in early September 2020, about six months ago, y'all I was in such a good space in crushing my morning routine. It felt so good that I was like let me share this on the pod. It’s actually episode 42: Start Strong: My Morning Routine. But little did I know, a couple of weeks after that show went live, I was starting to get hit with the sickness of the first trimester. And I would soon realize, oh wow, I am pregnant. Y'all, it totally rocked all of my morning routine plans. I couldn't stick to waking up at 4 AM anymore, which is a part of me getting my morning routine in. Because heck I could barely keep my eyes open during the day. It was real. And I’ll admit, I'm only now, six months later, six whole months later, getting back into really having a solid morning routine that does not include a 4 AM alarm clock, but that does work for this season. So yeah, I'll admit that it took me six months to kind of get it back together. 

But can I share something that's simple, but also really profound? My friend, life, is seasonal. Life happens in seasons. It ebbs and it flows. So, the hardship you're having to live through in one season, it won’t last forever. Also, what works in one season may not work in another, and that's okay. The point isn't trying to find comfort in perfecting anything. The point is to get good at being adaptable, being self-aware enough, being honest enough, being brave enough, to say, this isn't working anymore. How do I need to adjust? So if you, like me, tried a morning routine, fell off of a morning routine, or really anything else for that matter. Give yourself some grace. Get back up and get back on it. But don't not commit to a morning routine because you tried it once for one week and it didn't work. I want you to try again. because like I said, there are so many powerful implications to starting your day strong, to starting your day with centering stillness, centering gratitude through your morning routine, and creating a strong healthy space as you go into your day. So again if you want to get some tips on a morning routine check out episode 42. I'll make sure that I link it in the show notes. 

All right. So the final way we'll kind of talk about cleaning your physical space is with time blocking. I want you to ask yourself, what is the physical space I'm making in my calendar? Now I've mentioned time blocking a few times on the show. But in short, it's when you physically go into your calendar system. For me, it's my iCal on my Mac book, and I actually add blocks of time to work in my business, and on my business. So here's an example of how I time block working on the business. The first Wednesday of every single month there is a block of time devoted to content planning for the next month. This is when me and my digital marketing assistant sit down together and plan out all of the content for the podcast, for emails, for social media, and on and on. It's a recurring appointment so that it's blocked out each month during that Wednesday time slot, and I don't schedule things over it. 

Now an example of time blocking work in the business is with my client sessions. The systems in my business are automated. And y’all automation is so key to having solid operations, and being able to really scale your brand. But that is a whole other conversation. But by automation I mean, for example, if you go to my website right now to book a strategy session with me. You're going to fill out a form on the website, and will automatically be sent an email with time to schedule our session. There'll be a button you'll click and you'll be able to book our session. Those preset time blocks are actually in my iCal as well. So I know when I look at my schedule for the week, that on Tuesdays from three to five, someone could book a session, and I can schedule other appointments and work around that block of time. So you can time block for anything - your morning routine, exercise, research, and on and on. And I guarantee you, cleaning up your calendar space in this way, having organization around making time for what's most important, will clear up so much of your headspace. You won't have to wonder if you're making time consistently for doing market research if there's a monthly time block for that important task. Time blocking also helps you set healthy boundaries and it helps you say no, both of which are ways to remove clutter and unnecessary tasks in your business, and frankly in your life. 

So we've talked about cleaning up our minds. We've talked about cleaning up our physical space. Now we're going to talk about cleaning our business systems. First, I want you to just get organized. And I know, I know this may seem boring. You're like, “Bird, I know I need to get organized. It's just a lot.” Yes, I know it's a lot. But it's also really powerful. Especially as you grow your brand and build a team. Because everyone isn't in your head, knowing where things are stored, right? So prioritize it now. Prioritize getting organized with your documents storage, where everything is stored in your Google Drive, for example. Maybe certain assets, or like, for example, with my photo shoots. I have a folder in Google Drive, named photoshoots. It has all the different photoshoots I have so that I'm able to put all of the images in there. And then my digital marketing assistant or my Pinterest manager, are able to go in and pull the images that they need from my photo shoots.  So, different assets, think about that as well. If you have a product based business, of course, your system around inventory. All of that, you want to make sure that you get organized because it will help as you grow your brand. You also might want to think about organizing team video tutorials or trainings. And I don't know about y'all, but my Google Drive, my Dropbox, the Notes app on my phone, could all use some organization right about now. So what I'm planning on doing, is booking a total immersion weekend in April to focus on all of this. I'm actually really excited about it. And if you've never had a total immersion weekend, I talk all about it in Episode 41. It’s called, “Why You Need a Total Immersion Weekend”. I'll make sure that I link it in the show notes as well. 

Now another thing, when it comes to cleaning up your business, is just making updates. For example, I shared this early. I think it was like the first or second day of the year, making sure to change the copyright that's on the bottom of your website, or maybe that's on the bottom of your freebies to 2021 instead of 2020. And there were so many people who responded like, “Thank you, I would have completely forgotten about that.” Looking at your website in general. I mean, when was the last time you kind of read through the copy on your website to see if it was actually up to date and current and still uses the voice that you wanted it to use. So you may just want to kind of make some tweaks there. You know, the pop-up that you may have on your website. You might want to make it a different promotion so that it's something different than it has been. You want to clean up your business by making these types of updates. 

And then when you think about cleaning your business systems, think about it this way. Where are their kinks in the chain, or bottlenecks in a process? Look at those things that you do in your business, each and every week, each and every month. Look at what can be automated. Also, look at what isn't working, and needs to be adjusted. Or what technology could help streamline a process and make things a lot easier for you and your team. And I know this is the hard work that can take a lot of time on the front end. But I'm telling you, it'll be so worthwhile going forward. 

Let me give you an example. I was in a strategy session recently with one of my Prove It Plan clients. And what we did during the session was kind of create a game plan for her new intake process. She’d just switched. She was doing her business as a side hustle and she made this switch, actually when she started the Prove It Plan program that I launched in January. We started the last week of January. That very week she actually ended up getting let go from her job as a surprise. But she was like, it's such a blessing because it made me really focus on this side hustle and make it a full-time thing. It is blown up, and she's having all these clients flooding in. And she's like, “Girl, my phone is ringing all the time and I'm having to go through this whole intake process again and again.” So I asked her, “Well what do you do?” And she began to tell me, “Okay, well first I have to kind of tell them what to expect with the process, but I have to ask all these questions”, and on and on. So we said okay, what of that could be automated? Whatever you're having to tell clients, again and again about what to expect. That could go into an ebook or into a video training that you just send in an email whenever new clients sign up. And then the questions that you have to ask each client. How much better would it be to actually have a questionnaire that they fill out? Because that's going to make sure that, first of all, they could do it on their own time. They don't have to necessarily get with you. You don't have to schedule time to meet with them to ask the questions. But also it makes sure that you don't miss any questions. And she nodded her head. She was like, “Yes because sometimes I'll miss, I’ll forget a question.” If you have it already set up in a system, you can just send it to them and let them do it on their own time, right? And of course, you can tweak these things over time. So it's not one and done. You're just doing the best you can now with what you know you need. And then as you get different questions from clients, you could add that to your welcome packet. So my point is, whatever you see happening in your business again and again that could be repeated, it could probably be automated. And it'll be so much better, not only for you but also for your clients, for their experience. 

Those are just some tips around cleaning the systems in your business. And if you're like, I really need some more help identifying areas of my business that would need cleaning. I want you to revisit your business plan. Take a look at it. Because remember, when I talk about business plans, I'm not talking about something you just create in the beginning of launching your business and you never really look back at. No, I teach my clients in Prove It Plan to look at their business plan every single quarter so that it's top of mind, so they can be proactive instead of reactive in their business. So when you do this process of your quarterly business update, you're going to be able to see real clearly the areas of the business that need cleaning. All right?

So as you go through this process of cleaning your mind, your physical space, and your business systems, all sorts of incredible ideas are naturally going to arise - better ways that you can connect with your audience, ways to improve your team dynamic, new services you can offer your clients, and on and on. And this is what happens when you declutter. It's amazing. All the ideas come. All the stuff begins to flow. You begin to get momentum in your business. So make sure you write all that down, that you capture that magic as you go through the process. 

So decluttering enhances our creativity and our productiveness. So start with decluttering your mind and getting into the present moment with all of your tasks. Then declutter your physical spaces, so that you have capacity for clarity and progress. And then finally, work on decluttering your business systems so that you're not confused or distracted or stifling your growth. I take this holistic approach, starting with the mind because it's about more than just the numbers or the marketing strategy or the branding, or really any one thing. It's about the whole thing. It's about how it all works together to build a sustainable business and build a better brand. Y’all know that's what we're doing here - building better brands. So it starts from the inside and pours out of you as the business owner. 

I'm so glad to be on this journey with you and I would really love to hear what you think about this episode. So, shoot me an email or send me a direct message on Instagram because it would make my day to know that this has really even helped just one of you. And remember to make sure that you're in the know by joining the email tribe at birdwilliams.com/join. You'll be the first to have access to register for the upcoming Goals Realignment Workshop, which is going to be a powerful way to start the second quarter of the year. And as always, thank you so much for tuning into Bird Means Business podcast. Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts and hit that follow button on Spotify. Also, make sure that you tell every entrepreneur you know about this episode so that they can get to cleaning up their businesses too. Alrighty, talk to y'all next week.