Creating More Space for Productivity (when your diary is FULL)

Please note this transcript is machine generated so it is not perfect and should be used for reference only, you will get the best from the podcast by listening to it in it's designed format

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Has the pandemic put a damper on your productivity? Well in this episode I'm going to revamp your calendar to create more space
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Hello and welcome to this very different style to the Expert Unrivalled Podcast. Today we're talking all around how to create more space and get more done, which I think is definitely relevant at the moment. If you're anything like me, you know, your diary is jam packed full at the moment with things to do, kids to feed, kids, to teach dogs, to walk, work to be done, client work to be fulfilled and making times for sales, making times for content creation, all of the life and all of the business things all rolled into one gone are the days of the wonderful luxury of childcare school and a schedule that allows that free time where you can just concentrate. So let's become even more difficult. So on today's episode I really want to dig in to how you can start to create more space and get more done when your diary is full.
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My name is Jen Hall and I'm your business positioning coach and market leadership expert. This is also a time where I want to do a little bit of a public service announcement now as you've heard Andy and I have promised that he'd be on the podcast. I'm so sorry guys. He will come on, I promise. In the next couple of weeks we'll record one together and we'll definitely get it out to you. But as Andy is joining my elevate program and the elevate program has been filling up really nicely recently with a ton of amazing entrepreneurs who want to take their business to the next level, two of which I'm actually going to talk about on this podcast that's related to what we're, the topic we're talking about. However the price for that will be going up in June. So if you've been sitting on the fence and you've been thinking about my elevate program, which is my 12 month one to one mastermind hybrid where we basically take you from where you are at now and we get really, really clear on the articulation of why you are unrivalled, why you are the best in your niche and why people should be buying from you right now to getting your business model right to looking at your products and making them as delicious and delectable as possible to your audience, to looking at your sales campaigns and your marketing campaigns so that you're writing content and sales copy that really hit the market and actually make a difference where we share the inside workings of the strategies and campaigns that we use that generate over 300K at a time.
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All of these juicy things happen inside of elevate, whereas really about raising your position in the market and getting you to make even more money if you've been sitting on the fence about joining that. Then a) make sure that you book a call as soon as possible, like straight away. Do it now, the link is bit.ly/claritycallpodcast because the prices in June aren't going up. So if you want secure it at the price point that it is right now, then I suggest you get in as soon as possible and the calls are not, you know, you must join on the call. The calls are there to discuss joining. So you absolutely have zero pressure of signing up on the call. You can go out and have a think about it, but at least you know that you've spoken to me and that you've got all the information at hand to make a decision on whether you want to actually go ahead.
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And you know, obviously like I said before, the price goes up because Andy brings so much to the table. He's known for his world class customer journeys for client generation and client retention and he's got huge Facebook ad skills. You know, he's known for taking a relatively low budget of Facebook outspend and creating hundreds of thousands of pounds from each Facebook ads campaign. So he brings a lot to the table as well as his amazing attitude. He's there. It's almost like our mindset specialist when anyone's having a wobble. He is absolutely got your back. So he, he brings a ton and that's just a couple of things. He brings a ton of value so the, the price is going up. So if you want to secure it at the price point that it's currently at and get all that extra value thrown in, then make sure that you jump on a call with me as soon as possible.
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Like I said, the link is in the show notes, but that link is bit.ly/claritycallpodcast. I'm looking forward to speaking to you then. So today then I really want to talk about this whole busy-ness thing because I'm hearing it a lot at the moment and I'm even saying it myself. And the fact is for a lot of people in various different boats, we are struggling to kind of keep up with our normal work pace. However, do you know what something really interesting that I found is that I've been working way more productively and effectively with very little time. And this is one of those weird phenomenon where we kind of expand to the amount of time that we've been given. It actually has a formal name, it's called Parkinson's law. And it really does. We fill our time, we have time available and therefore we fill it with all the things.
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Now what's also really interesting is that this week my clients and amazing friends Malaine Lea, she has recorded this incredible Facebook live. You should go and check it out where she basically you know, she's always one of these people I've followed her for many years before we started properly working together. And she's one of these people that just drops this incredible truth bombs, which really stick in my mind and I end up sharing. She's like a life mentor to me. To me, I follow her because she just has these incredible moments of clarity and epifany moments that she shares with others. That really gets the heart of what's going on. And she did this live around, you know, really catching people out on their BS around excuse making and you know, all constantly saying they're busy, busy, busy, too busy, too busy for that and the excuses that people make up.
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And it's true because at the end of the day, we all have 24 hours in the day and it's what we choose to spend that time on is, you know, deciphers the results of what we want to create. And so that's really, really important to remember is that yes, you know, essentially we're all busy doing something because we're all generally doing whether that is choosing to spend time, you know, binge watching Netflix you know, you could be busy watching Netflix or you can be busy working on your business, busy spending time with your children, busy eating dinner, whatever it is. You know, we're human beings and we fill all time. And so we have to be really clear first and foremost around what do we need to make time for? And that comes with prioritization. But actually even before prioritization, we really need to look at what we want our life to look like because we need to make sure that, you know, we're not filling it up with things that don't create the world and the reality that we want to live in.
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So that's really, really important to get clear on first because otherwise you're prioritizing activities and filling your time with things that are not getting you up the right mountain. We need to make sure that the things that we do support that goal, which is where the prioritization comes in, but you need to understand what the goal looks like. So really understanding this. And another one of my clients Cora Darlington, she specifically works with those busy, busy, busy, busy but out business owners who need to really look at their life and start creating the life that they can sustain. And she massively believes in the you can have it all belief and you know, she really helps you dig into that. And something that she really works on is getting really clear on what that goal looks like and what the goal looks like for you and your needs and wants.
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Because a lot of the time we'd end up living to others' expectations of what we should be doing and what we should be spending our time on. And it doesn't come down to anyone else, but you and what you find important, what you value, what really sets you on fire? Something that she said to me when we were working together recently was that so many people start creating the, the diaries and like adding in, you know, yoga time or retreat time. But actually that's not the thing that sets them on fire. And actually having a, you know, a four hour period where they're solidly focusing and creating in their business is what sets them on fire. And actually for them, that's their self care. That's the creation time. That's what fills them up. And so it's about understanding what fills you up versus what everyone else says you should be doing because we know we can get sucked into this.
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You should be making time for yourself and running yourself this hot bath. Do you know what I've come to look at recently? I hate baths. I really, really do. And less until I get a bath that's like a swimming pool. I hate them. I hate the way the half my body is freezing. I hate the way it's actually really uncomfortable to try and find a particular position to get in. And then actually getting out of feeling like I should now have a shower because it's been so hot. Then I kind of sweaty and it's, Oh, it's just, I just realized that I'm doing the hot bath thing because that's what I meant to do when I'm feeling stressed or needing some time out. And actually it's not what I like to do, but I did it because it's the thing. And so it's about getting clear on all of those things around what do you actually want to fill your time with?
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What lights you, what fills you up and what don't you want to be doing? What can you delegate? And the thing is, it's become more and more difficult in recent times to do that with this whole lockdown and the covid, it's really turned my world in particular upside down because I'm now doing things that I don't particularly enjoy doing, but have to be done that I would normally delegate. Cleaning is one of them. You know, I really don't enjoy cleaning. I've had to kind of change my mindset on it. To be fair. I enjoy cleaning more than I do seeing the mess. So that's one of the motivations that I've had to kind of look at and change perspective on recently around finding the different motivations to do things that I wouldn't normally do or I don't normally do or don't want to do.
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So yeah, you know, there are compromises right now, but you know, we also need to look forward to when this is over and the kind of life that you want to create. And now is actually a great time to take stock of all the things that perhaps you don't like doing and what you're looking forward to delegating once things go back to the new normal. And so yeah, get clear on your goal, what you want your life to be, to look like and understand that obviously right now there will have to be compromises and things isn't, things aren't a hundred percent peachy right now, but we still have an opportunity to actually realize a few things. And that is that you know, you can be way more productive when you really time block and look at putting those parameters in place around how long you actually have to have that concentrated time where you can focus on things.
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You will find that you actually get more done and so, one of my big tips beyond finding out what your goal is and prioritizing is time blocking and ensuring that you focus during set periods. I always find two hours. Some people seem to golden 90 minutes, I find a good two hours because it turned normally takes me about half an hour to kind of really get into the rhythm and the flow of things. But if you can try and find a two hours to really sit down on a particular task to get it done, then that really is so momentous and you will feel so productive because you've like, whether that is literally clearing your inbox, whether it is batch creating content, whether that is two hours with your child, whether that is two hours of blasting the cleaning, but actually just putting it into your diary and your calendar to say during this time this is what I will be doing.
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Deadlines are key to getting things done, which is why actually having less time means you're more productive because it means it doesn't overspill onto things. And I think that's something, a silver lining that we can really take from this time, this period of time where time is busier. We've got a lot more to fit into a very short space of time. We can really take this and use this as an opportunity. So become seriously productive and that when we do start getting some of that time back when kids go back to school. However else that your life looks and obviously like I said, people are in so many different boats and people don't have kids, so I'm, you know, my time is strapped at the minute because I'm trying to deal with homeschooling and quality time with my, you know, with, with Allie and you know, quality time with Andy and making sure my personal life is exist whilst also running, you know, the busiest two months of the year so far during this period with work.
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So it is more difficult for some people. Some people may have more time and if that's you and if that's someone who you actually don't, which I don't think you really be listening to this episode to be honest, because this is about your diet being full. But how should you be listening to this and just finding it interesting. And do you or somebody that has more time be aware of that because this is for, for where a lot of us who are busy right now, we're going to move into a space where we suddenly feel like, Oh fuck this relief of thank goodness I've got all of this time back. And the danger of that is that you're then going to overspill into the time and things are going to start taking longer. Remember the Parkinson's law, the longer you give yourself to do something, you will fill it and you will do that and you will procrastinate and you will find things to do.
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Deadlines are key to ensuring things that you need to do get done. So put those deadlines in. Put the time blocks in, whether you've got time, where you don't have time, whatever it is, put those parameters in place and really hold yourself accountable to that because you're going to find you make way more progress and you're far more productive doing so. Now going back to the prioritization again, what is going to make your boat go faster? A lot of people are busy doing the wrong things. And something that, just to refer back to what Malaine was talking about in her life, is that people aren't honest with themselves. People aren't honest with themselves around what they actually want. And some of the time people say, Oh, I'm too busy to do something because they actually don't want to do it and they don't want the outcome either.
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You know? And I think we all need to be a bit honest, more honest with ourselves and let ourselves off the hook. Because if it's not what you want to do, why are you doing it? You know? At the end of the day I think there is something to be said for if the outcome and the goal is something you want and the thing that you need to do isn't necessarily your favorite task, but you know you need to do it together, then there are sacrifices to be made. Not everything is jolly and happy all of the time. Sometimes you do need to make sacrifices for different, you know, present time, enjoyment for the longterm gain. So you have to kind of weigh up, you know, do you want this goal? If you don't want the goal and why are you doing the thing? Why are you kind of procrastinating?
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You're making excuses on thing that you don't really want to do to not get the goal that you don't really want. Be honest about what you want. Be honest about the life that you want to lead to. Be honest about your goals, move towards the things that set you on fire. You know, really think about the things that like you, what? What kind of life do you want to live? What kind of business do you want to create? And really get clear on that because unless you feel motivated by that, you're not going to be willing to do the things that you don't necessarily want to do. But there are things as well that, like I said, delegation. That is one way you're going to create loads of space. If you're still holding onto your bookkeeping for God's sake, get rid of it to someone else.
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Get someone to do your accounts, you know, to keep that up to date. You know, a lot of people have accountants, but they're still manually entering in invoices and keeping their QuickBooks up to date or their zero account up to date. Don't do that stuff. If it doesn't fill you up. If you really love doing accounts, then fine. You carry on. Again, this isn't about what I believe you should be doing. This is about what you want to do. And there are plenty of people out there who are willing to take that stuff off your hands. So as you're looking at your workload, actually look at it and go, are there things here that I don't enjoy doing, that don't need to be done by me, that I can get rid of, which will immediately release a ton of time. So there's a really obvious one, but do it like don't just listen because I'm probably not, I won't be the last, and I haven't been the first entrepreneur to say this, you know, to say to you, you need to delegate.
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And everyone goes, yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, seriously do it because you know, especially right now, if you can't, if you can delegate something like bookkeeping, which can be delegated right now, this isn't something like, for instance, my cleaner can't come around my house, but my, my bookkeeper can absolutely do my work for me. So, you know, have to think about those sorts of things that you can start shifting off of your plate right now that you don't need to be doing. The others are more than willing and more than happy to help you out with. So yeah, prioritizing the things that you actually want to do. Stop doing the things that you don't and also looking at the activities, you know, the return on investment in those activities is another really key element here because this last couple of months have been insane, I've had a ton of new clients join on the coaching.
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We've had a ton of new customers over in the adventure travel side of things. We have been really, really busy. One of the busiest times you've ever had is during this period of lockdown which has been a huge clash. A bit of a conflict of interest, shall we say with everything else going on. So it has been difficult, but it's meant that I've had to really be strategic about where I spend my time and where I'm getting the most return on investment for spending that time. And it's different for everybody. You know I haven't been able to do as much networking as I would like because at the end of the day I've had to prioritize where, where I need to be and you know, I've had an amazing sales month and so I've been, you know, my mind's been taken away.
(19:30):
My time has been taken away or focusing on that because you know, you make hay while that's the Sunshine's. Right. And so the networking side of things has had to take a back seat a little bit to a certain extent because you know, I can't justify sitting in a room with people that I've vaguely know in, you know, when I've got my daughter sitting there needing quality time with me, I have to be very considered about what I do. But for instance, if I was, you know, if I was a business that was really, really quiet, I had no leads and I was twiddling my thumbs and I would be saying, networking is probably thing that you need to be doing right now because you need to be getting in front of people. Sharing your message and you know, drawing up business.
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So networking would be a very fruitful thing for you to do, but you have to look at where you are right now and where you want to be and what is actually going to get you there. Right now I want to be focusing on fulfilling my client's needs. These new clients that have signed up, they want huge transformation. I want to give them a huge transformation. Because not only is it going to change their life, it's also going to, you know, help to propel my business success moving along because the better results my clients get, the better people see. You know, it is to work with me and say that's a focus to me right now. Nurturing my leads is a focus with me right now. And sharing that I spend some quality time with my daughter is important to me. So I'm very clear about what's important, the goal I'm trying to achieve and the things are going to make that boat go faster towards the goal that I want.
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So be really clear on these activities because I see a lot of people being busy with things that actually don't make much difference to that business. If you are somebody who is trying to be on every single content platform who doesn't have a team of people to help them repurpose their content and you are going out there and you're spending all of this time trying to be everywhere and nowhere and you're not seeing results, then there's something not quite right and you're filling your time with something that is not bringing a great return on investment. And so that is a time to either a get help to repurpose or be really look at your messaging and understand the things that you're actually putting out there and it good. Are you actually on the right platforms? Are you being strategic in terms of where your ideal client actually is?
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Is it getting seen? If it's not, then why are you putting content there? Because you know your reach is really, really important. And it might be that you need to get some help but stop filling your time with things that you think you should be doing but aren't actually bringing in the results and aren't actually being strategic use of time. So be clear on these items and, and really look at that. Now you might be kind of listening to me and going, yes, yes, yes, I get it. I'm getting to prioritize. I know, I know that and I need to be clear on what I'm doing. Absolutely. And then some of you may have had some epiphany moments around that. Great. And the time blocking thing absolutely would start like as of today or as of tomorrow, that will happen. But I am so strapped for time.
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One of the biggest things that we've been working on with a lot of my older clients and a lot of my newer clients, it's so odd how this has really happened. And I say it's odd. It's not really considering so many people to feel a bit time strapped right now is looking at their business model because what they're finding is that they've either lost a lot of clients and realized, I don't want to go back to the way I was working because I was pushed to my limits and I had zero time to work on my business. I had zero time to spend any time for myself or with my kids or with my spouse or they are still in that, that phase of, wow, how on earth do you do it? And this is one of the things that one of my new clients said to me, how on earth do you deal with all the clients and actually make time to spend working on your business, doing the content creation, all of those things.
(23:34):
Now, you know, some of the answer to that has already been mentioned. Time blocking, batch creation, really looking at where I'm spending my time. So in terms of content creation, I'm very considered about where I spend my time and what I spend my time doing. And I spend a lot of time, for instance, trafficking people towards one core piece of content. You know, like my podcast, you know, that's my main piece of content I want people to consume. And so I spend a lot of time and effort and energy into creating my podcast, but I don't necessarily spend a ton of time elsewhere. I've got a team of people that help me to repurpose my content, to create blogs and things from my core pieces of content for my podcast. I do have a lot of help with that and that enables me to not have to worry about all of that stuff.
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I'm more of an editor than I am the creator asides for my podcast. So be again, being very strategic, being very one inch wide, mile deep in my approach to many areas of my business, not only for niching. You know, we don't mention that word during this episode, but you know, I'm all about the one thing. And by the way, if you haven't read the one thing, then you need to read it. It's amazing. And it really does that whole idea of the one thing really does spread across your entire business and your life. Focusing on one goal, focusing on one area and really putting quality time, energy, your blood, sweat and tears into doing that one thing will pay off far better and spreading yourself too thin across all areas, which is why we need to prioritize and we need to call the things that don't necessarily work for us or do better at them.
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Get better at this one thing rather than making these excuses about I don't have time for it. Make the time to do something well rather than doing a ton of things that actually don't get you anywhere. But to give the part two to this answer, linking it back to the business model, which is what we were originally talking about here is that, how do you find time to work on your business? Well, I have very strong boundaries about when I work with clients, I ensure that I only take sales calls on one particular day. I've created a business model that serves in terms of my elevate program that gives a high level of support to my clients, but during specific time parameters. So if you've got your calendar free to all and sundry to book in at any time that they like, that's convenient to them, then you are causing yourself a big problem because you are always at the mercy of others.
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One of the biggest things that changed the way I work and created more time for me to do what I want with my time versus what other people would like to do with my time, is to use a very simple system with my Google calendar and a an app called Calendly, which is my core booking system where people can choose at a time that's convenient to them, but more importantly and very critically convenient for me. So they can book in during certain periods of time. So it's, they still have an element of choice, but it's during times that suit me and my business. So it's really key. So I have whole days where I don't speak to a client where I can focus either on having a day off or I can focus in on working on my business, content creation, whatever I want to do.
(27:12):
In fact, I have whole weeks blocked out where I don't speak to clients at all and again, I'm very strategic about that and I've left that time for me to choose what I want to do with that time. So stop making your calendar available to everyone else to mess with. And it's fine to give people choices but give them the choices that are convenient for you. You have to prioritize yourself and where you want to work before you can serve anyone else because if you don't work in that way, you will end up, you will end up burnt out, you will end up resentful and you will end up a busy fool because when other people are in charge of your calendar, you know you've got someone booking in a call for an hour and then you've got like half an hour gap where what are you going to do in that time?
(28:03):
By the time you've wound down from the call for 15 minutes and then you've grabbed a drink, you're back onto the next call. So if you were planning to do content creation during that half an hour, I can tell you for sure that ain't going to happen. And then you've got another gap and then you've got another call and then maybe you've got 45 minutes and then you're doing something else. It doesn't work and it doesn't create productivity. It's really key to have large chunks of time to do the things that you want to do. So limit the time that people have control over your diary. If you do that, you will find that you will create so much more space in your business for you to be able to be more strategic. Because at the end of the day, if you are a business owner, you should have either done this or be working towards it, which is letting go of doing the do and actually moving more into a space of working on the business and marketing it and getting the sales in and working on your branding.
(29:04):
And you're delegating, you know, a lot of the due to other people. And if you're not delegating all of the due, at least you are absolutely time blocking out so that you're not spending all of your time doing the due and that you've left space for the really important things. Otherwise you've just created very underpaid an on fulfilling job. And I say underpaid because if you are feeling that you are not having time to be able to spend on your business and getting the sales coming in and if you are feeling that you are being pulled to go limits from pillar to post, and that's how you're feeling, that energetically it means you are not receiving the kind of pay that you want to be receiving for putting all of that energy and time and effort in. So yeah, take control of your calendar, take control of your time, decide what to do with it.
(30:00):
Forget the pressures of what everyone else thinks you should be doing and focus in on what you need to be doing right now that's going to get you towards the goal you want to achieve. And that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to do that at sacrifice of everything else. You know, with kids and dogs and spouses and whatever else it is you have going on and other family members. But it does mean that you are filling it with the things that are important to you, that you value. And that is key to running a successful business. And if you would like to catch up with either of my clients Cora Darlington or Malaine Lea who are both amazing, I don't think I actually mentioned what Malaine does by the way. Just as an kind of a shout out. Malaine is fantastic. Malaine helps purpose driven entrepreneurs who are not currently running a business that truly lights them up.
(30:51):
She helps them pivot to a more mission driven purpose filled business that they feel truly aligned with and actually helps them to amplify their wealth. You know, her clients go from earning a certain amount of money which is okay to earning the kind of wealth that they truly deserve and in a business that they really liked some up. She's amazing, she's brilliant and I just absolutely recommend that you follow her regardless because she comes out with some serious golden nuggets and Cora Darlington. If you're somebody who is burnt out, really pull from pellets of posts and you've listened to this episode because you are like, I need help with this very specific thing. And I really am finding that I don't have time for myself, my kids and my clients and doing all the things that I need to do and I'm feeling like I have zero zilch time and you can't sustain it for much longer.
(31:48):
Cora Darlington is the person that you needed to see because she really is a life architect. She really looks at your calendar, how they're spending your time, all of the things I've been talking about on this episode. I'm sure that we'll actually get her on the podcast as well at some point to talk more about what she does, but she's definitely someone that you need to talk to. If you're someone in that burnout boat, then make sure you speak to her. Pop. both of Malaines and Coras links into the comments and if you've been listening to this and you realize that actually you've not been doing the things that you know you need to be doing to get your business to where it needs to go and the actually you need to start creating a business model that suits the kind of business that you want to run.
(32:32):
And the life that you want to need and that you need to be doing activities are actually going to make a difference and you'd like my help with that to create that business model, to create that content that will actually make a difference rather than just being busy creating and doing and not actually receiving anything in return. And you actually wants to have a much more fruitful marketing plan than I am the one you need to be calling on. I'll pop the booking link for the call in the show notes for those who are just listening and wants to quickly type it in, it's bit.ly/claritycallpodcast. And I would really love to hear from you, speak to you and see how I can help you start building a business that's not only market leading and the number one choice in your market, but also suits the kind of lifestyle that you want to have. And I'll see you guys in the next episode.