Episode 157: When Are You Scheduling Time to Learn?
So often we don't schedule the time to learn or we buy these courses, and we don't schedule the time to actually commit to them. In this quick tip episode, Fiona talks about setting aside time to learn new things for your personal life or even for your small business. Listen now.
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Buying courses then not using them
Scheduling to learn
Taking the time to learn
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
Episode transcript:
Hello, and welcome to episode 157 of the My Daily Business Coach Podcast. We are into early December, oh my goodness, how many weeks? Is it probably like, gosh, three weeks, three and a half weeks until the end of 2021? Oh, my goodness. And let's all hope I've got everything crossed as I say this, that 2022 is just a lot smoother, easier, less stressful than the last two years have been for everyone. So sending all the good vibes out to you.
So today, it is a quick tip episode. And this is something that comes up a lot, a lot with pretty much every small business owner that I know, it's come up in my own business. And I've really really had to dedicate time and effort and resource to this. So it's definitely something that I want to share with everyone else here on the podcast.
Before I get stuck in. I just want to as always acknowledge the traditional custodians and owners on the land, and which I'm lucky enough to live and work and play and record this podcast. And I don't know if you can hear there's so many birds outside making so much noise right now, looking at two beautiful, beautiful bush land. And this land is owned by the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, they are traditional owners and custodians on the land, and I pay my respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been seated. So like I said, today, you're listening to a quick tip episode. So let's get into it, shall we?
So as I said before, so many small business owners talk to me about this problem. And I have identified it many times in the six years, oh, my God, I'll be my seventh year of this business next year. And it's really about learning. It's about scheduling the time and committing to learning. So I know so often people will come to me and say, you know, oh Gosh, I really need to fix my SEO, I often hear that fix my SEO as if you can just turn it up, and suddenly it's fixed. Or they'll say, you know, ah, yeah, I've been thinking about Pinterest. But I have no idea how that works. Or they'll say, I really want to do more emails, but I'm not a good copywriter, or I don't trust the way that I write or just all sorts of things. Maybe it's I can't hire the right people, I keep hiring people and they leave. Maybe it's I want to be able to do my website myself, or just to be able to fix a couple of things, instead of paying an agency, or I really need to get my money sorted. I don't know where to start.
And so what happens is either they just ignore the problem for ages until it actually like, you know, stuff hits the fan, and they need to look at it. Or they go off and buy courses that they never actually commit to working through and completing. So and I know, I have definitely in the past bought courses, that it's almost like by buying the course, I felt like oh, I've done the work now. Like buying a workout program, and you're like I have done the work, I don't actually have to like, get up and do the workout program every single day. But the issue is that, you know, I think it's like 80% or 90% of courses. And courses are a billion dollar industry these days, online courses are never actually completed. And I know we sell courses, we sell lots of different courses from marketing through to money mapping through to, you know how to get published, how to start a podcast, and if you're interested in any of them and make sure you actually complete them, you can find them at mydailybusinesscoach.com/shop.
But my point is that we know even just looking at the progress reports for our courses, you know, lots of people will go through them but a lot of people will stop and start and stop and start and there's nothing wrong with that. It's just that you want to actually especially if you spent money on a course, complete the course like get the education from it is no point just you know, it's like reading a book, you know, there's no point just reading a book and not implementing anything. Same ways. There's no point, you know, buying a course and kind of doing module one or module two, and then just not getting any further with it.
So today, I really wanted to ask you, when are you scheduling time to learn?
So that could be a course, it could be a paid product, it could be in say, for instance, the idea of I don't, I don't understand my money, it could be scheduling time to, you know, commit to going and meeting with your accountant, with your bookkeeper, with a financial advisor with all three, if you have the resources for that, and sitting down and understanding from the experts, what should I be looking at? What are the metrics I should be following? You know, where could I be pulling back on my expenses? Where might I be investing my money further? And you know, if I'm going to take on a new staff member next year, do I have the resources that how can I see my profit and loss at a glance, all sorts of things like this, they can be something that kind of keep us awake at night and sort of sit in the back of your mind with the endless to do list?
But scheduling the time and sort of saying, you know, what, every Wednesday, from this time to this time, and it could just be half an hour, every Wednesday from 11 to 1130. I'm sitting down, and I'm just looking at my books, or I'm getting on the phone with my accountant, I'm going to ask these questions. So often we kind of see the problem, but we don't fix it. And I think this is just my opinion, that if you can commit to learning time, every week, even if it is half an hour, it mean if you've got half an hour to watch Netflix, you've got half an hour to fix something in your business and learn and grow and develop. And if you can do that you're in such a better position than so many small business owners across the globe. And it's not about competition, but it's about being better than you were last year in your business and always growing and always consistently, kind of improving and acknowledging your blind spots. And even if say for instance, if you're like those posts, people that say I need to fix SEO, then it could be okay. Every week for a month or two months. I'm going to go and I'm going to do a freebie I'm going to go and do you know, I know Kate Toon, she's somebody that we bring on to our group coaching program. She has a free SEO nibbles, I think it's called, I don't get any kickback or affiliation with anything that I recommend on this podcast. But you know, go through that I think it's like a 10 day course, you know, sit down and be like, "Okay, I've gone through that. Now what, what's next?"
And it could be that you work with an SEO agency or you work with an SEO copywriter. Another person out there is Emma McMillan Copy. And just for transparency, she's also a client. But it could be what do I need to know to feel confident if I'm going to outsource or hire? So I've talked about SEO. I've talked about money.
Another one might be, you know, I'd really like to start using Instagram reels, for example. And so I'm going to sit down, I'm going to spend half an hour this week looking at other people's reels, what do I like about them? What do I don't like about them? What do I think is attractive? What do I don't think it's attractive? And then the next half an hour next week might be? Okay, well, do I have any equipment? Do I need to set up anything to be able to do these? The next might be sitting down and mapping out? Okay, what am I content pillars? What sort of reels will I put out there? What's my objective with these? How will I measure it? And then the next week, let's plan out what that actually looks like. And then it could be that you decided to outsource part of this, it could be that you know, you batch create content? And how does of course, like anything else, how does Instagram Reels work back to your larger marketing strategy.
But so often we don't schedule the time to learn or we buy these courses, and we don't schedule the time to actually commit to them. So that's my tip really, is to sit down and think about your week. And if you need a weekly planner, we have a free one at mydailybusinesscoach.com/freestuff. Just look for the weekly planner. And you can download that and just map out where in the week is a good time for me to commit to learning and just stick to that set your boundaries around it. And really, really stick to that.
In my own business. I tend to do Wednesday evenings, so or nights really I should say. So what happens on Wednesdays, usually outside of lockdown, and we are thankfully outside of lockdown. Let's hope it long continues. My husband surfs. So he he goes to urban surf most Wednesdays urban surf, if you're listening and ever want to do sponsorship, let me know. But he goes to Urban Surf pretty much every Wednesday night. My kids go to sleep by 738 o'clock. And some nights I have to say, you know sometimes I just don't feel like doing anything but majority of the time 90% of the time - on a Wednesday night you will find me learning. That is my dedicated learning time.
And I just find it awesome. Like the stuff the amount that you can learn when you sit down and really concentrate for like an hour is incredible. And it just it gives me it gives me confidence in certain areas. It allows me to just find like, oh gosh, I didn't know about that. I didn't know about that. And it just makes it I'm always learning, I'm always educating myself. And I've committed to that time. So again, if I bought a course, I will sit down on a Wednesday and try and complete that course, you know, over the course of a few months or weeks, or however long the course is. And it just really helps you also feel confident that it's getting something off your mental to do list because you're like, "Okay, I sat down, I worked on that. What am I going to do with that knowledge that I've got? How am I going to implement that or change things?" So that is really the question. When are you scheduling time to learn? And could you look at your week, decide on a time, and then just set to it commit to it. And it could be that you do that with a friend. And it becomes like this really kind of fun accountability thing. It could be, depending on the time and day that you go to your favorite cafe that has WiFi access, and you learn there. It could be that you, you know, sandwich it between two walks, or you sandwich it between two clients or you sandwich at the end of a workday, when you shut the shop, and you've got an hour and you just sit and you commit, or maybe at the start of the workday, depending on how you best learn, it has to kind of align with who you are and how you best learn and work.
So yeah, I would be asking yourself, what do I want to learn? What do I feel like I have a knowledge gap in? And then do I have a resource already? Have I bought something back in the past? Do I have a book? Do I have you know somebody on YouTube that I follow someone on Instagram? Do I have podcasts that you know, this podcast could very much be something that you commit to especially the coaching episodes, and then when is the day, when is the time and when will I start and really, really commit to that so often we break promises to ourselves, but it's about putting boundaries in place to protect that learning time, and really committing to it so that, you know, two months, six months, 12 months from now, you just feel so much more confident, and confidence, you know, clarity and confidence go hand in hand. If you really feel confident in something, then it just gives you so much more brain space back to deal with the other things that you need to deal with rather than thinking, oh, gosh, I bought that course I haven't started it yet. I bought that course I haven't started it yet. And just that message playing over and over in your mind.
So that is it for today's quick tip episode. Again when scheduling time to learn, I would love to know what you're going to learn like what are you going to focus on. So don't be a stranger, come over and let me know you can send me a DM at @mydailybusinesscoach on Instagram. Or of course you can also go old school and email us at hello@mydailybusinesscoach.com. And like I said before we do so our own courses. So if you want to learn anything from how to set up your systems and processes, how to map out your money, how to start a podcast, maybe you want to get published next year in online and print magazines or blogs. You can you know find out how to get published course as well. You can just find a whole bunch over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/shop and we'll link to that in the show notes in the show notes you'll be able to find at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/157.
That's it for now. I can't wait to see you next time. So please make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss out on any future episodes. And if you found this useful, please leave a review. It just really really helps us get found by other small business owners across the globe. Thanks for listening. See you next time. Bye.
