Episode 173: How are you making things harder for yourself? (AirBnB)
How are you making things harder for your future self? In today's quick tip episode Fiona shares about her experience and the importance of documenting your process. Be more productive and tune in!
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Group Coaching
Fiona's Airbnb experience
Importance of documenting your process
Helpful tools and how to document your process
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
Do you love your business? You should. Right? Well, sometimes we just don't, it's my hope that this, the My Daily Business Coach podcast helps you regain a little of that lost love by providing tips and tactics, tools, insights, inspiration, all the good stuff to help you actually enjoy running your business. In addition to actionable tips and tactics that you'll be able to execute. And immediately you'll also hear from creative, small business owners around the world who've been able to sidestep the hustle and build a business that merges their passion with their purpose and provides a profit. I'm your host Fiona Killackey, founder of my daily business coach. Let's get going.
Hello and welcome to episode 173 of the My Daily Business Coach Podcast. My name's Fiona Killackey. I'm obviously your host here. If you don't know me, if you're new around here, maybe somebody recommended the podcast. Thank you so much to those people. I am an author, a speaker, and I run a business called my daily business coach, where we have online courses, a whole bunch from how to start a podcast through to how to get published through, to marketing for your small. And I also do business coaching. So I do one-on-one coaching and also group coaching. And I just wanna remind you that if you've been listening to this and you are thinking, I would like to work with her in some capacity group. Coaching is open right now. So that is my 12-month program. You work with me and nine other small business owners where I really curate a great group of 10.
And we work together every two weeks for 12 months. And we go through every single part of your business. We dissect it. We look at it. We really think about what we need to work on. And then we bring in a whole bunch of guests as well. So in the legal profession, finance, SEO, advertising, all sorts of things. So if you're interested in that, you can get on over to mydailybusinesscoach.com/groupcoaching, one word, and you can find out everything there and apply, but do hurry, because we are closing this the first week of February 2022. Before I get stuck into today's podcast episode, I just wanted to say one. Thank you so much for all the reviews, for all the shares, all the DMS that I get about this podcast, it really, really means a lot.
So if you're listening to this and at the end, you're like,” that was actually really useful”. Please leave a review. It just takes two seconds. And it really helps us get found by other small business owners who might really need this content. And the second thing is that I want to acknowledge as always the traditional owners and custodians on the beautiful land in which I'm lucky enough to live and record this podcast. And that is The Wurrundjeri People of the Kulin Nation. And I'm paying my respects to their elders past present and emerging and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. And I also pay my respects to any elders past present and emerging from other indigenous and Aboriginal groups that may be listening to this from around the world. Welcome. So today we are in for a quick tip episode, and this is one that came up kind of really recently actually when I was on holiday so let's get into it.
So I was recently lucky enough to go away to the beach. It was just absolutely wonderful. Go away twice, actually. And I should say, I totally recognize the people that I may be listening to, who were like, “man, I have not had in years.” This was our first proper break in about two years because of all the lockdowns in Melbourne. So definitely something I was massively looking forward to. Now, one thing that came up during the holiday, and I kind of was like, “what?” And maybe I'm the only person that doesn't do this. So I found it really strange. So one thing that I was doing was changing the sheets on Airbnb. When you leave and try to be like trying to get you five stars as a guest. And so I was taking off the sheets we'd used and I was putting fresh sheets on and I came across these sheets.
So I was putting them on a big, like double bed kind of bed thing, and the sheets were buttoned up. So the sheets were in the linen closet, completely buttoned up. So what that means is that somebody had washed them, put them on a clothesline or put them in the dryer or whatever. And then instead of just folding them up and putting them back in the linen closet had and done all the buttons on the bottom seen of the part where the doona or do they, or wherever you come from, whatever you call it, we call it a doona here in Australia. The part that goes into the sheets, was already buttoned up. So then, I as the person changing the sheets had to undo all the buttons, put the doona inside, and then it up again. And I thought, “why would anyone button it up when they're just putting it in the linen closet?”
Coz I, you have to spend longer buttoning it up. It doesn't look any different when you fold it and then you have to unbutton it when you're putting the donor in. So it's really just making a whole lot of extra work for yourself. And I know it's not a whole lot, but those buttons can be really finicky sometimes. And I'm talking about the button that actually has to go through a hole and not the little clicky ones that like take two seconds. And I thought, “why would anyone do that?” And then I thought in business, we do this all the time. We make things way harder for ourselves, or we make a job for the future because we don't do something currently in the present. So, it could be things that you need to get a process documented because every time that this one element comes up in business, you have to explain it to somebody and you think, you know what?
I should just record a tutorial video. Or I should just document this in Asana or Trello or Notion or Monday or any of the tools. And we don't, we go, “I'll do it.” “I'll do it later.” And then what happens is that the next month comes around and maybe that task needs to be done again. And somebody comes in to do it and they're like, “how do we do that again?” And you are left to micromanage and, and go through the process again. And you think, “oh God, I wish I'd done that process months ago.” I see this all the time with invoicing, with people saying, I'm gonna get a bookkeeper or I'm going to set up my invoices correctly. And they don't, or I'm going to actually look at the program. So there's a program called 17 hats which is a good one.
I mean, there's a lot of programs out there that you can basically set up your kind of quote. And once somebody accepts that quote, then it literally is an invoice. It gets turned into an invoice. So you're not having to then go back and forth on email, about quotes and then create an invoice and then answer any questions and then tweak the invoice, all of that stuff. So again, that could be something that you think, oh yeah, I'm gonna do that. And then we don't. So there are so many instances. I see them all the time in people. I work with businesses, I see them in my own business as well. Let's be real where I'll say, “we need to do that.” And then we don't or, I've written out all the emails ask for, for the Sundays that I need to batch.
Yep. We're gonna do that. And then we don't and it comes around and I'm like, “God, I need to write an email for this week.” So even somebody who teaches this stuff, it's not always perfect in our business, believe me. So I wanted to kind of pose the question to you as to, I guess one, am I the only person who does not button up sheets before they go onto a doona big coz I just thought that was so weird. But secondly, more importantly, where are you making things harder for yourself? Where are you not correcting things now or helping your future self not have to do so much? So where are the inefficiencies? Where are you double handling things? Where are you saying I'm gonna do that? And then you don't. And so then, the future comes along in three months and he's like, “why didn't you do that?”
Because you said you were gonna do it. And now you haven't. And so really thinking about that doona example and thinking how much harder am I making things for myself? And again, I know there'll be people that will say, “Fiona, I listen to your podcast, and really unfounding a doona cover does not take long.” And it doesn't take what like another couple of minutes and it's not about time. It's not about being or be more productive. It's just morph annoying than anything. It's like, I'm changing the sheets. That's annoying as it is. But I'm like, having to spend time doing this annoying task that really I shouldn't be doing. Shouldn't be set up for me. And that is exactly what it's like in business. Why am I doing this thing again? When it could easily have been removed?
If I had set up a process or if I had looked at automation or if I had done all sorts of things to eliminate that, having to be a task for you in the future you. So that is the question I want to kind of have you think about today. How are you making things harder for your future self? So that is it for today's quick tip episode. If you found this useful, I would love you to send it to a friend. You can share it on social media. You can tag us at @mydailybusinesscoach and of course leave a review if you so wish. Thank you so much for listening and I'll see you next time. Bye. Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you wanna get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram @mydailybusinesscoach.
