Episode 503: Are you actually doing anything?
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Fiona Killackey: Hello and welcome to episode 503 of the My Daily Business Podcast. Today's a little bit of a confronting one I might have to say when it comes to tip tools or tactics that you can implement immediately. But before we get stuck into that, I wanna let you know that marketing for your small business. Is here.
It's here. I mean, it's here all the time. You can buy it anytime at marketing for your small business.com. But we are running our nine week live coaching kicking off in May. So if you are interested in that, you are listening in real time and you actually wanna create a strategic marketing plan and learn from somebody who's been in marketing for 23 years now and has worked across.
All sorts of things from events to social media, to content creation, like a podcast and so much more. And you wanna actually understand how it all works, regardless of what kind of platform you wanna choose as your main connection channel. Then check it out at marketing for your small business dot. Com.
And of course, before we jump in, I want to acknowledge the traditional [00:01:00] owners and custodians on the land on which I run these courses, run all my programs and work and love and play, and that is the Wurrundjeri and Woi-Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. And I pay my respects to their elders past and present and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been seated.
All right, let's get into today's quick tip episode.
When I was growing up, I remember that my parents, I don't even know if we would get pocket money, but they would sometimes be like, okay, if you do this, this and this, then you can, get a little bit of money for it. And so I used to do that. And then I used to also, you know, once I was old enough, actually even I.
Before I was legally old enough, I worked as a security guard in a news agent when I was 12. I think the guy just felt sorry for me and gave me some money to literally walk around. It was a very small shop and just peer at people in case they were stealing stuff, which nobody ever did. By the way.
Again, just think he was a nice guy. He employed my brother and sister, so I feel like he felt bad for me. But [00:02:00] between that, and then I started working at Kohl's when I was 14 years and nine months as a checkout chick in the supermarket. I started saving. It was back in the day, oh my God, I feel so old.
When you used to get cash as payments, so it didn't go through a digital bank, it went through literally a yellow envelope and you would pick it up at the end of your shift or sometimes like you'd go in on a Saturday or whatever and get it, and it would be all of the money from what you had done and work towards.
And I would take that home and I had this sort of. Jar in my bedroom, in my desk, and I would put all the money in there. Now, as I got older, I started working at, better paid jobs. I worked in cafes and different places, and I started saving because I had my eye on the prize, and as soon as I turned 18, I wanted to get my license and buy a car.
Now, I was definitely not from a family where they were going to just give me a car on my 18th birthday, and so I saved and saved and saved, and I managed to get together. $2,000, which was a lot. At the time, my brother's girlfriend, her father was a mechanic and so he [00:03:00] saw some cars come into his place that he thought that's still got life in it, and maybe Fiona could afford that.
So I remember going to see this car. It was. Pretty much a bomb. And I bought it and I spent my whole $2,000 buying it, and it was light green metallic, and it was awesome, and I loved it, and I had freedom. I had so much freedom. But that concept of saving, of putting away kind of a deposit and putting away, having that initial deposit and then watching it grow over time is so.
So crucial to building your skillset in that area for years to come. Now, obviously that is a financial example that I've showed you, but I have been also trying to do this when it comes to skill sets in business, and I think it's something that we don't do, we don't really do enough of. I think so often we think, oh goodness, now I need to do video, so I'm just gonna have to learn overnight how to become a video, you know, content creator, or, oh, I'm gonna start a podcast, so I'm just gonna have to buy a microphone and just.[00:04:00]
Do it as opposed to giving ourselves that leeway and that time to build up that skillset. So recently I was sharing with my group coaching group that I have a major travel goal in a few years with my family, and so I took. The amount of money that we need for that travel experience and divided it by how many weeks we have until we wanna go on that travel experience and then calculate it using an AI tool, how much money I would need to put into a savings account and with the term deposit, interest rates and all of that, how much we could potentially get to by that end goal.
Now we broke that down and was talking about it in group coaching about this is a really important goal. The same thing happens with skillset. So you wanna be thinking about in terms of, instead of me putting, for example, $200 away every single week into a term deposit, you wanna think about what am I doing every week or daily even, to work on a skillset that I want to have.
So for example, I have talked. A lot on this podcast about how [00:05:00] I want to do more videos. Now I'm trying to work on that skillset, but I can't go from zero to a hundred overnight. I know there's lots of platforms and lots of AI tools that sort of make it seem like that that's what can happen. However, I do think that you need to put in the work and you need to almost treat it like that weekly transfer of money that I have to do in order to hit this destination in a few years time.
You do have to do the same. So you have to think about in terms of your time, how much time are you able to literally save or put into, your skill savings account that will then help you get that skill. So with video content creation, I am trying to really teach myself DS script. Now, I could just go and hire somebody to do that for me, but I actually want to know how to use the platform really, really well.
DS Descript is an incredible AI video tool that I have been using and I've been able to make basic videos, but I wanted. Do much better ones. And so I have to look at it in that same way as me putting aside things, you know, whether it's for the car or for this travel [00:06:00] experience that we wanna have. I have to look at it in the same way.
So I have to look at my week or plan out my month and go, where am I depositing that skillset, that practice, that training into my week, into my calendar? So what am I doing to get better? At video creation. Now I am somebody who, I don't know why I have sort of a block around video creation. I've previously paid videographers to do videos for me and I dunno if it's something to do with my age or how I was raised without the internet and phones in my hand, et cetera.
But I am little by little trying to tweak and, you know, encourage that muscle to grow. And I can't do that if I don't actually keep adding to that little savings skillset. I wanna ask you and encourage you to think about maybe there's something in business that you are either putting off or you're thinking, okay, I'll just go from like zero to a hundred and just kill yourself with the amount of time and effort and everything else it needs to take, as opposed to going, okay, by when do I wanna launch a podcast?
Or by when do I want to? Maybe remove the agency and be able to do my own meta ads or by [00:07:00] when do I want to x, Y, Z, whatever you wanna put in. And then how am I saving for it? How am I building up that skillset so that at that point I can actually, retire the agency, or I can actually launch that podcast, or I can actually, put myself forward and do a keynote speaking gig.
You have to have the little. Small steps that are adding up over time. And one of the ways you can do that is to actually look at your calendar and go, where am I putting in that practice, that training, that savings in the same way that younger Fiona in her teenage years had to start saving for that car.
And now I'm, you know, much older and I'm still having that same meant. Mentality that yes, potentially we could get to that year and just take a chunk of money out of our savings or shares or whatever and pay for it all. But I don't want to do that. I want to be able to go, I saved, we saved, we organized, we did this, so that we can take that and take it with the full knowledge that we had saved enough money to be able to do that.
So that's what I would ask [00:08:00] you to encourage yourself today, like are you actually doing anything when it comes to this skillset or this area of business that you want to excel in or that you want to get? Better at, or at least even start in my case, just start. Start with better videos. So what are you actually doing?
Because we can all sit around and say, oh, I wanna do this, or I wanna do that, or I wanna learn how to manage my own ads, or I wanna learn how to X, Y, Z. But if we're not putting in that savings, that skills savings, then where are we gonna get to? Nothing changes if nothing changes. So that is it for today.
Really thinking about. When it comes to the stuff that you wanna build in your business, whether it is getting yourself under speaking gigs, whether it is writing a book, starting a podcast, both of which we have courses for those, by the way, which you can find@mydailybusiness.com slash courses. But what are you doing?
Because if I had sat around when I was 17, 16, 17 and saved nothing. I would've had nothing at the end. I wouldn't magically be given a car, and so I had to save for it. And the same goes for this travel experience. And the same goes for [00:09:00] so many parts of my life that I have taken small steps consistently over time to get something happening.
I. And I think we're always doing that in life. So just ask yourself, get really honest, and then think about where you are going to start saving or building up that skillset. Thank you so much for listening. That is it for today's quick tip episode. If you wanna go through this in text format, you can find all of that.
Plus any links to anything I've mentioned at my daily business.com/podcast/ 5 0 3. Thanks so much for listening.
See you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Podcast for a range of tools to help you grow and start your business, including coaching programmes, courses and templates. Check out our shop at mydailybusiness.com and if you want to get in touch, you can do that by email at hello@mydailybusiness.com or you can hit us up on Instagram at mydailybusiness_. You can find us on TikTok at mydailybusiness or find me Fiona Killackey on LinkedIn. I look forward to connecting.
