As it’s (almost) the end of the year which seems like a natural time for reflection, I’m going to try a different format this week and take a look back at some of the things I’ve done and learned in 2020 in a 5-4-3-2-1 format.
…Category: Strategic Sundays
If I had to look back and identify my biggest weakness in my twenties, I would probably say that I was too much of a perfectionist.
I would sit on good ideas because they weren’t perfect, they’d often end up getting shelved and I would never have the opportunity to find out if they would have worked in the real world.
…I have long been fascinated with habits and self-improvement. One of my main drivers in life is basically to constantly get better at the things that are most important to me and to find the best way to achieve such improvement through good habits.
One thing I’ve learned about motivation is that it rarely lasts. For example, I have found that one of the best ways to motivate myself to get out for a run multiple times a week, even in the dark of winter, is to enter a competition.
…It’s been a while since I had some meaningful time off, certainly before this year – so it was well overdue that I took the family away for a few days in Rotorua last week.
Sometimes in the past, I’ve felt that time off is time wasted, but I certainly proved to myself that this wasn’t the case last week. As I’ve discussed previously, I’ve felt overwhelmed at times this year with everything going on, including an increase in stress and a decrease in ways to relieve it.
…Selling stuff is a weird thing, most of us kinda feel like we need to do it, but unless you’re a natural salesperson, it feels a bit slimy if you do it wrong… and if you do it wrong again and again, then it’s probably one of the quickest ways for your self-esteem to go in the toilet.
Several years back I shared an office with someone who asked me to help with telesales during my quiet times, it was commission-only, well-paid if I signed people on, but I quickly discovered I am not the kind of person who can easily shrug off someone telling me to f*** off and slamming the phone down.
…If ever the rulebook of life was thrown out of the window (then set on fire) it has been 2020. It’s been a funny old year of ups and downs, sometimes I think it’s worth just acknowledging that it’s been pretty hard at times but we’re still here standing and doing our best with this thing called life.
I haven’t sent a newsletter for the past couple of weeks, and that wasn’t a purposeful choice, I’ve just had a lot on recently and I didn’t leave myself enough time to write in terms of my list of business priorities.
…We moved house a few weeks back and set up our home office and kids rooms in what we thought would be the best places for them. I guess you only really know after living somewhere for a while, but it turned out these rooms weren’t optimal and we ended up swapping them over last weekend.
The new office layout works heaps better, now I don’t have the sun in my eyes or need to put the blind down for half of the day, which wasn’t ideal! I’ve also got my whiteboards on the wall… which are super important to me in the way that I work and help me keep track of what I’m doing.
…I came a bit unstuck this week with all of the news coming out in New Zealand at the moment, but after a couple of days of less productivity than usual and intense thought about the situation we’re currently in, I managed to snap myself out of it and resume cracking on with business as usual.
Personally I find it quite difficult to focus on work and completely cancel the noise of external events when they are as big as they have been recently, and they affect all aspects of our lives and our children’s futures…. but sometimes you just have to find a way through.
…Before I moved back to the Bay of Plenty last July I knew how important having a strong network was going to be as I started my new adventure of being self-employed as an SEO Consultant.
So I made a point of reaching out to lots of people via LinkedIn and to set up coffee meetings with likeminded people ready for my arrival.
…I’m going to tell you a secret, my marketing strategy is pretty simple… it basically goes like this:
- Post on LinkedIn 1-2 times per week.
- Send out an email every Sunday and post it on my blog sometime in the following couple of weeks.
- Meet people who I find interesting or resonate with in some way.
- Optimise my website for SEO.
- Do good work.
- Be a good person.
- That’s pretty much it.
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