Have you been intentional in the habits you’ve created in your business? Think beyond the bad habits and let’s look at how valuable good habits can be. In today’s episode, Jess Joswick joins us to share a few intentional habits you can incorporate into your business to set yourself up for success in both business and life. Listen in as we discuss habits around your calendar, task lists, priorities, and delegating!
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Guest Bio:
Jess Joswick is a coach for online leaders who want to create premium businesses that center health and rest. She helps her clients create 50% more revenue in 12 months by streamlining their offers, setting up a seamless and scalable client experience, and hiring their first team member.
Jess has pureed her background in marketing, brand management, and fundraising with real-life business tools and mindset work to help her clients blow their own minds. She lives in the Los Angeles, CA area and in her free time, you can find her scuba diving, going to concerts, and searching for the perfect matcha latte.
Today’s episode is brought to you by my Client Hub Template inside the DIY Systems Template Shop. Business owners often have their client information spread across a variety of different tools, making it hard to access the information they need to make critical decisions. That’s why I built the Client Hub Template for Airtable, to take the guesswork out of building your own!
Here are the highlights…
[2:09] Get to Know Jess
[5:25] Getting Started with Building Habits
[6:36] Making a Short Task List that Can Actually Be Completed
[12:45] Managing Your Calendar & Setting Aside CEO Time
[16:36] Managing Your Expectations for Inquiries and Bookings
[20:27] Outsourcing & Building the Right Team
[33:42] Finding the Right Tools
Mentioned in this Episode
Episode 11: CEO Talk with Ashley King
Episode 25: Sarah Potts: BTS of Hiring My VA
Connect with Jess
Website: https://backbone-business.com/
Newsletter: https://backbonebusiness.ck.page/251993b5e4
IG: https://www.instagram.com/backbonebusiness/
LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessjoswick/
Review the Transcript:
Colie: Hey, y’all. Habits are something that each and every one of us should have in our business. But do you actually have them and do you adhere to them?
Colie: Hello, hello, and welcome back to the Business First Creatives podcast.
Today, I am chatting with Jess Joswick, the founder of Backbone Business, and she is going to help us get our shit straight related to habits. Jess, good morning and welcome to the podcast.
Jess: Hello. Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited. Excited for this conversation, uh, because you are right. Habits are, I
think, one of the hardest things that we do as entrepreneurs.
Colie: I mean, I find
myself I mean, I guess you’re saying habits. I’m, I think processes, but I’m sure they’re going, we’re going to talk about them in the same manner, but I always feel like I screw myself when I don’t stick to my own processes. Like, I have a way of doing things. And what I end up doing is telling myself, oh, it’s okay.
Coley, you can just not do that. You can do it tomorrow. And then 3 weeks later, I’m like, oh, my God, I didn’t do that thing because I didn’t do it. Immediately when I got home when I should have done it. But before we jump into the conversation, why don’t you tell the listening audience, like who you are and what you do, like how long you’ve been in business, all that good
jazz.
Jess: absolutely. Uh, so my name is, is Jess Joswick, as you said, um, my company is called Backbone Business, and I am a business coach for online entrepreneurs who really want to recenter their health and their rest and, and working with me, they. Create 50 percent more revenue in one year through working on their offers, their systems and their teams.
So you’re right. habits are a process. They are one of the processes that really, you know, Are the backbone of our businesses. I, I always find a way to throw in my, my business name, uh, into everything I do, but, I have had my business for five years now. before this business, I had a branding studio and so I, that’s, that’s part of my background.
My background is super all over the place, you know, in true creative fashion. I. Never really had a path and never really knew what I wanted to do. so I started my career in nonprofits, fundraising and in marketing and then transitioned to just marketing transition to design. and you know, after freelancing open that branding studio and, Move that into coaching when I realized, Oh, this is actually more fun for me and, super,
rewarding after working with a coach myself.
Colie: I feel like people don’t understand how much joy we get from helping other people and it allows us to be so creative. Like when I think about creating systems for other business, like you have to tell me all about your business before I can even sit down and start to think about any systems for you.
So it allows me to be so creative because all of the people that come to me are so different. And I know that you feel the same way about your clients. Yeah.
Jess: Yes. you’re totally right. I totally agree. I love the holistic approach and that’s why for so long I just had one program because it was, um, and I still have it. It’s called the founder circle and it’s. You know, it’s a year long. It’s like, like we look at everything and because that actually is usually the
problem.
I can’t just stay in offers or marketing. I can’t just, you know, be right
there. Yeah, it all. Yeah. It all starts to intersect at some point, you know, you have to have all the information. So yeah, it’s totally creative. Like building a business is such a creative process. and. Even maybe the word process might throw some people off and make it, you know, feel really, I don’t know, uh, uncreative.
Yeah, stuffy. Uh, you know, oh, like there’s numbers involved. That’s not for me. but. It’s, it’s such a creative thing. You know, we’re, we’re building things that don’t exist yet and we have to find new ways to do it because there have been so many people before us who have done the thing. So finding a new way, a new solution, a new path, adding in your
own spice.
That’s, that’s really what it’s about for me.
Colie: Let’s talk about habits. I feel like we are going to jump right in now. So how do you approach coaching people on habits? And like, what are the first habits that we should all consider putting into our business? Because I feel like There’s so many processes. There’s so many habits. Like there’s gotta be a starting place where everybody can be like, okay, this is like my first building block, if you will.
Jess: Yes. Yes. So habits, just to get a definition out there, it’s a small thing that you do probably every day, but on a regular basis. So, and that seems super elementary to say, but I like to always start with like, okay, what, what exactly are we talking about? And so a lot of things can be a habit. Um, and you already have them, you know, we all have the, the bad ones for me.
It’s, when I, I turn my phone off at night, that’s a new habit that I’m starting to do, but sometimes I’m bad and I turn it on again, you know, in the morning, before I’m like way earlier than I, than I should be. And then I’m scrolling, right. So scrolling is a big one for a lot of people. so. The first habits I would say to build usually when, when clients start working with me, they don’t have a, I would say a usable, or repeatable or, stick with a bowl workflow for themselves, like personal, like, how am I going to get the tasks done and.
I’d say, you know, the number 1 thing I go to is like, what can we drop, you know, off this list? Like, you know, like the book drop the ball, like, what ball can we drop here? I always shoot for under promising to yourself what you can do every day. Right? So, like, You know, I always say like, I, am really good at completing my task list, but then because I have so few things on there and then like, once you get on a roll, you get that momentum and it’s really, you just start getting like more and more done because you’re like, oh, well, that wasn’t so bad.
You know, so that’s really helpful for some neurodivergent folks. A lot of people I work with are neurodivergent. So they, have ADHD, depression, anxiety, BPD. It’s a big umbrella of all, you know, brains that are outside the norm in some way. Right. So a lot of the, advice out there doesn’t necessarily work for us.
Right. So we have to find our own way to do it. So that’s the first thing I would say under promise and, use the excitement and momentum of getting your very short to do list
on every day.
Colie: I mean, and I think that people really undervalue creating a to do list every day that can actually be completed because there is nothing worse with people because I feel like my anxiety over the last few years has just been, you know, so high, whereas I don’t really think I ever had anxiety in like my thirties, at least not like I do now, but I feel like.
If you’re creating a list and you can actually check everything off the list, it gives you a sense of fulfillment. It gives you a sense of you completed this task. And so if you have the habit of creating a to do list every day that can never be completed, like you’ve got so many things on there and your habit is to just take the undone tasks and move them to the next day.
That’s how your anxiety festers. That’s how you get overwhelmed in your business. But if you can keep that task list very short to where every day you get in the habit of checking everything off and you prioritize completing your very short list, that is going to set you up for success, not only in your business, but also in your personal life, because we all know those things overlap.
Jess: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I totally agree. And I’m, I mean, I’m talking three things. Like I’m looking at my to do list right now. And today I actually have, I actually have five things, which is a lot, but one of them is texting somebody. So it’s, it’s literally like, like, it’s even, it’s even those little things that, you know, that just build up and, and take, yeah.
Space in in your brain somewhere. and you’re right that that is a lot of what drives anxiety is. Oh, my gosh, I forgot that thing. That thing is falling through the cracks. and, and, you know, it, it really is. Again, it sounds so simple, but it’s, it’s like, if you are always overwhelmed, if you never find that deep work time to work on your business, that uninterrupted time to really, you know, strategize and think about things that, uh, You know, not just a surface level.
You’re not just doing task, task, task. That’s the, that’s, I would say that’s the second thing to look at is, you know, are you working on your business on a regular basis? Not on a task or client work or, you know, sending a shoot to a client or something like that. Are you working, that’s in your business.
Like, are, do you have dedicated time to work on Your business and, and make it better than it is right now. And so if you don’t have that, like, we, we need to find that time and then tell all the people who might pull you away from that time. Like, hey, this is not, this is sacred time. Like, do not find me.
You know, this is, this is for the business. The
business needs this.
Colie: Yeah, I’m going to pop in and like put a shout out for an episode that I’ve already got on the podcast. It’s episode 11, everyone. I know that was many episodes ago. We have already passed 100 episodes on this podcast, but if you have not listened to episode 11, it was CEO talk with Ashley King. And I will tell you I find nothing more valuable and I don’t do it as well as most people do like I don’t have this set chunk of time, which again, a habit would be to create that set amount of time on your calendar where you are doing the work.
But with life right now, it’s just so crazy. I don’t have the time. To set aside the time for the, as for the CEO talk. But if you haven’t listened to that episode, there were a bunch of really good nuggets in there about making sure that you put yourself in a position to be successful when you are doing the deep work that Jess is talking about.
Right now.
Jess: Love that. Yes. Yeah. It’s, it’s so critical. And it’s, you know, when, when people say to me, like, I’ve been doing this for so long, I’m an expert. Like, why, why is it still so hard? Why are You know, why does it feel like it’s hard to get clients to get the right clients?
It’s often I often go right to this and they’re like, well, wait, hold on.
What’s the connection? It’s like well, you need to make your you need to really think about like is my marketing aligned with? With the people I actually want to work with, are my offers actually making me enough money plus, you know, for, are they at an abundant price point, know, what is my sales close rate, like all of these things, right?
Like, are my systems supporting me,
tech systems and my personal systems.
Colie: know, Jess is talking about numbers. She said systems. Y’all know, she’s talking about love language. I mean. People shy away from the numbers,
but I feel like
the best thing that you can do for your business is get in the habit of looking at your actual numbers. Cause if you are in a month and you’ve had 15 sales calls and you’ve only closed one, okay, that’s a problem.
But if you don’t actually look at that data in order to see whether or not your close rate is higher or lower than the previous month, because it’s not just about the leads. It’s about the number of leads that you’re closing and that is such an important distinction because, you know, I work with a lot of photographers.
They’ll come to me and they’ll be like, you know, my calendar is empty and I’m like, okay, but like, that’s not your problem. There’s something else that is inhibiting how much money you’re making. And so we do need to take a look at that. Like, how much traffic are you getting to your website? Of that traffic, how many people are actually inquiring?
Of the number of people who inquire, how many are actually booking you? Like, all three pieces together are what you need to look at in order to, you know, move forward in your business and be successful and set up these processes. But if you don’t ever make the time on your schedule to look at those numbers.
You’re not giving yourself a chance to really thrive in your business.
Jess: we, we I, I love numbers, even though when you said, oh, she’s looking at the numbers, I was like, oh, anxiety, because I’m not naturally a numbers person, but I’ve, I’ve learned to love that, especially in marketing, because that’s such a place where we like, engage in magical thinking, you know, like someone’s going to come in and they’re, you know, going to book right away or something like that, or like whatever the story is.
And then we get disappointed when that fantasy doesn’t happen. I’m like, well, this isn’t actually Disney World. That’s the match. The magic happens there. The magic is not going to happen here in that way. Or if it happens, it’s not going to happen the way you think it happens. That’s just like a rule.
Colie: I totally agree. I was looking over like old presentations that I used to do and the ways that I used to teach photographers. And one thing that I, and I admit it now, when I first created my business and I was getting like 90 percent of my people through Google, I was not getting a ton of inquiries, but like 90 percent of my inquiries were booking.
Like I was full. I was making the money that I needed to, but my like inquiry process was also set up. For the ready to buy crowd. Like when people came into my funnel, they had looked over my website. They were really just asking, am I available? And where do I sign? But as my business grew, as the number of inquiries that I was getting was increasing, I was finding that there were people who needed to be nurtured.
Like they were kicking the tires, if you will. They just wanted the information so that they could sit with it. They could mull it over. And I will say one of the reasons that I ended up switching how I was doing my inquiry process was I myself will not impulse buy in my business anymore. It has, it has done me wrong more than one time.
So I’ve got this rule, like, if I’m, if I’ve had a sales call with someone or there’s something really great, I have to sit with it for 24 to 72 hours. To like weigh the pros and cons, make sure that it’s right for me. And so if you guys think about selling to me and I am your ideal client, just know that sometimes people need a little nurturing.
And so it isn’t going to be all the time that you make your pitch and someone signs within five minutes. My goal is that once they decide to sign, it only takes them five minutes to pay you. Like that’s my goal, but I’m not promising you that they are going to say yes. in five minutes of receiving the proposal.
You know what I mean, Jess?
Jess: yeah. Yeah. I really, yes. that’s a habit also is, my expectation is that people are going to behave this way or, or when it’s, it doesn’t happen like that. When I get a disappointment, I beat myself up and that, that, you know, that’s my normal habit, honestly. And, and so on learning that is, is such a massive.
Important process, you know, forgiving yourself, releasing guilt, releasing the shame when like a client who you really thought was a shoe in doesn’t book or like you launch something and it doesn’t go well. I can’t tell you how many times that’s happened to me. I’m actually, you know. Trying to talk about that a little bit more because it’s so easy to get down on yourself and tell yourself you’re a bad entrepreneur when the reality, I think the expectation in this, in this industry is
that it’s, you know, it’s just hockey stick growth, like it’s just going up.
Colie: I’ve never heard it phrased that way, but I can tell that you’re from Michigan.
Jess: that’s so that’s, yeah, so that that’s
from the startup world, but I love that that you went there. Yeah, it’s like the graph of growth is just, you know, all the way up and that’s not, that’s so not reality, like, that’s a few startups. You know, who are unicorns who get outside funding, like, if that’s not your business model, like, please stop getting like, get out of the habit of looking at businesses that aren’t your business, like, that are never going to be like, close to your business model, like, just keep your eyes, even, even businesses that are, you know, similar to yours, like.
The habit of putting your blinders on and telling yourself, like, it’s all good, like, I’m safe, like, everything is, you know, going according to or even if it’s not, things are, I have the capacity to figure it out, you know, that’s, that’s a mindset habit. And if we don’t have that,
we have nothing.
Colie: So I feel like this is a good time because I am like really taking this all in and I want to make sure that I’m, I’m summarizing it for the listening audience. So, so far in our habits, we’ve got making a short task list that can actually be completed by the end of the day. We’ve got managing your calendar and setting aside time to do your deep CEO work on your business, not in your business.
And then now we’ve got managing your expectations for your inquiries, your bookings, all that good jazz. Jess, I mean, those, I mean, I think if we ended here, those are three very important habits that everybody should focus on. But what else do you have for me? Because I’m sure that you have at least one more.
Jess: Yes. So, after you’ve done all that,
Colie: Which is a lot, guys!
Jess: yeah, which is alot you know, especially with the mindset stuff, it’s not just Couldn’t be
one and done,
but but,
Colie: we just that that phrase that phrase drives me insane because there is nothing about being an online entrepreneur that is set it and forget it. There is nothing. Everything is an ongoing process. And maybe that’s a habit that we need to consider is that, you know, the constant reevaluation of your business yearly, quarterly, monthly.
And I mean, that can be part of your CEO work, but yeah. Definitely. I mean, I’m sorry. I went on a little soapbox there, but like that set it and forget it mentality. Like people come to me and they’re like, Oh, well, you know, my systems are not working anymore. And I’m thinking to myself, well, when’s the last time that you brainstormed about them?
Oh, it was six months ago. I’m like, yeah, a lot of things have probably changed in your business in six months. Sit down, think about what’s working, what’s not working and make some changes. Okay. I’m sorry.
Jess: No, it’s, yeah, you’re right. It’s, and people, people say that to me too, like, oh, I introduced this new offer, or I hired a coach six months ago. Like, Okay. Great. Like, did you, I think that, you know, there’s so much that you can take from past experiences, obviously. And, um, I love that people have, have worked with other coaches or, you know, other, other experts like you, Colie, like that’s.
What you have to do, but getting out of the habit, you’re right. Like getting out of this habit of like, well, I’ve hired this person. And so I’m good forever. And that now, now I move on to like something else in my business. My systems are done and now I can work on marketing or whatever. Like
Colie: is so cohesive, though, everything works together. So Like
if you hired me to set up your systems and then you go work with a business coast like Jess, chances are your systems are going to need to be revamped just because she has helped you. Think more about your business holistically.
You have made changes to your offers. Maybe you’ve made changes in the way that you communicate your capacity for these offers. So like basically every time you have hired an expert, like a systems expert, a website designer, a brand designer, all these things, every time you work with someone new, you really do need to look at all that past work that you’ve done and been like, okay.
Well, now that I’ve got this new offer at this new price point with this new capacity, what needs to change in my systems, on my website, in my branding, in my marketing efforts, in my communication? I mean,
it’s
Jess: Yeah,
Colie: every time. I mean, it’s, it’s continuous growth in your business guys.
Jess: just you saying that I’m like, Oh God, but it doesn’t have to be that way. It just, it, it really doesn’t. you know, to your, your question was, well, what’s next? What do we do next? uh, this is true for. You know, whether you’re done for you, you’re a done for you person, you know, you’re a photographer, um, or you’re teaching photographers, so you’re a coach or a consultant looking at how much time you’re spending on client work, client communication, and it really, it’s boundaries.
It’s like business boundaries, because that’s gonna, that is usually 9 times out of 10. That is what’s going to get in the way of that deep work time. Uh, the other time is family, you know, the one out of 10 is family, but usually it’s client stuff and, and we’re, because we’re in the habit of going to them first.
You know, of like, Oh, they need me. I’m there. And that’s a savior complex that we just need to, to erase
Colie: I’m here for it. Yes.
Jess: right? Like, we’re not, they’re not in danger. Probably if they are, they’re not calling you, um, they’re, this is a brain surgery. Like, nobody needs us. on the schedule that we think that they do. And so I, you know, the, I have a list of like priorities in your business, like what you should do every day.
If you’re like ever, what do I do today? Which is almost never, it was just never, and client care is third. I think it’s third or fourth. Because, and, and they’re like, wait a second, like, they’re giving me money. Like, shouldn’t I be serving them immediately? And it’s like, no, because you’re the CEO.
Like when you are the CEO of a business, you bring in money. Like that’s your number one task. So, and we can talk about, you know, how you bring in money, how we make, how do we make it more equitable? How do we, you know, what is my own philosophy on that or how am I going to do that in my offers or, or, you know, whatever the conversation is, but like, you need to bring in the money you’re looking, you need to go find new money.
That’s the number one way
that your business is going to expand if you are in that season of your
business.
Colie: I, mean, I, I’m so here with you, Jess, and I think that this is a good time for us to talk about teams and like outsourcing and like all of those kinds of things, because 1 of the things that I have implemented, I mean, I did it before you and I had our last talk, but also, like, I rely heavily on my virtual assistant.
To keep me on the path that I need to be on. So literally before we hit record on this, I was on a call with Sarah, which guys, if you guys want to know about Sarah and what she helps me do, it’s episode 25 of this podcast. But I was having my weekly 15 minute call with Sarah. I got to tell you that 15 minutes is life changing.
And I know all of you guys are like, well, what the hell are you doing for 15 minutes? Okay. So every week. I tell Sarah any new things that I need for her to do outside of what she is assigned every week. That’s the number one thing. The number two thing is Sarah asked me if I have completed the damn tasks that were on my list from last week.
I cannot tell you how important that is for two reasons. Number one, if it’s still not done, her asking me about it is prompting me to like put it as a priority on my task list. And then number two, sometimes the fact that I know that like I’m going to be on the call with Sarah. If I haven’t done what I was supposed to do, Oh, one hour before I get on the call with her, you better believe I’m getting that task done.
So it’s accountability for me, but guys, it is such like a minimal thing, 15 minutes a week with my virtual assistant. And so. I, I think there’s habits that we’ve talked about for us individually, and then you started to talk about boundaries. And I feel like your team members and outsourcing can really help you with those boundaries.
So let’s talk about that. Jess, what kind of habits should we have? If we are the CEO and we have team members. I
Jess: a lot of folks out there are in a similar, you know, in a similar place, uh, with team. So if you have uh, you know, we, this is especially true if you’re a big picture thinker. And I don’t mean that. And that’s not a valued Um, some people are just really good at like thinking big and then they, they fail at execution. And some people are really good at making, at buttoning everything up. Like there’s no, one is not better than the other because they both have. Their shadow side, right? They both drawbacks to how you think, but I’m like my strengths on the, uh, what’s the, the, is it, it’s not strengths
finder.
Um, it’s, it’s like the, the, you have 40 different strengths.
Colie: know what you’re talking about, but I don’t know the
name.
Jess: Okay. Well, shout out to that. Whatever that is. I’ll think of it as soon as we stop recording. But like my top five
are like thinking. There’s no execution there.
Colie: Which Jess, but wait, let’s, let’s talk
about this for a sec, because that’s probably what makes you a good business coach. Like what you’re talking about is also really related to how you hire team members effectively. And like, even though you’re a business coach, if I hired you, I would consider you part of my team. But like, I’m really good at big thinking. I’m also really good at execution. However, I should be spending more time doing thinking than execution. Hence me hiring people to help me with the execution. I have a podcast manager who does everything for this podcast outside of me inviting guests and hitting record, but versus like, if you are a really good, um, executioner.
And you are struggling at like big picture things, that’s when you need to look at hiring a business coach, either continuously or every quarter, like, because you need help seeing the big picture in your business so that you don’t get lost in like the nitty gritty tasks of the client work, because I feel like that’s what happens.
You get so focused on your client work. You forget to think. About your business overall, you forget to like innovate and get new offers and do all those kinds of things. So, I mean, just, I’m sorry I interrupted you, but like, also that was like, cause I feel like, okay, there’s a lot of things that I didn’t know when I created my business, but like definitely thinking about hiring team members.
And then like all of the time that I was going to spend marketing and communicating, like I didn’t consider those things. Client work is what I think all of us are like, oh yeah, I got this in the bag, that’s what I’m gonna do. But like, that’s 10, 15% of what it means to be a business owner. So, yeah.
Jess: Oh yeah. yeah. Yes. Yeah. Colie, thank you for, for saying that it is, it’s true. uh, you just said so many things, uh, I’m, I’m like, okay, how do I, where do I start with responding? But I guess to answer your, your question about, about team, they can absolutely help. And, you know, what you just described with your VA with, with that, she, you know, comes in and asks you about tasks and follows up.
That’s, The managing up part of having a team is so important. It can’t just be one way because that’s too much on you to remember, you know, basically you are, unless you have a, a much larger team, you know, um, you know, and I’m talking double digits team, then, you know, you definitely have to invest. More time, you know, probably 15, 20 percent of your time is just with team in one way or another, but if it’s just you and a VA or an OBM, or as you said, a podcast manager, like we’re small, tight knit crew here, they have to manage up.
They have to say, Hey, Hey, Colie, where’s this thing? You, you said that the deadline is this. I need time to work on it. So where is it like, where, what’s, what’s the status? Do we have to push it? Is that okay? And so that is what you need to look for in, in team. I know a lot of people are just like, don’t want to pay a ton or are not necessarily that, but like nervous about it.
The price of, of somebody who is experienced and I’m like, that is worth its weight in gold. Like if it’s a good fit for you, if it’s somebody who compliments um, of course there are a lot of, you know, other factors, but you, especially if you are, if it’s your first hire, which usually the VA is right.
The, like the admin support and, and you’re not that experienced with managing people. It’s so, so worth it. Versus having somebody who also doesn’t have a lot of experience and you have to keep going after them. And, you know, 3 or 4 months later, it’s a mess. Just, I say just like find the person who, who gets it.
And so, yes, they can definitely, the good team person can, can totally help you with, with some client uh, with automations,
Colie: Woo-hoo.
Jess: uh, yeah, having, you know, sending out, there’s so much more that we can automate and we think everything has to have a high touch, even in a high ticket offer, which is what I do with my clients.
There’s a lot that we can. Insert in, we can, we can put the robots to use
Colie: agree.
Jess: and the algorithms to use more, uh, and then save our time and energy for what is really important, you know, for those really creative things, for those resources, only you can do that. Like chat, GPT can write the reminder email and I, and, you know, a human can put in and, and make it branded.
Right. um. You know, chat GPT can help you repurpose your content to a certain extent and, and all of these things, or, or your team member can, can schedule that stuff and make it branded for Uh, you don’t need to, there’s so much that you
can, again, drop
the ball.
Colie: And even if you have a business coach, you have to be part of the process of the big thinking. Even if you need someone to help guide you, like you, you can’t just. You can’t just outsource the big thinking in your business, no matter how much you want to. Now you can hire people to guide you again, great business coaches, but you cannot just say, okay, tell me what to do next.
Like that’s not how entrepreneurship works. I mean, if you are not part of like the process that is choosing those next steps, You are not going to effectively market them or do them or, you know, just anything related to it. You have to be invested in part of that process. And so the more that you can do the team lower to do those kinds of tasks that Jess was just talking about, the more time it gives you to do the big thinking to push your business forward.
Mm hmm. Jess, I mean, I, I don’t know what else we have to talk about. Is there something else that you feel like is missing from this conversation about habits? I mean, we didn’t talk about tools, but like, that’s not something that you talk about a lot, right? Like, do you have a favorite tool when it comes to managing either your expectations or making sure that you’re doing your habits or creating your habits or anything like that?
Pen
Jess: tool recommendation, again, because I work with folks who are neurodiverse and like, something that works for one person is not going to work for another person. So there are things that I love using because it works for me. And especially with tech, it’s like People have such strong opinions.
You know, I, I love, I’m an air table and notion girly. Like I, I love Um, you know, they, we got them hooked up to, you know, to get, to be automated in so many different Um, you know, but for my tasks, I literally, I’m so analog. I literally, I’m looking at my, you know, at my notebook. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s, it’s just like.
Um, I, I haven’t, you know, I, I have not been able to stick with, you know, to do ist or any, any tech, like I just do it, you know, I can, I can pull this out right you know, it’s messy as hell and it’s fine, um, but there are some people who are like, no, I love Notion because I get really into, you know, all these different types of to do’s and I categorize, Other lists and everything is in one place.
I’m like, awesome. Great. Like that’s, that’s great Um, and similarly like Asana, I, I do like clickup for projects, but yeah, it’s, it’s, I don’t think I’m gonna say anything that’s like really revelatory in that area. It’s more like, because none of the tools, like the tools are just helpful for you. Of course.
Like they’re, but they’re not gonna work. Unless you’re willing to do some of the things that we talked about today, right? Change the way that you think
And and change your, your beliefs about
yourself and your business.
Colie: And the most useful tool is the one that you use. I mean, let’s just every time someone asked me for recommendations on tack, it’s, I have some very strong opinions. As Jess said, I have very strong opinions, not for what will work for everyone. But once you tell me about your business and you tell me how you operate, I probably have very strong opinions about what you should use that will work best for what you’ve told me about, but I just love that you gave Airtable a shout out because I feel like Airtable is one of the most underutilized.
Softwares. For a lot of people, but it is the thing that I feel is best for you to see the big picture of your entire business. Like you could have a marketing hub, a sales hub, a communication hub, all for your business in this one place, and you can make all those hubs talk to each other. You can get your, you know, client feedback inside of Airtable.
I manage this podcast inside of Airtable. I mean, to me, yeah. I think Airtable is like that one thing. And no one paid me to say this. God, it sounded like a commercial. I apologize everyone. But like I’ve been doing some really like big thinking and trying to figure out where else I can start to organize and manage my business with my team members so that they have access.
And Airtable is what works for me. Now, ClickUp is what works for, you know, other people and, you know, have at it. I can’t, I like ClickUp. But like, ClickUp is my version just of your pen and paper, like literally the only thing I do in ClickUp is I have a list of things that I do for a Dubsado VIP day, and I check them off as I do them.
And so many of them are assigned to my virtual assistant, but like that is the scope of what I use ClickUp for. I love it for like a checkoff list because I, I used to do it in pen and paper guys, and that was horrible because then I couldn’t find the papers that I was checking the things off on in my office.
And so electronic was definitely good and electronic was also necessary once I had a team member. Because pen and paper, I mean, what was I going to do? Scan it on my printer and send her a copy to be like, I did these things. It doesn’t exactly work when you’re trying to communicate with team members who are not physically with you.
Jess: Yes. Thank you for saying that because that is very true. You need, you need
another solution.
Colie: I mean, Jess, if people want to find out more about you and the services that you offer, where can they find you on the internet?
Jess: So they can find me on website, uh, which is backbone business. uh, and, uh, there’s information there obviously about more about me, but, and my process, but about Founders Circle, which I mentioned already, and my program And,
uh, I spend a lot of time on Instagram. I
Colie: know
that.
Jess: um, maybe,
Colie: feed is kind of awesome guys. So
go check it out.
Jess: Thank you um, so that’s just at
Colie: Okay. Everyone, I
really hope that this conversation has been meaningful to you and that you have walked away with a few ideas on how you can create habits inside of your business, not only to help your own but also your business. All right. That’s it for this episode, guys. See you next time.
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