Ep 32 Transcript: Navigating the Chaos of Creative Overload

This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors in spelling or inaccuracies in the spoken words.

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. And today we're diving into a challenge that many entrepreneurs face. And that's how to manage that flood of brilliant ideas that are constantly popping into your head while also trying to stay focused on the things that really matter in your business. I remember when I first started my journey, I had so many ideas that it could often feel

paralyzing because you just didn't know which one should I be pursuing first. So if you are an entrepreneur and especially if you are a passion driven entrepreneur, it's likely that this is sounding a little bit familiar. And of course, add to that the number of times that someone says to you, you know what you should do. I remember, especially when I was starting my business, but I got to tell you, I've been an entrepreneur since 2008 and

I still hear it all the time. You know what you should do? That unsolicited advice from someone who's got this brilliant idea that's going to make a massive change in your business. And don't get me wrong, sometimes these are great ideas, but again, it just adds to the sheer volume of ideas that you already have. And then this was also, back in 2008, this was before the age of webinars and free on demand.

videos that are claiming to give me the answers to my problems without too much work or effort. And of course, we all want that quick fix. The get rich quick sort of marketing is certainly not something new, but with the age of social media and the internet the way that it is, the access to these types of trainings and promises has never been more abundant.

You know, and sometimes you'll watch those webinars, you'll watch those videos, you'll sign up for that free PDF and you'll get some really great ideas. So I'm not saying there isn't value to those, of course, but the challenge comes back to what do you do with all of those ideas? So today we're going to tackle, you know, how to tame them into something that makes sense, that takes out that that overwhelm and helps to give us the clarity that we need on the best next steps to take in our business. So we'll also cover.

what to do when those new ideas strike so that you're not so overwhelmed by them, how to sort them through, how to review them, and how to evaluate the opportunities so that you can prioritize them effectively. So how do we do this? Well, we need to start by crafting a super clear and compelling picture of what we want our business to become in the future, both in the short term as well as the long term.

And it's so easy to get caught up in the ride of entrepreneurship that we don't necessarily pay attention to where we're actually headed. We're just kind of going with the flow one day at a time. But when we do this, every thought or idea seems like it should be pursued. And there's usually a sense of urgency to it. We get this great idea. And not only do I need to follow this idea through, but I need to do it right now. And the reality is that not every idea that you have

is going to be a good one for your business's success and for your business's future. And don't get me wrong, I have absolutely been guilty of getting caught up in the excitement of things and running full steam ahead without fully putting the thought into what it is that I'm doing. However, I have created systems over the years that help to really tame these ideas so that I can ensure that when I am pursuing an idea, it really is the best one for my business.

I've spoken previously about the value of having a strong vision for your business. And that's exactly what I'm getting at here. And I know it doesn't sound like a super sexy topic. And I know that when you decided to launch your business, you didn't exactly think, I can't wait to put pen to paper and start detailing my vision. But here's the problem. When you're holding onto these ideas in your head, they're just that, they're ideas. They're not fully formed. They're not tangible.

You don't know how you're going to do it, whether or not it makes sense to do it and what it's going to cost you. And so I've got a bit of a background in mathematics and analytics. So I'll admit, I get a little extra giddy when it comes to mapping things out and crafting that plan. I actually do very much enjoy that planning process. I am a planner. There are other versions of me that exists in the world, of course, but not everyone gets nearly as excited about planning.

But I will say even as a planner, I get these ideas in my head that I just want to run full steam ahead with. The excitement of these new ideas can be so intoxicating. It consumes you. It consumes your thoughts. It consumes your tasks, your day to day. But this excitement, it also creates a very strong urge to act quickly. Again, we kind of get that urgency to it.

This rush of excitement is what's clouding your judgment in that moment. And so you don't necessarily want to slow down to properly evaluate these ideas. You want to strike while the iron's hot. And you're just eager to get started with something that in your head looks super fun, super fulfilling, and hopefully it's profitable. But here's the problem. Jumping in without taking the time to evaluate an idea

can lead to missed details and huge potential pitfalls. know, failing to assess, you how does that idea align with my vision, with my values, with my current goals? That's going to divert my focus from what truly matters in my business at that time. And that's going to actually help me to achieve the goals. Not to mention that when you run with an idea without fully thinking it through, you're going to...

misallocate your time, your energy, and even financial resources potentially. And so this can lead to wasted effort on projects that don't yield the expected returns, both emotionally and financially. And so every moment that is spent chasing a new idea is a moment that's taken away from the existing projects, the existing tasks that have more promise to them, that need your attention.

So consider what opportunities you might miss out on by not dedicating your resources to your highest priority tasks. So the other big problem, of course, with pursuing too many ideas at once is that it's going to lead to burnout and it's gonna leave you feeling exhausted and unproductive. You're going to feel like you haven't actually accomplished anything because you've got these half-finished ideas that didn't fully come through, that didn't fully...

get fulfilled and that initial thrill can then turn into a pretty heavy burden, especially if that project doesn't pan out as you had envisioned. So in my experience, while it can be so tempting to dive headfirst into the next big idea, taking a moment to reflect can help you to lead to much much, better outcomes. So how do we combat all of this? Well, to start,

We need to get really, really clear on what it is that we're building, really clear on who we are and super clear on what we want people to think of when they think of our company. What is the brand? What are our values? What's the culture? What's the image that we are portraying? And that should be authentic, of course, to who we are both personally and as a business. So I want you to start with, I call it a brain dump. So just take.

every one of those ideas that's in your head and I want you to write it down. Everything you want to do either in the immediate future, know, something that you're thinking, I'd love to do this in the next few months, in the next year, and even those sort of big high in the sky ideas where you're like, someday I'd love to do these things. So this could be perhaps a new service or product you want to introduce or some other opportunities. So for example, maybe you want to land your own TV show.

Or maybe you want to have your kids take over your business, or perhaps you just want to increase the philanthropy and give back to your community in a meaningful way. So whatever is on the bucket list for your company, I want you to write it down and think in terms of outcomes. What are you looking to achieve? Do you want to introduce a new product or service? you want to gain a brick and mortar place for your business that

Perhaps you're working out of your home right now. Do you want or need to invest in some new equipment? Are you looking to expand your team? It doesn't matter yet whether or not you know how to do any of the things that are on your list as well. So you might be thinking about introducing a new product or service that might require getting some additional training. So it's OK if you don't know how to do something now, but if you can identify, if you know when you're writing down that idea that it requires training,

You might want to add to that list that you want to get trained in whatever way is necessary for that. But at this stage, I don't want you to stress too much about the detail of these ideas. I just want you to get them down on the page. So the next thing you're going to do is you're going to take these ideas, you're going to group them together based on which ones you want to tackle first, second, and third. I suggest only breaking these into three distinct phases of your vision.

Don't worry about the timelines just yet. Just start kind of breaking them out. You're going to notice that some items are going to naturally organize themselves. So for example, you might have some items where, well, this isn't possible until these other three things are done. So those three things might be in first phase. And that other thing that's going to be blocked by those items and their achievement is going to be in the second or the third phase. So you're going to have some ideas that you need to build upon in order to achieve another idea.

So you'll want to ensure that they are in whatever that sequential order looks like in terms of breaking it into the phases. And then do your best as well to organize these based on true urgency, as well as the impact and feasibility of them. So you might want to take some low hanging fruit in that first phase of these are things that I can accomplish fairly easily and they're great stepping stones to something that might be in a higher phase. So once you've got these ideas all organized, and I should also clarify here,

You know, this is not intended to be a sit down for an hour and figure all this stuff out. This is a sit down for a few minutes, write down as many ideas as you can, whether it's pen to paper or in a digital file, whatever, but write them all down and then take a break and then come back to it. Ideally, you work on this over about a week or so because you'll be amazed at how many additional ideas will pop up throughout the week as you work on different things, as you allow your mind to rest a little bit. So give yourself that time for the brain dump.

And then the same thing when you're organizing it into the three phases, you might want to spend a little bit of time moving them around. You might have a few items where you're a little unsure, put those off to the side temporarily, and then come back to it. Again, take at least a few different sittings rearranging this into the three phases. So then once you feel like you've got it pretty well figured out, I want you to then take a closer look and do a final audit of it. Do you see any items that

perhaps should be moved. So perhaps there are some items that you can now see should be grouped together that you hadn't grouped together previously, or perhaps you feel like one of your phases is a little heavier than others contains too many items that is not focused enough and frankly not achievable enough. And to be perfectly honest, this is likely going to be your phase one because again, we're excited. All these ideas sound fantastic and we want to get them all done first.

The other thing you'll notice as you go through this exercise is there might be a couple of items that are on that list that, you when you're looking at it as a complete picture, these items maybe don't align. Maybe they were an idea that someone else gave you or that just popped into your head one day, but the more you think about it, the more that you're looking at this paper and you're seeing all your ideas sort of flushed out there, you're looking at it and thinking these other couple of ideas, they don't really align with where I'm taking this. They're a little bit too far off the track. So you can either eliminate them

altogether, or you can create a list that's sort of this maybe someday would be kind of a good idea kind of list. And we're going to get back to that list in a moment as well. So keep that list handy. So we want to ensure that we're being realistic about these three phases and really setting ourselves up for success as much as possible. So take some time, shift those items around as needed. Again, remove some if you feel that they just don't necessarily

fit in with the overall vision. You don't have to eliminate them completely, but you might want to remove them from these three phases. And again, you're not going to worry about getting things perfect, but the goal is in this exercise to get everything out of your head and into one place. And we're to be revisiting this again very shortly. So the next thing I want you to do is review your list and outline the things that you would need in place, your systems, your time, your resources.

and what tasks you would need to do to get yourself there. Then you can ask yourself what a milestone would look like to be able to trigger like, yep, I've accomplished something. I have completed this part of the phase. Or perhaps if it's a really big thing, you might want to have a couple of milestones along the way. This is the start of making your goals.

Essentially what I would like for you to do for every one of these is create your SMART goals, which means that it's specific, measurable, actionable, and or achievable for the A, relevant and time-bound. But for right now, I just want you to just put a little bit of thought into, I have the system's time and resources for these items? And if not, what is that going to look like in order for me to be able to accomplish these so that I can identify what the milestones are? That is the key to this exercise is I want you to identify

How do we know that I have achieved what I want to achieve here? You're going to want to complete everything in that first priority or phase before moving to the next phase and ensure that you're not skipping the stepping stones that you need along the way. So we do want to make sure that we have a bit of a guardrail and parameter set up that helps us to know, yes, you've completed these three phases. So now I want you to take another look at things.

and you're going to add a timeline to each of these phases. Now that you have a bit of an idea as to the amount of time that's involved in the resources that are required for each of these items and you've got your milestones sort of set out, I want you to add a timeline. And the total timeline combined for all three phases, ideally I don't want you looking more than three years into the future. And the reason for this is that especially in entrepreneurship, a lot of things can change in three years. I know we often talk about what's your five-year plan, what's your 10-year plan.

Those are great to have, but what I'm talking about here is we're looking to get that concrete vision, that guiding path that helps you to know what it is that you're, this is, you when we get these opportunities that come up, we want to be able to properly evaluate them. And that's why we need what this guiding path looks like. So while you're adding these timelines to the three phases, so the first phase could be maybe three months, maybe it's six months, maybe it's a full year. The second phase could maybe be, you know, a year or 18 months.

but that final phase should be no more than three years out to accomplish things. And so as you're going through this, you might identify a few more items that are perhaps still a good idea, but they fall into the, you know, someday in the distant future, this might be something I want to pursue. So in that case, again, we're not going to remove them completely, but I want you to move them to this other list you've created for the someday. I call it my someday list. Anything that's going to take more than three years gets moved onto the someday list.

And the idea is, course, you're going to be revisiting this vision on a consistent basis to see what you are checking off of that vision list in each of those phases. And as you move to the second phase, you're going to want to go through this exercise again to see what else might be landing at the end of three years. So that's when you're to go back to that someday list and see if some of those items can potentially be moved onto the list, or you might decide to eliminate them altogether at that point. So now that you've got all of this outlined,

You can start putting tasks onto your daily and weekly list that help you to move closer to these goals. And now that we've got all of that sorted out, we're in such a better position now to manage all the shiny new ideas that pop into our head. It doesn't mean the ideas stop coming, but you've got a better focus now and a better way to evaluate them once those ideas come in. So what do do when you get that great

great new idea. So perhaps you're driving one day or you're speaking with a colleague and you were struck by this amazing idea. And so instead of diving in immediately, you're going to pause for a moment and you're going to say, I'm going to set aside some time to consider the implications of this new idea so that we can ask ourselves some critical questions like does this align with my long-term goals? What resources will I need and what are the potential risks? Where does this

fit into my overall vision? And does it make sense to pursue now versus down the road? Well, that excitement, that enthusiasm that you have when you get that new idea is super important. You also need to ensure that you're finding that balance between excitement and careful evaluation. That's what you need for sustainable growth. It's pretty crucial to that sustainable growth part of it without the stress, without the overwhelm. So I want you to consider implementing a system

where you can capture those ideas, but you're also going to be setting parameters for evaluating their viability before you take any action on them. It's so natural to get excited when a new idea pops into your head, but pursuing every idea immediately can lead to that overwhelm and burnout and can derail other items that you have on your task list that should take higher priority that are going to move the needle in your business now.

So instead of acting on that new idea, I want you to write it down either in a dedicated notebook or perhaps a digital document that you keep or record yourself a voice memo. Whatever you choose to capture these ideas, I want you to ensure that it is something that you will have access to when an idea strikes. So I know some people that they don't leave home without their notebook. They've got that trusty notebook no matter where they are. Great. If you've got a notebook that's going to sit on your desk, but you tend to get your ideas when you're out on your walks,

be a challenge for you to navigate. So you might consider a digital document instead, one that you can access on your phone. This is where, of course, the voice memos often come in handy, but I'll admit I'm not great with the voice memos to myself because I tend to make these voice memos and then I forget to go back and listen to them and document them anywhere. So I do prefer having it in some sort of digital document. For me, it's in my clickup, but wherever makes the most sense for you.

So this way, we're going to capture those ideas. They're not lost, but whatever it is that you're working on at that time, you're not distracted from either. So sometimes these ideas might come to you while you're in the thick of working on another project for your business. And it's easy to get sidetracked and shift your focus away. But instead of doing that, you're just going to capture the idea. And then what I want you to do is schedule some time, either weekly or monthly, to review these ideas.

This will allow you to evaluate them with a clear mind and you can review them against your vision. You're not gonna lose any of the momentum on the existing projects that you were working on when this idea popped into your head, but you're still given it the time that it deserves. And admittedly, when you come back to it, sometimes the excitement is just as heavy as it was the first time that idea landed in your head. And other times you're gonna look at it and say, you know, maybe that's not as great of an idea as I initially.

thought that it was, okay? So let's talk about what this framework for evaluating these ideas is going to look like, whether you're doing it monthly or weekly, certainly not daily, you could do it quarterly as well. Depending on how often you're getting these ideas, how many ideas there are and how much urgency you think there is to them, that will help you to kind of dictate how frequently you want to do this review. So when you've got these opportunities and you're evaluating them, I want you to ask yourself, does it align with my vision?

Do I have the resources to pursue it? And what is the opportunity cost of pursuing this? Every new opportunity that comes into your head, that comes into your business, comes with a cost of some sort in terms of both time and resources. Those resources can be staff, could be equipment, it could be money, combination of all of the above. So make sure.

whatever you're saying yes to is worth the trade-off of what you will be losing or investing in order to pursue it. So by saying yes to this, what might you be saying no to? So as a business coach and speaker, I'm invited to speak on podcasts, live events, various webinars, and trust me when I say that I would love to say yes to all of these. I absolutely relish in the opportunity to share insights that can assist others,

on their entrepreneurial path. Why do think I started this podcast, right? But not every opportunity is a great fit for me. And so I have to evaluate what's it going to take. So sometimes it might be approached to say, I heard you speak about this topic at this other event. Would you speak on that same topic for this new audience? So that will require a small investment of time, of course, to update the speaking points, if there's a PowerPoint involved, et cetera.

in order to kind of refocus it towards that new audience. But for the most part, the content's been created. So it's not a significant investment of time or resources. I was invited to speak at a live event. This was earlier this year, I was invited to speak at a live event. This live event was on the other side of the country, technically it's in a different country, I'm towards the East Coast and this was on the West Coast.

So would take quite a bit of travel to it, no problem. And they were willing to pay for all of my travel expenses. Fantastic. So, so far so good, right? But then I found out at this live event, they wanted me to speak for two different presentations. Great, I'd love to do two different topics and get in front of some people. But the pay that they were going to offer me was only $400 per speaking engagement. So a total of $800.

that would have required, these were new speaking topics that they wanted me to speak on. So several hours to prep for it, not to mention several days that I am taking off of work, off of my business in order to travel and do this. Now, obviously the idea, the goal, the expectation is that I would have the opportunity to sell my services from the stage and perhaps sign on a new client or two. And that would help to...

make up for the fact that I was out some money for those few days. But the audience that they had in the attendance numbers that they were giving me didn't make it make sense for me. Believe me when I say I wanted to say yes, they were super eager to have me. It was a great honor to be invited and requested to speak there, but it just wasn't financially the best move for my business at that time for the amount of money that it would have.

or sorry, for the amount of time I should say that it was going to take for me to dedicate to preparing all of the details and all of the information and the PowerPoint and the speaking notes and the whole topic in addition to the time to make those travel arrangements and do the actual traveling itself. It was quite a bit. And so I had to say no, unfortunately. I did go back to them to say, of course, if you can pay my standard speaking fee.

for this, I would do a two for one. Since I'm already there, I will do the two presentations for my standard speaking fee, but they weren't able to accommodate that and I had to pass on it, unfortunately. So you get kind of the idea here of evaluating what is the time, what is the money, what is the potential return on my investment of time, money, resources. And so as you're considering these opportunities, you might want to consider creating some sort of

matrix or scoring system to evaluate them based on how do these align with my vision? What is the potential impact? So that impact is potentially a financial return. It is the opportunity to get in front of a new audience. Maybe you're not necessarily going to make any money directly off of that, but you're going to get 5,000 new subscribers for your email list and get them into a sales funnel. So that's a pretty decent impact, right? What is the feasibility of this? Do I have the resources for this?

And what do I anticipate the outcome is? If it's sort of a, well, 50-50 chance that this could be successful or a high probability where you're like, I know that this is gonna be super popular. I got like a 90 % pretty much guaranteed this is going to go really well kind of rate. So create a bit of a matrix for yourself that helps you to evaluate these ideas and give it, like I said, a scoring system or even just a checkbox system. And then you want to ensure that you are

locking out specific time on your calendar for both the current projects that you have on your to-do list as well as those future ideas. And it's gonna help you to maintain a balance. So you wanna start working towards some of those future ideas, but you've gotta make sure that they actually make it onto your calendar without compromising the things that are already on your task list. Now, if you didn't listen to the episode last week with Amber De La Garza, all about productivity,

check it out because that will help you with organizing your time and ensuring that you are working on the right tasks and the best tasks. Because the other thing is that sometimes we're busy doing all these things that we shouldn't necessarily be doing. So take a listen to that episode if you want a little bit of help for managing that time as well. And then create that monthly review process where you revisit these captured ideas or weekly review, whatever works best for you. it quarterly review as well, but I generally recommend trying to come back to these ideas at least once a month.

while they're still a little bit fresh, even if you don't decide to move any of them onto the action list at that time, it at least gets your eyes on them, gets it back into your head. You can kind of work it through in the back of your head over the next month until you do your next review. OK, so I know we covered a lot today. We talked about the power of having that super clear vision, that path, that guiding path that's going to help you to direct your business and ensure that you are

creating the tasks and the action plans that are going to lead you towards your goals. We talked about the importance of capturing rather than chasing all of the new ideas that pop into our head. Again, it's a bit of a occupational hazard, I suppose, of entrepreneurship is these constant new ideas, which is great. I'm glad that your brain's always firing up these new ideas, but we want to make sure that we are capturing them so that we can then evaluate them.

effectively at a time that doesn't take away from what we're currently doing to help us to avoid the stress and avoid the overwhelm. And remember that it's okay to have all these ideas, but I want you to be intentional about which ones you're going to pursue. So focus on what truly matters to your business. I'd love to hear about how you manage your ideas. Feel free to share your thoughts with me on social media or reach out to me. You can certainly contact us, go to our website, shaunalynncoaching.com

would love to hear from you. Perhaps you can set up a call there as well. So if you want to, if you've got some ideas, you know, I've spoken about a common challenge here and one that I've worked through with many clients. So if you find yourself struggling to figure out what the next best steps for you and your business are, I'd love to chat. We'll review your biggest challenges and I'll share some ideas that have worked for myself, that have worked for my clients and get you moving in the right direction pretty quickly. So simply go to Aboutshaunalynn.com/plan

And so listen, as always, if what I'm saying here today resonates with you, do me a favor and please share this episode with someone else that you know can benefit from it, a fellow entrepreneur, fellow colleague, who you feel just really needs this message today. And I hope that you will continue to tune in next week as well. And let me to continue to be a part of your journey. Be sure to leave us a review or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. And until next time, everyone keep thriving.