Building in regular pause points is invaluable in supporting focus, action and reflection. Kolb’s cycle of learning is commonly referred to as a four-step process known as ERGA – Experience, Reflection, Generalization and Application.
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Key to learning, according to this model, is that we take a “pause” to build in reflection after having an experience. It is this pause that allows us to cull learning and insights which we can then apply to other areas of our life and work.
There are many different ways to reflect including:

• Retreat programs
• Short writing activities – 2-5 minutes where people MindMap or note their learning
• Mid-point evaluations with clients
• Quarterly Reviews (see the article below)

 
Last month at the Learning Lab and Design Studio I was reminded of a great book called the Women’s Retreat Book by Jennifer Louden which is chock-full of great resources for creating and leading your own retreats. You’ll want to check it out.

Other resources you might want to explore:
Create a Pause Via Quarterly Retreats Using these questions (Coaching Tools Company Article)

Undertake a quarterly review process with me (30 minutes - VIDEO). Be sure to grab your pen and journal for this one!

Wishing you all the best,
​Jennifer

PS - For those of you who want to bring some of this into your work, consider joining me on July 9th for the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack Facilitator Training. I'll be leading a group of professionals through 6 x 3 hour facilitator virtual training sessions in July so you can lead this work with your own clients. More here.

​Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC
Author multiple books including the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner (2018), Effective Group Coaching (2010)
Potentials Realized
Phone: 416-996-8326
Check out the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series of daily prompts for your work and business over on  Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder.

The tagline at the PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder is that Consistent Action + Daily Steps = Momentum. In other words, action creates action. This is key for business success today. What does momentum mean in your business? Like the metaphor of a rolling stone, more energy is required to get the stone rolling, and then it takes a life of its own.

Practically:
Make a list. Do things consistently. Figure out what the best rhythm for the project or task is going to be.

In many creative projects it is easy to think that we don’t know where to go, when often it is more important to just get started and see where the creative process ensues.

While starting new tasks may take a lot of effort, over time these actions become habits and “how we do things”.

Resources:
Momentum: How to Build It, Keep It or Get it Back – Michael McQueen

Best,
Jennifer

In today’s VUCA world, disruption is more the norm that the exception.  This often means that what worked last time, will not work this time. Experimentation can therefore become a useful philosophy and habit. With the rapid pace of change, new industries, new jobs and new approaches are springing up on a regular basis. What have you tried lately? Are all your old approaches working as they used to?

How to practice it:
On a regular basis (i.e. each quarter), consider what would be useful to learn and/or experiment with (tools, processes, practices, skills etc).

An experiment could involve trying something new out, tweaking an approach you have been using for a while (i.e. instead of doing a Facebook Live in the morning, what about trying it in the evening?).

Why it can be valuable:
There are many applications for experimentation in business. It can help us get into a pattern of trial and error, helping with diversification. Given that things are changing so quickly it may mean that we are better positioned for new, and unseen, options.
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A and B testing, where you pilot two approaches at once, has become a popular approach for many marketing initiatives, to see which one gets more engagement and traction.

Questions to consider:

• What do you want to experiment with?
• What is needed?
• Where could experimentation benefit your work?

Resources:
Carol Dweck: Growth Mindset (check out her concept of Not Yet)

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

In both the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack, I include four business philosophies which are critical to all types of virtual and remote professionals, and business owners today – Focus, Experimentation, Momentum and Reflective Pause.

In my work with teams, and individuals, over the last fifteen years in my business I’ve seen that these make the difference between good and exceptional.

With this in mind, over the next few weeks I’ll be taking a deeper dive into the realm of these four areas looking at:

• What it means in today’s business context
• Why it’s important
• Ideas for putting it into practice
• And resources you may want to follow up around

​A reminder that if you like these topics you may want to check out my weekly Facebook Live, where I put into voice quick planning ideas and activities. You will find it over at the PlanDoTrack Facebook page.

Let’s turn our attention to the first topic of FOCUS.

We live and operate today in what is often considered an era of distraction. Our ability to focus and keep our eye on what is important to us, and to our work, is key.
Did you know that:

• The average worker receives 90 emails in the span of a day?
• It takes 22 minutes to get back on track after an interruption?

It’s not uncommon for workers (not just managers) to be spending 5-10 hours a week in meetings? I’ve met managers who wear the badge of
Focused work and attention are critical, and essential in order to create foundations, and grow a business.

How To- Creating Focus:

• Consider building in focused blocks of work – turn off email, move into a conference room, or take your work mobile. What will give you the space and time to do the focused work you need in your job/business?
• Leverage the circadian rhythm. Science continues to show that we have different times of day when we are at our best. What are those times for you? What can you do to ensure you have focused work times within those blocks.
• Create your to-do list of Top 5. With change being the norm for many workplaces, having a top five list each day is important. It’s interesting as the writing of James Clear has pointed to the early 1900s productivity hack from Ivy who asserted that a focus on a top 6 list every day would lead to productivity advances. Whether it’s five or six, being able to check core items off the list can help with efficiency and also motivation.
• Know your priorities – and your teams. Priorities also keep us grounded. They will help us shape our top five as well as discern where our time needs to go. What are your priorities for the week? The month? The quarter?

 
Refer To - Focus
When: The Science of Perfect Timing – Daniel Pink
Atomic Habits – James Clear
Outer Order and Inner Calm – Gretchen Rubin
Deep Work and Digital Minimalism – Cal Newport

Check out my April 3, 2019 Facebook Live 

Wishing you all the best,
Jennifer

This week it’s launch time! You’ve done it!

Over the last four weeks (or more) you have been working on your free offer or giveaway. This is key in terms of letting others know what you do and offering them something of value.
​
Doing this regularly can help further develop your reputation and let people know what you have to offer.

This week as you go to launch, consider the varying ways you are going to continually let people know about this offering. Some possible ways might include:

• In your signature line
• On your blog
• In your newsletter
• Via your network
• Instagram post
• LinkedIn Status update

What are the ways you are going to let everyone know about this?

Have a great day!
​Jennifer

Over the last few weeks you have been busy working on your free giveaway. It’s now been drafted, and you have figured out where it’s going to go. It’s not quite ready yet!

Take some time this week to-do a last review and perhaps get some feedback. Maybe you have a routine of passing materials off to your loved ones for a quick second set of eyes. Maybe you have a community that supports you on this. Who can give the project a review?
​
This week you will also want to focus in on how and where you are going to promote this. Don’t forget the 7 to 11 times rule. The landscape of free offerings is super-saturated at times.  You will want to make sure you are regularly talking about this and letting people know that it exists. If you haven’t done so, make a list of WHERE, WHEN and HOW you are going to let people know about it (Here’s a challenge - make sure you have at least 11 different touchpoints!).

Share with us what you have been working on – you can share it here in the comments, or over on the Effective Group Coaching Facebook page.

Best,
​Jennifer

​For the last few weeks we have been working on your giveaway or “free item”. In a coaching business these might include an audio or video, a checklist, an article or podcast. The item is designed to provide you with an opportunity to get the word out about what you have to offer as well as build relationships with prospective clients.

During week 1 of this series you were encouraged to consider what it was that you wanted to offer. You did some research and looked around.

Last week you drafted things out a bit more.

This week, take a look at what you have created and:

• Polish it – edit the document.
• Consider what graphics or resources would support this project.
• Draft a sales copy – what are the ways you are going to let others know about what you have to offer?

Consider things like:

• The brand – what elements do you want to incorporate.
• Consider where and when you are going to let people know about it’s availability.
• How, and when, it will need to be updated. (Ideally it will be an evergreen item that will stand the test of time.)

What else is going to move this project forward?

Best,
Jennifer

Welcome back. Last week you did some research around what possible giveaways you could offer to your clients. It might be a video, podcast series, mini – e course, article, or even a checklist.

What are those things you wish you had?

This week, in part 2 of the series, you are invited to map out your giveaway, and start drafting it. What are the major elements of this project?

Consider these questions –

• What is the purpose of this item?
• What are the 3 main points?
• What question does it answer or solution does it offer for the client?
• What are the elements of the item?
• What other resources can the product direct the client to?
• What is your call to action?
• What are the discrete steps you need to complete in order to complete this project?

Once you have a good idea of what it can look like, spend some time drafting it out.

Be ready for a next step next week!

Best,
​Jennifer

As a coaching business we let people know about our work in many different ways. From speaking engagements to free checklists, to webinars and whitepapers.

What are the free items you have created to provide for people who are interested in learning more about what you do? Is it a checklist? A downloadable FAQ? A short e-course?

Over the next month I’m going to be doing a series of blog posts geared to get you into action of creating a free item or “free giveaway”. It could any of the range of items I just mentioned or something else.

Each week I’ll be offering prompts here on Mondays to support you in taking weekly action around your giveaway item.

First consider:
What’s the one thing you wish you could offer up to your clients?
Maybe it is something they have been asking for, for a while – a checklist, reading list, work sheet
OR maybe it’s a webinar that you can send out covering a key topic you coach around, or welcoming members to your site.

What’s the giveaway you wish you had available?

As I explain in the Coaching Business Builder, I’ve had an intentional goal to offer a different giveaway and paid offering each year of my business. These provide tremendous value in both the short term, especially in giving people an opportunity to learn more about you, what you have to offer, and how what you provide is different from other offerings.

Activity:
This week, my invite is for you to spend 15 minutes mindmapping all your ideas of what you could offer.
Consider these questions:

• What’s the one thing you always wanted to be able to offer to your clients, but haven’t made the time to create it?
• What do your clients want?
• What are the key issues they want more resourcing around?

This week capture ALL your ideas on paper. Don’t self-censure.  Do some research around what’s out there already. Notice what you like, and what you would change with these resources.

Best,
​Jennifer

I’ve been a long-term blogger and writer for almost 15 years now. As someone who is always creating content, it’s interesting to go back and review some of the past posts I’ve shared. Here is one that I think many of you as business owners will find useful. I wrote it back in 2010, and it’s still relevant today:
Six Tips for New Small Business owners – Originally published at the Biztoolkit blog in April 2010

This April marked my 6th year of business. I continue to be reminded of the excitement and emotions of new business owners through regular discussions with participants of the 90 Day BizSuccess program - some of whom are new business owners, as well as seasoned small business people.

In running the program I often get asked, what are some tips for new business owners. Here are 6 tips which have kept business exciting, and successful for me, over the years.

1. Track it! Take notice of the impact of the activities you are undertaking, over both the short term as well as the medium term. What are you noticing about the money you have invested into different marketing activities? Notice what's giving you impact in terms of your activities, networking and relationships.

2. Create Systems so that you don't have to recreate things over, and over again. It's not surprising that even experienced business owners still " have not had time" to create simple processes for their businesses such as invoices, proposal formats etc.

Ask yourself:

• What activities might you need to repeat time and time again (consider finance, people, marketing etc)?
• What systems would benefit your business?
• When will you spend time creating these?

3. Build on What You Already Have, Have Done or Do: Many times small business owners fail to capitalize on what they have already created, designed or know. What can you build upon in your business? Do you really need to start off at 0?

4. Plan it! Time Management and Planning can be a major challenge for business owners. When was the last time you sat down to plan and strategize about your goals for the quarter or even the month? As we know from time management 10 minutes of planning can save an hour of unfocused effort.

When will you spend time creating your plan for the next month?

5. Schedule It! What doesn't get scheduled, doesn't get done. What are your main business priorities right now? Have you scheduled them into your calendar? If it's not written down or blocked off chances are it may get lost.

Activity:
Take 15 minutes this week to identify one or two main priorities for your business and schedule in time in your calendar to get these things done.

6. Be strategic - We can't be all things to all people? Consider the Pareto Principle, or 80/20 rule, which states that we get 80% of our impact from 20% of our efforts. What activities are going to give you the most impact this month?

Best wishes,
​Jennifer