How Long Your Marketing Takes

Summary

Grow Your Local Business: Episode Summary

Episode Title: How Long Your Marketing Takes
Host: Leslie Presnall
Release Date: October 29, 2024

---

Introduction to Marketing Mastery Levels

In episode 97 of the Grow Your Local Business podcast, host Leslie Presnall delves into the intricate relationship between marketing mastery and time management. Leslie introduces the concept of three levels of marketing mastery—Beginner, Proficient, and Expert—and explores how each stage uniquely impacts the time required to execute marketing tasks. Understanding your current level is emphasized as a pivotal step in enhancing productivity and gaining control over your business operations.

1. The Three Levels of Marketing Mastery

A. Beginner Level

At the onset of your marketing journey, you inhabit the Beginner Level. This phase is characterized by a steep learning curve where tasks take significantly longer than anticipated. Leslie shares personal anecdotes to illustrate this stage:

“When I first started sending emails, I used to give myself an entire day on Fridays to put together an email newsletter [...] it just wasn’t going to happen in 30 minutes.”
— Leslie Presnall [12:34]

During the Beginner Level, business owners grapple with new skill sets, such as mastering Canva for graphic design or learning the nuances of email marketing. Emotional factors like perfectionism and self-doubt often hinder progress, leading to extended time allocations for tasks that may later become more streamlined.

B. Proficient Level

Transitioning into the Proficient Level, marketers begin to gain confidence and efficiency. Tasks that once consumed an entire day now require only a fraction of the time. Leslie explains:

“The task that used to take you all day will now take you half the day.”
— Leslie Presnall [25:10]

In this phase, individuals establish a rhythm, allowing for more accurate time blocking and reduced procrastination. Although there is still room for improvement, the Proficient Level marks a significant stride towards consistent and manageable marketing practices.

C. Expert Level

Reaching the Expert Level signifies a transformation where marketing tasks become second nature. Leslie describes this pinnacle of mastery as:

“At this level, 97 podcast episodes in maybe takes me an hour or so.”
— Leslie Presnall [38:45]

Here, marketers operate with ease and minimal cognitive load, seamlessly integrating marketing activities into their daily routines. The Expert Level is not just about speed but also about a profound self-concept shift, where confidence and expertise eliminate previous barriers such as self-doubt and procrastination.

2. Time Management and Time Blocking

A critical theme of the episode is time management through time blocking. Leslie advocates for scheduling specific blocks of time on your calendar dedicated to particular tasks, ensuring that each activity has a designated slot. This method contrasts with traditional to-do lists, which often lead to prioritizing easier tasks over high-impact ones.

“Time blocking is when you create blocks of time on your calendar for how long something is going to take you.”
— Leslie Presnall [15:20]

Leslie emphasizes that time blocking fosters accountability and organization, allowing business owners to approach their schedules with the seriousness of an appointment. However, she acknowledges common pitfalls—such as underestimating task durations—that can disrupt well-planned schedules.

3. Overcoming Common Challenges

Leslie addresses several challenges that business owners face when implementing time blocking:

• Underestimation of Task Duration: Beginners often misjudge how long tasks will take, leading to overruns that disrupt the entire schedule.

  “You just way underestimate how long something is going to take so you don't plan accordingly.”
  — Leslie Presnall [22:10]

• Emotional Obstacles: Feelings of overwhelm, perfectionism, and imposter syndrome can cause procrastination and inefficiency.

  “[...] you want to plan to have this human experience as you do something new.”
  — Leslie Presnall [28:50]

• Perfectionism: Striving for an ideal or perfect week can lead to frustration and abandonment of time management strategies when unexpected events occur.

  “When we try to have this ideal or perfect week, it sets a harder standard for ourselves.”
  — Leslie Presnall [30:25]

4. Strategies for Effective Time Blocking

To mitigate these challenges, Leslie offers actionable strategies:

• Overestimate Time Allocations: Especially in the Beginner Level, allocate more time than initially estimated to accommodate the learning curve and emotional fluctuations.

  “If you are on level one with your marketing, ... allow yourself more time on your schedule.”
  — Leslie Presnall [35:00]

• Embrace Flexibility: View your calendar as an evolving tool that adjusts to your current needs and experiences. This mindset shift encourages continuous improvement rather than rigid adherence to predetermined schedules.

  “I like to think of my calendar as an ever-evolving thing.”
  — Leslie Presnall [32:15]

• Reflect and Adapt: Regularly assess where you went off track and adjust your planning accordingly. This iterative process helps refine time estimates and increases overall efficiency.

  “Let’s get a little bit better at figuring it out. Where did I go wrong last week?”
  — Leslie Presnall [33:50]

5. Encouragement and Mindset Shifts

Leslie underscores the importance of patience and self-compassion throughout the marketing mastery journey. She reassures listeners that struggling with time management and marketing tasks is a natural part of entrepreneurial growth.

“Nothing has gone wrong and you were likely right on track [...] it's going to get better, you're going to get faster.”
— Leslie Presnall [06:45]

By normalizing the challenges faced during the Beginner and Proficient Levels, Leslie empowers business owners to persevere, assuring them that improvement is inevitable with time and practice.

6. Conclusion and Recap

In closing, Leslie recaps the three levels of marketing mastery:

1. Beginner: Tasks take longer due to learning curves and emotional barriers.
2. Proficient: Increased efficiency and confidence lead to better time management.
3. Expert: Marketing tasks become effortless, allowing for seamless integration into daily routines.

She encourages listeners to identify their current level, adjust their scheduling practices accordingly, and remain patient as they progress towards mastery.

“These phases are all part of the entrepreneur journey, so give yourself time and space to move through them and let your calendar evolve as you go.”
— Leslie Presnall [59:30]

Leslie concludes with an invitation to join her LocalPreneur Academy, providing further resources for small business owners aiming to enhance their local marketing strategies.

---

Key Takeaways

• Identify Your Level: Understanding whether you're a Beginner, Proficient, or Expert in marketing helps tailor your time management strategies effectively.

• Time Blocking is Crucial: Scheduling specific time slots for marketing tasks ensures accountability and efficiency, especially when accurately estimating task durations.

• Embrace the Learning Curve: Allow extra time for new tasks and be patient with your progress to avoid frustration and burnout.

• Flexibility and Adaptation: Treat your calendar as a dynamic tool, ready to evolve with your growing expertise and changing business needs.

• Mindset Matters: Maintaining a positive and patient mindset fosters resilience and continual improvement in your marketing efforts.

By following Leslie Presnall's structured approach to marketing mastery and time management, local business owners can navigate the complexities of marketing with greater confidence and effectiveness.

Transcript

[A]

You are listening to the Grow youw Local Business podcast where local marketing expert and life coach Leslie Presnol shares the strategies and the mindset to help you reach more people in your city and bring in a steady stream of clients. All right, let's dive in. Hey, welcome to episode 97. Today I wanted to break down the three levels of marketing mastery, from the beginner level to the proficient level and then to the expert level. And really dive into your time management and your expectations. While you're in each of these levels, each phase really impacts how long it takes you to complete your marketing task and activities each week or each month or each day. And I think understanding where you currently are, like which level you're in, can really help you plan better and feel like you just have more control over your calendar and just the day to day operations in your business. So I know some of you listening may just be starting out in your business and getting in on social media for the very first time, or maybe some of you have plans in the new year to add new marketing platforms and tactics into your business. And all of this comes with a learning curve which takes time. And as business owners, and from coaching my clients, I know it's the time piece to do your marketing, like to create the posts and to send the emails, like to execute your marketing. That is typically what causes my clients or a lot of their drama because they're working with their clients, you know, they're busy with their clients and a lot of them may even have full time jobs and there's a very high chance that they're not coming from a marketing or business background. Like, you know, we're not social media pros or email marketing pros when we start our local businesses. So it's this skill set that you have to learn and really figure out what works and what doesn't, which takes time. So I, I just wanted to normalize that for you today and to let you know that nothing has gone wrong and you were likely right on track, right where you're supposed to be and it's probably taking you the right amount of time today. So I just wanted to walk you through these three phases that I see my clients go through with their marketing and talk about how long it takes them in reality, like to get things done in each of these three phases and share my own experience just to give you some perspective and then you can kind of gauge where you are now. Sometimes just getting perspective and knowing where you are in your journey can be so helpful. And having someone say like, yep, nothing has gone wrong. This is, it's exactly where you're supposed to be and it's going to get better, you're going to get faster. Can just be so helpful and so assuring. And that's really what I wanted this episode to be today. And I also wanted to record this and bring this up because we talk a lot about time management and time blocking and organizing our calendars inside the LocalPreneur Academy. So obviously theorizing how long tasks will take and how long our marketing and social media post creation or scheduling is going to take is a big part of that. And I see so many people get really frustrated with trying to figure out all of that, like how long things are going to take. Like, have you ever planned to knock out a few marketing things like maybe write a social media post or two or design a graphic in Canva or send an email and you thought it would take you 30 minutes and then it ends up taking you all afternoon. This is because a lot of times, especially starting out or when we add something new into our marketing, you end up guessing wrong at how long something will actually take. You. Like you just way underestimate how long something will take so you don't plan accordingly. And then you don't plan to have human emotions come up like perfectionism and overwhelm confusion Imposter syndrome. You didn't anticipate that you may want to go procrastinate and want to go scroll social media. Instead you thought you could get the social media post or email done in 30 minutes and then it took way longer than you thought and then it's like your entire perfectly time blocked calendar is now ruined. And so a lot of times this is when people say that time blocking doesn't work for them, when really it's just that you're going through one of these marketing levels and really just need to better judge like how long something will take, which is totally doable and fixable. And that's what I'm going to help you with right now. So if you've never really heard about time blocking or done much of time blocking with your calendar, time blocking is when you create blocks of time on your calendar for how long something is going to take you. And it's really so you know what time you're going to be doing a certain task in your workday. I could do a whole episode on this. But I actually prefer time blocking versus just working off a to do list. Because if we have a to do list, what I have found from Myself and just from my clients is we tend to pick and choose what feels the easiest in the moment. And we just do that versus what might really be super high priority or our biggest money making activities, or we pick things that we feel like we have enough time to do right then. And what happens is usually we end the day with still a lot of things left on our to do list and we've probably just continued to add to it throughout the day. And the difference with time blocking is you would just take the items on your to do list and actually schedule them on your calendar for the day or for the week. So everything on your to do list now has a specific time on your calendar and you know when it's going to get done. And then as the business owner, you just show up to your calendar as if it's an appointment that you have with someone else. Like you take it that seriously. And it's a great feeling knowing that all these things that you want to get done have time and space on your calendar. It's a great feeling knowing that things will get done and that you have the time to get them done. So what I do typically find though is when people first start this process is they will put in their task, so say their social media or marketing task, they'll put these on their calendar. And then they usually tell me that their time blocks get thrown off because the action took them longer than they thought. And so then it derails their whole day or their whole week. And they tell themselves that time blocking doesn't work for them. And they tell themselves they're just bad at time management, they're bad at being consistent, all the things and when really what happens, like I mentioned, is they just underestimated how long that certain task, whatever it was, they underestimated how long it was going to take them. And I always tell people who are deciding to time block for the first time or who are trying to just get better at managing their time that it's not about being perfect. It's about figuring out where you got off track, where you underestimated things just so you can be better next week, so you can plan a little bit better next week. I love the idea of an ideal week or a perfect week. You may have heard other business owners or time management people talk about that. But when we try to have this ideal or perfect week, it sets a, a harder standard for ourselves. And a lot of my weeks actually do look the same and I do a lot of the same task on the same days of the week. But I've stopped telling myself that there is this ideal week. I have just found that people, people can use them against themselves or if one thing gets thrown off or something takes longer, or if their kid gets sick or they get interrupted, or if a client needs something, or if a client cancels or something runs over, their perfect ideal week is now thrown off and they give up completely for the rest of the week. And they have to wait and start over next week. And I just see so many people getting very perfectionistic with their weeks. And so it's kind of like they just give up for this week. And it's this, just this waiting period until next week starts over to get back on track and try again versus just getting back on track today, like right now, in this very next hour. So I just like to think of my calendar, if this is helpful for you, as an ever evolving thing. And every week I'm just like, let's get a little bit better at figuring it out. Where did I go wrong last week? Where did I underestimate how long things would take? Where did I not plan as well? And how can I just do a little bit better this week? I love having that relationship with my calendar because sometimes you do just miss the mark you underestimate or you have to, you know, wait on somebody to get back to you or someone interrupts you. Things happen. So it's just about recovering quickly and adjusting and moving forward as fast as you can. And I think this is really important to know. Well, let me bring it back. When you're first starting out and scheduling your marketing to know the real three levels of mastery that you're going to go through with your marketing skill sets and the time and how long things are actually going to take you. Because that is what tends to throw people off a lot with their calendars and with planning and time blocking starting out. So we've kind of already talked about it, but the very first level of mastery that you go through when you're just starting out with your marketing is you're just a beginner. That's level one, the beginner level. So this is the level that things just take way longer than you expected, like, way longer. Like when you thought the Canva graphic would take you 30 minutes and it takes you all day. So this is totally understandable too. You're learning new skill sets, you're learning new platforms. You're probably a little in your head or a lot in your head. You are having human emotions. You are probably slower to create things because you are questioning, like, what should I say? How should I say it? And then you're deleting and starting over. Things just take longer. I remember when I first started sending emails, like years and years ago, I used to give myself an entire day on Fridays to put together an email newsletter, like a full day. And I would design the graphics, I'd write the email, I'd insert photos, like all the things. And so much of it of that day was me spent just second guessing myself and playing around with the design and going back and forth. It was just this whole thing because it was so new. So if I would have thought that I could have gotten that email done in 30 minutes or an hour, it just wasn't going to happen. And that probably did happen. It's just been so long, I don't even remember. I probably did think on my first email that, that I could get it out in 30 minutes. And then the next week I was like, oh, no, we need a whole day for this. And that's how I, I was when I started my podcast too. I had to give myself an entire day to produce a podcast. I would have to script everything out, I would record it, I would edit it. It would take me at least eight hours. It was like excruciating. But so much of it was learning the technology and how to edit. And I was just so much more in my head on coming up with topics and then thinking like, oh, this has to be super valuable. I wonder if they're going to like it. And then like, oh, no, they're going to hate this. Scrap this, start over. But now, 97 episodes in, I'm so much more comfortable and I'm a lot faster. But in the beginning when scheduling, I knew I needed to give myself a lot more time on my calendar. I wanted to overestimate how much time I needed. So I tell my clients when they're in this beginner phase, when they're learning something new, to overestimate, give themselves time to have this human experience and to learn this new skill. And what I mean by give yourself time to have a human experience is like, if I know I'm going to get started on something, I know I'm probably going to want to procrastinate and pick up my phone and scroll or go get a snack or go talk to my husband. I want to work that into my plan. I want to give myself time to procrastinate. If I know I tend to do that, I don't want to give myself a little teeny tiny time Block and then I end up wasting that entire time block eating cookies in the kitchen. Right. I want to plan for me to have the entire human emotional experience as I do something new. So I need my time block to allow me to be a human who's creating content in a new way, who's using a new platform, who's developing a new skill set. I need to give myself time for that. So if you are on level one with your marketing, if you're in the beginner phase, whether you're just getting started in your business and marketing in general, or, or if you're adding in something new, maybe you're going to start sending emails or you're going to start to film reels for the first time, just know that those things are going to take you longer. So allow for that. Give yourself more time on your schedule, allow for the newness, allow it to take longer. And you don't have to make it a problem if you plan for it accordingly. And then eventually you move into level two, which is the proficient level, which to me is like the more mastery competent level. This is like the middle ground. It's just your average. Like you know what you're doing now, you know 100% confidently you can get it done. It doesn't feel like you're just trudging through the mud anymore. You may not feel like you're quite sprinting and just in solid flow yet. And you can't quite do it without any thought now. You might still have to really think about it. You might even still have some second guessing that you're doing. So it's kind of this in between of the beginner phase and the expert phase. In fact, that's exactly what it is. But this is when you'll be able to just naturally kind of cut down on that time block. So you're going to get more comfortable. The task that used to take you all day will now take you half the day. This was my experience with the podcast and the same thing with email. I could now get it done in a couple hours. This became my average for a while. For like a year or so. I was just steady at this pace. It became repeatable on my calendar. I started to find my groove and I knew that this exact task would take me a certain amount of time. Like, no doubt I knew, like, okay, I need two hours to send this email, or I need four hours to record this podcast. And it just became on repeat every week. There was no question as far as how to plan for that on my calendar. Calendar because it was just my average time, I knew I could get it done. So planning and time blocking becomes a lot easier in this phase because you just start to know how long you need, you know the exact time block and it just gets done. And there isn't as much drama around getting the task done. You'll notice you don't have to go procrastinate as much. A lot of your emotions kind of calm down a bit because you're just more comfortable and you feel more confident. So it's more like, let's just sit down and get it done. And then eventually you move into level three. This is like the expert level, which to me is lightning phase. With your time, it's like expert pro level. And what I love about this level in your marketing is you don't even have to think about your marketing task at this point. It just gets done. There's no drama or really any sort of time management issues around it at all. You'll notice that tasks that you that you used to have to really think about and build yourself up for in the first two phases that they're just non issues now. And this is because you've done them so much. You know exactly what to do. You're not second guessing yourself anymore. You just get it done. It's like a total self concept shift. You show up as a different person when you reach this phase. I've noticed when I get to this level in my marketing, my thoughts about what I'm doing are different. In level one, it's a lot of am I doing this right? Will this be good enough? They're gonna hate this. I better not do this. I better start over. Like it just slows you down and you second guess everything. But in level three, when you feel like an expert in what you're doing, you realize you have totally different thoughts about your marketing and what you're doing. It's like my people are gonna love this. Like this is going to be so valuable. It's so natural and easy. They're just gonna love it. So it's like producing an entire podcast where it used to take me eight hours. Now at this level, 97 podcast episodes in maybe takes me an hour or so. Now like this podcast specifically, I brainstormed outline in between coaching calls today to where used to I would have had to have blocked off an entire day with no interruptions. But my thoughts have changed about my skill set since I've done it so much. So when I'm time blocking now, I know I can squeeze in Getting an entire podcast done in such a smaller time frame, it doesn't have to take up an entire day anymore. It just gets done. That's who I have become now. You know, I feel like an expert. So I have thoughts too that are like, oh my gosh, my people are going to love this. They're going to be, they're going to get such a transformation out of this. Like, I just know I can help them. So it's a total self concept shift. And this is also why I say that our calendars are just ever evolving things. So my first year in my podcast, I was giving myself an entire day, then it was a half a day, and now I'm just overflowing with ideas all the time. And I can just. I've gotten to the place where I can create so easily and so quickly and I'm not nearly as perfectionistic about it. The things I used to really worry about, I just don't worry about as much anymore. I don't have as much of a negative human experience when I'm creating. There's a lot less of a need to procrastinate and to go eat snacks and to scroll. I just come in here and I get it done. And I think sometimes we think we should already be in this expert level and we beat ourselves up when we spend longer in the other two phases. I see so many people change what they're doing to market themselves because it's taking longer than they think it should, when really it's just taking it. It's taking as long as it takes them and they are getting faster. But I find people usually give up before they move into these next two phases. They give up first on time, blocking and scheduling and trying to get a handle on their time management in their calendar because they feel like they can't properly estimate times and they aren't giving themselves long enough. But they also give up on the marketing task itself, whether that's emails, making reels, podcasting, whatever your new thing is that you're trying to figure out. They just don't allow themselves enough time to go through the learning phase before they give up or the the phase just takes longer. They don't account for the fact that it is just a phase. They don't realize that they are moving through the phases that they may be currently in the beginner phase. Then they're going to go into the proficient phase. Then they're going to get into the expert phase where everything is going to feel so much faster. Second nature things will take them a fraction of the time. So to recap as a beginner, things will take longer and that's normal. In the proficient stage, you'll gain confidence, things will speed up. You'll be able to better plan your time accurately in this phase. At the expert level, it just becomes second nature. These phases are all part of the entrepreneur journey, so give yourself time and space to move through them and let your calendar evolve as you go. Identify where you are, allow yourself to be there. Allow yourself to work your schedule around that to allow yourself to be there and still get the thing done, knowing that you will get faster, that you will move to these other two levels. Okay, my friends, I hope you found that helpful. I will talk to you next week. Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode, I want to invite you to check out my program, the LocalPreneur Academy. This is the only program for small business owners who want to become the local go to in their industry with a steady stream of clients. You can find more [e-mail] and I'll see you inside.