← The Goal Digger Podcast | Top Business and Marketing Podcast for Creatives, Entrepreneurs, and Women in Business
The Goal Digger Podcast | Top Business and Marketing Podcast for Creatives, Entrepreneurs, and Women in Business
902: Tiny Tasks, Big Results: Build Your Dream in 20 Minutes a Day
00:40:44
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Jenna Kutcher
Today's episode is sponsored in part by Greenlight, Bitdefender, LinkedIn and Shopify. Teach your kids real world money skills with Greenlight. Start your risk free trial today@greenlight.com Golddigger Protect your small business with BitDefender Ultimate Small Business Security Save 30% when you go to BitDefender.com Golddigger Reach the right professionals with LinkedIn ads used by over a billion professionals worldwide. Get your 100 credit@LinkedIn.com goal. Join millions of entrepreneurs using Shopify, the global commerce platform that helps you grow your business. Start your $1 per month trial@shopify.com Golddigger as always, you can find all of our incredible deals in the show Notes. Now let's dive in. This episode is brought to you by bitdefender, a global leader in cybersecurity. Now let's be real. When you run a business from your laptop like I do, everything matters. Your clients, your calendar, your passwords. It's all digital. And if you're like me, you don't have an IT department waiting in the wings to fix things when they break. The truth is, small businesses are some of the biggest targets for cyber attacks and most entrepreneurs aren't prepared. With so much riding on our digital tools, protection isn't optional, it's essential. That's where BitDefender Ultimate Small Business Security comes in. It's designed for small teams of up to 25 people and gives you powerful protection without needing IT or cybersecurity skills. It helps safeguard everything from your devices and inboxes to your digital identity and customer data. It also gives you a password manager and even watches for viruses, scams and fraud attempts. Plus, there's a VPN and scam assistant to help your team stay sharp online. The setup is simple and there's even 247 expert support if you ever need help. Keep your small business safe with Bitdefender ultimate small business security. Save 30% when you go to bitdefender.com golddigger that's bitdefender.com golddigker for 30% off. If you've ever typed a caption from the target parking lot or recorded a podcast intro while holding a baby monitor, well, this one's for you. You don't need a 40 hour work week to build a dream. Sometimes 20 minutes and a little fire is all it takes. I'm Jenna Kutcher, your host of the Gold Digger podcast. I escaped the corporate world at the age of 23 with nothing more than a $300 camera from Craigslist and a Dr. Now I'm running a seven figure online business that feels even better than it looks. All from my house in small town Minnesota. With my family here, we value time as our currency. We mix the woo and the work and we are in the pursuit of building businesses that give us the freedom to live lives that we love. I've always loved turning big goals into reality and I'm here to help you do the same. This isn't just a peek behind the curtain. Come along with me and my guests as we tear the whole curtain down. Every week we tackle practical no fluff markets marketing strategies and host honest discussions on what works and what doesn't. Join me and my expert guests for actionable insights to help you grow your dream business with confidence. Pull up a seat and get ready to be challenged, inspired and empowered. This is the Gold Digger Podcast. Let me guess, you've got about 20 minutes today. Maybe it's between back to back shifts. Maybe you're sealing a pocket of quiet before the evening chaos. Maybe it's after your last zoom call or while someone else finally took over care duty. Or maybe it is during nap time or a drive across town. Either way, you're grabbing 20 precious minutes to yourself and you're wondering, what can I actually do in this tiny window of time that will move the needle forward in my business? Now, I know you're wondering that. Not because I'm guessing, but because I asked you. I popped a question up on our Instagram how much time do you really have to work on your business? Each day. And overwhelmingly, the answer wasn't all day or as long as I want. It was small pockets. I talking limited time. And yet you still have really big dreams. So here's the truth that no one's saying loud enough. 20 minutes isn't a limitation. It's a launch pad. It's a seed. And when you learn how to use those short pockets of time, well, they don't just count, they compound. Lately, I've been in so many conversations with women who feel stuck. Not because they lack ideas or passion or even ambition, but because they lack hours. This episode, it's basically my love letter to you. It's a reminder that progress does not require perfection or a packed calendar or even a full day to yourself. I built my first inspo collage on a break at work and then jammed the corporate laminator trying to make that dream feel real. I'd write blog posts for my scrappy little WordPress site. Bleary eyed after a 10 hour shift and a 2 hour commute, I booked client consults at the Starbucks across the street and did quick outfit changes out of my work uniform into, quote, real clothes inside of the bathroom. Shifting from my day job to my dream, one outfit at a time. Like, I didn't have 40 hours a week. I had 17 minutes and a fire in my belly. So today I want to walk you through nine things you can do in just 20 minutes. These aren't fluff. These are the exact kinds of micro moves that I made when I was just starting. And honestly, they're still the ones I come back to now between momming meetings and trying to potty train our dog Hank, who is currently chewing on a bone right next to me. Let's dive on in. I often think back to when I was just starting out. Let me paint the picture for you of what our lives looked like at that point. So I was 23 years old, I was planning a wedding, I was training for a full marathon, I was working a full time 50 plus hour a week job. I commuted an hour to work each way. And I also was starting my business. Now I look back at the time and I'm like, how the heck did I do anything? But I know exactly how it was. In tiny little bits and pockets of time, I would claim every 20 minute chunk that I could and I would turn it into something that would drive me closer to my dream. And the funny thing is, is that the things that I did then are still the things that I do now. Because life is still chaotic and busy. If you're waiting for your life to slow down, for you to start your business, you'll be waiting for the rest of your life. I hate to say it. There are always going to be things that are calling for your attention. There are always going to be fires that you need to put out. There are always going to be events on your calendar. And so if you can steal these pockets of time and make them so focused and useful, I have no doubt in my mind that you can do something absolutely amazing. So I broke these nine ideas down into three phases. And as each phase grows, so does kind of the commitment level of where you're at in your business. And so let's start with phase one. So when I think about 20 minute pockets of time, the first thing I think of is phase one, which I would assign as like clarity tasks. This is basically the work you do before the work, the kind that maybe doesn't look flashy on the outside, the kind that people might not clap for on Instagram, but the kind of work that literally unlocks everything else. Because here's the thing, what I've realized is that when you are stuck in idea mode, literally everything feels fuzzy and it's impossible to know what next step to take. I was literally just talking to one of my friends the other day, and she has this awesome idea for her business. It's gonna be like a full blown pivot. And I was telling her, like, you need to sit down and like, map this thing out. Because it feels so elusive, it feels so big that you're not even able to take any micro steps forward, right? You can't take any action because it's just this kind of idea that's like lingering in the ether. And I said, once you solidify and get clarity around that idea, taking tiny steps will feel so doable. It'll show you that progress is possible. And when it's stuck in idea mode, it's almost too big to move towards, right? So my first thing that I would do if I had 20 minutes of time is I would brain dump my business ideas. So set a timer. Like, I love timers. My ADHD is a sucker for a good looking timer. I have bought all these cute timers and my kids steal them. Which, honestly, I can't really argue because they use them for their quiet times. But I love a cute little timer. Set it on your phone, whatever you need to do, but put your phone in the other room and don't put pressure on yourself. Just start writing or typing. Like, get the ideas out of your brain. What is it that you want to create? Who is it that you want to help? How do you want it to feel when you wake up and do that work? The thing that I think is interesting is a lot of times we bring in unnecessary formality into our vision of what a business should be. And we're like, you know, I need a 10 page business plan. You don't need that. You need permission to hear yourself think. This is probably the hardest thing for me right now in this stage of life. My kids are home for the summer. We have a new puppy. Like, life feels really chaotic. And I said to my team the other day, I was like, I just need a day to think. Like, I just need time to think. Sometimes when I just drive around, I can think or even in the shower, I always have really good shower thoughts. I just need time to think. And so what I think when it starts with this first one is just brain dumping is like, get your ideas, your thoughts Your concerns, your fears, get it all out of your head. And here's what I'll say with this. I honestly think that like 20 minutes can be an advantage because when you do a task like this where you're like, just get it all out of my head, you don't have time to overthink. You don't have time to doom scroll, you don't have time to self edit your big ideas into dust. You just move. And I've heard of people that do this in the morning where they'll wake up, I think if they call it like morning pages, where they'll wake up and they'll just write down like stream of consciousness while you're still kind of in that sleepy stages, right? And it's like you can pour out ideas. Now. I am not one of those people, I like roll out of bed and get moving. But if you have 20 minutes of time and you're not taking action, the first thing I would do is just brain dump something happens for me with my ADHD when I can release an idea or know that it is safe and it is stored, then I don't feel so paralyzed, like I don't have that level of analysis paralysis. So number one is brain dump your dream business ideas. Get them, get them on paper or on a screen. Set a timer for 20 minutes. Don't judge your thoughts, don't edit your thoughts, just get them out. Okay? Number two is write down three things you could talk about forever. One of my favorite questions to ask people is like, if you had to step up on a stage right now and speak without preparing for an entire hour, what would you talk about? Like what would your keynote be on? It could be anything random, it could be anything. But one thing I love about this prompt is if you could just sit down and write things that you are passionate about that you could literally talk about forever, that you could never run out of things to say about. This could be the start of your content anchors. The topics that you light up about are a huge signal, like picture, like the light bulb moment that we see in cartoons over your head as a way that you can connect with other people. I'm talking about the ones that your best friend hears about on repeat because you cannot not talk about them. Right? And when you can write these things down and really establish what are the things that I could talk about forever? What are the things that are lighting me up or I'm passionate about. These aren't just like post ideas. What I think they are is breadcrumbs. To your future offers, to your brand messaging, to your niche. I think that these are signals that we should not ignore. Now, one thing that I love about this task and this is something that I actually try to do often because what I'm passionate about changes often. If you know anything about me, I go down rabbit holes real fast and I fall hard and deep for new things to look into. But what I love about this task is if you are multi passionate. This task will help you to see if there's a thread. Like is there something that is connecting these items or these ideas? Are they ways to connect with your dream audience? Are they ways to build your community? Not everything you love needs to be monetized. But let me tell you the stuff that you cannot shut up about. To me, that is a clue. So if you have 20 minutes, write down three things you could talk about forever. Make little bullet points under them. About some of the things you wish people knew or understood. Write down some of the things that you've been learning or researching. Write down the misconceived notions you had about these things, but just go ham on it. Okay, number three and the final one for a clarity task, if you're not taking any action at all with a limited time you have is this voice memo, a mini rant about something that you wish more people understood. Like, I'm serious. Open up your voice message app and talk like you are texting your ride or die or even just that you're talking to yourself. What absolutely infuriates you? What frustrates you? What do people keep getting wrong? Light that fire in yourself like, because here's what I'll tell you. When you can just have a stream of consciousness and you can just go ham on your voice memo app, that fire in your voice, that to me is gold. That is like keynote energy. That is thought leadership. And what I love about doing this is oftentimes I am a verbal processor. Like I need to talk my way out of ideas and thoughts. My team probably rolls their eyes, but a lot of times they'll send me a slack message and I'll respond with a voice message. Like, speaking helps me clarify my thoughts and so just let it come out of you and then you can polish it later. Like, what I want for you to do is capture those thoughts, that mini rant before your brain tries to make it sound professional or buttoned up. It's funny, I. I just got done talking to a new friend and she has a book coming out and she was talking to me about marketing her book. And I was like, you know what? I recorded this voice message to myself after I launched my book. And it is like a 10 minute long voice message. It is literally a stream of consciousness of just talking about what I loved, what I would do differently, what was beneficial, what I didn't like, can I send that to you? And she was like, oh, my gosh, please do. I think that senior speaking gives something a totally different energy. And I think that voice memos are totally underutilized. Like, I am a voice message queen. So apologies to anyone who's on the recipient end of my voice messages. But that's. So to summarize, if you are looking for clarity, if you just need to kind of hone in on the idea to take action, the three things that I would do with just little pockets of time is first, brain dump your dream business ideas. Write down three things you could talk about forever. And voice memo, a mini rant about something you wish more people understood. One final thing on this voice message trend. So I highly recommend all entrepreneurs just start recording voice messages. And I was just telling my friend, she and I voice text literally every day. Her name is Amy Porterfield. You'll probably know her. And she was talking to me about something and she was like literally lighting up. Like, I could hear it in her voice. And it was about an offer that she was working on and she was so excited about. And I told her, I said, amy, go record yourself a voice message while you're in this energy, because I can hear it in you. Like you're lit up about this. And then there was something that she didn't like. And I was like, amy, go record yourself a voice message while you're in this energy, promising you will never do this again. Usually we complain when we book really early morning flights and we're like, I will never do this again, again. And then we keep doing it. So it's like, remind yourself of why you hate this and that you won't do it again. And so I just think that voice messages are a really incredible way to unlock things for yourself, to capture energy, to really just help you document your journey and remember the things that you swear you'll never forget, but you somehow absolutely do. And so if you're not utilizing voice messages in your business, do it. The final thing I'll say is if you have children, voice memo, record their little tiny voices. Oh my gosh. It's like my prized possessions. I have voice recorded my little babies squeaks. I recorded the way they sang. You are my Sunshine. Just having their little voices documented is something you think you'll never forget. Oh my gosh. So anyways, I'll end my voice memo rant right here. Now, before we dive into the next set of tiny but mighty moves, I want for you to pause for a second and here's what I want you to do. Take a deep breath and ask yourself this. What is the idea that has been sitting in my chest like the one I have been holding onto? The one I've been waiting for? The perfect time to say it out loud or to put it in motion? Here's the truth. Like, maybe that idea doesn't just need more time. Maybe it needs 20 intentional minutes. Now, while you let this simmer, here is a quick word from the sponsors who help keep this show running. We'll be back in just a bit. You ever get served an ad and think, how the heck did this end up in my feed? Like the other day I got one for a luxury penthouse concierge in Manhattan. Guys, I live in small town Minnesota. Our version of LA is a teen in crocs handing you your iced coffee at the drive through. Unless that penthouse includes mosquito spray and a Tater Tot hot dish, I'm out. But here's the thing. It's not just funny, it's frustrating. Not only as a consumer, but for the business. Wasting ad dollars on the totally wrong audience. That's why when it comes to reaching the right professionals, the solution is clear. LinkedIn ads. With over a billion users on LinkedIn today, your message stands the best chance of reaching the people who actually matter. And that's where it stands apart from the other ad buys, LinkedIn lets you target by job title, industry, company role, seniority, skills, even company revenue. Basically, all the professionals you need to reach are right there in one place. So stop wasting your precious budget on the wrong audience and start connecting with the right people only on LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn will even give you $100 credit on your next campaign. So you can try it yourself. Just go to LinkedIn.com goal. That's LinkedIn.com goal. Terms and conditions apply. Only on LinkedIn ads. This message is sponsored by Greenlight. I grew up hauling a cooler down our Minnesota dirt road to sell lukewarm lemonade for 50 cents a cup. I didn't know it then, but that was the start of my entrepreneurial journey. Now I've got two little girls asking questions about money, and I want their learning to feel fun. So when they asked to do their own lemonade stand, I went all in logo check. Compostable cups? You bet. And that's when I realized we could use a little help making money lessons simple. That's why we use Greenlight. Greenlight is a debit card and money app that helps kids learn how to save, spend wisely, and even invest together as a family. We love the chores feature where you can assign tasks like clean the junk drawer or pick toys to donate and reward them with an allowance. Everything is tracked so you can watch them grow their money smarts in real time. Greenlight is the easy, convenient way for parents to raise financially smart kids and for families to navigate life together. Maybe that's why millions of parents trust and kids love learning about money on Greenlight, the number one family finance and safety app. Don't wait to teach your kids real world money skills. Start your risk free Greenlight trial today@greenlight.com go digger. That's greenlight.com gold digger to get started greenlight.com golddigger all right, so let's dive on into phase two. I'm calling this the visibility and validation tasks. Now when I first started out, this is a fun fact about me, I literally posted everything on Facebook. If I bought a new camera lens, you better believe I welcomed it to my family. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that when I booked a new client, they got a status. I'm so excited for Eric and Jean's wedding in Lake Geneva next July. I posted about everything. I mean, my Facebook memories are pretty comical. But here's the thing. I love that about me. When I saw that somebody got engaged, I was sliding into DM so fast, talking about my love of wedding photography and my availability as a wedding photographer. So when we think about what can you do with these tiny moments in time? When I look back at the very beginning of my business business, I was out there and I was sharing. And something that's interesting that I think is different between now and then is I feel like somewhere along the way we got it real twisted. We started believing this lie that in order to show up, it has to be perfect, it has to be shiny. I'm not going to show up until everything is ready. And when I look back at my scrappy start, I see a girl who is willing to be her own publicist, right? I was willing to clap for myself when nobody was clapping for me. And I think we've lost that. I think that in the way that social media has moved, people are waiting. They're just waiting. And I don't Know what they're waiting for. Because it's like you think that, oh my gosh, once the audience is there, then I'll start talking about the things that I care about. No, the audience doesn't come until you start talking. Now start speaking, start clapping for yourself, start celebrating your successes. Because here's what I'll tell you. Visibility doesn't usually start with a big moment. It starts small, right? It starts quiet. It starts with this decision to show up even when you feel crazy, awkward or super uncertain. These tasks that I'm about to call out are for when you are ready to be seen, but you're still figuring out how to do it in a way that doesn't burn you out, that feels aligned, that doesn't feel embarrassing. So this phase is kind of what I'm talking about when I'm talking about building consistency and confidence through super simple repeatable actions that actually move your business forward. Okay, so here's what I would do If I had 20 minutes of time. So one thing I would do is go on to our favorite Instagram and post what I'm going to call a one line truth or a story on Instagram. I'm talking about like skip the canva graphics, skip the multi slide carousels. Start with just an honest sentence. Not only is it going to be way faster to create because we only have a limited amount of time, but it is going to help. Just strip it down and get it out there. You don't need to have this perfect hook. You don't have to have a trending audio. You don't have to do all this quote research that we're doing where we're really just scrolling. You just need something real. Like I'm talking about a thought, I'm talking about a realization, I'm talking about a moment of truth or clarity. So here are some examples of what I'm talking about. You could do a post where it says, here's what I wish more people understood about. And then guess what? Use one of the topics you outlined above, right? Or the biggest mistake I made when I started was, or what I tell my clients all the time. Or here's this crazy idea I have, wouldn't it be crazy if. Now here's what I want for you to understand is this requires you to not just be a consumer, it requires you to be a creator. This is about practicing visibility. It is about like borrowing bravery. A one line post gets you in motion without the pressure to write a novel or produce content all day long, right? And without this lie that we tell ourselves of. Like, I'm scrolling for research. I just want to see what's working. Oh, I'm just gonna look and see what everyone else is doing. I will say that when you just start creating, it can also set the foundation for future content. When you write a strong sentence today, that could become a podcast title. In the future, it could become an email subject line. It could become a blog post, a pin caption. Tomorrow, when you start just testing out your ideas and putting them out there, you not only see yourself as someone capable of taking action, but you start to get real insight into what is resonating. So here's something funny. I recently downloaded this app. It is called Clear Space, and it is absolutely amazing. I have been telling literally everyone about it. I was talking to my mom about it. I was sending it to my friends. I posted it for my team. It is called Clear Space. I have literally zero skin in the game with this. And it is an app that will help you limit your social media time. And here's what I'm about to say. This is like a hard truth. If you are telling me you only have 20 minutes of time a day to devote to your business, I might ask you to hand me your phone and let me look at your screen time. And I'm not just calling you out. This is something I clearly have struggled with. And so what I love about this app is I put it on my phone and you can set parameters. So you could say, I only want to log into Instagram three times a day or five times a day, whatever it is. And when you go to click on Instagram, it's grayed out. When you go to click into it, it'll say, this is your first use out of your of five, or this is your fifth use out of five. And then it makes you breathe in and breathe out. And after you do that, then it asks, do you still want to go into this app? So it'll do like a deep breath in, deep breath out. It'll post some really cool quotes. So I'll read you the quote that just popped up on my screen. So it says, good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy. James Clear. Boom. Do I really want to go in? So you can either hit use app or never mind. You basically budget your uses. If you click use app, it'll ask you, how much time do you want to spend on this app? You can do 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes. This has helped me consciously choose. Okay, I have a two minute window of time right now, or I have 10 minutes that I can scroll. You know what's crazy? I didn't even log into Instagram once yesterday. Not even once, because every time I clicked on it, which, guess what, I clicked on it a ton. I just subconsciously do it. And so what I want for you to get in the habit of is not being just a consumer, being a creator. And if you need to invite in tools to help you free up more time to get off apps, you can set this up for any apps that you want. So it could be for Facebook, it could be for news apps, it could be for Instagram, it could be for TikTok. I tell you, it is changing my life. And it is just really making me go in with a higher consciousness of, like, do I really want to be scrolling right now? How much time do I have to scroll? Great. Okay, let's go in with a purpose. So just throwing that out there. But this first part of the visibility and validation tasks is just posting. If you don't feel like you can post a post, post a story, ask questions, get in the habit of being a creator, not just a consumer. The next thing that I would do is pin one to three old posts that you've had. Whether it's Instagram posts, Facebook posts, blog posts, get them onto Pinterest. Okay, you know, I'm a Pinterest girly. I am obsessed with Pinterest. Grab a few posts. Whether it is things that you've posted in the past, maybe quotes that have performed well, something that felt meaningful for you, drop them into a Pinterest template in Canva and literally get them onto Pinterest again. You don't have to be a passive pinner. You can be a creator on the platform. Pinterest is amazing. It is what I like to say is the laziest platform because it doesn't require constant engagement. All it's asking for is just a little consistency. Meaning can you contribute to this platform? You don't have to be on it all day. You have no DMS to respond to. You don't have to comment. Back to comments. Let me tell you one pin can bring traffic for weeks or even months. And if you are someone where you want to create visibility that doesn't depend on you showing up live every day, this is where you do it. This is where you make your content work harder, not just faster. I just had a friend reach out to me and she messaged me. She goes, I wish I would have listened to you sooner about Pinterest. She goes, I got super excited about Pinterest. I pinned on it about a year ago. One of my VAs was helping pin my content. We totally got busy with a launch, forgot about it. We're just circling back to it right now, and guess what? It is still been sending me traffic every single day we haven't been in. Pinterest is like the best platform. It is not going to penalize you for taking a little break or a breather. So if you only have 20 minutes of time, get onto Pinterest and create a few pins and start becoming a pinner. Make your work last longer. This is a way to turn your content from lasting a day into months. Okay, the final thing that I would do in terms of this stage of visibility and validation is hop on to your stories and ask a question. Use your Instagram stories. Even if your audience is tiny, or if you have an email list because you've listened to me, use it to ask a simple question like, what's something you're struggling with when it comes to fill in the blank with your topic? What I love about this, this is not just engagement, it is literally research. These answers can help shape your next offer. They can help you create your next lead magnet. They can help you write your next post, your podcast episode, or your email. This is a very simple and direct way to understand. Here is what your audience needs right now. You don't have to guess, you don't have to over complicate it. This is the way to do that. Now we have taken this a step further. And so if suddenly because you're off of social media and you're not scrolling pastly, you have a lot of of time left over. I just recorded an entire episode with my girl, my right hand, Marissa, and we are talking about how we created a survey and how one tiny survey helped me rebuild my business with way more clarity and alignment. And so this is like a micro action, but if you want to listen to that, that is actually episode number 900. Just scroll back a tiny bit and listen to how you can ask the right questions and then how you can use that information to help guide you forward. And you could take what we talk about in that episode and just drip it out slowly with any platform that you currently have. So another action you can take is just asking a question. Ask the right question and use the responses to help guide your path forward. Now here's a reminder. You do not need to be everywhere. What I will say is show up best where your audience is already paying attention and don't focus on things like going viral. I think a lot of times that is the focus. You don't want to go viral. Let me tell you, going viral doesn't do a lot for you. You want to become familiar, you want to be consistent and you want to be trustworthy. None of those require virality. When I think about doing something consistently, when you do it well, these small moves are actually going to help you build brand awareness, audience trust and content clarity. Stay in action. Use your time well. Don't waste it. Okay, now if this episode is hitting home for you, before we dive into phase three, here's my ask. Take a quick second and share it with a friend. Bring them into the fold. Bring them into this conversation. This small action helps more women hear that progress doesn't need perfect conditions. Because guess what? Nothing is perfect. We need time and just a little time and intention. So share it with a friend who that would resonate with. We're going to dive into phase three, which is all about tactical tasks and growth tasks. Next. But first, a quick word from the sponsors who help make this show possible. I wear a lot of hats in my day to day life. Mom, wife, entrepreneur, friend, sister. The list goes on. So I'm always looking for ways to make things simpler and more efficient. And I bet you are too. If you've ever breezed through checkout with just a click, you've likely used that little purple Shop pay button. It's fast, it's secure, and it's super convenient. But here's what you might not know. That button means the store is powered by Shopify. And Shopify doesn't just make shopping easier, it makes starting and running a business easier too. Shopify is the commerce platform behind 10% of all e commerce in the US from household names like Mattel and Jim Shark to brands just getting started, you get stunning ready to go templates to express your brand style and built in marketing and email tools to spread your brand's word. Plus, with Shopify, you can manage your business in one place. And yes, that iconic purple shop pay button. It's used by millions. And it's why Shopify has the best converting checkout on the planet. Your customers already love it. If you want to see less carts being abandoned, it's time for you to head over to Shop Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com golddigger go to shopify.com gold digger shopify.com gold digger one of Quinn's favorite games is Asking me to be an airplane and fly her around the house. And every time she picks a new destination, places like Arizona, Nashville, even Florida, I started to notice that the places she chooses, they're all spots we've traveled to as a family. Travel is something we absolutely love, and whenever we travel, we opt to book an Airbnb. It gives us space to be a family. Like when we stayed in Arizona and had a pool, a putting green, and separate bedrooms for the girls. Hello, better sleep. It was the perfect place to make memories that have stuck with all of us. That trip reminds me how thoughtful hosting can be and how much it can shape someone's experience. But I also know how much work goes into creating that kind of state. That's why I love that Airbnb now has a co host network. You can team up with someone local who takes care of all the details, guest communication, check ins, even setup, so that your space still shines even when you're not the one managing it. If you've been dreaming about hosting but wondering how you'd actually pull it off, this is your sign. Find a co host@airbnb.com/host. All right, diving in to phase three, what I'm calling tactical and growth tasks again. As I was building out this episode, I was thinking, okay, what are, like, the smallest starter tasks? We're getting in to phase three. All right, you've probably done the mindset work. You've probably started to show up. Here's where it is. Time to make your effort count. And what I need you to do is to put structure around it. Hear me out here. I ran a business for years without structure. I don't know how. I don't know how I was able to get anything done. I don't know what I did with my time that I did have when I had it. Okay, when I had my first daughter, I remember just staring at my computer and knowing that there were a million things I needed to do, but not even knowing where to start. I didn't even know how to find the things that I needed to do. I used to feel like structure would constrain my creativity. It would box me in, it would make business boring. But the opposite has happened. Systems and structure have unlocked my creativity on a whole new level because I know exactly what I need to do when I need to do it. And it frees up time and headspace to do the things that actually move me forward, that keep me in that visionary seat of my company. So this is the part where people say they're Building a business but keep spinning their wheels. This is the part where people are on the content creation hamster wheel and they're wondering like when does this end? Or how do I get off of it? Or I feel like I'm doing so much but it's not actually leading to results. And so here's what I want for you. You are here to build a business that works with the time you have, not the time you wish you had. Right? And so, and so this is where we go into phase three. This is about building momentum with systems, not just grit. Okay? So the thing that I would do If I had 20 minutes of time and I am saying your girl is in phase three is sketch out a freebie based on what people are asking the best ideas. Let me tell you, they don't come from just brainstorming, they come from listening. Check your DMs, maybe your comments, maybe you have common questions that your friends and family always ask you. Maybe you get cornered at the dinner party and people keep asking about this one thing. What are people already struggling with that they know they're struggling with? Sit with that and sketch out something that can solve just one piece of that puzzle. Keep it super light, keep it super fast. Don't go over complicated, don't go into perfectionism them. I'm talking like a one page checklist, a simple how to, a script that they could steal and copy, a voice message with three simple steps for them to take action. The goal here is not to blow them away, it's to give somebody a quick win. Now what I think is amazing is I am a huge believer that your email list is the biggest and best asset you own. Like there is so much money in the list but there is so much community, meaning and power. A freebie isn't just a flexibility, it is a literal filter. It helps the right people find you and self qualify themselves to be willing and potentially able to take the next step with you. So if I had 20 minutes of time I would sit down and say okay, what are people already asking? How can I create a free resource that solves one piece of that puzzle for them? Again, keep it simple. It doesn't have to be pretty, it doesn't have to be perfect. But start thinking about how can your work so solve a problem that people already have. Another thing I would consider doing in phase three is writing one email subject line and maybe even just a three to five sentence message. I am talking about low fi commitment, lo fi work. Okay? Even if your email list is just getting Started. Even if your list is small, especially if it's small, this is the moment to build trust. Now, here's what I'll say. Write a message like you were talking to one person who really gets you. I literally always create for Sarah who is a real person in my real life. She is my friend. She is a busy mom of three. She has a company, she's trying to stay in alignment. She wants to serve people and make an impact, but she also wants to be home with her kids. I just want to connect with her. I'm not trying to sell her anything. I literally want to check in on her and help her out. And so if you can write an email, subject line and a three sentence message, you could try starting out with here's one thing I wish I knew sooner or something just happened to me this week and it reminded me of you because or if you're in this season, this is for you. It can be super short, it can be super clear and personal. You're not writing for clicks, you're not looking at all those numbers. You are writing for pure connection. And let me tell you, if you do this consistently, people will start to feel like they know you. Not because you're tricking them or you're doing all the salesy things because they actually know you. I have been having so much fun with my emails. I hope you're on my email list. I love sending them. I am telling things that I'm not sharing anywhere else. I'm telling personal stories. I am telling hilarious things I'm walking through. Here's what we're actually doing behind the scenes. I am sharing behind the scenes. Like these are the prompts we're using, these are the numbers we're looking at. This is the data we're seeing. And so if you have not started your list yet, go back to phase two. If you have, consider taking a pocket of time to write a subject line and just a short little message. Again, low fi here. This doesn't have to be super formal. You don't have to write the way you think you would write to one person and connect with them. The final thing that I would do If I had 20 minutes of time and I was considering myself a tactical and a growth focused entrepreneur is I would schedule three posts or pins using a super simple template. Stop creating content on the treadmill, right? Start building a rhythm that works with your life, not against it. If you are already in the hustle habits, this is your invitation to start building the systems and the structure in the rhythms that help you get your life back in. You already are telling me you don't have a lot of time, so don't waste it in the wrong places. If you have a past post that did well, steal a quote from it. Turn a lesson you've learned into a pin. Use a photo you've already taken. Use a stock photo. I don't care. Drop it into a template, write a short keyword rich description and schedule the pin. These are not throwaway posts. These are literally digital breadcrumbs that help people find you again. You don't need to go viral once. You need to be findable over and over and over again. This is why I love Pinterest. Pinterest is a search engine. Its literal job is to connect people with you and your work. The people that are searching for what you have. This is how you can create something that can keep showing up even if. And let me just say, when you need to step away. So that is what I would do with 20 minutes of time is I would look at things I've already created. If you're in Facebook, these three, you're probably sitting on a gold mine of content that could do awesome on Pinterest. That could help you get your work in front of people that are actively searching for it so that you don't feel like you're screaming out into the void and so that you are actually connecting with the people who need what it is you have. All right, I feel like I stepped up onto a soapbox, but here's what I want for you to know. So many of the most meaningful, impactful profitability, profitable businesses were not built with wide open calendars or perfect conditions. I think that most of the businesses that I admire, they were built with these tiny little pockets of times, just like the ones you might have today. So if you are building your dream between meetings, or during nap time, or after a long shift, or before the entire house wakes up, I see you. And more importantly than that, I believe in what you're building. Because here's what I'll say. 20 minutes of focused, intentional action. That's not small. I think that's strategy. I think that's momentum and proof that you are doing the brave work of building something that matters in a way that honors the reality of your life. Whatever it looks like, this episode isn't just a checklist. It is a mindset shift. You don't need more time. You need the confidence to start using the time you already have. And that dream of yours, it deserves a place on your calendar, even if that place is just 20 minutes a day. Make it worth it. Make it count. And sometimes you'll see once you start getting momentum, you will feel unstoppable. Keep stacking up those small wins. Keep choosing progress over pressure. You're not behind, you're just building a business that honors your life, not hijacks it. And I wish more entrepreneurs started in that way. I hope today's episode touched you. I hope you can relate to it. I hope that you leverage these strategies no matter what phase of business you are in. Get started, get moving. You got this. And keep on coming back to the Gold Digger podcast because I will keep creating this content for you with you in mind, with your real life in mind. Until next time, Gold Diggers, keep on digging your biggest goals. And thank you so much, so much for listening to this episode of the podcast today. Thanks for pulling up a seat for another episode of the Gold Digger Podcast. I hope today's episode fueled you with inspiration, gave you information that you can turn into action, and realigned you with your true north in life and business. If you've enjoyed today's episode, head on over to gold diggerpodcast.com for today's show notes, discount codes for our sponsors, freebies to fuel your results, and so much more. And if you haven't yet, make sure you're subscribed so that you never miss a future show. We'll see you next time, Gold Diggers.