Riding Tandem

Introduction
Hello, my friends. Welcome back to another episode of Riding Tandem. I'm Vivian, your host today, and I'm soloing this one today. We have had such fabulous guests on over the past few weeks, and I've been incredibly just encouraged as I've heard from you all.

You've been sending in personal messages over social media, sending emails, talking to people you know, and that feedback is coming back in about just how impactful the past few weeks of episodes and the guests that we've had on have been. And I am so grateful to have had each of them here and be able to dig in and talk about topics that are important to you as you're thinking either about launching a business or starting something new within your business. Or maybe you've just felt especially towards the end of the year and Q4 headed into Q1. Maybe just feeling a little bit on an island where you're like, I just need some encouragement or a new way to think about things. And so the past few guests have just been so impactful.

And I appreciate your feedback. I love getting that feedback about guests, about topics, about what's resonating with you, and appreciate that. And if you haven't had a chance to listen to the past few episodes, be sure to go check those out because they have just been on point and so much gold packed into those to set you up to just be successful both in life, in business, in your dreams. As we're heading into all the things that are taking place in this new year for us today, what I want to talk about is consistency. Because as we're headed into the year and we have a whole month, almost a whole month behind us of the new year, this is where I feel we start to go.

Oh, no. It's that New Year resolution. We start to regret the resolutions we made or the goals we set out. And the biggest thing I hear from my friends and from other business owners is I just can't stay consistent with this. I'm not good at being consistent.

Maybe you say, I'm a visionary. And so my brain bounces around and it's just impossible for me to stay consistent. And yeah, I set these goals up for myself, but I just can't stick with them. And there are certainly times when we set goals for ourselves or we have these New Year resolutions and they're just not the right ones or actually our heart really wasn't that in it. And so it's okay to let some of the hosts just give yourself some grace and cut them off and be like, you know what, I made that resolution.

It's not even something that I want or it doesn't really even tie into a goal I have or things have shifted and I need to have flexibility to shift. But on the flip side, I think there's a lot of things that we do say within our personal lives and then certainly within our businesses that are very valuable and we set out like, I'm going to do this so much better this year. And they truly would have just huge impact on our businesses. But then we go, I just can't be consistent. I've got a million other things going on.

I want to talk about a couple of things when it comes to consistency. And the first kind of half, I guess you would say I want to talk about is like, what is this whole consistency thing? Can we be good at it? And what areas does it make sense to be consistent in? If we were to say, okay, I am going to cut some of these resolutions, but I know I want to keep some of them.

I'm going to share with you the areas that I have found to be the most impactful to stay consistent in. And then the second half that I want to chat with you about today is what are the barriers that keep us from consistency and being able to see the things that we truly want all the way through to the finish line. And so again, I just want to be clear. I'm not talking about those goals or resolutions that you just kind of made on New Year's Eve and maybe you had a couple of fun beverages and you're like, yeah, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. And then you wake up the next day and you're like, what was I thinking?

I don't even want those things. I'm not talking about that stuff. I'm talking about the things where you genuinely down deep in your heart, in your soul, you have thought about this and went, this is strategic. I want this. This is going to help my business grow.

But now I'm just really struggling with seeing it through and making it happen. So consistency, here's an interesting way to look at it. Essentially, our personal lives are a curated collection of consistent actions. If we really wanted to break it down, we get up in the morning, we go through a fairly consistent routine. We head out the door.

We have a fairly consistent routine throughout our day, whether that's at work or running our businesses, whatever it is. We have essentially, our lives are a build up of consistently done actions or reactions over and over and over again. And we have consistent things we do minute by minute, which build into hours, which build into days, which build into weeks, months, years, and that builds into our life. And when I think of it that way, we are actually really good at being consistent. And so when we say, oh, I don't follow through, or I can't seem to stick with it, or I'm just not good at being consistent, I want to back us up for a minute and go, no, hold up.

Actually, as humans, we're fabulous at being consistent. There are so many things in our lives that we do consistently. And this, again, is the time of year where we think, no, I'm not. Because I put all these ideas, all these goals, all these dreams, all these resolutions in place, and I'm failing at them. And so I think I'm just not good at sticking to it or having follow through or being able to be consistent with these things.

But when I think about what we're consistent in in our daily lives, I realize we're actually masters at being consistent. We consistently do so many things. We consistently watch the same types of Netflix shows. That's why Netflix continues to feed us the types of shows we like, because they're like, oh, they consistently like documentaries, I'm going to give them more of that. They consistently like crime thrillers, I'm going to give them more of that.

Our algorithms within our social media, they're very consistent. They feed us based off of our actions, which we do consistently. Again and again, we tend to look at the same types of posts. We tend to seek out the same types of content. And so the AI Right, and the social media algorithms have recognized that, and they go, okay, I'm going to consistently give them more of this.

We consistently wear the same types of clothes. We consistently order the same types of food from restaurants that we consistently go to. We consistently get the same type of gas. We consistently go to the same gas stations. There's just so many things when we break it down, when we go to the gym, I think this is a great example.

When we go to the gym, we tend to go to the exact same treadmill. We don't tend to go like, if I walk into a gym and I use treadmill number three, I consistently head towards treadmill number three. I don't usually go to treadmill number six or treadmill number one. So we have a lot of things that we actually do very consistently in our lives. When we set up for this year and think about our business goals, I'm sure you have a list of things you would like to see happen this year.

So what's going to make us successful in consistently seeing those through? The biggest indicator of success is actually the ability to channel your consistent behavior, which you are good at, into the actions that fuel your dreams. So in essence, it's the ability to put in the time and effort and stay consistent. And remember, we're masters at that. That is the trick to success.

Now, here's the piece though. Here's the key, here's the sticker, right? The trick seems to be honing in on the right actions to be consistent at. And that really is what brings me to this topic of, okay, if I am going to choose to be consistent in something, where am I going to put my energy right now? Because there are a few things we know for sure, right?

No business is launched because someone just has an idea and talks about it all the time. A business doesn't form out of that. That's just somebody having an idea and then they're talking about it all the time. There has to be consistent actions taken to make that happen. An incredible social media presence doesn't just happen because you do a few months of posting.

That's not an incredible social media presence, right? That's just kind of like a blip in the grand scheme of things. We don't have cash on hand just by thinking about it or putting a plan together or creating a really fancy spreadsheet. I love fancy spreadsheets, especially when it comes to thinking about cash and it coming in. But just putting that together doesn't mean I have cash on hand.

Employees and our team, they don't get better at their job just because we had a great orientation five years ago for them, or because we have an annual performance review. Employees have to have consistent feedback loops and opportunities and training and growth. New marketing tactics, for example. They don't work because we just go to one inspiring training workshop or session and we leave with a notebook full of information, right? Those things are all good.

I'm not saying that putting together a strategy isn't good or talking about your dream isn't good or having a fabulous orientation. Those are all good things. What we are saying here, though, is those might be the thing that spurs you to start taking action, but the real success comes in all of the day to day actions after that. So I want to push into this a little bit. When we think about this and you can kind of think of it as if we're building like one of those beautiful domino patterns.

Have you ever seen that where I feel like maybe I'm trying to think like the first time I think I saw something like this, it might have been one of those kids programs. I think I was pretty young and it was like maybe Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers or Reading Rainbow or something like that. But I remember the first time I saw this where an artist built one of those incredible domino patterns, and they laid the dominoes out, and they were just like, it was beautiful, and it was massive. It's kind of like that, right?

We have these dominoes, and some of those things I talked about, like, they're the first domino, having the idea and talking about, okay, we laid out domino one, two, three, or making a plan and then talking to people about it or making a great spreadsheet or laying out the strategy. Those are all the first dominoes. And I think that's where a lot of us are right now. In the years, we've laid out the first couple dominoes, and now we're like, okay, it takes consistency to keep laying out the next dominoes, and that's really the only way it works. The domino effect only works when all the dominoes are lined up and when we know which dominoes to line up next and in what order.

And not all dominoes are created equal. Like, we've got to put this one over here and that one over there. We have to turn it slightly this way. We have to put that together. And when you think about that, getting all the dominoes lined up and thinking about how each one is positioned next together and keeping them consistently spaced and consistently showing up to place the next domino, that beautiful domino pattern would never happen if we only laid out the first ten.

And then we went for a while, and then we laid out another one, but we went a foot out, right? And we laid okay, now I'm going to lay a couple more. Okay, now I'm going to go walk 3ft away and lay a couple more. When we push that first domino, there's a big gap there, right? And so we don't get that beautiful pattern and that beautiful domino effect, as they say.

And that's really the whole key. It's that consistency piece. And here's the interesting thing. It's not always the most brilliant person who's thought through every detail and who has so much charisma and talks a good talk and is the life of the party. And it's just that person like, wow, they're amazing at their business.

They're not always the ones who successfully launch a business or successfully have a business, because sometimes it's a lot of talk and not showing up in the day to day. In fact, it's more often the person who has the idea and is huge. You have to have that, the idea and the motivation, the passion. Absolutely. Those first dominoes have to be laid out, but then it's the tenacity to show up in the daily details, keep place in the next domino and the next one and the next one and the next one.

They're the ones who make it happen and have success. So I want to challenge you right now to stop overestimating the role of luck in other people's lives and underestimating the role of the over and over practice skill in our lives and business, the consistency, because that's really the make or break it. It's getting that all lined up. We have to show up in the ordinary things day after day. It's not sexy.

And I say that all the time. There's so much about business ownership, especially from the outside, where people are like, oh, you just get to, you know, shape your own life and design and impact. I'm like, yes, absolutely. But the only way I get to do that is by choosing which areas I'm going to be consistent in and showing up in there day after day and taking care of business, that's how we get there. So I have found though, because it is difficult to create consistency in all areas at once, in fact, I have found it basically impossible.

And I've heard this said a number of times, that you can lay out these dreams that you have, but really you have to tackle one at a time. And so I want to share with you a couple of areas that I have found to be the most impactful and then be okay with letting things go and not being consistent in some of those other areas. Because you're like, you know what? I'm going to focus in on this area, get super consistent in it, and it just becomes that habit. And I'm going to be okay with the fact that this other area is just going to wait.

It's going to be on hold. I'm going to set it on the shelf where I can still find it when I'm ready and come back to it. So let me share with you a couple of the areas I have found found, if you're like, okay, I have overwhelmed myself. I picked too many things or I'm not sure like where I want to be focused right now and get consistent and truly follow through with these goals that I have. These are the areas that I have found to be kind of like the base.

And so getting consistent in these areas then has allowed me to be consistent in some of those more nuanced areas on top of these. So the first one is personal life. Here's the thing I have definitely found when your personal life is all over the place, your business life is all over the place too. And so I have found that when I'm able to create a proven track record with myself in my personal life, that seems to be the first step to creating a proven track record with others within my business. And so conversely, a lack of consistency in my personal life seems to create a lack of consistency, which then leads to anxiety and uneasiness and just so many unpleasant feelings within my business life.

And so over the years, I've definitely made this an area to focus in on but I will say, early on in owning a business, I did not focus here. And so my personal life was fairly chaotic. And then I would show up within our business and I had expectations that my business life was not going to be chaotic. And people say, well, you just leave your personal life at the door. That's just not true.

I walk into the door and I bring with me everything that I have, right? Like, there is no leave it at the door. Certainly there's like appropriate ways to handle things or to have conversations, et cetera, but there is no real leave it at the door. That's a total myth. And so when my personal life doesn't have some semblance of consistency and that doesn't mean that it has to be down to the minute consistent and I have a perfect plan in place, or there isn't a day that goes a little bit crazy and off track.

But my overall personal life now has more of a feeling of consistency that it didn't before. And it makes it so much easier when I walk into my business life to have that as a baseline when I'm coming in the door. And so a couple of areas that I have found so incredibly impactful would be very simple, actually. One would be having a morning and an evening routine and staying 80% to 90% consistent with that. And I've certainly mixed it up over time and tried different things.

But when I go through this consistent routine, even if the rest of the day was just haywire and things were all over the place, I can control that evening routine. And there's a consistency to it, and it sets me up for a good night's sleep in the morning. I can have a fairly consistent routine. And in fact, I actually at one point wrote out if I go to bed at this time, then I will wake up about this time. And so that gives me X number of hours or minutes right before I need to leave and walk out the door.

And I wrote out three different scenarios. Because what I found was there are times where I get up a little bit later or I get up a little bit earlier, and I was still trying to cram the same exact morning routine into those times. And it wasn't working, and it was very inconsistent. And it set me up all wrong. And so I actually made three different scenarios.

If I get up at this time, here's what I can do. If I get up this time, here's how the plan changes. If I get up at this time, here's how the plan changes. So you can see there's a consistency, even though every morning was not 100% the same. The other area that I have found is with my health.

I, about five, six years ago realized through the help of some friends and just people and doing a little bit of research, I was just in a constant brain fog and was not functioning well. And a lot of it really came down to what I was putting in my body, and I felt like I ate fairly healthily, but I did hone in on that more, and then I started adding some really high quality supplements into my diet as well, and it made a world of difference. And I'm always happy to sideline chat about that if anyone ever wants to reach out about that whole topic. That has been revolutionary for me. But it's an area that I've learned to be consistent in.

I consistently eat healthily rather than in spurts and that hasn't been a super hard habit to put in place and it really has paid off. And then I have consistently been sure to stay on top of my supplements and my vitamins and that's huge. And that's one of those areas where we're like, okay, yeah, I'm going to do that for a while and you just go, no, this is part of my routine, it's part of my grocery bill. This is what I do. And being consistent in that helps my body to feel good.

And when my body is feeling good, I can then act in really great ways. When my body doesn't feel good, it's very difficult to stay consistent in other areas. The other area I would say is water, drinking lots and lots of water and making sure I'm staying consistent with that. Again, not in spurts. These are so easy and yet they can be a challenge.

And then exercise. Exercise has been huge as well. So there's areas like those in our personal lives that can set the baseline. Maybe focusing in on something like that is an area, you know what, I'm going to focus on that being consistent in my personal life in a couple of areas and it could be other things. I'm going to be consistent with the types of books that I read or that I'm going to read, or I'm going to be consistent with the way I speak to the people in my life, or I'm going to be consistent and always take a bath on Fridays or I'm going to be consistent and make sure that I always have good food in my refrigerator or fabulous makeup in my cupboard, or that I go out to the garage and I just spend a little time out in the garage just thinking and reflecting and whatever it is.

There are so many different things within our personal lives that we can do to be consistent that really starts to make a huge impact because what we're proving is I've made a promise to myself and I kept it. And if I can make and keep promises with myself, I can make and keep promises in other areas of my life and with other people. Okay. Another area that I have found honing in on getting consistent on. And again, just want to reminder, I'm not necessarily recommending that you try to do all of these things at once.

We're like, I'm going to do this area, this area and this area. Pick an area, hone in, get consistent on it and then pick another area, hone in, get consistent. Our brains and we just can't handle trying to do all of it and then we've set ourselves up for failure. Okay, let's talk finances. So know your numbers and gives you so much power.

When you know your numbers, you have power. And knowing your numbers requires consistency. Consistency in your finance impacts so many other aspects of your business. And so, for example, the decision to quit your job and launch your business hangs. It hangs on your ability to be consistent with your numbers.

The decision to bring on a new hire or create a new product is so much easier when you have been consistent with your numbers and know them well. Consistency in your finances may look like taking a regular personal paycheck. So there's so many different areas that we can hone in on as far as our finances go. But here's a couple that I want you to think about. One, you're probably immediately going to this, right?

Like, okay, so consistency, I need a consistent cash flow. That's often where we focus ourselves. I need a consistent cash flow. I need a pipeline for consistent cash flow. That is true.

So a couple of ideas with that is one, plot out when cash is coming in and when cash is going out. Don't just hold that in your head, my friends. Put a spreadsheet together, write it down on a doc. Look at your QuickBooks if you're using something like that. But plot out when your cash is coming in and going out.

And quick little plug here. If you haven't listened to the podcast episode yet with Megan Hale, be sure to go have a listen to that episode. I'll put a link in the show notes here for you because she is a master at this, at mastering your finances, at mastering your cash flow. And she has a really fabulous money mapping tool that is available at an extremely reasonable cost along with just all of her wisdom. And so just a little plug there.

She's not paying me to do that. I love it so much. It is such a fabulous tool. And so that's a place where you can plot out when cash is coming in, when you have those cash injections and when cash is going out, that helps a lot so that you understand the consistent cash flow. Consistent cash flow doesn't have to mean the exact same amount of money is coming in, let's say every month.

It just means, do you know when the money is coming in and when it's going out and how you're going to ride those waves. This will help you stay consistent with other activities needed, such as your marketing and your network and creating new product launches. Because when you're armed with the information about your cash flow, it's much easier than to stay motivated or to realize, yes, I was expecting my cash flow to go down right now, no big deal. We're not going to pull the plug on this marketing thing because the cash flow is going to go back up right here and then we're not doing that up and down, up and down, whiplash that so many business owners go through. So getting consistent about tracking your cash flow is huge.

Another one is just to monitor your finances regularly. Question how often do you look at a PNL, a profit and loss? How often do you look at a balance sheet where you can see a snapshot right now, today, how the finances are looking, how often are you looking at your bank account? How often are you moving your money and allocating it to the buckets and areas you want? Getting consistent in those things is huge.

Maybe cash flow isn't a big deal for you. You're like, we got lots of cash and we're kind of sitting on a pot of cash. We feel really good. Okay, how often are you monitoring how those finances are being used and where you're planning on allocating them, et cetera? Because that's really important.

Or maybe cash flow is a little dicey for you. Monitoring these things is so important, and it can be easy to go. I just have to run around and drum up business, and I need to do this and I need to do that. So here's a couple of things to check your numbers. I would recommend checking in on your numbers, looking at your reports weekly or monthly.

If your cash flow feels super dicey, I would recommend looking at it weekly, and that will just help you start to get a temperature. It also helps you not to be afraid. Sometimes we avoid looking at our finances. I can feel some of you, like, raising a hand right now. I have been there.

We avoid looking at our finances because it feels scary and we're like, Well, I don't want to know. But I will tell you when we can consistently monitor our finances. Whether we like the picture it's painting, we love it, or we hate the picture that it's painting, what it does is it helps give us a pulse, and we can quickly make really good decisions about whatever we're looking at. So a couple of things when it comes to monitoring your finances, a budget absolutely key. A budget is an area to improve consistency.

If you haven't already. I really like to use the YNAB app. So it stands for you need a budget now. You need a budget now. And we use it in our personal life, and we also use it in our business life.

I've modified it to be able to use it for. Our business finances as well. A budget is fabulous. You can do that so many different ways. Scorecards are great.

Do have somewhere where you have five to seven key metrics? Some people call it a KPI, a key performance indicator, where you're like, okay, I'm tracking this, and if it's trending this way, we know we're doing well. If it's going down, I know that's a place that I need to be focused in on. So creating a scorecard and then checking your reports, be sure that you're checking a profit and loss report, an accounts payable report, an accounts receivable report, and then possibly a balance sheet. Those are the four key reports that I would say you want to pop them open, have a look, and make sure that you're being consistent and keeping a pulse on those.

The other area in finances is to pay yourself a regular paycheck first. Now for some newer business owners or for some who are just riding through a little bit of a rough wave right now, or maybe you're just literally getting started and you're like, there's not really any money. I still am going to challenge you to get consistent in paying yourself a regular paycheck or amount, even if it's $5. Okay. Your business needs to pay you first.

That doesn't mean that your business needs to pay you the most or that your business needs to pay you a certain percentage right off the bat. I mean, there's certainly things to talk about there. But it does need to get consistent in paying you first. And this is an area that I myself and then have seen many friends not do, where we pay ourselves last, if at all, even if you're like. But Vivian, I want all of the cash going back into my business.

That's fine. Let's say you're cash positive and stacks of money, and that's awesome. I still want you to pay yourself something. Again, if it's $10, if it's $100, if it's one dollars, whatever it is, you need to get into a consistent habit of paying yourself and paying yourself first. It triggers all kinds of things in your brain, and maybe we'll have another episode about this at some point.

Okay? The other area is to create a consistent habit of putting aside cash for savings. You want to have that emergency cash, or you can have a big profit bonus at the end of the year, right? But consistently paying yourself first and then consistently putting aside some amount of cash into a savings. And I highly recommend checking out the book Profit first.

It's fabulous. Some of these ideas come from there, and it's just a really great book. But getting consistent in these areas is really the key to success. We can't wake up someday and go, oh gosh, I think I'll just have $10,000 in my savings. Like, that's not how that works.

We have to get consistent about putting things aside and practice in that area. Okay, a couple of other areas to talk about here that you could choose to get consistent in that I have found to be kind of the baseline. The next one I would have is marketing. And so a couple of areas to get consistent in here with marketing. And the reason I talk about this is because marketing is often one of the first things we stop being consistent in.

We will be super consistent in marketing. And some people do slash sales, marketing and sales. We'll be super consistent in it when things are good, right? When we were like, we have the money for I'm quoting right now, we have the money for it, we'll be consistent in it, or we'll be really consistent in it when we don't have business, okay, I don't have business. So I'm going to get super consistent about my marketing and my sales, but then as soon as those new clients come in, those sales come in, products are sold, we will stop doing it, right?

And so we kind of this ebb and flow rather than just having a nice consistent baseline for our marketing. So a couple of ways to get consistent in your marketing is, first off, just know your story, which by the way, not all of these costs money, so I just want to point that out. Know your story. Do you know your story so that you can consistently show up in the same story in the same rhythms in a way that people can quickly and easily recognize, or is your story bouncing all over the place? Do you know yourself?

Do you know your story and are you consistent within the story of your business? Second to that, keeping your voice relevant. So being consistent in how you use your marketing voice and that's the personality you show up in and how you talk about things, and learning as a consumer what to expect from you and being able to recognize your voice out there and all the noise really quickly. And that's an area you can be consistent in that costs no money. Okay, third up, update your website on a regular basis.

This is actually something Michael and I are talking about for our own business because we do website updates. However, we haven't really put it on like a consistent basis. It's been much more on a pain need basis. We're like, oh, okay, this is outdated, so now we need to change it or this isn't even what we're about. Our voice has changed and we've realized that and we've changed it, but we haven't translated that over to our website.

So we were just talking about that this week and Mikayla was saying, I'd like to get the website on a regular cadence where we just know that at a certain point consistently, we're going to check in and make any updates that we need. So it's not like a big thing that happens every year or every couple of years. Okay, another area to get consistent on would be your social media and an easy one. Again, it doesn't have to cost money, right, but showing up consistently and with a plan, put in the work, put in the work to come up with a plan, plan out your calendar and then show up consistently there. And certainly social media is one.

If you want to dive in more on that, we have some episodes on that, I'll be sure to link them in the Show Notes and you can reach out to me and our team anytime. This is an area that we definitely specialize in, is helping business owners become more consistent in their social media. But you can also roll up your sleeves and put in the time and effort here as well and know that it will pay off with consistency. Social media will not pay off if you're just kind of bouncing in and out and there isn't a clear plan there. That's just not how it works.

And then one more area in marketing I would say to hone in on and get consistent with, which we are just getting better at now is weekly emails. Reaching out on a weekly basis to your customer base, to your clients, or maybe even to your team through weekly emails and having consistency with that, that's so important. And in fact, there's an opportunity if you're interested in our weekly emails to sign up for them. So be sure to check that out in the Show Notes. But those weekly emails is an opportunity for you to have a consistent way to tell your story, use your voice and be sure to update your clients on what's happening on a regular basis.

Okay? Another area to be consistent in is relationships. When we're consistent in our relationships, we build trust and we set regular expectations with our people. And so I'm going to talk specifically about relationships within your business and we've had a couple of conversations about this in some previous episodes. So again, so much to link in the Show Notes today.

So many things and resources we have to guide you to. But the main thing here is that if you want to have success through your business and you have people that you interact with beyond your clients, so that could be team, it could be employees, it could be a business partner, it could be vendors, right? So thinking about those people as well as contractors, you want to be consistent in relationships with them. So this might be the area that you go, yeah, I'm not going to work on the finances thing right now, or I'm not going to work on even the personal life things right now or I have those in my pocket. Maybe relationships is the one for you.

Building trust and setting regular expectations is just gold. It goes so deep and it's really just the roots of your company and business. So a couple of things to keep in mind there is to schedule regular time with your team. Don't cancel and reschedule on your people or your team. There are times where things come up, absolutely.

But if all possible, if you've made an appointment with one of your team members, keep it right. Like they have made time, you have made time. If you have weekly meetings, you want to work hard to keep those. It's actually one of the things when we have to move, we do an L ten. A weekly.

L ten is team. When we have to reschedule that, it's painful and it kind of breaks my heart. And there are times where we have to be flexible in that and we will reschedule it. But when we do, it does cause upheaval. It erodes a tiny bit of trust.

It doesn't put out all of the great vibes that we want, right. Because we're not being consistent and being like, no, this is important. Basically what we've said is we're moving this. So whatever we're moving for is more important than what this was. Now, again, grain of salt.

There are times where you have to do things like that, but whenever possible, value that time with your team and try hard not to cancel and reschedule on them. Connect with your mentors and coaches on a consistent basis. This is something I'm excited about. I am trying to set up a couple of just key relationships, mentors, coaches throughout this year. And that's one of the things that I've reached out to them and said, can we have a consistent basis where we can connect?

Because this is an area that I want to get better at and have consistency in. And then just creating space for your key personal relationship. So circling background to that personal piece, making sure that that is in a good place is going to affect all of these other relationships as well. If relationships with key personal life people, whether that's spouse or kids or family or besties or whatever those are, if we're not being consistent and remembering to have time with them, that's going to trickle over into everything else. Okay, here's one of the things I love about this is it's just four areas, personal life, finances, marketing and relationships to focus in on and think about and say which one, if any.

Right? You might be like, no, I'm good, I have my other areas of focus, that's fine. But if you are thinking about this, I want to get consistent in something that's going to impact my business. These are the four key areas that I would recommend getting started with. It's so, so impactful because here's really why.

Consistency builds a narrative of wins. It is one win after another after another. Every time I make the bed in the morning, I won. Every time I make it out to my car and pull out of the driveway, I won, right? It's these little tiny winds.

And it is funny because my mom actually is the one who taught me to make my bed, which I do to this day consistently. Not 100%, but consistently, for sure. And that one small act builds up trust in myself. I can trust that I will have a nicely made bed to come home to pretty much every day. I can trust that I have what it takes to complete this task.

And that means I can complete the next task. And it helps me set up that next domino when we show up with consistency. And notice I didn't say with perfection or with the best idea, or even with the best attitude, but we show up with consistency and we're faithful to the ordinary things. And stacking that next domino, we build trust. That builds confidence and it starts with building trust in ourselves and then keeping the promises we make to ourselves.

And when we think about it that way, we say it in our head, right? We say things like I do eat healthy, I am able to keep a morning routine, I do make my bed, I do take time with my kids before I engage with work. I have a handle on the finances and enter the receipts. I do connect each week with a team meeting. I have taken one more step today so I know that I will show up and take the next step tomorrow.

Those are very powerful statements that we can say to ourselves. So this all sounds great and maybe you have a spark of motivation. I hope so. It's still so early in the year and really you can do this any time. It could be in June, it could be in October.

Anytime you decide to start getting consistent in one of these areas is going to pay off. And it may all sound super inspiring, right? But often we can find a disconnect between who we are and who we would like to be. We know that we want our business to look like something, but that journey from where we are to where we would like to be can feel so long that it makes us burn out or avoid making attempt towards those goals, right? That's the reality.

That's when roadblocks creep in and that whole idea of learning to change our minds, it all comes in. And there's often anxiety and uneasiness. So it's easy to let distractions I guess that's what I'm trying to say. It's so easy to let distractions creep in and then months later we realize we have been holding our dominoes and not lining them up. So easy for those distractions to come up.

So let's talk a little bit about common distractions and then how we can practically remove them. And first I want to say be kind to yourself. These distractions are common and some are not bad in and of themselves. It's a matter of observing them and then being kind to yourself and honing in your true goals and dreams and then putting a plan together that gently brings you back into consistency. That is huge.

And that is not an approach I have always taken. I have often been forceful with myself and have not been gentle with myself and tried to force myself into consistency. And I will say those moments have not paid off nearly as well as just noticing, reflecting, and then gently moving myself back. And a great example of that, you've probably heard things like this. Like if you want to move your bedtime, if you try to move your bedtime by an hour or 2 hours, it's that's forcing yourself that's painful versus gently moving yourself towards a new bedtime or towards a new get up time.

Maybe that's what it is for you getting up earlier rather than trying to do that by hours, just do it by minutes. Right? That's much gentler and has a much higher success rate. I'm going to get up five minutes earlier today. Okay.

I'm going to do ten minutes earlier the next day, 15 minutes. And that's what builds. And by the way, isn't that interesting? Laying those consistent little dominoes, quick little win allows us to get to the next one. Okay?

So we often will try avoiding the unpleasant and we zoom in and we stay there. Right? What makes this task so unpleasant? That's what I think we want to do. We want to zoom in.

What makes this task so unpleasant? Is there something I don't understand? Does it take me away from something else? Just notice what it is. Zoom in on why we're avoiding this.

Usually it's because it's unpleasant. So I want you to zoom in and stay there. Just notice. What is it about it that I don't like? What is it about it that's driving me crazy and just saying, I don't know, I just can't do it?

That doesn't count. Zoom in. Sit with it. To help maintain a steady focus, we want to direct our energy and mind towards those types of things and identify what the underlying barrier is. Then we can zoom in even more and focus on what's truly important.

Is it actually important to be consistent in this activity or this goal? Maybe it's not, right? Maybe when you sit there and you think about why you don't want to do it and what's unpleasant about it, and then you start thinking about, okay, and why have I said that I need to do this? You might discover that it's not important and you just remove it. Maybe it needs removed or maybe it needs delegated.

So think on that. So once we've identified what it is, then we need to zoom in again. When there's a task I have to do, but I'm avoiding it because it's not my favorite thing. Like, for example, entering mileage on our expense sheet. I just don't like doing it.

What I find is that's the time to actually lean in and just be present in the moment, and that really is the crucial thing there, right, is rather than allowing myself to be distracted, I will just turn on some great music, lean in and be like, I have to do this. No one else can do it. I can't delegate this one out. I got to get it done. And so I'm just going to lean in and be in the moment, and I'm going to find ways to enjoy this, which sounds kind of crazy, but I'm like, I'm going to pop in some great music and listen to some great music while I do now.

That's so much more fun. So there's little tricks. I'll do like that. Also, I'll try to avoid dwelling too much on future outcomes. So, for example, putting the miles into the spreadsheet or taking my time away from XYZ right now, I could be doing XYZ because that distracts us from what we're doing in the present moment.

And so that's one of the areas, again, where I use that music, I pop it in. I kind of am redistracting myself. I'm double distracting myself to go, okay, I'm just going to listen to some great music. I'm going to lean in. I'm going to be in the moment.

I'm going to be here, do it well, do it with class, and not think about the other thing that I could be doing instead, because that's just distracting me from just getting this done. So one of the things Mikayla reminds me of all the time is she'll say it is. She says, I'm going to do the hard thing first, the thing I'm avoiding, the thing that I just have to do, and no one else can do it. And it's just a piece of being consistent. I've got to enter these numbers in.

Do it first, do the hard thing first, and then do one thing at a time. So if it's something that I want to be consistent in, it's so easy to get distracted by thinking about the other five things that I want to be consistent in. This, again, is that place. Even if you enjoy it, you can still get distracted by thinking about the other things or trying to do multiple things at once. Lean in and do one thing at a time, and that will help you be more consistent and avoid that distraction.

And then allow yourself to get lost in the task. Completely block things out. And that goes back to don't be thinking about the other things you could be doing if you have to write those on a piece of paper so that you can put it out of your mind. Get lost in it. Enjoy the thing, observe it, see what's happening.

Notice what's happening within your body, what's happening within your business, what's happening within the patterns that you're seeing. Listen again. Music is a big one for me. Listen to some really great music and just get lost in the task completely so that you have all those distractions shut off. Make sure that your email is not digging at you.

You don't have desktop notifications coming in so that you can really hone in on this thing and lean into it. And then my friend Lisa, she has this fabulous conference, and she's all about ripple effect and also that our job is joy. And so one of the things she talks about is turning a crappy into happy. And so if it's something that you just really dislike, figure out a way to enjoy it. And so she talks about like a sock party.

I'm sharing Lisa's story with this. She talks about a sock party, which I love this example where she's like, I hate matching socks. My husband likes to match socks. So we turn into a sock party. We turn on great music, we order some pizza, we have some wine, whatever it is, whole family gets involved.

We turn it into a party. We match the socks. We're done. Such a great example. What are those things that you're doing that you don't like, that you know, you need to be consistent in?

And how can you turn it from a crappy to happy? Because the longer we dwell on, I hate this, I hate this. I don't want to do this. This is terrible, this sucks, the worse that's going to get. So list out those things that you don't like doing and then think about it.

How could I make this more enjoyable? Maybe I need to do it with a friend. Maybe I need to do it sitting on the back porch. Maybe I do this when my cat can curl up in my lap. Maybe I turn music on.

Maybe it's something I dance while I do it. What is it that could help that be more fun? Another thing that can distract us is when we're creating excuses. And so we'll often create excuses to distract ourselves from our fears. It may feel easier to give in to the temptation to indulge in pleasant activities right?

And procrastinate on daily priorities, the consistent things, and allow yourself to get distracted all the time. Warning sign here. You may be dealing with some fear. And so ways that we will distract ourselves because we're afraid to dive into something is maybe we check our email instead of writing the proposal because we're not sure how to write the proposal and we have some anxiety around it. Or we could spend time scrolling through Facebook because we're not sure how to address that email that came to us and all the questions in it.

And I'm not sure how to work out the pricing right now, so I'm scrolling Facebook instead. Or maybe I'm watching TV or Netflix. Right. Sometimes I'm doing that because I'm avoiding something else out of fear. Maybe I'm avoiding making a phone call because I feel uncertain about it.

And so instead I'm doing all the other things. I'm entering my mileage on my sheet right when I know that's not what I need to be doing. I can get lost in TikTok videos or maybe I'm cleaning and moving laundry. That's a big thing for me. I sometimes do things like that because I'm avoiding something that I'm fearing, that I have anxiety about, that I'm not sure about.

Okay, so another area is creating excuses to distract yourself from your fears. It may feel easier to give in to the temptation to indulge in these pleasant activities and procrastinate on daily priorities. And you've probably heard yourself say it or others were like, I'm just a procrastinator. And then we all kind of giggle and like, oh yeah, I get it, I'm a procrastinator too. And we just kind of like, yeah, that's just how it is.

But really what we're doing is we're allowing ourselves to get distracted all the time because of fear. That's often what is triggering up here. It's a warning sign. So if you're finding yourself like checking your email constantly, or scrolling Facebook a ton, or making lots of phone calls, or watching TV and Netflix, or getting lost in TikTok videos, cleaning and moving the laundry, avoiding through research, which I'm going to expand on some more here. These are all activities that seem harmless to begin with or even useful at times, but they're generally indicators of fear.

And these fear induced distractions can easily make you slip from your goals and dreams. 1 minute you're just catching up on your social media, you're researching an idea and 2 hours later it's time for bed or to run your kids to their appointment and you haven't even begun. Now it has to wait until another day when you turn off the fear. It's easier to gently move away from these distractions and then you can have a better chance of actually getting stuff done and getting it done consistently. Now, I'm not saying that every time you're on Facebook or you're scrolling TikTok or whatever that you are having fear, but it's definitely worth digging into and going, am I avoiding?

Am I allowing myself to be distracted out of fear? And it could be that it is fear. You're checking your email, which is a good thing, right? You're checking your email, you're staying on top of clients, all those good things within your business because you're avoiding out of fear. Putting a proposal together, I've certainly done that because I'm not 100% sure how to put the proposal together and I feel a little anxious about it and I don't know all the details that should be in there or I need to write a contract and I don't feel adequate in writing that contract for that particular client.

And so I have this fear and anxiety and so I'll do all the other things and allow those things to distract me because I'm just afraid to do whatever it is I need to get done. So here's the other thing though. Aside from digital distractions, I often find that researching is one of the biggest ones that distract us here. That was that last one in that list that I gave. Research is great, and I love research, but it can also be a crutch.

Are you spending more time researching than doing or watching more TikTok videos on how to do something rather than trying it? This game would play on personal life. Like, are you watching more TikTok videos on how to do that dance move than actually trying the dance move? Or watching more TikTok videos on how you could improve your finances and do that really cool investment thing than actually calling your investment guy and being like, hey, can we do this really cool thing? Or those really awesome recipes?

And then you never try it, right? This is one like, are you sending more Instagram reels to a friend about ideas rather than trying them? Are we reading books on theory or watching YouTube videos or talking about what you're going to do or could do, but never actually doing any of it? So often this is an indicator that we are just simply a little bit afraid to take the next step and we're feeling uncertain and so we distract ourselves. So a few practical tactics to try when avoiding out of fear gets in your way.

Remember, your goal is to dial down all distractions so they're not in your way. Remove yourself from the physical distractions. Let people around you, family members, friends, teammates know you just won't be available for the next few hours. Set your phone to airplane mode. When you need to focus on your work.

Try it for just like a two hour period. It doesn't have to be all day or an hour or 30 minutes. Check email and social media apps on scheduled intervals. Maybe it's only two or three times a day. There's apps, by the way, that can help out with that.

Close all tabs in your browser. That's a hard one, right? Close all tabs in your browser. So it's easier to focus on the one thing. Those other tabs, they're little eyeballs are staring at you all the time.

Like, click on me, go somewhere different. Change up your space. That can actually be a way to reduce distractions is by just being in a new space. Do a little research, absolutely, do some research. But maybe set a timer.

When the timer goes off, try one piece of what you just learned. That's a way that you can kind of work yourself out of that habit. Create many accountability moments. So set up a few small milestones and then text them with a friend or business partner. So for example, you could text a friend, I'm going to do these three items on my list today.

Then when you have them done, text that same person and be like, hey, I did. I did, number one and number two and number three. I do this all the time. I text Jenny, who is our super admin here, and she's a friend, and I will text her. And I'll say things like, I have a weekly email to write, I need to send my mileage, and I have to enter receipts and QuickBooks.

Today I sent her a message like that she doesn't really care whether I do all those things, but she's willing to cheer me on. And so she'll be like, yeah, that's awesome. And then when I get them done, I tell her I got them done. It just gives me a little piece of accountability, even though it's not like she's a QuickBooks expert or anything like that, right? That's not the point.

So these tips will help you as you build that muscle of trust. And that's really what this all comes back to. I've done this rep, okay? Now, I know I can do the next one, but the first set of reps can feel a little difficult, right? But you can do this.

You really can. I promise you can. For my friends out there who need it said bluntly, stop talking and do stop reading and act. Stop watching and make it a reality. Remember, though, we can do this kindly.

One domino, then observe. See how it went. Place the next one. Okay, my friends, I want you to get out there, get consistent. Pick one area, just one area.

Hone in. Build some consistency. Build some trust. I would love to know how this goes for you, how this lands for you, how it feels. And heck, if you want to challenge me back and be like, you know what?

I feel a little differently about this, or here's, how I've approached this. I would love to hear from you. It excites me so much when I open up my email and I hear from one of you or it's in my Facebook messages, I hear from one of you that feedback is so valuable. I'd love to hear from you about this whole topic of consistency and things that get in our way and how we can avoid those distractions, how we can remove those distractions from our lives so that we can have the lives that we truly want. All right, my friends, so glad that you've been here with me today.

Just a quick reminder, if you'd like to support Tandem Works, the podcast, one of the most valuable things you can do is to subscribe and leave a review and share this podcast with a friend. Those are fabulous ways to support what we're doing here, and I'm looking forward to seeing you in the next episode.