​Week 35 Focus – Presentations 101
Focus Question: What is important to communicate in your next presentation? How do you want to capture people’s attention?

Description
As a solopreneur, it's likely that you'll be giving presentations to a wide variety of audiences from webinars, to lunch and learns, to speaking at conferences. Section 3 goes into many different ways you can be thinking about creating content and positioning presentation.
 
Fear of public speaking is usually listed as a Top 10 fear of adults. So how can we prepare to give a WOW presentation?
 
As a starting point, take 5 minutes to brainstorm. Make a list of everything you could possibly talk about. What are the topics that your clients or customers would really appreciate?
 
As someone who's been involved in presentation skills training for almost 2 decades, here are a couple of key things to keep in mind:

• Speak in bullet points – reinforce what the main points are at the start, middle and end.
• What would you like people to take away from the presentation?
• Connect people early on to what’s important about the topic for them. We often call this the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?)

 
Research/Story
One of the biggest pitfalls you can experience as a presenter is that no one wants to participate.
 
 Tips to get participation happening:

1. Be clear with process let people know what process will unfold. Describe what they can expect to take away from the session (3 bullet points). Return to this throughout your session.
2. Connect them with their WIIFM – What’s In It For Me? Connect people early in your presentation to how this topic has relevance to them. You might do this by asking the question – What’s important about this topic to you right now?  OR Who has a story that they can share? Consider how you will connect people early on.
3. Have a variety of strategies to engage people on a regular basis. From the litmus test of incorporating a pace change 7-10 minutes, to a more frequent pace change virtually, we want to keep things moving and involve the audience. Virtually, this can range from breakouts to annotation to polls. Get people involved in the presentation. Bring in their stories and voice.

 
Activity
Consider an upcoming presentation:

• What is important to note about the process? What is the purpose? What is the presentation all about?  What do you hope people will take away?
• What will you do to connect people to their WIIFM?
• What are the strategies you will use to connect people to their WIIFM? When?

 
Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Refer to Section 3 of the Coaching Business Builder and the section specific to presentations. Take a look at the textbox on presentations which you will find on page 77 of the Coaching Business Builder.

Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Plan, Do and Track here.

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track

​Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019),  Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon
Book Jennifer for a coaching session to explore productivity, teamwork and business issues.
Contact her by phone at (416)996-8326
Check out the new 19 Productivity Tips on-demand program. Explore this video based program at  your own pace, and join Jennifer for bi-weekly calls as part of your course.
Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram

Welcome back to the 30th weekly planning hack. This week’s WPH is about engaging in ongoing learning. Today we have many options to engage in ongoing learning – from books, and podcasts to MOOCS (Massive Open Online Courses) to industry recommended programs.

What is the ongoing learning that’s going to help you get where you want to go?
​
Consider these questions:

• What are the skills you wish you had in your toolbox, so you could do things quicker or faster?
• What are the practice opportunities you wish you had to translate things you know into action? When can you schedule those in?
• What are the things your mentor would indicate are important to you?

I hope that you will spend a few minutes this week exploring options which exist for you to learn more about these areas.

Enjoy your learning!
​Jennifer 

​Week 34 Focus – Systems in The Business
Focus Question: What’s working and what’s not as it relates to your systems?

Story
Systems help us to replicate things on a consistent basis. They also help us to:

• Scale business
• Be more efficient rather than having to reinvent the wheel multiple times
• Organize – so things take less time

Think about your work, whether you are an entrepreneur, leader or team member. My guess is that you already have a variety of systems in place to help you do things, and that there’s room for growth. Throughout the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack I cover a variety of systems.
 
Consider these systems for your business:

Activity
Note what’s worked and what hasn’t around the different systems in your work or business.
Do an audit on your systems. Consider:

• Systems to be created
• Systems which are working
• Systems being used in other organizations/parts of the organization which could be adopted
• Best practices around systems in your business

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Refer to part 3 of the book and what is noted around systems. Part of doing a review is noting metrics and trends. Take a look back at your notes. What do you notice?

​You may want to:
Review the Annual Planners and Quarterly Tools
Review the Monthly Daily Planners – what do you notice?
Use brainstorm lists to capture these ideas around systems.

Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Plan, Do and Track here.

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track

In today’s uber-busy world, having huge blocks of time are often not feasible without a lot of pre-planning. Part of the philosophy of the PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planners is that it is about taking CONSISTENT Action and DAILY steps to create momentum.
​
Over time, we may also start to notice how valuable it is to have blocked off time so we can focus in on tasks that require more than a short amount of our attention. Some writers and researchers point to the need for 90-minute windows for “Deep Work” (as Cal Newport would say).

What are the blocks of time you have available? Some possibilities include:

• Scheduling out time blocks: (i.e. 90 minutes for important projects) at the start of a quarter.
• Creating new working schedule: ie. Waking up earlier and dedicating that time to work on a project. For many years now I have adopted the practice of starting my work day around 5 or 5:30 am. I find that the first hour or two are often my most productive, and critical for success.
• Letting go of activities that aren’t supporting you as much:  We can easily fall into the pattern of doing things “just because we do them”. This might be binging on shows or participating in a seasonal activity you don’t really enjoy, “just because”. In service to the things you really want to create in your work, what are the things you can let go of this year to free up time so you can do what’s important?

Best,
Jennifer 

Week 33 Focus – People Management 101
Focus Question: What makes your people exceptional?

Description
People are at the heart of any great business, or team. People management is a critical element for success.
If you are a first-time team developer there’s lots to learn. It is often said that the move to first time supervisor or manager of people is the largest step you’ll ever undertake during your career. In PlanDoTrack, I explore core skills needed by both team leaders and team members. Given the autonomous nature of virtual and remote work, it can be beneficial and valuable to build these skills across an entire team – not just with the leader.
As a leader of people, there are a variety of different conversations you will engage in. Here are several of them:

• Performance conversations
• Delegation
• Prioritization
• Helping you do your best work – strengths conversations
• Mentoring or advisory conversations
• Change – what’s not work and why

As people leaders, we will want to keep in mind these team development and motivational foundations:

• We are motivated by both internal and external factors (Internal factors include= Learning, Growth, Achievement, Mastery - External factors include= Promotion, Reward and Compensation);
• We want support in different ways (regular check-ins vs “let me get on with my work”);
• We want to give feedback in different ways;
• We want to receive feedback in different ways;
• Hearing something once may not be enough;
• Being shown what it can look like, or different samples of work, can be helpful in creating a visible path.

Team development is a process. Different types of team development activities are required throughout the year. From team check-ins to retreats, ask yourself:

• What’s the best activity for the moment?
• What’s the most important thing for the team to focus on right now?
• What’s the best vehicle?
• When do we really need to get together?

In working in a virtual or remote space, all of us have the need to be a good people leader - not only formal managers - as we get work done through others.
 
Activity
Consider your skill base right now. What is one skill area you could become more effective in to boost your impact as a people leader?

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Complete the Wheel of Virtual and Remote Work in PlanDoTrack and review the skills listed in Section 1 of PlanDoTrack. What do you notice? Where can you improve?

Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Plan, Do and Track here.

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track

​Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019),  Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon
Book Jennifer for a coaching session to explore productivity, teamwork and business issues.
Contact her by phone at (416)996-8326
Check out the new 19 Productivity Tips on-demand program. Explore this video based program at  your own pace, and join Jennifer for bi-weekly calls as part of your course.
Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram

Scattered throughout some of the 28 different planning tools of PlanDoTrack and the Coaching Business builder is the question “what will wild success look like?”. I love asking this question to people I am coaching as it gets us to think about WHAT IS POSSIBLE, often without a lot of censure.
​
There are several ways to reword this question:

• What’s possible?
• If you were to wave a magic wand, what would be the end result?
• If there were no limits, what would you do?

​The benefit of these questions is that it:

• Helps us look larger and bigger
• It may shift some of the limiting beliefs and inner critical voices we face around that goal and the related change we need to take in order to make it happen
• Helps us stretch
• Supports more ideas and possibilities

As you go about your planning for the next month or quarter, what can wild success look like for you around your most important goals?

Best wishes,
Jennifer 

Week 32 Focus – One Percent Rule to Business Development
Focus Question: What are the consistent daily steps you want to undertake?
​
Description
Since 2005 I have been sharing what I call the One Percent Rule to Business Development. I've heard from a lot of entrepreneurs that they like this notion of incremental business action. So here it is!
The 1% rule to business development consists of a series of 8 different stages:
1. Create the Vision: Our vision sets the broad swath of possibility. It gets us thinking about what is possible. It also helps to anchor us when we think about where we want to go and what we want to do. Making our vision detailed and keeping it visible can be important. How are you enshrining your vision?
2. Prepare. During the preparation phase we want to get clear on what the requirements are for our work and projects. We want to know what a successful result looks like. We want to be clear on what resourcing is needed. During the preparation phase we will gather all the information we have so we can pull together a plan.
3. Create an action plan. In my work as a coach, I usually get my clients to create a One-Page Action Plan. The value of the One-Page Plan is that it contains all of the most important information in one page. The One-Pager be placed in a visual location so that you can refer to it quickly AND regularly. What’s on your action plan?
4. Seek out support. What is going to help you achieve the key goals you have set out for yourself? Support can take many forms – financial, technical, people. What do you need to be successful?
5. Take ongoing small steps. As my father, a retired entrepreneur himself, always reminds me that “Rome was not built in a day”. The premise behind the workbook planners is about taking REGULAR, CONSISTENT action. In building a business by ourselves burnout may be a possibility if we move too fast. It can be important to take regular small steps to create the momentum needed for things done quickly.
6. Test, Learn, Retest. In the sixth step were going to test things out. Today's volatility and complexity requires that we experiment regularly.  With the data we receive from the initial test or action we can learn and apply then retest and learn again. This is an iterative process which continues. Throughout the business cycle we may move through different bouts of experimentation. Each cycle creates an opportunity for learning and growth.
7. Learn, Iterate and Act. Each action creates a reaction, which over time creates its own momentum, making it easier to achieve the goal. Along the way learning and feedback will help to shape what we do.
8. Ultimately our goal is achieved. Based on our experience we will further refine the vision that we set out for ourselves, expanding it or modifying it based on our experience. This will further support and shape our actions are we move forward with the next cycle and process.
This cycle may take place in a short amount of time, for example a day or it may be phased over the longer term of a project.
 
Activity
Using your business or a current project, work through the One Percent Rule. What can action and learning look like around one of your most important goals? Map out the 8 steps of the One Percent Rule.

​Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Refer to the One Percent Rule to Business in Section 1 on page 29 of the Coaching Business Builder, or page 31 of PlanDoTrack.

Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Plan, Do and Track here.

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track

​Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019),  Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon
Book Jennifer for a coaching session to explore productivity, teamwork and business issues.
Contact her by phone at (416)996-8326
Check out the new 19 Productivity Tips on-demand program. Explore this video based program at  your own pace, and join Jennifer for bi-weekly calls as part of your course.
Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram

​In today’s Digitally Disrupted world, the skill set of discernment and focus are taking precedence. The ability to find “micro-pauses” where you can stop, assess and make decisions plays a critical role in productivity, teams and leadership.
​
Here’s what I wrote bout the skill of discernment earlier this year here at the PlanDoTrack Blog in February:

​“Leveraging our time is as much about getting organized, as it is getting clear on what’s important. Against the backdrop of complexity, ongoing change and disruption, getting ruthless with our time management can be so important to many. As a business owner, or remote worker, this is especially true. We can’t get out time back. So, when we go down a rabbit hole (whether it’s doing too much research online, following a shiny red object or thinking we just need to learn “one more thing”), the costs can be tremendous. Not just in NOT getting things done, but in terms of our focus, our motivation and also our profit line!

Discernment is about getting clear on what’s important and what’s not. It is about being clear of what’s going to provide impact now, later or never.
​
As a remote worker or virtual business owner, we are quite control of our time. Our colleagues and/or superiors may be hundreds of miles away, or several time zones ahead. As remote workers, it’s not always about how we manage our time, but how we get our results. Those who feel the crunch in getting something over the finish line is usually only us (and those loved ones around us!).

With this in mind, what is the cost of not being discerning around where your time goes, or how clear your projects are, or what is a more important priority than another?
​
As we embark on new projects, or start a new week, it can be useful to be asking (ourselves, and our stakeholders):

• What’s most important today?
• What are the top 3-5 things I want to get completed?
• What are the MUST Dos?
• What will success look like with this project/task?
• As it relates to this project/task, what’s important?
• Have I considered the short-term, medium-term and long-term in making decisions?
• What would my colleague/boss/peer/customer say is most important to focus on today?
• What impact will this activity have? And that one?

 
What questions do you want to consider asking as you decide one priority to another?”

How can discernment help you in your work and focus right now?

Let us know!
​Jennifer

This week’s Weekly Planning Hack invites you to think about decluttering your digital landscape (or even starting afresh).
​
Recently, decluttering has been a popular topic in everyday lifestyle arenas. From Marie Kondo’s philosophy of “Does it bring you joy?”, to Gretchen Rubin’s focus on “Outer Order, Inner Calm” (the same name as her newest book), we may also want to take a look at our digital landscape, where many of us spend a bulk of our time.
​
Take a look at your digital landscape (which may include phones and computers, and tablets, and hard drives). Ask yourself:

• What is working well?
• What aren’t you using?
• What can be removed?
• What needs to be backed up? After that back up – what do you want to keep? Archive? Spotlight?
• What needs to be deleted?
• What do you need to unsubscribe from?
• What is your vision of a truly satisfying digital landscape on the different devices you own?
• What would minimizing look like for you in terms of devices and content?

Earlier this year I spent some time exploring this topic with a group of business owners. The topic of digital clutter was causing significant angst for several group members, impeding their ability to get work done.

On a scale of 1-10, how important is this topic for you right now?
​
What is the time window you are going to allocate to focus on it?

When will you get it done?

Best of luck!
​Jennifer

Week 31 Focus – Marketing Review
Focus Question: What needs a tweak with your 5 P’s?
​
Description
Last week we started to take stock of where you are around dialogue and marketing of your work. Whether you are internal, or external, we are regularly marketing ourselves. Internally we may be focused on personal branding and/or creating and positioning a business case for our work. Externally, we want to offer the best item of value to our customers or clients.
 
When we explore the topic of marketing and program/product design, we often talk about the Marketing Mix or the 5 P’s– Product, Placement, Promotion, People, and Price. Knowing our 5 P’s and reviewing it regularly ensures that we are on target with what our customers or stakeholders want.
 
This week, as review, note what’s worked, and what hasn’t recently in the five different areas of the 5 P’s.

Activity
Use associated worksheet to note what’s worked and what hasn’t around the 5 P’s around your product or service offering.
Undertake a review of your metrics. This could include numbers of subscribers, engagement, posts, views, follows, comments etc. What do you notice?
What’s working around your marketing right now?
Consider the business which has come in, over last six months. What sources led to it? What is in the pipeline? What has shaped this?
 
Do an audit on your content. Consider:

• Content to be created
• Content which is being consumed
• Content which could be repurposed
• Syndication options – WHERE and THROUGH WHOM could you expand your web of followers and readership?

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Part of doing a marketing review is reviewing metrics and trends. Take a look back at your notes. What do you notice? You may want to:

• Review the Annual planners and quarterly tools
• Review the monthly daily planners – what do you notice?
• Use the Content Creation Tools in the Coaching Business Builder or PlanDoTrack to Track and note ideas you want to action
• Use brainstorm list to capture these ideas around marketing

 
 Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Plan, Do and Track here.

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track

​Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019),  Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon
Book Jennifer for a coaching session to explore productivity, teamwork and business issues.
Contact her by phone at (416)996-8326
Check out the new 19 Productivity Tips on-demand program. Explore this video based program at  your own pace, and join Jennifer for bi-weekly calls as part of your course.
Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram