Week 24 Focus – 9 Different Promotional Vehicles
Focus Question: How do you want to get the word out?

Description
Whether we are representing our organization, building our personal brand, or marketing a product or service, becoming savvier with different promotional vehicles can be of importance when building a business case, communicating it or marketing a product or service. Section 3 of both the Coaching Business Builder and Plan Do Track explores 9 different promotional vehicles.
​
Now that you have your message, what are the key ways you want to get your message out? Let’s explore the 9 Promotional Vehicles a little more in-depth.

Research/Story 

Activity
Identify 2-4 different strategies to help you “get the word out” this quarter. Complete the following chart:

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Section 3 explores the different marketing approaches more in depth. Review these and the associated questions to gain further insight.

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
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week!
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)

This week's Weekly Planning Hack is about Time Tracking. Where does your time really go? On a Personal and Professional level, time tracking can be a significant issue. One study noted in the Harvard Business Review found that "not filling out time sheets properly costs the U.S. economy $7.4 billion a day in productivity".
​
One of the first Weekly Planning Hacks here was around the Pomdoro Technique, a time management function where you use alarms and focus in on 25-50 minute bursts of work.
Last week we explored different apps for time management. Note what you have available to you through your phone and dedicated apps to track your time through bursts of focus.

This week, consider focusing in on tracking your time. In the 19 Productivity Tips course I share a time tracking template so you can note on a 15-30 minute basis throughout the day where your time is actually being spent. This can be very instructive over the course of a week or month to note where your time is actually going.  Create your own time tracker using a blank page of paper, segmenting it into 15 minute blocks, or refer to the lecture in the 19 Productivity Course I released earlier this year.

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

Week 23 Focus – What’s your message?
Focus Question: What are you doing to create a message that is clear, crisp and consistent? What is important to consider?

Description
We have spent the last few weeks exploring different marketing approaches which will have been of interest to virtual professionals and entrepreneurs. For those that are leaders and professionals internal to an organization, a reminder that positioning your message internally, and building a business case, draws on many of the marketing principles we have been talking about.

This week’s focus on “What’s your message?” is important to all virtual professionals and business owners. Being clear with your message, and its delivery is key to business success.

Across the span of a week we are constantly communicating. From formal presentations to meetings with your boss, to connecting with peers, communication happens formally and informally throughout the day.

This week’s focus is what’s your message? We’ll explore it in the light of making a presentation.

It’s often said that you have 7 seconds to make a good first impression. What’s going to capture the attention of others with your message?

Consider the following:

• Distilling your message down to 3 bullet points. Take a look at this week’s quote.
• Starting your presentation/communication with a factoid, photo or graphic to capture their attention.
• Asking a question to get people thinking about how the topic relates to them.

What’s going to make the impression you want? In today’s business context, being heard and being understood is critical.

Activity
Think about an upcoming presentation or message you need to deliver. It could the announcement of a new program or offering. Work through these questions:
What’s your core message? What is it that you really want to say? Distill it down to 3 bullet points. What’s your intent? What do you want others to do as a result of the presentation?
​
Key to creating memorable messages is that it is:

• Memorable – What will make this stand out? Is there a story or image you can share?
• Clear – Review your message. What’s unclear?
• Understood – what are the terms or issues people are looking for? What are people listening for?

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Using the content planners and brainstorming space found towards the back of the planner can support you with your messaging. Also consider referring to some of the tips in Section 3 (Marketing and Promotion Essentials) as well.

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
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week!
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)

In this week’s Weekly Planning Hack, I’m exploring some of the varied apps that are available to support you in time management. Many of us have periods where everything is digital. This may be your daily practice OR it may be the way you do things while traveling or on the road for work.

Apps around time management can support many functions including:

• Project Management
• Time Tracking – where your time is going
• Calendaring
• Scheduling
• Contents
• Invoicing
• Learning

Let’s take a look at some of the options under these umbrellas:

Project Management – Two of my favorite project management apps are Trello and Asana. While a little different in focus and look, they are both mobile and desk top friendly. I find I use Trello more for writing and creative projects like program design, while turning to Asana for projects that require collaboration.

Time Tracking – One of the first Weekly Planning Hacks here was around the Pomdoro Technique, a time management function where you use alarms and burst of work. Note what you have available to you through your phone and dedicated apps to track your time through bursts of focus.
There is also an opportunity to track your time through a multitude of apps such as Toggl, Timeline, Tsheets and many others. What do you use? Let us know in the comments below what you use and what you like about it?
 
Learning Apps – As an educator in both formal and informal contexts for many years, there are so many great ways to take “learning with you”. From podcasts to on-demand video-based courses. 

One of the applications I use with my clients is Teachable. You’ll note the Teams365 series of programming continues to grow in scope. The Teams365 Teamwork Foundations course has been joined this year by the 19 Productivity Tips and Time Management program. Having been involved in creating both corporate and public programming for many years I know how valuable it is for students to be able to learn in this flexible format. While it’s not for everyone, when there ‘s an urgent need, nothing beats taking a quick on-demand program.

Invoicing – for those involved in running a business, invoicing and financial apps are critical to keeping a business running and doors open. From PayPal to Quick books, along with other tracking systems, it makes it easy to receive and send money at the press of a button.
 
As you may have noticed, I did not touch on all of these and will be covering some of them in future posts. Stay tuned next week for Time Tracking and Time Tracker Apps.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday  here.
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)
Just announced - July's Facilitator Training for PlanDoTrack and the Coaching Business Builder. Are you interested incorporating these resources into your own work. Help me bring the resource out to 20,000 virtual entrepreneurs, remote workers and team leaders by 2020! Early bird rate on to June 21st.

Week 22 Focus:
Marketing–Creating Continuous Content
Focus Question: If you were to create content around different themes, what would those themes be? 

Description
Marketing can take a variety of different forms. It can be useful to look at it from different time frames including:

• Short-term
• Medium term
• Long term

What are the different types of vehicles you would use to generate buzz about your work and offering in each of these different ways?

Ongoing marketing is critical for business success. It’s easy to run out of ideas. This week’s Tip gets you thinking about Creating Continuous Content.
​
Whether it’s Facebook or a blog, Instagram or Pinterest, here are some of the varying ways to get your ideas out:
1. Create a series – i.e. 31-day series around the topics of your choice;
2. Create an A- Z series (take a look at my A-Z for Virtual and Remote Team Members);
3. Do an infographic about the different steps in the process;
4. Do a 60 second sound byte around the most important topics in your area;
5. Do an in-depth step by step guide with a series of different posts for the different areas of focus;
6. Create a Top 10 list of books
7. Prepare a top 10 list of videos to check out
8. Make a list of 10 Websites to check out
9. Create a go-to guide
10. Produce a user’s guide to (insert main questions or how tos)
11. Create a Top 10 trends from the year
12. Make a list of Ted talks to explore on the topic
 
What will help to make your message more strategic and targeted?
What is of interest to your clients? What will help to focus the conversation for people?

Activity
Get in to action around one of your key priorities in marketing. Use the list of 10 series above to create a series of marketing tasks. You might:

• Host a Facebook live, or Instagram call around a topic of your choice.
• Do a podcast around your topics
• Write an
• White post
• Linked in Article on Pulse
• Create an assessment or self assessment. For example, if you are working with leaders, have them identify what are the key skills they need to be successful.

What is the one that you have not explored AT ALL?
Who can help you expand your marketing reach? We talked about use of the Top 20 list in an earlier marketing post. Who could help you expand your message?

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Section 3 is dedicated to Marketing Essentials. What are your key priorities around marketing?
Use the One Page Plan (page 275/277) to create a focused plan around marketing
Use the trackers to track the outcome or impact of this activity – note visits, likes, what gets traction.
specific activities or results for each of the activities.

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

Taking time to stop and pause is critical for success.
​
"Big thinking precedes great achievement."— Wilferd Peterson

As I wrote in the 19 for 2019, review is critical for success.
Part of productivity is about building in pause points to reflect and think about what’s working and what’s not.
Building in time for regular review helps to:

• Identify where we are getting our results
• Observe the patterns that are occurring
• Think about where we want to go
• Identify what is important to be able to move forward

What are the blocks of time you want to set aside for review?

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

This month's PlanDoTrack Virtual Book Club call focuses in on five virtual business systems which help to create consistency, replication and scalability for virtual and remote businesses, and teams.
Join me as I cover 5 core business systems you will want to explore with your own niche in mind. This call runs for 30 minutes and is one of the monthly Virtual Book Club calls for PlanDoTrack and the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planners.

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC
Potentials Realized
The next PlanDoTrack Virtual Retreat happens this Thursday May 30th between 10 - 2 pm ET. If you are a solopreneur and are looking for a structured process to do some business planing, consider joining us. Click here to learn more and register.
Phone: 416-996-8326
Check out the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series of daily prompts for your work and business over on  Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder.

Week 21 Focus – Challenges with Marketing
Focus Question: What’s the challenge for you around marketing right now?

Story
There are many challenges with marketing including:

• Not enough time dedicated
• Not being consistent enough with your efforts
• Not following through
• Not thinking about what your client/customer wants (think messaging, approaches…)
• Changing the topic too many times
• Not having a message on the channel your people are looking at (i.e. focusing on Facebook when people are looking to LinkedIn)
• Not using language that is meaningful to the group

Creating a marketing plan and strategy is important in terms of creating a focus for continued effort and actions. Writing things down so that you can see what you are doing, and track your efforts, can move you to a more strategic allocation of your time and resources.

Experimentation and trying things out in small cycles helps us get important data on what people like and don’t like, value and don’t value.  Things in the marketing space change quickly so not relying on just one channel can be of use.
Being able to repurpose material is key for ongoing marketing efforts. To create new content each day can be exhausting, and repurposing allows us to leverage what we have already created.

Activity
While there are many challenges we face in marketing, there is always an opportunity to repurpose the material we have already created.

This week identify key pieces of content you have created.  Think about how it could be repurposed.

For example, the next time to you create a blog post, consider what it could look like if you were to repurpose it three times, not just once.  So, consider this…
Original Version: A blog post on five things to do before the end of the year with your team.
#1 - Repurposing – Create it as a video – 5 Things to Do Before Year End with Your Team
#2 – Repurpose - Create an audio post/podcast around it
#3 – Combination: Combine this with other posts to make a larger article or download from your website.
#4 – Magnify:  Share the link with other content providers, so they can share it with their readers/followers.

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Refer to the tools in the Content Planner Section. Take particular note of:
1. Tool – Content Tracker – For each piece of content, use the tracker to note how many views and reads it has gotten in each of the different locations.
2. Tool – Don’t Just Do it Once! Scaling Content (page 275 of PlanDoTrack and page 271 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

Ongoing learning is part of business success today. We each have areas in which we will want to learn and grow in. What are those areas?

As you consider your own learning pathways, what is going to help you stretch? What will help you grow?
​
There are many ways we can be learning and growing including:

• Mentoring relationships
• Job shadowing someone more experienced
• Partnering with peers and meeting on a regular basis
• Formal education – a next degree
• On-demand and online learning
• Coaching

Consider the different ways you might want to learn more this year? What are the areas you want to grow into?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Week 20 Marketing - A Different Perspective
Focus Question: What’s another way to approach marketing to get unstuck or breathe new life into your efforts?

Description
The Evil Twin - Marketing
Marketing is often seen as a “necessary evil” or To-Do in any business. To make it a little more fun, it can be useful to consider an alternative perspective,  twin or personality to take on. Perhaps you have always wanted to be a diva. What would it be like to step into that personality as you approach marketing?
One of the most important activities which coaches can undertake is that of the Sweet Spot Exercise. While I did not publish this in the Coaching Business Builder, you will find it in the digital chapter on marketing in the From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching book (do check it out at https:/www.from12many.com/downloads.html - use code 4411 to access the Marketing Chapter on Group and Team Coaching).

The sweet spot gets you to consider three questions:

1. What are you good at?
2. What are you passionate about?
3. What do your clients want, need and prefer?

If you have done this before, take a look at the opposite or negative space. Reverse it by asking:

• What’s the flipside of the Sweetspot?
• What are you NOT good at?
• What are you not interested in?
• What do your CLIENTS NOT want, need and prefer?

Reviewing these questions regularly can provide some interesting insights into where you potentially might want to focus more of your marketing efforts.
Some other questions to provoke new perspectives around marketing are:
If you were to look at this activity rather than a time sucker, what could it look like as an enabler?

If you see it as a community builder, what else might it offer?
​
Thinking about things from an alternative perspective can be useful in terms of focus and application and breathing new life into areas you might have gotten stuck around.
​
Over the new few weeks we’ll be exploring several of the different vehicles and approaches. Much of this will return back to these strategic questions of what are you good at, and what do your clients want.

Activity
Work through the questions posed around marketing – what do you notice about your 5 Ps?

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Section 3 of both books covers nine different promotional strategies you might want to employ.
Always remember that your clients will dictate what approaches are going to be most relevant and impactful.
Take some time this week working through the 5 Ps of your business, and activities you can undertake to further clarify the 5 Ps.

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