Week 31 Focus – Marketing Review
Focus Question: What needs a tweak with your 5 P’s?
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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

​The mantra for today is for many “Bigger is better” but when it comes to goals in fact it may be that “Less is more”. With workplaces ripe with ever-changing priorities it can lead to a lack of engagement and clarity on the part of employees. When we are pulled into meetings last minute and not able to focus on some of the core tasks we had planned, it can feel disruptive and disempowering. While we may never be able to focus on all the tasks we have planned, being able to focus, and take action on, our top 3-5 goals in a day or a week, can help employees feel as if they have some control.

As you will note with the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack, many of the planning templates have space for you to note your Top 3 – 5 goals each week or month. These can serve as anchors in what sometimes feels like a sea of change!

Do you already ask yourself every day or regularly, “What are my top 3-5 goals?”? If not, now many be the time to experiment with this practice. See what you notice.

Let us know how you are using the different planning resources in PlanDoTrack or Coaching Business Builder in the comments here, or jump into the discussion over at the Conversation Sparker Zone.

Enjoy the conversation!
​Jennifer

Week 30 Focus – Marketing Review
Focus Question: What’s working and what’s not?

Description
In this week’s focus, we’re taking stock of different marketing approaches – what is working and what is not. We’ve spent several weeks exploring different promotional strategies, including LinkedIn and Instagram.
 
Building a regular practice of doing a review of what’s working, and what’s not, around marketing in your business, can save a lot of time in the long run.
 
Some of the things you will want to consider as you go to do a marketing review are:

1. Note metrics. What things are getting traction? What’s getting read? What’s not?
2. With certain posts, is there a tweak or adjustment you can make?
3. What posts could be repurposed and republished in other ways?
4. What are the items that you could use for redistribution?

Activity
Note the data you are tracking. From a high-level overview what does it indicate?
Looking to each of the marketing items you track, which one is progressing as you would like it to?
If you have multiple posts, which ones are working best?
Which ones are not getting traction as you would like?
Are you tracking the things that you want?
Where is your energy and enjoyment with this process?
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Connection to the Coaching Business Builder/PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner
Review the metrics you have which may be part of:

• The Monthly Daily Tracker
• Taking Stock – Monthly Reflections (refer to Key Metrics)
• Monthly Content Trackers
• Monthly Content Journals – One Line a Day
• Don’t Just Do It Once! Scaling Content

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
Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram

This week’s Weekly Planning Hack focuses on the Power of a Post It. From being an important visual reminder, to helping teams focus on what’s important, the power of a post-it can become a colorful way to prioritize and focus.
Here are a couple of ways you might consider using post its to help you with your productivity:

1. Grabbing a set of post-its at the start of the quarter and listing one key activity per post it. Using a whiteboard, then schedule these into each month, or each week of the quarter. Because they are post its, they are easy to move around.
2. Bring post its into your next staff meeting. As you get started have everyone write out the one thing they want out of the meeting on one post it. One at a time have them share their idea/need and have them post this on the wall or whiteboard of your meeting room. If you are working virtually, have each person write up their need/focus on a blank slide using annotation. This approach allows for more time for reflection before speaking, and also ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard and represented.

 
Here’s what I wrote in a 2008 blog posts on post its called A Facilitator’s Ally: Post Its and Index Cards:


I love post it notes and index cards! Many of you will know that it made my top 10 list of most useful tips and tools for 2007. Today's post, builds on a much older post of mine from last year, about how post it notes and index cards can be a really valuable tool in your toolbox.

Here are some ideas on how you can use post-its and/or index cards:

1. For program development. Using a new post it or index card, brain storm all the ideas you have about upcoming programs. Lay them out on a table or floor to start sorting/grouping.

2. To get quick feedback from all participants during a program. As an evaluation tool, have participants write out their responses to your evaluation questions (1 question/answer per card), and have them post them on the wall.

3. For business planning or strategic planning sessions. The photo above is from a recent team planning session I facilitated late last year. There is nothing like getting people up and moving to boost engagement, excitement and ownership of their work!

4. As a quick poll of the group regarding what questions are popping for the group.

5. To ensure that all voices of the group are being heard. It is quite common for groups to be dominated by certain members. As a facilitator it's important to ensure that all voices are heard. Having participants write out their questions or responses, and then post them, or share them, can provide participants who introverts are, shyer or those who require more time to process questions, the opportunity to participate and "be heard".

6. As a "vote" regarding where to go. Have participants show their support for a discussion item by putting up a post it note. (Different colours can represent different categories.)

7. As a brainstorming tool. You can bring post-its/index cards into exercises where participants want to/need to brainstorm. For example,

• small business owners working on their business vision
• professionals who are in career transition
• stay at home moms who are returning to the workforce
• teams working on their quarterly/annual planning
• couples who are creating their budget or a plan for their year

The possibilities are endless. How would you like to bring post-it notes or index cards into your next program?
Here’s a link to that original post.
 
Enjoy your use of post its!
​Jennifer

This week’s Weekly Planning Hack is all about “Making things Visual”.
How often do you find you:

• Lose items
• Forget things
• Let non-important tasks usurp the more important tasks?

One of the reasons why I was passionate about creating an analog workbook and planner for Coaches (Coaching Business Builder) as well as Virtual and Remote Professionals (PlanDoTrack), was to create a place where what’s in our minds, could find a home on paper.

Paper planners are great for some, but even then, things can get lost.
What’s another layer to make those important things stand out? Have you considered:

• Using a post-it to highlight the things that are REALLY important?
• Using a chalk pencil to leave yourself a note on the mirror or the fridge?
• Linking a photo you love to your vision of your business, and placing it as a screen saver?

Where the visual cues that will keep what’s important to you visible and in front of you?

Best,
​Jennifer

​As we move from one season to another, we have the opportunity to undertake a “clean sweep”. Having lived and worked in the tropics for the first 15 years of my career, and now having been back in Canada for 15 years where the seasons are so distinct, I have come to (re) appreciate, how significant seasonal change provides an impetus for change and review. Have you done a clean sweep of your surroundings lately? Is it time to clean up your files? Your desk? Your contacts?

There is a lot written on clearing and creating order – from the work and writing of Marie Kondo to Gretchen Rubin’s new book – Outer Order, Inner Calm.

Last fall, I offered up a weekly planning tool (separate from the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack) called the Clean Sweep. Structured as a five-day planning tool, it also offers some prompts and reminders for business owners or virtual workers to take action on some of the more overlooked aspects of our work. For example, outreach and building of relationships. Taking these small steps continue to “add up”. Download a copy of the Weekly  Sweep  for your business document here.

Where could you benefit from a "clean sweep"?

Best wishes,
​Jennifer 

One of the areas many solopreneurs, individual contributors, leaders and teams find themselves involved with is project management. If this is an area of interest for you, be sure to check out the March 2019 call on Project Management foundations.

One of the tools I quickly touched on was the Traffic Light. As a former project manager, this was an essential tool for keeping many of the projects I managed rolling. The spotlight is often a visual signal for project status reports, or project status meetings, giving us the thumbs up as to how things are going.
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Here’s what I’ve written about the Stoplight as it relates to time management in Teams365 #553.

Project status meetings are critical in project management, providing an opportunity to check in on where the project and all its components are at, as well as seeing what needs attention. The red light, yellow light and green light status updates gives us a snapshot of what's not online, what needs attention and what's going well.

Project Status meetings are also an opportunity to invest in some team development including a focus on:

​1. What roles are we playing? 

2. What are the different perspectives around the project from each one of our locations? What's similar with these perspectives? What's different?

3. Who needs different type of support than they are getting?

4. Who else, or what else, do we need on the team in order to be successful?

5. What do we need to celebrate in terms of our achievements so far?

What other questions would you want to include at your next project status meeting?
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Whether it’s tweaking your project status meetings to make them more of a regular occurrence, or adopting the spotlight approach, what are the things you want to focus on?

Enjoy the conversations!
​Jennifer

​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".
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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

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.

Taking time to stop and pause is critical for success.
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"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