Branda Villacob from The Relevant Collective is sharing her win-win teacher business story today. She reminds us that no one is going to come and save us and it is up to us to design the day, week, and life that we dream of. I know you’ll enjoy hearing her tips about time tracking and capacity in this guest conversation.
Connect with today’s guest:
https://www.therelevantcollective.com/
https://www.instagram.com/therelevantcollective/
Branda is the email copywriter, launch strategist, and chocoholic behind The Relevant Collective. She writes strategic copy for former-teachers-turned-business-owners who channel their skills from the classroom into thriving service and product-based businesses. She’s all about turning your pie-in-the-sky goals into reality.
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Read the transcript:
Janice Cook 0:00 Joining us today for a guest conversation is Branda. Branda is the email copywriter, launch strategist, and chocoholic behind The Relevant Collective. She writes strategic copy for former teachers turned business owners who channel their skills from the classroom into thriving service and product based businesses. She’s all about turning your pie in the sky goals into reality. In today’s Coffee Chat, we talk about the danger of saying yes to everything, how we sometimes bring the same work habits from our first career into our second, and how that’s both a pro and a con. We’ll talk about how no one’s coming to save us, and we have to build our own path to the dream day of what we want our life to look like. I hope you enjoy this chat with Branda as much as I did, and head into the show notes to connect with her. I’ll leave all of the links down below.
Janice Cook 1:00 You’re listening to Your Win-Win Teacher Business, a podcast for teacher authors who want to make a big impact in the world for teachers and students and have fun doing it. I’m your host, Janice Cook, here with a pep talk to start your week off strong. Some seasons of running a business feel hard and sticky, but it shouldn’t feel like that all the time. Let’s make your business a win-win together.
Janice Cook 1:25 Hi, Branda, thanks for being here today.
Branda 1:27 Hi. Thanks so much for having me.
Janice Cook 1:30 I am so excited to talk business today. I would love to hear why you started your business way back in the day.
Branda 1:38 I would love to say that I had this, like, really amazing origin story, of, like, I just knew I was destined to be a copywriter, but that’s really not how it happened. I think, like a lot of us in entrepreneurship, I kind of just like, fell into it. I had been teaching for five years, and my fourth year teaching was really brutal. I really did not want to go into a fifth year, but it was kind of one of those, like, I need to make money, so I have to do another year type things,
Janice Cook 2:06 adulting,
Branda 2:07 yes. So I went into my fifth year and I knew I wanted to leave. So I had been applying to jobs when I knew I wanted to leave my fourth year, and I just wasn’t really successful, like finding a job outside of teaching. So I was like, Well, I am going to just make my own way then. And I kind of, I’d already been doing some business things already, like I had been selling on TPT, so I was already kind of like in the TPT world. And I was thinking, like, What do I like doing out of this, you know? And it really was the writing side of things. Like, I loved writing emails. I loved writing blogs. So I kind of just like, you know, what did they say? Like, a shoot, my shot kind of thing, you know, I threw it out there in one of the TPT groups, and I was like, Hey, if you want someone to write your blogs for you, I’ll do it. And it just kind of took off from there. And by the end of that school year, I had saved up enough that I was like, All right, I’m gonna, like, dive in and and go for it. So that’s kind of like the very unromantic version. I mean, I guess the romantic version is, like, I always did love writing when I was a kid. I, like, used to write stories and I wanted to be an author. So it was kind of like a combination of things I already enjoyed doing and also getting out of a bad situation.
Janice Cook 3:23 Yeah! Remind me what you taught.
Branda 3:25 I taught English.
Janice Cook 3:26 Yeah, no, I just didn’t want to guess I thought you were an ELA teacher. Yeah, and it’s so interesting. I think the jobs that a lot of us do now, they just like, weren’t on the menu on Career Day back in the day. Yeah, like you knew you liked writing, so you became an ELA teacher. Your guidance counselor probably didn’t tell you, you could also write blogs like you could be a ghost writer, or you could be a copywriter. My guidance counselor didn’t know about copywriters.
Branda 3:50 Yeah,
Janice Cook 3:51 I feel like that just wasn’t on their radar, and that’s not their fault. So I think that always makes me feel better when we don’t take our linear path through career land, it’s like, well, wait a minute. I didn’t know this was an option. I changed my mind. Like the menu changed, I want to spin the big wheel again, but I love that you brought it back to like, how do I enjoy spending my day? And I think we need do. Need to hear the success stories of forging your own path, because no one’s going to stop by and save us. If you’re not happy with the way things are, like, you gotta go make a plan and dig yourself out.
Branda 4:25 Exactly. I totally agree. And I’m like, very happy that I did, but I think I’ve had like, moments in the beginning, I definitely wasn’t one of those people who, like, it was hard for me to leave teaching mentally, I was ready to go by the end. But I think sometimes I felt like, did I waste this career? Like, right? Like, I just went about a degree for this. But then I really think of it as like, that was just the opportunity that life gave me. Like, if I hadn’t been teaching, then I would have never started a TPT business, I would have never met the people that I did, and I would never have this business that I do now.
Janice Cook 4:59 And I feel like you have such a strong understanding of the people who read your words, the people who read the blog post, the people who read the emails, and such an intimate understanding of the problems they are set out to trying to solve. So I don’t think my time in the classroom was a waste, personally. The college degree stings, right? Mine’s paid off, yeah, like, whatever water under the bridge. And I think what stings for me about it is the second career is equally as profitable, but with no degree. So you’re like,
Branda 5:30 Yeah,
Janice Cook 5:30 Interesting. There were jobs out there that could have been a little faster, and we didn’t know it’s okay,
Branda 5:37 yeah, for sure.
Janice Cook 5:39 So you needed out of the classroom, been there, and you were like, We’re gonna make this happen. I probably stayed two years longer than I should have, so I actually really admire how quickly you pulled your plan to get there and got out.
Branda 5:53 Yeah, I think I was really fortunate in that way. I don’t think that that was like a quick start that most people had, but I think again, because I’d already been kind of in that space. A lot of the people that I worked with in the very beginning were people I’d met, like networking and Facebook groups and stuff like that for several years prior. So it was like a easier community to pull from because, like, we already had that established trust factor and all of those things. Like, we’d been chatting for several years before. I was like, Hey, you want to hire me for this. So I think it was just an easier sell.
Janice Cook 6:25 No, absolutely you had a network, no doubt. So you wanted to spend your day writing. You wanted to get out of the classroom. You did it. Win-win. Has it always been a win win, or have there been any moments that are a little challenging and sticky?
Branda 6:40 Oh definitely not always a win. I mean, there have been so many moments I really – this year, to me especially, has been the year of really figuring out – you don’t get to step into your business and like you step outside of yourself, right? All the things that you struggle with in your own life are going to be the same thing. So you also struggle with in your business. So if maybe you’re not great at budgeting or finances, you’ll probably bring that with you. If you’re not good at saying no, you’ll bring that with you.
Janice Cook 7:13 Oh, my goodness, isn’t that the truth?
Branda 7:16 So I really, I was in a mastermind last year, and that kind of started that, like, brainstorming process for me, of like, why does this feel so hard? Why am I really struggling to, like, get my time management in place? I feel like I’m working 24/7 – like I quit a teaching job because I didn’t want to feel like this. I didn’t want to feel anxious all the time. I didn’t want to feel like I couldn’t step away from my work, and now I’m doing the exact same thing times 10. Like, it’s not the same stress as being in the classroom, but like, it’s just another kind of stress that I just, like, welcomed into my life. And is this what I wanted? Like, I didn’t become a business owner to stress myself out. I wanted more freedom.
Janice Cook 7:57 How did we get here? Because brick by brick, you built a new path, and then you’re like, Oh no, we’re right back where we started.
Branda 8:05 Yeah, it’s like, I did that. I did that to me. I don’t have a boss who, like, assigned this work to me, right? None of my clients, like forced me to into signing a contract with them
Janice Cook 8:15 I’m my own toxic boss. Oh no. Definitely been there. Was it like the hours, like all the unpaid time you were putting in as a teacher, and now your hours were terrible?
Branda 8:27 I think a lot of it was also fear, like, there’s a lot of anxiety in business, right? Because you’re like, Okay, well, I’m responsible for all my money, so that means I better be making all the money, because I have bills to pay and I can’t not. So I would just like, say yes to everything. Even if I’m looking at my calendar and I’m like, there is no freaking way, like, I literally cannot fit something in. I’d be like, “Sure, great.” because I’m thinking, like, well, what if I need that money, right? Like, what if I get to a point, what if three months from now, everything stops? I’m gonna wish I had taken that project. Yeah, and so I was doing a lot of things out of fear, but then I would be so overworked. I’m working until like 10pm at night. I’m exhausted, I’m cranky. I’m working on the weekends when I really don’t want to be so I’m irritable, you know? And it’s like I had to come to this realization of, like, am I also putting in, like, my best work? Because now I’m, like, irritable, and I’m writing this, like, just trying to get through it as quickly as possible. And I don’t ever want to feel like I’m doing work that isn’t my best work, like that’s not a good feeling to be sitting there going, was this my best you know.
Janice Cook 9:32 And freelancer life is really tricky like that, because you never want to not deliver on a promised deadline. But I also don’t want myself inside someone’s business if I’m not in a good head space.
Branda 9:42 Yeah,
Janice Cook 9:43 I honor your business too much to go near it right now. So I’m going to choose of like, the two crummy scenarios on this menu, and I’m going to deliver one day late, but it’s not going to be terrible.
Branda 9:53 Yeah.
Janice Cook 9:54 And you have to trust that that’s going to be okay. But in those moments you do it, you are driving the bus out of fear no doubt, because you don’t know. Like, if I say “not right now”, will they wait until I have an actual opening? If I say no, will something else come up?
Branda 10:12 Yeah,
Janice Cook 10:13 you don’t know
Branda 10:14 exactly,
Janice Cook 10:15 But there is a point where you realize, like, I literally can’t do anything else, and you are forced to take that choice and flex that muscle. So how did you like pull things back into focus and figure out what your capacity was, where you were happy, you could do high quality work and you could afford to pay the bills?
Branda 10:35 Yeah, I think it was a combination of a lot of things. I think one of the big ones for me is, and a lot of this is working with other people. I won’t, like, pretend like I came up with all these genius ideas on my own. A lot of it was working with coaches and finding people who were, like, really good at what I wanted them to coach me on. Like, not just finding, like, some general business manager, but someone who’s like, I help you with this thing.
Janice Cook 10:56 I help anxious, overloaded former teachers, right? They have to say all the right words.
Branda 11:01 Yes. So I worked with various from people. One of them was really good at the capacity, like I was, I went to her and I was like, I would like to make more money. And she’s looking at my calendar and going, well, there’s no way you can make more money because you have no more time, right? So she’s like, well, let’s figure out the capacity problem. And she helped me create a kind of system for mapping out how many projects I can take. I’ve used this for the past year plus now, and that’s made a huge difference, because now I sure I could overbook myself, but it’s very clear when I look at my calendar and I have no white space, literally, there’s not a single white box open. I’m like, Oh, I don’t have time to do that,
Janice Cook 11:39 And knowing is half the battle, right? Yes, like I’ve said to my friends, I’m plus one on client capacity. Just knowing that is a world of difference in how you sit down at the office on Monday morning, knowing that, like, if your capacity was four, you have five, if your capacity was 10, you have 11, yeah, knowing that you’ve intentionally overbooked a smidge,
Branda 12:03 Yes,
Janice Cook 12:03 puts you in a much different mindset than when, like, you don’t even know what your capacity is, and you’re just living with, like, your fingers crossed.
Branda 12:10 Yeah, you’re definitely right about that. It, I think. And maybe that was one of the biggest problems I had the first year in business, I would always, like, under estimate how long something would take me. So then I was like, Oh, I could get that done in a day, and it would really take like, two days, and then everything gets pushed right. And now here I am, 10pm Friday night, trying to bust out this project, because I’ve promised someone I’m going to turn it in, right? But just like you said earlier, it was also like, I am someone who has a hard time. I don’t want to disappoint anyone. That’s just a personal thing about me that I’ve brought into my business.
Janice Cook 12:44 And that’s a good quality and a service provider,
Branda 12:46 I was gonna say, in some ways that’s that’s a good thing, because I always want to do my best. In some ways that’s bad, because I’ve had moments where I’m like, I should tell someone, hey, I gonna need one extra day. And in the beginning of my business, that was not easy for me. Now I book all of my projects with extra days built in. So I will tell a client like we’ve worked together, and I might tell you, hey, Janice, I’m going to deliver your project on the 10th. I know I’m not going to be writing it anywhere near the 10th, but I’ve told you that date because that gives me extra time if I get sick, if an election happens and implodes my world, if anything else in the world goes awry, I have extra time. And I sure I could still reach out to you if like, really things go wrong, but that rarely happens nowadays that I even have to do that because I know I have that extra time built in.
Janice Cook 13:34 And it’s always good to over deliver so if you leave yourself space there, I’ll always take your fabulous work early. And I think it’s also important, all the people that we work with need to hear this reminder. You can’t schedule creativity. You can’t say that at 9am on Tuesday, the words are going to be a flowing and they’re going to be magical. That’s just not how creativity works. So it happens with teachers pay teachers sellers, who are like, I am going to make a product on Wednesday. My entire calendar is clear, and it will begin and end on Wednesday. Yeah, right, that’s not how your best products were ever born. There’s rabbit holes, and you have to open another tab and sketch another idea and A / B, look at two choices, and I don’t want to rush that magic. That’s how we get to something really good at the end. So it does take some serious relationship building. A lot of times that email that you’re changing a deadline sounds like I really like where this project is headed. I need to follow it to the finish line. That means it’s going to be one day late.
Branda 14:34 Yeah
Janice Cook 14:35 It’s going to be late, but it’s going to be worth it. I refuse to rush through things and have them be poor quality. And I suspect you’re the same way.
Branda 14:43 100%. I don’t like that feeling at all. You know, again, especially when I know someone has trusted me with their business, I’m like, not only financially, but like, you’ve literally put your business in my hands to deliver the best I want to do the best,
Janice Cook 14:57 Right.
Branda 14:57 So having that built in time has helped. And like you said, with creativity, that’s also something, and this is something a service provider or a digital seller could do is like, I have purposeful days and every week now I only work on client work four days out of the week. One of those days is for me. So could be the same with someone who does courses or, you know, sells digital products online, where you’re only doing maybe three or four days of creation of something. That’s a lot. It is a lot of like, mental energy that goes into creating something, to writing for someone, to writing for yourself. I need a day where I can just, like, knock the things off my to do list, and also it gives me, like, something to look forward to. I’m like, Okay, one more day. It’s like, get through things right? And then I have a day where I can, like, still work, but it’s more relaxed.
Janice Cook 15:42 I need variety for my brain. So, like, there has to be some flow during the week. It can’t be the same types of tasks every day. What about your creative brain? Does it like come to life in the evening, or is it sharp first thing in the morning?
Branda 15:56 Definetly morning. I get my best work done in the mornings. The afternoons are little, little on the sketchy side.
Janice Cook 16:03 So there’s so many times that you’re like, maybe I’ll just do this task after dinner. No, I won’t. It won’t be good. And it’s every time I do that to myself and I sit down, I’m like, this is not – the good work is not about to come flowing out of this situation.
Branda 16:17 Yeah? Oh, 100% agree. I’m definitely most creative in the morning.
Janice Cook 16:21 Yeah, I’m a fresh cup of coffee kind of girl,
Branda 16:23 yeah.
Janice Cook 16:24 And so you learn those things by putting yourself in boxes that you don’t fit in, right? We try to do work at night, and we say, okay, never again. You try to work for five days, and you’re like, Oh, that’s not it either. You try to take x clients, you realize that’s one too many, and then you put the white space back in and so the journey is one that we celebrate all of these things that we know about ourselves really well. We learned really hard lessons along the way.
Branda 16:49 Yeah,
Janice Cook 16:50 but if it gets you to a place where you’re clear on your capacity, oh my goodness, that’s amazing. Yeah, one thing he said that really caught my eye was a phrase called emails are going unread. Can you share a little bit more about that feeling?
Branda 17:05 There were a lot of moments in my business where emails were going unread because it’s too much like I’m I’m absolutely overwhelmed, right? And the things are stacking up in your inbox, and it is chaotic and stressful, and you’re hoping that one moment you’re going to find to actually sit down and sift through it all. But I think also, like nowadays, it’s a little more intentional too, at times, like emails going unread, like sometimes, that is my boundary of being able to say, All right, it’s 4pm I’m logging off. I’m going to my workout and I’ll take care of it in the morning. Or if I’m getting an email at 3pm and it’s not super urgent, you know, I can handle that tomorrow. I’ve set those expectations that I don’t email back right away and I can get back to them in the morning.
Janice Cook 17:50 I’m not an EMT. No. Babies aren’t gonna die.
Branda 17:54 Yeah,
Janice Cook 17:54 This is okay. This can wait till tomorrow. And it’s such a muscle you have to exercise at the beginning of your business. You’re like, I have to hop on this juicy lead immediately,
Branda 18:05 yeah.
Janice Cook 18:05 Or they’re probably going to change their mind and I’m never going to get work ever again, right?
Branda 18:09 Yeah.
Janice Cook 18:10 And then you’re like, No, wait a second, I could probably respond in 24 hours, and it’d be okay. And then 24 hours turns into one business day, and every once in a while you hear on a podcast from someone who can go 2 business days. I’m not there yet. I have heard that some people can go, like, 24 to 48 hours, or one to two business days. And I’m like, Oh, 2 business days. But I don’t know. You just have to try it, because there are some days where you feel your human limits, and more emails have come in than you can get back to in one day.
Branda 18:47 Yeah, 100%. It’s one of those things that when you are, you know, especially if you’re a service provider. But even outside of that space, I think sometimes, yeah, we think people also expect us to respond within a couple hours, and maybe they do, but if you do wait a business day, or do wait two business days, and that’s like a red flag for someone and like, oh, well, I couldn’t, I couldn’t work with you, or I could never buy from this company again. And that also says something about that person. Obviously they’re a bad person, but like, okay, then our expectations aren’t aligned, and then we probably aren’t a good fit, because even with my clients, who are obviously the priority in my business, I’m not responding to their emails, typically, unless I just happen to have my email inbox open and sitting down to answer stuff I’m not normally answering in an hour or two, right? 100% it’s normally going to take me a bit to get to things, because most of the stuff, it’s not urgent, right? It’s stuff that it can wait until I’m done with whatever I need to get through today. So, and I think, you know, for me again, after that kind of first year, so in business, setting those boundaries was kind of hard, because there were a lot of people I had been working with for a while, and I do think it’s harder. It’s like teaching, right? It’s harder when, like, you have. And the lenient teacher who’s like, chill, relax, and all of a sudden you’re like, actually, I’m going to be requiring this from you, like, you’re going to get the kids who push back because they’re like, well, that’s not what you’ve expected so far.
Janice Cook 20:12 That’s not the lifestyle we were living. Wait a second,
Branda 20:14 it was really chill, you know. And I did have, you know, a few clients who I kind of put some boundaries in place with them, and it wasn’t received super well, and that’s okay. I hadn’t set those expectations before we started working together, so it’s like, okay, and this is where our time will now end, because now we’re not aligned anymore.
Janice Cook 20:33 It’s not a win-win. Yeah!
Branda 20:35 That’s okay, but there will be other people who are aligned with me. But yeah, again, I think it’s that fear. We don’t put the boundaries because we fear, well, if I don’t answer in an hour, well, if I just don’t do what they said they want me to do, are they going to walk away? Does that mean I’m not going to meet the goals that I have for myself?
Janice Cook 20:51 Right? And I know it takes some time to build that trust, and you have to earn that trust, but the clients that I’ve been with a long time know that, like, if it’s not their day on my schedule, I can’t open up a tab for their business. But when I do open that tab, they appreciate getting my undivided attention on their day, because they know I’m going to be there to unpack their deepest, darkest questions and secrets, and we’re going to fully solve the problem. And I just know that I can’t do my best work if I’m answering questions really quickly. If I could table this for one more day, I could give you a really meaty, juicy, much more high quality answer. And so yeah, when you attract win-win people and you find the right team members and the right clients, then that feels good for both parties. They’re like, when you get around to it, I would love to chat about X, and you’re like, Yes, I also would love to talk about that, but, like, in a big, expansive amount of time not running out the door.
Branda 21:52 Yes, exactly. I think that’s again, we’re like, putting those boundaries in in place, or even just expectations in place. Like, when I sit down with a discovery call and everything, like, I say, like, this is my style, and it’s because it gives people a chance to say that works for me, or that does it. Because we’re all going to have different things that we want from the people that we work with and the people in our lives. And I, I don’t find that offensive at all. There are people that I’m like, Oh, that’s not my style, right? That’s not the person I would work with. And then I’m going to find people who are who may be a little more laid back, or whatever I’m looking for, right? But knowing that upfront helps people make that, that decision, so then it doesn’t feel like you’re fighting the whole time.
Janice Cook 22:31 And it feels better on both sides to just know at the beginning and take that gut check. Like this feels exciting. I want to work that way too.
Branda 22:41 Yeah,
Janice Cook 22:41 Someone said once that your email inbox represents other people’s problems. I think about that all the time, how it’s like I need to get one or two things off my list before I head into that landmine of things in the email inbox. And I think that helps me keep a little bit of restraint. Do you have, like, certain times of day that you go in your inbox? What’s your structure for keeping the inbox under control?
Branda 23:06 Yeah, I really only check it, like, two times, maybe three times a day. I usually check it in the morning while I usually eat breakfast, like at my computer, and, like, I’ll watch a little video and check my inbox while I do that, and I’ll answer, like, quick things in the morning. So if it’s like a Yep, great, got it kind of thing. And then in the afternoons, after gotten the bulk of my copywriting done, because again, mornings is like my creativity time. I’ll go back and finish off some things. And anything lingering, I do them all on Friday. So it’s my CEO day. So like that is one of my tasks on Friday is I want to walk away with, like, a few emails in my inbox, and they’re like emails I’m saving for some reason, right?
Janice Cook 23:45 Right. You’re waiting for someone else to circle back. There’s nothing you can do.
Branda 23:49 Exactly.
Janice Cook 23:50 Oh, and I wish I could hold up a big megaphone right now, like Branda is checking her email twice a day, and the world didn’t burn down around her.
Branda 24:00 No, it didn’t.
Janice Cook 24:01 But it takes trust. It takes trying it out and seeing what happens, and realizing it’s okay. But yeah, if the words are flowing in the morning, you have to strike while the iron is hot, and then later, when you have that little bit of a lull. All right, let me see if I can save the world in my inbox for a little bit.
Branda 24:18 Yeah,
Janice Cook 24:19 can’t use your best energy in the inbox? Oh, we’ve all learned that the hard way.
Branda 24:24 yeah, because you can get trapped there. So
Janice Cook 24:26 for sure. And then you said you keep one project on your plate at a time. How do you tune out all the noise and all the notifications and all the distractions while you’re trying to go into deep focus mode?
Branda 24:39 I mean, one of them is, again letting clients know expectations. So also, something I did this year was like giving firm kind of outlines for timelines for everything. It’s also making sure my calendar is showing like, this is what I’m working on today, so my clients know when to expect things. They know how quickly to expect, like revisions back from me so they’re not like, you know, in my inbox going, Hey, this is going to get done today, right? So I can focus on what I need to at a time. And then, yeah, like, when I’m actually physically working on what I need to do, I don’t have my inbox open, that was something I really learned at the beginning of this year. Like, if I have that in a tab, I will watch that number increase as I’m doing things, and I will, like, go and check it. So now I close out of Gmail. I usually put my phone away behind me, and I turn on my little toggl timer, and I zone in and when that timer is on. And some people don’t believe me when I say this, like my friends and family, like you time yourself? That’s so weird. And I’m like, when the timer’s on, I literally only do work. If my husband comes up to me and is talking to me while I’m doing work, I turn off my timer.
Janice Cook 25:44 I have one that I hold up. Like, if my headphones are on and I’m holding this timer, it’s like, I’m not – my brain is not open right now.
Branda 25:53 Yes, yeah, like, the timer’s on, I’m working, and when it’s off, that’s when I take a little break – whatever I need to do. So I don’t know, just creating, I guess, the conditions for myself to, like, do my best work too.
Janice Cook 26:05 It’s amazing what an accountability buddy, a time tracking software can be. Just having the little dot open in a tab being like, I’m keeping an eye on you. You said intentionally that you were working on X
Branda 26:20 Yeah.
Janice Cook 26:20 What are you doing? I’m a clockify girl, toggl and I – it’s just not the vibe. But time tracking is so, so useful, and it’s really helpful to know. Like, if I go in my inbox, it usually takes me say, 90 minutes. Oh, my goodness, all the more reason not to go in first thing over breakfast, because you don’t realize how long you’re in there.
Branda 26:43 Yeah, definitely. I think also too, like, I kind of realized, after timing myself for a month or so, how long it would take me to, like, get tired throughout the day. So, like, okay, if I’m feeling myself like I’m just like, I’m really slowing down, I can look at the timer and I’m like, “Oh, well, I’ve actually kind of, like, met my time for the day, like, what I normally would hit. So that’s normal. If I’m feeling tired, I don’t need to, like, put extra pressure on myself, even if it’s only 3pm and I got what I needed to done.” But I’m like, let me think of some other things to do. Like, will I hit the time that I was expecting to hit today? I got what I expected to get done. I’m not going to force myself to keep going, just so I can say, work until 4pm.
Janice Cook 27:24 And like, what other job would do that? We have these like, arbitrary expectations we put on ourselves, but we’re we’re just being a bad boss to ourselves when we do that again.
Branda 27:34 Yeah,
Janice Cook 27:35 yeah. So a time tracker can totally be your friend. It can teach you how you get your best work done. I have, like, a two to three hour block in the morning, that’s amazing. And another one after lunch, and after that, we’re in the bonus round. If I answer an email, lovely. If I can listen to a podcast and fold laundry that’s more aligned with, like, the reality of what my brain can give the world at that hour. And that’s okay. It also gets me out of bed faster. I know I was second shower in our house last year and this school year, I fought for first shower because I was like, No, I tried that. I hated it. Like my brain is on in the morning. I need to get my butt to my desk and do the things while I still can.
Branda 28:16 Yep,
Janice Cook 28:17 and so that that time tracker can tell yourself, and if you can write a blog post in two hours in the morning, but it takes you like, two three hour evenings. It’s like, Well, I’m not doing that again
Branda 28:26 Exactly. Yeah. I think that is one of the big things that have come out of timing. Is like, I can also see where my brain is at that day. Like, yeah, okay, I know how long it normally takes me to write something and but today it’s taking me like, twice as long. It’s like, I need to also give myself a little bit of grace, and again, because I have that built in buffer in my week, maybe I can look at, okay, what are some ways that maybe tomorrow I can shift some things around so I don’t feel like I’m having to rush through this today, because clearly, my brain is moving slower today, for whatever reason.
Janice Cook 28:56 I’ll tell you, as someone who works in the Project Management Department, very few people know how long a task actually takes them or should take them, whatever that means. So when you’re saving time on someone’s calendar to write one email to their list or write one blog post, they don’t have any idea how long it took them the last time they did that. And that’s what causes a lot of the frustration for business owners. And I think it’s important for people to know how long tasks take for them before they hire them out, too. So if, if I know that writing an email takes me 20 minutes, or I know that writing an email takes me an hour, or pricing for that same task is going to feel very differently for me. A lot of people head out to shop for a service provider, I think before they have that information about the time that they would be getting back and what they would be doing with that time to make back their investment. Time tracking is helpful in all the ways.
Branda 29:54 I’m actually so glad you said that, because I was just having a conversation last week with a client on a discovery call, and she was like, “oh your packages were, like, a little bit pricier than I expected them to be”, but like, five minutes before that, she was like, “it takes me, like, two hours to write an email”, and I’m like, they might be a little pricier than you expected, but two hours to write an email, that’s a lot of time. When you’re writing an email every week, that’s a lot of time to spend on something, and not everyone’s going to spend that amount of time on an email. So I get that, right? We all have different things. Like, for me, social media is my time drainer. I hate creating social media posts. So for me, that would be something I would hire out for because it sucks up so much of my time. But emails, I can get them out quickly, so I wouldn’t hire for that, or I wouldn’t pay, you know, maybe as much for that. So yeah, I think that’s a great point, too, yeah, because the price might change based on or your budget might change, or expectations might change based on how much of a time suck it is for you in your business.
Janice Cook 30:47 I hired you to do a project inside my business, but I hired you to take something off my desk that had been stuck on my desk for more than two years, which is very embarrassing to say out loud, but there is no price on that at that point, it was not moving. I had obviously done all the things I had in my toolbox. This was stuck. And so the cost to my business for not having that done. There was no measuring it. If you were the unicorn that could take that off my desk, I obviously wasn’t. So the price was what it was, and I just made it work. But yeah, you need to to gather the information for what the task is on your desk. And if an email is taking someone two hours, they probably should hire it out, because they could make a new TPT product. There are people out here that can make a high quality product in two hours with a template, and earn back that money much faster. And I think if someone’s spending two hours writing an email, unless it’s like, a full launch sequence or something, it’s probably not ending up as like a super strategic, like home run email in the end, it’s probably been over thought in a circle a couple of times.
Branda 31:55 Yeah, definitely, which we’ve all been there with different things in our business. So I get it.
Janice Cook 31:59 But there are definitely things that I hire out because I’m like, not only is this gonna take me forever, but at the end, it’s gonna be terrible. Sometimes there’s no other option. You have to hire a unicorn.
Branda 32:10 Yeah. For me, it’s podcasting. I knew I was never gonna do it unless someone did it for me.
Janice Cook 32:15 Sometimes you just need those deadlines too, like, this has to be to someone else’s desk by Monday? Oh, well, I’m not in the business of letting people down.
Branda 32:22 Yeah, exactly.
Janice Cook 32:25 I am so glad that you shared your story. I learned new things today about you, which was so exciting. You could have stayed stuck at so many times in the story. It’s so easy to notice that running a business has become a hamster wheel. You could have gone right back in the classroom, and some people do, and it would have been fine, but instead you got curious, and you were like, no, no, this is what I want. I can figure out how to do it. And you took messy action, you took scary changes, you exercised those muscles, and would you feel like you’re in, you’re in a win-win season right now in business?
Branda 32:59 Yeah, I feel like this year has been so much better. I’ve had a lot more moments this year where I get to the end of the day and I go, “Oh, that was it?” That’s like a really good feeling to feel like I didn’t overbook myself. I met all of my deadlines. I feel really good about the projects I’ve put out there. I feel really great about the people I’m working with. This is a great season.
Janice Cook 33:20 And I think in those seasons, it feels extra sweet knowing that it didn’t come from the, like, traditional college path, right?
Branda 33:27 Yeah.
Janice Cook 33:28 Like, you did this, you made this, this was an idea, and you got scrappy, and you learned the things you needed to learn, and you figured it out. And I sometimes think that’s even more fun than, like, I made it to the end of a school year. Well, yeah, but like someone taught me how to do that,
Branda 33:45 yeah.
Janice Cook 33:46 Even, like, you got to live through a school year as a student first. I never got to live through any of this wild business stuff before I jumped in. So I think that’s something really big to celebrate.
Branda 33:56 Yeah.
Janice Cook 33:57 Branda, any other thoughts or questions that you wish I had asked today, before we wrap up our time today.
Branda 34:03 If I was going to give, like, any piece of advice to anyone who’s like, in a tough season right now, I think the best thing someone told me that I worked with, and I think it’s different advice than I’ve ever gotten from, like, a business mentor. We often get asked the question, like, what do you love doing in your business? Like, what does your dream business look like? But this person is like, what do you love doing in life? Like, what is your dream life look like? And that’s the place that we started. So it wasn’t about what my business look like. It was like, how many hours do I want to work? Do I want to travel? Is this like the place I want to live? And she’s like, build your business around that. Like, whatever the dream you have is for your life. Build your business to fit that dream. And that has really, like, transformed how I’ve done business this year. And it’s not like I’m at this place where I’m like, you know, living in a McMansion, you know, no living out in this like, but like, to me, it was the biggest thing was not working so much. It was like working normal hours and getting weekends and evenings back to myself, and 100% I feel like I’ve accomplished that this year, without sacrificing my revenue, without sacrificing my boundaries, and continuing to work with really great people that I’ve really enjoyed. So it’s really has been a win-win.
Janice Cook 35:16 Yeah and putting together a schedule where you can say yes to opportunities in life, being location independent, being like,
Branda 35:21 yeah,
Janice Cook 35:21 I look and see what’s on my desk. I can pick this up and take it on the road. There’s even those tricky moments in business when we have to replace our computer. I get so many big feelings about like, am I buying a desktop or a lapto in this chapter, right?
Branda 35:35 Yeah.
Janice Cook 35:35 Am I a take my laptop to a coffee shop, kind of girl? Or am I the more monitors the better?
Branda 35:43 Yeah.
Janice Cook 35:43 I need all of the things because you’re you do have to make a really intentional choice when you buy your next computer, it’s like, what does my life look like for the next couple of years? Am I going to be flying all around town, or am I going to be right here in my cozy little office?
Branda 36:01 yeah,
Janice Cook 36:01 yeah, but leading with how you want your day to look like is really, really smart, because I think now that you’ve designed one job for yourself, you realize I could be a good boss to myself. I could probably put together a path to whatever I do want my day to look like
Branda 36:17 exactly.
Janice Cook 36:18 Thank you so much for taking the time to chat today, I love chatting with other teacher business owners. Where can people find you, to connect with you after our chat today?
Branda 36:29 I hang out on Instagram at the relevant collective. I also have a podcast with my co host, Melanie. She’s an OBM, and it’s chaos to conversions. You can find it Spotify, Apple podcast, all that stuff. We talk about marketing, email marketing, launching, pretty much all things marketing, on there. So that’s also a great place to hear from us more.
Janice Cook 36:50 I love your podcast. It’s definitely not like, surface level information. I have to be ready and in the zone to learn, but it feels like I got to, like, sneak into a little marketing class at a university. That’s how I always feel when I sit down for your cozy podcast, like I cranked the door open and just like snuck in the back row.
Branda 37:07 I love hearing that, because that’s was our whole intention. We’re like, we don’t I still want this to be another podcast for beginners, like we want it to be for people who are a little more established to dig deeper. So that makes me feel good.
Janice Cook 37:17 That is how I feel. I’m such a fan of the work that you and Melanie do, and I will leave all your magic links in the show notes, as we do over here in podcast land. Thank you so much for chatting with me today, Branda.
Branda 37:30 Thanks so much for having me.
Janice Cook 37:34 Thanks for making this podcast a part of your day. Thanks for making this podcast a part of your day. Do you have a win-win, teacher business story you’d like to share? Head to cookfamilyresources.com/podcast, to find my guest application. I’ll also leave that link in the show notes for you see you in the next episode.
Here is a playlist of other win-win teacher business stories that I think you’ll enjoy:
