Our 30 Day BOSS Challenge is now two weeks in. Are you staying committed to your daily task(s) that will move your business and/or your life forward? Anne committed to working daily on her blog and is staying on track! Pamela committed to doing daily livestreams on Facebook and is crushing it! Both discuss the challenges and victories of their efforts so far. Has it been easy? Nope. But they’re still doing it. This check-in episode will help keep you motivated and accountable #LIKEABOSS. You can do it!
Takeaways
Quick Concepts from Today’s Episode:
You have to physically and mentally prepare before a consistency challenge
Write down your goals
Track your daily progress – use an app, or physical paper, just make sure you track!
Time management is key to fulfilling your goals
Schedule your time to work on your goals
Don’t let social media distract you from meeting your goals
When you’re aware of how your time is being used, you can make positive changes
Accountability can be a scary thing, but a good scary thing!
Done is better than perfect – don’t get paralyzed
You may need to take training to build your confidence to meet your goals
Taking a challenge keeps you from pushing off your goals
Even if you don’t each your goal, you will learn lessons about how to improve your business
Tweet This
Share ideas with your own network ++
Referenced in this Episode
Direct links to things we brought up ++
Rick MacIvor Telegenic
Learn more about money blocks
Recorded on ipDTL
Badass editing by Noah at Carl Bahner Audio
Full Episode Transcript
>> It’s time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry’s top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS. Now let’s welcome your host Anne Ganguzza.
Anne: Hey BOSSes. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I’m your host Anne Ganguzza, along with my special guest cohost, the plosive free Pamela Muldoon. Or maybe she’s plosive free, but I’m not.
Pamela: Right. [laughs]
Anne: Anyways.
Pamela: We try to both be plosive free. Say that fast three times, folks.
Anne: I can’t, I just can’t.
Pamela: There’s your tongue twister to warm up your, warm up your lips for the day.
Anne: Plosive – every time I say plosive, every time I turn my head because it’s just like an automatic kind of thing that I do.
Pamela: Right, because you don’t want to –
Anne: I don’t want a plosive. Plosive free Pamela Muldoon. Anyways, Pamela, how are you?
Pamela: I’m plosive free, so I’m doing great.
[both laugh]
Pamela: I’m fantastic.
Anne: Speaking of, speaking of plosive free – no, actually speaking of, you know what, it’s the middle of our 30-day challenge. Hello! Yeah.
Pamela: Oh my goodness.
Anne: I thought we should check in with one another and also kind of check in with the BOSSes out there, because we had a pretty nice response to our 30-day challenge. For those BOSSes that are tuning in just now, we actually created a 30-day challenge to do something consistently, right, for 30 days that will grow your business. So we kind of get a shout-out in one of our last episodes for people to join us in the 30-day challenge, and we had a really nice response. And people signed, they signed contracts and everything.
Pamela: That’s so fantastic.
Anne: So guys, we’re going to check up on you, just so you know. If you haven’t heard from us by now, just like any good accountability buddy or coach, we’re going to check in on you to see how you’re doing. And I’m going to ask Pamela how is she doing? First of all what was your 30-day commitment, and how are you doing on it?
Pamela: Okay, so I chose something that pushes me out of my comfort zone, and I literally felt like sick before [laughs] I started this when I realized “oh my goodness, what did I do?” I chose – I was going to livestream for 30 days consistently on social media. Yeah, that’s my choice. I’m telling you, after we made that decision way back in August, sometimes a little panic and a little anxiety is a motivator. Fear is definitely a motivator. And yeah, so I think we’re going to talk a little bit about some of the things we knew we had to mentally and physically prepare for, for our consistency challenge as well.
Anne: Absolutely. Well, I’ll tell you –
Pamela: It’s a big one.
Anne: — my consistency challenge was, it was one of those things that I had started off, I did really well with, and then it just fell by the wayside. That was to do 30 days of spending 30 minutes each day on my blog, because I had fallen behind in getting that out, and it was giving me good results. So I’m going to just say, it was much harder than I thought. Right, in my head, the commitment was yeah, I can do that. But the actual doing it, and I’m actually proud of myself for doing it. I literally had to get up earlier to do it. Right? I couldn’t figure out where else I could fit it during my day, so I decided to get up earlier. What’s really amazing about that is that, I’m only a little bit into it, but getting up earlier every day has actually made me more productive. But it’s still hard making sure that that’s the first thing I do. That’s why, what I did to make sure that I was staying on track with it, plus I had to be accountable to all of you guys and to you, Pamela, and that’s a scary thing, I’m just saying. [laughs]
Pamela: It really is, but it’s a good scary thing, right? I think what’s important here is we chose something that we knew we really wanted to accomplish for our businesses, for growth or whatever bigger goals we might have, and this was kind of, for me, the kick in the pants to like, “okay, come on, really? Get over yourself, just do it.” We’ll think something, many of us – I tend to sometimes get paralyzed by the thought of doing something, and we all understand this idea done is better than perfect. But when you’re a type A, and you put yourself there, you want it to be perfect, right? [laughs]
Anne: Absolutely.
Pamela: Perfectionism paralysis, you know, those kinds of – plosive, there we go. [laughs]
Anne: I’ll tell you what. I want to first of all congratulate everyone who took us up on this challenge.
Pamela: Yes.
Anne: Because you have to be brave. Like this is a brave move. I’m just kind of looking through some of these contracts that have come into us. For example we have one person – and we’ll be contacting you guys by the way to get your final, you know, what happened during the 30 days, how did it go for you, but just to give you an idea of some things that people are saying they want to do. We have one boss that’s out there in South Africa that has said they’ll contact at least one South African industry professional per day, which I think is awesome.
Pamela: Excellent.
Anne: Let’s see, another one is going to be reaching out to at least four broadcast affiliates per day. That’s another one. Let’s see. Intentional marketing and VO study every day. I like that one. The next one – she wrote all over [laughs] “Thanks for giving us the kick in the behind that we need.” Content creation and website update one hour per day minimum. We’ve got another one here that’s going to do Peloton, yeah, and marketing. See I should have done an exercise thing along with mine. But yeah, Peloton and marketing, of course, I think that’s a great challenge. I’ve got another one, basically marketing. I would have liked to have seen a little more specificity rather than just marketing, but I’ll take that, as long as there’s accountability of what did you do during a marketing? Maybe there was no marketing that was happening before. If there was going to be an hour a day that was spent for marketing, cool, track that, I would say. Write it down. And I think that that that will really help you to secure it.
Pamela: I think that’s really important, right, especially when you haven’t become quite as clear on the tactics of marketing, for example, and how can you track or be able to look back at seven days, 14 days and then 30 days, did I do that every day?
Anne: Right.
Pamela: And there are a couple of apps you can also download. I know I was using one for a while. [laughs] Listen to me. “There was a time.” You think I need this challenge, Anne? There was a time. I used this app called Goalstreak, all one word. And it’s –
Anne: Goalstreak? Is that S T R E A K?
Pamela: Yes, yes.
Anne: Okay.
Pamela: Yes. It allows you, you input your goal, then every day, you basically mark whether or not you did it, and then the calendar has this nice line that keeps going through it. Right? There’s something about the line continually growing that’s motivating.
Anne: Yes, always something about putting a line or crossing it off or, you know, scribbling – I actually like to do it on a piece of paper, but yeah, I get that.
Pamela: So having something like that, right? Now I chose livestreaming so I’ll have, when all is said and done, right, should have 30 videos [laughs] that are proof that I did this.
Anne: Now Pamela, very interesting that you said that because you said that, and then you inspired me, because I’ve been wanting to up my, you know, I’ve been wanting to up my YouTube channel, so I kind of made a, well, not a verbal commitment to anybody, but to myself, that I was going to start really creating some videos of myself to put on my YouTube channel to help boost my SEO there. Let me just say, Pam, first of all livestreaming is even crazier, but it takes much more time than I thought. I have to do my hair. Okay, that’s number one. I don’t mean – that sounds so vain, but in reality –
Pamela: No, I have to as well. I’m not going to just jump out of bed and do this thing.
Anne: Even though we say that we can make money in our pajamas, it doesn’t mean I want to put myself on camera in my pajamas, nor do I want my hair to not be brushed or you know, kind of coiffed for the video. So if you’re actually going to show up – that takes more time. And then what happens if you’re going to try to maybe knock it out in one day, maybe multiple? Then you’ve got costume changes, [laughs] you’ve got makeup changes maybe, who knows. Livestream is different. That’s every day.
Pamela: It’s different, but one thing that I’ve also become – once we announced to each other and to the world eventually that we were doing this, I realized oh gosh, am I able to do – the question I asked myself was what do I have to do to make this actually be go time on September 1? So I realized I have to really pay attention to if I’m stationary at my desktop, what’s my background.
Anne: Right.
Pamela: I became a little obsessed with that whole process, and I’ve been using my time to train myself on some things.
Anne: Sure.
Pamela: And I set up a streaming software to be able to do this, [laughs] all of these moving parts and pieces that part of it’s to have a more professional, because I’m doing this for my business, to be able to have a professional streaming experience, but it’s made me a student of this process. And we all know sometimes you have to do the activity to also be a student. Right? So I’m going to be balancing what I’m learning as I do this actually myself, I needed to build my confidence, so I took little trainings and such to make sure that I felt I knew what I was doing. That’s really important. But I would not have done that as instantaneously if we had not done this challenge, Anne. Like I would’ve had another excuse. Let’s push it out another month, let’s push it out another month. And all of a sudden, I realized I couldn’t do that.
Anne: Oh yeah. You just can’t. Let me just – I want to interject because there’s a good friend and colleague of mine that has put out a video series on how to improve your video conferencing. That has everything to do with like your lighting and your background and all that sort of thing. I want to give a shout-out to my friend and colleague Rick MacIvor. If you take a look at his YouTube channel, if you want tips on how to look better on camera for your YouTube channel, he’s got a lot of great stuff. It’s called Telegenic. He’s just got a lot of great stuff on his YouTube channel. He’s taught me a lot, and I want to give him a shout-out and a thank you.
Pamela: Nice.
Anne: So Rick MacIvor. So take a look at his YouTube channel. He’s got great stuff out there, and he’s helped me figure out lighting. I’ve just had to call on him. I’m like, “but I don’t like this lighting, I have a shadow.” There’s all sorts of things, Pamela, that you really need to take into consideration. Yeah, our challenges may have been more of a challenge than we thought, but I think it’s good.
Pamela: Right. [laughs]
Anne: It’s good to grow along with them and to educate. And if it takes more time, for me I’m right now hopeful my end result is going to be well worth the extra time that I’ve had to put into doing this.
Pamela: Yes.
Anne: Because I think all in all – maybe not though. Maybe your goal is “okay, this didn’t pan out for me or this did not give me the growth that I was expecting,” but I think the lessons learned along the way will prove valuable for you to maybe shift that goal to something else, right, or something that may work better than you.
Pamela: Well, I think, I think we have a future episode, Anne, where, when this is all said and done, we definitely want to hear from our consistent challenge attendees, right [laughs] takers on, but I think that will also have a really interesting conversation what worked, what didn’t work, what did we learn, and you’re absolutely right, sometimes learning what you don’t want to do –
Anne: Sure.
Pamela: – can be just as powerful as hey, I’m going to continue doing something because I’ve got this habit under me now.
Anne: What do they say about how long – I think it’s, I read somewhere it takes, is it 26 days to acquire a habit?
Pamela: Yeah, I’ve heard 26, 27, 28. You know, I’m not sure –
Anne: Which is why there’s so many 30-day challenges maybe.
Pamela: Right.
Anne: [laughs]
Pamela: Yeah, and it’s an easy start and stop, 30 days just feels really easy, and we just happened to pick a month with exactly 30 days in it. [laughs]
Anne: I know, right? It’s crazy. So Pam, do you have any like, do you have any suggestions on like maybe other time management, because that seems to me what we need to get a handle on in order to be able to fulfill these goals and to fulfill this challenge?
Pamela: Yeah. I think for me, because I have a crazy schedule like so many of our listeners [laughs] listening today, we have crazy schedules. And you have kind of alluded to this as well with your challenge is schedule it, get it on your calendar and make it something that you’re going to do. Even if it’s not the exact time every day, that you’ve actually calendared it in. It’s this idea that if it’s not documented, that it’s not going to happen. So I think that’s really important. For me as well, it really forced me to think about the efficiency of the livestream. I don’t want to do something for 15, 20 minutes. I want to be short and succinct and to the point. We all know that is sometimes more challenging than rambling on. Being prepared and thinking ahead of time. Taking that week before to really think about “okay, I have six, seven days in front of me. What do I want to talk about?”
Anne: Sure.
Pamela: What is it that my audience might need to hear? Those kinds of things. The preparation around that is also around some of that time management. When I turn on the camera, boom I’m ready and I’m prepared, very much like an audition or like a directed session, right? [laughs] All this work you did behind you, you had to do to be on the moment that you need to be ready. It’s great we can take all of our life lessons into everything we do. We constantly build on those skills.
Anne: This is very similar to what we were talking about in a past episode about the law of – is it the law of vacuum?
Pamela: Yes.
Anne: Where we’re intentionally filling our time with something that will bring us joy and growth. And so if we don’t do it, the universe will. I think this BOSS challenge comes at a great time after reviewing that because yeah, what would I be doing if I wasn’t getting up earlier, right, to be fulfilling this challenge or this goal of mine? Well, I might be sleeping.
[both laugh]
Anne: Or I will – okay, this is a horrible thing to admit, but I am going to admit it. I do have my phone that is beside my bed. I know this is like – there are people who have rules.
Pamela: You’re not alone.
Anne: Like you should not have the phone by your bed because what do you do, you pick it up and you look. I was always of the thought, well, I’m a freelancer, and so in case there’s a job that comes in at any given time of the day, I want to be able to have access to my email. But I would spend time – like I would get up – I wouldn’t actually get up out of bed, but I would spend time kind of on social media maybe, checking things out. And you know, that can just run amok with you.
Pamela: Absolutely.
Anne: Especially now. Right? I’d be saying, “well you know, I need to make sure I know what’s going on, right,” assess the social media world around me, because I’m very active on social media. But sometimes that turned into like a little bit of time that ran away from me, and I probably could have gotten my half an hour and also how many times, Pamela, have I had social media on my computer when I’m working, and I just flip windows, and then the next thing I know, it’s 20 minutes later, and what have I done?
Pamela: Right.
Anne: What have I done to grow my business, right? That’s something that I think I need to get a handle on. If I just don’t log into social media, like I have certain times of the day I can’t do it because that allows me to be a whole lot more productive.
Pamela: Yeah. So if you schedule the time to get that consistent task done, you’re more apt to get it done. Of course what you’re also talking about is this awareness of how your time is being used, right?
Anne: Absolutely.
Pamela: When you’re aware is when you can make changes. That’s not always a bad thing. Yes, the social media time suck rabbit hole, it is – [laughs] We all know it well.
Anne: Yes.
Pamela: Admit it, people. Those of you [laughs] nodding your heads, I can see it.
Anne: Be aware. Similar to a lot of things I gave a couple of classes on money blocks. You don’t know what you’re not aware of. Right? And so in order to fix everything, you have to be aware of it. I think the first step for you guys was to write down your intention. Now what I think is important, now that we’re midway through it, have you been documenting your results? I would say, what I’ve been trying to do every day, because I’ve been writing, right, trying to write every day, or if I don’t even get a chance to write part of the blog, I’m writing ideas for the next blog that I want to write. I am writing, and it is time that I believe is well spent. Every day I’m documenting what I’m doing, and it’s really helping me to kind of keep tabs on that particular goal. I’m not saying that we all have to have 25 goals that we’re trying to achieve every single day. This is baby steps, taking it one at a time. Take this 30-day challenge. You do enough 30-day challenges to grow your business, guess what? By the end of the year, you’re going to have I think a pretty darn good roll advancing your business. So take a look at where you were at the beginning of 2020 and then maybe at the end of 2020, if you did a series of 30-day challenges, and I guarantee you because you’ve documented it, because you’ve intended it, and because you’ve written it down, you have progressed forward. I don’t think there’s any way you can progress backwards. I don’t think you can progress backwards if you have intent, you’re writing it down, you’re tracking it.
Pamela: There’s actually a word for that.
Anne: What’s that?
[both laugh]
Pamela: It’s called perturbation.
Anne: Good word.
Pamela: Once you learn something, you can’t unlearn it. You’ve moved beyond. Yeah, it’s this idea that you can’t undo something that’s been done. Once you know something, you know it. Now what you do with it, that’s an entirely different conversation. But you’re absolutely right, all those little movements, all those consistent tasks and all those little pieces at a time all make up the bigger puzzle, the bigger objective. And I think that’s also what we’re hoping to kind of share and teach and just be a participant right along with everyone.
Anne: That’s right.
Pamela: Because you know what, we’re all trying to get through this together. [laughs] Very much so.
Anne: So guys, we’re checking in on you now that it’s midway. So expect –
Pamela: Yes.
Anne: You know, those people that have filled out those challenge forms and want to be involved in this, we’re going to be sending you an email to be checking in on you. We would love to get your responses. If you want love to, hey, even if you want to just record a minute or two of how it’s going for you guys, would love to hear. And then at the end of this challenge I would love to have a bunch of you on to talk about your experience. That would be great.
Pamela: Yes, that would be fantastic. Yeah, good stuff.
Anne: All right, well, guys, be brave. Be brave. This is not easy. We know it’s, we know it’s –
Pamela: Be consistent.
Anne: Yeah. Be consistent, write your stuff down, know that we’re struggling right along with you. But I’m resolute in my faith that things are going to grow for me at the end of this and you too, Pamela.
Pamela: That’s right. Yes. Thank you.
Anne: All right, guys. Big shout-out to our amazing sponsor that helps us to grow and network and take challenges together, and that’s ipDTL. You can find out more at ipdtl.com. All right, guys. Have a great week. Go forth with a challenge and be a BOSS.
Pamela: Thanks, Anne.
Anne: Thanks so much. All right, take care. Bye-bye.
>> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host, Anne Ganguzza, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voboss.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast-to-coast connectivity via ipDTL.
[outtake]
Anne: Hellooo, everyone! No, I don’t like that. I want to say something besides hello. Hey. Heyy. [laughs] Holla! Holla, BOSSes. [laughs] Hey BOSSes, welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I’m your host, Anne Ganguzza, along with my amazing… buddy – I don’t know what to call you. I want to call you like the maven, but Pamela… let’s see, my perfect, my perfect – what’s another P word? [laughs] The perfect, plosive free Pamela Muldoon.
[both laugh]
Pamela: Oh my – as I go, hello Anne, how are you? Puh puh…
Anne: Puh puh Pamela, it’s Pamela. All right, we’ll just do this. All right, so.