Managing Overwhelm – Week 8

Managing Overwhelm

That was not a great week – one which was a struggle in managing overwhelm

We had a family meeting with my mentor, Dean Holland, this week. Well it did not feel like a meeting – it was more of a one way talk about 2018 and 2019. Of course it is hard to run a family meeting on a webinar platform even if you have someone fielding questions (Dean did not).  I took part by watching the recording – I was in no shape to be awake at 1 am to start a webinar which ran over 1 hour long. There are some good developments coming along that will add to a more streamlined and simplified Internet Profits Certified Partner Program. Dean’s year has been full and he has struggled with managing overwhelm (my words). He talked a lot about doing more with less. He ended off with a call to arms – these were his keyword words (in bold) and the words after that is what I heard. He may not have said those words.

• Commitment: Build your own business
• Focus: Cut out the distractions
• Dedication: Keep at it no matter what
• Work: Make a plan and execute to the plan
• Time: Put in the time – at least one hour a day
• No Excuses: Take responsibility

Week 8 Review

Against those criteria, how did I get on?  I will review the week against the list of tasks I set for the week – 6 tasks, of which 2 could easily be done in one day’s time slot. Firstly the result:  47 clicks and one opt-in and one unsubscribe and no sales – that tells me a lot – a poor week in the trenches.  I did collect two opt-ins to my copywriting list and 1 to my charity list. I did change the copywriting ad in the week.

• Conversions: Remodel bridge page to realign with landing page and improve load times: I did tackle that and I did finish something. It does not look a lot different to the old one – and I did get one opt-in. The process was much more a story of frustration than progress. I tried to use one of the Convertri templates to model a new page – yuk. I tried to build a brand new one from scratch – yuk. I tried to use the existing opt-in page as a base. None was working the way I wanted – especially on mobile. So I landed up tweaking the existing one. Lesson: find a Convertri outsourcer.
• Solo Ads: Run 2 solo ads though Guaranteed Solo Mails – I ran one. 2nd one can go this weekend. I did extend the run on banner ads
• Run 1 new solo ad through Traffic For Me: Chose not to do this after reading some reviews about traffic quality. I am not getting sales from the leads sent. My plan is to run one campaign a month – I will schedule one this week. I am trying a new provider and I have checked the testimonials. I will share those when I get results
• Make a plan for the Copywriting launch of Buyers Frenzy to the existing copywriting list: I did read the materials sent by Pete Godfrey. This is going to take a lot more work than I had hoped. I did also discover that my autoresponder integration from FusionHq is not working again – and I did spend some time migrating it to Convertri – but not completed. I have become frustrated with FusionHq not moving forward. It seems that the basic system maintenance tasks are not being done either, like checking that the Getresponse API is functioning.
• Go through advertising training for one paid ads platform (Twitter ads): not done
• Set up Amazon Seller Central accounts to be ready to follow Launch pros launch. I did watch the launch webinar. I did go through the training which was only “what buttons to push” training – and not how to think about structure for your business to choose what accounts to use for liability and insurance and payments etc. I needed some questions answered and the training did not help at all.

The word that comes to mind about my week is Overwhelm. Now Dean did say NO EXCUSES.

I have a ton of those. The week turned into a social week with 3 big slices of time taken up being social. Now that is important for the recluses of the world (ME) and one was with my son who I get to see once a week. The real driver of the OVERWHELM is the way time just disappears and the biggest time sink when one is starting a new venture is the time it takes to learn new stuff. It does not help when the old stuff does not work as it is supposed to – another time sink opens up fixing the problems and/or migrating to a new place. Now I do have a way to deal with the copywriting time sink – I can become a manual API and paste in the email addresses manually. I will do that until I find a solution to the platform migration.

Managing Stress

Now I do also want to touch on the health side of my life, based on what Dean said. He was allocating more time to health after becoming really sick last month. A lot of what drove his illness was stress. I can relate to that. I suffer from what the psychologists call “a low frustration threshold”. I have learned how to manage it a whole lot better than I used to BUT in more recent times (the last 12 years) it has flowed through to increased blood pressure. Stress is a silent killer and for some people this is what it does – raises blood pressure. It might be silent but I can feel it in my body. I get a soft pain in the centre of my chest like someone is clenching a fist in there. I do not need a blood pressure reading to know what is going on but this week I did take one – 136/96 with a pulse of 106. My normal resting pulse rate is below 60. Even though the readings are not that extreme, I was feeling pretty crook.

I have learned a few things for managing stress since this stuff started (in 2006 when I separated from my wife of 25 years)

• Stop doing what is causing the stress
• Get away from the source of the stress (especially the people)
• Get some exercise
• Do some deep breathing
• Get out in nature

You will find that this a good list, if you Google “Managing Overwhelm” and follow some of the threads. They work for me.

I did do just that. I would normally go for a walk or a bike ride. This week I went outside and raked all the leaves in the back lawn and mowed the lawn. My brother- in-law helped a bit and that reduced some of the stress too (coming from his story). The symptoms of raised blood pressure went away – no need to take a reading. I can tell. AND the lawn looks nice. But it did mean that one of the Internet Marketing tasks did not get done. It is my fault really as I have not been allocating enough time to exercise (walking or cycling) – as we have had some really hot weather. The week before, I was feeling the same and I did go for a walk. I wanted to find a specific orchid in the bush. I did and I got a lot of rewards from the walk and the excitement and when I shared to photos on Facebook.

Week 9 Tasks

So the week 9 tasks are lined up

• Conversions: Have another go at remodelling bridge page. I have a model to work from that I like
• Solo Ads: Run 3 solo ads though Guaranteed Solo Mails – one to catch up and two news ones. I will pitch a different lead magnet or an offer
• Run 1 new solo ad: this is scheduled and I have checked testimonials
• Make a plan for the Copywriting list
• Go through advertising training for one paid ads platform (Twitter ads)
• Set up Amazon Seller Central accounts

Now I am going to be pressed for time as I am travelling to Melbourne for a long weekend of Australian Open tennis – a first for me – and a good way to manage stress. Get outdoors and visit some friends and my daughter who starts a new job in Melbourne this week.

New Year Resolutions Revisited

I did write last week about new year resolutions. I got an email in the week from Trello, the project software business, that talked about how to have a happier year and how to build in some productive habits. This is the gist of what the blog post covered

New Year’s resolutions get a bum rap. And to be fair, they don’t have the most promising success rate: a whopping 80% of resolutions fail by the very first week of February. Why? They’re simply way too ambitious. Trying to make a bunch of huge, sweeping life adjustments all at once (Run a marathon! Lose 20 kilograms! Quit your job and start your own business!) can feel totally frustrating. By the time February rolls around, you’re worn down, worn out, and prepared to surrender.

So, big resolutions do not work for most individuals – what about small resolutions? Can making tiny, lasting changes make a big effect?

Trello talked with Gretchen Rubin, bestselling writer of Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits and The Happiness Project to obtain her understandings into exactly how small modifications can develop solid outcomes.

Trello suggested 12 small changes – one per month that could make a big impact but first you do need to have a go at Mastering Your Mindset as the core foundation.

Gretchen says you have to start with clear goals – measurable and concrete.

People have a tendency to make very abstract resolutions. Like ‘be more present.’ What does that mean? Okay, it’s Monday morning. Last week were you more present? You have no idea. Or even things like “eat healthier.” Okay, that sounds concrete, but it’s not really very measurable. What does that mean? Are you going to bring a lunch to work every day instead of eating out? Are you going to skip dessert? Are you going to cook more? Are you going to not buy things out of the vending machine? What does eat healthier mean for you?

Step one is to define a goal and then work to achieve it in a way that works for you. Some of us are self-driven. Some of us need to be prodded along. Some of us are schedule driven. Find your own way that works for you. Even so, 80% of you will fail by February. This was the part of the post I really liked. 12 ideas to get you from one month to the next – stretch the fail by February to march by adding in one more idea in February. I am only going to write about the first idea – it is very pertinent to me and I want to help you in managing overwhelm

Idea 1: Month 1: January: Select A Theme

If you intend to see long-term change throughout the year, it is necessary to specify what you want that change to be from the get-go. Start by picking a theme for the year. Think about what you wish to complete this year, and then choose a word or expression that encompasses it.

In my last post, I picked 3 – FOCUS, LEVERAGE, SCALE UP – and maybe that was already the beginning of failing by February = too ambitious even though they are connected

Theme selected, it becomes a simple process of planning and designing tasks that fit in with the theme. Then DO them.

In the spirit of managing overwhelm I am not going to write here about the other 11 ideas. I will just list them word for word and once a month I will write about one of them. You can thank me right now as I help you managing overwhelm:

• Buy An Extra
• Sleep In Your Exercise Clothes
• Get The Right Tools
• Delete A Soul-Crushing App
• Give Yourself A Bedtime
• Build A Strong Bedtime Routine
• Institute “The One Minute Rule”
• Choose One Room/Area In Your Home To Declutter
• Invest In Your Senses
• Go Outside Every Day
• Put Your Phone In The Other Room

Find the Trello blog post here 

Resources

Article Spinning: I have bought a lot of PLR in my time. I use an article spinner some of the time. I used one here for parts of my post. SpinRewriter does a great job in creating multiple variants that work well for SEO and avoiding Google penalties. Get SpinRewriter here

Project Management: I use a project management tool to document all my work steps. That will provide a toolbox for managing projects and also for managing an outsourcer down the line. My tool of choice is Trello.com – try it for free

Credits

New Year resolution image from Trello.com.