As you work on building in daily habits that will make you more successful, one of the skills you need to practice and habituate is saying no more. For the next month or so, start saying no to something at least once a week. The way to choose what to say no to is to check your goals, look at your schedule, and ask yourself what you really want.
If something leads you to reach your goals and fits your schedule, saying yes is fine, but if it does not provide any value to you or does not fit into your schedule right now, say no.
Danielle Delaney
If an action leads you to reach your goals and fits your schedule, saying yes is fine, but if it does not provide any value to you or does not fit into your schedule right now, say no.
Here are some reasons and ways that you can say no more often.
If You Already Know Say So
Sometimes you simply know that you don’t want to do something no matter what. Instead of putting people off or saying yes just to avoid the issue, start saying no right away.
Think About It
You don’t have to give people answers right away about anything. This can help you reduce the pressure on yourself to say yes to anything. Start making it a habit always to thinking about something before you give a definite response. For instance, don’t be afraid to be honest and say “Let me check my schedule. I’ll get back to you by 3 pm on Friday with my answer.” This way, they can wait patiently, and you can ensure that you want to say yes or no.
Always Check Your Schedule
Even if your first thought is that it’s something you want to do, you must always check your schedule before saying yes. You may be over booked already, and even if you’re going to say yes, you need to say no. Doing this will ward off burnout. Stretching yourself too thin is bad for you and everyone else that depends on you too.
Curious about what I’m learning every week on my creative journey as it relates to faith, self-care, and entrepreneurship?
Understanding marketing is essential to your success as a new entrepreneur. Marketing is how your target audience finds you. The first thing I ever marketed was my self-published poetry book in 2011. I learned a lot about marketing on social media and through the book’s website – and Amazon. I used that experience – along with my journalism skills to also market my Christian women’s digital magazine “Virtue and Memoirs.”
And these days, I’m still a content creator at heart – marketing Chayil Media Publishing – my copywriting and brand storytelling business, my digital magazine, and my personal brand. Why? Well simply put, without marketing, you won’t gain the exposure to grow a sustainable brand or business.
Marketing is how you gain the trust of your target audience by showing, telling, and proving that your products, services, or business are there to support them.
Danielle Delaney
The following are six marketing tips every new entrepreneur needs to get started right.
Focus On Building Relationships with Your Target Audience First
Before you sell to your audience right away, learn to build a strong relationship first. In other words, the freer value you provide in the long run, the stronger the relationship becomes — making it easier to market your products at a later time. By the way, if you want to learn more about what your audience needs from you, don’t be afraid to survey them on social media by asking questions or doing polls.
Share Engaging and Valuable Content
No business today, online or off, can survive without content marketing. Without content, your audience will not understand the type of value you provide. This can be done through blog posts, videos, photos or even sharing user-generated content. And if you’re not familiar with user-generated content – It’s content that’s shared on social media by one of your customers or clients promoting your brand. You can easily reshare this content with your followers.
Don’t Skip Email Marketing
Emails offer the highest return on investment compared to all other online marketing strategies. There is a myth that email marketing is dead, but this is far from the truth, with nearly three hundred billion emails being sent around the world today. Email marketing is powerful because you don’t have to battle with the algorithms of the world.
Set Up a Business Blog
A blog on your website is a great way to have sole ownership of what you share and sell to your community. If a specific social media platform disappears, you won’t reach them. However, you know this won’t happen since you control your blog. Making it easy to share information with your customers or target audience whenever you can.
Use Social Media
You can’t avoid social media. Even just one social media account can skyrocket your reach and exposure as a brand. Did you know that nearly four billion people worldwide use some form of social media? This means your potential to reach your target audience is almost limitless. Find out which platforms your audience hangs out on and jump in with a strategy. However, be careful not to overwhelm yourself. I recommend sticking to 2-3 platforms.
Get Help
Marketing helps you reach certain revenue goals and reach your target audience effectively. Without marketing, it is unlikely your customers will find you very easily. If you need help, try to hire someone who can help you. A few roles that come to mind are social media managers, copywriters, website designers, and brand photographers
Marketing doesn’t need to be complicated. As long as you create content that your target audience needs or wants, you will likely be successful. And of course, don’t forget nailing down a strategy first.
Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs make mistakes that can hinder their success by ignoring customers’ needs or not taking the time to share your value.
Curious about what I’m learning every week on my creative journey as it relates to faith, self-care, and entrepreneurship?
Sometimes, life is just too busy. Maybe you find yourself frustrated when it comes to wondering how you can possibly get all the important stuff done. Sometimes I feel this way too, so you’re not alone. I get it! And your answer is pretty simple: Declutter your mind. In this blog post, I’m sharing some of my favorite ways to declutter my mind. I’m confident that these tips will help you clear out the clutter and make room for more productive thoughts as well.
Have some quiet time alone
You can reduce stress and anxiety by taking time to unwind.
Pray – Prayer allows you to get closer to God and tap into clarity and discernment.
Take a walk – Get outside, breathe in the fresh air, and enjoy nature.
Get enough sleep – It’s hard for you to think clearly when you’re tired or stressed, so make sure you get enough rest before tackling any big projects or stressful tasks.
Manage your time better
One of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to declutter their minds is not managing their time properly.
When you’re feeling overwhelmed and overwhelmed, it’s easy to forget about your schedule or simply not have one at all—which means that a lot of the work you do will go unfinished.
If you want to organize your thoughts and clear out some brain space, make sure that you plan out what needs to be done each day as well as how much time each task should take.
Delegate and ask for help
Delegation is an important part of your decluttering process, but it can be difficult to know where to start.
The first step is asking for help from people who are good at what you need done. And by the way, don’t be afraid of being assertive when delegating tasks. Be sure to also follow up with those subordinates after completing those assignments so that everything goes smoothly!
It’s crucial that everyone involved has clear expectations about what needs to get done.
Set short-term goals
Setting goals can be a powerful way to get your mind working toward a clearer, more productive and happier state.
Setting goals helps you focus on what really matters in life, prioritize what’s most important to you and achieve more by having a clear outline of where you want to be. Short term goals are an excellent way of keeping your mind clutter free because they give you something that feels achievable in an otherwise overwhelming world.
Short term goals can be as simple as:
Reading 1 chapter per day from a book on decluttering your mind
Going for a walk every day (even if it’s only 15 minutes)
Progressing in a new skill once a week
Be kind to yourself
It is so easy to get caught up in the daily grind and forget to give yourself a break.
You can start by being kinder to yourself, whether it’s for a mistake you made or for something that didn’t go as planned. Giving yourself some time out of your day to do something you enjoy will help make everything else seem less overwhelming.
Be kind to others too! It can be easy to feel overwhelmed when it comes down to how much we have on our plates at any given time, but don’t compare yourself with other people and don’t get down on them when they’re struggling with their own problems or just having a rough day – we all need each other!
A decluttered mind is a productive mind
When your mind is decluttered:
You’ll be able to focus on what’s important, rather than worrying about things that don’t matter.
You will make better decisions, because your mind won’t be cluttered with unnecessary information that could cloud your judgment.
You will concentrate on tasks at hand instead of getting distracted by other things like social media.
The key to decluttering your mind is being aware that you can do it.
Danielle Delaney
You might feel like you’re drowning in a sea of thoughts and emotions, but the truth is that we all have the ability to clear out our minds if we try hard enough.
The first step in this process is recognizing that there is room for improvement, which can be done by creating space for yourself by setting aside time each day just for yourself or taking regular breaks throughout the day, so you don’t get overwhelmed.
Once you know there is something wrong with how cluttered your brain feels at times when trying to complete tasks, start working on ways to clear out all those thoughts as quickly as possible so they don’t interfere with what needs doing right now.
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