Struggle with fitting everything into your schedule? Jo, an expert in marketing and brand strategy, joins me, Donna Eade, to unravel the art of effective time management and setting self-imposed boundaries. Through our candid conversation, you'll discover Jo's battle-tested techniques for optimizing productivity and mental clarity. She shares how a morning routine of exercise, journaling, and reflection can be a game-changer before you tackle your client work. Plus, she drops a powerful affirmation that'll help you sieve out the essentials from the clutter, guiding you to invest your time where it counts.
As we gear up for Thursday's episode, Jo teases the concept that 'less is more' in marketing, hinting at strategies for impactful communication that we'll explore in greater depth. Remember to connect with Jo on LinkedIn if her insights resonate with you, and be sure to check our show notes for that easy access link.
My recommendations: Want to get booked more and get more out of your guest appearances? Join fabulous podcaster & Podcast Guest trainer Kelly Mosser for her signature Program Hell Yes Guest get 10% off the program with my link plus some extra bonuses from me check it out HERE FEA Create Simple all-in-one web, CRM, email system For graphics Canva For Email Convert Kit
Want to Guest? Apply here >>FORM Edited and produced by Donna Eade
Struggle with fitting everything into your schedule? Jo, an expert in marketing and brand strategy, joins me, Donna Eade, to unravel the art of effective time management and setting self-imposed boundaries. Through our candid conversation, you'll discover Jo's battle-tested techniques for optimizing productivity and mental clarity. She shares how a morning routine of exercise, journaling, and reflection can be a game-changer before you tackle your client work. Plus, she drops a powerful affirmation that'll help you sieve out the essentials from the clutter, guiding you to invest your time where it counts.
As we gear up for Thursday's episode, Jo teases the concept that 'less is more' in marketing, hinting at strategies for impactful communication that we'll explore in greater depth. Remember to connect with Jo on LinkedIn if her insights resonate with you, and be sure to check our show notes for that easy access link.
My recommendations: Want to get booked more and get more out of your guest appearances? Join fabulous podcaster & Podcast Guest trainer Kelly Mosser for her signature Program Hell Yes Guest get 10% off the program with my link plus some extra bonuses from me check it out HERE FEA Create Simple all-in-one web, CRM, email system For graphics Canva For Email Convert Kit
Want to Guest? Apply here >>FORM Edited and produced by Donna Eade
Thank you for your support:)
Until next week...
Donna Eade:
You're listening to the Mindset and Action podcast, the place to be to grow and streamline your business. I'm your host, donna Eade. Let's jump into the show ["Mindset and Action"]. Welcome back to the podcast, everybody. I'm so glad to have you here for another mini Mindset Monday episode with me. I have a guest coming to share her Mindset blocks with us today. Joe, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me here. It's great to be here. So we have a episode coming out on Thursday which is talking all about how less is more when it comes to your marketing. So if you are feeling a little burned out with everything that you're doing over on social media to try and get your business out there, definitely an episode to listen to. So come back to that one. But, joe, tell the listeners a little bit about what it is that you actually do for your business. Sure.
Jo Cowper:
OK, and so I am a marketing and brand strategy coach. I support business owners to build a marketing plan, a marketing approach that they actually enjoy, and I do that based in really digging deep into your personal brand who you are, what you're all about, what makes you tick, why you started this business of yours in the first place and what you want to get out of it.
Donna Eade:
Brilliant, I love that. So on our mini Mindset Mondays what we do is we dive into a block that you've had that kind of got in your way in your business and what you kind of did to overcome it. So what was sort of the biggest block that you've kind of come up against, hit and thought, oh, I can't get over this, and but you've managed it because you're still here and you're still in business. So tell us about that for you.
Jo Cowper:
Yeah, so my biggest one lately has literally been the overwhelm that comes from feeling I never have got enough time, I've not enough time in the day, and that leads to writing well, it leads me anyway writing to the state of paralysis that literally, you've got so much to do how much to do that you do nothing. You just sit in the whole thing and you do more and more and more nothing and the things you've got to do get worse and worse and worse. You just want to go back to bed.
Donna Eade:
I've been there. I have been there. I think we can all agree that we have been there. So what is the process that you are undertaking to try and get around that? Because I think I think there's a lot of different ways that you can sort of overcome that for yourself, and I think we all find our own way. But it's really good to hear how somebody else is kind of dealing with it, because it gives us tips that we might might work for us, sure.
Jo Cowper:
Yeah, well, I mean, I've tried all sorts of things, to be honest, because I'm definitely I'm a planner, you know I do like to have things planned. I like to know what's supposed to happen and when. And I suppose it's probably when these things start to roll out of control, or when you overrun on how long you think it's going to take you to do a certain thing. That's for me where the overrun really can begin to kick in. Yeah, unintentionally so I made a vision board at the beginning of last year and, without really intending it to have it appear on the wall, it's actually a lot of. It is about managing boundaries and boundaries really where the key, you know it's all about know how to delegate, protect yourself, lean into your intuition, a lot of this kind of stuff. And has that helped me? I don't know, but I found it interesting that came out. I didn't expect to put it in Anyway. So what have I done that has really helped me to sort this out? Boundaries have been absolutely critical, I think.
Jo Cowper:
At the beginning of last year, my working week was. Every day was crammed, it was just jam jammed full. You know I would schedule everything and know exactly what I was supposed to be doing day by day, hour by hour I was actually using an online calendar at that time and just fill the thing up. This is what I need to do. This is the time I've got, and it gets the end of the week feeling absolutely guilty, terrible, all of this stuff, what I started to do, counterintuitive, but I started to actually build in time for thinking and for just doing things that replenish my energy, I guess, in the course of the day.
Jo Cowper:
So I worked through various ways of trying to plan my time and ended up coming back to paper Paper planner, which is, for me, by far the best way because I can see it in front of me in a way that I can't see on the screen. It feels more immediate. I can check it whilst I'm also working, and what I booked in for myself is that after dropping off the children at school, every single day I do exercise, I have my shower and I write my journal these three non-negotiables. Client meetings did not start until after I've done these three things. Nothing starts till after I've done these three things and typically, whilst I'm out going for a run or doing my workout downstairs, all the ideas will start to come into my head, I start to feel fresher and newer and better, and so I'm often recording voice notes on my phone whilst I'm out and about. But this exercise shower journal is the non-negotiable in my day, and that puts all the rest into a better perspective.
Jo Cowper:
I found the other thing that came to me. Strangely just, it kind of came into my head only a few months ago with this sort of affirmation I always have plenty of time for everything that matters. And it just came to me and it helped me to feel, to remember that actually I get to choose what matters. That's the thing. I'm not claiming I've got loads of time. I've got the same amount of time as anybody else, but it's up to me to say what matters. So I'm given the same amount of time as everybody else out there in this world and I have got plenty of it, just like the rest of us. 24 full hours a day, hours gosh and I get to spend it on what matters. That's my choice, yeah.
Donna Eade:
Oh, that's so good, so good. And I'm smiling through that, because I had something very similar happen with myself last year and it wasn't necessarily the overwhelm of everything like looking at the bigger picture. For me it was sort of a daily issue. Where I decided to focus on my health a couple of years ago and in doing that I joined a membership where there are live classes, because I'm somebody who just doesn't really have that motivation to go out and do it myself. I need that live aspect of it. So when I turn around and say to my Vitality Coach, I'm coming to Palox in on Monday morning, wednesday evening, and I'm gonna do Matt Pilates on Tuesday morning, when I say that to her, I feel like I've made a commitment to her, because she shows up live for those classes every week. And then if I don't show up, I feel like I've let her down. And I know that it really should be an internal thing and you're letting yourself down. But it's what works for me. It gets me there, it gets me doing it. So that's fine. But what happens was she doesn't start those classes till Court Pass nine. So then I'm not finished till Court Pass 10. And then, if it's, palox in on hot and sweaty. I kind of need a shower before I get Matt Pilates. I can get it from, but I'm not getting to my desk until sort of midday, almost like between sort of half 11 and midday, to start my workday, and then by two, three o'clock, I'm feeling like I'm so behind and I haven't got anything done and my day's been wasted and it was really frustrating me and I talked to my health coach about it and she was just like just put two things on your list that you need to get done in a day, even if one of those is exercise, because then you're ticking it off. You know you'll get the important things done and, like you were saying, you know I've got enough time for what I need in my day, what I need to do, and that was kind of her way of sort of getting me around that which kind of worked.
Donna Eade:
But this year I made the conscious decision that my days, my work days, don't start till 12. Now you may be looking at the clock right now, joe, it's turning around going. Donna, it's before 12 o'clock what you're talking about. But that's my choice, my choice to do this before 12, because I don't have any exercise classes on a Friday morning so I can bring my day forward if I want to. But what I have been doing is just exactly what you do. I take the time to do my meditation, I take the time to do my exercise, I have my breakfast, I go out for a walk.
Donna Eade:
That's one of my new non-negotiables is to go and do 2000 steps minimum outside in the air so I can get that sunshine, that bit of vitamin D, and that is what I do, and I allow myself to not get to my desk until midday and then I will work a bit later, because my thing is I'm a bit of a night out anyway and I tend to get my most productive at around three, four o'clock in the afternoon. So I'm actually. Then I get into something and I'm really into it, and Matthew comes home and I'm like, yeah, I'll talk to me later, and I'm tipped up in a way and I have dinner time. It's like my cut off, that's when I step away from work and join him. So I love that. That is. Your sort of process is very similar to mine in dealing with overwhelm, and it's something that we're both sort of challenging ourselves to be better.
Jo Cowper:
And I love how you're using your own energy there. You know, the times of day when you're better suited to doing certain things is what you're doing at that time, yeah.
Donna Eade:
It makes so much sense.
Jo Cowper:
I mean trying to fight. It is constantly gonna lead you back into that pit, you know.
Donna Eade:
Yeah, I'm never gonna be a five AM girl, it's just not in me. But when I looked at it I was like, okay, so five AM, they're getting up. Five, six, seven, eight, nine, that's sort of four hours, well, three hours between five and nine that they're getting up and they're doing their own thing. So that's just what I'm doing, but I'm starting at eight. So it's fine. I get up and I do my meditation. I will read for 10 minutes, then I get up and I do my exercise, and that's how my morning starts. So I'm just shifting my hours and I don't feel like because I don't get up at five o'clock in the morning, I'll be any less successful for it.
Jo Cowper:
No, I had a big phase, maybe 18 months ago, where I, to try and combat the same problem, I started getting up and working at five AM and I did it for months and I felt terrible. At the end I felt absolutely dreadful. I mean I am a morning person, but that was too much, you know, it was just. It felt too much of a chore and I think you've got to go with what you can sustain.
Donna Eade:
Yeah, yeah, what feels good in your body and that's so, so important these days. So brilliant. I absolutely love that. I hope that you got value out of that, guys, because I think it is definitely a common problem out there in the business world. Thank you so much for joining me today, joe. Where can people find you online? Of course they're going to come back on Thursday and listen to that episode with you, but where can they find you in the meantime?
Jo Cowper:
Absolutely. They can find me probably best on LinkedIn, and so take a look at communications. You'll find me there on LinkedIn.
Donna Eade:
Brilliant, I'll link that in the show notes guide. That is it for today's Mini Mindset. Monday have a great day and I'll see you on Thursday. Bye, for now. Tell your story, naruto, irrelevant to you. Bye.
