Permission NOT to Plan

(00:09):

Hey friends. Welcome to episode number 22 of Entrepreneurial Outlaws. Today's episode is really a permission slip, a permission slip to not plan, not plan your content, not try to batch your content in advance. This permission slip does come with a caveat. I'm not, I'm not on planning and I'm not on batching. It has its pros and cons, but as someone whose business used to revolve around content planning and content batching, I used to have products and offers even a membership that was focused on teaching business owners. How to plan ahead, how to batch out content. I know it has its pros and its cons. What I also know is that most of 2020, I did not plan ahead. I did not batch my content again, pros and cons planning and bat chain is great for some focus, knowing what you're doing each week.

(01:18):

Yes. And as someone who does like to be organized, planning is useful at the same time planning and batching content ahead can lead us into this false sense of security. It can lead us into this trap where we've got content planned that maybe is suddenly no longer relevant. Maybe it's not as thoughtful or as intentional as we intended it to be. And sometimes when we try to plan and create and batch content ahead of time was struggling because we not sure what to say or we're struggling because what we had intended to say is now not what we want to share with them putting this position of do I rewrite my content? Do I just carry on as usual? This is a question many of us have asked time and time again over the last year. So today it's really about a permission slip to not just not plan, but to find out what that planning looks like for you to ensure that you're not planning for the sake of it.

(02:14):

You're not following these rules or these boundaries that really don't meet your business or your goals. And how do you find what works for you? So that's what we're going to be talking about today is specifically around Instagram, right? We're going to be talking about Instagram content, and I'm going to take you behind the scenes. I'm going to share with you the highs and lows of my own planning and batching. I'm going to talk about how I felt truthfully when I used to plan a batch, everything out in advance, and I'm going to share with you what I do now in the hopes that it can give you some sense of peace and inspiration and know that you're not alone. If you're not planning and batching your content out months in advance.

(03:14):

So I used to plan and batch my content months in advance. This became not only my focus in my own business, but it became something that I taught others how to do. Here's one of a few little things I noticed when I look back at that time in my business. When I look back at a time when I had this really solid content plan and I really was batching and just pumping out content is a few things I've noticed about that. The fast is that it gave me a sense of what heaviness, right? Planning and bat Chang, looking at my scheduling tool with all these posts planned out. It gave me a sense of why the next, because I connected my self-worth to how much I could cheat could achieve. Now, I think this is something I'm still walking on, trying to let go off connecting my productivity, my kind of creative output, connecting that to myself with right.

(04:15):

I'm know, I'm not alone in this. I think this is something we are taught that the more we can do, the more successful we are. And I certainly felt that when I planned and batched my content at the same time, I wasn't actually making enough money to pay my bills. So I spent all this time planning and batching content and putting content out into the world, but I wasn't making enough money to pay my bills. And when I look back at that, I do have to wonder if that were other tasks. Other things I could have been doing that would have actually helped me to grow my business faster. The third thing I was miserable. Now I'm not necessarily associating that to planning and batching, but I was not the happiest I've ever been in my business. I found that time really hard. I was working so hard, often running out of time each week I was doing and doing and doing, but I wasn't making that much money.

(05:12):

And when I say I wasn't making that much money, I wasn't making enough money to pay my bills. I wasn't connecting with people. And I felt totally, totally 100% uninspired by my own content. I did not feel as though my audience were actually receptive to my content. So, you know, over the last few weeks, we've been talking a lot about listening and then creating. So listening to what you're already telling you, even, you know, sometimes it's not what we want to hear. I, if you felt really resistant to that, I get it. That is how I used to feel. I felt as if my audience were totally unreceptive, they wouldn't not necessarily paying attention or at least how I felt. And like so many I felt as though it was because I wasn't doing enough, that it was because I was, you know, I didn't have the right graphics or the right stock imagery, or I needed to change my brand colors for the 50,000 at the time.

(06:12):

Or maybe it was because I was posting too few times or I wasn't doing this, that will the other. And so I fell into that trap of constantly looking outside of myself for the answer I was constantly looking for. What was the next best thing? What was this thing that was going to just turn my content around? How could I beat the algorithm, all that kind of stuff. What I never realized was that my content fell, my content fell flat with my audience because I found it totally uninspiring. Couple of weeks ago, we talked about looking at how we want our audience to feel right? Thinking about how do our audience want to feel when they go to Instagram, what are they looking for? How do they want to feel when they see your content? How do you want to feel when you go on that platform?

(07:01):

The problem was I was creating all of this content, the uninspired me, I was not inspired by my own content. I was creating content that was just adding to the noise. And the reason I was doing that was because around me at that time, that was all I saw. I'm talking about a time pre 2020, when all we saw was content that was regurgitated, adding to the noise. Everybody fighting for them sport. And Oh, there that place in the spotlight. And I felt like a total imposter in my industry because writing my content felt like I was just going through the motions. Nothing had substance, nothing resonated with me, but at the same time, I expected it to do this with my audience. And it didn't, it was a very, very few people who really resonated with my content at that time. And it doesn't surprise me.

(07:53):

And did this have a direct correlation to planning and bat Chang? Yes and no. Yes. Because the only reason I was able to plan and batch so far in advance was because there was no real deep thought. There was no deep emotion. There was no real intention behind the content I was creating. I was just pumping content out because that was what I thought I had to do. And so there wasn't that real substance behind it. There was no real storytelling. There was no storytelling path for facade. And then sometimes as I created content that was of use to my audience, it was usually teaching. So I would create content that people found useful, but it was usually a teaching post. It was usually something where I was giving away something very tangible that they could take and use nothing wrong with that. But that was a focus of my content.

(08:44):

That was the only time my content was ever really receptive Rosette received, but it never quite clicked. Right. It never quite did what I wanted it to do or what I was hoping it could do. There was this disconnection between who I am and who I thought I should be online. There was this disconnection between why thought I should say and what I wanted to say, right. I was adding to the noise, but that wasn't really what I wanted to do. That wasn't my purpose. Isn't my purpose. That wasn't why I had a business. It isn't how I wanted to run things, but I didn't know my options were, there was this disconnection between what I thought my audience wanted from me versus what they actually needed. This is huge because so much of the way I showed up online mine was filtered through the lens of my business coaches.

(09:44):

It was a, yes, that was not my own. I was not working towards my own goals. I was not working towards my own vision because I didn't have enough opportunity to figure out what that looks like. Instead I was working towards other people's visions, other people's businesses, their business models, how much money they wanted to make at the same time being told that what I thought my audience wanted for me or needed for me, one of that's not true. That's not what they really want. Even though that was exactly what they were telling me, because that didn't fit into someone else's vision. It didn't fit into what someone else needed to believe about online business. And this was the trap that I fell into. So even when I stopped working with those business coaches, I still have this real disconnection between who I am and who I thought I should be online.

(10:35):

And I don't want to use the word authentic because I know it's over done, but that was really what was missing. Was this authenticity because personally, I didn't really know who I was. So I certainly didn't know who I should be online. I didn't know who I was online because I wasn't really sure who I wanted to be in real life. And there was this disconnect between this kind of persona. This person that I showed up has online versus who I was actually and what was actually going on. And for the most part, it was kind of fake. It wasn't necessarily real, you know, these are things that I would never dream of doing that because my business is like saturate and transparency. That's how I run my business because that's how I always wanted to run my business. But it's not sexy. It's a tunnel for love.

(11:26):

People have to really, really stand in my values and say, it's okay, that not everyone is going to show up and read my content because I'm saying the things that people don't really want to hear, but that's the disconnect right now between planning out our content and creating freely is this disconnection between who we think we should be online and who we actually are between what our audience want from us and what actually need between what we think we should say and what we actually want to say, right? It's the reason why creative entrepreneurs can find planning and batching so hard because writing your thoughts out ahead of time, it's totally foreign. I get that because we write from a place of inspiration. And if you're not writing from a place of inspiration, if you're not writing from time conversations or real world events or how you're feeling in that moment, if you lost that connection between yourself and your audience, then you're typically going to be just regurgitating information.

(12:33):

And the easiest way to regurgitate information is by just teaching. And I'm not saying that we shouldn't teach, and I'm not saying that we shouldn't have content creators who do primarily teach. What I am saying is if that doesn't feel right to you, if it feels like a foreign concept, if it feels like something that is really heavy and hard to do, then that's probably why, because what we want to do is shift from this teaching content to this kind of thought leader, content shift from planning and batching and focusing on how far in advance we can do this to actually doing it in real time and having those conversations and allowing those conversations to feel your content, coming back to that storytelling, connecting your audience to your story, connecting you to your story and meeting them in the middle.

(13:26):

And look, I get it because we have been taught to attach productivity, planning, batching, all of those things to our worthiness. We have been taught to attach those things to our success. The narrative online is that when you are successful, you'll plan months in ahead, maybe years in advance, you'll have this one particular product that you can just sell like hotcakes. Like every time you open the doors, you sell out every launch and everything you touch will turn to six figures. That is the narrative. We are still being sold, but it's not true. It is the exception. It is not the standard at which most business owners, especially small business owners can work towards. But if we're to believe that these things mean we are successful. And with, to believe that to become that person, we have to do those things. It makes absolute sense that we attach our success, our worthiness to planning and batching.

(14:32):

If we don't doing those things successfully, that we're failing or the we're not on track to level up that maybe our limiting beliefs are standing in our way. A lot of this kind of love and light washing that has been presented to us over the years as a way of disregarding empathy as a way of disregarding trauma as a way of disregarding real life. So we end up falling into this trap of trying to constantly hustle, trying to complete, be more productive and out, out, produce other people, other content creators. We do this because we're told that that success, but in my opinion, we can become so attached to the planning and the batching that we actually forget to execute. We lose ourselves in this process. We lose our vision and our values and our business in this process. And then we forget to execute what we actually want to do in the first place.

(15:31):

This is one of the reasons, but I talk to business owners, who've been doing this for a while. You start your business and everything is new. Everything is shiny. We're so excited. We absorb so much information. We're like these little entrepreneurial sponges. And at some point the sponge gets too heavy and we can't absorb anything else. And we're so overwhelmed with information. We just don't know what the next step is. We don't know what step to take next or first to get to where we want to get to. We have so many options, so many choices. We don't know which one to choose. And this is what we know that we need to tap into our intuition. This is when we need to go inwards. Instead of outwards, we need to look at what do we actually want to do? Because at those moments, when we become attached to the planning and we forget to execute, because we're going around in cycles, we like overthinking it.

(16:25):

And this spiral, then somebody else says that thing, someone else creates the product. We lose our connection to the message. And then we feel like an imposter complaining, be useful. Yes. Complaining, help you get clear on what you want to create or communicate in your business. Absolutely. But too much planning often leads us to overthinking. And that becomes a spiral, right? And it's a straight spiral straight spiral. I mean, you can have a straight spiral. It's a straight puff to overwhelm. Overthinking leads us to over-complicating, over-complicating leaves us to overcompensating. And then we get into overwhelm, but effective content creation as an empath, as a creative, as an interface, it requires a balance that needs to be a balance of planning with strategic support, and then actually doing the thing. We need to have this balance of this masculine and feminine energy, which I'm so reluctant to talk about, because again, how this is being used against people in business.

(17:34):

But it's cool. What it means is basically using data and also using how you feel. You know, what's the data telling me, it's telling me that I should create this piece of content. Do I want to create this piece of content? Is that aligned with my vision and my business? Is it within my values? Is it something that excites me? Right? Sure. The data gives us information, but we have to ask ourselves better questions as content creators, as business owners. And those questions are a form of planning, but this is where planning can be more strategic. It can be more intuitive. It can actually allow us to go from a place of, Hey, here's some information in front of me to, I'm actually excited about this. I could create this piece of content and we do it really quickly. I mean, have you ever created content or if you've ever had those moments, when you are so aligned with a message or an idea or a content theme, maybe something's really fired you up.

(18:41):

And you're like, it. This is, and you're like typing on your computer. And you're like, Oh my God, this is, this really me off about my industry. And I'm so tired of seeing people feel this way and you brought this piece of content and it just like, it just comes out of you. And it's probably the best flipping thing you've ever written. And then you put out that on paper, like, Oh my God, I feel the same way. And it's people are receptive to it, right? We've all had that. Here's the thing. We do that. And then we go straight back into this, this place of self-doubt this place of imposter syndrome, because we don't connect the fact that what we just did is what we should be doing. We lose ourselves in this over-planning and this over batching and this desire to look a certain way.

(19:31):

You know, if I plan a batch, well, I'm a good entrepreneur. Then everyone's going to know this about me. We that. Like, we don't need to worry about that. We need to worry about what is the we're saying, you know, what, what are we saying? What do we want our content to do for our business, for our audience? How do we want to showcase our values? And let's not forget that we are still living in unprecedented times, right? I'm not even sure it makes sense to plan things out too far in advance, because we have realized in the last year that can change any time. The things that we didn't even know were possible can happen.

(20:14):

Right? We have realized that our routines and schedules can be just like blown apart within moments, and that we sometimes have no control over that. And this is coming from someone who is very rigid in her own routines. I like routine. I like to know what's happening. I'm a bit of a control freak in that way. And this has been a very, very hard lesson for me to learn over the last year. But it's also taught me so much about flexibility. I definitely the kind of person who could be told something a hundred times, but it will take me as long as it takes me to get to that result myself. So I know some of you listening to this might be like, this sounds great, Melanie, but I'm not there yet. Fine. Listen to this once a week, if you need to, until you're there. But remember that you can get that if this is what you want, if this is how you run your business, if you are the kind of person who like me can be told something, but know that they need to get there in their own time festival, that self-awareness is really great. And secondly, you'll get there when you're ready to it's a journey, have some compassion for yourself. Again, also a lesson that I need to hear, because I'm not particularly great at doing that for myself, but you will get there in your own time.

(22:05):

So let's talk about how right we talked about

(22:10):

How planning and bad chain can actually negatively affect our Southwest. It can cause us to feel like an imposter. It can actually have the opposite effect with our content. So how do I plan and create content right now? What do I do? So there's really no surprises. The first thing I do is I, listen, I listen to myself, I listened to my audience. I listened to the data. I also look at what I'm planning on offering. So what is it that I'm offering? What is it I'm selling? What is I'm launching? Which direction is my business heading in? This is really important. It's this, this is like a, a foundational role that still is true and valid, right? We're creating content because we're marketing our business. So therefore the content we create, the content we share with people, it does have to have some kind of connection to the place where our business going, some kind of connection to what we do and where we're heading.

(23:08):

That is completely subjective to what you do and what kind of business you have. Now, I'm starting to integrate at the time of recording this and starting to integrate a week or so into my business each month where I can dedicate time to dreaming and planning and visualizing. I am definitely a visionary in my business. I am not an integrator. So despite my desire for organization and you know, some kind of strategy and you know, I like checklists and stuff as well. I also paint them. I'm very complicated. So despite the fact I like them, I also dislike them. I don't want to be the one creating them. I like to be with my ideas. I've always been like that. I like to come up with things and then I need people who are going to say, Melanie, I'm not sure. Or do we have to do that right now?

(24:05):

We have enough to do. And this is one of the incredible things I found with building my team name is I have hired. And I work with people who feel safe to challenge and say, no. Also like no way. I agree with you. And I love that conversations. And I openly lead in that way. I'm like, look, I'm here. And I tell them I'll say to them, you know, look, this is my idea. I want you to tell me what's wrong with this idea. And so it's always kind of a fun conversation when they, the come at me and go, well, here's all the reasons why this might not work. Or they're like, actually I agree. You know, that's a nice little bit of validation for my ego, either way. This is really, really powerful to have those people. It doesn't necessarily have to be team members yeah.

(25:00):

To have people in your, in your business, people, even if it's like a little group of like a mastermind or PR business pain, like a friend, someone who you can bounce ideas off of and that they feel safe enough and confident enough with you in that relationship that they can say to you. I'm not sure. The other thing is, you know, obviously asking your audience, but if you are a visionary, if you know that that's you, then when you come to the time when you're looking to hire, it's definitely important to look at hiring those people who are going to help you actually execute those ideas or organize and kind of integrate them. So I'm trying to integrate a week or so into my business each month where I can actually just dream plan, visualize. It usually involves a lot of journaling. There's like pages and pages of notes.

(25:45):

And then what I typically [inaudible] was look at this and kind of say, okay, which of these things do I still want to do? Which of these ideas are actually going to get me to where I'm trying to go? W what things have I said before, which pieces of these which ideas, which themes are going to be repurposed. And this, it really helps me to get clear on what I want to say. And also why it's important, because again, this is combining that like masculine and feminine energy, you know, what do I want to say? How is that going to help me achieve my goals? Also? Why is it important to me to say these things? Why is it important to my audience to hear them on a tangible level? When I create content, I allow my creativity and my experiences to guide me. So as a creative entrepreneur, I know that we can find inspiration and creativity in so many different places.

(26:43):

For me, I will, who associates ideas to maybe a visual graphic, something that I have created in the parts, or it might also be that I actually associated with a gift. Yeah. Or some kind of concept. And this to me is something I've always found really inspiring for my own content. But I was also taught many, many times this isn't how I should create content. I was taught that you should kind of come up with a theme and then you should create a graphics last because that's easy piece. Yes and no. I feel like, like that is maybe a role created for people who aren't not necessarily creative. And I'm talking about creativity in the sense of colors and fonts and choosing assets and graphics that fit together. I think if you have that creativity, when it comes to graphic design, or you enjoy playing around in Canva, and you can, you have an eye for creative, creative endeavors.

(27:48):

I feel as though you will be more inspired visually. You know, if you're an artist or a jewelry designer or a fashion designer, you're going to be inspired by materials and places and colors. You're going to be inspired by the things that inspire you, your creations, your arts, your designs. So the idea that you should write first may not necessarily be the correct path. If you are somebody whose creativity comes from writing, you know, if you're a copywriter or you as someone who just very naturally loves to write, then your creativity is going to come from that. For me, it's a visual thing. You have to find your own path. This is again, it's that permission slip don't feel into these rules, you know, on a, on a deep level, you know what your strengths are, right? You're at this point in your game and your business, you know, your strengths, you know, where your creativity lies, we all are creatives, but it's knowing where your creativity lies.

(28:48):

For me, it's visual for me, it's music and it's in arts and it's in, you know, it's, it's in gifts and humor. And it's those things for some of you, it's going to be writing. So figure out where your inspiration comes from and like how you create content. So I allow that to guide me. I also know which graphics or which assets consistently do well on my own Instagram feed. So I know which types of graphics people resonate with. I know that interestingly still it is carousel posts. It is tweet quotes. Those are the kinds of things that people really connect with. I'm also very aware that that could change at any moment. So I'm always throwing in some new things just to see what resonate with. I template most things. I like playing in canvas, but I do not have the time in my schedule to spend hours every week, creating new graphics.

(29:53):

I'm not a graphic designer, right? And there were other things in my business that I need to do. So most things are templates. So when you see these graphics on my, my feet, I do template most of these things. And then there's going to be these new graphics that I create. And often what I'll do is, again, I'll find inspiration either in just a Canva template, because let me tell you Canva is like upping their game. If anybody was up leveling in 2021, I feel like Canva is doing that. So with canvas new people, new templates I always look on creative market to get some inspiration for different things. And sometimes I'll buy templates and then I'll just change the colors and the fonts. And then they are customized to my own brand. So I'm always looking on the lookout for those kinds of things.

(30:38):

I will also walk with my graphic designer to create more complex graphics or any assets I need, because sometimes there's just, things are really fiddly and she has a great eye for being able to create those. She does things that I can't do. So most things are templated and I find inspiration and allow that to guide me. And I try not to be rigid with my content planning. What that means is I try to let it be fluid. How am I feeling inspired right now? And I let that guide me. I'm also heavily committed. Like I'm in a heavily committed relationship with content repurposing. We are in a deep, a deep love because comes Henry purposing is like one of the most underused tools with entrepreneurs. We have this deep fear that if we say something more than once, people are going to be horrified by the fact that we didn't have an original thought, but it's okay to reshare things because people don't see everything like don't remember everything.

(31:44):

And no one really cares as much as we do. No, one's going to remember if you share the same thing, five days, five days in a row, maybe, but I would really be interested to know whether that would even again, be on anybody's radar. That'd be pointless. I'm not encouraging you to do that. It's a completely pointless thing, but I'm just saying that people don't care as much as we care. As you know, we are the content creator. We are the business right now. This is our, our baby. And we care about it, but no one else really cares as much as we do. And no one else notices. So it's okay to repurpose repurpose graphics, ideas, themes, captions, repurpose, right? If you are relaunching a product, or if you have a program or an offer that you're relaunching three times a year, you don't need to create new content for that thing.

(32:37):

You can repurpose and repurposing can be as simple as changing graphics. Yes. Read it, make sure that it's actually still relevant, that you're not referencing something from January and July, but still you can repurpose without rewriting the new whole new thing. And I also repurpose across my business. So we've recently separated the we created the entrepreneurial Outlaws, Instagram feed, and I still have my own Melanie night's Instagram feed. And I'm creating content for both of those things with my team. And one of my concerns with doing this, my only concern really was this is like mobile luck. This is going to be more content because I've now have a second feed. It's actually worked out in an easier way. I don't quite know. Well, I do know how that's probably an episode for a whole other time, but it's actually become easier to create content for two places because the content is different, right?

(33:33):

The brand standalone. And although we are having similar conversations that happening in different ways. So this has been really interesting to look at in relation to content planning and batching, because I am still repurposing content across my business from right here on the podcast, through to my Instagram feed and stories. And obviously on the, on the website where we have the podcast show notes. And then also on Pinterest when I create pins, but we repop busing imagery, we repurpose quotes and things like that. And right now I'm probably creating content one to two weeks ahead of time. And this is only if I'm in the flow. I am, I am looking to create content further ahead, but I'm also really resistant to it because we're living in this time where things could change so quickly, right? Like I said, and that makes me really nervous.

(34:30):

So I'm trying to get my head around that because I do want to, I do want to plan my content a little bit further ahead, but it has to be on my own times, right? I'm not married to a posting schedule when it comes to my Instagram content. Sometimes I'll have a lot to say and I'll post five times in a week, but maybe the wildfire feels really heavy. And I don't have as much to say, maybe I'm like over it. And I'll just put two posts out. We told that this is not okay because we're told that consistency is the only thing that matches. But I'm here to tell you that consistency is not the only thing that matters and content is allowed to ebb and flow. Because if we rule writhe rigidity, this is when we get really stuck. If we committed to consistency, then we're creating content just to fill a quota, right?

(35:24):

We have to be committed to creating valuable content. Like that should be the commitment. And then that means some weeks you'll valuable. Content is going to provide you with five pieces of content, five captions or five stories or whatever it might be. And some weeks it might be two. And I know that there's a lot of people out there saying, you know, you only have to post once in the feed once a week. Sure. You can do that. But look, there's, no one is keeping the score. You want to post five times and you can do that. And it feels good. And they are not exhausted by doing it. Go ahead, go ahead. And if one week it's like, you know, one post that's all I have in me. Go ahead. This is your permission slip to do it your way. The only commitment we need to make is to create valuable content. We do not need to commit to rigidity. We do not need to commit to consistency. When your content shows up in someone's feed, they should be able to rely on your ability to connect with them, your ability to be a value, your ability to tell them a story that makes them feel a little bit more hope in this world. That is what our commitment should be.

(36:44):

So basically there are very few rules, right? There were very few rules. And it's really about doing things on your own times. I honestly do not care what anyone else is doing or how they're planning, because if it leaves me feeling, then it's a big off for me. Like if I don't care what the gurus are doing and how they plan their content and their process, because I've tried so many different things and they will work until they don't like everything works until it doesn't, everything works, but not for everybody. So we need to back off of the rules, he give us selves permission to find our own content planning pathway. You know, how do we plan content on our own times? And when we give ourselves permission to not plan, we give ourselves permission to dream. And this is so, so important because this is what often fueled our business in the first place, that dream, that vision.

(37:48):

And we lose it. We lose it in spite of all the planning and the rigidity and the strategy and the focus look, these things are useful and it can be helpful. Yes, absolutely. But sometimes when we focus too much on them, they hold us back. We then caught execute the whole thing. We can't do the nap thing. We get so stuck in this spiral of thinking about what we might want to do, weighing up all of our options that we then don't actually do it. And again, this comes back to a level of awareness because for some of you, this may be your personality type. You want to consider all your options before jumping in. Some of you like me probably have to learn to stop jumping in. I am definitely that person I jump in and then I'm, Oh, I don't have a parachute.

(38:37):

And you know, there's nothing with either of those personalities. It's about understanding and having that self-awareness over your own creative skills and your content and your business, and then using your strengths, identifying the things though, not your zone of genius, identifying which things are not your strengths and either, you know, figuring out how to make that easier on yourself. For example, templating and Canva graphic design is not your strong suit templates. They're amazing. And they're not particularly expensive. Maybe it's hiring someone to help you. There's a number of ways in which this can be delivered. So this is your permission slip. I've said this a number of times, but this is your permission slip to do this on your own times and to not plan, if it doesn't feel good, so many creative entrepreneurs I've been speaking to, you know, for us who like mold breakers and status quo challenges, the rebel hearts, the Outlaws, this is not about following the rules.

(39:43):

This is about finding your own path, finding your own way and identifying how you can do this in the easiest way for your own business. And I want you to know, but I think this is really important. Even when you hire a team, even when you hire people, yes, there are going to be tasks taken off your plate. Yes, you are going to be able to do more. You're going to be able to deliver more. You're going to be able to show up in more places. You'll messaging will be more consistent. Yes. There's all these really incredible things. You will have more time to sit with your creativity and sit with your visionary ideas. At the same time. It doesn't eliminate all of those feelings. It doesn't eliminate that feeling of overwhelm. We can still, if we're really, really good at it, which I am, we can still fall into that trap.

(40:30):

We can still fall into this trap of over-planning of not actually doing things of asking everyone around us. What do you think? What do you think you now have more people to ask, right? That can also be an issue. So I really just want to highlight that this is not about, you know, encouraging everyone to suddenly go out and hire their first team member if you're ever in that position. Amazing. Go do it. But if you're not also that's okay. It doesn't mean that you're behind. It doesn't mean you're failing. It doesn't mean anything other than when you're not ready. You're not there yet. And that's okay. And maybe you don't want to be that also. Okay. But what I mean is it's really important to understand that allowing yourself this creative space, allowing yourself the permission to not plan out is not something that is just saved for six figure business owners.

(41:14):

It is not something that is just safe for those who are quote successful. All of us can use this permission slip. This is a permission slip for everyone. And this is the difference between this whole idea of planning and batching out in advance that is specifically safe. People who are quote successful. It is made to feel like that's what we're reaching for. But for some of us, for many of us who are creatives and paths, we want to lead with our feelings and our intentions. We want to write it real time. Planning and batching will never be the way forward for us. And that means that we have to be okay with basically telling the rules to off and finding our own path. Otherwise it's going to be a constant battle. So this permission slip, it is yours for the taking. If you're not there yet, listen to this episode once a week for the rest of your life, until you get it, I'm joking.

(42:13):

You will find your own time. Sometimes we have to hear things a number of times, number of ways, before we really understand how it can impact our lives in a positive way. But hopefully this has given you some sense of peace. You can see, I see that you don't have to do it anyone else's way. You don't even have to do it my way. Hopefully I've given you some inspiration and some ideas, but take what you want and leave the rest, right? Leave the rest. You will find your own path. And that is incredibly important.

(42:48):

So thank you for listening in today. Thank you for joining me for another conversation. I am. So I'm so inspired by all of you and the messages you send me. And it really fills my cup up. When I hear you telling me that you've resonated with something I shared on this podcast. So thank you for doing that. And thank you for sharing your stories with me and telling me, you know, what you find useful, because this is what helps me to create more. Content helps me to create content that you actually want helps me to listen to you. And I really, really appreciate that. If you have a moment today, if you've really loved this episode and you're like, yes, I'm going to create my own rules. I don't, I've got a permission slip. Now I would love for you to take a screenshot.

(43:36):

If you're listening, share on Instastories tag, entrepreneurial Outlaws, it's entrepreneurial undisclosed Outlaws on Instagram, tag us in your stories so we can reach out the goodness. And would you please leave a five-star review and rating? I would love to be able to see how this show is affecting or impacting your business, how it's impacting your content creation, your Instagram strategy. So we can continue to gain the ears of more business owners who need to embrace the Outlaws spirit, embrace their out low mindset and join us on this entrepreneurial outlook. Thank you for being here. Thank you for the support. And I will see you next week for another episode until next time Outlaws.