Course Creation, Social Overshares & Focus as a Business Owner

Friends,

Today we are talking about course creation, the mistake of oversharing on social, & how to stay focused while minimizing distraction as an online business owner.

It’s time to monetize your business in a way that is passive, evergreen, and FOCUSED.

I pray this blesses you!

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

(00:07)
Oh, my gosh, this is so crazy. Lady, friends. We have officially passed 100,000 downloads together on this podcast. I mean, my heart is exploding. I am beyond belief that this has grown into something that we can learn from and we can grow together. And God has blessed this show by bringing me each and every one of you. And I’m just sitting here in immense gratitude. Thank you for being part of this sisterhood with me, for being one of my Lolas. I love you so much. Okay girl, I will meet you inside this 10 by 10. Get ready. These are gold.

(03:32)
Welcome to your very first 10 by 10. I’m so ready to do this. In today’s interview, we are chatting with Shannon Baker and Shannon has been in business for almost eight years and she just transitioned from being a virtual assistant to helping entrepreneurs break big operational tasks down into bite size steps to save them time so that they can focus on what matters most. A to the men, am I right? If you guys wanna connect with Shannon after this interview, you can go hang out with her on the IG at morethancapablemompreneur.

(04:08)
So you have several different online courses. So how did you know that you needed one big course like Podcast Pro University. Like how did I know when to create the one? Yes. Well here’s the thing. I think when I started out in this online space. I was chasing where I thought people wanted solutions. Where I thought, keyword, and I was also chasing money. Well, what is everyone else doing? And how can I make money? Instead of listening to my community and hearing them ask me, you know, Hey Stef, how do I do a podcast? Hey, Stef, when you started your show, what did you do? And all of these questions coming through over and over and over again in one specific area.

(05:01)
All of a sudden I’m like, why am I getting the same client every week asking me about podcasting? And it was like, oh, that’s the course. And I think the clarity comes through when you stop trying to control what the course should be and you start to just let your community lead the way and let them gift you the answer of what your thing is. Does that answer that? It does perfectly. So number two, now we’re always encouraged to be authentic online, which requires us to be transparent. So do you ever have anxiety? Like you feel like you’re sharing too much with your audience?

(05:55)
So the first part of that question is, do I ever have anxiety when being transparent online? 100%, oh my goodness. Like, you know, earlier this year, when I shared about getting breast explant surgery, I mean that is like so personal and it was terrifying, but I felt like this immense calling to be really honest about everything I was going through. And I knew that if I was talking to Lola, I would tell her about that. So the discomfort was like extra. I’m talking like when I click post on that social media post sharing about it, I almost had a full on panic attack.

(06:41)
When I recorded the podcast episode about it the whole time I felt nauseous. And so yes, you’re always gonna feel really uncomfortable when you get super vulnerable online, at least for me. It gets easier over time because I think what you notice is that when you get really vulnerable and you open up, you start to relate more to your avatar. And I was met with nothing but love and support and encouragement. So that kind of fostered my belief in, oh, it’s okay to share, oh, they want me to be vulnerable and honest. And it was like that confirmation that I needed to get more comfortable with it. So that helped. It gets easier over time.

(07:31)
Then the second tier of your question was that you’re sharing too much. So you can totally overshare. I think I would rather overshare though, than undershare personally, you know, you guys watch my stories, you know, my hot mess life like I got boogers and poop going on in there, like super, super transparent. But ultimately I need to solve my Lola’s problems right. At the end of the day, my entire mission on this planet is to serve her, to make her life easier, solve her problems. And if I can make her laugh at me along the way and have like this visual learning experience by coming along on my journey, I’m just doing that even better and more effectively.

(08:22)
So as you share and you know, Shannon, you being a VA, you have clients that you’re attracting and I do too, but I think you’re really focusing in this professional sphere where I think you can share a really great story about a struggle or a time that you failed or a time that broke down or that one time you recorded a podcast episode and it didn’t record, you know, whatever that thing is, you can share it and it doesn’t, belittle your professional stance online or your effectiveness to do your job. It makes you real.

(09:03)
And then you can tie that vulnerable story back to a lesson for her example, what I shared about going undergoing surgery. It wasn’t like, Hey guys, you know, I’m talking about breast implants. Like the point of it. It was to get them to feel and to get them to see me as a real human, but the ultimate goal, why I shared it and had to share it, even though it was so flipping uncomfortable for me was because I wanted to prove to my Lola, my client, my listener, my consumer, my Instagram follower, my friends online, that I was willing to face my fears and I was willing to talk about it because I wanted to stand behind my truth.

(09:54)
So if I was gonna to tell her to do that, I had to prove to her that I was willing to do that. So bring it back to your Lola and anytime you can pull a lesson out of it for her, the better. That is awesome and helps a lot. My third question is when working in your zone of genius, once we finally find it, how do you avoid shiny object syndrome and stay focused? So what is your newly found zone of genius, Shannon? I’ve discovered I love to put things in logical order. So for me, it’s marrying workflows with technology and I become that, pull my hand in case of emergency, that’s who I am.

(10:43)
So focused systems and organization, right? How do you just stay focused in that one arena? So I come up with a lot of ideas. It’s like, oh, I can do this and I can show ’em how to do that, and this would be great too. Then that sparks, you know, 10 more things. So, you can’t turn it off. When I am focusing inside of my zone of genius, there’s unlimited things I can do, right. Like I can teach social media and Facebook and podcast management. And like, because we are multifaceted people and we are so passionate about what we’re gifted in.

(11:38)
But I think what you have to do is pair it down and simplify it into what is the number one question that your avatar or the number one problem that she is struggling with right now today. Then ask yourself, what’s the promise I can make to her to solve this? So, you know, for example for you, Shannon, it might be something like, okay, when I look at my avatar, my ideal customer, the number one thing that she keeps telling me is like, I have no time to set up a system for my online business, or I have no time to set up a system for inbox management.

(12:23)
You can go, okay, if I’m hearing this over and over again, I know that that’s a problem I need to and can solve. And you set your focus on that one promise until you’ve solved it. You’re known for it. Everyone, when they talk about this micro niche, this one specific issue, your name comes up, that’s when you’ve done your job. And that’s when you say next problem. So it’s kind of clearing out all of the things you can do and all the things you can teach and digging into your Lola’s number one issue today. So that’s how to get focused within the business side.

(13:07)
Any other follow up on that? For us, our lives also require us to focus because life and business, Hey, they collide every single day. So how do you focus also, even with having two little ones, I mean, mine is older, but yours require a little bit more. So I think the biggest thing is time blocking, keeping a promise to yourself, using a paper planner, like take an old school time blocking planner out, really digging into your focus time, not being distracted and making sure that each area of your life has time and space allocated to it.

(13:53)
It doesn’t have to be even, it just has to be the blend that lights you up and ask for help. Oh my gosh. Ask for help with your kids, ask for help outsource, do the stuff you need to do to transform your business. I hope you loved that quick 10 by 10, and that you took away some value to help you in your own life and business. Sending you off with love and light. I will see you again tomorrow. XO XO Stef.