Getting Out of the Weeds

Crystal Vilkaitis: Well, hello, hello, and welcome to After the Show, I’m your host, Crystal Vilkaitis. And this is where I am picking something that really resonated with me on this week’s episode and going deeper. And I just got to say, Amy Loewenberg was our guest this week. If you haven’t listened, go back, listen to that first.

And if you haven’t listened to her first time on the show, be sure to listen to that too, because Amy has so much experience in the retail world. She really is Rooted in Retail and she has so much knowledge and experience in generating community connection and knows what it takes for a brand to really stand out and connect and create loyalty with their customers.

So I loved this conversation and I had so many takeaways that it was very hard for me to choose, but she said two lines in this episode. And I was like, those are the lines I’m going deeper on. She said something like, “Sometimes, I’m in the weeds. And I have a friend who will call me and say, what are you doing? And I say, I’m in the weeds. And she says, stand up, look beyond the weeds. That is what I want to talk about today. How the heck do we get out of the weeds?”

Do you ever feel like that? Like I’m sure you do. And I think one of the biggest reasons I’m wanting to discuss this on today’s episode is it’s advice I need to hear.

I’m a little bit in the weeds right now. There is so much going on in my business life and personal life. I’m getting married very soon. Now here’s the deal, you’re listening to this and it’s October 1st. Oh my gosh, it’s October. Can you believe it? I’m filming this a little early though. So I’m getting married.

I got married September 21st as you’re listening to this. So as you can imagine, lots going on there. We’re also trying to sell our house and trying to move. We have so many people traveling in for the wedding and then my business, I’m just doing some really fun projects. The show is really taking off.

We’re really planning some epic things for this show and our listeners. And I just feel like, Oh my gosh, I want to do everything right now. I feel a lot of momentum. I feel a lot of excitement and I feel a lot of overwhelm. I am in the weeds. And so, I know for our retailers, our listeners, you probably get the weeds.

There’s a solid chance you’re there right now. You’re juggling so much, as small business owners do a lot. And so I want this episode to help you get out of the weeds. Let’s do it together. So first I’m going to share some of the things that I do to help me personally get out of the weeds that I’ve been working on, even just this morning, things that I’ve done to really help me stay healthy.

Stand up and look past the weeds, like Amy’s friend says. And then also I went to my dear friend, ChatGPT and asked for some advice and has some good advice for you as well. So let’s break it down.

Now, the big thing that I do, like when I’m really trapped and all of my tasks and all of my to do’s. And you just feel like you can’t get anything done and it almost is paralyzing.

One thing I’ll do is I will stop and I will sit down and I think, okay. I have to have to like close my eyes and just get into this moment of: My tomorrow self. What does she need to be set up for success? What does tomorrow self really need me to get done today for her to then keep carrying that forward to move us to whatever that goal, wherever we’re trying to go, whatever needs to get done.

Okay, so the key here is if you don’t have that forward vision of where you’re going. We need that first. And I think that’s often one of the reasons we feel like we’re in the weeds because we’ve lost the vision. We’ve lost sight of where the heck we’re trying to go with our business. And the goals that we’re trying to achieve. Because we get so caught up in the day to day stuff that all feels urgent when really it’s not all urgent, but it feels urgent.

So first, really make sure that you know the vision, where you’re wanting to go, what you need to achieve, and some of this is gonna be probably really timely. Let’s say, you know, Q4, here we are. It’s October 1st, and so holidays and holiday marketing and your holiday open houses and all that good stuff is probably a big priority right now.

It’s a big vision. You probably have a goal that you wanna achieve for Q4. So we’re sitting down, we’re thinking of that Q4 goal. We’re saying, “What does my tomorrow self need to set her or him up for success to help me reach that Q4 goal?” And then often it’s almost like you see the vision and you work backwards. And what I like about my tomorrow self is it feels very easy to kind of break that down into bite sized steps because you’re just working backwards and you can outline all of that. Because again, often where that overwhelm comes from is we just don’t have a starting place and it feels like just, like I said, everything is the priority.

And so if we really just break it down and can outline those things, that’s going to be a lot easier, provide more relief. And honestly, what often happens for me is once I break that down and then I see the things I need to do just for tomorrow, so she can keep carrying that forward. If it’s like very doable, it often is very doable.

If I am realistic with myself and with the goals, it is often very doable. Sometimes we got to put in a little extra work. Sometimes I’m like, oh, I can knock this out really quick actually, and have a couple hours of time that I can spend towards whatever the heck I want. If it’s business, personal, whatever.

So that’s a big one for me. Also, when you’re in the thick of it, like you just have a lot going on, like I do right now. Both business and professionally and personally. One thing that helps me is I get out a blank piece of paper and I write everything down. Everything that possibly needs to get done.

And then I’ll really look at the list and make some serious decisions of like, is this really something that needs to get done right now? Or am I just hopeful? Is this just my wishlist is, and also like, where is it coming from? Is this supporting the goal? Is this a wishlist? Is this, I gotta do? Is this something that I saw somebody else do, and I think I should do that, but it’s actually taking me off of what my goal is and where I’m going?

You know, what really getting real with the list. But the first piece is just the brain dump. And then we can go in and kind of trim the fat and get rid of some of those things that it’s not right now.

All then kind of categorize like this is, this needs to get done this week. We’ll do today, this week, this month. And then I’ll shelf the rest of the things. I’ll put it on my Asana list to revisit these items. Cause often you don’t want to forget all those items, especially since you took the time to bullet it all out.

So we need to do the brain dump, get it out of our head and then start assigning it based off of timelines of when those things need to get done and just be really real with ourselves and with that list. Now, just a heads up in two weeks on October 15th on that, After the Show, I’m actually doing a deeper dive on Asana and project management and delegation and things like that.

So that can also help you get out of the weeds. It’s a little bit more like tactical steps you can take in using a tool to facilitate that for you. So be on the lookout for that episode. It will really help you save so much time and streamline a lot of the things that you have going on, which is going to help you feel like you’re out of the weeds, right?

And help you help prevent you from ending up in the weeds. And then, you know, something that I’ve had to work on is being okay with everything not getting done right away. I don’t know about you. But like, when I have an idea, I want it now, I’m like, this is so good. I want to execute now. And I’m really good at starting things, like really good at getting it rolling and starting, but then all of a sudden stuff sets in.

It’s like, wait a second. This isn’t what we’re focused on right now. This is going to take the team off what they are working on. This is going to take me off of this. You got to pick something, you know? And then if you take yourself off of something, you’ve wasted some time. And so that’s where having decision filters come in.

Like you look through the decision filter. That lens, in determining, is this a right now project or is this a this month project or later down the road project? And being okay with it not happening right now. And something else I’ve also done, if this is you, where you get really excited by your ideas and you want to implement right away.

One thing I started doing too, this is very new for me. So it’s not like I’m a pro here, but it has helped me is I’ll have this grandiose so idea. And I usually will then like run and go tell Pauline, often, and then I’ll start building away. I have decided, don’t tell anybody. Just take a couple of days, sleep on it, keep journaling, let it marinate, build it out a little bit more.

It’s like percolating in my brain. And then often I either come to the conclusion of like, oh, that was like fun to think about, but not at all what I want to build right now. Or oh, that was a really good idea that we could do next year. So I’m going to add it to my ideas bank for next year or like, oh, I really baked this through and it’s good.

And I’ve thought about it in detail. And so I’m more prepared to launch this project and for us to be more efficient in launching it. So give yourself a couple of days to think about those things so you don’t catch yourself and your team off guard of trying to do new things and new projects all at once, that can help you from being in the weeds.

And so, those are kind of my go to strategies and what I really focus on. And then, like I said, I’ve got my friend ChatGPT here that has a few ideas. But before I dive into them, it’s October 1st. In two weeks, October 15th, super early bird pricing for EVOLVE is going away. So prices are going up.

So if you are going to come to this conference, which you really should come to EVOLVE, this is the destination for resilient retailers, which I know you are one and a epic networking, the agenda that I’m working on. I am like, I want it to be evolved now. Like, oh my gosh, I can’t wait for you to experience this.

It’s going to be an incredible experience. And I just feel like there’s nothing like being in the room, personal, in person connecting. We learn better. We connect deeper. This is where you’re going to want to be. So get your ticket before October 15th, when prices go up, the longer you wait, the more expensive it’ll be.

Okay, let’s hear what ChatGPT had to say. And I filtered down some of these two of what I think are the best ones and most effective ones. Of course, you can always go to ChatGPT and share your specific scenario where you’re feeling really in the weeds and list the things that’s going on. And you can have ChatGPT actually help organize those thoughts for you and ask some questions to help you determine, is this a now, how do I prioritize this?

How do I really break this down? So what am I doing? What’s going on? My team doing that can also be a really great way to get you out of the weeds. Time blocking. That’s one thing that ChatGPT recommends. And it’s something I do a lot. I will time block. So for example, tomorrow afternoon, my schedule is blocked to work on the EVOLVE agenda.

There’s so, I wish I could have every single speaker that I have in my speaker brainstorming sheet, that would be so incredible, but we would need like three weeks. It would be a three week conference. So I need to sit down. I’ve already hired some speakers and I already have some of my topics, you know, they’re percolating. There’s so good.

And I need to really finalize some of these speakers and the keynote. So I blocked the afternoon. This is a non negotiable. I’m not booking meetings. I’m going to a coffee shop, so I’m setting my environment up for success. And I’m really time blocking to get that done.

When we procrastinate and keep pushing things, that’s often where the feeling of in the weeds can come from. And so we don’t want to do that. Delegate and automate. I’m talking about this in two weeks in that the, After the Show with my guest Jen, who is an ad client of ours and went to EVOLVE and had great things to say about it.

And we, she scaled, like she owns multiple stores. And so how do you do that? Well, you delegate. You automate. And so be sure to listen to Jen’s episode and mine. We’ll go deeper in that, but delegation is so critical. You need like teamwork makes the dream work. We really need to get our team involved to get us out of the weeds.

And so that’s something with your brain dump that I’ll look at and I’ll put initials next to people that could actually do this for me. Because I think sometimes as business owners, And if you have any kind of control freak in you, like I do, I just always have to have control. We just feel like I could do it.

I’ll do it. I’ll do it. I’ll do it. Yeah, we are capable of doing it, but we can’t do it all. So we’ve got to get our team involved. The daily reflection, this is actually something I would like to start doing. So this is where at the end of your day, before you’re doing your nighttime routine and you’re going to bed, you’re taking 10 minutes.

You’re analyzing the day. What’d you get done? What didn’t you get done? What went well? And then you’re planning for tomorrow. So when we plan for tomorrow, the night before, we can jump into tomorrow ready to go versus looking at everything and you kind of forget what happened yesterday. And then you’re kind of like wasting time trying to plan the day or you have no plan in your day and you just start answering emails and you’re answering texts and you’re on everybody else’s agenda.

Versus your own. So take the 10 minutes, I kind of do this in the morning when I’m journaling, I’ll look at my Asana, what’s coming up for the day, but I would like to be a little bit more intentional that I’m really analyzing how the day went and giving myself feedback for that day and then preparing myself for the next day.

So the daily reflection sounds awesome. And I think we should do that together. If you’re up for it, let me know in the Facebook group. Also, batching similar tasks. So looking like when you do that brain dump, can you highlight in certain colors things that really can be grouped together that you can knock out together?

And that’s where like, boom, I took an hour and I got five things done that really like builds off of each other. And that feels, you feel that relief, implementing the no policy. You know, I, a couple of years ago, I was so last year, I was so in the yes world. I was saying yes to every speaking gig and yes to the opportunities and yes to travel just like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

And that created me on, I was on the road a lot and there was a lot of projects and there was a lot that I didn’t get done because I said yes to other things. So when you say yes to something, it’s saying no to something else. And this is where we need to get really clear on the vision, the goals, where we really want to go, where we want to go, because then when something comes in, if you have those decision filters that you can ask these questions to see, does it really support me and where I want to go?

Does this support the longterm vision? Then say no, if it doesn’t and be okay. I had somebody reach out this week who wants me to speak and it would be awesome to, to speak to this group, but I ha it’s not going to help this vision of where I want to go. I said no, and she was super bummed and I felt so good about it.

Instead of like, oh, but I’ll do it. It is. It would be cool to do. No, it’s not. It’s not where I want to go. That gig is more local business owners who are amazing, but it’s not just retailers. I’m really focused on our retailers. And so I had to say no. And it just, It prevents me from feeling in the weeds and taking on too much.

So implement a no policy, set clear boundaries. , I know this is hard for small business owners, but really setting my personal time and my business time and making sure that the team, your team knows that if you are texting with your team or calling or slacking or whatever. Like make sure that you’ve got your out of office times when you’re not reachable, so you can recharge because part of feeling in the weeds is exhaustion.

And when we don’t have the energy to do our to do list, then we’re going to feel even more behind and stuck and like we’re never going to get out of these weeds. Like we live here now and I don’t want you to feel like that. We do not live in the weeds. So we have control over what we’re doing and how we’re spending our time and how we’re spending our energy.

But it is up to you to put those boundaries in place, conserve that energy, allow yourself to have that time. Something that I heard from Lynn, who’s my friend, she speaks out all the SUPERZOO. She’s incredible, and she was on a panel and she said, sometimes we have to rest for the things that are coming.

So it’s not even like, I don’t know if you’re like me, but I will feel guilty when I rest. I hate it. I’m working on it, but I will just be like, what are you doing? You could be filming. You could be doing this. You could be working on that. And I’m like, no, I just know that I need to rest. And sometimes we need to rest because we’re burnt out.

We’re exhausted. We did a lot. And sometimes you might be like, well, I haven’t really had a lot going on. But you’re about to, so like it’s October 1st, you’re about to go into your busy season. Can you get some rest in to prepare you to go into battle? Can you do it? And if you can’t take it, set those boundaries and allow that time for yourself.

And then finally, just really reevaluating your goals regularly. Like we’re not just saying, setting sales goals at the beginning of the year, and then that’s it, you know, we’re really, and you should also be setting more than sales goals. Like how much do you want to grow your list? Your email list, your text marketing, your loyalty.

Are you trying to expand and open another location? Are you trying to bring in a new brand? Are you rebranding? Are you bringing in new categories? Like what’s going on? We need to make sure that we have these check ins. on the goals. Are they still where you want to go? Are you on track with the goals? And that just is all about organization, setting yourself up.

I would put regular check ins on my Asana or my to do list to make sure I’m checking in with myself and make sure that we’re on track. And if we’re not, then we just evolve. We pivot. That’s okay. That’s the beauty of small business. But if you’re not checking those things and you’re just doing all the day to day, you’re going to get stuck.

Off your path, you’re going to work harder than you need to. You’re going to wake up one day and be like, where the hell are we? How did we get here? So we need to regularly check and make sure that we’re walking, we’re walking the steps we need to take to the path that we want to get the vision that we want to get to.

So, I hope that you found these ideas helpful if you are ever in the weeds. And if you’re ever in the weeds, you can always, Oh, the final thing I’ll say that helps me, walking. When I’m feeling the stress, when I’m feeling like so much is going on, I get outside and just moving my body. And often Dustin will be with me, but he doesn’t have to be.

But I’ll talk to him. Like, I feel like I have so much to do and I have to do that. And that, so all of a sudden I’ll kind of be like, well, I actually don’t have to do that, that I could just get done. The second I get home, I get energy from the walk and then it refocuses me versus sitting here feeling like, Oh my God, so much is going on.

Get out of your store. Go for a walk. Restructure it through your brain. Come in with fresh energy, fresh eyes. You’ve got this. All right, I hope you found this helpful and I hope you’re not living in the weeds. Let’s not live in the weeds. Let’s stay out of the weeds because we got bigger and better things to do anyways with our time.

So remember I’m rooting for your success and have a great week ahead. Have a great October as well. Okay, bye.