Welcome to the Masterful Coach Podcast with Molly Claire, where coaches learn Skill Mastery, Business Mastery, and Life Mastery at a whole new level. If you're ready to create a meaningful coaching business that makes a difference, you're in the right place. And now your host, master coach instructor, Molly Claire. Hey, coaches, who's ready to entertain some questions on the podcast today? Questions are one of the greatest gifts we give our clients as coaches. That's truly where all the magic lies is in those powerful questions. I'm going to be throwing a lot at you today. I'm excited to connect with you today. There's been so much going on lately in the business in my contract work and just a lot of fun things. We had our first group of the Coaching Collective start this last month. It is so amazing to be connected with their great energy and enthusiasm. As they are creating this dream life and business that they want to create, as they're creating this vision, it's just really fun to be a part of it.  It's such an experience of really these coaches connecting with themselves, their own values, and what they want in their life. I feel like it's a very spiritual experience and just so fun. So, huge shout out to all of our Coaching Collective coaches in it to win it. It's just awesome to be with all of you. I also started with some new students, I just have a handful of students that are training as new coaches. I'm just loving getting to know them, and helping them identify their strengths, which is amazing. I also had the opportunity to participate in the fearless business workshop that was close to my house in Dallas and really amazing to be with great thought leaders in the coaching space. Aimee and I were both there so many amazing leaders, and just really a privilege to be with these powerful human beings who want to create a meaningful business and are just there soaking it all in. Just amazing.  Today I want to talk about some of the most important decisions you make in your business. Last week at the conference, the first speaker of the week was Corinne Crabtree. Any of you that know her, she is an amazing person, she has built an unbelievable weight loss coaching business. I've known Corinne for years, and been in a mastermind with her several years ago and cross paths at the school teaching at different trainings. And so often we hear people on a podcast and they're very different in person, but Corinne is just about the most genuine soul you will ever meet. She's just good to the court and she cares so much about people. I love her. And it was so fun to see her there.  The thing that she actually chose to speak about was fearless decisions, like the importance of making decisions and getting good at that skill. This is something that we talk about in the Coaching Collective that as the CEO of your business, that is one of your most important roles is making important decisions. And it's not so much how many decisions you make, but rather that you make a few very important decisions that will shift your business in the right direction. Decisions are so important. On today's episode, I want to talk specifically with you about some of the most important decisions you will make in your business. They are as simple as what you spend your time on, who you spend your time with, and how you stay focused in your time. So of course, you want to make sure that you have a clearer vision of your business, the life you want and the business that supports it. And then as you plan out your business, as you set your goals, it is vital to be clear on each of these three things.  Let’s talk first about what you spend your time on. So take a minute and think about what you spend your time on in your business on a daily basis. Just think about all the tasks, all the activities, and there's always going to be a mix of things, because as we build coaching businesses, we're covering all of these different areas. We are the talent, the coach, we are the sales person, we are the marketing person, even if you're not doing those things directly you're over all of those. At a certain point in time when you're building you truly are in the nitty gritty of all of those things. So think for a minute about what you spend your time on. There are three other questions I'm going to offer up to you so that you can think through this in more depth and get clear on where you should spend most of your time. [00:05:00] We spent some time in our business re-evaluating what we were spending our time on just over this last year, really noticing how much time we were spending on things that were really slowing down our flow because all of you know, there are certain activities in your business that are very easy and natural for you, where you are in your flow, you're in your zone of genius. There are other things that feel like friction, a slowing down for you. Now, certainly there are tasks that are necessary in our business that are not exactly the most fun thing that we want to do. However, we don't just want to tell ourselves, oh, not everything's fun and take on every task, it's really important to notice the things you're spending your time on, and what reward you're getting from it.  Here are a few questions you can ask yourself. What in your business needs time and attention to actually meet your goals? There are things that seem like a good idea or seem important and then there are those things that will actually grow your business, actually make more money, actually expand your audience. The first question you want to ask to determine what you're spending your time on is what in your specific business right now needs your time and attention to meet your goals?  The next question to consider, what specifically do you need to do in that area? You can keep asking this question again and again, to drill down to truly the most important use of your time. The last question I want you to consider is what is it in your time that will have the biggest impact on moving those goals forward? As you consider these basic things, what in my business needs the most time and attention? What specifically do I need to do in that area? And what of these will have the biggest impact? That is going to help you prioritize how you spend your time what you spend it on.  Next decision is who you spend your time with? Again, there are three different questions that I'm going to ask you to entertain here. Who do you network with or connect with? This can be in a very formal way in terms of networking with people, or this can just even be who you associate with. Who is it on a regular basis that you are connecting with, that you're brainstorming with, that you're talking about your life and your goals with, who you spend your time with really matters. I know I talked about this so much on our episode about community, where I did the interview with some of our collective members, because the impact of the community is so powerful. For you, who do you connect with? Who do you spend your time with? It matters.  The next question underneath this category of who you spend your time with, what type of collaboration do you create, and think about how they align with your mission in your business? We all have different business collaborations, whether formal or informal. In our business, my joint business, we have collaborations with guest speakers that come in to speak with our mastermind. We have collaborations with different people that we may interview, or cross promote. No matter what kind of collaborations you have, really think about who you are connecting with, and think about if they truly align with your mission. This may be in the business sense and it can also be in more of a personal sense, because it's very important to have people that you are collaborating with, who really align with who you are, so that it is a good match, a good value match. So consider that.  The last question to help you determine who you spend your time with, is think about the team members you are bringing into your business and do you have the right people in the right seats or are you just getting by with people that you really like or someone that you hired and now you're not sure what to do about it. I know many of you may be the only one running your business. Some of you may have a team of up to five up to 10 it will vary. But regardless, really think about no matter where you are in your business, how you will ensure that the team members that you bring in are the right people for what you're looking for. I know it can be challenging to sift through this process of finding the right people. I've had to experience hiring someone, not the right person and then going through the process of letting them go, of being honest with myself and being honest with that person. [00:10:00] Work on paying attention to who is the right person. Last crucial decision and the questions that go along with it, how will you stay clear and focused on your time and goals? So we've already thought about what we spend our time on, who we spend our time with. Now, what about how you spend the time on the activities you're spending time on? The three questions that I want you to consider with this is how do you personally prioritize your time and your schedule? Now, I've talked about this a little bit under this first category of what you spend your time on to help you prioritize, but make sure that you have a clear way of prioritizing not only what you spend your time on, but when you spend your time on it. You want to make sure that you rank things in an order that meets the needs of your business.  The next question, how do you personally set time limits or deadlines on the work that you're doing? It is very easy to allow tasks to take way more time than is necessary. Make sure for you that you have a clear way of setting boundaries on your time. I promise it will free up your free time in a way that allows you to actually enjoy your free time when you use constraint and draw a line around your time. The last question to help you stay clear and focused on your time and goals, how do you hold yourself accountable to your priorities, your time limits and your deadlines and re-evaluate? Listen, this is never about perfection, I think it is crucial to set a timeline to set a deadline. We are also human beings and we are not always going to be perfect in our time management. In fact, when we think that we will be or we are supposed to be, that's when we get into trouble because that's when we frustrate ourselves, we beat ourselves up and we feel like our time system is a prison and something that we can never figure out rather than it being something that's there for you.  Think about not only how you will hold yourself accountable to your deadlines and your timelines, but also how you will re-evaluate when you get off track. One of the most important key ingredients of how ever you hold yourself accountable and re-evaluate is always going to be honest self-compassion. Because the last thing that you want to do is come in as a drill sergeant, holding yourself accountable, and beating yourself up never going to be useful. We can be honest with ourselves, we can be truthful, and we can have so much self-compassion and allow space for growth as we re-evaluate. Those are the big decisions that will impact your business in a big way.  When you're clear on what you spend your time on, who you spend your time with and how you stay clear and focused in your time, I promise you will be more efficient, you will feel more freedom and relief in your free time. In your business, you will meet your goals. Consider these questions. I would love to hear from you on Instagram. Let me know how these questions are working for you. I can't wait to talk with you again next week. See you then. Thanks for listening to the Masterful Coach Podcast. You can check out www.thecoachingcollective.com for info about the ultimate program for coaches building a business. To find out more about Molly, you can visit www.mollyclaire.com.