Note: at this time transcripts are automated and unedited, which means errors may occur. But we hope you find them helpful!

[00:00:00] Viv: Welcome back to another episode of Marketing Without Social Media. Now, before we dive in, I wanted to let you know that if you are a service based business, think coaches, consultants, therapists, who wants to get to $7,000 plus recurring months, yes, every month, but needs help with growing your audience, maybe with generating regular leads or landing paying clients, then I’d like to invite you to a free.

[00:00:26] 15 minute leads. Game plan call. Yes, just 15 minutes to work on your marketing plan. This is a super fast paced call, and in this call we are gonna take a look at your current situation to see what is and isn’t working for you right now in your business. We’re gonna figure out and identify what’s possible for you and your business in the next six months and beyond.

[00:00:48] We’re gonna uncover the number. That is restricting your growth and holding you back right now. And finally, we are gonna develop a three step action plan. [00:01:00] Yes, three step action plan that will get you results in your business asap. Now the session is, Free. It’s 15 minutes and all you have to do is head on over to viv guide.com/game plan.

[00:01:15] Yes, that’s viv guide.com/game Plan right now. Pick a day, pick a time that suits you and let’s chat. In today’s episode, we’re talking about what the difference is between procrastination and creative avoidance on what’s actually stopping you from taking the action you need in order to achieve your goals.

[00:01:38] Let’s dive in.

[00:01:44] You’re listening to Marketing Without Social Media with me, Viv Guy, the podcast for people who want more clarity, connections, and cash in their business. I’ll be sharing with you proven techniques from leading entrepreneurs and experts from [00:02:00] across the globe to help you to market without social media and to grow your business in a.

[00:02:07] Actually feels good to you.

[00:02:16] In episode 43, we talked about how to actually achieve your goals, like. Tracking your data. That was the ultimate thing there. You have to have it in front of you in order to really be aware of what’s going on. Well, let’s just follow on from that activity and that episode. What if you are just seeing zeros?

[00:02:38] What if you like their. It’s just not working. I’ve got zero, zero zeros across my board because I’ve just not flipping, taking the action. I know that it’s me and I just, I’m not actually doing any of the things I should be doing to get the results that I want to see within my business. So let’s talk about what’s going on.

[00:02:58] Well, it’s one of two things, [00:03:00] and these are different. It’s either procrastination or it’s creative avoidance. So let’s start off first and foremost by looking at what the difference is between the two. So procrastination is when you don’t take action. You all know what I mean, Where you think I’m gonna.

[ 00:03:19] Sit and watch Netflix. I’m gonna go and do the laundry. I’m gonna go for a walk, I’m gonna go have lunch with my friends, gonna go to the gym. Anything to avoid having to actually sit down and do work or start work. Really. So you avoid, You kinda might get stuck on social media surfing, Google shopping, on Amazon, whatever it might, might be.

[00:03:41] You know what I’m talking about? We’ve all been there where we’ve procrastinated on doing something work related. Or personal related. God, I procrastinate over doing the laundry for sure. So you get where I’m coming at now, Mel Robins, you can Google. Mel Robins, she’s got some great YouTube videos. She’s, uh, on this, she’s has [00:04:00] several awesome books as well.

[00:04:01] Uh, it talks about the root cause of procrastination. Procrastination happens because there is some fear there. Something’s stressing us. Okay, so what is that fear? And that’s what we need to look at. Okay? What’s the root cause? Ever’s not wanting to do that. Okay. What is the fear that fear could be? Well, I just don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing.

[00:04:22] I don’t know where to focus my energy. I’m not sure what’s involved in doing that. So, you know, I’m afraid of, I’m afraid of taking the action. I’m failing as in. I’m not getting the results. So I’m, you know, I’m gonna take the action and what if I still have big fat zeros on my board? Okay. We can’t obviously keep going like that in business, that’s not healthy.

[00:04:42] So we need to sort of really delve into like what is sitting behind that and what can we do to, to move forwards and to help you move forward. So that’s procrastination. Now they’re more dangerous of the two is creative, Avoid. Why is it the most dangerous of the two? Well, [00:05:00] creative avoidance, it’s scary because this is when you are busy being busy, okay?

[00:05:06] When you feel like you are being productive, but you aren’t prioritizing, and then you are unlikely to be hitting your goals. So you might be spending time. Awesome Canva Graphics. You might be spending loads of time or like building out your website ring, like new branding, whatever it might be. That is actually not the immediate thing that is gonna get you to your goals.

[00:05:34] You are busy being busy on the wrong. Things, and this is dangerous because you feel like, well, hey, I’ve just finished my website. I don’t have any traffic to my website, but my website’s finished. Or, Hey, I’ve just created all these camera graphics for a month of social media, which nobody sees because my, I have no audience, or I, you know, the reach is shy on social media.

[00:05:56] So whatever it is, you’re prioritizing the things that are not [00:06:00] moving. Forward within your business, and that’s what we want to avoid. Okay? We do not ever wanna be spending our time, um, in this creative avoidance space. And it’s really difficult sometimes to see this, and this is why I created the previous episode and said, Track that data.

[00:06:15] Because often when you have it in front of you, you kind of, you can see. That you are not focusing on the right things. So if you are not getting any new leads in, if you’re not getting any calls in, if you are getting any clients in, then it tells me you are either procrastinating or you are in creative avoidance.

[00:06:31] If you tell me I’m really, really busy all the time, Viv, and I’m burning out and I’m tired, but I’m getting zero results, okay, we’re gonna look at exactly what you’re doing because I pretty much guarantee you’re probably on creative avoidance stuff. If you’re just like, Viv, I’ve got zero on there, but it just can’t be F to like get off my butt and do anything because you know, and I’m procrastinating and I feel overwhelmed and I dunno where to start.

[00:06:55] Well then that’s procrastination and we are gonna look at that too. We wanna make sure we get you [00:07:00] out of this phase of being stuck. So you are stuck with both of them because you’re not reaching your goals and that’s what we want to. So let’s talk about what can be sitting behind these. And this is what I find is the most common thing when I work with my clients on Accelerate is it’s the unknown when they come to me, when they, we cop on a sales call.

[00:07:22] Most people say, I just don’t know. What action to take. Like I know  I need to do some lead generation, but what are the right activities Like, and what if I do them for months on end and I get no results, Like I’m gonna have wasted so much time. So I’m unsure what to do. I’m unclear on what to do. This is a big one that I used to suffer with, and I still do the fear of getting it wrong or not getting the outcomes you.

[00:07:47] In the timeframe you that you want. So when I run my first ever workshop, oh my goodness, I flip in. I creatively avoided doing this. Um, and procrastinated. It was both. I avoided it. [00:08:00] I was too busy, too busy, too busy. But also, you know, behind that was definitely procrastination. I just was so afraid nobody would show up and there was no evidence.

[00:08:10] If I tapped into my logical brain into evidence bank, what evidence have I got to demonstrate that nobody would turn up to this. Yeah, and there was nothing. So it was illogical. It was fear ridden. Okay, but that, that was a big thing for me and I put it off a month. So don’t let that that stop you. Don’t let that fear stop.

[00:08:32] You talk it through with someone and let someone kind of really help rationalize the irrational thoughts that are obviously coming in your way that often come with fear. We are catastrophizing, we are thinking about the future. We have no control over that. We can only control what’s going on right now and the action we are taking now and the things we are implementing right now.

[00:08:52] All we can do. So I want you to be obsessing about what you have control over right now. So the other thing that [00:09:00] happens is with the way we manage our time is this principle called Parkinson’s Law. And what it says is if we give ourselves two hours to write a an email, that should take five minutes. We will fill two hours.

[00:09:14] Writing that email and getting that job done. If we give ourselves 10 minutes to do that job, we will do it within the 10 minutes. If Parkinson’s Law says we fill the time that we have available, and this is often what we do when we’re being unproductive, the creative avoidance tasks, is we are sitting in this place where we think, Okay, well, you know, I need a week to build my website or write my website copy, or whatever it is that you wanna do.

[00:09:42] Write that slide deck. What happens if you said, I’m giving myself two hours to create that slide. It changes things immensely. So we really wanna be conscious of how we are planning the use of our time. Okay. And this is the thing, you know, with accountability, [00:10:00] you don’t have the time set determined, like when you’re in a workplace and school and things where someone says you have to do it by this deadline.

[00:10:08] When you’re in business, you’ve got your. Deadline. So you have to set that and stick to it. And this is where this principle of Parkinson’s law comes in. So this is the first thing, okay? Number one, accountability. Don’t fill the time you have. Parkinson’s law. Set your own deadline and stick to it. Okay? I highly recommend you read the book, Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy.

[00:10:31] It’s a really simple read. It’s not gonna take you days and, and weeks. You can kind of read it in one city. It has so many useful chapters in it and tasks and activities, so you get more of the important things. Done today within your business, it really helps you leverage and, and understand what your highest value activities are within your business.

[00:10:52] And we know this, you know, we know it’s always gotta be on getting clients in lead generation, so re reverse [00:11:00] engineering that process. Okay, so that’s the one. Accountability. Okay? Don’t fill time. You have set your own deadline. The second thing is I want you to look at what your highest value activities are.

[00:11:11] So if you had one thing that you focused on in your business, what would it be? What is the highest value thing you can do? So for me, Research and potential hopes is not the highest value activity I can do. I can outsource that. I can delegate that my highest value activities are connecting with people because I know when I do those connections and make those connections, it brings me a really great return on that investment of my time.

[00:11:38] Versus me doing research, which I’ll be honest, I can creatively avoid for days on end. So what are your highest value activities? What are those things that are most, that you are best at, that you’re most important at, That you are gonna spend your time and your energy on? Okay. The third thing I wanna talk about is time blocking.

[00:11:59] So often I have [00:12:00] people say, But I’m just so busy, you know, and I, I’m overwhelmed and I just don’t know where to fit things in. And we’ve talked about, you know, how much of this is the unknown. You don’t really know what action to take versus what’s distracting you. And again, in his book, Eat That Frog By Brand Tracy, he talks about this concept of creative procrastination.

[00:12:22] It is the act of thoughtfully. Deliberately deciding upon the exact things you are not going to do right now or if ever. So creative procrastination is different to creative avoidance. This is a good thing is creative procrastination. It’s saying, you know, I’m not gonna do that pile of ironing right now.

[00:12:40] I’m not gonna think about those mom duties right now. I’m not gonna think about life admin right now, whatever it is. Okay. Or maybe ever, I’m just going to, they don’t need to be thought about, I’m don’t have to think about iron in again cause I’m outsourcing. For example, what I find with a lot of clients is they’re saying like, I’m really overwhelmed, da da, da.

[00:12:56] But what’s actually happening is like I’m struggling to focus [00:13:00] on the task at hand with my work because all this other stuff is piling up and I don’t know when I’m gonna do it. It’s kind of, you know, the mom duties, the life admin, da, da da da da. So what do we do? This is where I say you time blog. Okay?

[00:13:12] Get a table right? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. If you work Saturday and Sunday, split it into times, like what time do you get up? 6, 6 37, 7 30. So on throughout the day. And then what you’re gonna do is you are gonna start with the non-negotiables. So for example, if like me, you’re a mom, You’re gonna have mom duties in there, so I’m gonna have school droppers.

[00:13:32] School pickup, Okay. Yes, I have to put that in. I also have to set an alarm on my phone and on my Fitbit, so it reminds me to leave the house and collect my children just because it’s so easy when you’re in flow to for time to get away with you. Absolutely. One are the other nongo. So maybe it’s to eat, maybe it’s to go to the gym to run.

[00:13:54] What about if it’s things that are getting on top of you? Like the thing that really distracts you all the time is like life [00:14:00] admin, mom, admin, sorting out those slips that you have to return to school, like permission slips, the uh, paying the milk money, paying their dinner money, whatever those things are.

[00:14:11] If they’re coming up for. Block out time each day because instead of saying, Right, my work day is six hours, but I’m gonna fuck around for five and a half of those because I’m like, Oh, I should be doing a bit of mom admin. I should be doing a bit of this. And actually I don’t do anything productively or, Well, how about you say like, My work day is.

[00:14:29] Three hours and I’ve given myself three hours to do some life admin, to cook, to do some exercise, whatever it is that I will otherwise be worrying about within that time. So that is the third thing, is really use your time blocking and put it into your Google calendar. Okay. So say it like Emma having a Friday off.

[00:14:47] I’m having Friday off. You cannot book in with me on Friday, or I go to the gym on a Wednesday morning. You can’t book in with me on a Wednesday morning. There’s no option for you to book a slot in my diary. Okay, what are those things that are your non-negotiables? [00:15:00] Put those in your diary and then put in the other things that you are non-negotiables for your business.

[00:15:06] Lead generation, writing those weekly. Recording that podcast episode. What are those things that are non-negotiables that go in your diary and they don’t budge? Okay. These are the things that are gonna keep you moving forward. Don’t let lead generation be a negotiable. Don’t let your marketing activities become a negotiable that you can shift.

[00:15:26] Okay? If you wanna build a website, if you wanna do your branding, if you don’t wanna do whatever those other creative avoidance tasks are book in a lot of time every week. Your project type to be working on a project that’s going on at that time, that is not taking you away from focusing on those high value activities.

[00:15:44] So there we have it. We have creative avoidance versus procrastination versus creative procrastination and how to start to deal with them. And of course, I would love to hear from you and for you to let me know which cab you fall into [00:16:00] procrastinator. Creative avoidance or creative procrastinator, which obviously we all wanna be creative procrastinators.

[00:16:07] That’s the camp we want to be. So there you have it, folks. I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Marketing Without Social Media Today and feel inspired to take action in your business, whatever that looks like for you. And as always, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for tuning into another episode of this podcast, and if you haven’t done so already, please do subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss an episode.

[00:16:36] Speak to you soon.