LEAD is an acronym for the process I use for getting clarity on projects and finding more time in my schedule. In this case, we’ll use it to find more time to write!
L: Locating – brainstorm, brain dump
E: Eliminating – what can go? What are you willing to put aside or sacrifice temporarily?
A: Automating – what can you automate? (email autoresponders, IFTTT, zapper, online shopping subscriptions and orders, groceries, etc.)
D: Delegating (family, housekeeping, VA, bookkeeping, fiverr, upwork, etc.)
Listen Below:
Play in a new window | Download
Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes | Stitcher | RSS
Watch the How to Find More Time Using the L.E.A.D. Process video below:
Your Downloads
Get the PDF transcript here:
Click Here for the PDF Download
In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
- A simple process to help you find more time.
- Why eliminating tasks from your to-do list is important.
- And more!
Enjoy the podcast! It’s my hope that these episodes are bringing you one step closer to reaching more people with your message.
What others are saying about Author Audience:
Click here to leave an iTunes review and subscribe to the show. Not sure how to post a review on iTunes? Read my step-by-step tutorial and find out all the details about the special gift I have for my podcast reviewers here.
Godly Gain Segment:
Each week, I share a Godly Gain segment for entrepreneurs who want to keep Christ at the center of their business.
Today’s scripture: “For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.” Matthew 25:2 (NKJV)
Thanks for listening!
You ROCK! I appreciate everyone of my podcast listeners. If you have a specific question for me, submit it here: www.shelleyhitz.com/ask
“Even the weakest light can hold back the darkness.” – Unknown
It’s time to let your light SHINE!
Can’t listen right now? Read the transcript below:
Today I’m rolling out the red carpet and inviting you to join me as I share about how to find more time using my L.E.A.D. process. L.E.A.D. is an acronym that I’m going to explain more about in this episode.
My name is Shelley Hitz. I’m the author of over thirty-five books, and the list keeps growing. I’ve coached thousands of authors through my books, training programs, online events, seminars, and more. I’m best known for inspiring those around me to take action. If you’re an action-taker, you’re in the right place. I believe God has given you a message to share with the world. The question is, are you ready to shine?
It’s time for this week’s Center-Stage Spotlight Training. This is where I share training and strategies to help you grow your business or ministry through writing and publishing books, marketing online, and creating products and services to sell on the back end. As we near the end of the year, I think a topic that’s on many of our minds is planning for the new year, productivity, setting goals. I’m so excited to share with you in this episode how to find more time using my L.E.A.D. process. Today’s podcast is episode 23. I know this is going to bring you one step closer to getting your message to more people. Because just imagine if you save even ten minutes in a day, that will equal over sixty hours in a year. Within sixty hours, you can accomplish so many different things. I hope you really not only listen to this training but put it to action, because I want you to be prepared to shine.
The L.E.A.D. process is L-E-A-D. I’m going to go through each one of them. The first one is locating. Locating is what I call doing a brain dump. You’re going to just go ahead and put everything that’s on your mind, everything that you have to do onto paper. I like to do this writing-it-out with paper or pen, or else on my whiteboard. I think it’s usually best to do it in this way. There’s something about writing it out and having that tactile feedback that really helps.
What I recommend is sitting down and setting a timer for about ten or fifteen minutes and just write out everything you’re doing right now. Write out everything you’re doing for business. Write out all the projects you’re working on. Write out all the volunteer activities you have. Write out all the responsibilities you have at home. Just write out everything. Just write a list. Don’t leave anything out. Just write everything down. That’s locating. You’re doing that brain dump. You’re getting everything out of your brain onto paper.
Now I love doing this for even just specific projects. If you feel stuck in a project, this is something to do too. If you feel stuck in your book, this is something to do when you’re outlining your book. If you’re stuck in any area of your life, this is a great strategy to use to do a brain dump. It’s like a brainstorm, just writing everything out. That’s the first step. L is locating in the L.E.A.D. acronym.
E is eliminating. Now this is the painful part. You know when you prune a rose bush or you prune different plants, it says that they’ll be able to grow and flourish even more. The Bible even talks about this in John 15, that we’re to have that pruning, and anything that’s not bearing fruit, get rid of it. I want you now to look at that list that you wrote out and look at everything you’re doing. What is not bearing fruit, or what is not supporting your main goals right now? There may be some things that you need to eliminate. I want to tell you from personal experience it is painful to do this at times. I had to do a lot of this over the last few years as I got more focused on really helping authors and entrepreneurs, speakers, to get their message to more people. I had to let go of some things. I had to let go of partnerships. I had to let go of websites. I had to let go of products. I had to let go of so much.
You know what happens when you eliminate? It frees up time and it allows you to have time to focus on what your main goals are. I encourage you to find at least one thing you can cross off that list. Maybe it’s a volunteer activity. Maybe it’s something else that you’re doing right now that is really not helping you accomplish your goals. I talk to a lot of people who are on a ton of social media sites. They’re really not getting a lot of return on their investment because they’re doing too much. When we’re spread out thin, then we’re just doing everything a little bit. When you’re really focused, you’re able to do one thing with a lot of focus and have a lot more results. The eliminate phase is crucial. Set a timer again for maybe five minutes, and go through your list to see what can you eliminate.
The next step is automate. Automate, I love this step. Because there’s so many tools now. There’s so many apps. There’s so many things you can do to automate a lot of the tasks that you do every single day. I want you to think about you can automate. Maybe there are even things that you’re not even thinking about like groceries. You can sign up for Amazon Prime and you can get onto a service where they send you certain things every month. Or they have different services now, like I’ve been trying out Hello Fresh this week. They’ll send you all of the meal planning and the ingredients for your meals. Then all you have to do, you just cook it. It saves you time in going to the grocery store and doing that meal planning and all that stuff.
Now time sometimes equals money, so sometimes you have to pay for these automations. I know a lot of authors who are just sending out weekly or monthly newsletters to their email list instead of using auto-responders. You know why it says auto in the name? It’s because it’s a way to automate. You set it up once and it markets for you forever as long as you continue to have that email list. I love that. I like doing work one time and then have it continue to work for me ongoing. That’s what’s happening with WritingWeek.com. I’ve created this challenge, but it will continue to bring me new leads. It will continue to bring me potentially new members of Author Audience Academy ongoing.
Think about what are things that you could do one time and then automate, and have it continue to work for you. There’s really cool sites like IFTTT. You can set up automation through that or Zapier. There’s different things you can set up on there. There’s tons of things that you can automate, whether it’s your subscriptions or your member sign-ups. I heard somebody in Author Audience Academy just recently say that she is delivering her product manually. She just has a PayPal button and then she’s delivering that product manually. You can use systems to automatically send those products, digital products, to your customers. There’s something as easy as Gumroad.com or Selz.com. Those are very easy to get started, very low-key. They will automate the process for you. Yes, you pay a small percentage to them, but it’s worth it. That way you’re not behind your computer. If you get sick, your business stops. What can you automate? What can you do to help automate the things that you’re doing every day? That’s the A.
The L was locating. That’s the key part of this process, the brainstorm or the brain dump. The E is eliminating. That’s the painful process, but it’s so important. A is automating. What can you automate to free up more time?
Then the D is delegating. There are certain things that each one of us is doing that we could pay someone a small fee to do for us. I have to say I’m one of those people who have resisted this for a long time just because I don’t think I have the money to pay someone. What it does is that it takes up my time, and then I won’t have the time to do the things that are the higher-dollar tasks: creating programs, creating content, creating new books. Those types of things are the things that only I can do. What it is that only you can do, and what are some things that you can start to delegate?
If you want to get your feet wet, the very first thing that I started to do with delegation, and it didn’t feel overwhelming, it didn’t feel like it was too much, was use Fiverr.com. For five dollars you can start having people create images for you. I just hired someone to do a really cool infographic for WritingWeek.com. They should be able to be finished with the final touches here soon. You can hire people to do graphics for you. You can hire people to do video editing for you. There’s different things that you can hire there.
Then once you’re ready to take another step, you can hire on a project-by-project basis on sites like Upwork.com or OnlineJobs.ph. OnlineJobs.ph are people that are working from the Philippines. Many times you can hire people for as low as $4 an hour from another country that will do work for you. It takes a little more time to find the right person to write up the job description and to do the interviews. You can definitely get started at not a huge cost.
What can you delegate? Maybe you can delegate things to your family? Have you thought of that? Maybe they’re willing to help you with certain tasks. Maybe they’re willing to help you with the laundry, or cleaning, or different things around the house. Because when you’re able to have more time to do profit-generating tasks for your business, it benefits your whole family. I heard one person say that she asked her high school daughter to do some graphics for her. She did those graphics without any money up-front, but she says once my product launches and once I have money and get paid from that product launch, I’ll pay you either $5 or $10 an image. I don’t know, it was a certain amount. She paid her daughter later. The family a lot of times are willing to work in those ways too.
This process is called the L.E.A.D. process. The acronym is L-E-A-D. L is locating. That’s where you do your brain dump and your brainstorm. You get everything out of your brain onto paper, or a whiteboard, or a mind map, or something like that. I prefer writing it out. I think there’s something powerful with that. The E is eliminating. What from that list can you eliminate? Because we’re all doing a million things a day. It feels that way anyway. We have a lot on our plates. What is something that is just not contributing to your focus, to your goals, that you can either eliminate for a season or maybe permanently? I said I’ve shut down websites. I’ve ended partnerships. I have done all sorts of very, very difficult things in order to move forward in my business and to have that focus. Then A is automating. What can you automate in your business? There’s so many tools, so many apps, so many things now available to us that can help us. The final one is D, delegating. What are some things you can delegate? Choose at least one thing that you can eliminate, one thing you can automate, and one thing you can delegate. I guarantee that you will begin to free up more time.
Thank you guys so much for joining me today. Again, my name is Shelley Hitz. I’m an author coach at ShelleyHitz.com. I’ll see you next time.
You’re listening to a replay of a training I did on Periscope. Now the cool thing about this is I recorded the video on Periscope. I edited it. It’s now on my YouTube channel, and it’s in a paid membership area where I teach this process as well. Now it’s on my podcast. Talk about repurposing. That is a topic for another podcast. Now it’s time for your Take Action Tip. I want you to actually do this process with me.
If you can, let’s see, ten, twenty, maybe twenty-five or thirty minutes, just set aside twenty-five or thirty minutes. You’ll set a timer for ten minutes and do the brain dump of everything you’re doing. Then you’ll set the timer for five minutes. You’ll cross off anything off the list that can be eliminated that does not support your main goals right now. I want you to cross off at least one thing. Okay, you got it? You’re crossing something off? I hope so.
Now you’ll set a timer for five minutes and list at least one thing you can automate. Then finally, set a timer for five more minutes and find at least one thing you can delegate. That is my challenge for you this week: to take action and to actually go through the process. I want you to also get all the show notes at AuthorAudience.com/23. That’s the number 23. AuthorAudience.com/23. The reason I want you to go there and get these show notes is because I’ve included the PDF download for my L.E.A.D. process worksheet. I want you to get that worksheet because then that will help you to go through this process and be able to take action.
Before we end, I want to give you a backstage pass in this week’s Godly Gains Segment. The scripture for this episode comes from Matthew 25 verse 2. This is at the end of the Parable of the Talents. I think many of you are familiar with that parable. If you’re not, you can go back and read the entire chapter or the entire parable in Matthew chapter 25. This particular verse talks about being rewarded for your productivity. It says, “For everyone who has, more will be given. He will have abundance. But from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.”
In the parable, it talks about the different workers. One was given ten talents. One was given five talents. One was given one talent. The one that had ten talents multiplied and was productive and used their time effectively. They were rewarded for that. The person who only had one talent, it says that he was afraid, so he hid that talent. In the end it was taken away from him. I don’t know where you’re at in your life right now, what season you’re in right now, but I encourage you to seek God and to seek his will for your life, to become productive in the gifts and the abilities that he’s given you. This L.E.A.D. process is just one way that you can do that.
I encourage you to not just be afraid and let fear run your life or let obstacles get in your way, but to allow the gifts that God has given you to shine, to multiply them, and to pray and ask God for wisdom as you go through this L.E.A.D. process.
It’s my hope and my goal that these episodes are bringing you one step closer to being able to shine and reach more people with your message. I’m excited to hear the results that you’re getting with the L.E.A.D. process. I would love to work with you personally. If you would like to join me, I’m going to have a virtual planning retreat coming up. Whether you’re listening to this right as it’s released or years later, you can join us at PlanItDay.com. There will be replays and training in the members area later. Just go to PlanItDay, P-L-A-N-I-T-D-A-Y.com, to learn more about being able to truly plan your next year for the most success. I’d love to be able to help you in that process. Also, remember to go and download my L.E.A.D. process worksheet when you get the show notes at AuthorAudience.com/23. I’ll see you next time.
Have Comments or Questions?
Share them in the comments below.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Leave a Reply