How I Set Up My Calendar to Make Room for All My Priorities in A Busy Season of Chasing Massive Goals in Business
24 Sept 2024 · 24 min
Lori and Chris Harder share how they calendar their time across multiple startups and personal brands. Lori batches 4-7 podcast interviews quarterly to manage three episodes weekly; Chris protects Mondays from meetings and prioritizes personal time before his Frello startup. Both use calendar blocks strategically to handle the unpredictable demands of chasing massive goals.
Questions this episode answers
September 24, 2024.
Three episodes per week.
A minimum of two podcast interviews per week.
Typically anywhere from four to seven interviews in a row when batching.
Use coupon code "happy" at getglocy.com for 25% off (promo mentioned as '25 off').
Chapters
Right now, I'm working every single weekend, you know, and I try to really keep my protected time, but this season, I can't always do that. There's a big struggle there. And so we have a lot of changes coming up because we can't do this particular pace, but we also want to be serving in this way. And we're back with another episode of He Said, she Said.
Hi, babe. Kick the scene off the close he tip. Got a glossy tip for us today.
You know, I've just been thinking about how much Glocee has been helping us with traveling and my friends who are crazy travelers as well. You know, Jen Gottlieb travels all the time. Natalie travels all the time. Like, how much they say glossy is helping them. And the reason for that is because when we created this, I said to myself, when I was looking at this hydration stick that I was using every single day, I was like, there are days. This is all I do. Like, this is the only supplement that I take because I'm just in such a season right now, right? We both have two startups, and I know that, you know, busy families and busy moms, like, we're not getting any less busy. And we're trying, but we're really not getting that less busy. So I said to myself, if I could only do one thing a day, what would I put in the stick? If this was the only thing I could take for the whole day, what would be the one thing that I put in here?
And.
And I'm like, man, we all struggle so much with our digestion, with bloat, with just not feeling good in our bodies that could. We put this incredible, clinically studied probiotic in here. You know, we look through all the different types of probiotics, and we're like, this is the one that we want. This one has, like, so many incredible results. We can't wait for people to try this one. And on top of that, there's so much about this gut and brain access. Well, you guys, the gut really is attached to everything. The gut skin access is huge. So a lot of people have skin issues because of what they're eating or they're not digesting their food. And we added a bunch of other things in here for skin, like zinc, which is also great for helping get, you know, helping with common colds and helping avoid them. And also vitamin C, which is also incredible for your immune system, but just so happens to be amazing. For collagen synthesis, we have magnesium, which, again, if you're a traveler or you have trouble sleeping. This is huge. And also, it's responsible for so many nerve functions. We have prickly pear, which. Oh, my God. Gosh, you guys just research the history of. It's actually called Nepal cactus, but it's been termed prickly pear. But it's been used forever for different healing modalities from, you know, ancient native tribes. It's a really incredible ingredient. And we also have coconut water powder. So if you're like, can I use this instead of my hydration stick? This will help hydrate you and your skin. So on top of that, like I said, if I could only do one thing, what would this thing be?
You literally did what everybody's ultimate advices when it comes to starting a business, and that is build what you wish existed. You did. You're like, okay, if I only have time to do one thing, what is everything I would want in there? And how much of it would I want in there? And that's what you built. I love it. So, listeners, you get a special to try glossy for the first time for 25 off. You're not going to find that elsewhere. All you have to do is use coupon code happy when checking out at get glocy. That's G L, O, c. I get glocy.com. use coupon code happy to get 25 off. All right, so it's actually a great segue into what we're talking about today. I really want to frame this for everybody. You know, we listen to podcasts just like you listen to podcast, and, you know, one of our favorite podcasts is Lauren and Michael Bostic. And we feel like they're on a trajectory, and it's a trajectory that, you know, we feel like we're on as well, and so we can learn a lot from their hustle. And in the most recent episode where they were interviewed by somebody, it wasn't actually on their show, somebody else interviewing them. They were talking about their schedule, and the host said, hey, from distance, it looks like you're always on vacation. And they said, well, let us explain why and how it looks like we're always on vacation and what it really looks like in between and what it looks like behind the scenes. And they went on to explain not only some of the chaos in their life, but how they organize the chaos and how they've designed their life. And I don't care how many times we've talked about this. This is such a valuable piece of insight to be able to give to other people that want to build something really big. And when I say really big, I feel like I need to FR what we're building right now for those of you that may not be caught up. So you know Lori and I have multi, multi million dollar personal brands. That's a big business within itself. But then on top of that, I am building my legacy company. It's a startup called Frello, which is a friendlier loan. It's a peer to peer lending app where we're matchmaking individuals that have a need, an urgent need financially and individuals that would lend to them and we move the money back and forth and all that fun stuff and that thing's about to launch and because it's such a massive fintech company with so much reg, it is an insane full time job. So I have two full time jobs. Lori, you just heard her talk about Glocee. She literally built what she wishes existed. That is a separate full time job. So she has two full time jobs, the personal brand and you know, bringing Glocee out to the world. So I wouldn't recommend choosing to have two startups like true, like funded startups in the household at the same time. But we woke up one day and we were there because we both, you know, it's God's timing. We both were just given this mission like Chris, you go build this. Lori, you go build this. And, and honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. Now the reason why I framed that is some of you might be like, oh, but you don't have kids. Oh but you don't have this. Oh but you don't have that. Everybody has their own version of mother freaking busy. Your busy isn't better than our busy. Our busy isn't better than your busy. Everybody has their vision of chaos, their version of chaos. What we're talking about today is I don't care what your individual circumstances are if you're chasing down really big things, right? So if you're building a $50,000 a year brand at home, that is awesome, that's great. But that might not be what we're talking about today. If you're building a $200,000 a year personal brand or something like that, that's awesome. But it's probably not what we're talking about today. I'm building a billion dollar company. Lori's goal is to build a multi hundred million dollar company and run a multimillion dollar personal brand at the same time. That's the pace that we wanted to lift the curtain on what it looks like. So Lori, high level first what does your life look like in execution, regardless of what it might look like on social media?
Well, there's so many things that I have to keep going for so many reasons because they all feed each other. And this is something to think about when you are building all of your brands. You know, is it something that you want to build if you already have something else that can also help feed that particular thing? So for me, you know, the podcast, it's a very time consuming product for me. Every single week. I do three episodes per week. I'm recording ads now very, very frequently. A lot of which is exciting. I'm glad that we're doing this. It feels like, you know, to really get monetarily paid for the eight years of this podcast that I have put into it feels so incredibly good. But that takes a lot of time. Like, you want to do the ads really well. You're vetting the products, you're trying the products, you're integrating them into your life. You are taking that time to record something new. And so it's like, okay, how do I do this in a way that truly is me and how I'm using it and what does this look like? So it takes a lot of thoughtfulness, not to mention prepping for interviews with people who I've never met before. You want them to feel like they have the best experience. You want them to feel like you did your research. And then there's also, you know, the quickies and the he said, she said. So these are all topics and things that I have to not only be in like the tactical, but I also have to make time for the creative. And let me tell you that I want to be in the creative all the time, but I'm finding myself a lot more stuck in the tactical. And so, you know, what we want to share during this podcast podcast is also to tell you, like, there's a big struggle there. And I don't want to be like, you're always going to feel like you're in a struggle, but I do feel like you're always trying to work something out or optimize something. So right now the podcast is taking up a lot of time. And when I said make sure that it can feed something, you know, majority of my sales for glossy right now, organic sales, are coming from the podcast. And that's because people have resonated with what I'm talking about. That's because people are listening to why they should be consuming it and the benefits. And we talk about it all of the time and people are following along on the story. So for me, the podcast is such a vital, important piece, not only for all of our products, but also for me. Like, it's. It's one of those things where it is how I meet people, it's how I advertise, and it's how I stay sharp. It's one of the biggest, most challenging, most time consuming things that I do, especially when we record in person. So I'm gonna share real high level on just what that looks like as well. When I started out this last year, I was like, I'm going to do everything in person. And it's virtually impossible to get every guest that you want in person because not only getting them to say yes to, like, meet somewhere, but just schedules in general. Like, I actually have a list of three people who I'm like, I can't. I literally can't believe they've said yes. But we can't get our schedules to align. And it's been a year. It's things like that. But you know, when I am batching, what that can look like sometimes is anywhere from four to seven interviews all in a row. So I will start at the ass crack in the morning with the team and just go back to back to back to back with interviewing in order to do something like that. That'll take me a full day to two days of prep, along with my podcast manager, who's also helping, like, gather all the info on the back end and make my notes so that I can go into those days feeling really good and so that I'm able to batch and do seven people in a row and then wake up the next day and potentially do that again.
So I do a lot of batching.
And now I've decided to only do like maybe anywhere from 50 to 70% in person and the rest virtually. And that's helped my schedule a bit. But I still am finding, because you guys, I put out three episodes per week. I'm doing minimum two podcast interviews for my podcast every single week. On top of those batchings that I do once a quarter. And then I am, you know, keeping those, like, recording and ads days in there as well, every single week.
So where does Glossi fit in then? Because you already said, hey, I'm doing the podcast because it feeds a lot of things, but one of the biggest things it feeds is glossy. Talk about what it looks like to build a CPG company, a product company, and how that fits in.
All that glossy is fitting in everywhere around that. Literally, you know, all of the travel that you guys are seeing, that I am doing right now, that is with the intention of getting the message and community of glossy out there. We're doing some really cool things, especially if I can come and speak to a group, they really get to know the story. You know, if you are a subscriber, you get a 45 minute call with me, with access to me, with Q and A with me a lot of times.
Group call, group call.
Let's clarify that in the community. And I'm telling you, it's like, it's so fun, it's so personal. If you're an affiliate, you get another 45 minute call with me. And often I'm bringing on incredible women within my network, within my friend group, other amazing entrepreneurs. So if you're a subscriber, these are all the things that we're doing on the back end. I'm doing the glossy call, I'm doing the glossy, all of the affiliate call. I'm doing all of the, we're trying to do all of the planning for, you know, the marketing. I'm doing all of the things that are kind of falling. I mean, literally, I'm, I'm in everything right now. We're trying to get me out of everything so I can get more into the creative, but I don't think that that will ever happen. So I can tell you that from the moment I wake up, you know, and I try to really keep my protected time, but this season I can't always do that. I have a team who needs me right now and I don't have that. I am the CEO. I don't have somebody who can be that role right now, nor do I feel like we need it at this very moment. So for me, it's falling everywhere else. And you know, Chris, like right now I'm working every single weekend, every single day.
What that picture looks like though. So it's not like you're going into the office seven days a week. The whole purpose of this podcast is to show people that want to go after something big. Okay, what's it probably going to look like? Yeah. So when you say that you're not like waking up at 8 on Sunday and sitting at the desk until 4 o'. Clock. So explain what our weekends look like.
So the last few weekends, you know, we've still gotten to wake up and, you know, do our meditation and go for our, our dog walk and say, hey, you know what, I'm not ready to start working yet. It's coffee shop, it's 10 o'cl let's just chill until noon. Let's start working at 1 o', clock. Let's work until 4 or 5 and then let's go for another walk. And so weekends truly.
And go to a great dinner.
Yes, and go to a great dinner. So we're still really doing the best that we can to make time for each other. Make time for like life and have some fun and see some friends and see family. But you know when you guys see us, like, we were thinking about this because when Lauren and Michael were talking about it and they're like, oh, we're definitely like not always on vacation. Here's how it looks. I was thinking of this because, because you know, when we were at the lake house this summer, I was like, man, I do such a terrible job of showing people like what the back end of, you know, a startup and running a personal brand really looks.
You know why though? Can't jump in there because it'd be boring. What do you want us to. Hey guys, here's us on four more zoom calls. Hey guys, here's also on three more conference calls. Like nobody wants to see that shit. Nobody would turn into, tune into that. You know what I mean? It's like, how do you show that.
Well, we can get a little more creative with like one post today. Sorry, I'm only thinking of content right now because my whole brain, like you guys, my team is like, Lori, your whole job is like content right now. Just pump out content. So I'm like, we could actually do better.
Yeah, that's a great point. Like I am. So you got to paint your picture. Here's my picture. I make Frello the priority and then I make the personal brand the secondary yet priority, right? So it's not like there's really a first place and a second place. It's the equivalent of both of them are two first place priorities. And you know, in my world I've got a lot of very high end mastermind clients, right? We've got the elite mastermind. Everybody in there is pretty much a seven and eight figure business owner. And they need access, they text questions, they need advice. You know, some of them with the coaching membership, they get coaching calls and that kind of thing that all takes up obviously a lot of bandwidth. But at the same time, I need to make sure that they never, ever, ever feel neglected because of the size of their investment. At the same time is making sure that Brello always is taking front and center because that is truly the biggest lift that I have in front of me right now, so I laid down my personal time first. That's the most important thing. Everything from doctor's appointments to protected time to time off that I need, I lay that down on the calendar first. Then obviously leaving enough time for these two other full time jobs to exist. That's the caveat right there. I lay down Trello next. And that's kind of tough because some things, you know, like here's a standing meeting, there's a standing meeting, Some of the things you can lay down on the calendar because you know they're going to exist. But many things pop up and like, hey, the CEO wants to meet with you in the next two days. Hey, this attorney's call has to happen in the next 48 hours. There's a lot of that in my life right now. So then I lay down these protected chunks in my calendar forlo meetings to fall. So it may not be a specific meeting yet, but it's protected in my calendar for fellow meetings to fall. So the space is there when an attorney's like, hey, let's jump on the call and talk through this talking point. And that helps a ton because I don't that way I'm not like, oh, sorry, I'm already booked out for four days. Like I've already got these chunks in there where I can say, okay, that's no problem. Tomorrow I've got this chunk or this chunk. What works best for you? So then the third thing I lay down is all my client time on the calendar. And here's the best part. They get a booking link, right? So they don't know any better as long as there's enough availability in a reasonable amount of availability on there. They don't know any better that they got laid down on the calendar after Frello got laid down on the calendar. And so they use the booking link. Oh, this time works for me, that time works for me. This time works for me, that time works for me. And everything works really well that way in that order. But look at the order. It's me first, so that I can be the cup that is flowing over to then pour into these other two companies. Then it's Frellow next, including, I don't know what some of the meetings are yet, but these protected Frello times for meetings to follow. And then third, it is client time, personal brand time, when am I doing the podcast time and all that stuff. And as long as you leave enough time, it will all fit. And you have to be really good at taking when people want an hour meeting, saying no we can get it done in a half hour. You have to be really good at your yeses and no's when you get to this point. You have to be really good at knowing what's a 911 and what can be pushed off by a week or two. And when you get that dialed in, that helps as well. And I. I'm in a season of loving this. Yeah, we're working seven days a week, but I love that we work for two or three or sometimes four hours on Saturday. I love that we work sometimes two or three or four hours on Sunday. I mean, I do it in front of football games. What is so hard about sitting on my laptop and going through all my emails and, you know, writing up everything that I got to write up or doing what I got to do or writing out my next podcast while I'm sitting in front of the Packer game? That's about as good as a work scenario as you could ever get. So here's one thing that I've really learned through this, and this is going to be important for all of you listening that want to tackle something big. And this is something that Lori and I are reminding each other of all the time. The pain that you feel doesn't come from your busy schedule. The pain that you feel comes from expecting more free time on your schedule than you actually have in reality. And let that sink in. The frustration. The I'm so busy. The I don't know if I can do this pace. The. The oh, I'm annoyed. Why do I have so much to do? The. The feeling of your. Your checklist never being done or completed. Guys. Build something small. Have all the free time you want. Build something big that's going to change the world and be a legacy company. You don't get the luxury of that. You're in a season. But it doesn't have to be painful. It can be really fun. It can be really joyous. You can thoroughly enjoy this as long as you have the perspective or the. The acknowledgement that the only pain you're feeling from a busy schedule is because you expected it to be more free. It's not actually the busy schedule itself.
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And something that we're doing right now and that we've always done, but that we have to get really good at right now is we're really trying to optimize, like our weeks and then our years. Like, we just did a strategy session, really looking at what do we, what are we doing next year? So we have some changes that we're making because we're like, oh, for the time that we're going to spend on this, this is what we want to be doing and this is what's going to be required. And so we have a lot of changes coming up because we can't do this particular pace in this season. In this season. And. But we also want to be serving in this way. So what are the things that we could do that could meet both of these criteria? And we just went to town for a whole day on what are these things we can do so we can optimize our schedule better? And that's really the. That I'm in right now is. Okay, how can I make sure all podcasting virtually falls on one day? I don't want to be scattered. I don't want to be all over the place throughout the week. Okay, how can I make sure that every Monday is a full, like, content catch up day? Because it kills me when I have meetings on it. So only meetings that are on 911 on a Monday. And all these little things are really helping me get better within my schedule.
No meeting Mondays is a must. I'm telling you guys, you can fit all the meetings you need to have in the other four work days per week, other six days if you're going to count any of the weekends. No meeting Mondays. Repeat after me. No meeting Mondays. That is the secret to feeling like you can stay on top of everything. Because everybody else is Monday. They have kind of a party weekend, crappy weekend. They slept off on Friday and all of a sudden they're like, oh, I, I need to catch up. Oh, I need to sing from you on Monday. So everybody comes at you on a Monday. Well, you're gonna put freak out when everyone comes at you on a Monday if you have a whole bunch of things scheduled already. But if you have a no meeting Monday now you can handle everybody else's panic Monday in a very easy way and not feel like you're falling behind for the rest of the week and get prepared really well for the week. So anyhow, we just wanted to show you this insight. If you hooked me up to a lie detector and said, how happy are you in life right now? It would still be a solid 9 out of 10. And the reason why is because of perspective. The reason why is because I'm still putting myself first, and then all the other important things come second. So I'm pouring from a cup that's flowing over. Lori and I still put ourselves as a couple first. It's very. We still put our family first. It's still. It's very important to lay those things down first on your calendar, if you will. And then the important things second and third and fourth after that. That you do that and you keep your perspective in check, and you're gonna be just fine while you go build your. Your legacy forever company.
Okay, guys, we are so grateful for you. And we were talking on the walk, and we just said, hey, for anybody. Anybody out there building, if we can eliminate a little bit of pain from the expectation that, like, you know, how do we get our lives to look like that? Where there's less work and there's less. But they're still doing these big things. I'm like, oh, oh, no, no, no, no. Like, it really helped us to hear it, like, beyond what we can tell you to just reset priorities. And so I hope that this was helpful for you.
Yep. All right, guys, thanks for listening. Appreciate you.
We will see you next week.
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