087. How to Collapse Time and Use Your Work Hours Like 'Beyonce'

Welcome. I am marketing expert and business coach Melissa Kellogg Lueck, and this is the Doing Business Like a Woman podcast, where we are exploring and teaching you how women are reinventing the way business is done and money is made to help you create greater impact and financial freedom one business at a time. Well, hello there, friends. How's it going? You're having a fabulous day. We're back here. It's Friday, and I have been thinking a lot about time. I know this is a subject and using time and having enough time and not having enough time, and a subject that has been something that I have struggled with my entire entrepreneurial journey. And I know that many of you do as well. I hear it from you. I hear it from my clients, is all about, like, how can I make the best use of my time? What should I be doing with my time? Am I spending enough time? Am I not spending enough time? And then we hear things like, well, Beyonce has the same 24 hours as you do, so what's your problem? Right? And so I've been reading this book, 10x is easier than 2x by Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan, and it's an amazing book. I highly recommend it. And they have a chapter in there about time that I was reading, and it really blew my mind. And in addition to, you know, then of course, my mind is, like, mashing together all these other things I've been learning and thinking about. And so I wanted to share all that with you, kind of how that's all come together and what I'm thinking about time, because I hope that what I'm sharing with you today will blow your mind as much as it has blown mine and really help you to understand that you could create as much in your 24 hours as Beyonce is like, I feel like I've figured it out, and I can. Not that I'm doing it yet, obviously, but I want to just offer these thoughts to you and kind of how I'm changing what I'm doing and changing how I'm thinking about time, how I'm scheduling and using my time so. So that I can put to use more of what I'm learning. So how does Beyonce do what she does in 24 hours? And so that's kind of the question. And really what it's all about is collapsing. We're thinking about, like, collapsing time, right? Like slowing time down and creating greater value in the time that we have. And so the way that we. Our culture, our industrialized way of thinking about business, the way that we think about time is very linear, right? It's like past, present and future. And that's a very, um. So that's. They talk about that in this book. And it's a very Newtonian way of thinking. And so in order to really scale your business and your income, your impact is all about letting go of that linear paradigm, which I think is kind of a very masculine. I think of it kind of as a masculine, very linear viewpoint, right. And taking a more holistic view of time. And what these authors talk about, they talk about it as the. As Einstein's relativity theories of time. And then combining that with modern psychology and neuroscience. And really, I'm going to just read. I'm going to quote this from the book 10x is easier than 2x. So they talk about Einstein's relativity theories of time shatter that Newtonian linear view, right. And provide a much more compelling and transformational approach to time. That Einstein's view of time is subjective and quite qualitative and nonlinear and flexible, not fixed. So what that means is that time is not the same for two different people. So for time for Beyonce, her 24 hours is different than my 24 hours, right? It's different. It's not the same from one situation to another or from one's perspective to another. So time expands. I'm quoting now, time expands or contracts based on the speed and distance an object moves through space in a given direction. So the faster an object moves, the slower the time goes for that object relative to the other objects. And so what I think about that in relation to our businesses and to the time we have when we work, time that we're working in our businesses, that the more quality, the more value that we create in the time that we have in our businesses slows down time, right? So in a specific instance, the way we can think about this is when I first started in business, it took me and I don't even know the. Well, let's just talk about the past few years. So within the Last year, in 12 months, I created a hundred thousand dollars, right? But the time before that, that I created a hundred thousand dollars, it took me two years or three years, I can't remember exactly, but I made that same 100k in less time, right? I slowed time down and made more money. And so if you just think about that in terms of I created more value in less time, so I slowed time down. Time didn't go by as quickly to get to that hundred K. Right? So if you think about that in relation to your business, not necessarily just Monetarily but the way that we do that is that we pack more, greater value into the time that we are spending in our businesses. And when we do that, we're going to create more money in less time. Does that make sense? So that's how Beyonce does what she does. That's how she does it, Right? Because she realizes that the time that she spends her work time, she is more focused. I, I mean, I don't know, but I'm just projecting she is, has a greater focus and is creating greater quantities, greater amount of value, right. So how do we do that? Let me, I'm just looking at my notes here. So most of us, and kind of this industrialized thinking is that in this linear thinking is that we think that to earn more, to make more money, we need to be doing more, spending more time, working more. And so for us as women that have other things going on in our lives, families and other places that we want to be, we often will turn away or turn down growth in our business because we think it's going to require more time. Right? But what if we adopt this Einstein's view of time and that we can increase the quality and the value of the time we're spending and make more money in the same amount of time, Right. So that's really what I want to encourage you to just explore and just kind of free your mind to this paradigm. It's a whole different paradigm, right. And so I'm even going to talk about this, you know, more like day to day, right? So making valuable use of our time slows it down. And I think about this a lot now as I'm middle aged, right? I'm 52 years old, I'm like, holy crap. Like it's possible, like I'm on the second half of my life now. I believe I'm gonna live to be a hundred at least. And I'm taking lots of measures to ensure that I live longer. And I really would love to live to like 120. But say I'm on that second half and I'm like, oh my gosh, I feel like I have so much left of my life that I want to accomplish. And so I'm always thinking about like slowing down time, right? Well, this is how we do it. We slow down time by creating greater value in the time that we have. And it's not just about the work time, right? It's greater value in and connection in our relationships with our family, our friends, our children, our loved ones, right? It's greater value in the time we spend, I don't know, just being in our home, you know, and with our work as well. Every moment that we are in our work, in our company, in our work, in our work time, that we are spending our time on those activities that create the greatest amount of value. Right? Because most of us are spending 20% of our time on the activities that create 80% of the value, 80% of the revenue. Right. So if we just flip that and we're like, all right, let's expand that 20% to 80%. So I'm spending 80% of my time creating the greatest amount of value and sharing my wealth of experience and knowledge and spending 80% of my time thinking about my clients and how I can help them get their results in the way that they want it. We will create greater value in that time and we'll create more money with that time. So. So that is how we really can scale our business. So making that valuable use of our time is what slows it down. So how do we do that? I've got three suggestions, three things for you to consider on how we do that. And number one is focusing on and understanding what are the activities that you are doing in your business on a day to day, week to week basis that you know are the activities that will help you to 10x your business to go to that next level. Right. What are those activities? I mean, for me, it's coaching my clients like that is a 10x activity. For me. I get better there. They get results better and faster. So that's an activity. Spending time learning and reading and Thinking is a 10x activity. If the caveat is, if I get out there and share it with my audience, with you, so that you can benefit from it. If I'm just learning things and then sitting there and thinking about them, that's not. That's not valuable. It only becomes valuable when I take all of that knowledge and I share it out. I share that wealth with you, with the world. Right? So think about in your business. And of course, I'm happy to. I would love to go through this evaluation with you and really think about what are the 10X activities in your business. So reach out to me if you would like me to help you with that. I'm happy to do that. So we assess and look and focus on what are those 10x activities. Right. And then number two, create high value in the time that you spend in your business. And it doesn't. It's. It really is that. 80, 20. So see if you can go from spending 20% in high value activities to 80% in high value activities, right? Maybe it's not going to be perfect and that's okay. And maybe there is a transition time and that's okay, right? But just start having that awareness and then start making different choices, different decisions and creating high value. You know, the greatest amount, percentage of your time creating high value. So for example, think about, you know, having a question like if you think about going through email versus creating new concepts or writing a super valuable email to your audience, you know, just going through email is a low value activity, right? Whereas creating new concepts to help your clients get better results, that's a high. And then sending them an email about it, that's a high value activity, right? So how can we spend more time in this high value activity and making those choices? And then number three in making valuable use of our time is creating a schedule that sets you up for the highest value. Right? And so in this chapter in this book, they talk about this just I use, I get all my books in Kindle so that I can highlight them on Kindle and then it brings up has like a little note book page of all the notes of everything that I have highlighted in the book. And I love that. So I had to get back into my iPad. So they talk about that in the book of really creating a schedule that sets you up for the highest value. So they talk about splitting your time up into focus time, buffer time and recovery time. And I think about this, Michael Hyatt has this kind of the structure as well in his work. And he talks about like front stage or on stage, I can't remember how he says, and backstage time. And then we also have recovery time. So rather than context switching, which we know from research, when you're doing a lot of context switching, switching from like front stage to backstage to, you know, email, to scrolling to phone calls, like all this switching, it really degrades our productivity. And if you think about that in terms of creating high value, it's really hard to sit and create and focus on something and create a high amount of value if you're like switching all over the place. So. And I'm even reworking my own schedule. I've been in the process of doing that for a little while now. And I'm finding that when I think about what are my front stage activities, which would be, you know, being on Facebook live like this with you or, or coaching my clients or writing social media posts and writing emails, like all those activities where I'm serving and talking to People like, putting those all together and then all of my backstage activities, putting all of those together and kind of creating blocks of time, organizing my weeks so that those blocks are close together but separate. Right. So, for example, today's Friday. So the first half of Friday is a front stage time for me. So this is a time where I am, I'm on live here talking to you. I'm, you know, have other activities where I'm recording podcasts or doing other things that would be like front stage activities in the morning and then I'm going to have lunch, and in the afternoon I'm going to have backstage activities. So that's like, for me, on Fridays, what I do is I evaluate my week. I look at all my numbers, I, you know, pay my bills or work on email. Like kind of some of that backstage type stuff, organizational stuff. I start planning and looking at my schedule for next week. So those are all of the, like, backstage activities. So I'm thinking more about batching those different categories. So that's three categories. Again, we have the focus time, which I think about is like front stage stuff, where you're serving and creating new things. And then buffer time, which would be like backstage type things, organizing, planning, you know, I don't know, evaluating. And then there's recovery time. So we all need a lot of recovery time. Time where we completely separate from our business, both physically leave the office, close the door, and also mentally, like, really step out of it mentally as well. So that organizing your time, creating that schedule that sets you up for, for the highest value and for you to set yourself up and make it easy to be in that 80% highest value section of your days as much as possible. Right. Or, you know, for that 80% of time without switching around. So just to kind of wrap up here, most people spend only 20% of their time in their business on activities that are helping them to grow, scale and 10x their business. But so the challenge for all of us is to shift that to split spending 80% of our time on those valuable activities that are going to help us to create more impact, more income and to 10x and then making really great decisions about that other 20%, like, thinking, how can I delegate some of these things that are low value that are taking my time? Can I delegate them? Can I eliminate them all together, like, question everything? I feel like, and I've talked about this before, but I feel like so often we are just kind of going through the motions with a lot of things that we do in our business. And what if we said, do I really have to do this? And the answer might be no. So let's just eliminate it, right? Or automate it. Are there things that we can automate? And that's becoming easier and easier with, with AI and the technology that's out there and virtual assistants and like there's so many easy ways to set yourself up for success. And so I just encourage you to start thinking what would be possible for. For you to create and for you to achieve if you were spending 80% of your time creating higher levels of value and wealth for your clients, like, what would be possible? I think it's so exciting just to think about that. And I really believe that the entrepreneurs and like Beyonce, the reason why they have achieved the level of success that they have is number one, they never give up. And number two, they understand this concept that they make very calculated decisions about how they use their time and they use it on the highest value activities and then they put those things out into the world, right? And do that over and over and over and get better and better and better at it. And that's how we can do it. Right? So I would love to hear from you and how this lands with you. I would love to help you also to create a business and a schedule where you are spending 80% of your time in these highest value activities. And just imagine how much impact, how much money you could make and how much you could change the trajectory of your business, your life, your family's future. So I hope you have a fabulous rest of your day, a great weekend, and I will see you again here next time. See you later. Thanks for being here you guys. I really appreciate it. Bye. If you like this podcast, then you have got to sign up for my free on demand video training, Grow youw Sales Doing what yout Love. Where I teach you in depth my simple process that you can implement right away to harness your mindset and your skills to grow your sales to whatever level you want. So go grab that now. The link is in the show notes and I'll see you next time.