Paula Rizzo talks with Joya Das about setting goals strategically, including her "loud list" approach. They cover delegation, self-care, and how Joya moved from TV to building her Lady Drinks membership business.
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Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to Inside Scoop. I'm Paula Rizzo. I'm so glad that you're here. And, uh, today we're going to be talking all about goals and goal setting. And it is no accident that successful people actually do really, really well in their lives. You know why? Because they plan for it. They're intentional. You're 33% more likely to to actually do something if you write it down. That's something that I have written about in both my books. And I'm gonna introduce you to a friend of mine today. Her name is Joya Dawson. I'll bring her on in just a minute, but this woman is laser-focused. She wants to do something and she does it. She decided at a very, very young age, the age of 4, in fact, that she wanted to be a TV anchor. And guess what she did for most of her career? TV anchor, 'cause she was laser-focused. Many people don't have that laser focus, or if they do, They let other things get in the way. So we're going to be talking about strategic planning, how to figure out what your goals are, and then how to actually put them into motion and stick to them. And, um, you know, I love lists and so does Joy. So we're gonna talk about lists a bit. Uh, if you go to paularizzo.com/list, you can get my list-making starter kit. And goals and intentions and all of that really do lead back to the list because lists are a great way for you to set that into motion, set that idea to— whether it be get milk or, you know, become a TV anchor, you can put that on your list and it'll bring you a little bit closer to your goals. I'm also a LinkedIn Learning instructor and I do have a whole bunch of courses. There's 4 courses so far. There's another one coming up soon. If you go to paularizzo.com/linkedin, I have one all about how to set boundaries and how to protect your time. And this is really important if we're talking about goal setting, we're talking about focus. You need to be able to focus on the things that you really want to do and then not do some of the things that you feel like, oh, I feel obligated to do that thing, and that takes you away from what you want, what your goals are. So I hope that you check that out, uh, and also, you know, share this with whoever it is that you think might be interested. Spread the word. Tag someone below who, you know, could, could potentially, you know, get some help or, or ask a question or whatever it is about goal setting and intentions. And Without further ado, I'm going to pop in my good friend, Joya Das, who is no stranger to a camera. So thank you for being here with me today, Joya. Hi, Paula.
I miss our dinners.
I know, I know. I'm doing great. I'm doing great. I'm excited to chat with you in this new world of virtual everything. So I mentioned at the beginning, It's— yes, it is a new world for sure. Uh, I mentioned in the beginning that you are super focused. I've always known this of you. Uh, I know a lot of people ask you, you know, how do you get so much done? How do you do so many things? You're very intentional about these things. Um, so my first question for you is, how do you pinpoint the goal? Because I think that's a big problem that people have. They have, oh, there's so many things I could do. How do you zero in on that goal?
Every morning before I set about working, or sometimes this happens the night before, I say, what do I want? What do I want? And every day I write for at least 5 minutes, what do I want? And then eventually those wants become action steps. And I have to be honest, this is something that I learned from reading James Clear's book Atomic Habits. It's something that he talks about in his newsletter. But I think, you know, when you think about the big picture and you keep your I focused and trained on the big picture, it becomes very easy to figure out what it is that your priorities are going to be.
Yeah.
Now for me right now, I would say my top 2 priorities are sales and self-care. For so many years, 15+ years, 20 years, I got up somewhere between 2:30 and 3:45 in the morning to go to work.
Yeah. That was your norm, middle of the night, no sleep. Showing up full hair and makeup, ready to go.
And the self— the irony is that I made my living in an industry that was so superficially focused, and yet I could not take good care of myself because of those crazy hours. So when I became an entrepreneur, my biggest pledge to myself is that I was going to make self-care the first 90 minutes of my day. If I could get up at 2:30, I can get up at 5 and I can go to the gym. It took me a year to establish that habit. I started with like pure barre classes. You know what I mean? Now I'm boxing and doing SoulCycle and all kinds of nutty things. Wow. It took me a year to just establish the habit of getting up and going to the gym, whether I was hungover, whether I was sick, whether I was tired. But pure barre classes kind of got me establishing the habit. And so that's something I'm really proud of. And then sales, like, my goodness, I am an entrepreneur. Running a business and the most valuable thing, the valuable currency is getting new members in the door, getting attendees to my events. So I am in full sales mode. And so I have to think about that every single day. Like what's the next thing that I need to focus on and get people to convert to? And so that really informs how I'm going to plan out my day. Yeah.
I love that. I mean, it is very, you're like sales and self-care, right? You know that right off the bat, those are your two things. And I failed to mention that you have a very wildly success women's group, uh, where you, you bring women together. It's called Lady Drinks. I've been a speaker, thank you, uh, in the past for, for my books and productivity and even, you know, how to, how to be comfortable on camera and things like that. And, um, but it's for you, you know, now making this switch as an entrepreneur, there are so many things that you could be focusing on, you know. It could be marketing, it could be this, it could be that. And I do want to talk about marketing because you have a really, you know, great way of doing that as well, but Sales, that's it. So, you know, at a glance, that's what it is. So if there are other things that come through the door that are not going to propel the sales, that's a back burner thing. That's something that we're not going to worry about right now.
It's, it is a back burner thing, but it's almost— I, I want to use a different word. It's an outsourcing thing.
Yeah.
You know, year one of becoming an entrepreneur and doing this full-time was about stabilization. Year 2 was about outsourcing. So now, like, for example, today my lawyer writes me, he's like, "Joia, you haven't moved the address of your business. Like, this is going to catch up with you. Please fax in this form." Is that important? Yes. Do I need to be one to do it? No. So this is something that goes to my virtual assistant because that is why I have that person. I was telling you earlier that I used to own the entire ecosystem of getting a speaker, vetting a speaker, pre-interviewing the speaker, and then having them speak to my audience and moderating that conversation. Now I've taken myself out of at least 8 of those steps. So the only thing that I have to do now is to interview that person and market that person's event. But the other 8 steps have been outsourced to somebody else. So it's not that those things aren't equally important. It's that I needed to really protect only the things that I can do. So only I can be on a sales call after I get off this podcast with you to convert a potential new member. Only I can lead the public speaking class. Only I can moderate the calls. But the other stuff, if somebody else can do it, then by all means.
Yeah. I mean, and it is, that was an important lesson I had to learn also as an entrepreneur. The same thing, my second year in business. For myself, I was like, you know what? I can schedule everything, but I don't need to be the one to do it. And you and I both come from the world of television where there's an entire team behind you that makes this stuff run. And when you're an entrepreneur, you are every member of that team, right? You're the producer, you're the director, you're the anchor, you're the booker, you're all of those things. So, you know, I kind of look at these things sort of as a newsroom, you know? I mean, that's our frame of reference. So I think about it that way. And I've actually gotten a a bunch of people who are getting out of the TV world or want to leave the TV world and start their own business, or like what's next. Do you find that you get a lot of people from TV, people who are sort of like, what's it like out in the real world?
Gosh, I'm thinking of one woman in particular who, you know, with all due respect, like when you even talk to her over drinks, the only thing she can talk about is television.
Right.
And I just could never live my life as a one-note wonder, you know. There are other dimensions to myself that I've developed sub, you know, concurrently with my television career. I love to travel. I love hosting events, even when I didn't have it as a business. Like, there are other things that I cultivate. I love Scotch. I smoke cigars. I'm now learning about bourbon, you know. So for me, I, I feel So much empathy for somebody who built their whole life, like Stevie Nicks, around this one thing. And now the landslide is coming down because the industry has changed. Yes. And so yes, but a lot of them have transitioned into PR and successfully. In fact, I had a call with one of those colleagues this morning and it's great because we're going to be working together now.
That's great.
But there are some people that are just out to sea because it was the only thing they knew how to do, and the world changed, and that is no longer what they can do. Yeah, people, you know, often ask me, they're like, oh, don't you miss journalism? I don't miss journalism. I'm just doing journalism on my own terms.
Totally, totally. We're still doing it, but it's just not for, you know, a network anymore. It's for us, right?
And the other thing is that, you know, you can build your— you have the power to build your own following. The paradigm shifted. It's not a bunch of people sitting in a boardroom deciding if you are worthy of being on a screen. The public is deciding, and then the media comes knocking on your door because they see you have a following of, you know, X million people or whatever. So I, I, you know, when now when people come to me and they're like, well, how can I be a host? Or how can I be on TV? Yeah, I'm like, well, what is your niche? What is it that you can talk about within that niche? Build a YouTube channel around it, build your following around it, and boom, like, the media will come knocking Mordor. I mean, look at that guy PewDiePie who has— who all he does is talk about video games. All he does is talk about video games all day long, and other kids watch him watch playing video games. So, right, and he's like the number one expert on anything, really.
You could be an expert in anything. And, you know, I say the same thing too. It's like, well, what are you producing? What are you producing yourself first? And then that's what, you know, the, the media or anybody else will be interested in, right? Um, that's That's very much. But this, I mean, this conversation, we're getting very inside baseball on TV, but this goes for everything. This goes for any industry that you're in. You know what I mean? If you're looking to say, what am I going to do next? And a lot of times I find, I'm sure you do as well, that people pop in on you now when you're hitting your stride, when you're getting your stuff going, when you seem like you're everywhere. And they're like, wow, look at you. You really just like, everything is working for you in your favor. It's like, I've been doing this for 10 years. You didn't see all the steps before, the little micro things that we were all doing to get to this point. So that's an important lesson though too, is that these things don't happen overnight. You have to be able to do the work, and you are very, very committed to doing work, which is something that I really, really do admire— your, your attention to excellence. Um, and, and you do Sundays. Very particularly. So walk me through what your Sundays look like because that is what sets you up for success every single week. Yeah.
I mean, I don't know when this happened. It happened within the last year or two, but Sundays are my day and Sundays are the day that I look at my week. It's when I look at my month and I decide what's important. You know, have my goals shifted? What do I need to do during this week? What do I need to do about my social media planning? Where do I need to make sure self-care finds its way in if in fact there's something that's going to torpedo it? For example, we went away to Tulum in December, but I'm very committed to my workout. So I hired a yoga teacher so I could keep the cadence of my workouts going even though I was on vacation. But again, those are things that I have to sit down and look at my week and say, okay, I can see where things are going to go awry, but let me be proactive and see how I can maintain the things that are important to me. You know, it may not be important to my boyfriend. He's quite happy to like crack open a beer and go sit on the beach. But for me, like, it was important and I needed to plan for it. So Sundays are really just an opportunity for me to do my big picture thinking, to do a lot of writing. Mainly it's the writing that's going to end up in my social media because that's my primary sales tool. You know, I have to be branding what I'm doing every single day and that takes some planning too. Our lives are busy, so there are so many planning tools that you can use to be able to automate some of that. And that's maybe the second piece of, you know, what happens as you get— as you start growing your company is that you have to outsource things, you have to delegate things, but you also have to automate things. And so I'm all sitting down and thinking about what content's going to go out on my stories, on my reels, on my YouTube channel, on my LinkedIn. But all of that planned on Sunday. And that's why I just clinically— the answer is always no Unless it's like a really big deal, but I will not socialize on Sundays because that day is so, so, so important. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, you know, one of the things I want to ask you about as well is about the content creation piece because you do, you know, you pump out a lot of, a lot of content. I do too. I mean, it's just how we're wired to, you know, as journalists to put some info out there, but talk to me about your strategy around that and, um, you know, sort of what what role video plays, because everybody cares about video now, of course, but we've been doing this for quite some time. But give me a little bit of an insight into how you think that through.
Step 1, I really needed to think about the one thing that I'm known for. You know, what are people saying about Joya when she's not in the room? And I think for many years, and many founders have this, you muddle through, you know, what your messaging is. What's that one thing that you're known for? And ironically, I'd made my living as a television anchor, but it took me some really focused time to understand that that was also how I teach leadership. So leadership is a lot of things, but what is it that nests under leadership that I am qualified to talk about? And I've created so many opportunities in my life because I'm a good communicator. I'm able to speak very clearly. And so for me, that became the natural thing that I was going to go to market and talk about. So I think drilling down on the one thing, that niche that you are known for, is a big piece of my social media today. So even if I'm talking about, for example, what's in the current zeitgeist right now, right? The Asian hate is making, is trending. I still need to be able to tie that back somehow, some way to public speaking.
Right.
In order to fit into the larger cultural narrative. So I guess that's the second layer that I'm thinking about is what am I doing to be relevant? What am I doing to be real? And what am I doing to be remarkable? All of my public speaking posts that go up each day. The mission statement, the call to action, is that I wanted, as I was filling my class, for people to convert to the class. Now the class is already underway, so what's the new call to action? Well, I'd love for you to become a member of my, my women's initiative. Great. But I still need, you know, know that public speaking is going to be a big piece of how I teach leadership when you come to any of my modules. And I'll give you an example of what I mean. If I have Seth Godin speaking at my event on Friday at noon, it's not going to be Seth Godin talking at my audience for the full hour. Him and I engage in a conversation for 20 minutes, but then everyone in my membership knows I'm calling on you one by one, introducing you by company and title, and you better have a question that you're going to ask quickly and succinctly to Seth Godin.
Right.
Because guess what? There's 24 people on this call and you can't sit there for 5 minutes trying to arrive at a question. So I realized after much introspection that that was really such a core piece of what I'm teaching and what I'm showing up as. So I think that that funnel, that converting, that call to action, what I need people to do after you look at my social media really informs my planning.
Yeah, for sure. For sure. What about the loud list? Because this is something that's a little different than what we're talking about, but you, I mean, I love lists. Anytime I hear that you've named anything a list, I want to hear about it. But it's something, it's a tool that you've used for years. So tell me about that.
So let's say, for example, I switch networks or let's say my, my, my email suffix is no longer joya@cnn.com and I've moved on to joya@nbc.com. Then what happens to the people that I worked with at Bloomberg and what happens to the people that I worked with at ABC and CBS? Like all of a sudden they're like, well, I can't get a hold of Joya anymore. So I think that whitelist is the aggregate of everybody you've ever worked with and you say, hey, I'm moving on. This is my new position. This is where you can reach me. And it's actually something I learned from a really young person early in my career. He did it as he was leaving the Rockefeller Foundation. But he was like, hey, here's where you can get in touch with me. So guess what? The next time I'm thinking about somebody who, you know, I don't know, is a professional organizer, they're top of mind because they reminded me of what they're doing or what they're moving on to. And they also reminded me of how I can get in touch with them. So I'm a big fan of this loud list. Because how do you keep everyone, before social media, I should say, abreast of your strategic movements? Really just having that email list was key to do it. Now everybody's on everyone's social media, so it's very easy to do. But the loud list for the longest time was the social media.
I like the idea of still doing it as an email reach out because, you know, there's so much stuff that's going on on social media and people may or may not know what you're really doing or what you want to do. And that might not be something that you're sharing publicly, but to be able to say, you know, for a lot of people who have who have, during the pandemic, lost their jobs or are now thinking about pivoting to something new. Reach out to your network and say, "Hey, this is what, what's going on with me. If you hear of anything—" I mean, I had a conversation yesterday with someone who said, "I'm looking for something new. I don't know what it is, but I wanted to let you know in case something came across your mind too." To be able to say, "Hey, this would be really great for you," or, "Why don't you do that?" You know, it's just like you want to just expand your reach. No matter how you do it. Right?
Well, I actually think there's something else there too. It's being able to be confident enough to ask for help. I don't feel, and I know this because I head up a women's movement now, but so many people, A, need the help, B, don't know how to ask for help and are unsure of themselves if they're even worthy of asking for help. So I think that when you've got something like this, like the systems and processes in place, it's very easy to ask for help because you already got like a captive audience. Yeah, for sure.
It's so true. And for those of you who are listening, if you have questions, put them in the chat box. Even if you're watching the replay of this, we're going to continue to be looking back and answering any questions that you have. So stick those in there for Joya, whether it be anything about setting intentions, goal setting, public speaking, building your business, whatever it is, it's all on the table. So go ahead and leave those in there. But Joya, I want to ask a little bit about Self-care, because this was another thing on your list, and I want to know how you approach it. How do you look at self-care?
So as I said, you know, for me, many years I got up at 2:30 in the morning. I was into work by 3:30, on the air by 5:00. So working out and self-care was not going to be, you know, part and parcel of my day. Like, what was I going to do, go to the gym at 1:00? There's no gyms open at 1:00. I don't know. But the point is that that couldn't be the first part of my day. So today, I get up at 5:22 on the dot. I'm at the gym at 6:00. Wow. During the pandemic, I have a whole cadre of trainers that are coming through the door that I've hired off of Thumbtack so I could at least still work out 5, 6 times a week. But for me, as an entrepreneur, every day is not going to be a win. It's just not. But if I can at least win that part of the day, I've set the tone for success. So it's self-care ostensibly on a physical realm, but it's so much about my mental fitness as well.
And what about the need for a break? I mean, you do a lot of networking, you're doing a lot of events, you're around people all the time. I just read an article this morning about the power really of doing nothing. It's difficult for busy people. It's difficult for entrepreneurs who are like, "If I'm not doing something, then the business is not running the way that it should." What about that, the need for some space and rest?
I'm 100% believer in space and building space because here's the rub. We're the visionaries. We're setting the vision for our respective companies. And what does that really mean? We've got to be able to be innovative. We've got to be able to be big picture thinking. And if you don't have space in your schedule in order for you to be able to let some of that stuff bubble up, then you're just really setting yourself up for failure. And so for me, I have a rule that from Friday at 6:00 PM till Sunday at noon, I do not do anything that's work related. And everybody in my world knows that. But that's kind of, that's it. Like, that's my boundary is like, you have my attention until 6 o'clock on Friday and then Julia goes offline. And so I think that that's how I build in weekly breaks. I also think about building in space into my schedule to be able to do the deep work. So that happens on Mondays and Fridays. So if you look at my Calendly, which is like, you know, how people schedule calls, those only happen Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and those are only happening like 3 to 5 o'clock is when I'm doing the majority of my calls. And I just, and really as I'm hiring more and more people as part of this like fearless, you know, team that I'm building, how can I create more space so that I can do the big picture thinking? You know, Joya 2023 Thursday, March 18th is who I work for. And if I don't create space to think about what Joya is doing at 2:23 PM Thursday, March 18th, 2023, then I'm just going to be busy and I'm going to be busy and busy and going to be busy. And then I'm never going to— like, life's just going to pass me by. So I think that it took me till 47, 48 to realize this, but I know how important it is for me to have that space and that time away from work because some of my best ideas bubble up then.
Yeah. Yeah. And I love, I love the way that you are strategic about setting up your schedule. And the boundaries that you set and all of that. And that is, you know, it's a piece that I teach people about as well. I think, again, I think your background in TV is very helpful for this because, you know, it's like, hey, there's deadlines and there's, you know, work between this time and that time, and you're able to, to know, hey, we need to do a show at this time, and without doing all this prep, you're not going to be prepared. So I, I think we're a little bit of an advantage, but anyone can do this. Uh, and, and self-care, you know, people get self-care very wrong. They think it has to be week-long vacations and massages for 2 hours, which is awesome, and you should totally do that, and that is self-care too. But it's how you set up your schedule, how you shut down your office for the day, how you give yourself some space. You know, I, I was just actually saying to my virtual assistant, I, I need to stop doing calls in the afternoon because I need some space to read or think or write things. Because if you're constantly talking to people and constantly doing things, you don't give yourself that space to be creative. And that's really, you know, as creative people, we need that. We need that little break.
I think there's a myth, and I'm just getting my computer cord because my computer's about to die, but I think there's a myth, and especially because we live in New York, that, you know, we have to constantly be doing, doing, doing. And we live in a culture that really supports that ethos. But so much of success is in that downtime, and it's in that nonproductive time. And I really— not until I turned 48, 47 that I really started to understand and respect that those are things that need to happen. They're not a nice to have, they're a must-have. Yeah, absolutely.
Well, Joya, you have shared so many amazing things, uh, with us, so thank you for doing that. And if you go to joyadas.com, you'll check out everything about Joya and Lady Drinks. And also she has a freebie there about the best tips To Assert Yourself. And so I, you know, think you should go grab that right now. So thank you, Joya. And also, you know, as I mentioned, I do have a course all about setting boundaries. If you do go to paularizzo.com/linkedin, you'll be able to find that there. And I'm just thrilled that you all joined us today. And as I said, you know, make sure that you leave some comments and questions in the chat box. There because we'll definitely be looking at them. So thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.
