Ep 15. Making Time and Making it Count – Summer Talk with Regina Larko

First of all, a big thanks to Kari for this lovely invitation to join her summer Talk series. I’m so grateful to be part of it. Especially since having Kari as my coach has been one of the best investments in my business. So thank you, Kari. I am Regina Larko host and producer of the award winning globally top ranking podcast, hashtag impact, a podcast about stuff that matters. I help coaches launch and grow impactful podcasts. I give my clients the tools mindset, and step by step roadmap to position themselves as a leading voice in their niche and start generating leads for their coaching business from day one. Today, I want to share an invaluable CEO mindset shift that has helped me personally to grow my podcast education business this year. It’s a topic I see so many of my clients struggle with. And I’m pretty sure it’s something you struggle with as well. Today, I want to talk about time. Particularly, look, I can’t even say it. 01:14 Particularly the perceived lack of time. I really want to grow my business. I just don’t have the time. I want to work out. I just don’t have time. I really want to start a podcast. I just don’t have enough time. We humans are funny, funny, aren’t we? Funny? How often do we actually tell ourselves that we don’t have time for things we actually really care about. Just like you, I also have a complicated relationship with time. But this year is something like shifted for me. It wasn’t really wasn’t sudden, like this light bulb moment and you know from the movies. But it was rather the result of investing in my own coaching and learning more about how I was standing in my own way. Today, I want to give you actionable tips on how to stop standing in your way, whether it’s about running your business more efficiently, or finally starting that podcast you’ve been dreaming about in what feels like forever. But before we get there, I want to give you some context. Because understanding my personal struggle with that I will make the insights I’m sharing with you and the tips I’m giving you even more meaningful. So I was born and raised in Vienna, Austria, where I currently live, but I actually spent half of my adult life in China. During my studies in Beijing, I met a tall, handsome Swedish man, and we fell in love and got married. And now we have three wonderful kids. Over these past two decades, since we first met, we’ve built a life together, navigating different cultures and languages relocations and careers. Building a business while raising a family. As you can imagine, or maybe you are living that reality right now as well. It comes with with big challenges. And in 2022, we decided to relocate from Hong Kong to Vienna. And our kids were just two, four and six. I had to do some calculations. So they were really little and Hong Kong had been our home for eight years and all our kids were born there. And it was also in Hong Kong, where I had recently started my business. And around the time that we planned our relocation, my business was really gaining traction. Oh, it’s important to note is that in Hong Kong, we also had a great support system where the loving nanny that helped dad with child care. So actually building this business, having these careers and all both for my husband to work full time and for me to work full time it was all doable. It was all possible. And then the relocation happened. And my husband started a new job that required weekly travel. What left me solo parent most of the week without a nanny or babysitter. And my working hours to work on my business dwindled from around 40 hours a week that I had in Hong Kong to just around 10 hours a week in Vienna. Most of the time but it was actually more like, three to five hours a week, certain weeks it was zero. And I felt so frustrated about not having enough time to build my business because I was really stuck thinking that I needed a certain amount of time, a certain number of hours to succeed. I believed building my business meant hustling and working, X amount of numbers of hours working hard. And I thought if I don’t have at least 40 hours a week to work on my business, it simply won’t work. I was really stuck in an employee mindset. Because isn’t it funny, like 40 hours a week, right? I mean, where do you learn that? I was like, socialized in that way. Right? It’s like 40 hour work week. That’s what you do when you’re like, employed somewhere I work full time, at least how that that is, it’s like that in Austria. And what I hadn’t figured out is that, as a business owner and CEO of my own company, it was up to me to decide how many hours I could and wanted to put in. And what’s more, it was up to me to make smart decisions, and spend my available time efficiently and goal oriented. I also learned that my negative thoughts about time and the things I told myself about not having enough time, were holding me back. So what if I allowed myself to build my business at my own pace, on my own time, and on a schedule that works for me. That meant that I also had to let go of comparing my old life and my old setup in Hong Kong, with my current situation, and embrace what is right in front of me. I learned to get incredibly smart with my time pockets no matter how small they were. And guess what? This mindset shift transformed not only my business, but also how I help my clients start and run their podcasts more strategically. Because one of the biggest issues that my clients face when they start a podcast is thinking I just don’t have enough time. Right, yeah. But now I know, because I have uncovered and discovered that for myself. Now that I know that time is not the issue. We can actually get to work. The issue is when we let our thoughts about time dictate our actions, or rather our inactions. So here’s how you can apply what I learned about time. First, take note of what you are telling yourself about time and catch yourself when you say, I just don’t have time for this. Second, find out. When you tell yourself, I just don’t have time for this is it because you don’t want to make time for it simply because it’s not a priority for you right now in your life. And if that’s the case, you can really stop beating yourself up about it. Because then it’s just not a priority in your life. And you can like move on, you know, a time will come where this will be your priority, and you want to actually put the time in. But if it’s not, then you can also just let go of it and not beat yourself up about it all the time. And thirdly, if it is a priority for you, if there’s something you tell yourself, you want to be working on, but you tell yourself, I just don’t have the time for it. And it’s actually a priority, like running and growing your business or wanting to start this podcast, then commit to making the time count and commit to make the time whether you have 40 hours or four hours a week, that doesn’t matter. The time you make you make those hours count. So how do you make those hours you have on your calendar count? First, by focusing on what truly matters by simplifying your process and prioritizing actions that move the needle. 09:48 For example, I nowadays spent my time nurturing existing clients rather than obsessing over that perfect social media post because I saw that referrals from I existing clients were the best way to sign up new ones, especially my like my high ticket offers. So I focus on that. Second, 10:11 manage your calendar and your mind, you will have heard that on this podcast before, right? I mean, that’s something I learned from Kari. And it’s so powerful. If I, for example, have three hours on a Tuesday morning to work on my business, I block out that time I focus, I get stuff done. And I focus on what matters most what that one action that I know will move me closer to my goal, I focus on that one. Thirdly, say yes only to opportunities that will bring you high quality leads. Like for example, I’m invited to speak often at workshops, giving workshops, giving keynote presentations. I don’t say yes to all these opportunities, like I did in the past router I look at is this actually gonna bring me high quality leads showing up for this workshop showing up for this keynote? What will this lead to? I look at the audience I look at is this actually my target group? And then I say yes to the opportunities that will bring me these leads, also event invitations, right? I mean, there are millions of events going on. And I used to tell myself, Oh, yes, I want to be at all these events, because I can network and then maybe I’m going to meet someone who’s interested in my services. Nowadays, I look very closely at what is that event, who are the people that are going there, and this is actually gonna help me in my business to generate leads, I can still go to events and just for enjoyment, of course, right? I mean, go to events that you want to go to, because you want to enjoy just enjoy being there, of course, but then it’s, then it’s another time pocket that goes in another time pocket. For me, that’s done my private time, right. 13:01 If you want to start your own podcast, I’ve put together tons of helpful resources over at reginalarko.com And if you’re looking for an exceptional business coach, Kari at The Do Business Better School, she will be your best choice.