Working ON your business is a non-negotiable

If you have known me for some time, you will know I am obsessed with working ON the business, not IN the business.

In fact, I take time out every 90 days to work ON the business. So, when the following opportunity arrived, I was all in!

A content creation bootcamp? Yes, please!

I have been writing content for my leadership coaching business for the past year. While I struggled to write at first, I eventually got into the groove and found I was able to kick out blogs pretty quickly.

I saw that one of my colleagues was holding a “content creation bootcamp”. This was two days of working in 10-minute increments to create a year’s worth of content – on the Gold Coast, no less! I knew the wonderful woman running it, Jane Anderson, and her drive to achieve, so I knew she was fair dinkum and had 100% confidence in her guarantee of a year’s worth of content. So, I flew up to the Gold Coast and gave it a crack.

Here’s what we did …

Jane showed us a simple yet effective way to capture our ideas and thoughts. She also gave us some great tools to make the content-creating process as efficient as possible. It was a full-on two days, but by the end of it, this is what I achieved:

• 62 pieces of content.
• A structure, working title and subtitle for my book.
• An additional 10,000 words towards the first draft of my book, which rendered it “finished”.
• A way to organise my content to make it easy to use and retrieve.

To say I was stoked with my output is an understatement. The relief I felt knowing I had made serious headway with some major projects had me high as a kite.

The other thing it made me realise was that two days with zero distractions and being in the right headspace made a massive difference to my brain box. Now, I am heading into a new year with all my content done!

Do you take time out to work ON your business?

Although I already take time out of the business to work ON the business, even I get surprised when I complete an “on-the-business task” that would usually take me hours to do. Jane’s bootcamp was a real eye-opener.

Do you put off working on your business? Why? It’s time to think differently about getting this stuff done.

And to Jane, what a legend you are! You are a champion of people, productivity and generosity. Thank you for being super generous with your time and your presence. I like to bang on about the fact it’s how you make someone feel that they remember, and you made me feel like I could do it!

Thanks for reading- if you found this post helpful, please click ‘like’, or share with your connections. And of course, if you’re so inclined, please feel free to connect with me here on LinkedIn.

Emma McQueen is a Melbourne-based executive and leadership coach with over 20 years experience in recruitment, human resources and leadership development. Emma has worked with leadership teams across the corporate and not-for profit sectors and as a Hogan accredited coach is an advocate of personality profiling and strengths assessments to help clients tap into their self-awareness to reach their full potential. Find out more about Emma’s coaching here.