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This point is lifted entirely from a point one of my clients made in their newsletter. Thank you, Jen. Your newsletter is an excellent read. (Jen is a dissertation coach that specialises in PhD dissertation support for BIPOC women in the USA and UK. You can find her website here , and her excellent newsletter here ). “When we act, we accumulate experiential knowledge. However, to translate that knowledge into learning and, later, action, you need reflection. When we reflect,

In the course of a single day, I find that I am multiple different people. I don’t suffer from a disorder, instead I enjoy cognizant context shifting. A fancy way of saying that I am aware that I wear “different hats” in different situations. I am guilty of often bringing business talk into places where it isn’t welcome. I love talking about business, I find it exciting and interesting. My partner isn’t so keen on every conversation revolving around business as sometimes we j

I have recently started to see a lot of content from a LinkedIn influencer, Dina Calakovic . Most of it is good, and I thought this post well worth sharing. The post was simple, it was pretty much just the below screenshot with a caption telling people that the image is from her spreadsheet tracking likes vs income. At time of writing, she has 95,390 followers. Below you can see what that translated to in terms of engagement and revenue. I think there are 2 important lessons

I saw this yeaaaars ago when I was working on my second “proper” business (Global Digital Week, a social enterprise that ran digital education events at universities across 7 countries and sold courses across 97 countries worldwide). I was working to burnout back then so I focused on the “hustle” element of this video. Now, I focus on the message being around having clarity of priorities and the bias toward action despite fear. Whatever you get out of it, I strongly believe i

I don’t know about you, but I (and most people I have ever met) set goals with good intentions in December or January but find that achievement of those goals is waning by June. Sometimes, it is because at some point I realised the goal was wrong. So I killed it. Other times, it is because life happens and that goal is no longer realistic for some reason. So I adapt it. Occasionally it is because of “goal drift” , so I re-anchor my efforts. But more often than not, it is simp

Most people prioritise what is on their to-do list. Those people are wrong. Your calendar is more important than your to do list. A calendar speaks more truth than a to-do list. I focus on getting my calendar right. As Shreyas Doshi said on his excellent thread about advanced time management principles , “Your to-do list is the ideal Sunday evening theory. Your calendar is the brutal Monday to Friday practice.” One of my clients totally overhauled his life for the better by a

A lot of entrepreneurs get frustrated that their day didn’t go as well as they hoped. That their day was suboptimal. Yet, they never defined what optimal was. How can you achieve, or fail to achieve, optimal performance if you haven’t defined what optimal means to you? Knowing what optimal means to each of us is so important that my core offer is named after it. If you don't know what a good day looks like, or an optimal process, you can never achieve it. This often leaves y

I often get asked how to optimise websites. Firstly, we need to define optimal (more on that in the next point below in this email). Secondly, we need to know what the current situation actually is so we can figure out what we need to do. While most people are aware of tools like Google Analytics or PageSpeed Insights that give you some important data, but not many people use heatmaps or clickmaps. Heatmaps and clickmaps show you extremely valuable information on exactly ho

I wrote on my LinkedIn earlier this week that I have changed my mind on the Eisenhower Matrix, most people use it incorrectly. I have recently significantly updated my usage of the tool and you can read more about that on this LinkedIn post . The catalyst for my change was a fantastic Wait But Why article by Tim Urban , and I would like to share this original article with you. Link to the article: https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/03/procrastination-matrix.html It was a really gr

It is likely that you have a lot of tasks you feel you need to complete. It is likely that all of those tasks seem important, yet you probably recognise that not all tasks are equally important.  Is it more important to feed your children or update your logo? To reply to that cold email or file your taxes on time? To improve delivery efficiency or to get new clients?  While I have discussed some strategies that help clarify priorities before, such as “ Even Over Statements ”

Whether you are a freelancer yourself, or you hire freelancers, it is worthwhile knowing which red flags to look out for. This is a great Twitter thread with some solid gold responses so you know what to look out for. My favourite red flags mentioned: Poor communication skills This was the most common answer by far. More details in the thread. Misses deadlines, inaccurate turnaround time estimates. Always give your self “buffer” room. Underpromise and overdeliver. Doesn’t as

One of my more recent clients is at a point where we need to rapidly scale his team. He runs a social media agency that guarantees clients 30 million views within 90 days , and needless to say it has been popular. We are getting great results, repeat referrals, and we are growing the business rapidly. I have explained before why you hiring is the last thing you should do , but eventually we often get to a point where we really do need to hire somebody. Here is what I like to

A client of mine inadvertently introduced me to this tool when he invited both it, and it’s main competitor, into our coaching call together. I became curious, checked it out, and was blown away (thanks Calvin!). The tool? Fireflies AI. Fireflies joins your meetings (Zoom, Google meet, Skype, whatever). Then it does some clever things: It automatically records all meetings Understated, super valuable. Always good to be able to review a sales call or similar and analyse perfor

I am a judge for the UK’s national Start Up Awards this year (in my capacity as Founder of my other business, ZeroSmart ), and last week I judged the applications. I was shocked by what I saw. Absolutely basic mistakes were present in almost every application: questions not answered, no story or anecdotes, no data, no emotional hook, no clearly defined or realistic goals or next steps. The list could go on. The businesses were good, but the applications were appalling. Awards

Are you currently experiencing burnout? Alternatively, are you interested in hiring a coach but you have no idea if or how it really works? This podcast episode is for you. This is one of my favourite podcasts for both coaches and potential coachees to listen to. In every episode you listen to a real coaching call, with occasional pauses as the coach interjects with her interpretation of what is happening (and why!) to help you understand the situation more deeply. Podcast na

We often get so caught up considering what is in front of us that we cannot see what is behind it, we struggle to see the root causes of things ourselves. We fail to see the wood for the trees. Last week, in one of my client calls, a client was explaining to me how he was frustrated that he is working long hours because his client created issues in his project by hiring an adjacent team without telling him. My client believed that the issue was a lack of communication. It wa

Last week, I ran an experiment. You can see it here . I aimed to get recommendations for professionals I can collaborate with - competent people I can recommend, buy from, or cross-promote with. While the experiment was unsuccessful in its objectives - I didn’t get any relevant recommendations - I am still glad that I did it. Why do I think it failed in its core objective (recommendations)? What am I doing about it? Possible issues and discussion: Not enough people saw it My

Most people think like poor people. Poor in money, time, happiness… Unfortunately, to be a successful business owner, you need to think like a successful business owner. To be a successful person, you need to think like a successful person. To change how you think is incredibly difficult. Especially without external correction. That is one of the main reasons why the Jim Rohn advice “you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with” has proved effective. The

"You can never know for sure. Don’t get sucked into trying to reduce your anxiety rather than make a better decision , there usually is no perfect or complete answer. And yet there is still better and worse. Wise people know this.”- Ed Smith , England cricket selector writing for the Financial Times This quote comes from a fantastic article titled “The art and science of picking winning teams ”. The article is a bit of an anti- moneyball piece, but it has some amazingly insi

Who have been the best professionals you have worked with? I am looking for noteworthy professionals that I may be able to cross-promote and collaborate with. You know some great people, and I want to know about them. Who have you had a good experience with? Who would you personally recommend? I am looking for: Coaches Consultants Therapists Accountants Ad agencies Marketing and PR agencies Business groups/communities Course sellers Lawyers Business incorporation services Fi