#189: Best and Highest Use of Your Time

Welcome back to another edition of the Course Creation Incubator podcast. I’m your host, Gina Onativia, here to help you move forward with your course creation, your marketing, and help you build up the online based business of your dreams. And today I want to focus on something that I consider super important what not to do as an entrepreneur in business owner.

But hold on a sec. Before we get to that, let’s talk about the last couple of guest episodes. Today, we just went for an awesome hike at Mission Trails. So excited that hiking season is officially open here in San Diego so we can get out there every weekend and maybe sneak in a little bit of camping, too. And today, I want to focus on something that I consider very important when it comes to being an entrepreneur or a business owner.

What not to do when you’re building out your course or you’re doing your marketing. Now, before we get into that, did you catch the last couple of guest episodes? I had San Diego therapist Robyn Firtel on recently talking about her experience building up her. I had I had San Diego license therapist Robyn Firtel on recently an amazing done for you client who talked about her experience building her love addiction course and having the courage and the confidence to go for it and be the first to market.

Then before that, I had my friend Jessi Schwartzberg share her thoughts about potentially creating an in-person workshop. If you haven’t listened to those already. Make sure to go back because amazing insights from both of these fierce ladies. Now on to today’s topic. Your best and highest use as an entrepreneur. This was fresh on my mind. After a conversation with my business coach last week, we were discussing how critical it is to focus on the tasks and moving forward on pieces that only I can do.

The pieces that truly move the needle for my business. And I remember working for Tony Robbins back in the day, and Pam Hendrickson and Amy Porterfield were my incredible mentors, and they would always tell me, Gina, we want you locked into the areas, but only you can contribute too. And that really stuck with me. And I knew that I’ll find leverage on the rest of the pieces because I’m focused on highest and best use with the best contribution to the organization.

At that time, it was the Tony Robbins organization. So whatever is the highest and best use of your time is really best for your course creation in terms of your production, for your marketing and putting yourself out there in a bigger way. My coach really challenged me to prioritize my time and make sure I was really honed in and locked in.

So today I want to share five tasks. I don’t want you wasting time on tasks to be easily delegated so you can focus on what really matters. Now, before I jump in this podcast is brought to you by our Done for You services mentioned Robin for tell was an amazing done for you client at the beginning of this episode are done for you is completely custom high end high touch to help you get your course done without the headaches and the overwhelm help you make decisions, coach you through the process, bring you to market efficiently, quickly.

Now if you listen to that Robin podcast, you can listen to how we work together to get her love addiction course to market. Now, that was years ago and she still selling it and using it with her clients really effectively. If you’re interested in applying, go to course Creation boutique e-commerce course and you can learn more details. All right.

Let’s jump into this concept of best and highest use and where you potentially shouldn’t be spending your time. Okay. Number one, first area research for your course. Now, I’m not saying you’re not going to do any research in terms of your online course. I want you to do your due diligence and do those calls and do a proper validation as a run up to your course.

That’s not what I’m talking about. I want you to do those calls in those interviews. I’ve just been doing these interviews for a client, and there’s nothing better in terms of getting the specific massaging words. They’re looking for pain points, what they want to do, what they want out of life, what solution they’re willing to pay for. There’s nothing better than an interview.

Now, when it comes to research, I mean statistics. I mean filling in the holes or giving some of your stories richness that comes with some of your scripts. Now, when I worked for Tony Robbins, we would do this. He will rattle off some content and say, okay, I need a statistic here to back this up or give me a hook midway to make this even more juicy.

My words, not his. Tony Robin, does he use words like juicy, but he wants to make it more engaging right? He really wants to grab the listener or the watcher of the content. So don’t be afraid to mark those areas and get leverage. And this is where a great virtual assistant can come in. I’ll be honest, I am not the greatest researcher.

I think I’ve said this before on the podcast. I would get by during my TR days, but my husband, for example, is a way better researcher or my team. My team is way better at this than I am. So not only do I not want to spend time there, I’m just not very good at it. So I know they’ll find me better statistics to back up what I’m trying to say or they’ll find me some great examples online.

So use A.I. for that. Use your virtual assistants to help you grab that richness and don’t spend time on research for the nitty gritty. Okay. Second area I don’t want you focused on is video editing. Now, I’m a lucky gal because I have my digital marketing assistant. His name is David. He’s an incredible editor at all. The videos you see on Instagram or my my YouTube or my website, that’s David and I trust him explicitly to get my videos done.

Now, where I do want you spending time is guidance, right? Or if there’s something in particular you would like to see, or if there’s a really great piece of content that you want to focus on or how you want to frame the piece. So I try to give David as much content and direction as possible, and then he takes it from there.

Because if we just start with a blank slate in terms of video editing, you may not get the output that you really want. So I think that instruction upfront is really vital. But then letting someone who is more equipped than you to do editing is the right way to go. Because I was listening to one of my students the other day and she said she was trying to edit her own videos and she was really struggling with that.

She said she was on YouTube at all hours of the night trying to figure it out. Please don’t be on YouTube at all hours of the night, trying to figure out how to edit your course videos. There are so many great resources on Upwork or other freelance sites that can help you that are equipped to do video editing and do it well.

Please don’t spend time. Don’t waste your time on video editing. Spend the time on giving really great guidance upfront and what you would look like to look for. And please do a sample video first. Proof of concept and lockdown. The graphics lockdown, the cuts or whatever you’re doing with your video editor before they go ahead and edit, say all your course content.

But other than that, make sure you’re hiring this out. Please don’t do your own video editing for your course. It’s not worth it. Another area is design and graphics, and here I again, I am a lucky girl because I have Alex, my husband, who does all my design. But this is another great area to outsource because there’s so many wonderful graphic designers out there, different levels, right?

So if I go back to the video editors for a second to use someone who is appropriate for your output, so for example, for Instagram reels, there is different video editors that will do a lot with social media. They will specialize in that versus somebody who’s doing your course content might be a different kind of editor. You might have to pay a little bit more if you want to splice in some graphics, some lower thirds and things like that.

So think through who can you hire for this? Who can you outsource your design to? And when I talk about design, I mean your handouts or your your site, your course site graphics, your social media, etc.. Okay. Another area is content health. Now I want you to get somebody to help you in terms of maybe editing your blogs and posting your blogs.

Right. So don’t take time. Don’t waste time figuring out your backend. So you have a WordPress backend and you’re starting to really get frustrated in terms of how to post again, go on Upwork, go on one of these sites and find somebody. There are so many great people and they’re not too expensive in terms to find them to do your backend for you.

And then in terms of editing, so I got to say, I’m a bit of a lazy writer and I miss a lot of things. So Robin on my team is a wonderful editor and I know I can rely on her to come back and clean it up and make it sound like a little bit more professional, a little bit more polished, but still, like me.

So I know I’ve got her on my team now. You’re not necessarily going to have multiple people on your team who can help you with this, but don’t be afraid to have a couple of contractors that you know. So maybe you have one person who does your design and your video editing and another person who can help you with content and with edits.

Okay. The fifth area, fifth and last area we’ve talked about this, guys, your course platform. I want you to get leverage on this list. Some platforms that I love in the show notes, but whatever it is, get somebody to help you build it out. Okay? This is just like your backend. So your WordPress backend and you might have a WordPress site.

I don’t want you DIY on your site, but what I do want you to do is know enough. So I talk about good job all the time. I love my job. There’s a lot of great sites out there, but if you have somebody build it for you, then I want you to know enough to get back there, get behind the seeds and make edits.

So. So say somebody build your course 90% of the way you should be able to go in and make simple copy edits, sub out an image, upload a video. Okay. So I do want you to do that. I have a client actually who’s really good at Hijabi. Now she started off with us doing everything and now she could probably do half the things that we used to do inside of Job because she’s picked it up along the way.

That’s what I want for you as an entrepreneur and a business owner, have somebody build out the framework, but I still want you knowledgeable enough to get in there and get your hands dirty as needed. All right. So hopefully this was helpful for you. And you think through some of the greatest issue of your time because you only have so much time as an entrepreneur and as a business owner.

And of course, I want you to get leverage in terms of building out your course or putting out your podcast and think about what can support you on a project by project basis. Now, I just want to do a disclaimer here. I’m not asking you to hire anyone full time. You don’t need a full time content specialist. You don’t need a full time video person, video editor, you don’t need a full time graphics editor.

Most of you have prolific businesses and you could start out with a contractor. But again, maybe you have somebody who can do graphics and video editing as well, and maybe you have them on for 5 hours a week. There’s a ton of people that are looking for this kind of work, this gig, work online that can support you.

So think about your highest to best use. I feel like I just whip through this and I want to leave you with a story. I saw this woman, I was talking to this potential course creator at an event last week, and she was saying that she had this course ready, the course not quite ready. Shouldn’t outline. And she had some pieces that were ready to go, but it wasn’t completely thought through yet.

And it’s been there for about a year. And she said to me, I haven’t put it out there to the universe because my partner, my business partner said, You’re kind of a mess. And you can’t put something out there that’s not completely thought through and done. And I said to her, okay, it might be time to find a new business partner.

Okay, I’m joking, right? I’m half joking because who is this person to say no to you, to say it’s not the right time to say you have to have completely all your ducks in a row. Okay. So if somebody is saying that to you and that’s a naysayer, you push back, you say, I’m going to put myself out there.

Because guys, I’ve I’ve talked to too many potential course creators who have waited a year, two years, three years to get their course out there or to get their program out there and don’t see the benefits of it. So forget the naysayers if you need a little pep talk right to me, Demi on LinkedIn or Instagram, and I’ll give you a push, I’ll send you an audio because that to me is unfair.

We’re never going to be fully put together. We’re now it’s going to be messy action. I love messy action. Okay. So don’t listen and push forward. All right? Remember, if you need help getting your course off the ground, think about our done for you services and I’ll see you next time. Go create, be you and be brilliant and get it done.