Last week we started a conversation on how to distill many ideas into one profitable reality. That was part one. Today we're going to continue the conversation with part two, and we're going to talk about how to silence the distractions and amplify your actions here on the Resilient Faith Online show. Welcome. I'm Arissa Shadrick, host of the Resilient Faith Online Show. I'm an online marketing coach and certified copywriter. In this podcast, you'll find a different perspective to the external and internal challenges we face as online content creators. Join me for some inspiration and practical tips as we create positive change online. To connect with me and my private Facebook group, go to MarissaShedrick.com forward slash community. Hello, hello everyone. We are covering part two of a two-part series, how to distill many ideas into one profitable reality. This really hit a nerve. I saw a lot of downloads on this one, and I am happy to talk about this because I think we all struggle with it at some point or another. Many entrepreneurs are visionaries and they have a lot of ideas. And so they don't lack when it comes to ideas, but sometimes dialing into one, committing to one, moving forward with one seems so devastating. So we're going to talk about that specifically today. And last week we talked about how success happens from the inside out, and we covered a lot of material there. If you want to go back, you can check out part one of this two-part series and then join us back for part two. So today, as we continue the conversation and talk about silence of distractions, I want to tell you a little story about a dog I had for 14 years named Charlie. He was a yellow lab. He was my dog, my dog. You know how you can have pets and they're the kids' family dog, but you come along life and you come across a pet that is your baby, right? That's Charlie. That Charlie was my dog. We just walked together, we did everything together. That dog was my dog. And he had a nice little doggy routine down pat. He would throughout the day guard the house, bark at the mailman, retrieve his little stuffed duck, because he loved retrieving ducks, the stuffed ducks, not the real ones, because I didn't go hunting. He loved to clean all the crumbs off the floor. So he was great at housekeeping. He laid on his back to cool his little tummy. That was his routine, right? Very laid back, very chill. But when five o'clock came around, boy, oh boy, he stopped all distractions. He found the nearest adult. At that point, it didn't have to be me. Any breathing person was good. He would cock his head, he would sit there and slightly raise his floppy ears. He couldn't quite raise them all the way. They'd always flop, but he'd raise as best as he could his little ears and he would just stare intently until he got his food. How did he know this? I mean, every day, five o'clock without fail. In fact, if I was busy working or something and he came around and just stood there staring at me while I was at the desk, I knew it was five o'clock. And I checked my watch, and sure enough, it was five o'clock. How do they do this? I don't know. I'm thinking maybe it just became a habit for him, a routine that he had, and at five o'clock he kind of sensed it was time to get his food. I don't know. Maybe there's a science behind this, but he was relentless. He was relentless. He would stare at you, that piercing stare, until you got up and gave him his food. Distractions never interfered with a routine that led to Charlie's daily goal, his food. So what distracts us? It seems like we can get distracted from our daily goals. So I want to cover three common distractions. Now, again, we're trying to really focus on taking a lot of ideas and distilling it to one. Sometimes the problem is distractions. We have too many things that we're looking at, and we covered a little bit about this last week. And we really need to realize that we're being distracted, maybe by the other fabulous ideas that we have, maybe by content that we're looking at on social media, maybe by articles that we're reading, maybe by courses that we've taken, we're getting distracted. So here are three common distractions that I've noticed people seem to wrestle with. The first one is about finding their purpose. You need to stop finding your purpose. Your purpose isn't lost. It's not lost, right? And your purpose changes. Your role changes throughout life. For me, when I was a child, I was a student, right? I was a daughter. Then I got married and I was a wife. My role changed. Then I became a mother, my role changed. And then I was in ministry, that role changed. And then I went into business, and that role changed. My purpose changed as I grew, as I matured, as I learned different things, as I had different ambitions. Stop looking for your purpose. It's not lost. Start living it. So whatever it might be, whatever is inside of you that you want to do, whatever would become a regret, do it. Do it today. Here's why I say that. When people say they're trying to find their purpose, what they're really saying is they're seeking a life of fulfillment. They want fulfillment. So when you do the next right thing, the thing that you feel led to do, the thing that will fill you up, that will excite you, that will help others, that will fill you up, that will bring fulfillment. And that is what I think people ultimately want to find. Not necessarily purpose, but they want to find fulfillment. They want their lives to mean something. And one of the best ways to have fulfillment is to serve others, in my opinion. Every time I serve my family or I serve clients or I serve other people, that brings fulfillment. That helps me sleep well at night. I love the book Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Life. He starts his book by saying, It ain't about you. It's not about you. It's not about me. It's really about really aligning ourselves with what God has for us today and taking that step, living our purpose for today. And all of a sudden, things begin to unfold. They begin to unfold. So yeah, that's from Rick Warren's book, The Purpose-Driven Life. Um, what on earth am I here for? If you haven't read it yet, I'm sure many people have read it. It's a bestseller, it's a wonderful book. You should pick it up. It's pretty good. So when you think about finding your purpose, just stop. Know that probably what you're seeking is fulfillment. And if you begin to just take that step in serving others and doing those things that really light you up and really get you excited that you don't mind investing time and energy into, you're gonna find fulfillment. And lo and behold, you're gonna find your purpose. The second thing that is a common distraction is stop looking for the silver bullet. Stop looking for that magical method of doing things online. It's just a matter of taking that next step, like I said, living out your purpose, living it out, the things that that charge you up, fill you up, and you'll find fulfillment. And if you do it repeatedly, consistently, and it will begin to get some traction. But the problem is we start looking at one thing and we look at another thing, and hey, I've been guilty of this too. I've been guilty of it. What if I try this? What if I try that? But you know what? We got to stick to something for a while. You know, if a lead magnet isn't converting, we've got to see is there something I need to tweak on it? Is there a headline I need to tweak on it? Not change the whole thing, but just improve what we already have. We talked a little bit about this last week too. So here are the things that you need to realize. I mean, you got to stop looking for that silver bullet, and you've got to realize that you've got to pick a path and then take inventory of the things you have, right? Take inventory and realize that it's going to take some sweat equity. The acronym SWET for SWET Equity is the first thing. Take inventory of your strengths. The S in SWET is strengths, your physical strengths, your mental strengths, your spiritual strengths. What strengths do you have, right? What are the strengths? What are the skills that you have, right? And then every strength has a counter. The second letter in sweat equity, the W, is weaknesses. So you have to realize what are my weaknesses that would prevent me from moving forward and recognize those things. Half the battle is recognizing it. Once we recognize it, we can figure out a strategy or a plan to get past it. But we have to recognize it first. The E in sweat equity is what's the enemy? What's in your way? Why haven't you done it yet? And figure out what's the enemy. Maybe it's connected to weakness, but maybe it's not. Maybe it's just some type of limiting belief. You never know. So what is the enemy? What's in your way and why haven't you done it yet? A lot of people tell me it's technology. Technology is horrible. Then maybe you should consider partnering with someone that's good at with technology that can help you, right? Or maybe you need to find a VA that can help you with technology and not even worry about that. If there's other things that you can do where your strengths lie, maybe work on that. So really look at it. How can I solve this problem? If my enemy is technology, how can I get around this? Because we we got to use technology. So the S in sweat equity is for strengths. Take inventory of your strengths. The W is your weaknesses, the E is the enemy. The A is take inventory of your accomplishments, your experience, your certifications, your knowledge, your understanding and wisdom, right? Some of us just have life wisdom. And some of us might just have Street Smarts, right? What are your accomplishments that you bring to the table? So consider all this in this acronym SWEAT Equity. The T in SWET is time. Again, it takes time and consider the timeline that you have and the time that you have each day so that you can align what you're going to do with the time that you have to do it. So again, we have to stop looking for the silver bullet. And I use the acronym SWAT to help you just decide, choose a path, take inventory and move forward. The S standing for take inventory your strengths, the W weaknesses, the E, the enemy, what's in your way or why you haven't done it yet. The A, the accomplishments, your experience, your knowledge, all of that, and the time. What time can you give this project? Right? So don't look for the silver bullet. Know it's going to take sweat equity, but you have what it takes to create a project, to create something, whether it's coaching, whether it's a course, whatever it might be, you have it within you. But you got to take inventory of what you have and know there's no silver bullet. It takes a little bit of sweat equity. The third common distraction is stop second guessing yourself. You start something and maybe it doesn't meet your expectations, and you start uh second guessing yourself. You start thinking that it's you. Let me just say it's not you. I mean, working online is not easy, right? It's not easy. There's a lot that we need to do simultaneously. There's market research and there's copy that we do and figuring out our messaging and how we show up and who we serve and how we serve them and pricing and all of those things, where we're going to host something, what platform we're using, what email service provider we're using. A lot of decisions need to be made, right? But you don't have to make them all at once. Don't second guess yourself when things don't go the way you expected. Last week we talked about the puzzle. If you have not heard last week's podcast, listen to it because I give you a little analogy with that. But you got to stop second guessing yourself. Instead of remembering the setbacks of the day, the missed deadlines, the unresolved problems. Choose to remember we're part of a bigger picture. We're part of something bigger than ourselves. We're part of an eternal story. So we are doing our part every day. No matter how insignificant you think it is, it's important. So do it. And don't start second guessing yourself. You got to stop doing that. So once again, the three common distractions that can keep you in idea mode, right? And not allow you to distill it into one profitable reality is stop finding your purpose and start living it. Number two is stop looking for that silver bullet. And number three is stop second guessing yourself. We have to stay focused and create a daily routine that will move us toward that big picture. Maybe we're working on a slice of that this week or this month, but we're moving towards something and we're focused on that. And when we're done with that part, we'll move on to the next part. It's like horses with blinders. You know how horses they put those blinders on their eyes so they don't see the sides. They're looking straight ahead. Those horse blinders reduce their field of vision because horses can get distracted and they can get spooked. We have to reduce our field of vision and just look forward. Just look forward because there's a lot that can try to distract us or derail us. So we have to just move forward and continue to check off what we need to do and move forward with consistency. Those horse blinders also cover the rear vision, forcing the horse to look forward and stay on track. We have to do the same. We have to stay on track. And whatever happened yesterday was yesterday and not bring it into today because it can slow us down, especially if it wasn't positive. Whatever happened yesterday, we got to leave it in yesterday. It's history already, it's already gone and forgotten. And tomorrow is a brand new unwritten day. So why taint it with something that happened yesterday, right? We have a brand new day. So again, we want to silence the distractions so that we can take all our ideas and distill it into one profitable reality. But we also have to do something that is the opposite. We have to amplify our actions. So we silence the distractions and we amplify our actions. And how do we do that? One of the things we need to understand is this idea of habits. And I'm sure you've read books on this because this is nothing new, but it's so important. Building habits is so important. There's a quote from Bruce Lee. It says, I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times, right? He's perfected one kick 10,000 times. So that is very telling, right? So let me share three habits that will help you as you choose your one idea of from many, right? Because you have many ideas and you're distilling it into one profitable reality. Here are three habits that will help you stay on track. The first one is personal development. It has to be a priority for us. We got to take care of ourselves, right? Because everything that we do, our work is an extension of who we are. So how do we do that? There's various ways we can do that. Personal development doesn't take that long. You can devote 15, 20 minutes, 30 minutes a day to this. You can be reading books or audiobooks. You can be going through a course. You can attend conferences, live conferences. There's lots of them now. Very, very helpful. You can get involved in a coaching program. You can get involved in a mastermind. You know, all of these help you with not only your business but personal development. Number two, this is a great habit to build. You need to build authentic relationships. It's important. And Mike Kim says, you know, relationships are rocket ships. And I think he got that from somebody else, but I forget who it was. But in any event, it's true. It's so important to cultivate relationships. Here are a few places you can build authentic relationships because you don't have to add more to your plate. You just need to leverage what you're already doing. So you can cultivate authentic relationships with clients, existing clients, with your email list, right? With peers, people that you already know and are interacting with. You can build authentic relationships with your social media followers. You can send a DM, you can connect with them, have conversations with them. With your team, you can do that as well. If you have a team, you can build authentic relationships as well. And sometimes they might have a solution for you as well. Their feedback is valuable as well. So build those authentic relationships. The third habit you should build is leverage communities and partnerships. Leverage communities and partnerships. Again, I'm not saying add more to your plate, leverage what you're already doing. So here are a few simple ways you can leverage other audiences. When you're in a private Facebook group, not your own, that you moderate or you facilitate, but there's tons of Facebook groups. And I probably, if you're a normal person, you're probably, you know, a part of 20 or 30 Facebook groups because it just seems like there's a Facebook group popping up all the time, right? So leverage those. Be helpful in those Facebook groups, right? Start conversations with people. Don't be spammy, okay? We don't do, we don't do spam, but be helpful in those. That's how you're going to leverage communities and partnerships. You get to know people that way. They end up friending you on Facebook, and then you can continue the conversation outside of that group. But private groups, public forums is another way. Any public forums online, you can do that as well. And also, partners and peers, if you know they're creating a program and your content can be helpful for their audience, you can offer to create some video training that could be a bonus for their course. That's a way you can leverage partnerships. You're not asking anything from them. You're saying, I will give you this free training, this free video training, and you can offer it as a bonus if you like and see if it resonates with them and it aligns right with what their course is. That's a great way to get exposure as well. But you want to leverage communities and partnerships. Okay, so how do you distill many ideas into one profitable reality? Well, first you realize that success happens from the inside out, right? Your work is an extension of who you are. You stop trying to find your purpose and you start living your purpose because what you're really seeking is fulfillment. So start living it. Live your purpose. Stop looking for that silver bullet. There is no silver bullet. We all have to start at square one and we continue to grow, we continue to implement. If we've done our market research and we put something out there, we know it's saleable and it did not give us the results we want, then we adjust, we tweak, and we launch again. We continue with tenacity, right? And we try to see what we missed or what needs to be adjusted. It's all about adjustment, not reinventing the wheel, not starting from scratch. And the third one is stop second-guessing yourself. If you have a great idea, it just takes time, right? And sometimes we just can't do that alone. We need community because we've got our own blind spots, right? We need somebody to speak it out or draw it out of us. So don't second guess yourself. Stay on course and see what it is that you need to be able to continue to move forward and develop those habits, personal development, relationships, communities. Here's a great quote from Hal Elrod. Let today be the day you give up who you've been for who you can become. That's a great quote. And lastly, I want to say don't be a company of one. Be in the company of many. Once again, don't be a company of one, be in the company of many. We can't do this alone, my friend. We need to be with others, people that have gone before us. And that's why, you know, I have coaching programs, and that's why I have mastermind groups. If you're interested in any of those, you can always reach out to me. I'm gonna be having another mastermind group. I'm gonna open up uh another one in July of 2022. If you're interested, um, you can always I'll put a link in the show notes. Let's do it that way. I'll put a link in the show notes and then you can check that out. I would love to have you and have a conversation about it. Um, it's a short mastermind, it's a five-month program, and it'll just help you really dial in on some of these things. So, in any event, I hope that was helpful for you today. I hope you continue to pursue positive change online and create that wonderful change for people. And I can't wait to talk to you soon next time. Take care. Bye bye.