Speaker 1: 0:15

Today in this episode, I want to talk about the top five ways to eliminate information overload and overwhelm. This is a huge problem that a lot of people have in the online marketing space and it's definitely worth talking about and really hitting on, because this is an issue we all face at times. I have definitely faced this myself and one of the things that I see with literally hundreds and hundreds of students and thousands of students over the years that I work with on a regular basis the biggest thing I hear is I'm so overloaded, I'm so confused, I'm so overwhelmed, and these are continual, and my goal is to eliminate those sayings from people's mouths and help them get on a track. One of the things that, when I really sat down to start thinking about how to overcome this, it was very evident to me that the information that we get online is literally like a hose to the face. It's like a fire hose to the face. We constantly are bombarded with information. Our phones are constantly dinging, we get all kinds of messages. We're getting emails, we're getting text messages. We're getting all kinds of notifications from literally every single place. There's no wonder why people feel overwhelmed, and I get it. I understand, because it's something that we all deal with on some level. But one of the things that I've learned is that when you have a set plan in place, when you set some guidelines for yourself, it can really help you be better. It can help you to really eliminate a lot of that confusion, and you have to really protect your mind. You have to protect your mind on what it is you're willing to let into it and you have to make a conscious decision to remove some of those things.

Speaker 1: 2:18

Let's get into these top five things that I think are going to help you. The first one is pretty obvious, but you've got to set some goals for yourself. One of the things that I also find that causes people to have these issues is they might have goals, but they don't have one particular specific goal. Now, one of the things I know about myself is that if I am doing too many things at once, if I have too many irons in the fire, I'm probably not going to be the best that I can possibly be on any of them. I know for myself that this has hurt me and I'm sure that if it's the way I do things and I know that it's affected me on some level then I get that probably on some level it's hurting others as well.

Speaker 1: 3:10

The idea is to not spread yourself too thin when we talk about goals. You can have long-term goals, short-term goals. As far as I want to talk specifically about short-term goals is that when you're working on something, be focused on that thing. Don't spread yourself so thin that you're what we call a jack of all trades, master of none. Set those clear goals and then eliminate the distractions that go against those goals.

Speaker 1: 3:41

One of the things that I know for me is I have all kinds of different messaging apps. I know that if I'm sitting down to do something specific, I have to have all of that shut off. One of the things that I even do on my phone is I set, for instance, messenger on my phone. I do not have any notifications for messenger, facebook Messenger. I don't have that because I don't want to be dinged every single time somebody messages me. I want to protect myself from the distraction of it. It's very important for me to make sure that is turned off. What I do is I, even though I have messenger on my phone, I don't get any notifications and I don't even have the little app notifications that somebody sent me a message. When I'm sitting down and I have time to check those messages, I will check them. That's a very important thing. I do it more intentional than reactional. Be more intentional than just being in reaction mode all the time. This is a very important thing that you want to set for yourself when you have those goals is to make sure that you're being intentional about distractions, getting rid of them. Setting goals is very important, but also eliminating the things that can distract you from the goal and this hurts a lot of people. So you really want to figure out what that is. Sometimes we have to eliminate things in order to accomplish new things. Just because somebody sends you a message doesn't mean that you're obligated to return it right away. Okay, don't ever feel like you have to stop what you're doing and answer that person right away.

Speaker 1: 5:35

I have coaching clients that I work with and I've set guidelines with my coaching clients. One of the things I tell them is look, on the weekends I'm away, like Saturday and Sunday. Occasionally I may message you, but don't count on it. Saturdays and Sundays are family time. I don't get involved in business on the weekends. It's my dedication to my family. My family is more than okay. During the week. I have to work late sometimes. Sometimes I come to bed very late just working on something, or I've got a webinar or a training, and so I know that those guidelines for me on the weekends are I'm probably not going to get back to you until Monday or Tuesday maybe, and then the same applies to many things. So you have to set those non-negotiables and then figure out how you're going to accomplish that goal.

Speaker 1: 6:26

So setting goals number one very important, and I would say going along with that is to eliminate the distractions that go along with trying to keep you from attaining that goal. All right. So number two this is very important, this is something that can help you eliminate overwhelm is do what I call curate your learning. So one of the things that happens is when people are in online marketing, they tend to listen to too many voices, and when you're listening to too many voices, you're more than likely getting confused. And so when I say curate your learning, I mean choose your learning resources that align with number one your goals. What learning resources are you listening to that are contributing to the goal that you want to accomplish? So if you eliminate them, what's going to happen is you're going to eliminate a lot of confusion, because the way one person does something is not the way the other person might do it. So what happens a lot of times when you're listening to too many voices is you get conflicting information, and conflicting information creates confusion, and conflicting information can also create overwhelm. So curate those learning experiences. If you are listening to somebody over here who does something totally different than you, then are the way this person tells you, you're really going down a road that's going to lead to that, and this also includes cleaning out your inbox or organizing your email inbox.

Speaker 1: 8:11

One of the things that I am always doing is organizing my email inbox, and I have found that organizing. I get literally hundreds of emails a day. No joke. They come in, which I'm okay with, but Gmail, I think, is amazing at helping you to organize your inbox. So if you are not sure how to do that, maybe we'll do a training on that at some point in the future. But I will also tell you that, if you want to learn how to do that, go to YouTube and type in how to create labels and how to create what we call it not only labels, but filters on Gmail, and what that does is it helps you to eliminate a lot of the emails in your inbox and put them with different filters. So when you're ready to sit down and read some marketing emails, you can do that. I actually have a label when I subscribe to email lists and I'm subscribed to a lot of email lists, especially with a lot of top marketers One of the things that I do because I want to see what they're doing.

Speaker 1: 9:19

I learn from top marketers. I love to learn from top marketers, but I don't always want to see their emails all the time. So what I've done is I've created what I call a guru label and I have this guru label and a guru filter in my Gmail account where all of those are sorted out. So I label someone as a guru. I don't mean it in a negative sense, I'm just saying somebody that I really want to follow and I want to learn from, and it all gets sorted into that guru filter, slash label and so anytime I'm ready, I can go in there and read them, and I do it on a regular basis because I want to learn, I want to see what they're doing, I want to see what catches my eye, and I learn a lot just from looking at their subject lines, their emails, and occasionally I have high stuff from them and so, but the point is that it really helps me to really stay organized, and it's just one of the ways that I curate my learning. So you can do the same thing. You just have to be aware that without some type of organization to what you're doing, everything's going to come at you at once, and I've learned this about myself. I have not always been the most organized person, but consciously, over the last several years, I've been working harder and harder to be more organized, so that I have little compartments that I work with it, and so for me, when I'm working on something, I love to just be focused.

Speaker 1: 10:57

One of the things that's very important when it comes to getting things accomplished is there's a thing called workflow. If you've never heard of workflow, you might want to do a little reading up on it. But workflow essentially just to really describe it in the most simplistic way that I can is that workflow is like when you're in a flow man and you're sitting there and you're working, and, boy, you're just honed in. Boom, boom. Everything else is blocked out and you're just in it in the moment. You're inspired, you're working, the thing is coming like that and you're in a flow. What happens is those flows can be broken by distractions emails, notifications, those things. I actually read an article several years ago that talked about how one distraction when you're in workflow it can take three to 10 minutes to get back into workflow. When you have a distraction from something, if Skype is ding off, for those of you that still use Skype or Slack, whatever you're using, if there's a notification there and a notification here, that's all distracting.

Speaker 1: 12:18

You have to curate learning. Bring it all together in a one central focus. Eliminate all the voices that don't align with your goals. When you get into a workflow, you really have to stay focused. I'm always going to come back to all of the distractions. We are so connected today because of these, these phones. We're so connected to everything, but that doesn't mean that you have to constantly jump when your notification pops up. That's why I'd be very specific and very disciplined about what notifications you get. Keep that in mind. Number three we had number one, which was set clear goals. Number two curate your learning. Eliminate everything that doesn't align, all the learning and stuff that doesn't align with your goals. Number three is to master one platform at a time. This is another thing.

Speaker 1: 13:17

I tend to be on Facebook a lot. I'm on Facebook pretty much every day. That's my platform of choice. However, I do have some automated processes that put my content out on other sites as well. I use software and other things that help get my content out there. 90 to 95% of my focus is mainly on Facebook, while I do use YouTube as well, and YouTube is one of my main content hubs. My main focus from a networking standpoint is Facebook, because that's where I can connect with my audience. It's where 95% of my students are and that's where I choose to focus. The biggest thing is that, even though I'm on a lot of other places, I don't necessarily engage with them on a regular basis.

Speaker 1: 14:09

Your goal, ultimately to eliminate overwhelm and confusion is to master one platform at a time. As a matter of fact, I would just say master one platform period and stick with it. If it's really working for you, stick with it. Not saying you can't add in some others, but if it really works for you, that's where you want to spend the majority and bulk of your time, so that you can get the biggest bang for your buck, the biggest bang for the work time that you're putting in. Keep that in mind.

Speaker 1: 14:42

Now, one of the things that I do is that when you're mastering a platform, I'm a big person when it comes to organic and paid. What I mean by organic is I want to organically build my business through content and through free reach and things like that. But I'm also real big on paid marketing, because I believe paid marketing is a great way to scale and get results fairly quickly by paying some money to Facebook or whatever. What I love is focus on an organic strategy but a paid strategy, and ideally those both come together into one platform. For instance, sharing content on Facebook on a regular basis, doing lives, sharing videos, things like that, but also focusing on how can I build in that paid strategy to my Facebook plan. And the great thing is they're all on one platform. You're mastering a couple different facets of the platform, but it's all focused into one. I'll tell you, as much as I love YouTube, I don't run a lot of YouTube ads I really like Facebook because the majority of my audience is spending time here every single day. That's where I put a lot of focus, even though I'm on YouTube, and that's just how I look at it. Keep that in mind, master the platform, master different facets of it, but that's where we want to go with it.

Speaker 1: 16:12

So the next one number four point number four on how to eliminate information overload and overwhelm is to implement some kind of a schedule. Okay, you have to make your business a priority, and this is something that I see with my students a lot of times. When people tell me I don't have the time, I just shake my head because you have just as much time as I have. You have just as much time as Elon Musk, or you have just as much time as Warren Buffett. You have just as much time as Jeff Bezos. You have just as much time as any wealthy person out there or any prominent influencer. It all comes down to what is your priority. So when somebody says I just don't have the time, the more honest response is I have not made it a priority. So in order for you to get your business moving and to get things going, you have to spend specific times, set aside specific times. Whatever that is for you, you have to figure it out because everybody's different.

Speaker 1: 17:26

For me, one of the things that I do in the morning. First thing is, I'll come and I sit at my desk and I read a book. Right now, I'll just pull this out for you. This is the book I'm reading. It's called how Heaven Invades your Finances. I love it. It's such a good book, but it's one of those things that you want to do every single day. You want to put a focus on how you do things. I know that if I'm going to read and really make it a habit, it has to be for me first thing in the morning. That is part of the strategy.

Speaker 1: 18:02

Set yourself a schedule, get some type of a routine in every single day that gets some of the things accomplished for you that you need to accomplish every single day. For me, that's the morning time. I personally think the morning is the quietest time. Now, depending upon your schedule. If you work midnight, obviously, it could be a lot different for you, but the point is that early in the morning is typically the time where there's not a lot going on. That's a great thing to do. Going back to eliminating distractions, that's another time that you want to figure out what's important and how do you eliminate distractions.

Speaker 1: 18:43

One other thing I want to point out, because I know that this is such a problem. This thing right here is such a problem for so many people. You actually can set schedules on your phone to disable apps at certain times. Let's say you don't want anything on your phone to distract you from six in the morning till seven in the morning. You can actually have a thing that shuts down the apps so that you can't even access them and they're not going to send you anything. You just have to go into the settings, at least on the iPhone. I'm sure you can do it on an Android.

Speaker 1: 19:25

You have to get very intentional about your schedule. What's your routine? If you're having a struggle with your routine in the morning, then you have to work on really setting a new habit. Habits are not easy to break. Habits can take some time to form. You really have to determine what's important to you, what is your non-negotiables and how are you going to put those into practice and set the schedule so you can build the routine that comes along with it. Very important to do, but you have to be intentional.

Speaker 1: 19:57

Everything I'm talking about here is about being intentional. I have learned also in business. A little bonus point for you is that nothing you do if you are waiting always on inspiration to get stuff done. A lot of people sit around waiting to be inspired to do something. If you are doing that, then you are never going to be successful. There are times where I am not inspired to do what I'm doing until I get into the thing and then I realize, oh, this is fun. But a lot of times we can't just sit there and wait on inspiration. It's like my daughter. We talked to her about cleaning her room all the time. If I waited for her to be inspired to clean her room, it would never get clean, and so that's something for her to learn too. Is that for her? She really wants to learn that sometimes you just got to do something because it needs to be done, not because you're necessarily inspired or excited to do it. So that's an important thing to recognize. And if you can't get to the point where you've built that discipline, then I would suggest reach out to somebody and get some help. Find out somebody, hire a coach, hire a productivity coach, find someone that can help you prioritize what it is that you want to accomplish. All right, so implement some kind of a structured schedule, get a routine, figure that out and eliminate the distractions during those times.

Speaker 1: 21:28

Now for me, I do have a morning routine and there are things that I work on, but I have also learned about myself that too much structure for myself is not good. I don't work well within a highly structured system, so I work off of to-do lists. I have a running to-do list of priorities. I use a project management software called Asana. Maybe you've heard of it. It's free. There's a free version. I use the free version. There's really no need for me at this point. I'm a very small team Myself, robin and a couple other project managers that do things on a per-project basis. So it's not like we need a huge system.

Speaker 1: 22:10

But I find myself I work better off of a to-do list, and so for me, I'm always shifting around priorities in my to-do list. Every day. I look at my to-do list and I'm like, nope, that's not important right now. I can actually do that later. This isn't a huge deal. I need to get this done. I'll move it up On Asana. You can drag it up and down, and that's what I do. So I always focused on here's what I need to do. Now. This can wait a little bit, and every day I'm evaluating that and shifting things around. You have to find what ultimately works best for you. I know what works best for me.

Speaker 1: 22:48

Some people are incredibly adept and for them, it's a need to have a highly structured plan, and if that's you, that's great. Just figure out what that plan is and stick with it and be flexible within that plan as you need to make changes. Okay, so that's number four. Number five I think this is probably the most important one out of all of them, and that is you need to practice reflection. Okay, and what I mean by that is you need to be setting aside times to reflect.

Speaker 1: 23:24

For me, I do this regularly, but one of the things and if you followed me any length of time, I've probably told you this before, but one of the things that I do on a regular basis, every four to six months, is I rent out a hotel room for three days and I don't turn on the TV. I don't do anything but sit in that room and just reflect. Of course, I go and eat, I do the normal things of life, but my goal is to quiet my mind because I'm busy. I'm a busy entrepreneur, just like you, so one of the things that I love to do is to reflect, and I reflect on what did I accomplish over the last couple of months, where am I going?

Speaker 1: 24:08

But one of the things that we need to do is we need to quiet our minds. We need to quiet our minds. At times, again, there's so much information coming at us. Sometimes we don't realize that little voice inside of us, god, who's trying to talk to us and give us information and point us in the right direction. But when things are noisy, it makes it very difficult. So while I try to really work hard to give myself some silence time, even during the week, I find that when I do a three-day sabbatical if that's what you want to call it every couple months, it helps me even more. I always come out very refreshed. I feel, man, I took some time to process information, I took some time to eliminate information, get it out of there, move it out of the way, and it really helps me. So use that time.

Speaker 1: 25:02

Practice reflection. It is a huge opportunity to practice reflection, huge part of being successful. It is a huge part of what you need in order to be successful as well, and I'm confident in saying I know what you need. You need it just like I need it, because it's a necessary time. We have to quiet our minds. Our minds are complex things and they need quiet time. Also, all the little thoughts we have every single day, they all need a place to go, and sometimes we need to put them in their proper places to do that.

Speaker 1: 25:39

One of the quotes that I heard I don't know exactly where I heard it, but sometimes you need to slow down in order to speed up, and that is something that I think is very beneficial to anybody that is going to practice it. I know for me it's hard to slow down. Sometimes you just go, and there are times, literally, I'm in such a go mode that I almost feel guilty when I'm not doing anything, and that's not good either. We have to learn to recognize that. Hey, there's okay, it's okay to have downtime, and so, anyway, hope these help you. I hope you got a little bit out of this, and these are some ways that I totally believe can help you eliminate the information overload and overwhelm that happens every single day and really get on a track to being successful.

Speaker 1: 26:29

And this is one of the big focuses that we put in the Fearless Influencer Academy Program that we're putting together right now, as we speak. If you wanna check it out, you can go to Fearlessinfluencercom. You can check it out. We have our monthly membership. We've put together. We're working right now on putting together the Keystone Framework, which is a framework that's totally designed to help you succeed in online marketing and eliminate all of the overload and overwhelm that happens when you have you know, when you're in online marketing, and so the Fearless Influencer Academy is definitely the first step to making that happen.

Speaker 1: 27:10

So if you wanna check it out, go to Fearlessinfluencercom, check it out. Get started. We'd love to have you in the community. All right, so until next time. I hope you got something out of this. Enjoy it, go out there, take these things to heart, put them in place. We all deal with this on some level. So take these little strategies and get them out there and get rid of the overwhelm. That's the thing we're looking for. All right, love. You guys. Appreciate ya. Have an awesome day and an awesome week. Bye-bye.