This article was published on Women Love Tech
We caught up with business strategist Michelle Broadbent to discuss productivity hacks and her new podcast Your Business Boost.
Tell us about your podcast and what is the inspiration behind it?
I created Your Business Boost podcast to show you what it’s REALLY like to build a successful business – the good, bad and the ugly – from my lived experience supporting female entrepreneurs. I take listeners behind the scenes of these businesses and share the learnings, strategies and solutions.
I often find myself listening to people giving advice on building million dollar businesses when they have never run one or sharing productivity advice they don’t follow themselves and that was enough for me to “get in the arena” as Brene Brown would say.
I cover all the essentials to boost your business and your life – from productivity and efficiency, sales, money, team, planning, accountability and personal brand. The episodes are short, actionable, realistic and relatable.
What are some of the main problems businesses you deal with face?
Loss of control over how they spend their time – this comes from having no boundaries around what they will and won’t do. As women we are notoriously good at handing over our power to others and putting our priorities last. Having firm boundaries and being ruthless with how you spend your time puts you in the driver’s seat of your life and sets the tone for how you want people to treat you.
Trying to do everything themselves – they think because their name is on the door they need to do everything themselves. We can do anything but we can not do everything. The key to success is to stay in your zone of genius and do the things that you are best at, the revenue generating activity, the things that will lead you to achieving your business goals and bring in other experts to help with the rest.
Bright Shiny Object Syndrome – one of the most wonderful qualities of entrepreneurs is that they are full of ideas. They constantly have their ear out for a better/bigger/brighter/bolder/cleverer way to do things. It is also one of their biggest causes of pain because they want to (and often try to) bring all of those ideas to life and that can distract them from their own personal goals. I am usually the voice of reason and spend my time harnessing this wonderful Entrepreneurial Spirit and help them stay true to their vision.
Describe some of your favourite hacks for productivity
- Start off on the front foot by scheduling your Ideal Week. Blocking in time to ensure all the various areas of business and life get covered helps you run your life in a proactive way (rather than always according to everyone else’s agenda). On the subject of scheduling, I also schedule my To Do List. This ensures you do all the things rather than the quick and easy tasks that we can fit in during the gaps of our day.
- Limiting the number of times a day you check emails. I check mine 3 times a day and only at times when I can deal with them. And I don’t have work emails on my phone so I don’t get pulled into work during my downtime.
- Scheduling a Power Hour each week to take care of all the scrappy admin tasks that can take us down a rabbit hole and distract us from work if we do them throughout our regular week. Think things like bill paying, filling in forms, changing service providers, making personal appointments, etc.
Three top apps you couldn’t live without
Google Calendar, Apple Podcast, Spotify
Top advice your mentor gave you
Don’t climb the mountain until you are on it. As someone who spends much of their time forward planning, I am able to do so calmly, without catastrophizing keeping this advice in mind.
What are you currently streaming?
I have just finished It’s a Sin which was just the most incredible piece of television I have seen for a long time. I am also VERY pleased Younger is back on for a bit of light, fluffy entertainment (I’m Team Charles BTW).
