Getting to 50!

One question I get a lot these days from people who know my efforts to develop best-in-class leadership content with a focus on helping underrepresented professionals is, "How do you find the time to create your content?"

I'm not a content creator in this area by training (I'm a lawyer, actually) and I don't do this sort of work in my full-time position in Corporate America.

If I look back to several years ago when I started this journey, I'm proud to say I've created a lot, including but not limited to:

• authoring 3 leadership books

• recording 1 audiobook

• creating 5 different podcasts, the last 2 were daily podcasts and the most recent was a daily video podcast

• creating 5 online courses

• being a guest on several podcasts

• creating a blog, website, and mailing list

• coaching executives 1:1

• keynote speaking and group coaching

• various collaborations with other coaches and organizations

This didn't happen all at once, but recently I did stop to ask myself, how did I produce what I did considering the limited time and resources I had? This led to another question. How come some ideas I had became a reality and others, even ones I had started working on were abandoned and never realized?

In the end, I realized there is one main principle that has really helped to drive my productivity. One principle that helps me do more in the time I have and to finish what I started. Drum roll please...

The biggest key to my productivity over the years has been to pick a defined goal and commit to a specific production number related to that goal.

So for example, I might say this year I want to read more to better inform my writing and decide that I want to read 50 books this year. Based on this I will track reading about 1 book a week.

Sometimes I will get ahead by reading more than one, other times life will get in the way and I will fall behind. But the beauty is I'm always tracking to that goal of 50 so this helps me weather the hiccups and accomplish quite a lot. And here's the final trick. I try to pick an ambitious number so even if I don't reach it, I still accomplish quite a lot.

So my most recent goal-setting and associated number is to record 50 online courses from Jan 1, 2024 - December 31, 2025. Let's say I only get to 50%. I'll still have gone from 0 courses at the start to 25 courses in 2 years. Not too shabby! By the way, I've completed my first 2 by April 11 so I'm a bit behind where I'd like to be, but on my way.

You can check out my courses so far below and if you leave a comment and ask, I'm happy to provide you a coupon to discount either course for you since you read my blog.

https://everybodythrives.podia.com/

I'd love to know your best tips and tricks for being productive. Feel free to share in the comments below.

Thanks!