As a dog breeder, you wear a million hats. Add in all the things outside of dog breeding that you need to take care of each day, and it can feel like you’re fighting a no-win battle with your to-do list. That’s why I pulled together amazing Time Management experts to help you discover new ways to move through each day, taking care of what needs to be done, and going to bed with a sense of accomplishment. We’ve also included resources designed specifically for dog breeders – because we know that the challenges you face are often unique – and so are the resources to help you manage them!
Danielle McGeough is a wealth of knowledge! With her wide array of experience in various industries, she’s been helping people get more done for years!
In this interview Danielle explains her RISE Ritual. Here’s a quick snippet:
“One of my favorite ways to teach people to press pause is to create something called a RISE Ritual Method. And RISE stands for reflect, intentional planning, sensory activation, and embodying your new story. And this doesn’t have to take incredibly long.
“In fact, I think that you can create a ritual that’s 15 minutes. So you start out by thinking about, ‘What state am I in?’ And then, ‘What state do I want to transition to?’ And you name the transition that you want to create. And then from there, you go, ‘Okay, what’s a question I could ask myself, a reflection that I could engage in, that would help me move from one state to the next?’
“From there, you can intentionally plan. A really quick way would it just to go, ‘If there were three things that I could do today, that at the end of the day, I would feel fulfilled, I would know that I had given my best in my business, or at home, or both, right? What would those three things be?’ And you name those and you write them down.”
This conversation with Danielle McGeough is just the start to a deep dive Julie & Danielle took into the RISE Ritual and time management which is available as a MasterClass inside the Dog Breeder Society.
Podcast Transcript
Julie | 0:24
Are you guys in for a treat today? Today we have Danielle McGeough, a doctor, she’s also a mom, professor, a certified elite life coach, and host of the Plan Goal Plan podcast. Danielle is passionate about helping high achievers be as ambitious about their personal life as they have been about their work life.
For the past 20 years, Danielle has been ambitiously cultivating a career in higher education, teaching courses and publishing research on public speaking, storytelling and identity, problem solving and community building. Danielle’s podcast Plan Goal Plan helps working moms plan and set goals with purpose and is ranked in the top 2% of podcasts globally. She wants women to be bold at work and still have enough energy to have fun at home.
Using creative approaches to self-development, she helps working moms connect to themselves and others, reclaim time and achieve their goals. Wow! Wow!
You are amazing. Okay, so thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. It is just a pleasure to have you.
I’m so excited.
Danielle | 1:27
Thanks for having me.
Julie | 1:29
Tell me, how did you go from professor to working with women tackling their best life?
Danielle | 1:35
Yeah, so I would say about maybe 10 years ago, I had just had my first kiddo, my second kiddo was on the way. I had just earned tenure at the University, which is a goal that I’ve been working on since I was probably 20. And in many ways, on paper, it looked like I had it all.
I don’t know if any of you all have ever been there where you’re like, hey, from the outside, I know that I look like I have it together. But inside y’all, I’m a wreck.
Julie | 2:03
I think every dog breeder can put that out there. Yes.
Danielle | 2:05
Yeah. And so I think that I was definitely in a place where I was just feeling overwhelmed and flat at the same time. And I also felt a little bit disconnected from myself.
Like I’ve been going, I’ve been going, I’ve been going, I’ve been taking care of other people. I’ve been taking care of my now new kiddo and adjusting to that role of being a new mom. I’ve been taking care of students at work.
And, you know, if I would have had free time, I wouldn’t have even known if somebody would have said, well, what do you want to do in your free time, I would have been like, even if I had free time, I don’t know what I’d do other than maybe crash and zone out.
Julie | 2:43
Yeah. Yeah. I totally understand.
Danielle | 2:46
Yeah. And so like I did what most nerds do, I read a lot around personal development, self development. And, luckily, in my job as a professor, one of the things that I study is the relationship between storytelling and identity building. And so I knew a lot about identity and identity development, but I hadn’t thought about like, okay, like, what are the practices that I can put into place? So I was studying that. And I was also like, obsessed with time management, because I was like, Oh my gosh, I have kids now.
Like, how am I gonna hold all this together, there were things that I used to be able to remember all the time, that all of a sudden, I couldn’t remember. So like, I could usually just be like, oh, I have an appointment on Thursday at 9:15. And, and like, all of a sudden, now it’s like, if I didn’t write it down, it was gone.
And so I knew that I needed to put into practice some, some planning practices, some time management practices, but I didn’t want them to be, I don’t know if any of you all have been like, okay, I’m gonna do some time management hacks, and you do it. And then the next thing you know, like, you have gotten more efficient at things, but then you just fill it up with more crap. And so now you’re just like doing more things.
Julie | 3:58
And they’re like, not the right things, right? Is that kind of what you’re saying? You’re like, Oh, I was really, really good at folding all the laundry at 8am.
But like, why does this matter? I didn’t get my job done, you know, or something?
Danielle | 4:10
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
And so you know, I think that for me, I got really interested in, you know, how do I create a practice of planning that helps me manage my time, but also connects me to myself. So that planning is personal development, it is self care. And I want it to be delightful.
Like I’m a quirky, fun, delightful human. So I’m like, let’s bring out the stickers. Let’s write with our favorite pen.
Like, let’s just make this process as delightful as possible. And so, you know, I started to do that for myself, I started to really notice a huge transformation in myself. And I am a teacher at heart.
So when I learned things I share with other people, and I started hosting planning parties for students, I started doing things out in the community. And I realized that there were some patterns as to things that were really connecting with people. And so that’s when I decided I wanted to create a podcast and get certified as a coach so that I could help other people, you know, plan and set goals with purpose as well.
Julie | 5:20
Yeah, absolutely. And can can you explain for us too, because I think sometimes we get so lost in the weeds. We’re like, we’ve been living in that.
I think a lot of dog breeders, the feeling you have after you have your first child is like, Oh my god, who am I have no idea. All I know is I changed diapers like every 15 minutes, like that’s all you know. And you get so disconnected from yourself.
And I feel like with dog breeding, it’s such an all encompassing lifestyle for some breeders, we do lose ourselves. Can you even like, you kind of explain like what we might notice, other than your example, too, that you forget what to do with free time? But how does that feel for people?
Where can they even notice that they’re in that place? Because I think sometimes we don’t even notice.
Danielle | 6:03
Absolutely. So you know, first off, I want to say to, you know, the dog breeders that you’re talking to, like, congratulations, like taking on starting a business is huge. And it’s a big undertaking.
And then my guess is, is that many of you are doing that in this space that you also live. And so, you know, it muddles all of those things together. And there’s like, there’s some really cool opportunities there, right?
Like, you can run your business and get your laundry done at the same time. But that also means that sometimes we don’t have those separations. And so what I would sort of see is if you, if you notice that you are like forgetting things that you wouldn’t normally forget, if you feel like the only time that you have downtime, you just zone off, maybe you’re binging Netflix, or you’re just scrolling on your phone, and you do this, and then you don’t really feel recharged afterwards. If you feel like, you know, that you don’t even know what you enjoy anymore, or someone asks you, you know, like, what’s your hobbies, and you mentioned something that you did in your 20s. And like, your 20s aren’t there anymore. You know, I think that those are some really good indications that, you know, maybe something’s going on here, that like your priorities have shifted. That’s actually another thing. If someone says, like, you need to prioritize, and you’re like, I don’t even know how to, because everything feels all important all at once. And the idea that you would have to choose something as the most important is wildly overwhelming.
Like, that’s a sign that you’ve probably been disconnected from yourself.
Julie | 7:36
That makes sense. So like this, you don’t even have a clear picture of where you’re going anymore. It does feel like in dog breeding so many times, it’s like it feels like crisis management.
And it’s just triage, like everything is like this dog needs this, this buyer needs this, I need to get this dog to the vet, I need to plan this, I need to fix my website. I mean, it’s just like – ugggh, and all of them are important. Oh, I forgot the kids need to eat dinner. Yeah, that it’s just Yeah, yeah.
Danielle | 8:02
And I think that that is, like, what you mentioned is, if you’re in your business, and you’re only tending to the things that are urgent, and never have the time to build those projects that actually, like, maybe bring you in more money to, that’s a huge sign that, you know, is counterintuitive, but it might be time to press pause, and to get some planning practices in place. So that instead of just tending to the urgent things, you can decide, well, what are the most impactful things? And I’m going to put my energies there.
Julie | 8:35
Yeah. And I think like a very tangible example is I noticed I was writing out these long response emails to my buyers when they were contacting me with these big questions. And like a freaking idiot, I just sent the emails never thought about it again.
And then somebody would ask me that question three weeks later, I’d type out the same darn thing again. And it was like, Oh, that could have been a blog post on my website.
Oh, that could have been a template email I saved, you know, and so if I would have taken an extra 15 minutes and wrote every possible thing on that topic, and then put it on a blog post on the internet. Now I could send my buyers there. So when that question came up, again, it didn’t take but two seconds.
And you can’t think like that when you’re in the headspace.
Danielle | 9:16
Yeah, I think that that’s brilliant, right? To go like, how can I think about each task that I’m doing to and go, hey, if I put just a little more into this? Would I be creating something that is reusable?
Julie | 9:34
You know, it sounds so silly, but like, it’s just, you can’t, you’re not in a place to even think about those things. So you said, press pause. So what do you would you do?
I mean, people are not bleeding out, but it feels like it.
Danielle | 9:46
Yeah, so one of my favorite ways to teach people to press pause is to create something called a RISE Ritual Method. And RISE stands for reflect, intentional planning, sensory activation, and embodying your new story. And this doesn’t have to take incredibly long.
In fact, I think that you can create a ritual that’s 15 minutes. I like to do mine in the morning plus rise and morning goes together. You know, but that being said, it really doesn’t matter what time of the day that you do it.
But rather that you do it at a time that you can be consistent with. And so you start out by, you know, really thinking about, okay, what state am I in? Am I frazzled? Am I overwhelmed? Am I rushed?
Right? And then what state do I want to transition to? I’d really like to be intentional, I would like to be calm, I would like to be decisive.
And you kind of name the transition that you want to create. And then from there, you go, okay, what’s a question I could ask myself, a reflection that I could engage in, that would help me move from one state to the next.
Julie | 11:03
Yeah.
Danielle | 11:03
And you can journal on that for one minute, you can journal on it for five, depending on what you need that day and what space you have available. But then, you know, from there, too, you can intentionally plan in. And I have a lot to say on that.
But a really quick way would it just to go if there were three things that I could do today, that at the end of the day, I would feel fulfilled, I would know that I had given my best in my business, or at home, or both, right? What would those three things be? And you, you know, you name those and you write them down.
And then sensory activation is really about how do you invite presence and also make it delightful, right? So when you sit down to do your ritual, is there some way that you can engage your senses? So this might be maybe you have a candle that you light, maybe it is a cozy blanket that you put on your lap, maybe it’s a tea that you like to sip.
But you do something so that every time that you do this, you’re also triggering that same sensory experience, this is going to make the habit more enjoyable, it’s going to make it more likely that you come back to it. And it’s also going to invite presence. And then the final thing is to really just think about how can you step into this new story of a person that is peaceful and decisive and relaxed and confident.
And so you know, whatever state it is that you name that you want to transition in, how can you think about, okay, what’s one thing I can do today, where I can embody that version of myself that I want to tap into. So that’s the RISE Ritual Method. It doesn’t take very long, and I think it’s one of the best ways to press pause.
Julie | 12:56
Yeah, pause, and then you’re reflecting, you’re getting regrounded, you’re, you’re noticing your emotions so that you can, I think sometimes we forget to think about how we’re feeling, like just stopping to think about that. Oh, wow, I’m frustrated right now. Yeah, Julie, you almost kicked through the drywall.
Yes. Like, you know, let’s notice that what might be a better alternative? Oh, steel toed boots.
Got it. So you know, it’s, it’s just kidding. But no, I think it makes a lot of sense.
And I think we often we get mad at ourselves in this process, right? Like we’re frustrated we can’t remember, we’re frustrated we’re in crisis management, we’re frustrated we can’t get all these things done. And, and we seem to take it out on ourselves.
And I think your idea to make it an enjoyable process, like you mentioned, adding the stickers and fun pens, like, yes, I love that. It’s a way to sort of pamper ourselves in the tiniest way and say, hey, you’re a person that’s worth taking care of too, you take care of all these dogs, all these people in your family, you should take care of you too.
Danielle | 14:02
Yeah, yeah. And I think to really connect to, you know, why did you start this business in the first place? And if you started the business, because like, you really enjoy doing all these things, but that’s not where you’re spending your energy in your business, then I think it’s time to really ask yourself, how do I create a business that I do love, and that I’m spending most of my time on the things that made me want to start this business in the first place.
And oftentimes, those are actually the things that are going to move the needle the most too.
Julie | 14:38
Yeah, oh, yeah. Can you give an example?
Danielle | 14:40
Well, so, you know, I do think that dog breeding businesses are probably a little bit different than my own business. But I do think that it’s really easy to, you know, fuss with editing my podcast, for example, right? I might fuss with it.
Oh, my gosh, I had a complete frustration, you know, kicking the drywall moment myself earlier this week, I was, you know, fussing with a sales page that I was trying to create, and something just wasn’t working, right. And then so is, you know, emailing customer service, and, you know, taking care of those urgent things. Y’all, that is not my strongest skill set.
Ultimately, I had to ask myself, like, what would this look like if it were easy? And I was like, Okay, first off, I could just create a Google Doc and share it through my email with my audience that way. The second thing is, maybe I just need to hire someone and get a VA to do that work so that I can spend my time, actually, like, creating things for my clients, and, you know, building things for them that are not only going to make me money, right, those are the things that will make me money. But also, like, those are the things that I really enjoy doing. And that’s where my strength lies. So is that a clear example?
Julie | 16:00
Yeah, let me give you maybe an example that I’m thinking from dog breeding and tell me if it sounds right, like puppy pens need to get cleaned every day you clean the puppy pen looks great for seven minutes, and then it looks terrible. And that’s just what happens like dogs are gross. So you have.
So I find so many breeders feel guilty about that. So they really enjoy maybe editing their website or editing photos for social media or something like that, that would be fun for them. But they feel this guilt trip about cleaning pens.
And I, I think we ultimately sometimes avoid the things we love doing, that would move the needle, like redoing your website is gonna sell your dogs, in a way that cleaning puppy pens won’t not that you don’t need to do it. But could you? Could you give yourself a little grace if you miss a day cleaning puppy pens?
Yes, I think you can, you know, if you need to move and give yourself say, I’m just going to give myself 30 minutes to clean and whatever I get done in 30 minutes is done. That’s it. I don’t have to do it till it’s done exhausted every time.
I don’t need the pressure washer every day. And, you know that, but that weighs on us. So we end up getting bogged down in these inefficient systems.
Because we feel guilty doing the thing we enjoy that will move the needle like that. I don’t know, I’ve run that line with myself so many times where I’m just like, Oh, but I have to clean first.
Danielle | 17:22
We do this in so many different areas of our life. And, and I do think that in some ways, like taking some time to go, okay, what matters here? Okay, it matters that these pens are clean.
All right, can we get clear about like, how clean is clean? Yeah, and you know, like, I had this moment with my house, where, you know, I was trying to get every single room in my home to like, look Pinterest, perfect, Instagram worthy. And all at the same time, y’all that is first off, that is impossible with children.
Second off, like what I started to realize is what’s important to me is having a clean kitchen and clean bathrooms, I can kind of handle any other of the muck, right? Because if my kitchen’s clean, I can just go cook, and I don’t have to clean before I cook. And then I eat well, and bathrooms, I just can’t handle gross bathroom, right.
And so I also would say, you know, to think through the different aspects of your, you know, business and go, what are the ones where if I let it go just a little bit, I’d be fine with, but where are the spaces that I can just say good enough is good enough?
Julie | 18:35
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, you know, cleaning food dishes every day definitely makes sense, right?
Like, that’s a that’s a good one. But I know, like a lot of breeders use a litter box to train their dogs. It’s a little bit different than cat litter box.
But anyway, but, you know, you can scoop out the gross stuff on top, and that litter will probably make it another day, you know, you don’t have to change it every day. Like there are ways to kind of stretch some things. I don’t have to bleach the floor in the puppy pen every day, I could bleach it every a couple days.
And just make sure everything’s picked up in the meantime, spot clean, for example, I think for me, it was really helpful to say I have 30 minutes to do this. And I would put on a podcast, which is kind of the inspiration for the intro to my podcast, but I put on a podcast while working on my puppy pens, because it made it more enjoyable. But then I gave myself a limit when the podcast is over, I’m done.
Like, that’s, I gotta, I gotta get it in that timeframe. And then that sort of opened the door to let me not feel guilty about the other stuff.
Danielle | 19:34
That’s brilliant. I mean, one, because you put a container, it’s like, you give it a container. We sometimes do that when we’re like cleaning our homes, we know that, hey, kids, once your Lego container is full, it’s full, you don’t, we’re not buying any more Legos, I can’t handle any more Legos in the house, the container is full.
Well, we can think about our time the same way. Yeah, I have a container of time for cleaning the dog pen. And when that container is full, it’s full.
And then I love that you also paired it, it’s very much like the sensory activation. In the RISE Ritual Method, you paired it with like, something that creates the light and fun for you. And that way, one, you’re going to want to do it more.
And you like look forward to it. That’s how I trick myself into like cleaning my closet or doing laundry. I’m like, I get to listen to a podcast while do laundry.
But I like that that also functions as your container. It’s your, it’s your time signal to this is how long you get. It’s over, you’re done.
Get the MasterClass for more with Danielle McGeough and Lara Marek on Time Management for Dog Breeders.
Julie | 20:33
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And can you, can you kind of talk we had mentioned before, and I just thought this was so brilliant is how a lot of times, these patterns in our life habits, they sort of create our identity, like in a way that we would think it would be the other way around.
But it’s they do like it. So if I’m not cleaning my puppy pens every day, I have this identity that I’m a terrible dog breeder. You know, so it’s like, can you can you talk us through that?
You had explained it so well.
Danielle | 21:02
Yeah, so I really like James Clear’s book Atomic Habits, which is, you know, one of the most popular famous sold books on habit building. Yeah, it’s brilliant. And he really takes a habit, an identity based approach to habits, which means if you want to start jogging regularly, to take on the identity of a jogger, and go, what would a jogger do?
Well, a jogger would jog every day, they would probably go to bed on time, they probably drink lots of water, they probably eat pretty healthy, right? So I’m going to start being a jogger, and do the things that a jogger does. And so I really like to think too that, you know, there’s the concept of, you know, fake it till you make it. And I like to say that faking it is making it. And what I like about that is, I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a situation where you’re like, Oh, I have imposter syndrome, or I don’t feel like, you know, am I a real dog breeder? Am I real business owner? And to go, Okay, well, I’m going to do the things that a real business owner would do, even if I don’t feel like I’m that yet. The repetition of doing those things over and over and over again, not only breed confidence, but they do start to make you the thing that you’re wanting to become.
Julie | 22:31
Crazy. It’s crazy how that happened. And I’ll, I’ll give you a short story on making my bed.
Long story short, somebody told me about making your bed. And then if you make your bed in the morning, this came from some Navy SEAL that at least you have one good thing to start your day. And then at the end of the day, at least you can get into a nice clean made bed.
And so it starts your night right to set you up for a better morning. And so I thought, Oh, that’s cool. I never make my bed.
All right. So I just tried really hard. It was pathetic how long it took me to make it a habit.
But I got to the point where now I can say for the last six years, I’ve been making my bed every day. And it does it, it started to make me feel like a more put together adult. You know, my bathroom is in my bedroom. So every time I would come in to use the bathroom, I’d see my bed made and be like, amazing. I I’m that guy. And it really started to make me feel like I was more accomplished.
And then you start to be like, Oh, wow, I bet I also hang up my pants in my closet, you know, and it was like, Oh, let me move into that step. And now I have a closet. That’s good.
You know, and it’s just like, you know, this is only a six year process. But you know, we got there. Right.
But it does, it changes how you think about yourself. It really does.
Danielle | 23:54
Absolutely. And that I love to one like, you know, give yourself some grace. Habits do take a little while to form.
And there’s, you know, a lot of research that says that, you know, that idea that it takes 21 days to make a habit is really whack. Right? So if you’re like, yeah.
So if you’re like, it took me way longer than 21 days, right? Um, don’t worry, that’s normal. You’re healthy, there’s nothing wrong with you.
Um, that, you know, there is, you know, it takes a little while to put things into practice, and there are gonna be missteps. And, you know, I always like to say that consistency really isn’t about being perfect, but rather, shortening the gap between the oops, and starting over again. And so, you know, my guess is, is that while you were trying to, you know, make your bed, you missed a few days, right?
But then you said, I’m going right back to it. And you did it again. Until eventually, now you’re like, I do it every day.
And I’m that sort of person, right?
Julie | 24:56
I don’t even think about it anymore. I get up and make my bed without even, it just happens. It’s just, it’s beautiful.
Danielle | 25:04
It is beautiful, because that means that it’s really a habit, because you’ve automized it. But then I also like that you mentioned that, you know, then you were like, ooh, well, maybe then I’m also the sort of person that hangs up her pants, you know. And one of the things that I think is so important is to give yourself a habit, let yourself get that really going, and then add something on.
Julie | 25:31
Yes, the habit stack, right?
Danielle | 25:33
Mm hmm.
Julie | 25:33
Yeah, so tell us, tell us a little bit.
Okay, so this would be an example, right? Making the bed, and then adding in? Well, no, it wouldn’t be.
That’s not a good example. So adding, what would be a good habit stack?
Danielle | 25:46
So it might be something like, okay, I haven’t been cleaning up after dinner, right? So we have dinner. And everything just stays on the table.
I don’t clean up after I’ve cooked, you know, and then all of a sudden, you know, like, a little bit later, I’m like, oh, no, I have to do all these dishes, I have to clean everything up. So you might start by, okay, I just want to work on while I’m cooking, cleaning as I cook. That might be step one, right?
Then you say, okay, I’ve kind of got that down. I’m going to add on the habit now that after dinner, I’m going to remind the family that everybody needs to take their plates to the sink. Right?
And we’re going to get that down. And then we’re going to add on, okay, now I’m going to do the dishes right after dinner. Now I’m going to add on that after we do the dishes, I’m going to wipe down the table, right? So then before you know it, you’re cleaning as you cook, which reduces some things. You’re, you know, you’re having everybody bring their plates, they don’t even think about it. That’s just what you do after dinner.
You just get up, you take the 10 minutes to do all the dishes, and then you wipe things down, maybe even have a kid. So the same thing applies like in your business that you might then create this flow, or this habit stack of okay, every time that I’m going to go clean out the dog pen, afterwards, I’m going to be in the habit of, you know, sitting down at my computer, pulling up my website, and I’m going to make one change. And I just do that every single time.
And then maybe you add it on one thing, you know, so maybe it’s like, now I clean out the dog pen, I go, I change something, I update something on my website, and then I send out an email to my email list.
Julie | 27:38
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so it just becomes the natural flow of things. Yeah, I think I love that.
And I think one of the things that James Clear in that book, Atomic Habits explains so well is that a lot of times, and I really relate to this, we don’t remember to do our habit, right? Because it’s not a habit yet. So that habit stacking becomes the thing that you have the habit of doing that you’re adding a new habit to is the reminder.
You know, like my husband and I, we like to watch right now we’re watching Dexter, but we watch a show, you know, at night before we go to bed and nothing like serial killers before bed, but we were in before we sit down. It’s like, I don’t like to sit down now before the dishes are done. So even though we really want to see the season finale, I have to do the dishes because that’s my trigger. Like I can’t sit down until the dishes are done. And it’s been helpful. And then it helps right the next morning too, because you get up in your kitchens clean. So now you wake up and I’m the person who has a clean kitchen in the morning, right? And so now you have that new identity that comes in. And I, I do think you feel like this is so stupid that this works. But at the same time, it’s so cool that it’s so simple. It works.
Danielle | 28:47
Absolutely. And it’s so confidence building, right. To go, Oh, you know, I thought this was going to be really hard for me, but I stuck with it and I did it.
And so like, I think I’m that person.
Julie | 28:58
Yeah. Yeah. Like if you could do, yeah.
And I think one thing that a lot of breeders are struggling with now is their social media posts, like, Oh my God, it’s exhausting. And so like we have Breeder Copy Hub, which we have all these caption templates we give out. And if they could come in after doing the dogs and do one caption, right.
Like just to have that flow down, I think it would be, yeah, it’s all those little things. They just, they change. They change who you are.
Danielle | 29:23
Absolutely. And, and just giving that, you know, one thing at a time, because I do think, especially as a business owner, it’s so easy to go. I need to update my website.
I need to start posting on social media. I need to clean out the dog pen. I need to reach out to a customer that I haven’t followed up with.
And I think that if you’re like, all right, well, right now this month, my focus is the social media captions. And I’m going to learn how to know my voice and express it through those social media captions. And that’s what I’m going to do.
And you give that the time to really sink in, then you go, okay, now I’m going to add on something else. I think that we’re so much more successful. If we actually give ourselves permission to just focus on one thing at a time and really grow it and then add something on. Whereas, I think if we’re trying to do a little bit of all the things all at once, we do get overwhelmed and we’re not making progress anywhere in a way that really cultivates that confidence that fuels us to move forward.
Julie | 30:33
I think that makes so much sense and I think it’s a disservice to yourself, like New Year’s resolutions. I have 14 new resolutions I’m going to do every day now. They take four hours.
What? You know, that’s not going to happen. So you have this, you have to break it down and say, I’m just going to do this.
And you know, I did this with working out, like Bill’s annoying because he used to frame houses all the time. So he just had like that beautiful muscle memory and he’s older than me and he looks probably younger than me. And so it’s just, it’s annoying.
So I was like, I got to work out. But I had no idea what to do. So I had to learn how to work out.
I had to figure out just where in the heck I was going to put it in my day. And so I finally, I downloaded an app. It shows me everything I need to do.
And at the bare minimum, I can do 12 minutes a day, four days a week. And like, I just said, okay, that’s it. That’s all you got to do is just have that before you shower, there’s your workout.
And it wasn’t about getting a certain weight, getting into a certain shape, getting into a certain strength. None of that. It was literally just making sure I gave myself that time of day.
And then once that happened, I could start making adjustments and it’s exactly what happened, but it was so much easier to go into working out, just saying, I just need to show up for 12 minutes. Then it was being like, I need to be ripped, you know, like, yeah.
Danielle | 31:57
And then you have the identity of someone who exercises daily, you know, no one asks whether you exercise for 90 minutes or for 12 minutes. Right. And I love, I love the question.
I ask myself this all the time, but like, and I think I took this from Tim Ferriss, but what would this look like if it were easy?
Julie | 3:17
Yeah. Yeah. And break that down because it is a weird question, right?
Danielle | 32:21
It’s a great question. Cause a lot of times you’re like, okay, I want to start exercising. So I need to, you know, figure out how do I exercise?
Am I going to weight lift? Am I going to run? Am I going to do a combination?
And what do I do on what days? And oh, now I think I need new shoes and I should probably buy some weights for my basement. And, you know, like all of a sudden all of these things happen.
You’re like, well, I guess I can’t start exercising because like, I haven’t done all of those things. And so then you like, you don’t take action, you procrastinate, you don’t do it because you have now decided that the only way you can exercise is if you do all these things. So I love the question.
Like, well, what would this look like if it were easy? Well, I just download an app. I do what the app told me and I do it for 12 minutes.
Julie | 33:08
Yeah.
Danielle | (33:11
Cool. I can do that.
Julie | 33:13
Yes, exactly. Like I don’t even wear shoes when I work out. How’s that?
Danielle | 33:18
Yes. So I ask myself that all the time. I ask myself that when it comes to personal things, I ask myself that in my business, I say that a lot in meetings actually. And so, being a full-time professor, I still have to go to a bunch of meetings, and if we’re trying to figure out something that seems really complex and we’re not, we’re not making headway on it. I’m like, okay, what would this look like if it were easy?
Julie | 33:45
And so, all right. So do that for like meal planning, right? Like meal plan, debacle in and of itself.
So you’re saying, what would this look like if it was easy? I guess it would be like, well, I knew what I need to make every day. I would, I would have a plan for what meals I was making.
And then I would go to the store once a week and have all the ingredients for one shopping trip. Is that kind of the idea?
Danielle | 34:05
Yeah. Or I would say, or I have a meal delivery service or I would say, you know, like, you know, or I would say, okay, I know that, you know, the first week of the month we eat these things. The second week of the month, we eat these things the third week, you know, so I make one meal plan for four weeks and we go, you know?
So I do think that there are ways that, yeah. I love the power of ones too, you know? So if I could do this one time, you know, if I made a meal plan one time and I went shopping once, you know, how can you break it down so that you can kind of do that?
So you might think about that with like social media captions, for example, you were talking about.
Julie | 34:50
Yeah. So what power of ones is, can I sit down and do this once? Is that the idea?
Danielle | 34:54
Yeah.
Julie | 34:55
And I think that is so huge when you’re looking at building things for your business that will be cumulative. Like that is really the beautiful thing about dog breeding.
It’s hard for new breeders because there’s so much you’ve got to do, but it’s great for seasoned breeders because there’s so much you’ve already done and it’s established, you know, updating my website for a new litter, isn’t 17 hours. It’s like an hour. It’s just not a big deal, but it’s because everything is established and that falls under that.
You did it once it’s good. Ready to go.
Danielle | 35:29
Yeah, absolutely. You, you build that foundation for people and then, you know, adjusting within that foundation being built.
Julie | 35:37
Yeah. Smaller and smaller variables. I think it’s kind of how it comes down.
Danielle | 35:40
I love that.
Julie | 35:42
Good. And so in the end, you become a new person, you’re a millionaire, all the other good things, right?
Danielle | 35:47
Absolutely. You know, that’s how it happens. You make your bed and the next day you’re a millionaire.
Julie | 35:53
Yeah. The next day, a few years later. Yeah.
Awesome. Well, thanks. Well, where can people find you?
This is fantastic information.
Danielle | 36:04
Absolutely. So I would recommend that you check out the Plan Goal Plan podcast, and you can also find me the websites, Plan Goal Plan. And if this would be helpful for you, you could also check out boldbalancedwomen.com. I have a free mini audio course. That’s going to help you save five hours in a week, only doing like 15 minutes a day. So I talk you through deleting, delegating, automating tasks.
I think it would be perfect for thinking through things in your business. So boldbalancedwomen.com.
Julie | 36:38
I’ll put all of these links in the show notes guys, because you got to get this stuff. It’s and Danielle, you have a break free from busy intensive. Can you tell us a little bit about how that works? It starts in January.
Danielle | 36:50
Yeah. So it is an eight week program that helps you break free from busy reclaim your time. And in doing so also rediscover yourself.
And so in that I teach people how to create their own RISE Ritual practices. We go deep into intentional planning. So we’re going to break down what are some weekly, monthly, quarterly, as well as daily planning practices that you can have in place to support that.
We also really look at the internal and external barriers that might be getting in your way. So things like, oh, I keep over committing or I’m procrastinating. How do we really get to those so that you can make the most progress that you can.
And then we, we take some time to really, really rewrite those stories that we have about ourselves. So at the end, not only have you learned how to manage your time and breakthrough from busy, but you’re actually a transformed person.
Julie | 37:46
Oh, that’s beautiful. I know eight weeks to magic. I love it. I love it.
I might be joining you there. Oh, and if you guys are a member of the Dog Breeder Society, you’re in luck. We’re going to dive in deep into the RISE Ritual that Danielle teaches and learn how we can implement it in our lives to get to that place we want to be with our business and our life. All right. Thank you so much, Danielle.
Danielle | 38:09
Thank you so much for having me. This is a blast.
