What does your ideal day look like? 

I’m sure you’ve gone through an exercise like that at least once. 

And I also bet that a big intention you have for your ideal day is creating more freedom. 

Right? 

After all, that’s why you started your business in the first place; you wanted to create more time freedom and a lifestyle by design. 

But are your intentions for freedom actually keeping you TRAPPED instead? 

There may be two significant ways in which your behaviours intended to create freedom are actually preventing you from having space to create, experience new inspiration, and work in flow. 

The first is that you “don’t want to create standard processes because it’s too rigid, not how I work, and it takes too much time to set up.” 

And the second is that you “can’t hire someone because you do things in a unique way and can’t find someone to follow that.”

If either of these sound familiar, keep reading…I want to challenge these (false) assumptions for a moment. 

Here are 2 new beliefs I encourage you to take on instead: 

(1) “Streamlined systems free up hours of my time every single week, opening up more time for me to be creative.” 

You probably think that setting up processes takes more time than just doing the task. And you also may feel that having a process to follow for a given task isn’t as fun as just doing it in a way that feels right at the time. You want the freedom and flexibility and you think that ‘systems’ will take that away.

But let’s do a little math to see if this is true (No, don’t go! It’s fun math!)...

Let’s say you have a task that takes you 1 hour a week. And you’ve identified that it can be automated and/or streamlined (you’d be surprised how many tasks you can actually do this with). 

You then take 2 hours to set up that automation or outline the process (eg. by creating a checklist you follow each time, eliminating the need to jump around and wonder what the next best step is). You do this setup WHILE also executing the task for that week, so you’re only spending 1 hour extra. 

You get the 1-hour task down to 15 minutes a week. 

So in the month in which you’re creating the system, your time invested is: 

2 hours in week 1 + (15 mins x 3 weeks) = 2 hours and 45 minutes 

The following month, you’ll only spend 1 hour on it (15 min per week).

Let’s see what math tells us now:
 

How much mental space as well as time are you freeing up by implementing systems?

(2) “Hiring a dream team is possible for me and will allow me to free up mental space for more inspiration and creativity to enter into my life.”

The beautiful thing about having systems in place is that you can then outsource MUCH more easily. 

You won’t worry about things being completed properly and your team member(s) will know exactly what’s expected. They’ll be set up for success, which will help you reach success of your own. 

From there, outsourcing strategically is a matter of finding the right people. 

If you get clear on who you need (what skills they have, what their work style is, and what kind of attitude they bring to their work), you’ll more easily find that dream team member. Take your time with it and don’t hire the first person you “liked talking to”. 

Envision what kind of team you’d love to be supported by (even if it’s just one person). Tap into your big-picture business vision and consider what kind of a team would be best in that vision. 

You can find them, I promise! And when you do, you’ll create more space for your creative work and all the things that absolutely light you up! 

Here’s how you can get started with this process in a fun and creative way: Start envisioning your organizational chart and your dream team. 

Grab a pen and paper and do some drawing! Put yourself into the CEO role, and work down into the departments you want to see in the business you’re building. What areas are in your dream business? What roles? How many people are reporting to you? 

This doesn’t need to become reality right away, it’s your compass for the future. 

Once it’s down in black and white, you’ll start to take steps to move towards that vision until that org chart is 100% reality!

Then envision and write a story about your Ideal Contributor Avatar (yep, it’s what it sounds like… a description of your ideal team member, the same way you’d create a description of your ideal client). 

Pick one role on your org chart and ask yourself: 

• Where does this person live? 
• What are their work hours?
• What are some of their past experiences? (jobs, even think back to high school what did she do)?
• How do they spend their time right now? 
• How does she approach their work? 
• What do they do when they make a mistake? 
• What do they do when they’re stuck or confused about a task? 
• Do they take time to learn? What are they learning about? 
• What are they reading? 
• What are their superpowers? 
• What are their weaknesses? 
• What do they love doing? 
• What do they hate doing? 

It all starts with your intention to build a foundation for your business that will truly create the freedom you desire. 

(Let’s continue this convo over on Instagram! Come say hi and let me know if you’re committing to creating an organized business that you love.)