SPEAKER_00
If you've been going through your business building journey on autopilot, this episode is for you. I'm diving into how to get out of autopilot and start taking intentional action in your jewelry business. My name is Robin Clark and I'm obsessed with all things business and marketing.

I'm a jewelry designer who left the corporate world and grew a successful jewelry business and now I help women just like you from around the world do the same. I'm the founder and CEO of the jewelry business academy, the host of the jewelry business academy podcast and I'm here to help you scale your jewelry business to six figures and beyond without burning out. Through my coaching program and podcast, I help you navigate the challenging seasons of business as well as teach you the secrets to building a sustainable business that makes you feel good.

So grab a cup of tea and your notebook, get cozy and let's dive in. Hello and welcome back to the podcast. It's so good to have you here with me today and I actually lost my voice over the past few days so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to record this today.

I'm feeling a million times better but my voice is still a little bit, I don't know, it just doesn't feel completely back to normal but I really wanted to record this episode because I think it's something that I see a lot of people doing in life and in business and that is moving through business and life in autopilot and you know there's a phase in your business where you do want things on autopilot but as a business owner yourself, you don't want to be an autopilot, you want to be taking intentional action in your business. So when I'm talking about autopilot, I'm talking about you know doing something without really thinking about it, without focusing on it, without thinking about what the implications of doing that is and without really making an effort. So I see this a lot for newer jewelry business owners, even people who've been in business for 5-10 years and they're just in autopilot, they're doing the same things each month and each year, they're doing the same things each day in their business without really stopping to evaluate all the things they are doing, which things they should be cutting, what they need to be doing more of, are they actually hitting their goals, are they actually feeling fulfilled by the goals that they're trying to hit or are hitting, are they feeling fulfilled by their business and there's just so many ways that you can pick up that somebody has been on autopilots and I have clients who've been on autopilot for 10 years and then suddenly wake up and are like, hey, I'm not very happy in this business, I'm hitting these big goals, I'm hitting these incredible milestones but I never took a moment to step back and get intentional and get clear over what it was that I was wanting in my life and now I've built this successful on the outside business but I'm not feeling fulfilled and so then we have to go and we rebuild their business in a way that is going to fulfill them so it's really important to be intentional with how you build your business the same way that you want to be intentional with how you create your life so there's a lot of risks of being in autopilot mode such as it's going to start making you feel stuck and it's going to make you feel uninspired and it's going to make you feel unproductive and that's just because you're going through the same things without really thinking about it and unless you you really hit a wall that's going to force you to jump back and be like, hey, wait, what is happening here? Something's got to change, something is wrong, let me evaluate, unless you kind of hit that wall, a lot of people will keep going in autopilots in their business for many many months, two years so you want to make sure that you are taking a step back, getting perspective, looking at what you're doing, it can also, you know, another sign of being in autopilot can be in terms of the feelings that you have so, you know, if you're experiencing depression and anxiety or you're feeling disassociated and disconnected from your business, it is also a sign that you're feeling burnt out and you're not really coping well with stress and whatever the cause of that stress is, the key is to get yourself out of autopilot and back into taking control of your life and of your business so, you know, it's really important when you get to this stage where you're just not coping to take a step back, get some perspective and then get some support and you want to then start taking intentional action in your business so, you know, intentional action is going to help you stay motivated, focused and innovative and energised because I've seen this with clients, you know, I've seen one that I'm thinking of in particular was working I think 12 to 14 hour days, she was very busy all the time and she was on autopilot, she was just doing the same things all the time, waiting to see results but not taking a step back, not evaluating what she was doing, not looking at where her time was being spent and when we start working together, we cut her 12 to 14 hour workdays down to 4 hour workdays and during those 4 hours we were very intentional and very strategic with the work that she was doing and once we did that and once we implemented that, you know, cutting down her workdays so significantly and being really intentional with the tasks that she was going to work on because the reality is 20% of the tasks in your business are going to drive 80% of the sales so we just want to focus on those 20% and really hone in on those and when she really honed in on that, when she was really intentional with how she was spending those 4 hours of her work day, that's when she started seeing results, that's when she started growing her community, that's when she started driving more sales and having stores reach out to her and so that's the impact that you know, getting out of autopilot can have in your business, it doesn't mean that we need to work longer hours, doesn't mean we need to do more, means we need to do less but we need to be more intentional and more strategic about it so you know when you are more intentional about it, if when you are working 4 hours a day or 6 hours a day or whatever it is for you and your business, you're going to be more motivated because you're going to know number one, when I sit down at my desk, I know exactly what tasks I need to do, I know exactly how to do them and I know that these are the key tasks that are going to help me grow my business in the direction I'm wanting to grow and then when you start seeing results from that, that's going to keep you motivated, you know, it's also going to help you stay focused because the reality is that there are so many different things you can be doing as a business owner, there are a lot of fluffy tasks, there are a lot of different revenue driving tasks, not all of them are good for every business so identifying which ones are key to you and your business is so important and not hopping on the bandwagon of what you see all the other business owners doing, thinking that's the key for you too because it's not always the case.

So you know if you're listening to this and you're like, maybe I have been on autopilot a little bit, maybe I have, I'm not too sure, here's what I want you to do. I want you to get clear on what your core values are and what your core goals are in your jewelry business. Now if you did this at the beginning of the year, that's great but you know we're a couple of months into the year, I would love for you to get clear on those core values and core goals again and once you've identified your core values and your goals and made sure that they are in alignment, we then want to make sure that the tasks you're doing on a daily basis and a weekly basis and a monthly basis are leading you towards fulfilling those goals and are in alignment with your values.

So it's really important to have a strong wife for your business, have a strong sense of purpose. Having a strong sense of purpose for example if you're a mother who has children who's like, I really wanted this business to just give me the freedom to spend time with my children and with my family and have an income on the side. Well then we need, that's really great because then we need to make sure that you know you're being really intentional with the time that you're spending on your business so that you have a lot of time to spend with your children and you don't feel any guilt when you're spending time with them because you know your business is set up for success, you know you're doing the key things you need to be doing in your business on a daily basis and you're taking intentional and strategic action.

So you know when it comes to breaking out of autopilot mode in business and in life, as I said some people are forced out of autopilot when things really go belly up, when they get themselves into a really difficult position and they have no choice but to suddenly wake up and be like oh my goodness what is happening here. But for some other people they're not as lucky, they can go months or years without really noticing that they're an autopilot so you know I recommend doing a little life and business audit every few weeks or every few months. I do this on a really regular basis because I'm very intentional with how I'm spending my days, with how I'm working my business, with how I'm showing up in life.

So you want to work out what works for you but you want to make sure that you are breaking out of autopilot honestly in all areas of your life. I see a lot of people go through life on autopilots and they're just ticking off the little milestones that are standard and they're not really stopping to think like hey this is what is normal but is this actually what I'm wanting? Is this actually what's going to fulfill me or is this fulfilling other people that I've been following or that I know or friends or whatever and that's their journey and I'm just following along and doing the same sort of thing. And I will say honestly most entrepreneurs have been forced out of autopilot because the sheer act of going and building a business means that you took a step back from the career path you are on if you were already in a career path and you're like wait a moment this is not for me or I don't like this or I want more of this in my life and so I'm going to build this business.

So you know pretty much anyone listening to this will have broken out of autopilots at one stage because it's impossible to build a business without doing that but once you start building it's really easy to get in that autopilot mode again. So we just want to keep waking ourselves up and taking a step back and getting perspective, staying curious, trying new things, taking calculated risks. And I was actually reading this book yesterday which this is just coming to mind now you know.

Talking about the importance of looking at what you're doing that's getting your results but not assuming that that is always going to get you the same results and actually looking at the other things that you're not doing as well and being like okay well do I know for sure this also isn't going to be getting me results. There's an element of balance here you don't want to be wasting time but you also want to recognize that sometimes if you for example have content that goes viral and it just drives a lot of sales well there's an element of luck to that and so you don't want to rely on that to keep driving sales necessarily because we cannot rely on the algorithms but if you have minimal followers and you suddenly are driving more sales through your content well that tells me you're on the right track because that content is converting at a really really high rate and that's setting you and your business up for much more stability and much more success as you scale. So you know there's a couple of things that can come up for business owners and for people as you're trying to take intentional action in your business and that is the fear of failure.

Fear of failure holds us back so so much the fear of like oh what if this is the wrong decision what if I make a mistake what if that was a better decision for me to make and some people get so stuck on their fear of making the wrong decision or taking the wrong action that they don't take action and you know somebody who I see this all the time I see some people who will who have so much confidence in their abilities that they know that even if they make take an action which was the wrong action they will be able to pivot they trust that they have the ability to make the best of that situation they trust that they will be okay whereas business owners who rarely lack that confidence will go back and forth over big decisions they will go back and forth over little decisions they will question themselves and doubt themselves and feel a lot of fear around decisions and taking actions in their business and I just want to remind you it's better to take the wrong action today and then by Friday already have pivoted and started making better decisions than to wait three months to make those decisions you know time is the one resource we don't get back so we want to get over that fear of decision making and if you are really struggling with decision making I want you to practice making decisions quickly small easy decisions like when you go to a restaurant give yourself one minute to choose whatever it is that you're going to eat choose it and stick with that decision you have to teach yourself that you can trust yourself and you have to start small if it's something that is feeling very overwhelming to you so there are obviously so many benefits to taking intentional action in your business some of them are just so obvious you know you're going to have if you're more intentional with how you're spending your time the tasks you're taking you're going to have more time on your hands you're going to have more free time free time to spend filling your own cup time to spend with friends time to spend with family you are going to have increased creativity because when we have more headspace when we have more time that's when we have more creativity. We're also going to increase our productivity because when you're very intentional with the the actions you're taking on a daily basis when you're very intentional with how you're you're doing it, you're going to be more productive and you're going to be more profitable. That's just the reality of it.

So, you know, being intentional with your business on a day-to-day basis is going to set you and your business up to hit your long-term goals and it's going to set you up for success in your business and in your life. And I've seen this with clients that I've worked with, I've seen this with myself, you know. I don't do anything, anything in my business that is not intentional.

I don't spend any time on fluffy tasks. It is, you know, it is very to the point, I am only focused on key tasks that are going to, you know, keep my business growing, keep it scaling and keep giving my clients the best experience possible. Nothing else really matters and that's the same for your businesses, you know.

Make sure that those tasks that you're doing are very intentional because why would you want to waste hours and hours and hours of your time on fluffy tasks that you could be spending, making memories and spending time with your friends and family? You know, we want to really recognize that time is limited and that's honestly, time to me is my most valuable resource. So, I don't mess around with it. And so, I'm just so intentional with how I spend my time in my business and in my life, who I'm spending it with, how I'm spending it with.

So, you know, I cannot recommend this enough for anyone and if you're not too sure, this is always a great little activity to do. Write down your values, write down your core values as a human being. What are your core values? And then take a look at your calendar and your bank accounts and tell me if your core values align with how you're spending your time and how you're spending your money.

It's a very eye-opening activity to do for sure. So, if you're somebody who's like, well, one of my core values is spending time with friends and family or having strong relationships or whatever your core values are or being really healthy or growing as an individual, well, let's have a look at your calendar and let's see, like, okay, well, how much time are you spending building relationships or how much time are you investing into personal growth? And where's your money going? You know, like, where are you actually spending your money and your time and your energy? And does that align with your core values that you are saying are so important to you? So, I think that's a really great activity to do and I'd love to hear from anyone who does take the plunge and do that activity. You can let me know on Instagram.

It's Rubbin' Clark coaching. You can also just screenshot the episode you're listening to and tag me. If you found this useful, if you've been listening to the episodes for a while and you're feeling inspired and feeling excited and motivated to keep going in your business.

But yeah, I really just want you, if you can take one takeaway from this episode, I want you to encourage you to take intentional action in your jewelry business and be really clear on what it is that you're doing on a daily basis, on a monthly basis, on a quarterly basis and cut the fluff. And this is one of the things I do with my clients in the jewelry business academy. It's one of the first things we do.

We make sure that they are setting themselves up for success, we get very clear on their goals, we get very clear on how they're going to hit those goals, what are the tasks they need to be doing on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly basis, and what are the systems that we need to implement in order to set them and their businesses up for success. And so, if that's something that feels exciting and it feels expensive and you're curious to know if you and your business are a good fit for the program, you can go ahead to my website. It is jewelrybusinessacademy.

ca to learn a little bit more and you can book in a free strategy call with one of my advisor team members. So we have a limited number of these calls per week that we offer and they're given on a first come, first serve basis. So if you're feeling excited about this, if you feel like you are ready to take intentional and strategic action in your business, you're done messing around, you're done kind of winging it, and you're ready just to really accelerate the growth in your business, then definitely head to jewelrybusinessacademy.

ca as I said, and I'm looking forward to seeing you on the other side. Thank you.