Why Hire A Virtual Assistant

When you think of hiring a Virtual Assistant, you probably think of just hiring any old regular assistant, right?

Wrong, and here’s why.

A virtual assistant means they can work anywhere in the U.S.; they work from a virtual home office and can do just about any type of work, depending on what they specialize in. According to Google, a virtual assistant is “a self-employed worker who specializes in offering administrative services to clients from a remote location, usually a home office.”

But nowadays, virtual assistants offer any type of service that you can think of that range anywhere from social media to website creation or even email marketing services. Whatever your needs are, there is a virtual assistant out there for you. 

I know that running a business is hard work, and it takes up so much of your time, and it’s overwhelming for anyone in the business industry. But as your business continues to grow, you need to realize that you’re going to need more support and resources so you can avoid overworking yourself. It’s not just about keeping your business afloat; it’s also about keeping your mental health in check as well. I’ll be honest if your being run into the ground and overwhelmed because you can’t keep up with your business, it’s going to be a rough ride.

There are so many benefits to hiring one; you just have to think about if it’s going to help you and your business in the long run!

4 Benefits to having a Virtual Assistant:

1. Experience: All virtual assistants that you come into contact with are going to specialize in certain areas. Many will be able to perform a variety of tasks and have valuable experience in working with different types of companies. And as virtual assistants, we can adapt to our various work environments.

2. Physical Space: It won’t require any type of modifications as far as your business place goes because they are work remotely or from home.

3. Saves Time and Money: Often, when going to hire a regular assistant, you have to walk through a lengthy recruitment/interview process. And that’s a lot of time that you could be using to do something more productive. If your thinking about hiring one, it will save you money because instead of being on a salary pay, you can just hire them as an as-needed contractor, which means they would only be paid if they are doing work for you.

4. Increases Productivity and Customer Response Time: If you hire a virtual assistant, it will not only help increase your productivity, but it will also help ensure “that customers receive timely responses.” For example, if you are too busy to respond to customer inquiries that come in throughout the day in your support email inbox, you can hire a virtual assistant to answer them for you. It works out for both of you because it will ensure that your customers are being taken care of, and it will free up more time for you to do other, more important work.

What about where to find them? 

They are all over the place; you just have to look at the many websites that they live on and the social media area. If you think it might be hard to find the perfect person, consider these essential elements when choosing:

1. Your Needs: The most important step is to figure out your company/business needs before you even began to search for a virtual assistant. It will help you determine whether you have found the right person or not because they will fit well with your business needs. You will need to figure out what tasks you’re going to outsource and the skills that that person will need for the tasks, which will also determine what type of person you need to look for.

2. Fluid Communication: If you’re looking for someone to help with customer inquiries, you need to find someone with fantastic communication skills. When looking at potentials, try to chat with them to help you evaluate their skills. You could role-play and tell them to pretend your a potential client to see how they would respond.

3. Proper Knowledge: You must pay attention to the candidate’s work experiences because this will give you a better idea of whether they have relevant knowledge and experience in the areas you want.

When going to interview, create a questionnaire for them and ask critical questions. It will help you gain greater clarity on whether or not this person could be a good fit for the job and if you have that connection with them.

Now I’m not saying run out there and get a virtual assistant because I’m not. But if you’re feeling the weight of your business because you don’t feel like there are enough hours in the day to get everything done. 

Or you feel like your overwhelmed because of all the work you have to do by yourself and your not spending enough time with your family or friends.

Whatever the case is, you need to figure out what’s going to be best not only for your business but for your mental health as well.

I would love to hop on a call https://taylorsvabiz.com/contact/ to chat with you about your business needs to see if I would be a good fit to help you!

An At-Home Beginner and Advanced Workout Routine

We have been talking about health and fitness all month and how it’s kind of important to try and stay healthy and fit.

I know people make excuses all the time because they think its to hard or you can’t lift weights or dumbbells that heavy. But guys guess what, you can start at the bottom with strictly bodyweight exercises.

That’s the only way your going to get your body use to working out, is by starting with the basics. If you are just now starting to work out and you try to go and lift the heaviest weight or do something you know you can’t do, you can risk being injured, and then you can’t work out at all.

Here is a home workout that is for beginners, if you’re just starting out, you can do this workout:

• Bodyweight squats: 20 reps
• Push-ups: 10 reps
• Walking lunges: 10 each leg
• Dumbbell rows (you can use a gallon milk jug or another weight that is similar in weight with a good handle): 10 each arm
• Plank: 15 secs
• Jumping Jacks: 30 reps

And that’s it! Your goal is to try and go through the workout sequence as many times as possible. Don’t push too hard or you will get hurt, but push just enough to get at least 3 rounds in. This type of working out is called “circuit training” and the objective like I said above is to try and get through it as many times as you can. 

If it gets to easy you can always challenge yourself and try to get through how many rounds in 1 minute or however many rounds in 2-3 minutes. It’s your workout and your challenge, you just have to push through it till the end!

Now let’s say your a little advanced and that beginner workout is too easy, but your still not ready to attempt a gym workout or a weightlifting class. That’s okay, you can do this advanced at-home workout instead.

It’s still a bodyweight workout, it’s just going to be a little more challenging:

• One-legged squats: 10 each side (only attempt if you’re in good enough shape because this exercise will test our balance as well)
• Bodyweight squats: 20 reps
• Walking lunges: 20 reps (10 each leg)
• Jump step-ups: 20 reps (10 each leg, if you don’t know what this exercise is, you can google it)
• Pull-ups: 10 reps (or inverted bodyweight rows, google it)
• Dips (between bar stools, google it): 10 reps
• Chin-ups: 10 reps (or inverted bodyweight rows with an underhand grip)
• Push-ups: 10 reps
• Plank: 30 secs

And there you have it, a little more advanced than the beginner and this workout will test your balance a little more as well as your upper body strength.

Please do not jump into this workout unless you know you can do it because we don’t want anyone to get hurt. 

I know it’s going to be tough and yes you will be sore after you finish, but it will be well worth it if it helps keep your body in shape and fit.

7 Health Benefits of Regular Exercise

How many of you exercise on a daily basis? Okay, how many of you are too lazy to exercise regularly?

I hate to say it but, the generation that we live in a lot of the time people don’t work out, like at all. And not having any type of physical movement in your day to day life can put you at a high risk for many diseases plus you are missing out on some awesome health benefits that are free of cost.

I know a lot of us are too busy, or some of us may have a packed schedule with kids going to sports and other activities but the benefits are good enough that we can try to make a few changes to fit it into our schedules.

Here are 7 benefits of having regular exercise in your daily routine:

1. Controls Blood Pressure– If you didn’t already know this, having high blood pressure can put you at a greater risk for developing heart disease. This can not only affect your heart but other health conditions as well. If you are exercising every day, it will help keep your blood pressure numbers normal and also reduce the risk of hypertension.
2. Regulates Blood Sugar Levels– Exercise has great benefits for diabetics because it helps control their blood sugar levels. It’s important that if you have diabetes or are close to getting it, try to start working out and take your doctors advice about what types of workouts you can do and the intensity of them as well.
3. Keeps you Energetic Throughout the Day– Starting your day with a workout is the best way to start a day. If you don’t do any type of physical activity or exercise, you start to feel lazy. Exercise can give you that required kick to start your day.
4. Supports Mental Health– Being active can not only improve your body weight or physical fitness but it can all boost your mental health. Your memory will also improve if you involve more exercise into your daily routine and it helps keep you stress-free.
5. Improves Sleep Quality– Did you know that you can get better sleep if you exercise daily. People who exercise regularly tend to sleep better at night, so if your having trouble sleeping, try exercising. A lack of sleep is bad for your health, so add exercise to your schedule to help maintain a good sleeping pattern.
6. Reduces the Risk of Heart Disease– Heart disease affects a lot of people in our population these days and there are a few factors that can put you at a higher risk. But exercise helps control the risk of getting it and it controls the few factors that can increase the risk of getting heart disease.
7. Helps you Maintain a Healthy Weight– We all know that this is one of the top reasons why people start working out in the first place. But having a healthy weight is important because it reduces the risk of getting multiple diseases because being overweight puts you at a higher risk. Exercising regularly will also help you maintain a healthy BMI which will help you lose weight.

Well, there you have it. I am no doctor or medical professional but I do know that exercising regularly has many health benefits and the pros outweigh the cons.

But what do I know, there’s only one way to find out.

So what are you waiting for, get out there and START WORKING OUT!

How to Fit Exercise into a Work Day

We all know exercise is super important and good for your physical health. But finding the time of day or a time in the day to actually fit a workout in, is always a struggle.

Between morning time with your kids and trying to get them ready for school or in the evenings getting them to bed on time, it can be crazy and challenging. Even if you don’t have kids, it’s hard to fit it into your schedule.

Some research has found that getting exercise daily can:

• keep our brains healthy 
• make us more creative 
• reduce stress levels 
• increase energy levels 
• boost our cognitive performance 

Which would explain why many of us have good time management skills and an increase in productivity on the job.

So, its time to start exercising- no matter how busy you are or how busy you think you are, there is always a way. 

And here are 6 ways that you can fit exercise into even one of the busiest daily routines:

1. Get Going Before Work– This for me personally is probably one of the easiest ways to get a workout in because you can get it done before your job has the time to consume your day. Although not all of us are working from home, it’s still doable. If you aren’t an early bird like me, setting an alarm 1-2 hours earlier may be challenging and feel like torture. But it’s still possible, I would suggest scheduling it into your calendar as well so it can feel like a real commitment to yourself and it will make it harder to go back to sleep. Plus you could also consider asking a workout buddy to help hold you accountable, this could be a spouse, significant other, friend, co-worker the list is endless. Trust me the benefits will outweigh the cons of having to get out of bed early in the morning.

2. Work Out on the Way to Work– If and only if you live within walking, running, or biking distance of your workplace, then this is a great opportunity to fit a workout into your day. You can turn the commute into a workout and it will improve your fitness without adding any new time crunches to your life. And this method will also ensure that work won’t take over your time, just remember to bring a change of clothes and deodorant to the office.

3. Move During Lunch– Some not everyone but some people are lucky enough to have a 1-hour lunch break. If this is you, that’s the perfect amount of time to head to the gym, and even if your break isn’t that long, you can still take a brisk walk outside, depending on the weather of course. This will not only improve your physical fitness but it will also give your brain an added boost. In one study it “found that taking walk breaks during the workday can help people reduce stress and improve their motivation.”

4. Embrace the “Rule of Threes”– Let’s say you just don’t have the time to fit in a 30 min workout session in the middle of the day, that’s okay you can still fit 30 mins of activity in, you just have to break it down into three 10 min sessions. And you can spread them out throughout the day, depending on what your schedule looks like. For example, you could do 10 mins before work, 10 mins during your lunch break and 10 mins in the late afternoon or as soon as you get home from work. You could do high-intensity interval training or cardio-intensive moves like jumping rope. If you don’t want to get too sweaty, going on 3 brisk walks will still help your body out.

5. Take Moving Meetings– Let’s be honest you are probably not the only one trying to add more exercise to your day, it’s actually pretty common. So if a meeting doesn’t require a PowerPoint or presentation, you can invite your coworkers to join in on a walking meeting rather than just sit in a conference room. And if your team decides to order take-out for lunch, you can ask a co-worker to walk with you to pick the food up instead of having it delivered. Did you know that moving while talking can increase our creativity, which means this will help us boost our work performance too?

6. Multitask– Even if you just can’t manage to carve out any time to fit a workout in, you can still incorporate some activity into your day. You could keep dumbbells at your desk and try to pump iron while your reading over a report or brainstorming ideas for an upcoming presentation. If you need to visit a co-worker or use the copy machine, you could take the longest route that way you can squeeze in a short walk. And there is always the stairs instead of the elevator when going to different floors. You can use a headset when taking phone calls, to pace back and forth. You could even do some yoga poses while your waiting for your printer to print materials, yes they are small actions but they can add up throughout the course of one day.

Everyone is completely different in their exercise habits and something that works for one person may not work for another. Some want to do the small actions throughout the day while others might want to run a couple miles before coming to work, it’s based on your preference.

I personally love doing my workouts in the mornings because it gives me so much energy to help fuel me and my workload throughout the day, but that’s just me.

If you need help figuring out what works best for you or you just want to chat and see if we can’t get a workout fit into your daily routine. I would love to help you!

Shoot me an email @ taylor2019@taylorsvabiz.com and let’s chat!

10 Tips to Help You Shop Healthy

How many of you dread going to the grocery store every week or bi-weekly because you know your going to spend so much money?

When you go grocery shopping, I find its always best to try and make a list before going, that way you aren’t just walking through the store picking up random things, that may or may not go together to create a meal.

But when it comes to shopping healthier, that’s even harder because unfortunately, shopping healthy can get pretty pricey, especially if you don’t know what you want exactly going into the supermarket.

Here are 10 tips that can be used to help you make healthier food choices while shopping:

1. Make a List– A huge rule of thumb is to always have a list of some sort. If you can you need to try and plan out your meals for the week or for 2 weeks, that way you have a list when you go shopping and you know the exact amount of ingredients you will need per meal.

2. Choose the Low-Fat Option– Not everyone is the best at this and I know it takes practice. But if you can try to choose the low-fat option when buying things like low-fat milk, low-fat yogurt or cheese, even salad dressings, and gravies have a low-fat option. You just have to take the time to look and see.

3. Buy Leaner Cuts of Meat– I know we as the American people like to have fat on our meat because it helps give it more flavor. If you are shopping healthier, the better option would be to buy a leaner cut of the meat. If your unsure, you can look for the Heart Foundation tick of approval.

4. Opt for “Skin Off”– This doesn’t apply much to meat because it does not have as much skin but chicken skin has a lot of calories and saturated fat. So if your buying chicken, make sure to get the skinless chicken breasts.

5. Beware of Salt Hidden in Processed Meats– There is so much salt in processed meats and its weird because you wouldn’t think there is, but it is a thing. Try to limit your consumption of salami, ham, corned beef, bacon, smoked salmon, frankfurts and chicken loaf if you can.

6. Purchase Fresh or Frozen Vegetables– The reason why they say to buy fresh or frozen is because canned and pickled veggies tend to have a higher salt content.
7. Check the Date– If you can check the date on the food you are purchasing, especially if it’s chilled or frozen. A use-by date is used to show the date that the product should be consumed by and a best-by date tells you the date until which the food will remain at its best quality.

8. Keep Hot Foods Hot and Cold Foods Cold– I know it’s hard but if you have insulated grocery shopping bags, use them to transport food between the supermarket and your home. Try to make sure that the high-risk foods such as meats, dairy products, and seafood are kept out of the temperature danger zone, you can store them below 5 degrees celsius or above 60 degrees celsius. If you don’t have those types of bags, that’s okay just make sure you go straight home from the store to avoid food going bad.

9. Look for Food Bargains– You can always bulk buy nutritious meal ingredients at supermarkets too as long as its a non-perishable item like dried vegetables, beans, legumes, or dried pasta.

10. Limit Takeaway and Convenience Foods– They are always super expensive, high in fat and salt, and low in nutrition. They always leave you hungry without a few hours after you eat them.

Those are my tips to help you shop healthy when grocery shopping. I know it can be difficult to shop healthy, especially if you have a big family. But it will be well worth it in the long run, because you will be putting healthy foods in your body that will help nourish it and make it strong.

Pre & Post Workout Supplements

How many of you take pre or post-workout supplements? How many of you have maybe wanted to but just wasn’t sure if there were side effects or health issues that came with taking them?

Can you take them while your pregnant or nursing? Do I have to be young or an athlete to take them? I’m sure there are all sorts of questions out there about supplements. And although I am not a fitness coach, personal trainer, or doctor, I just recently started the program Beachbody on Demand and I started taking pre and post-workout, and let me say it has helped me tremendously.

But I will let you be the judge of that. I would like to discuss a list of pros and cons with you when it comes to taking these supplements and to see if there are any health risks that are associated with taking them.

So let’s take a look at the pros and cons of taking a pre-workout supplement.

We all know that pre-workout supplements have been around for ages, but just in the last couple of years have they become something that bodybuilders take, or even casual exercisers tried to help them get a boost before a workout. All pre-workouts contain different amounts of the same ingredients- BCAAs (amino acids that help repair protein in the body) and beta-alanine (it’s another amino acid that helps repair muscle fatigue). There are also some out there that create creatine, which is said to help push you through the more intense workouts!

Try to remember that these supplements have different effects on different people but the pros and cons are very much the same. And it’s super important to do all your research on a supplement before you began taking it.

The Pros:

• Increased Mental Focus– Getting mental focus will depend on the type of supplement but you can always count on caffeine boost to help with your mental focus. Some supplements will use other stimulants that can be similar to caffeine for this very purpose.

• Increased Energy– This is provided by a large amount of caffeine, but having lots of energy is the primary purpose of taking a pre-workout supplement. And the beta-alanine helps you to be able to maintain this increase in your energy level for a long amount of time.

• Increased Strength– Claims in this area are a bit exaggerated but you will get some extra boost of strength from many pre-workouts. Over time, you will begin to notice a fast muscle growth as well.
• Increased Fat Burning– Some evidence shows that the caffeine that is in your pre-workout supplement may help you lose weight if taken in the right amounts. And because these supplements protect and help strengthen your muscles, they can also increase the ability to burn calories after your workouts.

The Cons:

• Potentially Increased Blood Pressure– Some supplements have unfortunately been known to cause an increase in blood pressure. So its highly recommended that if you are a person who already has high blood pressure, do not take pre-workout supplements.

• Irregular Heart Beat– This happens if you try to perform an aerobic exercise after taking a pre-workout, this is because of the combination of stimulants and the natural adrenaline. Pre-workout supplements are recommended to be used before a strength training workout for this very reason.

• Potential Dehydration– Caffeine is called a diuretic, and if there is too much of it in the supplement your taking for your body size, it can cause dehydration. Which in turn can make it almost impossible to even finish a workout, even if you are drinking water throughout, and it causes an unnecessary amount of strain on your muscles.

• Potential Adrenal Fatigue– People get used to the caffeine intake and eventually resort to bigger and bigger doses. If you aren’t careful about controlling the amount of caffeine you have, it can lead to adrenal fatigue.

• Potential Drug Test Failure– You have to look at the pre-workout supplements you’re taking if your an athlete especially because some contain ingredients that are banned from sporting leagues. So always do your research before purchasing anything.

• Cost– They can get extremely expensive depending on the brand and more than likely a pre-workout can produce the same results as if you were to brew a coffee for a quick caffeine boost.

That’s the pros and cons of taking a pre-workout. I will say if you have any pre-existing health conditions that you consult with your doctor first before trying to take one. And pre-workout is not for everyone. Some may like it and some may not, it’s your preference.

Now, let’s take a look at the post-workout supplements.

Post-workout supplements like pre-workouts are super popular because they help to ease that post-workout fatigue. These formulas combined with the best ingredients make recovery faster as well as helping to make your muscles bigger and stronger. Although they may have a wide variety of health benefits, there are risks as well.

The Pros:

• Provides Essential Nutrients for a Faster Recovery– Your body can only recover properly if it is provided with the right amount of nutrients for your cell repair. And as you work out, the levels of your essential nutrients in your body get depleted. This is why the recovery process gets slower if you’re unable to replenish those essential nutrients. If you take a post-workout, it’s going to help replenish those nutrients that you used up in your workout as well as promote faster recovery.

• Post-Workout Supplements Promote Consistent Muscle Gain– Post-workouts maintain muscle anabolism after a hard training session and that’s why athletes and bodybuilders take it. Your muscles are in an anabolic state, (when muscle growth is happening) when you’re working out, but after your workout, the muscles don’t maintain the anabolic state. The reason it leaves the anabolic state is because too much exercise triggers muscle breakdown due to stress. So the post-workout supplements promote muscle gain and keep muscle loss at a low.

• Reducing Post-Workout Oxidative Stress– Taking a post-workout can also help promote antioxidant activity in your body, which will help reduce the stress level on a cellular level. And antioxidant activity helps your overall health and wards off certain health issues such as carcinogenicity. Having oxidative stress can be detrimental to your body and mind. So taking a post-workout supplement will improve your physical and mental performance and you’ll get more health benefits due to fewer free radicals in your body.

• Optimize Fat Loss– When you workout, your ultimate goal is to get lean muscle mass and optimum physical performance but in order to do that you have to lose fat. Using a post-workout can help you get rid of belly fat but also help you maintain your peak physical performance. And when you lose fat loss, it gives your body more room to build muscle which will eventually increase your strength. A post-workout is most beneficial to people who are active and want lean muscle mass, and for better results, you need to make sure you are eating healthy and getting plenty of sleep.

• Soothes Post-Workout Pain in your Muscles, Joints, and Connective Tissues– After a workout, all of these things usually feel some discomfort and this pain is called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). It affects anyone and everyone that is involved in physical activities and post-workout can help manage or ward it off.

• Helps Hydrate the Body– Did you know that when you exercise, you are losing more than just water and energy and hydration is not always just drinking plenty of water. You also need electrolytes and a post-workout can provide that because it has the essential electrolytes that one loses during a workout. If you’re not into the post-workout, that’s okay, you can also drink coconut water.

To be honest, I didn’t even know about all these potential benefits, and I have been taking this stuff for about 2 weeks. I guess I need to do my research as well. To each there own I suppose. You ready for the cons of post-workout supplements!

The Cons:

• Can Be Pricey– Although post-workout supplements are mostly safe, effective, and convenient, they are not by any means cheap since they have so many premium ingredients. You could create your own post-workout if you think it will save you a few dollars, but if you do make your own, don’t expect it to be as good as the full-fledged ones at the store.

• Anabolic Window of Opportunity– If you’re consistently eating healthy along with your workouts, you shouldn’t need to take post-workout but it may speed up the process of muscle hypertrophy. And in some studies, it suggests that nutrient timing somehow affects certain biological processes in your body. When taking post-workout supplements, you need to take advantage of the “anabolic window” after you exercise. But science has not proven that the “anabolic window” of opportunity will optimize your muscle gain. But here are the purported benefits of proper nutrient timing on your body:
  • Glycogen Restoration
  • Muscle Anabolism
  • Stimulation of Muscle Protein Synthesis (MPS)
  • Muscle Hypertrophy

• Have Side Effects– Just like all the other supplements out there, post-workouts may have some side effects. Everyone’s body responds differently to supplementation and that is why some who take it experience these side effects. Although these side effects aren’t severe, you may experience discomfort or some regular activities might be affected. Here are a few to look out for, so that you can either lower the dosage or change the post-workout supplement your taking:
  • Gastric Discomfort (symptoms- indigestion, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea)
  • Muscle Cramps
  • Headache
  • Loss of Appetite

The bottom line here is there are always going to be pros and cons of just about everything you can think of. That’s why it’s so important for people to do their research, to make sure what they do or don’t decide to take to help improve their workouts or anything, in general, will cause them any harm.

If you’re living a healthy lifestyle along with your workouts, you shouldn’t need to take either one of these. But if you want to amplify the effects of your workouts, and experience a faster recovery, then taking a post-workout will help you do that and more. 

If you need help deciding which is best for you- check out this link: https://best5supplements.com/post-workout/best-post-workout-supplements-2018/

If you still need help, I would love to set up a FREE Consultation call, to discuss your worries or help you choose what pre or post-workout will be best for you and your body. 

Schedule Here—>>> http://www.taylorsvabiz.com/contact/

P.S. I just become a Beach body on-demand coach, and although I don’t have anyone on my team yet, I love helping people reach their workout goals!

How to Boost Your Immune System During COVID

Are you having trouble keeping your immune system healthy? I know it can be hard and stressful to stay healthy with this time we are going through.

But, you will feel a whole lot better if you strive to do these 9 things that will help boost  your immune system and help keep you healthy during this stressful time:

1. Eat Whole Foods: A Nutrient-Dense Diet– In any good diet or just in general our bodies rely on nutritious whole foods to help it function well. Did you know that “Death from infections is often not due to the infection itself but the body’s inability to fight it because of nutrient deficiencies?” And more than 90% of Americans have a lack of one or more nutrients in their diets. We need to focus on improving the quality of our diet and what we put into our bodies.
2. Cut Out Sugar and Refined Starches: “Studies have shown that refined sugars can suppress your immune system for hours after ingestion.” If we try to limit our starch and sugar intake, it will help our immune system work better and help improve our overall health. Diabetics are more likely to die from COVID-19 and unfortunately, 1 in 2 people are pre-diabetic or diabetic, we need to work extra hard to cut down out sugar and starch intake.
3. Ensure Adequate Protein Intake: The majority of Americans in the U.S. eat adequate amounts of protein, but the elderly and vegans do not. “Protein is critical for immune function.” If you arent getting enough protein, you can get what’s called “Protein Malnutrition” and its a huge risk factor for death from infections.
   1. Your Protein intake is based on your body weight. In order to figure out how much protein you need, you can take half of your body weight and use that number in grams for a targeted daily protein intake. For example, someone who weighs 150 lbs would need 75 grams or about 2.6 oz of protein a day.
   2. Here are 2 great protein sources:
      1. Animal Proteins: such as lean chicken or red meat, fish and eggs
      2. Plant-based Proteins: such as legumes, nuts/seeds, these are good if you consume enough of them You could also try Tofu and Tempeh for the best protein concentrations.
4. Add These Ingredients to your Meals: Here is a go-to list and most of these ingredients have antimicrobial properties. You can add any of these to soups, vegetable dishes, bean dips or even sauces:
   1. Garlic
   2. Onions
   3. Ginger
   4. Spices like Oregano, Turmeric, and Rosemary
5. Make Room for Colorful Fruits and Vegetables: You need to be eating multiple servings of colorful fruits and vegetables that are high in vitamins a, c and phytonutrients because these 3 help support your immune system. You could choose more leafy greens or cruciferous veggies like broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower, peppers, sweet potatoes, and squashes. Try to aim for 2 servings of fruits and 8 or more servings of veggies. And remember half a cup is 1 serving.
6. Eat Fermented Probiotic Foods: These types of foods are going to help support your microbiome and immunity. These would include probiotic and prebiotic foods like:
   1. Sauerkraut
   2. Kimchi
   3. Miso
   4. Tempeh
   5. Unsweetened Yogurt 
   6. Kefir
   7. Asparagus
   8. Artichokes
   9. Jerusalem Artichokes
   10. Plantains
   11. Dandelion Greens
   12. Leeks
   13. Onions
   14. Garlic
   15. Bananas
   16. Apples
   17. Flax Seeds
   18. Seaweed
7. Drink Plenty of Fluids: You need to make sure your consuming enough liquids to help support all your bodily functions that include the immune system. Try making soups and broths from scratch with fresh vegetables and have them throughout the week. You can drink herbal teas like ginger and turmeric tea. And keep a bottle of water with you AT ALL TIMES. Try to avoid heavy concentrated fruit juices and sweetened beverages because the sugar content is outrageous and you don’t need it.
8. Get Sufficient Sleep: Everyone knows that sleep helps restore and heal our bodies. If we don’t have or get an adequate amount of sleep, having an optimal immune function is next to impossible.  Try to get 7-8 hours of sleep a night. I know that isn’t doable for everyone because I know people have kids that keep them up or pets but at least try. You can also try to fit in various relaxation breathing techniques throughout the day to help with stress levels and to allow the mind to rest.
9. Get Regular Exercise: I know we all can’t fit in an hour a day of working out or a yoga class but getting mild to moderate exercise for 30-45 mins a day can boost your immune system tremendously where it be going on a short walk and biking in the evening. If you are feeling run down, try to avoid overexertion such as training for endurance events like long runs, because this my friend will lower your immune system defenses. If you can exercise outside that’s great, if not try to find yoga classes online.

I know this is hard work to do. Trying to eat healthy is probably one of the hardest things you can do, trust me I know first hand because I’m doing it now and it’s still a struggle. But you just have to really try to push yourself. And it also depends on how bad you want it. It’s so important that we try to keep our bodies healthy, during this time especially. 

If you need help with this part, I would highly recommend just doing some research to see what’s going to work best for you and your family. There are so many good health and fitness coaches or even free resources and programs to help you get healthy.

What are you waiting for?

GET TO IT!

Ways to Stay Active During COVID

I feel like this virus has gone on long enough, taken up enough of our time and our life that it just needs to be over.

I WISH…

Activities, sports, even churches are having to cancel or postpone events up to a year out. It’s sad because lots of kids and adults are losing out on something that love to do.

While we are not able to go out and do things or run errands because we are trying to STOP the spread of the virus, there are things we can do at home to help us stay active, in light of everything that’s going on in the world around us.

And we need to do everything we can to try and stay active during this time because it is essential not only for our physical being but our mental well being as well.

Here are 8 tips that will not only help you to be active during COVID but also be able to practice safe social distancing:

1. Exercise Outdoors: Most of the gyms around you are probably closed, and even if they are open, the public health officials are recommending you avoid them. So you should consider taking a hiking trip on a new path or try a water activity like Kayaking if the weather is nice. Your kids can also participate in these activities or other activities outside either with siblings or small groups of friends. Just be sure to supervise kids that are in small groups and discourage them from using sports equipment or jungle gyms to help minimize direct contact.

2. Exercise by yourself, with a friend, or in small groups of less than 10: If your headed outside to do a workout or outdoor activity, bring a friend or family member to help keep you company, just make sure you keep the CDC guidelines in mind. You will want to choose activities that will allow you to be an appropriate distance apart from each other, such as hiking or biking. If you decide to exercise with a small group, plan a destination to meet up to avoid close quarters like carpooling or fitness studios.

3. Engage in non-contact activities that allow space of 6 feet between participants: The best way to prevent the spread of this virus is to limit physical contact. The guidelines for the CDC recommend that 6 feet apart is a safe distance and there are plenty of activities that allow for this like biking or tennis. Some other activities you could do are running, bodyweight workouts, or even fitness videos. But if you decide to use any equipment, make sure to disinfect and clean them thoroughly after each use.

4. Rethink Recess: Since your children have been home for some time, it’s important that you don’t forget to let them have RECESS TIME! Physical activity daily is just as important if not more important for children as it is for adults. Adding recess to the distance learning school day will not only help them with fitness but it also helps with mental focus and concentration as well to help them throughout the day. You can include structured and nonstructured activities into the day.

5. Work on Improving Your General Fitness: If you have a strong core and aerobic fitness level, this is necessary for good fitness. There are many fitness-related instructors out there who are currently offering free online classes and routines for new users to help encourage activity. And lucky for you, you can work your core and cardio condition without compromising the safety of those around you by using:
   1. Home gyms
   2. Home-based video workouts
   3. Web-based exercise programs

6. Clean and Disinfect any equipment you use alone or with others:  This virus may remain on untreated surfaces for long periods of time, so be sure to follow the CDC guidelines and clean or disinfect surfaces and equipment that you have been using or with others daily. They say you need to use a cleaning solution that has at least 70% alcohol.

7. Exercise using your Body Weight: People often think that using your own body weight with a circuit type program is non-effective but in reality, it’s actually a super effective way to maintain your strength and aerobic health in a short period of time. Just remember that any exercise program that you decide to do needs to gradually increase in frequency, intensity, and duration that way you will avoid overuse injuries. You can incorporate bodyweight workouts in a variety of movements that don’t require much equipment at all:
   1. Burpees
   2. Squats
   3. Lunges
   4. Push-ups
   5. Yoga

8. Stay in touch with your Fitness Community Online: Whether your a competitive athlete or just a weekend warrior, try to stay in touch with friends and teammates through the appropriate social media channels. You could share your thoughts on the situation and hopes for normal activity as soon as possible. You could even create challenges for steps, stationary bike rides, or even run a virtual race together and compare times.

I said before there are tons of ways to stay active during this time, you just have to brainstorm some, get creative, there is also this little thing called the internet if you have access that could prove to be very helpful!

Activities To Do At Home During Quarantine

Do you find yourself getting bored at home lately? Or maybe your working from home but, its getting time consuming and you need a break?

Are your kids also driving you nuts because I know if I had older kids, even my 11 month old is driving me crazy and she’s not even in school yet?

Being in quarantine is tough on some of us because this is something some of us have never experienced and as a result, our mental health is declining.

If you’re like me, you try to find tasks or activities to keep you occupied, but those will only work for so long. And you really need to find some things that you can do by yourself and with your kids because they need to be entertained too.

Being humans requires us to have and emotional health, and if we don’t we are messing with an essential part of our overall well being. “According to Time Magazine, isolation could have a physical impact on your heart health.”

There are some psychology and health studies that have strategies that are suggested to help battle isolation and loneliness. Here are 3 questions you should ask yourself you start your day:

1. What are the 3 things you want to accomplish by the end of the day? Write them down.
2. What are the 2 things that make you happy today?
3. Who should you call or text to check on?

You should try to answer all these questions or at least write them down and think about them throughout the day. You never know what will come of them.

Let’s get back to those activities that I was talking about earlier. 

7 Activities that you can do either by yourself or with your children:

1. Try Yoga, Stretch Out Your Muscles:
   1. Of course, at this time you’re going to be a little more stressed than normal. I totally get it, having to stay at home and to be confined to one space is difficult. That is why starting the day off with yoga can be a huge stress reliever, not to mention the several benefits it offers such as:
      1. Decrease Stress
      2. Relieve Anxiety
      3. Promotes Better Sleep Quality
      4. Increases Your Strength

2. What’s even better is there are so many online yoga classes today in the world that you can stream them from almost anywhere. And you can do Yoga by yourself or get your whole family involved, it could be a fun family activity.  Just to name a few:
   1. DoYogaWithMe
   2. Yoga With Adriene

2. WTH? Have a Separate & Tidy Work Space: 
   1. In order to be productive when working from home, it’s so important to keep your workspace clean, and tidy. Even having a little clutter on your desk can cause stress without initially realizing it and we don’t want more stress. Taking the time to put your papers away or throw away your daily trash has benefits like:
      1. Inspired Confidence
      2. Improved Efficiency
      3. Better Use Of Time
      4. More Focus
   2. Trust me, it will totally be worth it in the long run!

3. Have a Daily Video Chat with 2 People and Rotate Them:
   1. Some research shows that having social interactions can improve our health and well-being. But too much of it can cause stress, especially if we are introverts. We just have to learn how to keep it at an optimal level. This can be an activity that you let your kids in on, especially if you decide to chat with family members or close friends. This also helps us stay connected and helps us maintain our relationships with those people. It’s super beneficial because it gets us out of our headspace. Here are a few apps you can use:
      1. Facetime (for iOS)
      2. Skype (multi-platform video-chat)
      3. Facebook Messenger

4. Check out That Restaurant Wish List, They May have Discounts:
   1. You can use a delivery app and still order from your favorite restaurants. And right now many restaurants are offering great deals. Here are some apps that are offering good deals and affordable delivery:
      1. Seamless- everyday special offers from 5:00 – 9:00 pm
      2. Grubhub- everyday special offers from 5:00 – 9:00 pm
      3. Uber Eats- you can get a $0 Delivery Fee on any order from local restaurants
      4. DoorDash- $0 delivery fee with orders over $10 dollars

5. Is your State is Still in the Process of Reopening, Check out Litty:
   1. We have been talking about how being in isolation for this long can really mess with a person’s mental health, especially if we are extroverts. And even though some restaurants are bars are re-opening, a good chunk of our friends is still probably out of town. If you live in big cities like New York or Los Angeles, this could prove to be much more difficult. 
   2. This new program call Litty could be your new best friend. It helps connect you with groups of friends that have similar interests as you such as personalities, music, and interests. They use an AI algorithm to do it and it’s free but the only catch is it’s by invite-only. So you have to apply and they will reach out if you’re selected.

6. Weekend Activities: Virtual Museum or Theme Park:
   1. Trying to find entertainment can be real tricky at this time too. And with any luck, you have scrolled through Facebook or Instagram 50+ times and you need to leave the house. But now places are offering a “walk” through museums or even theme parks from the comfort of your own home. Here are a few to look at:
      1. The Met – This award-winning series of six short videos invite viewers around the world to virtually visit The Met’s art and architecture in a fresh, immersive way – https://www.metmuseum.org/art/online-features/met-360-project
      2. Disney World – Explore a park in Disney- https://www.visitorlando.com/en/things-to-do/virtual-tours/walt-disney-world-resort
      3. Smithsonian – Access awesome exhibits- https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour
7. Sunday Mornings: Listen to a Sermon or Meditate:
   1. I know not everyone is religious and I totally respect that. But listening to a sermon may help you stay connected and hopeful in a higher being. It could also help bring you peace and remind you of your beliefs even if you don’t have many. You can also meditate because this is another great way to help release stress. And mediating can:
      1. Reduce Anxiety
      2. Promote Emotional Health
      3. Enhance Self Awareness
      4. Generate Kindness 

So although you’re helping the community by staying home and helping stop the spread of COVID, there are things that you can do to help keep your stress level down.

8 Tips to Writing A Legal Article

Who here is a lawyer or attorney?

How many articles do you write in a day, week, month, or even year? Probably too many to count.

I mean really how many times do I have to summarize a case, propose a point, or explain a concept just so that my publication can be used for my firm’s client resources.

Not to mention that fact that can take hours at a time to produce. I have to research points, read through a case, try to understand and articulate the main issues, create a draft, get some feedback so I can amend it, and then finalize a draft and submit it for publication.

The process may be different each time but the facts are the same and unfortunately writing an article costs lots of money.

And at this point are you even writing the article correctly?

I have put together 8 tips that will make sure you are writing your article the write way and it will make people read it.

1. Audience for your Legal Article: Do not finalize your topic until you know who your audience is and what they know; The easiest way to do this is to picture someone in your head, an avatar if you will and try to include as many details as you possibly can. This person won’t be a representation of every person that your article goes to, but it will give you an idea and help you find the right voice in your article. Once you accept the fact that you are writing to someone and not at them, a lot of issues that face legal articles will obliterate out of your writing. The language you write will be more appropriate, your headline, images, and style will also be more appropriate and personal. Your articles should be engaging, arresting, informative, and succinct.

• Your Article’s Headline: When writing an article, it should be about your potential client, not yourself; It should tell them why they care about the article and make them want to read it. They aren’t going to be clicked unless its something they are interested in reading. You don’t want headlines that are too clever, its got to be immediately meaningful, because if they can’t figure it out then they probably won’t click on it. If it’s a boring headline to you, then it will be to them also.

• The Extract of the Article: The purpose of the extract is to articulate to a person when their attention has been grabbed by your headline with a little more detail about your article. The extract must be pithy, catching, explanatory, and short. Sometimes they are the first few sentences of the article which to me is lazy, but normally they are too long and get cut off at mid-sentence not to mention the fact that it’s not informative as it should be. A good use of extracts could include:
  • Asking a question
  • Making a statement
  • Offering a benefit

• Opening Sentences Matter: If you have convinced me to click on the article then you need to also convince me to read it. Have you ever thought about how many people make it to the bottom of the article? The answer is not many. The opening sentence in your article HAS to align with the headline and extract- they have to tell the same story just in a different way. It needs to offer just enough about the article itself to make the person want to read the rest.

Do not include the answer to the question, the benefit you offered, or anything else that may make the reader think they don’t need to finish reading it. And DO NOT mention any case names or legislation because it will put your reader in a coma, remember it’s about ME, not you.

• Images- They need to Exist, and be Relevant: Right when you are done your probably going to go look at your LinkedIn feed to find a few law firms- then please tell me what their image is; Guess what, the majority of them are:
  • No image at all
  • A logo
  • A picture of the author

Want to know why? It’s because no one uploaded a relevant, eye-catching image. Usually, LinkedIn picks up a default photo which is normally the first picture it finds- and for law firms, it seems to be a logo or an author in the bio at the end. It’s super lazy, extremely boring, and not going to catch the attention of a scrolling reader on social media. It will take all of 5 mins to find an image that is going to be 100% times better and if you don’t do it then, let your marketing team do it.

• Your Legal Writing Style: How do you keep their attention after you have gotten it? Here are a few tips to help keep people scrolling until the end:
  • Short sentences and paragraphs are better than long ones
  • Break up your text with headings, images or extracted quotes
  • Larger fonts are better than smaller ones and read better on mobile

• Language-Is Legalese OK: Your language should be appropriate to your audience; If your in doubt about something, simple is better than complex language. Try to avoid jargon at all costs- if you have to include it, then you will need to explain it and unfortunately, that tends to break up the flow of your article. If it reads like an assignment then you will need to start over. Think about it this way- if your grandparents were to read it, would they know what its about and have the capacity to get the end? If you answered yes to that question, then you are on the right track.

• Length- How long should a Legal Article Be: As with any piece of legal writing, it should have as many words as it needs, no more or less; Think about this question when going to write your next article:
  • Do you know someone who needs a refresher or is prone to boring articles that make you cry?

In conclusion, we don’t think about what all goes into writing an article when its listed out step by step.

Next time try to think about all the steps or you can borrow mine, either way, it goes you can do it right the first time if you follow these pretty simple but good rules.

If you need any more help with writing a legal blog or just need legal help, let me know, I have a client who is an attorney and she would love to help you out!

http://www.taylorsvabiz.com/contact

3 Questions to Produce Better Content

You would think these questions would be super easy to answer, but unfortunately its not easy for everyone.

Do you struggle with producing the perfect content for your readers?

Think about these 3 questions:

1. What is my ideal customer researching before they would buy my product/service?
2. What’s the primary pain point of my ideal customer?
3. What objectives does my ideal customer have to buying my product/service? Or the reason they would say No.

The answers to these questions are going to help you produce the topics that you should be producing content about.

First Question: What is my ideal customer researching before they would buy my product/service?

Well in order to figure out what your ideal client is researching, you must determine who your potential customer is. You must narrow down and find a niche that works for you and decide what types of people you want to work with.

The next step would then be to post certain types of content and see what kinds of people are commenting to help determine specific content types you need to attract your niche customers.

Once you have accomplished that, you will know what your customers are researching and be able to appeal to them with your product/service that you offer or sell.

Second Question: What’s the primary pain point of my ideal customer?

The next step is to figure out your customers needs. What do they need in their business to help it thrive?

Do they need help with administrative tasks like keeping up to date with emails or scheduling appointments into their calendar?

Or are they struggling with the social media aspect of things and need help with creating, planning, and scheduling content?

Some businesses need bookkeeping VA’s that can keep track of invoices for employees or clients.

There are a bunch of different directions that this can go. But ultimately you will need to have a target audience that way you can figure out their pain points and make adjustments to fit their needs.

Last Question: What objectives does my ideal customer have to buying my product/service? Or the reason they would say No.

This one is an important one because you need to know why they would say no. You will figure this reason out by looking at feedback from content you post or from reviews that are given to you based on your performance.

You need to really look at those things to get a better idea of how you can adjust things and make the process either easier or more efficient for them when bringing them onboard as a client.

Some examples of topics that will help you produce better content:

• Give them the answer: to the questions that they are researching or asking
• Alleviate their pain: take their pain points away and let them know how you can solve them
• Overcome their objection: tell them why they should not say no to your product or services and why it would be helpful to them

I hope this way helpful.

If you still need help brainstorming ideas on how to produce better content, Let’s chat!

www.taylorsvabiz.com/contact

3 Sources to Help You Get Website Traffic

What traffic sources are you using to effectively bring people to your website?

Are they working?

There are 3 types of sources that you can use that are going to be most effective.

They are SEO (search engine), social media channels and digital advertising.

Here are some tips on how to get organic leads with SEO traffic:

• Optimize for your readers, not your search engine: this means you need to write for your buyer so you know who your creating content for; You need to create educational content that will relate to your ideal customer, that way you can organically improve your SEO. By tapping into the main issues of your ideal buyers and the keywords they might use in search inquiries, you will ultimately please them and the search engines.
• Blog Regularly: this is going to be the most effective way to increase your traffic because it allows you to go more in depth than your website can; And you can create a larger catalog of helpful content that is targeted on your niche. But try to avoid poorly written and spammy blog posts because it will do more harm than good.
• Use Long-Tail Keywords: don’t just use words that are popular in the market try to use words that are specific to your product or service; Over time google and other search engines will begin to identify your website and blog as a destination for that certain subject which will in turn help boost your rankings and help your ideal clients find you.
• Consistently Create Quality Content: Write and publish as often as you can but not at the cost of the quality of the content; The more valuable content that you create like leadership articles and blog posts the more opportunities you will create to get organic leads.
• Use Social Media: building on online presence on your social media pages such as Facebook, Instagram even LinkedIn will help drive traffic to your website because doing this gets your name and website address out there in the online world.

Using some of these tricks will help you get some major organic leads to your website!

Another way to get leads is by using your Social Media Channels.

If you don’t have any, you need to get them like NOW!

Ways to boost your social media channels and get them to your website ASAP:

• Set Goals: before you can even begin to work on your social media, you need to have goals set and know exactly what you want to achieve going forward; If you don’t do this step first you might end up wasting your time and resources. You need to know how each social media platform works and who your target audience is. And try to have specific goals that way you can measure your success and increase your social media presence in the long run.
• Fill in or Build Your Profile: this is the first thing people see when they click on your page, YOUR PROFILE, whether it is a Facebook, twitter, or Instagram, your profile shows visitors information about your business. You can let them know your hours, email, what your company or business does and do not forget to add a website link to every social media page you have! And social media now drives 31% of all referral traffic so Boost Your Profiles!
• Interact with Your Audience: just posting helpful content on your accounts wont help you grow your presence; You need to interact with your potential customers/leads and make sure to reply to their comments and respond to their posts. The whole idea of this is to help them to connect with you and your brand. Once they feel connected, they will then start to look at more of your posts and maybe even visit your website.
• Understand Your Audience: once you start to interact with your audience you will then need to figure out their needs. If you can do that then you can learn to connect with them on a more personal level. When you know what your target audience wants to see or read you can tailor your content to suit them which will in turn bring them to your website or business.
• Link Your Profiles to your Website: You need to make sure all your social media accounts are linked to your website; It will help your audience learn about your brand more easily so that you can focus on how to grow your social media presence and it will also get you website traffic and social media followers.

SEO and Social Media Channels are like Rain. We all know traffic will come we just do not know when it is going to come, and we have less control.

The last way to get leads is with Digital Advertising.

Here are a few ways to help generate leads through the digital marketing or advertising aspect:

• Use Content Marketing to Establish Thought Leadership: if you haven’t started producing content this is where you need to start; According to some statistics, it says that 96% of B2B buyers want content that has more input from the industry thought leaders and 47% of buyers have viewed at least 3-5 pieces of content before contacting a sales rep. So, your odds are pretty good. You need to regularly write blog posts, news and tips in your industry that have subjects or pain points that pertain to your ideal customer and that also help solve their problems. And do not forget to promote the content using online marketing methods like social media or SEO.
• Segmented Email Marketing: although its an older tactic, it can be a very powerful tool to use when trying to reach prospects or to help upsell current customers; But in order for this to work, you will have to adapt your strategy to tailor the message your sending to your specific target or segment it to your customer database. Marketing automation is super popular right now and it helps marketers automatically send out emails to targeted leads. You can sync your CRM and once your customers fill out a website form, they will be put into a particular workflow, and content will be sent to them based on their specific needs.

For Example: this could include a follow up email that has some great content in it, that is followed by a CTA to subscribe to your blog.

Digital Advertising is like a Faucet. We know where its going to go and it will come.

Those are just 3 of the ways you can get traffic to your posts or your website.

But do not just take my word for it, give them a try!

Need help brainstorming more ideas?

OR maybe you have ideas but need help putting them into place or need help with a plan of action.

Let us discuss more in detail how I can get you leads to your website and help you have the traffic you want!

www.taylorsvabiz.com/contact

What is a Content Wrapper?

First, does anyone know what a Content Wrapper is?

When I took a course on Content Marketing I had no idea what this concept even was but when I learned it, I understood it a little better and that’s what this blog post is going to be about.

Content Wrapper: it is “the concept of a wrapper that you can take a certain type of content, or a certain wrapper, and wrap it around any content type and any topic.”

That does not really make sense, the definition is weird, I will try to explain it a little better,

There are different types of “Wrappers” that you can use.

5 Staple Content “Wrappers” and how to use them:

1. Lists: you can create a list of resources such as books, events or even a post; Your list can also include tools such as apps, software and technology, it can also have tips statistics and people or brands.
2. The How-to Wrapper: this will show a potential customer how to execute a process from start to finish such as “how to set up a CRM system.” This will help establish yourself and your brand as the authority.
3. The Answer: literally you are answering questions that your customers are asking, a lot of times customers are asking google when they should be asking you especially if it applies directly to your product or service; The best way to find out what questions your customers are asking is to talk to your support or sales team.
4. The Interview: for this wrapper you can publish interviews with experts, customers, partners or even employers to list a few.
5. The News Wrapper: in order for you to pull this one off you have to play ahead and be on top of the latest trends, issues, products or feature reviews and events.

To take this even a step further, I am going to give you an example of each the types of content you can use for these specific wrappers.

• Lists: for this wrapper you can create an infographic that has valuable information about a certain app that is important to have in your business such as:
  • Acuity Scheduling: you could list the reasons why it is important to have a scheduling app and why this one is awesome to use
• The How To: you could create a video that explains in detail about how to do something step by step
  • How to set up a Facebook Business Page: there are different ways you can set up a business page on Facebook so you could go through step by step and tell them how to make one
• The Answer: you could answer questions on all types of platforms depending on the type and how long it is going to be
  • Answer in a Blog: you can answer questions in a blog post or maybe 1 question in particular that maybe is asked a lot, you can give the answer in a blog post and respond to multiple people instead of just 1 person
• The Interview: you can interview any type of person, I would suggest a customer
  • Podcast: a good idea if you have one would be to have an interview on your podcast; you could talk to them about a question they have about one of your products or services, you could interview a previous customer about why they did or did not enjoy the product or service that you gave them
• The News Wrapper: you can pull quotes, statistics, news
  • Images or Videos: if it’s the latest trend or something you found interesting in the news you can pull it and put it into a document or if it’s a statistic, you can quote it and post it on your social media account

Those are just some of the ways you can use wrappers to your advantage to help with your content marketing strategy.

Creating content is rather hard at times and I know it get frustrating because sometimes we do not know what to create content about. But using this method is helpful because it helps you brainstorm ideas in different ways.

If you have any other questions about the Content Wrapper Method or you need help with brainstorming.

Click this link www.taylorsvabiz.com/contact and let’s come up with ideas together!

10 Tips to Create the Perfect Blog Post

Who here is a blogger? Are you a blogger or do you write blog posts for your website? Or maybe you write blogs for a client?

However, you encounter these things called blogs, are you writing the perfect blog post?

Is it decent, average, or perfect?

There are 10 elements that go into writing a blog post and you want to make sure you follow it step by step when creating it.

And when your creating blog posts make sure your content is valuable and going to attract your ideal client.

If it does not have valuable information in it that the client does not care to know about then you will not have people reading it.

1. Elements that need to be in a blog post and how you can make them PERFECT:

1. Headline: this is one of the most important elements because if you do not have a catchy title, your readers will not want to read it.
   1. It Needs: to have a clear and written promise, and that its delivered in the body of the post; make sure you don’t have to many words but just enough to get your point across and its compelling without being misleading
2. Introduction: the other most important part because you do not want it to be intimidating or difficult to read
   1. It Needs: to be easy to consume and have a rhythm throughout the post and you want to make sure it draws your readers in so they will continue to read the whole article
3. Consumption: the format of your post is crucial because it needs to be consumable
   1. It Needs: smooth transitions between subhead lines and ideas
4. Goal: your goal needs to be clear and relate to the subject or title that you are talking about, do not go in a bunch of different directions
   1. It Needs: a clear call to action or CTA that is relevant to the subject, the CTA needs to compel the reader to take action and it needs to be located in more than one position within the post
5. Media: not everyone uses media or images for their posts, but you should
   1. It Needs: all the images, videos, and audio that you use need to be clean, clear and of a high production quality
6. Close: this is an important aspect because it needs to conclude the post
   1. It Needs: to effectively conclude the post, it should have humor, wit or other emotions that will compel the reader to comment, share or visit other pages on the blog
7. Search (SEO): is there any SEO being done in your blog post
   1. It Needs: all 5 of the SEO Elements (URL, body text, images, title tag and meta description) can be used to optimize a keyword that’s unique to that page; make sure all opportunities to cross-link to other content are being used
8. Categorization: there is not much to this one but basically you just need to make sure that the post is put in an appropriate category and that its tagged correctly
9. Completeness: sometimes its hard to make sure your blog post is complete, or you struggle to put everything it needs into it when writing
   1. It Needs: your post should completely deliver the promise that was made in your headline and introduction; Every idea in your post has appropriate media examples like videos, images, examples, data and/or links to more information
10. Consistency: is your blog post staying aligned with your brand and company
    1. It Needs: the content you are talking about should be consistent with your brand as well as consistent with other information that’s presented by your company or organization

These 10 elements if you follow them to a T you will have a perfect blog post every single time.

Its just a matter of taking the time to stop and think about what you are going to write about and make sure you write it step by step to achieve an 100% post.

If you need help getting started or your struggling to pick a topic.

Send me an email and let me help you figure it out, that way when you start writing it will be easy peasy.

Email: taylor2019@taylorsvabiz.com

Content Marketing Formula

The first question you should ask is, what is Content Marketing?

Content Marketing: according to google it is the creation and sharing of online material such as blogs, social media posts and videos; It is at the intersection or middle of advertising and publishing

And most business owners and executives only care about revenues and costs, that is what connects content marketing.

Any place that you create and add content to you can also add advertisements, assuming that your content will create an audience.

For example: if you look at a newspaper, that’s a bunch of content but around the outside of this content is a ton of ads.

What I am going to be explaining today is a thing called the Content Marketing Formula.

The acronym is a little weird and doesn’t spell anything out but its GVAAA. And it stands for Great Content, Value, Audience, Advertising, and Awareness.

I will walk you through it step by step so let’s get started.

G= Great Content=Value: if you are trying to create good content you need to be providing VALUE.

The reason why is because if you don’t have valuable content for your audience they aren’t going to continue to read it or follow you on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter especially if the content your creating doesn’t apply to them. They want to be learning about things that they don’t know how to do or maybe they do just not as well as what they would like. They also want to know how buying your products or services will help them in their business.

For example, let’s say you’re trying to sell a potential lead one of your services like Social Media Management; You need to let me know what your success rate is for growing followers on any social media platform.

Why are you going to be better to hire to help them with that service versus someone else that say has a couple certifications in that area?

You are going to convince them of this by creating content about social media aspects that you know how to do. If you are creating valuable content that applies to them and what they need, they will understand that you know what you are doing.

V=Value=Audience: if you have good content, that has good value, you will have an audience!

People tend to gravitate or be pulled towards value. If its something that they want to learn about or may be something that they need help in with their business, they will be following you and want to learn more. 

But if you are not creating good content and there is no value in your content, then there will be no audience. And you want an audience so you can show off your services and let people know what you can do.

A=Audience=Advertising: so really any place that there is an audience there will be advertising

Your audience wants value and advertising and if you aren’t creating those things then you won’t have an audience. The whole point of having good content is so you can advertise it to your audience but if the value isn’t good in your content then no audience.

Its kind of like a circle with this content marketing.

No Value in your Content, No Audience, No Good Content=No Advertising=No Audience

You have to understand the concept of creating good content with valuable information like educational how-to content, entertainment and humor content or even informational content. Its all valuable no matter which way you swing it.

A=Advertising=Awareness: if people are looking at your advertisements that means they are aware of you and your brand

If you have good content and good advertisements, you will have awareness across the board. You want your audience to be aware of your brand, your business and ultimately YOU.

What makes you stand out as a Virtual Assistant compared to everyone else?

Why is your brand and company so much better? How can you make people more aware?

By creating good advertisements and great content to help you make your audience more AWARE.

A=Awareness=Sales: if you do all these things correctly you will get your ultimately end goal and that is to get sales

If your audience is aware of your brand and they like your content they will buy or purchase your products or services.

The End Goal of the Content Marketing Formula is to Get Sales!

The cycle goes like this:

• Create great content that has VALUE
• If you have great value in your content you will produce and AUDIENCE
• Once you have your audience you can then start ADVERTISING
• Then your advertisements will turn in an AWARENESS for your brand
• And finally, if the awareness is there you will get your SALES

If you follow this formula to a T you will get the audience, you want and be creating awesome content.

Follow it or not, it’s a good process to think about when going to create your content

And just remember your main goal is to get sales so get to work, put in the effort and you will get tremendous results.

If you need help getting started or want some advice on how to start creating content, check out my blog post on how to create social media content from last month. You will not be disappointed!

http://www.taylorsvabiz.com/Business

Gaining Visibility To Get Book Sales

This is a wide question and could go a lot of different ways.

How do I gain visibility with my book? Basically, in short how do I get people to buy my book?

How you market your book does matter because when you do it the right way it can lead to all sorts of different opportunities like speaking gigs, interviews, book signings or even partnerships.

I am going to offer you some tips, tricks and free resources that you can use to help promote your book across social media, amazon and any other place you might want to promote your book at to help gain that visibility.

Why does the “HOW” matter?

Because there are so many tools available to authors these days to help them reach their potential readers and if you put in the effort you can definitely get the results you want. Now obviously the more (right stuff you do) the greater results you will get but visibility is all about being in the right place at the right now.

Your end goal is to market to sell books, right? And to sell it must be visible correct?

There are some specific factors that you will want to think about when trying to market your book(s), for example:

• Who is your ideal reader: make sure you have an idea of who you want your reader to be, otherwise marketing strategies may take a hit because you won’t have a specified target to market to
• What social networks do your readers frequent: where are your readers at, you cannot market to them if you do not know what social media platforms, they hang out in
• What motivates your reader to buy your books, products, and services: What is their motivation? What encourages them to purchase the book or service or product you are selling? Is the title catchy? Is the cover pretty? All things you need to think about when marketing.
• What is your readers pain point and does your book offer a prescription: this means what genre is your book and will it help them with an emotion they are feeling; like if they are feeling sad about their relationship status, is your romance book going to help them get through that and help them to never give up on love.
• What is your objective with your marketing: what do you hope to accomplish or get out of your marketing, what is your end goal?
• Do you have a budget for marketing: in this day and age marketing can get pretty pricey depending on what you want to do with it, so make sure you write down or have a budget in mind going forward
• Are you committed to consistent efforts in your marketing and sales: if you aren’t committed 100% why are you doing it in the first place? You will not see improvements unless you put in the effort and give it your all

Those are your specifics, what’s next you ask?

Well visibility is a result of the type of marketing that you do, but to get those types of results there are two different types to get you there.

They are called Short Shelf and Long Shelf Life Marketing.

And let me tell you there is a huge difference between them.

Short Shelf-Life Marketing in a nutshell is described like this a “flash in the pan.” And two examples of this type would be Facebook Wall Posts and Tweets. Although these options might create a viral post most of the time they do not.

Now I am not saying you should not post on Facebook or twitter because you will get traction results but in order to be successful as an authorpreneur, you need to think long term.

Maybe consider this when posting those:

• Where are you leading people with those tweets?
• Are your Facebook Posts strategically arranged?
• Is there an integrated approach to the way you are marketing with your social media?

Long Shelf-Life Marketing is super sound as in “your efforts pay off for weeks, months, even years down the road.”

Some of the ways you can create long term results are:

• Blogging
• Guest Blogging
• Blog Tours
• Interviews
• Podcast Shows

Beginning sooner rather than later would be best. You will get greater results the sooner you start. But put a plan together do not just jump into it head on.

Create an organized plan with lots of opportunities that lead your potential buyers to a “buy now” button for your book.

Do not wait for your book to be published, start marketing RIGHT NOW!

There are tons of things that you can do to get ready before your book gets published and here are a few:

• Prepare your social media kit: get all your social media stuff put together and prepared for when you post on platforms and get booked on podcasts to do interviews
• Write a Strong Bio: get an amazing biography put together, you will need it for your book too
• Get Headshots: schedule a photo shoot to get a couple headshots for either your book cover or to help promote the book, people will remember a good-looking face
• Select a Few Sample Chapters and give them away: you can always give out free samples to bookstores, friends, or family, that way when your book comes out, they will want to read it

Those are just to name a few but there are tons more and you need to start doing them NOW.

If your book is already being printed that’s not a problem, just start where you are at and go from there.

And no matter where you are in your lifecycle of your book, don’t forget its never too late to look for promotion opportunities.

THE MORE VISIBLE YOU ARE ONLINE THE BETTER!

There is one more step in this visibility process and that is to Gain Brand Awareness.

Here are a few ways to help gain it:

1. Build visibility with social media: the best way to get noticed is to have a solid and strong social media presence; Before taking a hit and miss with social media really think about where your potential readers are. You need to look for specific forums and networks where you think your target audience might hang out. For some its Facebook others it may be LinkedIn, and this will also depend on your genre for the book. There are also online communities that will cater to lots of different industries and interests you just have to do a little research.
2. Content Marketing is the way to go: you must do content marketing in the online world today and it is a strategic marketing approach that is essentially tied to your overall digital marketing strategy. You have to create valuable content that will attract your ideal clients and readers. This is however an ongoing process so you must be consistent in your efforts.
3. Create a pitch for your book with great hooks that will spark the interests of show contacts: you could send out a media release to pitch your book or a short email works too. When your pitching just keep in mind that social media is constant and overwhelming, so keep the pitch straightforward and to the point because they will not waste time going through a bunch of extra information.
4. Be Consistent: Lots of authors tend to promote and gain visibility halfheartedly and don’t put forth 100% effort. If you put in half the effort you will get half the results. Try to commit to doing something every day. The more committed you are to put in full effort the better outcome you will have.

These are all amazing opportunities to try and gain visibility.

BUT its only going to work If you put in the effort. This won’t work if you aren’t trying or you’re only doing half of what you should be doing.

And being consistent about your marketing is important so keep going.

Do you have a book coming out soon?

Or maybe it’s already out and you’re not getting as much visibility across the board as you would like.

Let’s hope on a call today and discuss how I can help you get the visibility you need to make those book sales!

http://www.taylorsvabiz.com/contact

Helpful Tips When Booking Speaking Gigs

Are you a professional or motivational speaker? Or maybe you are an author that is looking to either promote or speak about your book at an event?

There are a few things you need to think about when trying to book a gig and there are 7 basic steps when trying to book a gig.

Here is a step by step guide to help you book speaking engagements:

1. Decide WHY you are Speaking: you need to first determine why you want to speak at an engagement because this will help with the rest of the process; Most people that speak to the public get on stage for 3 main reasons:
2. To Sell Books
3. To Advertise Consulting/Coaching Services
4. To Build a Career as a Speaker
5. The Key is to figure out your primary purpose for wanting to speak
6. How are you trying to serve your audience?
7. Are you trying to establish yourself as a thought leader?
8. Sell your books?
9. Talk to your friends or mentors and nail down why you want to speak that way you don’t have to go backwards or re-do anything

• Outline your Talk(s): although it is possible to approach venues and tell them “you’re a good speaker, pretty smart what do you want me to talk about?”

But most of the time it is hard. Because venues want you to approach them and say something more like “I’m an awesome speaker, I’m pretty smart and here is the talk I would like to present for you.”

They want you to offer value that’s ready to go and to show that you know what you’re talking about, your super confident in your abilities and that you really know their program and audience well enough to bring specific ideas to the table.

Do not write the whole talk upfront but just write out a few basic topics with outlines. You can give them catchy titles and make sure you are able to answer some questions.

Also think about the kind of venues that will host your talks.

Here are some examples:

• Build Your Online Platform in 12 Months
• Get it Done! How to Beat Procrastination and Write Your Book
• Travel Writing for Fun and Profit

• Join the Chamber of Commerce: whatever interest group, service club or networking organization that you prefer that has people speak on a regular basis; Or maybe you like international or out of state conferences and engagements, you choose.

After you go to a few meetings, you may be asked to give a presentation on what your area of expertise is and this is a perfect way to test your public speaking spirit and to later get some contacts for other serious gigs.

This is also a great way to get feedback on what is working in you content and delivery so that you can continue to fix and improve your speaking abilities!

• Set Up Your Online Presence: you will need a speaking page on your website or have a main social media outlet, it would be ideal to be on both.  

But you Do not Need to be on Every Social Media Network Just be Active Somewhere

Your Page Should Include but is not Limited to:

• A dynamic photo of you speaking
• Your name
• The names of one or two of your talks
• A description of what you speak about
• Your local area

You should observe all best practices for professional web and social media profiles

Make sure you create a professional website that is easy to navigate and has plenty of ways to contact you!

This is where you will send people after approaching them about speaking opportunities, its like a lobby and your front page so make sure its slick but still professional looking.

• Book a Local Venue to Speak: start sending emails and making calls to places that host speakers

For Example:

• If you want to sell books: hit up your local library, coffee shops or bookstores to set up a reading
• If your building your coaching career: you can look to local meetups or conferences in your area
• If you’re just speaking to speak just look for local upcoming events in general

You should expect a 3-4-month lag at a minimum, between getting booked and speaking, so make sure you keep your calendar aligned for that type of time gap and approach accordingly if the event has specific dates

Some venues have specific guidelines for speaking proposals whereas others will just have you write the basic details and what you can do for them.

And keep in mind you may have to approach a couple dozen venues before you get one booked but remember you would not be in this career if you were afraid of a little rejection!

• Speak at a Regional Conference: Try to find a MAJOR regional conference or convention in your area of expertise
• For building a speaking career, you can go to the conference in your field
•  If you are a writer, speak at a fan convention or writers conference
• General speakers should identify and approach conferences in their town with a tailored presentation

Booking a regional gig is the same as booking a local one, you will just be competing with more people for better slots

Your online presence needs to be sound; and you should add engagements that you have already succeeded at and have people write testimonials for you that attended it as well.

• Set up Your Film Crew: as your working on your skills at the local and regional events you need to start thinking about how your going to “make the show” in order to graduate to those national speaking events to make a big payday.

To get booked at that level you will need a Demo Reel, so even though you are still in the beginning stages, you will need to figure out how you are going to get it on film.

Some Examples that will be useful:

• Having a friend come film you talk
• Hiring professionals to film you talk
• You can ask the conference organizers if they can film your talks
• Or using 3-4 people to film with their phones using different angles

Once you have done this you can then hire a professional to help you go through the raw footage and be able to turn it into the best 5-10 mins of your talk; You could also put together a couple 30 sec to 1 minute clips of your talk as well.

You can then put these videos and clips up on your site and social media pages; you will then link them when pitching to other events from then on.

These are just a few steps to helping make your career in speaking super successful.

Are you having troubles putting a plan into place?

OR maybe you have a plan but need more confidence and motivation to help you get that gig.

Let’s hop on a call and get started today: www.taylorsvabiz.com/contact

I can make your life easier by getting you booked real soon!

Scheduling Out Content

This month we have been talking about social media content; finding your ideal client, how to provide valuable content and creating it. The last step is how to schedule it out and there are a few different tools that you can use to schedule and plan it out.

The most important thing you need to do when scheduling content is a term called Splintering Content, this means whether you have a blog or look back at previous posts, you try to create as many posts as you can with that one piece of content. You can pull quotes, strategies, phrases, anything you can think of to create different posts across the platforms. And DO NOT POST the same content in multiple platforms.

You also need to have a monthly social content calendar to help better lay everything out. I would recommend using google sheets or excel and label each month to the end of the year. You can write the days of the week at the top, put in the numbers for the month and you can even color code the different platforms. After you have created the sheet, you can duplicate it until you get to the end of the year, and just change out the content every month. Your content should be a mixture of bandwidth which is content that you have received from surveys and questions,  + splintering content that you have pulled from previous blog posts etc. + content you already have that got lots of views, comments, etc.

                An example would be 3 quotes + 2 videos + 2 tip graphics!

You should also think about creating a creatives page. This is a basic outline of your monthly content that will be going into the content calendar. If you have a content/graphics team that does this for you, it will be good to have this for them as well; that way they can go in and replace what they need to if you decide to switch or change something up.

Scheduling your posts is important and it’s a time saver because if something comes up and you can’t post, you will already have something in place to go out consistently. Some entrepreneurs wonder why they lost viewers or followers, its probably because they post consistently for a couple months and then stop posting, so people stop following you. Also look at what time your ideal audience is online, you will want to post the most when they are on that channel.

                When scheduling content, there are two ways to do this:

1. On Channel Scheduling: you can schedule them on the platform to go out at a certain time and day; the benefits of scheduling with this, is you can go live on the platform, you can schedule IGTV and it has an uncomplicated interface and is easy to schedule. The non-benefit is you have to schedule across multiple platforms instead of just one. The creator studio scheduler is very beneficial if you are going to be posting lots of content to FB and IG because you can do both from this platform.
2. 3^rd Party Scheduling: You can also use schedulers such as Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule out all your content across multiple channels. These also allow you to engage with your audience as well on them.

Scheduling out content is important, and it will help your business grow, so that you won’t have to worry about staying on top of it or trying to figure out what to post every day. Organization is key with this type of thing, but you can do it!

                Let me know in the comments what your favorite tool is to use for social media scheduling and why?

Creating Social Media Content

There are lots of different types of content that you can create across the 5 main social media platforms. Those platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Every platform is different; specific types of content might work for one platform but not the others. This is where research will come into play, really knowing what platform your ideal clients are on and posting on that platform content that will apply to them personally.

The there are 4 main types of content that you can post across the platforms:

• Motivational/Inspirational Content: quotes or spiritual things to help keep people motivated
• Educational/How-To: this is telling people how to do something or showing them how to in a video like how to set up a system or program that they may not know how to use
• Humor/Meme: using personal stories or humor can let these ideal clients know that you’re a human being and you know how to laugh and aren’t serious all the time
• Promo/Advertising: letting ideal clients know about promotions you are doing or a new product you are advertising

These categories can be broken up even further depending on what platform you are posting on.

• Twitter: text or advice, images or memes, ask questions, breaking news, even trending topics.
• LinkedIn: videos on advice, images, articles, these are like twitter
• Facebook: graphics, videos, images
• Instagram: Quizzes, polls, questions, feed videos, igtv
• Pinterest: you don’t have as many options for this platform, but you can create boards of images, graphics whatever you desire

Do you notice a pattern with all these platforms? They all have similar things that you can post, you just have to think about what types of content will apply to your ideal client. What are their needs? What are their pain points/ tasks that they need help with the most?

When you take into consideration all these things, when thinking about creating content, you will be able to better help your ideal client. You need to research your client, figure out their pain points, and then you can figure out how to create content that will help them with their business.

Subscribe Now to get a free download on how to better help with time management: http://www.taylorsvabiz.com

9 Tips to Start Writing a Book

If you are an author listen up, this post is for you. How many of you are authors and write books for a living? Or maybe want to write a book but do not have any clue how to get started? I am going to give you some pointers on how to get the ball rolling.

Writing a book is sometimes a hard process and it takes a lot of time, determination, patience, and hard work. But if you put your mind to it, I know you can succeed. And even though it is a challenge it is also very rewarding. Because you get to say, “I wrote a book.”

I am going to give you a step by step guide on how to write a book because there is a lot of things that go into writing one that people probably do not even think about. So, follow along please.

1. Pick a Genre: Look at your bookshelf and tell me what you see. Romance, Action, Thriller, Horror? This is the first crucial step in writing a book is choosing a genre. And please do not base your decision on what type of books sell, you need to pick the genre you like to read. If you are writing about a horror book and you love romances it may turn out to be a crappy book if it even gets finished. Write a book for yourself not for the market.

• Start from the End: They say endings are the hardest part of any story, but don’t take my word for it ask any writing friend of yours. Lots of beginners start out strong but are confused by the time the end draws near. Not the mention the fact that the end of the story stays with readers the most. So, before you begin to write anything at all, decide how your story is going to end. You must work backwards and make sure it can be redrawn or revised indefinitely that way you can make changes if needed. How do your character(s) reach their ultimate fate? What are the motivations that lead to the close? What was their beginning? These questions will help you write the perfect ending that way your plot sounds more plausible.

• Create Your Characters: The characters are the inspiration of any good written book. You must also draw out your characters before you even start writing your book. Here are some tips to help with this step.

1. Write a Character Biography: You need to make a deep image of the character and make him/her more convincing. In order to do this, you need to answer these questions: When was the character born? What is their name? Who were her parents? Was she/he considered middle-class, rich, or poor? What school did she go to? What was her/his major in college?
   1. Understand the Character’s Motivations: What does your character desire? What are the incentives for what he/she is doing?
   1. Understand Character Arc: This tip in creating your character refers to your characters development in the story. The key quality for every good character is change. For example: Harry Potter is super young and naïve at the beginning of the series but overtime he becomes a strong and independent adult.
   1. Understand the Struggle: Character 1 wants 2 but 3 is in the way. How 1 overcomes 3 in order to get 2 is the ultimate plot of any story. You really must understand your characters and what their struggles are throughout the entire story. For example: in the movie Rocky he wants to be the ultimate fighting champion but crushing indigence and Apollo Creed stand in his way. How he chooses to overcome these obstacles is the high point of the story not the final fight itself.

• Make an Outline: Once you have created your characters and have placed them firmly in place, you should start creating an outline of the storyline. It is used as a rough guideline to help hold the plot in place. And feel free to improvise while you write and not follow it word for word. In the outline you should include.
  • A short and sweet summary of each chapter
  • Describe the main challenge in the novel
  • Show how different occurrences and characters interact and affect each other (1 kills 2 and 3 takes the fall)
  • Always allow plenty of room for revisions

• Write the First Draft: This is where you will find the story by yourself. As you start writing you will discover that your characters and plots are going in directions you never even thought possible. The outline you wrote earlier will be tossed as you begin to experiment with your characters, plots, styles, and forms. You need to push yourself creatively and do not try to be perfect because eventually these rough thoughts, ideas, and plotlines will become an amazing book. Of course, you will have tons of editing and revisions but for now just focus on writing.
• Get Yourself a Drink: After you have finished the first draft, grab a drink of water you earned it.

• Rewrite: Unfortunately, this is the part where most writers FAIL. Its so easy to type or write out a rough draft but turning that outrageous mess into something that readers might want to read takes lots of time, patience, and practice. You should try to give yourself at least a month in between the first draft and a rewrite because this will give you plenty of creative distance that is necessary to analyze your writing dispassionately. Ask these questions:
  • Does the plot make sense?
  • Are all your characters convincible?
  • Is the speed to fast? Too slow?
  • Is the writing fresh and imaginative enough?
  • Is the story enjoyable to read?

The rewrite should take you a decent amount of time longer to write that your first draft. But don’t worry about getting every word right, you have the editing process to take care of that; just focus on putting those ideas from the draft into a story that makes sense.

• Edit: Are you done with the first rewrite? Please do not start having fun yet. There is still a lot that needs to be done. Editing is the opposite of writing. Instead of turning attractive metaphors and creating luxurious allusions, you have to delete them. The superb adverbs you found are gone and those lengthy poetic asides are deleted. To make editing a little easier here are some tips to follow:
  • Minimize adverb usage: Adverbs are a slacker’s writing crutch. They get reduced into a single word that should ultimately be context. Be more descriptive.
  • Use Plenty of Synonyms: This quote is used in Dead Poet’s Society and it says it all, “So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys – to woo women – and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays.” In conclusion don’t be lazy with your words because your readers will get bored.
  • Tighten Up: You most certainly do not want your book to come across as impassive. Take out words that are not absolutely crucial to your story because your original draft should be half the size after a good round of editing.
  • Get Outside Help: The bulk of many writers do not have the analytic distance to edit their own books correctly. Seriously think about getting outside help, whether it be a professional editor or friend to look over your manuscript.
• Party:  Congratulations you did it, you wrote your first book. It is time to party hard and then wake up the next morning and start on another book!

These are all steps to help you write a successful book and make it reader worthy. If you follow this basic guideline, you will not be let down.

You need to push yourself to really succeed and overcome your fears of writing a book and getting it published.

Need more ideas on how to start? Or maybe you just need the motivation from a friend or colleague to help you make that first step.

Let’s get together so I can help you write your dream book. I may not be an editor or author but I can help you with the backend of things like taking care of administrative needs during your writing book time or posting on social media to help promote your book and get you on podcasts as well.

Schedule a consult at www.taylorsvabiz.com/contact and let’s get started!

Tips to Promote your Book on Podcasts

 Are you having trouble getting your book out to the right audience? Do you know who your audience is for the types of books you write? What is the genre and who is your direct target?

These are all questions that will help to better promote your book. If you know who your wanting your book to target you will be able to find podcasts that will specifically want to promote your book or start your own podcast.

But you have to look for the right types of podcasts that speak to that specific audience.

There are a few different ways to increase your book exposure by broadcasting about it on a podcast or even having your own broadcast can make a huge difference.

• Intimacy: Promoting your book on a podcast allows you to connect with your fans on a deeper level; even though you are speaking to thousands of people it also lets them know you are speaking directly to them and sharing your story. A connection like that can be extremely strong and many fans will consider you a friend even if they do not know you.
• Accessibility: We all have super busy lives and what is so great about a podcast is it’s super mobile friendly. You can listen to it whenever and wherever you want. Your audience can’t stop and read a blog while they are working or at the gym, but they can listen to a podcast. You could become a part of their daily routine and you can’t put a price on that.
• Flexibility: This allows you to give your audience quick responses about your latest trends or in this case your book that your writing about or working on. You can tell them about the type of book it is, what it’s about, what inspired the book, those details will keep your audience wanting to learn more.

These tips will overall help your brand exposure as well as lead you to a larger fan base to promote your books. If you have your own podcast, it’s different because people like it when your narrating your own audiobooks. Also with the huge book market and the millions of titles that come out every month, it will help you really stand out from the crowd.

Don’t worry if you have never created a podcast before or been on one. If you are a newbie to the podcast world there are always experienced podcasters who are willing to give advice and be supportive. You just have to put yourself out there and ask.

When speaking on a podcast or your own, here are a few different ideas that will help you sell and market your books but also target your core audience.

• Readings: This is a lot like bookstore readings, but the difference is you can polish or continue your story. As an author you can launch a podcast reading in consecutive episodes. You can do multiple readings across the course of one week or more to get your readers to want to eventually purchase and read it.
• Live Q&A: Letting your listeners who are potential customers ask questions on your podcast is a great way to connect with your readers and promote your book. It allows them to get their questions answered but still be tuned in to your podcast.
• Interviews: Take the time to invite colleagues or people that are either in the book or have contributed their time to talk on your podcast. You can have a casual conversation with these awesome people, and it will add supplemental to your book.
• Virtual Book Tours: Look for guest appearance opportunities on other relevant podcasts that relate to yours and do promotions their as well. The more potential readers and fan base you have, the better you can promote your book.

Having a podcast is equally fun and if its fun for you it will be fun for your audience. There are lots of different ways to tackle a podcast and you can learn so much. It’s also inexpensive and starting with the basics is all you need.

If you use these tools and resources to help you get started with your podcast, who knows what you will accomplish. Ask an experienced podcaster for advice if you get stuck. Make a plan to market and sell your book.

If you need help putting a podcast plan into action or you need advice on how to get started. Or maybe you want to promote your book(s) on a certain podcast.

Schedule a call at www.taylorsvabiz.com  so I can help get you booked on podcasts or get a strategy together to create and launch your own podcast!

Always Provide Valuable Content

There are a few questions you need to think about when you are figuring out what types of content you are going to post on your social media platforms. Last week I talked about how to research your ideal client and find out what types of content you need to post to attract this client.

                What type of client do you want to work with? What is the age range of this client? What are their interests and challenges? What pain points do they have and what types of services do they need? What types of content or resources do they prefer? These are all great questions to think about when creating content because you want your content to answer them for the ideal client.

                You want to provide content that will attract your ideal clients. It could be posting videos on how-to do something to help their business, motivational or inspirational quotes to build them up or even throwing some humor to help lighten the mood. You may want to also consider doing promos or events to help launch your products or services depending on what types of things you offer or are selling.

                All of these things will help you when creating content. You want to create something magical that keeps these ideal clients coming back for more. The better the content, the more customers you will get, which will help your business in the long run.

                Schedule a consult today to learn more about how I can help make your business be successful!

                                http://www.taylorsvabiz.com

Researching your Ideal Client

When thinking about what type of content you are going to create for your social media accounts, you have to think about who your ideal client is. Trying to figure out who your ideal client is will help you create valuable content that is focused towards that client.

Who do you want to try and help? What are those specific needs for that ideal client? Who will benefit the most from your products or services? Once you can answer these questions, you are ready to do some research.

The first thing you will want to do is look at your past interactions or comments on content that you have previously posted. What types of people are commenting on your posts? What types of content are you posting and who is that content attracting the most? You will have a better idea of who your ideal client is and what type of services you need to offer, once you figure out what types of people your content is attracting.

Another thing you will want to look at is what social media platform your clients are in. For example: if you decide you want to work with business coaches, you need to scope out the different platforms to see where business coaches hang out at. It will all depend on who you want to work with, will decide what platforms you need to be in to attract those ideal clients.

The final thing you will want to look at is building a complete profile. You really want to pay attention to this step because how you build your profile will reflect on what types of people you want to attract for your services or products. The more information you know about your ideal client, the better off you will be in building your profiles across the different platforms. You need to outline everything that makes your ideal customer tick including what services they need, types of content they prefer, videos, graphics, inspirational quotes, what their job title is and what their pain points are.

Focusing on what you have previously used in past content, to knowing what your ideal clients pain points are, will help you create more valuable content. The more you know about your client, the better you can help meet their business needs.

To learn more about finding your ideal client to help launch your products or services, subscribe to my email list, so I can send you freebies and more! Check it out on my homepage!

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How far in advance do you book flights?

What kinds of things do you think about when your booking a flight? Are you booking an international or domestic flight? How soon is too soon to book?

                Booking an international flight is a little different than booking a domestic one because there are several factors that you must consider. One of the many things you must think about is the timing, you should also think about where in the country you are going. Since international flights cost 2 ½ times more than domestic flights, you need to think about these factors. When traveling overseas the cheapest days to fly are Tuesdays and Wednesdays; July and December are going to be your most expensive months and do not book within 3 weeks of when you want to travel, or you will be paying extra. A rule of thumb when booking flights internationally is to book flights anywhere between 40 days and 10 month just to be on the safe side; you will need to do research on what month will be the cheapest to fly as well as the most expensive. Every country is going to be a little different. You will always want to book early for international flights no matter what.

                Booking a domestic flight is a little different but as far as the days and what not they are the same. When you book a domestic flight the amount of time to book early is 50 days or seven weeks in advance. If you buy this far in advance you can save close to 10 percent. Booking ranges anywhere from 21 to 121 days but you can still buy flights up until the date you plan on flying, you just might not save as much money because flights fluctuate on a daily. If you book a flight in advance and then decide there is a better price within 24 hours of booking, you can get a refund and rebook your ticket with no extra fees thanks to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

                Did all your questions get answered about booking flights? Let’s get on a call and chat to see how I can help you get your flights booked and save you some money.

                Schedule a Consult Today: www.taylorsvabiz.com

How to Survive a Long Flight

Are you getting ready to take a business trip or vacation? Is the flight going to be a short or long one? The short ones are the best but unfortunately these flights are not always available, depending on where you go, your flight could be a long one.

                I have a list of 10 survival tips to help you get through long flights, that way when you get there you will be relaxed and ready to start your vacation or business trip.

1. Comfortable Clothes: finding comfortable clothes to wear on a long flight will be much more relaxing for you especially on a 10-15 hour flight; You should wear loose layers in case it gets chilly or to warm and having closed toed shoes on in case of emergencies is a plus.
2. Reserving a Good Seat: having a good seat for long flights is essential because you want to make sure you have plenty of leg room, can avoid crying children or may want to be close to the bathroom; These are all good things to think about when choosing a seat on the plane.
3. Preparing for Sleep: since you will be on the flight for either most of the day or night, investing in a lightweight blanket and a pillow will help your sleep tremendously not to mention it will help avoid neckaches; You could also bring a sleep mask and headphones to help cancel out the noise.
4. Don’t Pack so much in your cabin luggage: when packing make sure you keep things travel sized and to a minimum; You will want to take one cabin bag and one smaller bag to keep things like an iPod, headphones or a water bottle at easy access under the seat.
5. Take your Own Snacks: although you will eat on a long flight, its always best to pack some small snacks like cereal bars, dried fruit or nuts in your carry on; You will be going through different time zones, so you just won’t know when your going to get it.
6. Moving Around the Plane: stretching your legs by getting up and walking around is a necessity especially for your sanity; You can help keep the circulation flowing by doing small exercises at your seat as well and moving around will help you get a better sleep also.
7. Stay Hydrated: flights can be a very dry place and your chances of becoming dehydrated are very high; You should drink water regularly and slowly, try to avoid coffee, tea and alcohol. Bring a water bottle on board if you can and a tube of moisturizer if your skin gets dry as well.
8. Just Relax: there is nothing better than abandoning your cares and doing nothing on the flight; You can catch up on a book you haven’t had time to read, look through a guidebook for your destination or watch a few movies to help the time pass quicker.
9. Make Some Friends: being on flights is a great way to meet new interesting people who all have a story about why they are going to that destination; Try to strike up a conversation with your seat mate, who knows you might have a travel companion before you get off the plane.
10. Choose a Good Airline: do research and read reviews about different airlines to figure out which one you will like best; You need to decide what’s going to be most important for you when flying and go from there.

Ten terrific tips to a successful and long flight. If you need any more tips or maybe help booking a flight.

Schedule a Consult Today: www.taylorsvabiz.com

Travel Essentials

When we travel there is always a checklist that we make, that way we remember to get everything on our list packed or done before we leave. Sometimes there are things that we need that we might not think are essential for a trip but, they really are.

                Here is a list of 10 essential items that you think you might not need but are going to be essential for your travel.

1. Travel Backpack: it is essential to have a travel backpack to keep all your things in because you can use this either as a carry on or when you are out and about exploring.
2. Packable Jacket: these come in handy on flights, in the evenings when it gets chilly or maybe for rain or to layer up in general; if you have one that fits in your backpack you will be set because it should take up little space.
3. Comfortable Walking Shoes: having comfortable shoes is not only essential for a trip but will be better for you if you will be doing a lot of walking; It would be even better if they were waterproof, that way if it rains or you have to walk across a dirty street, it will be an easy clean up.
4. Lightweight Camera: when you travel you are making memories and having awesome experiences; It is fun to re-live those moments by taking pictures, so invest in a lightweight camera so you can carry it on your neck all day and don’t have to worry about the heavyweight. Make sure to get something compact so it can fit in a purse or backpack if need be.
5. Multi-Port Cable: you will be carrying lots of electronics including your cell phone, tablet/iPad, computer, kindle etc. If you have a multi-port cable, all your devices can be charging at once instead of having to plug one thing in at a time. This will come in handy, especially if you’re at an airport waiting and you need to charge your phone and/or computer at the same time.
6. Collapsible Water Bottle: having a water bottle on a trip is an essential item because you’re always going to need to stay hydrated, whether you are going on a hike or just out exploring; In some places water is expensive so you should fill up at the hotel and having a collapsible water bottle will come in handy because you can keep it in your backpack as well.
7. Travel Organizer: you will need a travel organizer of some sort to keep all your personal items in like your passport, driver’s license, credit/debit cards and other important documents needed to travel; Invest in something that is not super bulky but still something that can fit money, passport, ID, paper, pen etc. that way you have it all in one place.
8. Personal Items Comfort Kit: having a comfort travel kit will help tremendously because all your personal/cosmetic needs will all be in one spot; In your cosmetic kit you should have your travel size items such as a toothbrush, lotion, shampoo etc. and you should also have a first aid kit that has things like pain killers, band-aids, medications etc., noise cancelling headphones if you have troubles sleeping on the plane.
9. Slippers: This might not seem like a necessity, but it is because who wants to walk around hotel rooms, flights or train rides barefoot.
10. A Foldable Bag: this will fit nicely in your backpack or suitcase and its always nice to have one in case you want to bring some souvenirs home from your trip.

My top 10 essential items to have when traveling or going on a trip. They may not seem important, but you will most definitely want them.

Do you want more tips on traveling or maybe you need help booking a trip?

Book a Consult Today: www.taylorsvabiz.com

Creative Ways to Save for Travel

There is always going to be that dream trip or vacation that you want to take but you may not have the funds for it. By taking little lifestyle changes and thinking of a few creative ways to save money, you can finally take that dream trip you have always wanted.

Here are 5 tips on ways to save for travel, that will help you have an awesome trip without having to worry about the finance part of it.

1. Cheaper Travel Destinations: doing research and choosing a cheaper destination could be an easy way to save; There are lots of countries in the world that are not near as expensive as a home. If you take advantage of lower costs and favorable exchange rates, it will make your budget for traveling go a little further while on vacation.
2. Free Workouts: so many people now a days spend so much money on a gym membership and 9 out of 10 people usually stop going after about a month; There are so many home workout options whether it be a cheaper membership or YouTube videos and it might be easier to workout from home and motivate you to stay more fit. Your travel experience will be much more enjoyable if you are fit and healthy.
3. Learn to Pamper Yourself: take a look at your monthly expenses and see if a lot of it is going towards beauty expenses like tanning, coloring your hair/getting a haircut or even getting a Mani/Pedi; Why do you pay so much when you can do most of these things yourself. You can learn how to color your hair, give yourself a manicure and tan in the sun. This will end up saving you lots of money for your trip because these monthly or even weekly things can add up.
4. Pay your Bills on Time: stop wasting your time on late fees and interest and just make the payment on time, that way you can save that money for your trip.
5. Become Financially Responsible: learn to manage your money wisely; Saving money for a trip is a long-term commitment and learning the basics of money management will help you in the long run. If you cut out some financial bad habits and have a good mindset, it will get you a long way.

If you want to save money for travel, there are tons of easy ways to save that people don’t even think about.

If you want more tips on how to help save for a trip or you just might need some help planning a trip, book a consultation with me today. Let’s get to planning!

Schedule a Consult: http://www.taylorsvabiz.com

Tips for Airline Travel

Are you planning to take a trip soon?

Figuring out everything you need and getting all the pieces together is a lot to handle. We always tend to forget at least one thing.

The problem is, when it comes to a business trip, having all those pieces in place and feeling confident every step of the way can be the key to success or a complete mess.

Check out my 10 tips and tricks to help with airline travel so your next trip is a breeze.

1. Pack Less: if traveling your goal should be to just have hand luggage. If you take less, it means you will travel cheaper without luggage fees, you won’t have to wait for your bags and its one less bag to carry around.
2. Learn a Little Lingo: when traveling to a different country, try to memorize a handful of words for the local language. You would be amazed and how just a few words can go a long way; plus, the locals tend to warm up better when you try to communicate with them in their language.
3. Bring Ear Plugs: some silence is golden and will be worth the weight in platinum. If you can sleep in a noisy plane or hotel, you will thank yourself later.
4. Pre-Book an Airport Lounge: if you know your flight is going to be long you might look into booking an airport lounge. There is an upfront fee, but it includes a quiet environment with complimentary drinks, food, magazines, Wi-Fi etc. And when your leaving don’t forget to take some water bottles to help start a relaxing and cost-effective journey.
5. Look Before You Leave: whenever you get ready to leave somewhere, whether it be a bar, chair at the airport or a café; turn around to make sure you haven’t left anything behind.
6. Sync your Sleep: in order to get over jetlag when you arrive, try to sync your sleeping pattern to the new time zone immediately.
7. Check into your flight ahead of time: it will save you valuable time and checking in early will earn you bonus miles and a good seat.
8. Check airport monitors for flight information: although subscribing to flight updates when you check in on your smart for is a good idea; you should still check airport flight monitors for up to date information. You can also double check your gate before you get on a trolley that will take you to the other side of the airport.
9. Measure your carry-on ahead of time: the carry-on requirements are different at every airline so its best to measure your bag before you pack. You wouldn’t want to get there and then realize your luggage doesn’t fit or match the weight capacity as well.
10. Security: always have everything ready when you get to security, all the things need to be in a plastic bag. If you are going to be carrying a laptop have that in a separate bag as well. Everything else can be put away except a boarding pass and passport.

There you have it, your 10 tips and tricks to help prepare for a successful trip when traveling. Let me help you put together an itinerary for all your traveling accommodations as well as events for that trip. I can schedule and book your flight, rental car, hotel; whatever you may need. I can also confirm those bookings to make sure everything is in order, that way your mind will be at ease.

Sign up for a Free Consultation Today! www.taylorsvabiz.wordpress.com

What is Inbox Zero? How do you achieve it?

So, you might be wondering what Inbox Zero is or what it means. If you read my tips on organizing your email last week, this is a very similar goal to have zero emails in your inbox.

Inbox Zero is the approach to manage emails by decluttering your inboxes, which will end up making communication be minimal and help keep it relevant as possible. Here are 4 strategies to help achieve this zero-inbox goal!

1. Most Wanted/Most Unwanted Lists: how you prioritize your emails says a lot about you and the kind of person you are. There are two approaches to do this strategy. There is the matrix approach and the Mechanism approach.
2. The Matrix Approach: the more practical way to prioritize

                                –Do (urgent and important): these are going to be emails that are now or never    emails; meaning they need responses quickly or immediately.

                                – Decide (important but not urgent): emails that are kind of important but don’t need immediate attention.

                                – Delegate (not important but urgent): the emails that other people can do for you

                                – Delete (not important, not urgent): these emails you can do without

                Applying this method will segregate your emails; accordingly, as well as being closer to inbox zero, you will also know what every email is worth.

• The Mechanism Approach: if you want to prioritize by your emotions

              – Things you don’t want to do, but you need to do moving these to the to-do list will keep your inbox count low

                – Things you want to do, and need to do this reduces the incoming emails that regard the same subject

                – Things you want to do, but don’t need to do you can delegate these to a folder or forward them to a particular person; either way you will keep your inbox count low

                – Things you don’t want to do, and don’t need to do you can delete these emails and work your way to inbox zero faster

                2.      Say NO to Uncle Spam: the number one rule to Inbox Zero is clutter and spammers contribute to that clutter. This happens when you unknowingly reveal your email when you fill out forms, surveys or subscribe to a blog! The easiest way to fix this is to provide a shortened version. You can use capsulink to convert your email to a shorter URL. The people who really want to email you will go to the URL you provided and find your email id.

                3. Sign off with a Purpose: send a signature that sends closure to the person your emailing back, that way they know not to send an email back. The idea is to write a response that saves you from a lot of follow-ups.

                4.  Create Action Based Folders: this is basically called a stack method where you treat emails as actions instead of messages. Emails get sorts by date by default and even if we flag important ones to bring them up, there still might be new messages listed that are equally if not more important. You can sort them like this; and if these terms do not work, you can choose new ones.

                                                – Reply: ones that need a direct response

                                                – Forward: emails that can be forwarded or delegated to other systems

                                                – Meet: any event or meeting that needs to be scheduled in your calendar

                                                – Review: these are your CC emails or newsletters

                                                – Do: the tasks that need to be done

                5. Make Inbox Zero a Happy Goal: Does checking your email make you happy? Maybe its something you look forward to? Not likely! To reach the inbox zero goal you must make quality time for your inbox. While some people leave it up to how their day goes, be a person that sets and follows a designated time to check your emails.

                Those are the 4 tips on how to reach your inbox zero goal! Don’t have enough time in the day! Let me take those emails off your hands and schedule a free consultation today!

Schedule Here: www.taylorsvabiz.wordpress.com

5 Tips on How to Successfully Manage your Email Inbox

Is your inbox a mess filled with spam, promotions, forgotten newsletters and junk mail that clutters up and hides all the important messages that you need to respond to and remember. I totally get it; you are busy and keeping your inbox clean and organized is yet another thing on your never ending to do list.

Having a well set up and organized inbox is a vital part of your business structure and productivity as a whole though, so to help you save time and help take back control, here are 5 of the top tips for organizing your inbox.

1. Forward all messages to one inbox: you may have many inboxes but not all of them are important. Yes, you might receive some emails that require immediate attention and if that’s the case, you will most likely be checking multiple inboxes and this will damage the overall productivity. You can have messages automatically forwarded to your main work inbox. It won’t reduce clutter, but you will not be switching back and forth between multiple accounts/inboxes.

• Clean up your inbox: there are several ways you can do this besides manually going through each one! You probably have a lot of unarchived and unread emails; if you haven’t read them in months, they are not that important. It’s usually recommended that you remove emails that are at least a month old. You can use Gmail advanced search for this. It will allow you to find all emails that meet a certain criteria, whether it be a month old or earlier.

• Organize messages using labels: this is one of the simpler ones I suppose. Labels help you tag emails, organize and find them faster. An advantage of using this idea is that emails can have more than one label. Gmail has a few by default but you can also create your own. You go to settings and open the label tab, create a new label and add it to the sidebar. You will also see these labels in the inbox which makes it easier for navigation.

• Touch it once email management rule: So often we open an email, read it and then don’t do anything about it. If it needed an answer, we would respond. This rule is simple: it means once you open an email, you must do something about it. You can either archive it or delete it that way it doesn’t clutter up your inbox.

• Use canned responses for recurring messages: Most of the time you send the same messages to different recipients. You could have either a separate document with drafts of such messages or paste old messages in. But sometimes its better to do a draft exactly where you will use it, i.e. a new email window. So, you can enable canned responses in Gmail Labs. If you go to Gmail settings, under the labs tab enable canned responses; after you create a message, you can save it and name it to use later! They are also available by clicking the arrow in the bottom left corner, which also gives you access to quick templates and lets you send often used messages.

There you have it, my top 5 tips to organizing and managing your inbox.

 Does it feel like a lot to try and keep up with daily?

 Guess what? You don’t have to!

 I specialize in helping save entrepreneurs hours every week by keeping their inbox under control.

                I would love to hope on a call today and discuss your options: www.taylorsvabiz.wordpress.com

And So It Begins…

Thanks for joining me!

I can’t wait to share my blog post journey with you! You will find tips, tricks and ideas on how to do awesome things no matter what type of business owner you are!

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Business Goals

We are almost to the end of the year which means, New Year, New Goals. I feel like everyone goes running in the other direction when I say this because having goals is sometimes hard for business owners.

Now don’t get me wrong, I struggle sometimes too with just putting goals together that I want to accomplish even if its just for a quarter but having goals in place will help keep your business on track. I say this because if you can see your goals for each year then you can break them down into smaller goals that will fit into each quarter or month or week, however you see fit for it to work in your business.

It will also help you to gain the focus to accomplish those goals, because going into the new year I know I have many goals that I want to achieve but it’s all about the focus and the mindset and the belief that you will get there! Goal setting also helps build self confidence as well as increase productivity in your business.

But don’t take my word for it.

5 Reasons why goal setting is important and will help with your focus:

1. Goals Trigger Behavior: “Having a clear, compelling goal mobilizes your focus toward actionable behavior”. This means that having goals ahead of time should motivate you. For example: let’s say Susy Q wants to save money to buy a new house. So you ask her what type of house she wants and she says “I just want a house that’s suitable for living”. Is that type of response going to motivate Susy Q? I’m thinking probably not. “The problem here is that the end state isn’t clear”. If it was a little more specific like”save a down payment of $10,000 dollars and move into a house with a backyard and a beautiful kitchen”, now she has something to work towards and aspire for. The mental cue that she has is going to trigger her focus and ultimately motivate her to begin the house looking and down payment saving process.

2. Goals Guide Your Focus: Once you determine a goal it is going to “naturally direct your attention toward a next step and, as a result, lead yourself in the right direction which forces your actions—your behaviors—to follow”. This means that you’re already going to be headed in the right direction if you have a set of goals on paper and ready to go. There is a saying that’s kind of cheesy but it says “whatever the mind believes, the body achieves. The body follows the mind”. I know it’s crazy but just go with it.

3. Goals Sustain Momentum: If you’re setting the right goals meaning goals that are not so high up the bar that they are not accomplishable, if you start to see progress, it’s going to get addicting. I’m not just saying that, it’s true “because of the dopamine released in your brain after attaining a reward”. Please just picture the last time you said to yourself “Wow, I’m on a roll”, that’s called momentum. And I can guess you probably didn’t want to stop because your mental state was at its highest performance.

4. Goals Align Your Focus: Having goals or even 1 major goal in place will align your focus as well because you will be getting some feedback on your progress. If you didn’t understand that statement it means that the actions you decide to take or not take tend to offer up clues about what your values, beliefs, challenges, strengths and weaknesses are. In learning all these things about yourself, it will allow you to correct these things as necessary and help you to reset your goal achievement strategy as well as your focus.

5. Goal Setting Promotes Self-Mastery: Did you know that setting goals helps build peoples characters. Well actually achieving them does. The process of goal setting is super important because it helps you to identify what’s important to you for your business but pursuing those goals is going to help build self-efficacy. This is because it tells you that you’re the type of person who can achieve goals.

You have to “Remember, you can’t manage what you don’t measure and you can’t improve what you don’t manage”. If you start by setting some goals for you or your business its going to get you where you want to be.

If you are struggling with goal setting or you just need help figuring out your business goals for the new year, I would love to hop on a call Schedule a Call! to chat with you to see if I can’t help you get those goals set for the year of 2021.