Transcripts
1. Introduction: I'm really excited about teaching this class because for a lot of people like you and I, who have ideas of all sizes, sometimes the hardest part is to start. So it's going to be exciting to dig into how to shape actions that get us closer to those goals. Hey, I'm Holly coli Murchison and I help creators like you more confidently identify, communicate, and champion their talents. You might recognize me from my Skillshare class, creating your dream career, uncover and apply your creative strengths. I also run a creative studio for Talent Development called oratory glory. Today's class is all about action planning. And we're going to deep dive into how to identify and map out clear action steps that get you closer to realizing your creative goals. The best way to interact with this class is to plan right alongside me, we are going to map out a three month action plan for a project and idea or something you're really excited about bringing out into the world. I'll show you a bunch of different tools that I use to plan, but all you'll need for this is a pen and paper. I hope that after taking this class, you feel more confident and prepared to approach goals that may have seemed daunting before. And I'm hoping that you walk away with more clarity around tangible steps that you can take to start to get an action today. And just one thing to note, this class was recorded live and I got to interact with the audience throughout. All right, So now that you've got the run down, roll up your sleeves and let's get to work.
2. Directing Your Energy: Hi, I'm Katie. I'm senior content producer here at Skillshare and my pronouns are she, her and I will be your host for today's live session with Ali and folding Murchison, as Kay mentioned, and I'm Holly call the merchants and I have a Skillshare class out now around how to carve out your dream career in terms of who I am and what I do. I am by trade. I'm a social practice artist or creative researcher and strategies. And all of that means is that I have always had an affinity for ideation, storytelling and talent development in so I trusted the journey of allowing those things to drive my career. I run a creative studio called oratory glory, that is all about talent development for multi hyphenate creators, like a lot of you who are tuned in today. And essentially my work there is all about conceptualizing and producing products, experiences and continent that both inspire and equip folks like you to become who you are and drives at whatever it is that you love doing. So excited to be here and talk about action planning because we can talk about big picture goals envisioning all day long. But the steps that get us towards our eye, what happened to help things actual buttons. So really, really psyched about doing that today. I'm especially sensitive to how people might be struggling this year, especially to sort of cycles and feeling that they are meaningful and important. To speak to that a little bit.
3. Before You Start Planning: I think we get in the habit of like culturally like we have to have goals that we have to be driving towards something. I think before a goal is set for me in particular, I have to have a vision of something like my goals have to be in alignment with a larger vision. I'm not just like goal setting for the hell of it, just to say that I'm Mike doing something, right. This culture of like we have to do, do, do and I'm like, well, how do I want to be in the world? What's my vision for how I'm being at, how I'm showing up. What are goals that bring me closer to that parsing mom being and becoming. So I think that's more important than the goal setting. It's like, well, who do you want to be? How do your values and beliefs align with that? And then what are the projects and ideas and things that you're working toward? So for me in particular, I don't create or take action on any projects or opportunities unless they feel like they're in alignment with something that I'm wanting to do for work toward. And so for this year in general, given the year that we all had last year collectively, I came into this year like, I don't want to be working on or a part of anything that isn't it, moving us toward equity, toward more equitable futures. And for me I'm like, well, okay, that's a big vision like equity for all. What can I do from where I am to work toward that? And I'm like, Oh, well I my studio, I can be more mindful of projects. We say yes to communities that we work within, how I'm working on myself. And so the goals that I set on more RAM is this lending itself to equitable futures for all? If the answer is no, then that's an easy way for me to say, Okay, that's not something I'm working on this year. I have nothing but respect for that. And also, my goal was to read twice a week. So that's what I mean. Like, do you think in the context of this class is any goal like too big or too small? No, and that's the thing, right? It doesn't have to be, I think, the danger of setting goals and being cell bound to them. Insight like that kind of thinking and like pressure on yourself can literally like kill you when we think about physiologically what that does to us, right? So it's like you can set a goal for cooking a home-cooked meal once a week, right? Or you can set a goal for their work, professional goals. And then there are personal goals and the goals and million. So please don't feel compelled to feel like you need to build a house by the end of this session. Or it needs to be something like astronomical. It can be as simple as my goal this year is to nurture more time with people I love. Awesome. What's your plan for that? So why did you want to participate in the session today? Hello, that question. I think one of the one of the core questions that came out of my Skillshare class was folks wondering like, should I plan several goals at once? Like, how do I get from point a to point B now that I know the thing I wanted to do, and I thought it would be really useful and grounding to offer up some strategies and, and information for how to get to point a to point B. And really help people start to think about how they can create their own ritual around taking action on a goal. Have you found that this process has been useful for you just in your life? Do you do it for yourself? Oh, yeah. I have to I have to do it for myself because I have a lot of pie in the sky visions around things and it's so easy for a goal to kinda look on paper or live in your heart, I live in your head. And action planning helps me make tangible steps toward something, right? And it's funny because when I was thinking about this session, I was like wondering Google and see what goal means. And Webster's Dictionary defines it as the end toward which effort is directed. So I'm like, Oh, action plans are important because they tangibly spell out how you're directing your efforts in service of your goals. So I'm like, okay, here's a way that I can measure. Like am I moving the needle toward a goal that I said I wanted to achieve? Or is this a goal that I actually want to spend time one? Or is it time to perhaps renegotiate what this golden is before I actually get to a plan of action. There's a process that my mind embodied go through and there's eight steps in the process. And the first one is I dream it up. The biggest picture possible vision like if this was a tangible future for myself and others, whether that's personal or professional, I dream it up and I write it down. And I'm going to share some of the ways that I write things down in the places that I write them. I've got like a sack of like seven notebooks here. But I like to write things down. And after I've directed out and I've written it down, I consult with God. Obviously this is a personal choice. But I think that there are like divine callings that happened upon us. And then there are sometimes like ego things that are like, Ooh, if I do this, it'll make it look good. So that consultation is like I pray on things, I'm meditate on things like, is this something that I genuinely need to take action on before I dive in and go all out because I know myself to be a person who was like, I'm either all in or I'm all out. So I consult with God and then I phone a friend, and I have a list of close friends who are visionary thinkers who I lean on just a bounce ideas off of. I'll call them to blow the idea of helped me poke holes in this. Does this make sense? After I have found a friend, then I might. Okay, let me assemble the crew. Who was the dream team that I need to make this idea happen. And again, this can be both personal or professional. If it's like I want to nurture more time with my wife. My dream team is my bonus. Mom was my mother-in-law because I know I'm going to need her to Puppy sit for us so that we can take a little likes vacations. That's a team. My therapist is all my team if my goal is to like grow closer and nurture time with my wife. So the teams that help us do something for me when I'm thinking about team, I'm thinking about who are my core relationships in my network of people that can help me actualize this goal. So I've assembled a crew, I decide what's feasible. Knowing in a time of a global pandemic, we're not taking luxurious, extravagant vacations and traveling around the world and getting passport stamps like we might have usually done. So it's like, okay, reasonably nurturing time looks like this. Decide what's feasible then I make a plan. So the action planning doesn't happen for me until I've gone through all of these other steps, right? I've drifted up, I've written it down. I've consulted with God. I found a friend, I've assembled accrue, I've decided what's feasible, I make my plan and then I get to work. So I think it's important to highlight like those are the steps that are happening before I actually take action on that idea. Because I think, I mean, we get ideas that come to us all the time throughout the day. And imagine if you tried to act on the 55 ideas that came to you today, right? They're not all something that you want to necessarily move on, but they are things that you want to take an inventory. So I think that's important to say before we move into actual action planning. And then, and I know CAG, some questions might come in along the way, so feel free to toss those. That means they come in. Yeah. I go ahead. I was just gonna say Would you mind just repeating like just the overview of the steps that you take before you reach the action plan part? Yes. So I dream it up. I write it down. I consult with God and that's the gut check, Ego Check moment for me to be like this really like something that came from a higher power. Like is this really for me to act on or does it just feel like something four legs likes on Instagram, so to speak. So dream it up, write it down, consult with God, phone a friend, a symbol accrue. Decide what's feasible. Make a plan, get to work. So the action plan part isn't happening for me until step 7. And then the Getting to Work is the acting on the action plan.
4. Planning Materials: You all know that there's tons of like journals for planning out there and no books and all the things. And my biggest thing that I want to stress is, is so important to find a ritual that works for you. Write and you may be a person who was like, I like pens or paper, or I like to hold all the information in my head. If that is you more power to you. I'm not in a place where I can hold it all in my head anymore. It's like oozing out of my ears. So I know I need to get things down on paper, but I say that to say, please don't feel compelled to do it exactly my way. The most important pieces like, you know, what you need to do to make a thing really happen. And so it's so important to figure out what that ritual looks like for you. What I will share is there's a number of both digital and analog ways that I work with, and it's been important for me to find a marriage between those two. So I use a ton of notebooks. This my favorite brands are Rodia, have like seven different sizes of this notebook. I'm a big fan of dot grid, so you'll see the dots. I love a dot grid notebook, particularly because I have trouble writing in a straight line. So that gives me like line space. I have larger Rodia notebooks. Then there's the event, the other size. I use these to just map out ideas and get them on paper. The side of a notebook depends on the size of the idea. To be completely honest, if it's like a huge project or scheme or idea, I put it in a bigger notebook. But if it's something I can just jot down on a smaller one. I'll use like something like this size. Or honestly, I write really small at works to my advantage. So sometimes I can fit like a master plan on a little post-it. All handwriting, like. And then sometimes I'll go a bigger notebook. My German, German is not my first, second, third, fourth, or fifth language. So I'm a butcher this, but Leuschner is the name of the boys time in 1917 is the brand. This is another dot grid notebook. I just love huge notebooks. I'm a Virgo and a stationary nerves. So if any of you are astrology buffs, you know exactly what that means. But again, diagram for the wind. So this is the place where I map out all of just the vision. I just have to dump it out of my brain and then make sense of it from there. If it's like super big. I bust out a stack of Post-it like so. And I bring it to some heavy duty chart paper, like so. And I just stick it up on my wall. So that's the beginning phase of the process for me. But it's interesting because if that lives in analog, I'll just have like notes and post-its everywhere. And they won't make it into like my calendar or like an actionable step. So the second piece for me after I've gotten it down and digital is to make sure that I also have an analog is to make sure I also have it in digital form and is a couple of tools that I use for that. This first half I'm going to show you as we transfer. It's an app called Paper by WeTransfer. And I like this because it lets me sketch out a big picture thing. So I'll show you last year, I was working on a capsule collection project. And I'm not a person who considers myself someone who has the best at art. But I was like I need to draw out what I'm thinking of for this capsule. So it turned out this project where I sketched out the, a shirt that I was releasing and I was like, well, what this shirt? We want to have a card. We want to have all of these different little pieces. I put it in here and lived in Dropbox Paper. I mean, we transfer paper. There's two apps called paper that I used by two different companies or two different brands. So I use this to track things here. I'm going to use this today for a goal that I'll work on with you all. You can create different notebooks. If you're not good at drawing or sketching things, there's a set of tools here that teach you how to use the app, which I'm like, Oh, I can't draw now all this time, I didn't think I was good at it. So today I'm gonna do action planning here to show you what I mean. And then the second tool that I use, This has been a game changer for me, is creating a project plan. I use Dropbox Paper. I like it because you can just click New here. You go to a pre-existing template is called project plan, and then you expand it and it maps out a project plan for you. So specifically for today, we're gonna talk about how to make an action plan for three months for a specific goal you're working toward. When we look down here, look, it's already set up for the quarter. I'm like, oh, like a quarter is any chunk of three months. So we're going to talk February, March, April, that's already set up. You can put a description in, you can put the status, who's on your team, other related things, details. So I've added in different sections, this usually says details and to-dos. But I think it's important when action planning to think through what are the potential barriers and what are your resource needs. Whether that's money, whether that's people, whether that's like technology or equipment you might need to purchase. So this is the template that I'll use to map out my action plan. But this is q if it just like lives here in digital, but the marriage of analog that I was speaking to becomes even more important here. So I'll walk through a goal and make my action plan with you all in just a few minutes. But I want to, I want to highlight why it's important to have analog. So this is my day planner. It's called the elbow planner, evolution planner. I like it because it goes by brain type. And based on your brain type, it has like little cute comments and quotes in there for how you can stay just on top of your goals. But I like it because it's a four month planner. So I can match this with an action plan and use the same book for it. But also, I appreciate the sections. There's one for your month, right. So you can map out a given month and I'm going to turn to a page. Here we go. You map out your month, right? And then from month, you do a weekly review. I appreciate that. It it takes in the entire human experiences, your personal side, your professional side, favorite moments. What did I learn this week, right. And then there's your day-to-day. I appreciate that. It doesn't give me a ton of space for daily priorities. Because if you're anything like me, you'll make a list of 15 things to do on one day and was doing 15 things in one day. You know, like maybe bless you, teach me the way if you are. But I'm actually okay with doing one to three solid things in a day. And this book allows me to do that. So when I think about macro to micro, I've got my big picture vision for a year and then I think on a quarterly basis, how do I chip away at that year goal? And then on a weekly basis, what's happening? We're on a monthly basis. What's happening per month to get me toward that goal on a weekly basis, on a daily basis. And so I'm constantly like in the flow of chipping away. We'll talk about this when we get to this project plan. But the to-dos here, you can set a date for them, which is what I love about this. And then I sync those things up to my Google Calendar. So on a tab at the top of a week, I map out what I'm doing for the week. I put those things in my calendar so that they are actual things that I'm going to do. So I don't like put a call in place when I said, oh, I'm going to read for an hour. And then those things I pulled those actions from this action plan. So they go digitally from here they go on paper and here they go on my calendar. So every week there's like a larger cycle that's happening a lot. A couple of folks in the chat are struggling to manage their side gig that they are passionate about and would like to eventually turn into their full-time work with their current full-time work, have you experienced that tension? How do you tend to manage that? Yeah, definitely. I would love to hear more about specific examples of what the switches that folks are trying to make. Myself in particular, when I was running a business and working part-time, I was like burning the candle at both ends. So I worked at Trader Joe's from 06:00 PM to 2AM. That was my shift. So that during the day I could continue to try and grow my business with the team that I was working on at the time. And that was really hard because I couldn't see I couldn't see the end, like the end wasn't near. So I kinda had to make a goal for myself around. Okay. By this time I went to save this amount of money so that I can continue to move in this direction. And that's happened like a couple of times across my journey. Our wine back a little further. I'm a television and radio major and I guess that's what I studied in my undergrad. And while I was in school for television and radio, I was working at a contracting firm doing project management. So completely different things like building homes from the ground up, like these high-end homes. And I told my boss what my plan was. I said, Hey, I really want to work at a radio station. My goal is to find a full time job and radio. So I gave myself a year. I said so this is going to be my last year here. She was like, okay, got it. And I made a plan to save. I was like I need to say if like 500 dollars per paycheck. So I can have a cushion of, you know, 10 thousand hours or whatever the math worked out to be by the time I'm done here. And I was like, I need to use I asked if I could use the office as like my lab to send out demos. So I would work my shift and then I would say after work to package demos that I was sending out to radio stations. And I had just like an assembly line at my desk in the office where I would mail things. And that's I think the relationship piece is important there because I was able to have a transparent conversation with her and say, hey, Kathy, the direction I want to go next, will you support me in that? And she did. And so I did my research after hours, I compile this list of 500 radio stations that I wanted to reach out to all over the country. And I packaged all my demos from there. And when it came time for me to leave, I had like, I think maybe $15 thousand saved up. And I was like, I'm going to take the leap. And my boss gifted me a laptop. So that was like, you know, That was just like a really sweet touch by weighted, you know, I was like let me give myself a year. And I think that's so important to when we set these smart goals, right? Like specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. It gives us the opportunity to say, all right, I thought it was a year, but actually that's gonna take me like another year or another two years. So I hope that I hope that's helpful. And some of it is I saw Amy in the chat saying so courageous. Some of it is like, all right, I don't know, I don't know how this is going to end up, but I know, I know what it feels like to not take the leap. And the feeling of not doing it for me has always been more undesirable than actually taking the leap.
5. Breaking Down Big Goals: So big picture thinking. I know that one of my goals for myself that I want to materialize over the next three years is I went to have my own variety talk show that is globally syndicated, right? That's not a tomorrow goal. So I can be thinking about that and like all show, show, show. But I know no one is going to drop down from the heavens and be like, Hey, here you are a show. So one of my professional goals this year was to create more original content. I'm like, Okay, create more original content. Crystallizing that down. I was like, well, what kind of content do I want to be putting out? I love audio, I love storytelling. I was like, Oh, I'm going to revive this podcasts that I started three years ago. So this year, a goal for me is to produce two to three seasons of a podcast. I'm like, Well, January has zoomed by. Sounds like I think for this session, I'm going to focus on the project plan for my podcast. So I'm gonna go back to dropbox Paper. And my project goal is launch the next season in the podcast by May, by the start of me. So I'm going to work backwards for you all so you can see how that happens and how I usually do this as I think about the manifestation date. So I'm like, okay, and this is a feasibility test. Check for me too. I want to launch this podcast by May 3rd. That's a Monday. So working backwards from May 3rd today, what are all of the steps that I need to take in order to get that done. And then I'll list all those steps which I'm gonna do right now. And then I'll know for sure like, Oh, can I really do that by May or do we need to like move this out? Do we need to expand this a little bit? I think another thing to note here is like, what are all of the things that are on your plate and what do you realistically have capacity to be working towards? So I know to do's for me. I need to make my guest list Make list of potential guests for the show, and these are in no particular order. Make list of potential guests for show. And then I'm like, oh, but what do I need to do before? Know that that hasn't happened yet? What do I need to do before I actually make the list of guests? I'm like, Well, what's this season of the show about, right? So I need to create a vision for season two of the show. Is this just sort of a brain dump process for you as you're reading through? Yeah. Okay. It's a breakdown process and I I liken it to I marry everything with the idea of food. So I'm like, Oh, I'm making a new recipe, right? It's like I'm going to roast the chicken. You don't just pop the chicken and the oven. There's like, you know, you clean the chicken, you season that chicken you make, you pick, figure out what the sides are. So I think about this brain dump of like, Okay, what are the actions that need to happen? And I think it was was it in a vena in the chat? Yes. Okay. I know that question was like had if it's something totally new, how do you know sometimes one of you to do is research, right? It's like, Oh, I've never done this before. Let me find some examples online of, you know, this new project that I want to launch and how it's been done, like, how do I find case studies? So for me, I'm familiar with podcasting. There's a bunch that I listened to, but I know that this podcast is tied to this larger goal of having a variety show. So there's always like a to-do for me is watch game tape. And for me, I know that I want to be constantly washing interviewers who were really good at what they do. There's a book that I have in my office from a really great NPR host called all I did was asked. So part of my homework is just to read one of those interviews on a weekly basis. So that's the watch game tape like research study. But I know for the podcast, I've tried this before and what was most daunting for me. We're all of the moving parts around editing, production because I can sometimes be a perfectionist. So I'm like, oh, I need to build my team, right? And that's a, that's a to-do. But the tricky thing about to-dos is like that's not a goal, that's not an action step that's broken down all the way. Build a team is not a thing. Oh, got it done. So it's like I need to reach out to reach out to Brian, who's a good friend of mine, who was a fantastic audio engineer. He said, if you ever need a project for me to work on, just let me know, right? So reach out to Brian about engineering. I'm excited for Brian to realize he's a co-star volcanic island. He made he made it to the Skillshare class. I'm going to, I know from my podcasts that I want original music, right? So I'm going to reach out to my friend Wes, who is a fantastic producer. Artist, brilliant entrepreneur, sun reaching out to Wes, I know that marketing is like I have ideas around marketing, but I'm clear that my role on this podcast is visioning and talent. I went to host the thing and I want people to help me put the pieces together. So fortunately, my partner in life and my partner and work is the Head of Strategy and Comms at the creative studio. So I know I'm talking to Coli, right? Reach out to Coli about producing the show. And she'll handle all things strategic and CMS, I know I need a creative director to help us think through. When a shell, when an episode is done, how is it packaged and handled and shared across social media channels? I'm like, I'm not doing that. I'm going to do the posting, but I do need some support and thinking through those, right. So I have a fantastic friend, Morgan, who lives in Chicago. And she's a brilliant creative and art director who I had the chance to work with on some rebranding stuff for oratory glory. So I'm going to say reach out to Morgan about creative direction. So now for the show my team, I've got Brian, Wes, coli, and Morgan starring as engineer, composer, producer, creative director. But that's not it, right? It's like, well, when the episodes come out, who's creating the content for the posts that talk about the show. I'm like, Oh right, I need five. Recruit a social media manager slash content creator. Because I know what I've envisioned for the show is I want to episodes to exist in a way that we can pull snippets, share profiles and blog posts like repurpose them as evergreen content. I'm clear that I have a vision for that, but the writing and the creation of that as a person who's also running a studio, who's also in graduate school full-time, who's also managing the household, right? Is that the best use of time for me know? So I'm going to recruit someone and pay someone to do it. So that team build out already is a growing to-do list in itself, right? Washed game tape. That's my role as a talent to hone my skills to be a really, really great podcasts hosts. Create vision for season two of the show. Make list of potential guests for the show. And then, right, It's like create roll-out strategy for the show is also a todo. Create season roll-out strategy. Again, these don't have a date on them yet. But as I'm making the list, I could either be looking at this like holy crap, May is unreasonable. Like by now you're looking like, oh, okay. I thought this was going to be like a simple thing. But you work backwards from methods. It's a day and it's like, Oh, okay, here's like tangibly what needs to happen? So we have a season roll-out strategy, right? Create production plan for each episode. Create production plan for episodes. And what this process looks like as a, as a guest for each show, we shaped questions for that guest. We think through what other segments we want to have on the show. Because the larger goal is to get a variety show that's globally syndicated. So we have to be able to show some range through this podcast, right? And when we develop this vision for season two, that also includes the strategy for season two, right? So create production plan for episodes. And then it's recording the episodes, right? Butt reaching, reaching out to schedule guest, reach out to schedule guest. That's an action step. Schedule guests come on, work with me here. Yes.
6. The Finished Product: Would love to see maybe a completed action plan if you have one that you're comfortable sharing with the class? Yeah. Give me 1 second. I'll pull one up. And then Sarah would like to know if Dropbox Paper syncs with Google Calendar, which I think you said it did, right? Or does he or something? Yeah, it was nice. And then Michelle says Connect Office 365. Oh, amazing. That's great. And then Michelle, I was wondering, do you have a technique to minimize overwhelming anxiety while you're working? If it happens at all, which I think I've been stabbed with a Lambda if it happens at all part I'm like, does it happen? Yeah. I I I meditate daily. I know that that is a practice that works for some and one that doesn't work for others and that's fine. I have a like a devoted spiritual practice that keeps me grounded. I think it's really easy given the society we live in and to feel like you have to be constantly producing or consuming or doing something. And I just try to remind myself all the time that like everybody else here where one of one that hasn't divine purpose and you literally have your entire lifetime to fulfill that. When I feel myself like rushing, I'm like Scott happens, I dislike but you have a lifetime though, like you have a lifetime. So meditation helps. Kundalini. Yoga is incredibly helpful for me. Reiki is really helpful as an energy practice that essentially balances that at your energy body so that you can be like fully present to what is. I try. I take way more breaks than I ever have in my adult life and that is helpful. I take naps during the day. And I like to ask myself the question like I tease my little sister about this question, sometimes sue him like a week from now. Will this matter like, well, this have you as wound up as it does right now? And if the answer is no, then I am not going to treat everything like it's a fire. You know. I think Heidi is asking, so Dropbox Papers and ritual meditation and ritual to get things done. Never thought a good plan as a ritual. Do you think of your planning as original? I think about everything as ritual to be completely honest. So what do you think about? Like, it's like my practice that keeps me in sync with where I want to be. It's like ceremony. It's like the action is ritual. And the more I can create habit about how I approach things that, that becomes my ritual, right? Like I'm, I have like my MCT oil in the morning and I have, you know, I walk my dog, that's a part of my daily ritual. So I have work rituals and I have, I have work rituals and professional and personal rituals. But the personal life rituals are the things that inform everything, everything else for me. So yeah, Dropbox Paper is a part of my work virtual. And I noticed because if I try to skip using dropouts paper to move things forward, I'm like, Oh, what is this long pile of things like this, a list. This is something that's completely undone that I haven't even attended to. So it only is ritual if it helps the flow of my life. That's a really beautiful phrase. It's only ritual if it helps the flow of my life. I'm just going to put down on post-it pop that on my computer has been called abstraction. That's true. Amazing. Let's see that complete action plan. And then a couple of folks have to hop off because we're a little over time, which is okay. All right. So i'm I have I have one pulled up on the screen for UK, for us rather, this is an action plan for where I took the name out. For one of my previous coaching clients, I created a speaker development action plan for her. And her goal was to secure more speaking engagements, to create a concrete list of like what her offerings where to get the language together. And we worked together over a quarter. So these are her checkpoints and this is how I use Dropbox Paper to create a series of checkpoints and milestones for her. Every week, she had assignments and deliverables before I calls. We checked in every week on our calls to make sure those deliverables weren't done. This is where the dates happen and this is for September, October, November. Right. So this is her completed plan. And if we needed to update things, we just switched around the dates. But it was really the accountability conversations where we could check in on the week to week basis and say, Hey, is this done, has this happened? Both she and I have access to this document. So she was able to see. Okay, here's what I have to do this week, coach. I'm working on it. Here's where I'm feeling stuck. So in terms of team, I was on her team. And when we were in conversations, we talked about the task she had to work on every week and the to-dos and it was like, who's going to help you get this done? Is there someone need to reach out to? So we were always in conversation about that. And these are the tasks that got checked off on a week to week basis for her.
7. Q&A: A, Carolyn would like to know those list of teammates that you're building out. Are these folks gifting their time? Is it sort of a trade in kinds? And what do you do if you don't have funds to hire people? Love this question. So for me, sum up, some of them are gift in time and some of them are like paid. And it depends on the relationship with the person I have. This podcast project is an internal project that the studio so we try to allocate funds to make sure that we pay folks. But Brian and like Wes, these are guys who had been my friends for many years. Like Brian as a friend for a decade, like we've parted on projects together. I know Brian still going to charge me. Right. But it's going to be something that is something that is equitable and fair for us given our relationship and we'll talk about ways to compensate each other. I think another thing to remember is when you're working on projects big or small and new or old, is that money is not the only form of compensation. And as long as you're having an upfront conversation about what that looks like for folks. Like. I've had folks ask things of me and mentioned matter of faculty later down the line that there was no money involved. And for me, I'm just like just be transparent about the money part from the beginning. Hey, I have this great idea that I'm interested in working on. Here's why I went to work with you on it. The reality is this is my budget. Is there any way that we can collaborate together and meet in the middle until this is a fruitful project that is producing some revenue, right? So it's not like I'm never gonna pay you. It's not like I'm going to start getting paid from the project and run off into the wild and like never like compensate you. But I think having upfront conversations about that are really useful. And I think if money is a resource that has gotten in the way of me doing something, I tried to come back to the drawing board and say, okay, what's an even more feasible way of me testing out this idea that requires fewer resources, um, but would still allow me to like dip my toe in and see if this works. So my last question until people ask more of which there are more than welcome to do is re, would like you to know that they are a music composer if wasn't busy. C, and then it happens like that. Thank you. Yeah, that's speaking things out loud. I'm also just a big finish fan of that. Right? It's like I'm I'm not an idea hoarder. I'm always open and willing to speak to vision. And when you do that, there's a synergy that happens with people who have like interests, who have like goals. And I trust that things would like work themselves out in that regard. But this is like the shortlist of tests that I have. I know I have to schedule guests, Record episodes. High level. That's my plan of action. Right? What those are my to-dos. Then what happens next from that is these to-dos need to write low resources are important because then when you start to list your resource needs, you figure out other action steps that you have. I might wait. Do I have a podcast, Mike? Sure Don't sure. Dealt. And then that becomes like a To Do. I need to order under the price and order equipment. Hello. I'm like make a list, Record episodes, but what about the equipment? Um, I don't. I'm just going to use my iPhone headphones and then we'll go from there. I don't know why this thinks what? I know, a video editor who actually does use his iPhone headphones to his audio because he says Most people are listening on their regular headphones that come with their own. So we want to make sure it sounds good to them. I was like, man, why is he is also like 20 and a savant, so it's fine. I'm Heidi would like to know as you develop the plan under your to-dos, how do you test them or take them into the next stage? I love that. How do you test the to-dos and take them into the next stage? That's where the timeline comes in handy. So I'm going to scroll back up to the top right. And here on the timeline, it allows you to plot milestones and things. And so when you map out the to-dos across your timeline, you'll see how they connect to each other. So I know this price and order equipment. I don't need to do that before I can reach out to guests. Right? I don't need to do that before I schedule guests. I should know how long the lead time is on getting the equipment right, but I'm going to price and order my equipment. That's something I can do next week. Create a vision for season two other show. I should definitely do that before I start to reach out to guess because I want to be able to give them some sense of like, Hey, here's this show on producing that interviews people to share their stories around self-development. And how we can see self-development is it's married to ideation and creativity in the world, right? And I want to have something more robust and clear to send out to folks before I'm like, Hey, come on my show because I want to be mindful of their time when I'm sending them emails. So I know that that ties into that. Right? I know that recording the pie casts episodes can't happen until the guests are scheduled. Obviously. I know creating a production plan for each episode needs to happen before the episodes are recorded. And I think An important thing to keep in mind is as you're mapping out tasks, think about how long that task will take. So I know we've created production plans for different shows and I would err market least an hour to make a production plan for each show. That's an hour including research, thinking through the questions, being able to think through, here's how we want to shape this episode. So if I'm planning and eight episode season, I already know that's eight hours dedicated, so production planning for each episode. And then I can say, okay, how much free time do I have every week? If I'm thinking about this MAY one goal, and we know that Monday is February 1st, which is wild to consider. Here's the time that I have. So I look at my to-dos and then I arrange them based on how they build upon each other. And then I use this timeline section to map out the goals. This project plan allows you space to type who's on your team. So here is where I would list Wes, coli, Morgan, Brian, and whoever comes on board as project manager and social media manager, right? And then I put the description of the show here, and this is my reference point. The other piece I wanted to show you all is for the dates. For these things. You can set a due date. So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna do this by February 24th. I'm just randomly putting a due date. My Dropbox Paper is sync to my Gmail. So I'm gonna get an email notification when this task is coming up. So it doesn't just like live there and I'm like, Oh, what's the document I put that in, it's going to pop up in my inbox that remind me. And I'm going to put it in my calendar as a deadline so I can see it in multiple places. The other thing that I was going to say is this is where you can add in images. So someone had asked earlier, do you like scan your pictures or your or your notes? I would scan like this. Put it in Dropbox Paper and it would live here as a living breathing document. And this is available for me. I'm an Apple user, so I can see it on my iPhone, my iPad, on my computer, and a habit living in multiple places.
8. Closing Thoughts: All right, so you've got two options for the project gallery. I know that sharing your full three month action plan could be a little private. So your first option is shared the whole plan, if you feel so, move would love to have a discussion around it. And if not, your second choice is to share your big goal and the ritual you've created to move closer to it through your action planning process. Thank you so much for its own. And n makes sure to check out my Skillshare profile to learn more about me and my other class.
Holley M. Kholi-Murchison, Artist & Cultural Geographer
