Today Evie is coming to you solo because as I’m sure you’re already aware, Lindsey is currently soaking up ALL the newborn snuggles with her sweet new Annalise!

Today’s Q&A episode is JUICY. I talk about organization strategies, planning your workweek, BTS of creating EvieSwim, how you should handle coming back after an IG hiatus, wedding budget prioritization, time management when you just feel plain OVERWHELMED and tons more. Basically, it’s a solid mix today of strategies mixed with personal questions that you asked. 

 

Nicole: Would love to hear ALLLL about your organization strategies and planning out your workweek. More about that giant roll of paper on your wall. 

I utilize four different types of lists in my life and in my business. The four lists are as follows: 

• Big picture goals: These are typically quarterly goals. It’s a sequence of steps that will get to these goals. Ultimately what everything I am doing is working towards these. Ex. Launching a course, a big task but has a lot of little tasks within it. This is where my big roll of paper comes in on my wall. It is where I put my big quarter goals, big rocks that I am moving in my business but have a lot of other things that go into the big picture items. 
• Dump lists: If you’ve ever felt like your brain is going a million miles a minute and you can’t focus on one task because you think of something else. Your brain feels chaotic and really stressful? This is where you sit down and dump everything single thought that is in your head onto paper. I utilize dump lists daily and one list lasts me about one week. Once it becomes confusing and cluttered I will start a new one and pull over any unfinished tasks. No prioritization or structure, you dump everything out. 
• Weekly lists: I go to my dump list and based on my big picture/ quarterly goals and I see what items on this dump list are in line with my quarterly goals. What needs to happen and check any team tasks as well. I am making sure that everything I am prioritizing in the week is a big picture item that will move stuff forward or is urgent and has to happen. This will help you plan out your week and you can pull from every day for work. My weekly list is for my big picture items and will move my needle in my business. 
• Daily lists: Now I prioritize my daily list and will have due dates next to tasks. Monday is my CEO day, Tuesday and Wednesdays are my deep work tasks days, Thursday is my meeting day and Fridays are a deep work task and or a slightly lesser day depending on tasks. The morning or night before I will sit down and assign one to two big needle deep work tasks and fill on a few other small ones like checking emails. 

Try to keep it very attainable so that you can stay focused and move the needle in your business. 

 

Viivi: What resources were most useful when you started this project? [EvieSwim] Where did you find suitable manufacturers, fabrics, printers, etc. for producing the swimwear? Can you recommend courses/coaches/books? And how do you practically divide your time between companies? 

For resources that were most useful, I honestly could not find very many resources. I do not have any courses/coaches/books to recommend. The only thing I will say, my friend Jessica over at Thr3efold has an amazing company about sustainability and helping brands become more sustainable and source more sustainable material. She has an incredible company and brand that I have just found over the last couple of months, but that is the only thing I can offer of value. There is the marketing book Obsessed by Emily Haward, which is a good marketing book for product-based businesses. 

My lead designer Hope was incredible with coming alongside and helping me source manufacturers, fabrics, and printers. She is very experienced in the fashion industry, use to the suppliers and what to look for. I handed off a lot of that to her. I would help vet the manufacturers, approving fabrics, print options, or packaging options. I was very involved but a lot of the brunt work of doing the research and reaching out to contacts was all credit to Hope. 

 

Carah: “Haven’t posted on Insta in months and I’m moving (military) so how do I start again?”

You don’t have to overthink it. You truly don’t have to overthink. If you have taken a little sabbatical or hiatus but are ready to step back up and start posting again. Then start posting again, it doesn’t have to be a big deal. You can announce and post something or not, you don’t need to make it more complicated or overthink it. Just brush it off and step up and get back to it. 

 

Kayleigh: As you planned your wedding, what was your process for prioritizing your budget? What areas were you willing and unwilling to compromise in?

We were trying to go very low budget. We would rather invest in our business, ourselves, or future than spend it all in one day. Even though the covenant that happens at the wedding is so important, but for Landon and me, it wasn’t something we wanted to spend tens of thousands of dollars on. 

Pick your top two or three things that are most important to you that you won’t budge on and are willing to invest the most in. For us, that was photography and videography and that was about it. Everything else we were very flexible about. Everything fell into place and was perfect and affordable or I was willing to have it be like it was. 

 

Annah: “How do you start managing time when you’re super overwhelmed”

It’s important to recognize the difference between burnout and overwhelm/paralysis/confusion and lack of clarity. There are seasons where you truly feel burnt out, you have gone so hard and so fast with so much happening and it’s a season to simply rest. If you are truly burnt out and tired, give yourself that grace to rest if at all possible. Reset, fill yourself, and then come back so you can pour out. 

Break down your to-do list to help with your clarity and to clear that overwhelm. It all comes down to not having clarity about what is important to you. You don’t have to do everything on your list in one day. Keep things clear and then break down your own to-do list. 

 

Summer: “Advice to ensure that Jesus is my priority and reason for everything that I do?”

Cori: “How do you keep God a priority in a now and future crazier busy life?”

The more you spend time with God, the more you recognize His voice when He is speaking. The more you are aligning yourself with His will, His voice, with what He is saying. The more you long for His presence. 

The more you make time for that, the more you recognize how life-changing it is and the more we are able to experience that hunger and desire to be with Him. We will recognize how much it is changing our lives. 

When I spend time with Him everything else is better. My relationships, work, mindset, productivity, everything. It comes back to seeing that impact and making time for it. The more you make time for it the more you hunger for it. Nothing compares to spending time in His presence. It comes down to making time for it and prioritizing it as a discipline and giving yourself grace for it as well in different seasons. 

 

 

Show notes

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