It’s easy to get caught up with trying to respond to EVERYTHING that comes your way on social media. Your eyes can cross thinking about all the notifications, messages and sifting through connection requests. When overload sets in, productivity and profitability plummet. Recently I spoke with LinkedIn and branding expert Viveka Von Rosen about that problem.
The explanation of her solution started with three simple words: Stop. Being. Reactive.
When you feel overwhelmed, you need to step back and put a method to the madness instead of adding more things to your to-do list. It’s a matter of focusing on the RIGHT clients, leads and referrals. Viveka and I discuss how to do that in part 1 of our interview below.
STOP BEING REACTIVE!
Viveka shared her own story of overload. As her business grew she noticed that she was always on her phone reacting to her inbox, her timeline and everything else BUT… She wasn’t being proactive. She didn’t have a strategy in place to manage all the connections she was making online.
She wasn’t being strategic about:
- The people she was connecting with
- The content that she was writing, sharing and promoting
- Engaging her connections in ways that would grow her business
In the bigger picture for her business she was also reacting to all the inbound leads that were coming in. She realized that she had to get strategic about finding, qualifying and engaging with the BEST people with whom she could be working. She put a plan into action and here it so you can learn from her experiences:
GETTING OUT OF THE OVERLOAD ZONE
First: Take a breath! Spend a few minutes and get back to what’s most important to your business life. Here are four ways to find your focus:
1.Book time in your calendar. Set aside time blocks for your business and focus only on that; stop responding to every message or notification that comes in during that time. Spend that time working on the next three action items.
2. Step back and get the 30,000-foot view of your business and CLARIFY “Who IS my ideal client?” Are you working with people just because they’re reaching out to you OR are you engaging with the niche that you serves best? It’s YOUR choice who you work with and it doesn’t have to be anyone and everyone that reaches out to you.
3. Get clear about that big goal that you want to achieve. Viveka asked herself: “Were the things I was doing in my day working towards that goal or were they distracting me from the goal?” Ask and answer that question for yourself to stay focused each day.
4. Delegate! What do you hate doing? What are you not good at? Viveka asked herself “What can I take off my plate?” Answering that question for yourself will let you know what partners you should be reaching out to for collaboration opportunities.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Review those action items and you’ll be ready for part 2 of my interview with Viveka! We’ll discuss how to stay focused once you get out of the overload zone and ways you can have conversations to move important relationships forward to grow your business faster.
CONNECT WITH VIVEKA!
- Viveka loves sharing her experiences through interviews; if an interview like this one would be helpful for your audience let her know!
- If you know anyone that wants to create a better LinkedIn presence please let them know about her book LinkedIn: 101 Ways To Rock Your Personal Brand
- Currently she’s focusing speaking and consulting about third party tools like Nimble that can help you FIND, CONNECT and ENGAGE with people and convert your connections into clients. If you need help with that reach out.
Her phone number and email are on her LinkedIn profile. Be sure to send a personal message and mention that you read this interview!
