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Kathi Burns  0:04  
Hi there, I'm board certified professional organizer Kathi Burns. I'm really glad you're here. This podcast is designed for busy entrepreneurs just like you who want to take better control of your business and move forward with less stress and more success. If this is your first time listening then thanks for coming. The Organized Energized podcast is produced for your enjoyment and show notes are found at ThePodcast@OrganizedandEnergized.com. Come back often and feel free to add this podcast to your favorite RSS feed or iTunes. You can also follow me on Twitter at organizing energy and Facebook. All links are in the show notes. Now let's get into the show. Hi, I'm Kathi back with Organizing and Energized. I'm here with Britney Gardner. And let me tell you what few marketers truly marry their creative and analytical sides. With a visual background in photography and graphic design training under the top copywriters in the country. Britney Garner pairs creativity with her strategic mastermind personality. She also hosts a show The Know, Like & Trust show. She's the creator of the BE SCEEN method, which is an online service business that owners craft content that attracts perfect match clients. Today we'll learn a few tricks and tips from Britney to see what she does to grab the ideal client and also to keep her work life balance under check. So thanks Britney, thanks so much for coming on.

Britney Gardner  1:29  
Well, thank you so much for the opportunity. I appreciate it.

Kathi Burns  1:32  
Yeah, absolutely. So you have a varied background talk to me about what you did prior to becoming an entrepreneur.

Britney Gardner  1:40  
You know, actually, there's, there's not actually an answer to that I started my first business at the age of 20. I've been a photographer since then. And I ran that business for over a decade, I was a wedding and portrait photographer. And when the you know, normal route, I got married, had a family and didn't want to give up my weekends to clients all the time. And I moved into originally branding photography. Yeah. And it was natural progression. I knew a lot of business owners, they they needed branding photos, the online digital age was coming in hot, right? And yeah, they all needed like good photos for their website. But they immediately came to me after they got the photos. And they're like, these are so amazing. I love all my pictures. What do I do with them? And yeah, that is how I ended up doing what I am doing now. So I've had a few you know, business shifts along the way, some intentional some just kind of meeting the needs of the marketplace. But the reality is we do need to create content as online business owners and my my mantra is authentic, automated marketing. Yes, be you be real and genuine. That's so important. But also that doesn't mean that you have to be creating and constantly churning out new content. You can figure out what works. Start to automate it. Get your life back under control. There's that life balance thing right there. Right. And not be on that content creation hamster wheel for the rest of your business.

Kathi Burns  3:11  
Yeah, it sounds like you're a serial entrepreneur through and through, simular to my son. I love it. And I was in the in the bride industry as well. When I was doing event planning, I started as a pro organizer. So yeah, you step away from a little bit that mayhem and focus on things better, right?

Britney Gardner  3:29  
Yeah. Yeah.

Kathi Burns  3:31  
So what challenge what specific challenge if you talked a little bit okay, so they have their headshot, then then like, what do we do? What do you do now? What do you do more if your business in tune? What's the specific challenge that you help your clients overcome?

Britney Gardner  3:45  
The specific challenge I am focused on today is creating content that actually converts into clients. And, and I do say converts into clients intentionally there because there is especially with like, you know, the big gurus in the industry, this huge push to, you know, create and do all the things and be in all the places and, you know, build your audience up. And those all have a place I'm not gonna say they don't have a place. But also, I'm not really all that interested in racking up likes on Instagram. I love my Instagram. I enjoy it. It's my chosen place to hang out most often. But likes mean very little is what I have found out. Reality is the content that actually leads to clients and my business, you know, butts in seats, if you will, right. It's almost always the content that didn't get a lot of likes, and certainly didn't get a lot of comments. So when I actually track back the posts that look like they got very little love are usually the ones that ended up getting meetings. And then therefore those meetings you know, moving on to the booking phase as well if it was a good fit The reason I started you know, analyzing this, the reason is the kind of content that leads to clients is usually the kind of content that makes your audience think very differently about their problem. And we humans, tend not to be very verbose when we're thinking, we also get a little uncomfortable at times. And that often means that we don't want to be seen as commenting or liking a specific thing if we're feeling uncomfortable about it.

Kathi Burns  5:30  
Oh, that's so interesting. I can totally see that point. But I've never considered it. So yeah, cuz I'm like the content queen. I love the idea spew content everywhere. I'm doing content, I can't stop myself. But knowing what is good and what is not. I would totally think that the things that people are liking are what's going to convert into clients and sales. So, really, really smart stuff you have there. So, you've been doing this for a while, like basically your whole entire adult life. When you feel burnout, what do you do to recharge yourself? What's your secret? For, you know, getting renewed energy?

Britney Gardner  6:08  
Yeah, it's not working, it's stepping away from my desk entirely. So for me, you know, renewing myself can be reading a good fiction book. I do, I do enjoy reading nonfiction as well. But that's not renewing. To me, that's, you know, a growth situation, right. And it's going into some vegetables, you know, literally just chopping some vegetables can do it for me, I, so long as I'm not like stressed about making dinner in like a 15 minute time block, I find that to be a activity, and doing those kinds of things, they always lead me to thinking about solutions in my business. So I found at least that that burnout often is because I'm up against the wall on a problem, and I'm feeling stressed about solving it, and it's not coming to me. So when I step away, and I give myself some space to think about it, when I'm not actually having to think about it, I tend to find those solutions. And that high, you know, that little you know, endorphin kick of figuring something out, tends to renew me better than anything.

Kathi Burns  7:14  
Yeah, I love that step away, step away, everybody. And some people get so mired in their muck that they're like, I can't step away because it's gonna fall apart and everything will boo but but you don't have the solution if you don't step away. And same thing cooking meals and chopping vegetables. And I love doing a meal as long as I have a lot of time to eat it afterwards. There's I hate wrapping up a meal and then saying, Oh, got a movie in half hour got to eat like no, no, killed the whole buzz, right?

Britney Gardner  7:46  
Yeah, yeah. 100%. Like, I don't like the time stress around it. That's not fun.

Kathi Burns  7:51  
Right? Right. No time stress. Just cook and have fun. And I know you have kiddos too. And that probably helps you renew at the same time. For sure. So what would you say is the big lesson that being a business owner has taught you as an entrepreneurial woman?

Britney Gardner  8:10  
Oh, the biggest lesson. You know, I said this, like, six, six years ago, on one of the first podcasts I was ever a guest on that I never understood I would cry more about my business than I would about being a mom. I don't know if that's actually true today. Six years ago, it was. But beyond that, you know, that's such a hard one because it changes it really does change. I might have answered that differently a month ago.

Kathi Burns  8:37  
Absolutely. Yeah. I'm with you on that. We all have our life lessons that we learn you know, my big one is knowing how to say no, know when to say no and who to say no to and how to say no with grace. That's that's a big one. Because you can't be all things for all people for sure. Yeah, any reflection on that?

Britney Gardner  9:06  
No, I was just gonna say like, yeah, learning how to say no to the wrong situation. And the wrong people are two different skills. And when you when you put them together, I feel like things even out a ton.

Kathi Burns  9:18  
Yeah, yeah. And how to say no, I think is very super important to without without offending. For sure. So okay, let's get organized. Now. What do you do my friend to keep your life organized and your business organized? You can talk life, business, or whatever you want. What's your favorite hack?

Britney Gardner  9:38  
Yeah, um, I am fairly good at organization and I just moved i had to reorganize all the health stuff. You know, like my old master bathroom had two sinks and a whole bunch of doors are new one has one sink and only two tiny doors like that makes you kind of reevaluate the purpose of things in your world, right? Yeah, but I think most of us are probably pretty good at figuring out where to put something in our house, but maybe not as good at that as where to put something in our business. And for me, especially speaking from a content perspective, because that's my expertise, staying on brand seems like it's very difficult for a lot of people, you know, when you're out there on social media out there, and you know, Facebook groups, things like that, right? You know, you're like, no, that person was just talking about this other thing last week. And now they're talking about this, like, what is going on here? Right. And I really like for myself to use a few different content buckets. If what I want to talk about today doesn't fit in one of those box buckets. It is not on brand for me, it does not represent me well. And it's only going to lead to confusion in the marketplace. And and let's face it, it is a noisy, noisy world out there, especially online. Right?

Kathi Burns  10:57  
It really is. So for those who aren't familiar with buckets, how would you describe that? Because I love the bucket idea.

Britney Gardner  11:04  
Yeah, I like to call them buckets, because content is an ever growing thing, right? So you, you create some topic ideas, he put them in, you know, topic, bucket, A, B or C, I like to do three different ones. And you know, as you use that topic, you know, maybe it stays in there, because you can expand upon it in the future, maybe it comes out because you've kind of completed that topic. So I like to use that as the visual, I have heard other people describe them as content pillars, as well. And that's also a really appropriate way to describe them, I use the visual that works for me, and you can use the visual, right? That works for you. But the idea is there are three themes within your business. And you can organize it by like things that help people know you, things that help people like you things that help people trust you. I've heard other people talk about like one that helps you shine, one that helps you sell and one that helps you set up your authority. You can base it on your core values. If you're more of a touchy feely kind of business, it really just depends on what feels good to you, and allows you the creativity to create great content and stay on brand.

Kathi Burns  12:11  
Yeah, and it inspires you to do it. I do work or live or home, we want to get organized. And those are my three buckets. And it was important to narrow it down. I totally agree with you. Because as entrepreneurs we're like I spew content all the time. So keep me focused on okay, which one am I talking about? I'm talking about your work organized, organizing your life organizing, or your home organizing, right?  Which one is it?

Britney Gardner  12:40  
Yeah, yeah. And, you know, like, I don't know about you, but my life and my work spill into each other all the time. And, you know, part of that is the nature of what I do I tell a lot of stories in my work. And a lot of times the stories are life based. So you know, they naturally, you know, kind of go together. And part of it is because, you know, I have an interesting work schedule with with one one, you know, medium aged child and one younger child, I don't always get a full day of work. Sometimes you'd like Thursdays, they only work usually like an hour or so. Because that's all I have time for. So a lot of times my organization things for one will spill over into the other one right? But it helps helps me kind of stay in my lane and make sure I get things done and and keep that that work life balance in as good a situation as possible.

Kathi Burns  13:26  
Would you say that your kiddos are your biggest organizing obstacle? Or would you have you identified other obstacles to keeping yourself organized?

Britney Gardner  13:36  
Oh, it's definitely not my kids. Yeah, no, it's me. Talking about like things I have to stumble across in the hallway to get out of my office, then yes, it's totally my kids. But yeah, no, actually, my kids actually probably keep me more organized in my business because of how I've had to arrange my schedule. Like, you know, Fridays are my my 10 year old homeschool community day. So I don't work on Fridays ever. And therefore, I now have to move my work to other containers. Tuesdays are usually therapy appointments for my youngest child, we have a couple of different things we do every week. And because of that, well, I have some defined time periods that can't move on Tuesday. So you know, you you probably won't catch me working in a public way on Tuesday, but you know, between their appointment one and therapy appointment two, I often go to the gym, and sit in the adult lounge with my laptop on Wi Fi and just catch up on you know, an hour of emails, right? Those roles have different hours and my week have become more defined because of my kids. And as a result, it forces me to be more organized and more efficient. You know, I know I have to get things done within a very specific time period because of how my life is and that was my choice, you know?

Kathi Burns  14:56  
Yeah, I was talking to someone and other podcasts about the four hour day, trying to get everything done in four hours. And when we have limits to when we're allowed to or have the pocket of time to work, we tend to get more done. Quite honestly, if we have like a whole, whatever we can we can work till for an hour, then you'd get a lot less done anyhow.  I love the pocketing of appointments and putting in just like you have, it's good thing I record podcasts on Monday.

Britney Gardner  15:28  
Yeah, thank you very much.

Kathi Burns  15:33  
That's perfect. So what what would you say, Brittany, what would be your best piece of advice for entrepreneurs who want to create more freedom within their business, or freedom within their life?

Britney Gardner  15:43  
You know, I, for me, you know, the average small business owner spends more than eight hours a week on social media. And that's a fifth of a 40 hour work week, if you work 40 hours, that's a significant amount of time. So if you're going to do that, like, please be productive about it. Yeah, that's all I really can say that the best advice I can give my clients or people who are in that content creation world, like you and I are, is measure what you're doing, don't post things because they rack up likes, like I said earlier, it's not the viral post that's going to book you clients. And I love helping people. I get a immense amount of joy around helping my clients solve their problems, but I also am running a business. So I need to make sure that what I'm doing is, is leading to a profitable time at least. So I measure everything I do. And yeah, and that's how I found out for both me and my clients, right? Like, it's, it's the content that doesn't look the most popular that often does lead to, you know, the clients actually booking appointments. So my best piece of advice is measure what you are doing. And you know, if you're a done for you service provider, like you know, an organizer, for example. That means you're going to track how many hours you're putting on each kind of client job, right? If you're a website designer, same thing, if you're a coach, you know, how much time are you spending marketing versus serving your clients, you know, these are all trackable things. trackable, even beyond what content works.

Kathi Burns  17:18  
I love that love that. And a lot of people don't want to spend the time tracking but that's really where the gold is. Right? That's where you know you should focus and where you should not focus.

Britney Gardner  17:27  
Yeah, and again, you know, authentic automated marketing, you know, you can be authentic, and be automated. Your tracking and measuring can also be automated. If you take a little bit of time to set it up. In the beginning, you know, like most things, a little bit of pre planning goes a long way towards relieving anxieties in the future.

Kathi Burns  17:47  
Oh, yeah, the Abe Lincoln for three hours of perspiration, I saved eight hours of or three hours of preparation, I save eight hours of perspiration. That's what he always said, my favorite. Yeah, that's what it is. So I know you have a valuable free resource that you're going to offer the the viewers here, so what are you getting to give the people listening? What does the audience get?

Britney Gardner  18:08  
Yeah, so I have a short guide called the content creation prescription. So it's the content RX. And in it, I talk about the kinds of content that will net those clients. Like we were talking about content that gets your people thinking about their problems differently. And I also touched on the four big content mistakes that I see a lot of entrepreneurs making out there in the social media posting realm, those those things are really easy to avoid once they've been pointed out to you. So I hope that's a benefit to your audience. Because, again, let's make sure that the time we're spending is productive.

Kathi Burns  18:50  
Yeah, I love that. Thank you. That's a really, really generous gift. And I'm gonna devour it. Because again, measure all that stuff. Just tell me it. That's what I always say. So yeah, I will be reading that that as well. It'll be good for me. So what's the one question that I should have asked you that I have not asked you about yourself or your business today Britney?

Britney Gardner  19:15  
The one question I asked this actually do a lot of people. And when it comes to that, for me, it's always, hey, what am I missing here? You know, I have a lot of clients come to me and they're like, I want to do this, I want to do this. And like, okay, or I have a client be like, I need to move into this area. I'm like, okay, and they have it all mapped out in their head, but there's always one thing that there's missing, you know, we all have blind spots. So that's the question that you should ask someone like me, someone who's got a very strategic and creative mind who can kind of look at things from an overhead view but also see the the little hurdles along the way. What's my blind spot? That is probably the question that will get you the most mileage.

Kathi Burns  20:05  
Oh, that's really good. What's my blind spot? Okay, good. Okay, I'll be and I'll be asking that to a few people as well. We can't see as coaches and people who do what we do. We're like the mirror. Like we get, it's so easy to see blind spots in clients, but not in ourselves.

Britney Gardner  20:26  
Oh, and I'm the same way, you know, like, I'm a really good strategic mastermind for my clients, but I still have people I have to go to for that same thing for me, because, like you said, we don't see it in ourselves.

Kathi Burns  20:39  
And masters, higher masters, I mean that, the most successful of us, that's what we're doing. We're using people to help us to be that mirror to shine it back to us and say, Hey, what about that? and I agree with you. I was looking on your website that the things that often are tweaked, or just really small, seemingly insignificant things that we've completely overlooked because we've read through them so many times and done them so many times that oh, yeah, maybe we should have put that little step in there.

Britney Gardner  21:10  
Yeah and also, you know, like, when it's the curse of the expert, right. So you're really good at some stuff, like, really, really good, so good that, you know, I probably am looking at you. And I'm like, I don't think I could ever do that. And then you turn around and you start teaching me how to do that. But because it's so long ago that you got away from that point I'm at right now. It's really hard for you to sometimes, you know, break down the steps to get there and you miss one step. And then I'm over here on the other side going, I don't get it. What am I missing here? And, and you know, this this, you could be anyone. And the V could be anyone, we all do this. So yeah, it helps having having people kind of pick up that blindside for you.

Kathi Burns  21:57  
Yeah, I love it. Okay. Well, it's been a real pleasure. And I so appreciate your time. The audio was a little bit weird guys, because we are having a storm up in Portland meridian. So but we only missed a couple words, I think just a little bit. Thanks so much for your time, even during the storm, and setting aside the time and I look forward to learning more about what you do and downloading your resource and seeing more what you're up to. I'll be watching you, Britney. Thank you.

Britney Gardner  22:26  
Oh, well, thank you so much. And thanks for making it work, storm aside. You know, we're all in this business together. Right? We're making it work.

Kathi Burns  22:35  
That's right. Okay, have a good one. Thank you so much.

Hey, thanks for listening to this podcast. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you want to hear more, feel free to subscribe on the platform of your choice. Also, if you feel so inclined, I would truly appreciate a good rating from you, to me have a stellar day.