What’s the Plan, Stan?

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How to Create Your Promotional Calendar

“How do you plan out your promotions?” That’s a question Amy Porterfield gets asked a lot. No wonder—she slays the promotional calendar game.

Today’s Listen isn’t merely tip and insights for making a promotional calendar. Nah, Amy outlines the exact blueprint she uses in her own business. She only insists that you get a big 6-month dry erase calendar (and maybe a million sticky notes) and take an entire day for the process.

Seems like a long day, but when you follow her blueprint, the payoff is well, literal payoff.

We timestamped some major parts for you:

• (07:00) Step 1: Answer the question, “If I were to wave a magic wand and instantly have a breakthrough year what would that year look like?”
• (08:25) Example of what this might look like.
• (09:53) Step 2: Find your “non-negotiables” and why these non-negotiables crucial to your business success.
• (11:58) Step 3: Declare your number. How much $ do you want to make this year?
• (13:30) Step 4: Get clarity on the past so you can plan for the future.
• (14:15) The metrics you should come to the table with.
• (16:00) Once you have some metrics, ask yourself these 7 questions.
• (18:18) Write down all of the stuff you talked about and wished you could do or never got around to.
• (18:40) Step 5: Calendar your big promotions for the year. This is two phases.
• (20:00) A list of different ways you might want to make money.
• (21:20) Why you should get specific on your revenue projections.
• (21:55) Example of how to do this and the steps to take after.
• (25:30) Why it’s okay, even encouraged, to go back to the drawing board.
• (27:35) A big mistake to avoid when planning out your promotions.
• (30:45) Why you need white space between promotions.
• (34:58) How to not let FOMO take you down in your planning process.
• (36:06) Step 6: Review all of the work you’ve done for the day. Ask yourself these key questions.
• (40:40) The next big step…

Visit her webpage for access to what she calls her “cheat sheet,” a transcript of the episode, and more insights and takeaways. But because the podcast on her page counts down, we’re linking up to a different channel →

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The Planning Fallacy: Why We Always End Up Overloaded At Work

How long is your to-do list right now? If you’re like us, it’s long. Real long. And that likely stems from how much we love saying “yes” to things.

Everyone says “yes” too often because we’re all really bad at estimating how long a project will take to complete. It’s called the planning fallacy. So when the boss asks if you can do something by Friday, you say “yes” because you truly think you can. But in reality, you can’t. Or you’re going to be working long hours to make it happen.

So there’s our problem. We say yes too much and we’re really bad at planning. So where do we go from here? Well, assuming you’re not Doc Brown and don’t have a time machine to go back in time and turn that “yes” to a “no,” you’ve got 3 options:

1. Organize that to-do list. You need to determine what needs to be done today, what can wait until tomorrow, and what you can put off for another few days. Yes, actually reorganize your to-do list in that order. This will help you stay on task and focus on the work that needs to be done now, even if it isn’t much fun.
2. Delegate what you can. If you have a direct report who can handle some things, toss those tasks over to them. If you’re not in a management position, ask your coworkers for help. They’re likely willing to lend a hand. If you work alone, look at some productivity bots to handle some tasks for you.
3. Push back deadlines. Yep, you can do this without looking unprofessional. There’s a template for this in today’s Read, but the most important thing when doing this is to offer an alternative timeline. Don’t just leave it open-ended.

Alright, so this Read isn’t 100% marketing focused, but we could all use a little help with working more efficiently, right?

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Watch

Ikea and the Allen Keys (sounds like the name of a trendy pop band)

Speaking of organizing things…Ikea (nailed that transition).

When you think of an old, grand mansion, what kind of furniture would you expect to be inside? Probably some stuffy looking items that cost more than we make in a year. You definitely wouldn’t expect it to be full of Ikea furniture.

But that’s the idea in Ikea’s new ad in Spain (going across the pond for this one). The ad features a…how should we put this…a wealthy woman entertaining her friends when one of them finds an Allen key! ::cue dramatic music::

The wealthy woman sets out on a hunt to find out who brought Ikea furniture into her house. It wasn’t the maids, it wasn’t her daughter, it ends up being her equally wealthy looking husband. And he’s dang proud of the Ikea furniture he bought. He nails his response in one word when she accuses him of the horrible deed.

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