Navigating the Leap From Creative Arts to Business Mastery with Laura Berman Fortgang

Episode 71 – Transcript + Timestamps

Navigating the Leap From Creative Arts to Business Mastery with Laura Berman Fortgang

Introduction

[00:00:00] Yvonne Heimann: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Boss Your Business. And today I am joined by Laura Berman Fortgang. Yes, I’m bringing you another German last name, Austrian last name, European last name, we are all the same over there. And we are following our streak of working smarter rather than working harder.

[00:00:27] And before we dive into all the nitty gritty and all the things of how my audience can stop working their asses off and stop the whole hassles thing and just get smarter about the things we do. Well, do me a favor. Tell my audience, who are you and how did you get here?

[00:00:44] Laura Berman Fortgang: Sure. You heard my name. I’m a master credentialed coach.

[00:00:48] I’ve been coaching for 30 years. I came into it from an acting background, which, you know, how does that match? Who knows, but it helped. It made me an observer of [00:01:00] people. So I quickly started taking my coaching into corporations to help executives lead and it morphed after 9 11 into helping people figure out what to do with their life.

[00:01:13] And I helped many people start businesses and I had my own business all this time. So over the years, more and more, I’ve helped people run their businesses, whether that business is inside a corporate unit or outside on their own with their own business and I’ve run my own business. In some way, shape or form since the mid nineties.

[00:01:35] So here I am, I’ve gotten to write five books. I’ve been on Oprah. I have a Ted talk. So I’ve enjoyed some, some fun public facing things along the way, but most of the work is done right here behind the computer screen on zoom, talking to my clients and hopefully we can help some people today.

[00:01:54] Yvonne Heimann: I’m curious how, or is, [00:02:00] is it different or how is it different to work into in that corporate container or building, building your own container, building your own business? Is there something different or behind the scenes, the framework is actually the same?

[00:02:16] Laura Berman Fortgang: Well, I think there’s a difference just because your entrepreneurs tend to be the do it all people, you know, they don’t have, they don’t always have that built in assistant in the beginning, or they may not have a team.

[00:02:30] So really learning how to be that person who has to think in every department. I think that makes a difference, but ultimately you’re running a business and whether that business is inside of a company or your own company. There’s so many similarities, so many similarities, but entrepreneurs have to be so much more scrappy, you know, with their budgets and how to make things happen and how to stay up with the [00:03:00] times.

[00:03:01] So, you know, we’re a special breed.

[00:03:05] Yvonne Heimann: Ain’t that the truth? It’s, it’s been interesting. And that’s one of the reasons why I asked corporate versus, versus outside of corporate is when, when I work with corporate consulting clients, it, the first time I did that, it was so different where there is more money there, there is a higher perceived value there, but things are also seemingly working a little bit slower where I’ve never had a corporate client be like, Oh my God, I need this right now.

[00:03:43] It is like. Okay. So within the next few days or potentially even weeks, so I’m, I’m always interested on different perceptions between the entrepreneurial and the corporate, but also what can we entrepreneurs [00:04:00] learn from that, that corporate framework, from things working differently for us, yeah, to start working smarter and, and maybe not doing all the things, maybe taking a little bit of weight down.

[00:04:14] Laura Berman Fortgang: Yes, being more strategic, not being so reactive, you know, day to day, thinking more long term instead of just what’s immediate on any given day. I think that’s something that we can borrow from corporate or just borrow from life so that we can lead healthier lives. I mean, I, you know, I used to be able to fill my days 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

[00:04:36] It felt like with my business and then you learn how to get smarter about it. And you learn that more is not more, more is not better. You know, taking that break to go for a walk in the afternoon and walking your dog may be the best business decision you make. Cause it helps you think through a problem or get away from the desk for a little while, brings you back refreshed.

[00:04:58] You know, [00:05:00] corporate people, they overwork too, but they have, they have more support.

From Reactive To Proactive: Working Better And Smarter

[00:05:07] Yvonne Heimann: Do you have any recommendations for our entrepreneurs that are in the do it all, do it all right now, do it all 24/7. And I think a lot of us do start in that reactive phase. We have an idea. We might not have any standard operating procedures.

[00:05:27] We don’t have a framework yet. We are just doing, so it’s kind of makes sense. We are starting in the reactive, but when they get to the point of realizing, okay, I’m burning myself out, I’m just hustling every day. I didn’t start a business to just generate another job and they are ready to change something about this and become more proactive rather than just being in that reactive state.

[00:05:52] Do you have any recommendation? Maybe an exercise, maybe a mindset shift that can [00:06:00] help my audience to shift from that reactive into that proactive.

[00:06:06] Laura Berman Fortgang: Yeah. I mean, I, even my solo entrepreneurs, like I have them create an organizational chart, you know, they’re the CEO and then, you know, they’re also the marketing department.

[00:06:17] They’re the sales department. They’re the operations department, but make a, make an operations chart, I’m sorry, a corporate chart and an organizational chart and see like how much you are really doing. You’re doing everything and then use that to say, okay, what are the things that I really do well. You know, where’s my sweet spot?

[00:06:38] Where’s the thing that the business must have me? And you have to get smart about starting to find other places to fill in the rest of that org chart. I’m not saying you have to have a huge team, but you have to start finding a way to offload a lot of that busyness, that is none of your business to be doing.[00:07:00]

[00:07:00] So I like the organizational chart as an exercise. Even if you are working by yourself.

[00:07:06] Yvonne Heimann: And it’s, I think it helps a lot getting, getting that visual. It’s not just something that’s spinning out in our head and we are just thinking that’s what it is because I’m like, that’s, that’s often what happens, right? We are like, oh yeah, this is just going to take me five minutes. And yeah, I took care of this.

[00:07:25] And by the time we actually put it on paper, by the time we actually put it down and really ask the question, is this just my perception or is this how it’s happening? Now, suddenly we have more real data. We suddenly see, Oh my God, this is really, this is what I did today. Really? This is all the hats I’m wearing.

[00:07:50] And now suddenly seeing all of this, it’s, it’s this exercise of “should I really?”

[00:07:59] Laura Berman Fortgang: [00:08:00] Exactly. Should I be doing all this? And the answer is no, you know, you need it to keep all the balls in the air, but you, if you don’t want to burn out, if you want to have the longevity of your business, you have to start getting those pieces handled by somebody else.

Investing in your future, Prioritizing Your Time And Energy

[00:08:18] Yvonne Heimann: How do you recommend the audience starting to outsource, because I know a lot of my, my listeners, a lot of my viewers are really passionate. So they build a business to change something, to be a solution for something. They are really passionate about what they’re doing. So me included, it’s often a situation of, Oh my God, this is my baby.

[00:08:44] I’m the only one that can do this right. How can they start outsourcing? How can they start letting go of this idea of we are the only ones that can do this?

[00:08:58] Laura Berman Fortgang: Right. I mean, [00:09:00] that, that’s a, that is a fallacy. Like we think, you know, we need to, we need to know from the beginning that is not true. There’s other people that can do this.

[00:09:07] And, you know, maybe you start delegating stuff that’s not from your business. Maybe it’s, you know, you have a meal prep. You, you start buying meal prep kits or you start delegating your house cleaning or some or pick people picking up your children so that you start buying back more of your time, right?

[00:09:26] So maybe you don’t start with giving away pieces of the business, give away pieces of your, the rest of your life that you need to delegate. Then, when it comes to the business, you know, it, it. You know, we always think that someone else can’t do it as well as us. Oh, I might as well do it myself. By the time I explain it to somebody else, it takes me too long, but you have to look at it as an investment in your future, you know, that you have to stop and take a little more time to teach somebody.

[00:09:54] So that you eventually can offload that and you know, when I started, [00:10:00] I couldn’t afford an assistant, but I always tell everybody you have to have an assistant before you can afford to have an assistant. Like, it’s that scary little step and I had a student, you know, I had some, an intern, a student who would help me get some things done, you know, less running around, less paperwork, less data entry, you know, just something small.

[00:10:24] But I started seeing where I got my time back and then I needed someone more professional than that. So I was ready to take on the next step. You know, you’re not, you’re only indispensable if you make yourself indispensable. And if, and think about this, if you have a business that only relies on you, what if you get sick, what if you need to take a month off, the whole thing goes down.

[00:10:48] So having a second in command of some kind can keep can keep things going. I mean, I’ve, I’ve helped two parents to the end of their lives. I have a [00:11:00] special needs, mildly special needs child. I started my business before I had kids and now they’re all almost grown, you know, so I’ve been through every stage of what happens when you’re running a business and without that other person or that team of people, I wouldn’t have a business after all the things that have, you know, I’ve done in my life.

[00:11:23] I even ran for office twice and kept my business going.

[00:11:26] Yvonne Heimann: Damn. Yeah, I am. I am definitely the opposite example and which is one of the passions of that has built my business. Having spent taking care of my late husband for two years and there’s a reason why I’m preaching repeatable systems, repeatable systems, repeatable systems, because I started over from zero.

[00:11:50] It’s, I was a web design company at that point. I handed my clients off because they needed to be taken care of. Fortunately, we had a lot of angels in our life. [00:12:00] And by the time he passed, I didn’t have a client left. I didn’t have a, there was no life insurance. There was no house. I started over from zero.

[00:12:10] Even, even if life doesn’t smack you over the head like that, at least it means you have time to actually take that vacation or go travel or go do whatever you want to do. It doesn’t always have to be that bad example of, okay, life just handed us lemons. Great. Let’s see what we’re going to do with that.

[00:12:30] It also can just literally mean, you get to enjoy your life now. You get to do and spend your time however you want to do rather than being in this rat race of working 24/7. Right?

[00:12:45] Laura Berman Fortgang: Yeah. I mean, most people start their own business to have more freedom, hopefully financial freedom too, but time freedom and to be able to control their schedules.

[00:12:54] And then we end up working harder than some people who, you know, are harder than you did at your job [00:13:00] at your job because you can fill the whole day with activities that need to happen in your business, but

[00:13:06] Yvonne Heimann: there’s always, there’s always something to

[00:13:07] Laura Berman Fortgang: there’s always more to do. But, you know, when you, I asked my clients to put strict time boundaries around when they’re working, because you have to think what’s the bigger, better, smarter action for me to take today, if you have limited time.

[00:13:23] If you have unlimited time, you’re just going to fill up that time. It doesn’t mean you’re going to be more effective. You’d just be busy and busy isn’t going to take it.

Spending Your Time On Things That Actually Matter

[00:13:34] Yvonne Heimann: It’s going to take as much time as you give it. So how, how can people start working smarter? You already mentioned, okay, time boxing, scheduling, whatever you want to call it to really limit the time you give something, because again, there’s always something to do. What other things can my audience start doing [00:14:00] to really work smarter rather than working harder.

[00:14:02] Laura Berman Fortgang: I ask people to start the day doing the hardest thing first.

[00:14:10] Like, what’s, what’s that thing that you might be dreading, or a little afraid of, or that phone call you don’t want to make, or that thing you have to write? Like, start the day with the hardest thing first, because once that’s out of the way, you’re just going to seem like you have so much time on your hands.

[00:14:23] Because, you know, the stress of procrastinating or the stress of putting lots of little activities in front of the, the big thing. I mean, when I first started my business, there’s now a term for it that I’ve heard called procrasticleaning.

[00:14:39] Yvonne Heimann: Oh God. Yes. Uh huh. Guilty. Guilty.

[00:14:44] Laura Berman Fortgang: I only heard that term recently, but when I started my business, oh my God, I would clean my whole apartment and then it’d be four o’clock and I’d be like, I’m too tired to work.

[00:14:54] Oh, well, I didn’t get anything done today. So

[00:14:56] Yvonne Heimann: I can’t be productive if my, if my kitchen isn’t clean. Yeah. I hadn’t heard [00:15:00] that term yet. I hadn’t heard that term, but I knew exactly what you were talking about.

[00:15:05] Laura Berman Fortgang: Procrasticleaning.

[00:15:07] Yvonne Heimann: Oh my God, yes. There, there were times I’m like, I finally let go of it, but there were literally times where I’m like, I can’t think clearly if, if there is dishes in the sink, such bullshit.

[00:15:21] It was just an excuse. And it was just a procrastination of I don’t want to tackle this, but I think with, with that approach, what also comes with it is this, yeah, I, I did it. It’s that pride. It’s that, that same thing we experienced where I’m like, I don’t want to go to the gym. I don’t want to go to the gym, but when you actually went to the gym, you feel good.

[00:15:45] And I think it has the same effect too because, it’s still going to be here. It’s still going to be sitting on our shoulder if we don’t get it done, which means half of your brain power is going to this thing that you are supposed to be doing that, you [00:16:00] know, you need to get off your back, but you will keep pushing it out for whatever reason.

[00:16:05] So it’s sucking up your energy, which means all the other things that you’ve been doing, you also just been doing halfway.

[00:16:13] Laura Berman Fortgang: Exactly. So do the hardest thing first. Watch your activities and make sure you’re not doing something to procrastinate doing the real thing that you need to do. So that’s one way. And also just, you know, you, you have to be bolder when you’re looking for that

[00:16:31] what’s the bigger, better, smarter action? Like, what is the thing that’s going to make a difference? Instead of the busy work. You know, so reorganizing the files and cleaning up your desk. I mean, I know that there’s something to be said for, you know, having clarity and a clear space to work, but do it on the weekend.

[00:16:51] Don’t do it on your, you know, first thing in the morning when you should be the most productive at your desk. So, you know, and, and it’s like, [00:17:00] well, what’s going to make a, that’s the question. I just, I asked myself and I have my clients ask like, what’s going to really make the difference today.

[00:17:07] If you could only do one thing, what should that one thing be? And then that sets up a whole, a whole different day when you do it that way. Does that make sense?

[00:17:17] Yvonne Heimann: Because we are, we are not supposed to be in the nitty gritty. It’s like, can I get myself busy? Heck yeah. It’s like, I always can polish something or change an email workflow or change a landing page or do whatever, but is my time really best spent there?

[00:17:37] That’s, that’s where I have a team. And yes, there’s moments where I run a process first, where I need to figure things out. Some of them, not all of them, but some big moves is where I’m in the, in the weeds and just testing and doing so I can give the team a quick start [00:18:00] because I am the nerd who I am.

[00:18:01] And because I also get to play once in a while, that’s where I have fun. But as you said, I set a time limit to it. Yeah. So when, as right now we are moving to High Level, a lot of things that are technically moving, I get to play a little bit, but I only get to play an hour a day, while moving things, while getting things set up and then handing it off to the team. On other things, I’m like, I don’t need to be the one in the weeds, trying to figure this out, how this is working or what this is going, where I literally have Jeremy on the team,

[00:18:35] who’s a mini me where I’m like here, this is what I’m trying to accomplish. Do me a favor, go figure it out. So guys, you don’t even have to figure it all out yourself. Hand it off to your team, give them the ownership and let them run with it.

[00:18:51] Laura Berman Fortgang: That’s why you have a team so that you do not have to be in the weeds.

Simple Things You Can Do To Work Smarter

[00:18:57] Yvonne Heimann: I think part of this though, is [00:19:00] in the beginning when that shift happens from reactive to proactive is also, reframing our brain, rewiring our brain. We were so used to, okay, this needs to get done. I’m taking care of it. That has to shift where I’ve seen the shift in me of, it took me a month too, Yvi, why are you doing this again? Really?

[00:19:22] Is this really where you should spend the time and really getting out of the habit of having to do it all and handing it off. Do you see that in your clients too, where it’s just, it’s, it’s like a practice. It’s, it’s like we’ve rebuilding that habit. Just like, brushing your teeth or going to the gym off, you just have to do it over to get into that habit of handing it off to clients. Or am I the only one in this?

[00:19:46] Laura Berman Fortgang: I think you have to stop yourself and say, should I really be doing this? Like, is this really like, do, is this my job description? Do I need to be doing this? You know, I find things all the time. I’m like, why am I doing this? This [00:20:00] does not have to be done by me. Why am I doing this?

[00:20:02] And so that becomes the thing to write down, to delegate, you know, I still use a way too much paper. I will, I will tell on myself, you know, like I have a little mini pad for each person on my team. So we’ve got the Kelly pad. I love, I love paper. So we’ve got Laura’s pad. For any, for anybody

[00:20:24] Yvonne Heimann: that’s what, that’s just listening.

[00:20:26] You guys should really watch the episode. Watch the video.

[00:20:29] Laura Berman Fortgang: We’re showing our paper.

[00:20:30] Yvonne Heimann: What, what you’re missing is when, when Laura was talking about it, I, I brought in my notepad that’s sitting on my desk because there is. And there’s something to be said for paper. I fall back onto my notepad when I get overwhelmed and I’m like, I live in ClickUp, I live in project management, but sometimes it’s just this, okay, we have so many things going on.

[00:20:55] We have so many projects going on. They’re all mapped out. They all in ClickUp, but I [00:21:00] just need to put the blinders on right now. And that’s, that’s usually when I grab the paper off. Okay. Focus. One simple list, what actually matters, and just that process of, of taking specific pens. It even has to be a specific pencil.

[00:21:16] Laura Berman Fortgang: It’s a brain, it’s a brain process. It’s, and it’s tactile and it’s tactile. So like you’re touching it, you’re thinking it, you’re seeing it, it evolves your senses. And I don’t know if it’s just because, you know, I don’t know if we’re the same age, but we’re not digital natives. We didn’t get born with a computer in the house.

[00:21:34] So I don’t know if it’s,

[00:21:35] Yvonne Heimann: I remember I have, I remember having to call the operator and my first, my first beeper and my first cell phone and how long it took to get on.

[00:21:44] Laura Berman Fortgang: When you made a, when you made a long distance call and you had to wait for the operator to call you back, right?

[00:21:49] Yvonne Heimann: Oh yeah.

[00:21:50] Laura Berman Fortgang: Right. So I think it has some, it might have something to do with not being a digital native, but there’s, you know, writing stuff [00:22:00] down, rereading it, it, I think it’s a brain process, it just, it, you start getting this ownership of what has to happen, you, you feel it in your body, you put it out on paper, you read it back into your brain, you feel it in your body, so there’s something to it, so yes, there’s the visual of ClickUp or whatever app you’re using, but there’s something else distinct in writing things down, just the process for thinking it through. So let’s get our brain scientists on here and tell us what that is. But

[00:22:33] Yvonne Heimann: there’s, there’s something going on.

[00:22:35] Laura Berman Fortgang: There’s something there.

[00:22:37] Yvonne Heimann: Especially when you start then collecting notebooks and you got a notebook for each thing and suddenly it’s like, okay, where did I note those down?

[00:22:46] Laura Berman Fortgang: Yes, I keep, I keep them right here, right here.

[00:22:49] Yvonne Heimann: Done that too. Done that too. So do you have, for anybody that is, that is in it right now, that is ready to [00:23:00] start working smarter, not harder, and really take an action tomorrow? What’s the first thing you would recommend?

[00:23:11] Laura Berman Fortgang: Write that organizational chart that we talked about, see all the activities that you do, then start looking at what piece can I give away?

[00:23:21] Like, what’s the first piece that I can give away? You know, like I said, it might be some of your personal things and not your business things, but what, where can you buy back your time? And I say that on purpose. Yes, you have to buy it back. But the more time

[00:23:35] Yvonne Heimann: it’s money lost.

[00:23:37] Laura Berman Fortgang: RIght. The more, the more you do that, the more you have time for the things that matter.

[00:23:40] So if you’re the only person doing sales and talking to customers and you’re the rainmaker, or you have to, you get out there and you’re speak or whatever it is that you do, having the rest of it taken care of means you’re going to make more money, right. So you, somewhere you have to make that first investment to make more money. Spend it to, to make more.[00:24:00]

[00:24:00] And also it’s, it’s the systems, like you said, like, having repeatable systems, S. O. P. Standard Operating Procedures, so that you can pass that off to somebody. It’s like, well, this is how we do this, right. And I already wrote it down. Let me know if you have any questions or they write it while you’re teaching them how to do X, Y, or Z thing.

[00:24:23] And then you’ve created that for, you know, to have that manual for your company because anyone could leave tomorrow too. Right? So it could be, it could be you that needs a break because something come up in your life, or it could be somebody, you know, decides to leave you. But if you have all your systems and operations written down, it’s so much easier to get that next person to take their place.

[00:24:47] But really it’s an internal switch inside of you. Like you really have to decide you can’t go on this way. Like you, you know, you are impeding the growth of your company by insisting on doing everything. You’re getting, you’re [00:25:00] in the way. So when you get that, you start realizing you have to listen to what Yvonne and I are saying.

[00:25:10] Yvonne Heimann: So Laura, if people want to know more about all the things that you are saying, where can they find you?

[00:25:18] Laura Berman Fortgang: It’s a long name, but the easiest place to find me is to Google Laura Berman Fortgang.com because that’s my website, www.laurabermanfortgang.com. And you’ll see my, my different businesses there.

[00:25:30] And we also will put into your show notes, we have a download. You can download my Six Steps From Solopreneur To Sensational Brand, right? So how to move you from just the one man show to a brand. So hopefully you’ll take advantage of that.

[00:25:48] Yvonne Heimann: And as Laura already hinted, yes, all of this is going to be linked in the show notes.

[00:25:54] Easy for you to go. Easy for you to click on. We make it really [00:26:00] simple for you, Laura. Thanks so much for joining me on today’s episode. And thank you so much for the freebie for my audience. So they can really dive into and take action now because we’re not just sitting around people. We are doing things.

[00:26:16] Laura Berman Fortgang: So nice to meet you. Thank you.

[00:26:18] Yvonne Heimann: Thanks, everybody.

Timestamps

00:00 | Introduction

05:07 | From Reactive To Proactive: Working Better And Smarter

08:18 | Investing in your future, Prioritizing Your Time And Energy

13:34 | Spending Your Time On Things That Actually Matter

18:57 | Simple Things You Can Do To Work Smarter