Find the time to create your product – with Libby Knight

Find the time to create your product - with Libby Knight

INTRO (00:00:08):

Welcome to the Bring Your Product Ideas to Life podcast, Practical advice and inspiration to help you create and sell your own physical products. Here's your host. Vicki Weinberg

Vicki Weinberg (00:00:22):

Hi, I'm having a wonderful day so far. I'm a coordinated on a Monday morning, have no children in here, which is amazing. Quite honestly. Anyway, today, we're going to talk about a topic which has close to my heart, which is time management and productivity. I'm sure lots of us, myself included could always do better here. I love any tips about how I can do things faster, how I can not do things. Yeah. Time is something that I always struggle with. And if you have the same, I think you will find this episode where to USEFUL. So Libby Knight is a business consultant, helping busy people to build and grow a profitable business by creating a focused and effective strategy without being overwhelmed or losing their life work balance.

Vicki Weinberg (00:01:04):

Having worked both at home and in the corporate environment, leading teams, and we have a lot of travel. They'll be knows the importance of productivity and effective time management. In this episode, she's going to share tips and advice on the time mindset we need to overcome provides practical advice and techniques that you can use to consistently move your business forward, all launch your next product, and she'll help you prioritize. What's truly important all while maintaining a positive life work balance. So I learned a lot from this chat. I'm including some new techniques eye I'm going to try right away. And I really hope you did too. And I think however, productive, M U R however good you are at managing your time that there will be at least one or two.

Vicki Weinberg (00:01:45):

This will things in here that you could take away and try, and that will hopefully help you. So here's Libby okay. So highly of you. Thank you so much for being here.

Libby Knight (00:01:56):

Hello. Very pleased to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

Vicki Weinberg (00:02:00):

The problem, as I mentioned to you want me to speak to Before time management is something that I think is definitely worth speaking about it, and it's definitely a common reason I hear for why people either haven't started to buy their product creation or why they're not moving ahead as quickly as they'd like to know, is it, can we please just start and by you giving us or an introduction to yourself, you're a business and what you do to help people?

Libby Knight (00:02:22):

Yeah, sure. So I help busy people in business to build a profitable business by creating a focused and effective strategy. So I'd come from a sales or marketing management background, and I'd been in

manufacturing, have big scientific equipment from a Barack shoes. So I have that business development and product development background and, and I'm very used to working at home. So I know the, the challenges of both working in an office in the team and the joys doing that and the benefits of the difficulties of doing not at home. So that stands me in good stead to help people. So now I have my own business, so I've kind of seen both sides of things.

Libby Knight (00:03:06):

So I help people with their productivity because it is quite overwhelming, starting a business, growing a business, being your own boss. And, and there's a lot to think about it so I can help people to stay on track and keep them focused. And that's a lot of what I do as well as strategy. I do really help people to say what's important and what is going to help me to grow my business and get things moving

Vicki Weinberg (00:03:29):

Well, thank you. And so just out of interest to be what got you into doing that?

Libby Knight (00:03:35):

So I did a life science degree. I did the biochemistry degree when my daughter was at primary school, sort of kickstart my career, looking back slightly mad because it's quite a full-on full time degree, but it led to the sales side. I wasn't absolutely sure what I was going to do with it, to be honest, put my CV online was offered an opportunity in distribution of life science equipment, and I needed a life science degree. And so I started it in the house being technical officer, and then when it out on the road. So I was into the lab and helping to spec out a whole labs for equipment. And then I went to work for a manufacturer that I knew very well, who that distribution job.

Libby Knight (00:04:17):

And I worked as UK sales manager in terms of a European sales manager and then global sales manager. And it's up to the marketing teams as well. So I was sort of senior level of working on the strategy for the whole company. And that was a 60 year old company based in Cambridge manufacturing, temperature control equipment from the birches. So that's kind of where I got to where I am. And then the reason I now work for myself is because as many people do who travel every single week away from home, I sort of got burned, burned out. I didn't realize it. Didn't see it coming. I didn't want to leave my corporate job. I absolutely loved it. But after losing my voice for three months, it was kind of a sign to say, now is the time to make change.

Libby Knight (00:04:60):

And I thought, well, why not use my skills to stop my own business? So that's when I started to build my consultancy.

Vicki Weinberg (00:05:06):

Okay, fantastic. And so I'm thinking as well, or that you must be super organized and super productive as well. Would you say you on that? Do you want to say you naturally have those tendencies, but it's something you've learned?

Libby Knight (00:05:16):

Nope. Not at all. As a child, out of scatty, I was all over the place. I was just a bit of an air head and, you know, I was quite Practical, but I wasn't tidy. So these are skills that I have developed over the years and because I don't want more responsibility of, so you have to be a good example. You have to be organized. Do you have a responsibility? So I've taught myself all of this because I wanted to be proud and to contribute and to be good at my job. And so, and it's stirred me in good stead because, you know, that's how I've sort of progressed up the ladder. So it thinks the skills that I learnt. So you don't have to naturally be organized and productive.

Libby Knight (00:05:57):

It's just learning some skills and their thought processes behind it. And anybody can do it. Even if you're quite a friend or a creative person, I've done a lot of creativity in my background. I've just taken up and the topography I've built gardens sculptures. So I do have a creative side. So it's not impossible for people to learn this skill. So these are things that anybody can adopt and a totally the things we'll talk about today and the ideas and the thoughts, the things that anybody can do and can adapt to their businesses. There's not a strict line of instructions. You must do this. If there's, you know, build the surrender of business, adapt it and use it in a way that suits you.

Vicki Weinberg (00:06:40):

Oh, that's a really good, thank you. You know, that's, that's nice. And that's hopefully it as well that actually you don't have to be born. I'm being really organized. I have been great at managing your time and that is good to know. So yeah, I'm looking forward to getting into talking about some techniques that we can all use to help with that. But first of all, we can just back up a little bit. Libby so, as I mentioned earlier, something I hear and a lot from people about why they're not moving forwards with saw some of their business and creating their product is, well, I don't have to time on that. It was not the right time, you know, one of our firm or a face. So it is quite a common reason for not take an action. What are, what are your thoughts on why this is why or why don't we have the time?

Libby Knight (00:07:20):

And I think that starting a business is quite overwhelming. There was a lot to it, and there's a huge amount of inflammation. And the more you looked for information, the more information you will find more techniques, you look for, the more techniques you will find them, or do you want to learn them all there is to learn. So it's about finding what works for you, deciding what you want to achieve and then doing what's necessary, but keeping it simple. So I think people become overwhelmed. And I think that, that it will do it one day because perhaps it's not important enough for right now, perhaps this is not the right time, but if they decide to tears

it, then they need to prioritize it.

Libby Knight (00:08:02):

We have lots of priorities, but we have 168 hours a week. We all have. And it's what we choose to do with it. So if we have an idea of what we want to make it happen, and we have to make choices that are going to make that happen, and we have to work around the role of the responsibilities, but we can make every excuse under the sun a lot to do something that probably means we don't really want to do it, or it's not the right thing. It's not the way we're not passionate enough about it. We want to make it happen. We will make it happen. We will find a way. So I think it's really working out is this choice is this project that I wanted to take on it. Is this something that I'm super passionate about? Is this something that I can't wait to get started on?

Libby Knight (00:08:44):

Is this really me? Is this making my heart sing? And if it is, then now's the time to start. And if it's not, then maybe find something that is more aligned don't do because you think you should, or because someone else is doing it or you've seen someone else succeed at it. If you're not making time for it is because is you're not emotionally attached to it. So I think that's one of the reasons and it is overwhelming. So we need to pair it back and keep it simple.

Vicki Weinberg (00:09:13):

This is a really good points actually, because you're right. So if we take some of creating a product that if there was a lot to do, there's a lot to learn. There were lots of steps involved. And I think that if you are not committed and passionate, as you set a as well is actually finding the time you were also going to find it tricky when things get hard or that, you know, you get up a lot, which, you know, it happens. It always happens. So yeah, I think that that makes a key point and something else you said that was really interesting is that we will have a, a, a 168 hours in a week. So why is it you think that some people seem to achieve so much more, you know, you must, you must know people it'd be nice to us. And, you know, people who just seem to do such a lot and you just think, how are they doing all of this?

Vicki Weinberg (00:09:57):

Where we have others among this, perhaps not so much of what is this, is this advertising, or

Libby Knight (00:10:03):

There was several reasons. One is prioritizing, what's important to you and what do you actually want to have? And what are your goals? And And do you actually, you know, you're passionate about, but I think also its about other people that are not aware of that time and they lose a lot of time. If we think about how, if it would be scary, if we actually counted up the amount of time we waste and I'm not saying we can't, you know, we've always got to be on the ball and we've all got always going to be working. That's not the point at all. This is about life and business, but we do waist a lot of time and you know, just how long can you spend. Some people could spend all day clean the house in other people can do it in an hour because they're

focused that are on a mission.

Libby Knight (00:10:50):

And that only going to do what really matters. The other people were stretched out. Or today we lose a lot of time just browsing. When our phones we pick about first of all, to a party at these days, do you know it makes a noise or we get to the end and doing something that we pick it up and we don't even know were

doing it anymore. It has become a complete habit. So there are some habits to break and there is some habits to make and it is about being focused. We can spend a lot of time binge watching Netflix. And I think often we don't do that. But if you actually it's a bit like right in diet plan, when you're writing it down, you realized the truth. If we actually do that with our time, we would realize the truth that we would realize how much time if you add it up, if you can just claim an hour a week, even that is a lot of time.

Libby Knight (00:11:35):

That's, you know, if you, if you claimed back an hour, a week, that's 50 to two hours. How many working days is that? You know, if you, if you actually work out what time equals, then you can claim back a lot of time and can you make progress? Because if you can, a very short, concentrated, focused bursts of work, you don't need all day. You can have one or two hours a day and get a huge amount of dung or you can work all day and get very little done.

Vicki Weinberg (00:12:07):

That's true actually. And I have definitely seen that for myself too in looks at it when I've had the kids at home. Because when I was before I had to have like a good six hours to work, sometimes now it's grabbing half an hour while they have occupied. And it's amazing how, if, you know, you've only got that amount of time, how much you can just get through as opposed to, like you say, if you have to do you have the whole day, you can definitely make it last the whole day, right?

Libby Knight (00:12:31):

Yeah. And this is why some people can do two jobs and some people struggle to do one or they can do one that people are, there are other people that, you know, if people take on a side hustle and they will build that because they are concentrating on that more than their day job. And that's how they can make it take over. And they will only be doing in an hour a day or a couple of hours a week, but they will build it because they're really passionate about it. And they were using that time. And do you feel that in that time and time, and they really believe in that time and choosing a very carefully about how they use that time. So that's another thing is making choices and also about making choices, the choices we make have consequences.

Libby Knight (00:13:14):

We've made choices in the past about having children buying a big house that takes time to get back after having that take time to look after, you know, having an expensive car, but we needed to maintain having a big garden that we need to look after. So these choices that we make in our business or at home have

consequences. So one of the things I, I took a lot of that is mindset because if we battled time, we have these 160 or a hotel is a weak. If we battled tire, we will constantly thinking that we don't have enough with it, but we can stretch it. We can't get it. We can't make it more of it. We have what we have. So we need to stop battling it, stop stressing about it and use it in a more productively and be really effective in our time management, be realistic about what we have.

Libby Knight (00:14:03):

So if we only have two hours a day, don't worry that we don't have a tablet hours a day 'cause we don't have it. So don't worry about it. Don't and we also brought a lot of habits around time. So for example, if you think about that early morning run, we're all trying to a normal time to get ready for school and work and where, you know, we repeat those behaviors. If we get stressed, I don't think you have enough time is yelling at each other with a plan to get us out of the door and I'll do it the next day and the next day and the next day or the next day, or if we don't change it or we don't change it and nothing will change. So we are not utilizing that time or we're stressed about time or we have certain emotions, behaviors around the time we have to start.

Libby Knight (00:14:44):

We have to think that we have to recognize we have to make the change.

Vicki Weinberg (00:14:48):

Okay. So what are some practical things people do is if someone's listen to this now and they're thinking, well, I really want to start this project, but where am I going to find an extra hour, week, two hours a week to do it? What are some practical things people can do? Would you say that?

Libby Knight (00:15:04):

Okay, so one is plan, always have a plan at the beginning of the day. They know what you're going to do that day. You know, what time do you have and know how you want to use it and plan it. And by writing it down, it's more likely to happen. And by giving yourself a time scale, it's more likely to happen. So if at the beginning of the day you just bring it or just to have a great little list of things to do. And you're looking at it in a reputable around two hours will go on a flash. So if you have that two hours and you think what's the next most important thing I need to do to move me forward, that's what I'm going to concentrate on. And then if you have a finite amount of time, you can use something called the Pomodoro method.

Libby Knight (00:15:47):

So this is where you set your time on your phone for around 25 minutes, you sit down and you focus on one single task for 25 minutes, no distractions, nothing. So you might want to put a note to some of the doors, close the door for a warm people. This is my work time. You set your timer. You've work in a very concentrated, focused fashion. Then you stop for five minutes when you stretch your legs and get a breath of fresh air gets away from the screens. And it is very, very quickly. Your brain will kind of calm down and be

focused. And do you do the next one to five minutes? And do you do that to as many times you had, and then up to four times, it depends on how many do you have and you will get so much more work done than just puffing around and looking at lists.

Libby Knight (00:16:30):

And you'll also want to stick to one task because if you switch between that transition time also, it's a lot of time. So if you can stick to one task, continue with the interview is finished if possible and use that timer. So twenty-five minutes on five minutes of where you stretch your legs and get fresh air and repeat and you will. It's great. So that is really great for when you're limited on time. It's great when you lose focus. So your having one of those days where you just feel like you're not getting anywhere, or if you've got a particularly difficult task where you got to focus knuckle down and it's your frog, eat your frog. So you do that thing first. It has the most tricky thing.

Libby Knight (00:17:12):

'cause once you've done it, its off the list. You don't have to do it. You not thinking about it for the next few weeks. So you can go to do that task. So you can get that frog Dunn in the first thing and the day, get that out of the way. And then when you are struggling, because I don't use the Palm door at every day, but if I, if I really got to knuckle down, I put a deadline, something that is challenging me and I really needed to focus. Or if it's at the end of the day of my attention was wondering, I use it in the door. Right. And that's a fantastic, and it's everybody's favorite technique.

Vicki Weinberg (00:17:43):

Well, I like that. I'm going to use that and I can definitely see what you're saying about focused because I used to find ice, get us at getting quite easily distracted. You know like, you know, you've got your phone that night and it might be for something and emails ping. And the amount of times I would sit down to do something and then half an hour later, they just haven't made any progress because you're just distracted by every little thing I'm and I'm starting to realize, I think that's actually a choice because I think you can probably make a choice to switch it, which I have now do you do to switch everything off when you're focusing? Yeah.

Libby Knight (00:18:13):

Switch up all your notifications only have on which is absolutely a job and that you can't function without, which is pretty much nothing, but you are in emails because to be honest, you're going to look at Facebook and they're going to look on Instagram. You don't need to see, you know what, SAP 27 messages and the last five minutes, we don't need any of that. So switch off your notifications generally. Anyway, I have hardly any that come on because I know I'm going to check them. I turn my phone upside down and turn it on to silent because then it can ping at me or light up at me and often I'll just move it into a different room. So that, because it's just the fact that it's not within reach. If it's within reach, if you have a breather and you think for a moment, if you will automatically is a stretch out, turn it over and turn it on.

Libby Knight (00:18:57):

So if it's out of reach, you can't do that then on auto-pilot. So that's the, yeah, just turn off your distractions. If you can work in an environment is super important as well when it comes to a distraction. So if you're working on a kitchen table in the living room, likely heard is that something will distract you, whether it's intentional or not, you'll just get up and change the washing or your work done the work surfaces or y'all just listen to the headline's in the background because someone was watching the news so she can get into it, a room that it's set up to be a distraction-free as possible. And you could close that door. Maybe you have a notice on it saying mom is working or dad is working. Please knock it. Then they will think twice about saying mom, I'm hungry, mom, it's my turn on the next box or whatever it happens to be that they think is really, really important and will pull you away.

Libby Knight (00:19:48):

And because then you've also got to have that conversation. You lose focus and you got to switch back on. So it's not just that time that you've lost. It's that switching yourself back on and getting back into the task use more time than you think you do. So if you can set up those boundaries,

Vicki Weinberg (00:20:06):

That really makes sense. And if you are doing the Pomodoro technique as a job and you're five minutes off, so when you're having a five minutes to stand up, stretch your legs, drinks, and water or whatever, would you recommend also keeping my phone away or you know, not checking in on that,

Libby Knight (00:20:19):

Right? Yeah. Don't look at screens to don't go on to your laptop and looking at your 27 or other tabs that in her eyes, I'm very bad at that because I've always got too many tabs open or looking at your phone. And because what you're trying to do is to refresh your brain and refresh your eyes so that when you come back, you are equally as productive as you where if you don't and you're still stressing your eyes and you're not allowing your mind to calm down, then it's a wasted five minutes. Do you know, you're not ready to take the rest? So your stretch, a body so that, you know a key because we sit down when it comes to our screens a lot, when we were developing a product or working in our business and to stretch those limbs, take some fresh air, keep hydrated.

Libby Knight (00:21:05):

All you need is five minutes and you'll be surprised at how refreshed you're out in just five minutes and just walk around the garden, put a circuit of the garden, listening to the birds, three of them, that fresh air and boom, you have a straight back on it and you have another 25 minutes. Sometimes your alarm go off after the twins five minutes or when you think, Oh, we just want to go on a bit longer. And obviously you can do that because you might be in flow, but just don't overextend yourself because you will get that kind of fatigue. So you do stop, but don't allow the alarm to stop your flow either. Really.

Vicki Weinberg (00:21:38):

That's great. Thank you. So how about finding this half an hour, an hour in the first place? Let some things that we can do to kind of carve out a little bit more tired than say in the week, because I know in a day it, you know, for a lot of us that can be tricky. If we wanted to find an extra hours a week, what are some practical things that we could do to find that time?

Libby Knight (00:21:57):

Well, a lot of people will simply get up early. They will just get up early before the kids get up because they're fresh. They've got the calm of the morning. They can sit there and focus until the children wake up or they're disturbed. That's a really easy one and you know, the morning. So don't just think about claiming extra time. But think about the time that you have being more productive. So in the morning, most people are more productive. So think about your daily body clock and how focused you are. And also for women think about your monthly, but you know, body and body and the way sometimes your more focused than others. But then another way to claim more time is to just arrange your day, particularly at the moment where we haven't got to leave the house to do the school run and things like that.

Libby Knight (00:22:46):

Just plan your day. Like I said, plan it because if you plan in that time, you will make it happen. So if you just go with the flow at the end of the day will come and you're thinking, Oh gosh, I should of done this or should have done that. If you have a preplanned it and said, all right, I'm going to do this with the children. You can just cook it with them and I'm going to do whatever. Then I'm going to hand over and I'm going to share the

time with my spouse or partner. If you're on your own, then you can obviously get them to do things that will occupy them. So there might be able to go out and go to the garden and play because you have already given them lots and lots of attention. And now it's your time. Or you could allow them same screen time so they can watch the film. And he could utilize that time.

Libby Knight (00:23:27):

It came from a door going two hours while they'll sit in front of this, you know, you've got the, everything they want me to set up those boundaries and say, now it's my time I'm working. You've got your film or anything else you need before I go, okay, only knock on the door if you really need to me. So that's the good ones to do. Obviously they're in bed. If they're very young, you can't leave them on their own. So you might want to work in the evening. And then if you're going to do that, then allow yourself some chill out time in another part of the day, 'cause you don't want to thing that my day has just extending. I've already spoken up at six and I work until midnight. That's not feasible. So maybe in that, when they do, and then work later, you have that flexibility. We don't, we kind of have this mindset or we've got to work between certain hours and everything outside that is additional, but we have actually have the freedom, especially now to completely change our schedule.

Libby Knight (00:24:19):

We can work on weekends and not worked during the day. We'll take a day. Or if, you know, we have this flexibility, but we have this mindset that, that there are certain steps hours. So we need to get creative and we need to stop ourselves from living to other people's schedules. We need to work out what works for us.

So you may be able to work in the evenings and then catch up in your sleep in the day when the baby's napping or have your leisure time there or a change and shift your dinner time earlier so that you're not eating after the children had gone to bed, you're already eating with them. And then as soon as they are in bed, we can get a couple of hours and then you've still got time to chill and unwind before you go to bed. So its really about being flexible with your timetable, looking at the hours you have, your families needs and getting credited.

Vicki Weinberg (00:25:06):

Yeah, I think that it definitely has. The bottom line is kind of just fishing there and what you can when you can. I mean, I started tiny chipmunk, my product's business where my little one was eight weeks. My second, literally just working when she naps and you see often, and that was like 20 minute increments because by the time I say it was her for an app, got a cup of tea or whatever it was, you know, very short space of time and something that definitely helps me. It was kind of knowing what I was going to do with that time. So I always had, have to do less and then it was kind of like, okay, I've got 20 minutes, let's go to the figure that's off of the list. Okay. That one's done. Maybe we can move on to something else. Maybe not. Do you have any sort of top tips for keeping organized Libby right.

Libby Knight (00:25:46):

Yeah. So I think with it, especially with, to do lists, it's important that, I mean, we all have a lot to do lists, but I have a daily to do list. We should never have more than 60 things. So this is called the Ivy Lee method. Don't have more than six things and put them in order of priorities. So there's no point doing just silly, simple, easy

things. I mean, people would add things onto a to-do lists that they don't need to be on. You can do something in two seconds or they're doing is overwhelming themselves by making them think they've got to do more than they have. Other people will put things on a list just so that they can cross them off. They've already done this, but they can quit across the ox. So I did that today, which again is that you're kidding yourself, keep it simple.

Libby Knight (00:26:26):

Don't put too much on work for a certain order. If you don't get it done that day, put it on the next day. And if it keeps getting pushed to the bottom because its not a priority. If it doesn't really need to be done, I mean we can fill as many hours as we have. But if we actually do what is going to make a difference, it's going to bring in money or it's going to make a difference is going to transform our business. There's so many of the things we can do that, you know what? I'm just tired of fillers. We don't need to do them. So it really is about only having a very relevant focused to do list and everything on it must have value either to you, your business or to your family. So if you look at those things, do they matter?

Libby Knight (00:27:10):

And given the amount of time you've got, are they worth your precious time? Because you don't have a lot of it if you're not fitting it in the meat among the children. So make sure that what you're doing is going to be transformative and is going to be valuable. And also when Your another slight diversion, but when you're learning. So as entrepreneurs, we have lots of ideas and we always want to be learning. If your learning always looking for the next step, you don't learn just from the sake of it. I only learn what you need to learn. If we had all the time in the world that we could do this full time and had a whole team, we could learn to our hearts content. But when you're learning something always learned to the next step was to implement it or use it.

Libby Knight (00:27:54):

And then when you need to learn because you, you know, it's an obstacle to progression then land on something else, but they don't think that you have to learn or things. Don't think you need all the fancy tech, keep it super simple to do what you need to do to consistently move your business, your life, your family's life forward.

Vicki Weinberg (00:28:14):

I think in that last phase, this is fantastic at a particular it's fantastic advice. I used to be guilty of some sort of reading a blog post or listened to a podcast about something that, you know, listen to quite a few entrepreneurial podcasts. For example, I've listened to a podcast and think all that sounds good or it may be, I should do that. And I will add it to my list. What I now do is I don't even listen to the Episode. I instead add the Episode to a list. I've got it for like future stuff to say, I don't know why I decided at some point in a feature that so I decided I got to do Facebook ads. I have a look at that list and think, Oh, what are their, any podcasts episodes or a blog posts. I thought about that, but I can go and look up now because otherwise, as you say, I will listen to it now.

Vicki Weinberg (00:28:54):

And then I was going to implement it right away and completely just get taken off track because I think it's a start in a business, especially you can go down and so many rabbit holes and you can get so caught up in what other people are doing. What seems to be the, you know, the trendy or a hot thing to do at the moment. And yeah, I like your point about focus in just, you know, doing what needs to be done.

Libby Knight (00:29:17):

Yeah. And it's, you know, you see these big entrepreneur's in there and they're obviously promoting their subject. And so it gives you it almost a foamer and they think of missing out. So you are not being a proper entrepreneur. If you're not doing what everybody else is doing. So sometimes even if you've been in the corporate world, you can get so wrapped up in this almost alternative universe that happens. But entrepreneurs it's so different to a corporate, you know, you come in and this is a whole new world of

learning and all of these platforms that you've never heard of. And you think that you've got to have this and you've got to have that. You don't, unless it is part of your goal, unless it's really helping you and it is not wasting your time.

Libby Knight (00:29:60):

You can keep it super simple. You've got a lot of time in the world to have every platform and every bit of tech and to learn every technique. And it may help when you are growing and they're bringing in teams in your scaling for you to get your business off the ground and to not turn on this next product, if you put did all this Before they had all this tech and you can still be in the online world without doing any at all. You really don't need two. So it's really about what's the easiest simplest way. If you need to deliver something on a simple email and do that, you know, if you're going to have a group and you want to deliver workshops or, or RESOURCES or whatever, you don't need to have a fancy tech platforms and Hey, you large amounts and learn whole new techniques to do it simply.

Libby Knight (00:30:53):

And then when you detect, because also as you know, when you start your business and your products, you do a pivot, you change, you have both of your ideas, change something new happens. So when you absolutely positive about the way you want your business to go, which products you want to launch, then you can bring those things in because otherwise, if it changes, then you have wasted all of that time because you're not going to use it, use it. So in the first two years, be aware of not get getting too far into gadgets, tech, spending lots of money and then work out what you really truly want to wear.

Libby Knight (00:31:34):

Your business is going to say, you know, you don't need to go into lots of logos and spending lots of on branding or things like that until you know, what you want for your business is going. And yeah, once you, you really feel comfortable with it. And you know, it represents you. That's the time to do more learning and to have all these bells and whistles.

Vicki Weinberg (00:31:58):

That's my ex I think as well, when you look at people that you want to be like or products that you want to do, you know, where you want to be like, chances are they're in a few years ahead of you, or at least I always say to people, you can start with one products on one marketplace and there may be you had a second marketplace or a second product. So for our products that, you know, you can, like you say, you can expand is always room for

Libby Knight (00:32:21):

Absolutely. And that first one will teach you so much and you will learn and you will make mistakes. Inevitably, of course you will. And so if you try to do it with five or five products that are at a time, you know, you will make five mistakes. You make it with one, you learn, you continue, you evolve. Then every time you

launch a product, it will get better and better. Your systems will get more refined. Your Your find out which platform works you. So then you can replicate the process. If you will have a refined process, you can map your process and just put it on repeat.

Vicki Weinberg (00:32:59):

Yes. And that is just a really good reminder that you've actually reminded me to say that I do actually have a process map that out for people. So if anyone wants that checklist or they keep going back.com forward slash FREE, that takes you through the steps need to go for you. And it certainly a lot less overwhelming if you're looking at one product, one marketplace. And then when we talk about time, that was a lot less time than trying to launch. Even if it's one product or multiple marketplaces, you don't need to do that. When you start, you just need to get something out there and put it some where people can buy it. And once you've done that, that's a huge achievement. And from then on, you can say, okay, well now I'm going to put this on a ways off the marketplace is and test those out. But I think, you know, the first thing is to get it out of there and we'll get it somewhere where people can give you money for it.

Vicki Weinberg (00:33:41):

And that's the huge step forward.

Libby Knight (00:33:43):

And I think another thing, and I know you had done a podcast on this previously is don't waste time producing something. If you don't know, people need it. And that comes from services, products, everything. Now I'm a service-based and you think, you know what people want, but until, you know, and they tell you, you need it, putting it to out there and developing It and it doesn't help it. Then you've wasted a lot of time. So I always do your research beforehand, ask around and see what people want. What are they saying? They just think this because it's working for someone else, listen to your audience, talk to them. So validating a product or a service or whatever it is that you are bringing to market new.

Libby Knight (00:34:27):

Don't waste time thinking, you know, I know that, you know, by asking other people

Vicki Weinberg (00:34:33):

That's fantastic advice. Thank you. And I'm going to links all the episodes I've done on this already. And he was come back and look. So if they haven't already cause you all right, you can save yourself a lot of time. If you find out that actually your idea isn't, you know, isn't a goer.

Libby Knight (00:34:47):

Yeah. I mean, it might be a brilliant idea. It might be great. It might be exciting, but if nobody wants it, then, you know, I know it's not the right price points or you can't do it for the price that the market demands. And then yeah, you've wasted a lot of time. So although you're excited and you're really want to get going and get

stuck in. And if you can just hold off and do your market research and get the voice of, you know, the people that audience and find out where they buy from and what they buy that product and what they pay the price and all of those questions that, you know, you've, you've talk about in validating to make sure that you do that first, because yes, it will delay things slightly, but there's plenty that you can be getting on with.

Libby Knight (00:35:30):

And it will say in the long one, it will save you so much time.

Vicki Weinberg (00:35:34):

Absolutely. Why it might be disappointing. And I think people don't like to take this step because they don't, they almost don't want to find out what that people don't want more of their offering. And yeah, it is. If that happens, its really disappointing. But as you say is the bit you haven't been wasted a lot of time and potentially money too.

Libby Knight (00:35:50):

And it might not even be the Product. It may be way you thought you were going to sell it. It might be the price point. It might be the materials that you are going to use it. So it's not that it's there. The idea is to be written off. It just, it might be that you will get some amazing tips on how to tweak it, change it, adjust a marketer, it, you know, a different route to market in it. So it's invaluable. There's not, it's not just about the product itself. It's the whole process of developing the product and the materials and anything, you know, sustainability for example, is that going to be a massive feature on what you do or is it the price point? So just working out what's important to you.

Vicki Weinberg (00:36:31):

That's fantastic. Thank you. And I just want to just come back ever. So it's like to some of it, you said quite a long time ago, but I just thought it was worth clarifying. So when we're talking about prioritizing and thinking about the number of tasks are going to do today, I assume that's up to six. So I'm assuming that if you have a very time limited, for whatever reason you could say, okay, this is the one thing I'm going to do today. So just to make everyone is absolutely clear, you don't have to do six things in a day. You can just do it.

Libby Knight (00:36:57):

So, and also, you know, if you, if you are an entrepreneur, work in life are quite intertwined, especially when you do have other responsibilities. So when I say six, they're not all necessarily work related, you know? So it might actually be one work-related task. 'cause, you know, you may, it may be that you're only got an hour. You only got half an hour. So yes, you need to adjust the number out of that six, according to the time that you go to a baby or so some of it will be a lot of it. We could be family related. Don't know if you've got a day where you can devote the whole day, that could be all six work tasks. So it really depends. So yes, six is encompassing a day.

Libby Knight (00:37:38):

The time devoted to each part of your life will determine which tasks and how many, because if you've got off an hour and you've got a task, it's going to take days, then you've gotta think about it. Now, do I use this time? And I do it over several days or do I choose a task that I can completely finish? And that will open up, you know, that's an obstacle or down to you. It is really up to you. What is the next logical and valuable next step. But yes, if only one task, if you've only got an hour, because the whole thing is not to be overwhelmed by yourself, up for failure.

Libby Knight (00:38:19):

I don't set yourself up for overwhelmed and to write it down, always write down your plan and write down your list because what you're doing is you're offloading. You're unloading things from your mind. And that's another thing about overwhelm is everything that you can write down or record as you go. So use your phone on the record app or you know that they felt that on your phone next to you. If you've got an I-phone next to your space bar, you've got an a on a microphone button and you can talk into any app you like for that. So if you can, even if you are on the go or if you've got my idea or thought or, or plan to either write that down or record it immediately, 'cause you will not remember it guaranteed if you think you will, because it seeps in.

Libby Knight (00:38:59):

And of course, and I'll never forget that you will. And so you had to write it down or recorded because again, it's about off-loading and your brain and not Tony, because you will stop being overwhelmed. But also it'll be easier to switch it off at the end of the day, which is something that a lot of people find it hard is switching off at the end of the day. I'm just saying, so if you could offload it, invite it down, it will uncover it to your brain.

Also it will be making it far more unlikely to happen. We wrote it down and give at a time scale or a deadline far, far, far more likely to happen. Otherwise it will always just be a thought. It might become a reality.

Vicki Weinberg (00:39:35):

All right. And so talking about uncle too, in your brain, do you recommend people make these lists for the next day before they go to bed? So it's kind of out of their heads before bedtime or do it fresh in the morning or does it really not matter?

Libby Knight (00:39:47):

It doesn't matter if it works for you. I do think that if you are, before you go to bed for some people, if they start to think work, they won't switch off, I think is good to have a path by the bed so that if you have an idea, you don't want to hold on to it. You want to offload it. But when it comes to actually making a list of things, it's really up to you. Some people that it is a good the night before, 'cause they wake up knowing it exactly what they're going to do in the next day. But if you do find it hard to switch off and your, one of these people, that's my goes crazy. Or, or Knight you probably want to take off one list and start fresh to the next day or whatever works for you. There is no right. It's like with all of these things, there's no right or wrong. This is

what works for the individual.

Libby Knight (00:40:28):

We're not robots, we're all individuals. We've got to find out what works for us or some of these techniques appeal to everybody on. For some people they'll want to tweak it.

Vicki Weinberg (00:40:39):

That's a really good to know that you've got the flexibility and I'm so glad I asked you about what to do their scanners out. So I never thought about the fact is we're coming back to the six things. And then if, for example, I have to buy school issues and I have to make a pick Nick and I have to book some sort of a club and I have two, you know, and there's lots of life that has been going on. I never thought about the fact that actually, if I've got six things on the list of where is he, let's say seven or however many things, then there, isn't going to be space to do the business things that you do have to work out what you know, which of the most important of which am I going to do today? Because I think a lot of people probably try and do it all. And it sounds like it probably in the, long-term going to be much more productive to actually realized that actually today I've got lots of life admin or kids things to do.

Vicki Weinberg (00:41:25):

So actually, maybe I won't do any work and I will say for sure,

Libby Knight (00:41:28):

So sometimes you think, Oh, I've got so much to do. If you crack on and you do it, some things can be done so, so quickly. So you, and if you do have to make an appointment because you mustn't forget and you got to do that, it takes seconds butt in your mind. It feels like a huge task and a huge job. And it's so important. It's so huge. You can do it in seconds and it's ticked off the list and you can move on. So it sometimes, you know, we create such a drama over a task that isn't huge. It's important. It's super important because people are relying on us or whatever, but we can get it done so quickly. So yeah, we have to get used to what is going to take time and what can we get done quickly, but also what's important.

Libby Knight (00:42:11):

So we don't want to put off something that can be done quickly. So for example, if you've got to, you know, for an up and make an appointment and you can do it now, before you even start work, don't add it to the list, just do it. You know, there's a lot of things that we can just do that we add them to lists and they become this big thing, but we can just do it, pick up the phone and do it. Boom done. It took two minutes and now I can start my sixteens. So yeah. And he's really, yeah. Juggling what works for you, just so that you are not overwhelmed and you constantly make progress. I'm on the important things.

Vicki Weinberg (00:42:46):

I've read something somewhere about the two minute rule as well, which goes along the lines of, if you could

do something in the less than two minutes to do it immediately, don't be out on that. Let's just do it. And I like that.

Libby Knight (00:42:56):

Yeah. I have. I've read that too. And I do often say that to people that, you know, if it's not worthy, have a place on your list, don't do it in, in spite of something else. But as you say, it takes two minutes. It's a feeding the dog in there. When people write down everything that they've got to do that day, you don't put it on brushing your teeth because it's going to happen anyway. And it takes two minutes. So people were right, these massive, huge, long, less than half, the things don't need to be on there, which is why people will say never gets the inside of my to do list. Well, of course you don't because life evolves from a constantly learning. And that's another mindset thing thinking I never get to the end of my, to do list.

Libby Knight (00:43:38):

You're not supposed to because you're supposed to be constantly growing and learning and making progress. Of course you've always got more things in order to do list. It's just about only having the important things.

Vicki Weinberg (00:43:49):

Yeah. So privatization is key.

Libby Knight (00:43:52):

Absolutely. It's about value. What is important. And every time we looked at something and sometimes you have to build your own criteria. What is important? I mean, to me, so that's not what important means to anybody else. What is important to you? What deserves to be on my list? What has value and what makes my family happy? What makes our lives easier? What builds my business? What helps my customers? It's those sorts of questions. This is 1,000,001 things we could do, but some of them really don't have an awful lot of value and all they're doing is wasting time. So just really keep it simple and do what makes a difference.

Vicki Weinberg (00:44:31):

And of course can change as well. Because I think we all go through seasons and our lives. There are businesses that are a priority, or sometimes you go and sometimes you want to stay where you say, actually, you know, my family and the most important thing. Now I'm going to take a step back from business. So yeah, I think it's a really good to be mindful of all of that.

Libby Knight (00:44:47):

And I think that's particularly bean at the moment with everything that's been happening, of course, people step back. People went through almost a grieving process at the beginning of a lockdown where they were going through these stages and the emotions, you know, and even if they hadn't last summer, we went

through this strange series of emotions and a lot of people literally couldn't deal. They just couldn't. And they, you know, some people had two, they have no choice to have to pay there's no-one else to help it out. But if there is some people did, and of course we prioritized our families because our farm is report close to us and my life has changed, but this is going to go on for a long time. And now it's time to think, well, what do I want

long term, this is the time to think if I have a business that I wanted to grow, how am I going to make that happen?

Libby Knight (00:45:32):

Because I'm in charge, no one else was going to make this happen. I am in charge. I make the decisions and I have to decide what's my priority. And we don't have to have just one priority. Now we can allow our families and families wants to see us happy. They're a bit, wants to be proud of us. They want to see us achieve. So it's okay. And I think there's a lot of guilt associated as well as, especially as a parent in trying to be all things to all people, but we just need to communicate. We needed to allow the people around us to help us because they want to see this happen. Right.

Vicki Weinberg (00:46:07):

For some of us, I think family is a big driver for our businesses as well. So you might be looking to start a business, whether it was a product based business or something else so that you can work at home and take your children to school. Not the same as the things. Yeah. There are so many reasons that in your family, probably, you know, if you listen to this and you have a family, they might be a big part of why you're doing what you're of course. A day.

Libby Knight (00:46:32):

Yeah, absolutely.

Vicki Weinberg (00:46:34):

So Libby, is there anything else that you wanted to share with us? You've shared so much of a way to eat and there's so many things that we can get take away myself included actually. And I always thought, you know, I always feel like I'm getting better at being more productive and managing my time, but you know, I've still, there's still quite a few things to do that. I'm thinking, all right, I'm going to go away and try those. So thank you so much for all of that you shared. Is there anything else that you wanted?

Libby Knight (00:46:59):

I think it's just, it was just to summarize it. I think we needed to be realistic when need to cut ourselves some Slack and to realize that we're human, we're only have so many hours a day with, you need to be realistic and thinking of what do we want, what do we truly want from life and, and from our business, and then take responsibility because if we are the boss, you know, in the entrepreneurial world and we'd have to decide, what's, what's valuable and just keep on and, but, you know, kill yourself some Slack, because I think because we constantly give ourselves a hard time that actually makes it harder to take control.

Libby Knight (00:47:41):

So value your time, use it productively, but be realistic about how much time you have.

Vicki Weinberg (00:47:48):

Thank you. That was a brilliant way to some of this all up. Okay. We'll thank you so much. Libby where can people find you if they would like to find out about, more about what you do?

Libby Knight (00:47:57):

So the first, probably the obvious place to start is my Facebook group, which is called productivity for profit. And in there, you'll find out more about me. I do one to one sessions with businesses and I have it on like a new, online membership, but you will find out about that within productivity for profit, which is a free Facebook group. So com and join. There's a couple of questions just to start nothing, just a normal that you'd expect that group, just to say that, you know, it's a happy, friendly, inclusive, supportive place to come along and get some more productivity techniques and join the community in the conversation. And you get in there, you can find out more about me and my website is Libby-Knight.Com.

Vicki Weinberg (00:48:44):

Fantastic. Thank you. Libby and I will link to all of this in the show notes as well for anyone who has it been able to take that down or thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much for all that you've shared and yeah, I think this is going to be a really helpful episodes if you thank you again,

Libby Knight (00:48:56):

thank you for having me

Vicki Weinberg (00:48:57):

where you are welcome as always. Thank you so much for listening to this episode today. I really hope you found that useful and you found it at least one or two things that you can take away and try. And so I would absolutely love to know how you've got on and so you can contact them both myself and Libby via the show

notes for this episode. And I've also linked up any resources that we've mentioned to, so you can go and find everything really easily. And as always, if you have time, I would absolutely love it. If you're able to leave a review for this podcast, Apple podcast, and it really does help other people to find out about it. And my go here is, you know, is to help as many people as possible. So I would really appreciate that.

Vicki Weinberg (00:49:38):

And again, thank you so much and have a lovely day and see you next week.