Shop Talk: Write it Down

Shop Talk: Write it Down

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Weekly I receive emails or phone calls from friends & followers alike wondering more about 'the how' behind Sonny Daily, so I decided to start a new series called Shop Talk, where I'll go more specific into those details.  So many have been so supportive when I made the big switch from Olive Lane to Sonny Daily & I can't thank you enough.  I will start by telling you upfront I was afraid of doing it.  I spent 2 years in that spot. Not satisfied with Olive Lane or the opportunities I could see down the line with it, but also afraid to leave it behind.

But I did & from where I sit now, I'm so grateful, beyond humbled & back to grateful.

From what I can sort the most frequent question I receive is along the lines of this:

"My question to you is what advice, lessons learned, or guidance
​ could you give a girl like me? I so desperately want to break in, jump in with
both feet and start making things happen.​"

The best advice I can give you at the start is to write it down.  That right there ^^^ is a blurred out road map that I wrote down over a year ago, a little tattered, filled with notes, erased ideas & new ones.  Pick a day or time (an hour if that's all you have) & clear it of all distraction.  Turn off your phone, lock yourself away & begin to prepare a plan.

In hindsight I can see that the planning part was THE most important part.  I've always been a sucker for a good planner, a detailed note taker.  As the years have gone on, I've loved pulling old planners off the shelf & remembering right where I was in that stage of life.  My favorite one is from when I was in college & planning my wedding.  It's full of bridal appointments & colorful markers & I love the glimpse into my 21-year-old self it provides.

Naturally, I started this process with a blank planner.  I'd wake up before everyone else in my house & think, research & think some more.  I'd ask myself some hard questions, trying to quell the fear I had, I'd journal & I'd continue thinking.  I made a 10-year plan for myself & then wondered if I could do it in 5 years.  I also spent a more than decent amount of time reading.

If you're wanting to head down a new road, whether it be real estate or another venture altogether, I suggest making a detailed plan.  In order to figure out your plan you've got to start asking yourself some questions.  Mine were along the lines of:

Why do you want to do this?
How will it benefit you & those around you?
What are you hoping to gain?
What are your unique strengths in this area? 
What would need to occur to make the work, fear, sleepless nights, worth it? Really break this one down.  Mine started rather simply in the thought of, 'if I could make six figures, that'd be cool.'

Then I started reverse engineering it.

Six-figures was a number Scot & I used to throw around with Olive Lane & I had reversed engineered that as well -- as you can guess, the time, work & effort involved for that endeavor was never worth the trade offs it would require.  The math is always pretty simple.  

For example, in Olive Lane terms, if you made about $10 per shirt, you'd need to sell 10,000 shirts a year to break six figures.  In real estate though, you'd need to close about 10 houses at an average price of $335,000.  

For whatever reason, that seemed do-able...or even the half of it seemed do-able, but I shot for six figures, because like I said in my planning process...that'd be cool :)  I wrote myself a map & taped it to the inside cover of my planner, where I'd see it nearly every day...fairly elementary, I know, but it was helpful.  It broke down every goal I had, and when I had a decision to make, I'd refer to my map. If that item didn't get me closer to my destination, I didn't take it on.  

Having it written down in plain site with dates & benchmarks made decision making easy.  I also found that it also increased my patience & allowed me to be more deliberate in my efforts.  Slowly & succinctly things started falling into place, things that were well outside of my control began to work in my favor & because I had a map, clearing written out, I noticed them.

Now, that is not to say that everything skipped along perfectly.  Hardly.  When I look back at the nuts & bolts of the year, I can tell you factually every hard thing and I mean, HARD.  But because I had everything written down I can also tell you that even though the hard was really hard, I can't help be see that the good is better. 

One of my favorite things I learned this year is from the book David & Goliath where the author points out that courage is not obtained until you go & do that hard thing & realize that the hard thing wasn't so hard after all.  

That is how I feel about this past year.  Yes, it was hard.  Yes, I was afraid.  Yes, it was worth it.

Now, I'm using my new Golden Coil planner to get prepped for next year (I plan July to July) and I can't tell you how much I'm loving it.  Check out their Kickstarter campaign...because you know I can't help but get behind someone else chasing after those hard goals.  

Tell me what 'hard' thing your hoping to tackle this year?