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A Day In The Life of Michelle Ward aka The When I Grow Up Coach

- December 16, 2011 | by April -

{Image provided by Michelle Ward}
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When April asked me to be part of her amazeballs new series, I obviously jumped at the chance. Not only do I love me some April Bowles-Olin (she’s the sweetest, and that’s the truth), but I think it’s such a great idea to shine the light on how us Women of the World (as I like to call us full-time female entrepreneurs) get it all done. But now, I’m shaking a bit, because…well…every freaking day is different!
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As The When I Grow Up Coach, I’m officially a “creative career coach”. So, the majority of my time (and the money I earn!) come from working with clients one-on-oneand in groups. I usually have 30-40 of those sessions each month, with each session being between 45-90 minutes. I also like to take an Off Week once a month, where I have no more than 3 sessions and get to work instead on my blogging, business building stuff, collaborations, products, social hours, speaking gigs – really, anything that falls under those unofficial titles I have (writer, bookkeeper, marketer, publicist, copywriter, video producer, songwriter, yada yada yada). I’m also a total Renaissance Soul (I have lots of passions & hate having to focus on just one of ’em!), so I usually work on 2-3 projects at a time and switch tasks about every hour.
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How’s that for a disclaimer? I don’t mean to negate what’s gonna be written below – I’d just need to do one of these each day for a month to give ya the broadest picture of A Day in the Life of The Crazy When I Grow Up Coach. But here’s a real birds-eye view of Monday, December 12th (not part of an Off Week!):
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  • 7:50a: alarm goes off
  • 8:15a: husband gets up (which is so rare – I’m usually up first and have to help him out of bed with kisses and arm tugs). I roll over to his side of the bed (I rarely get the whole bed to myself!) and settle in, but my brain’s racing and I already feel “up”. I unplug my iPhone and check my email, Facebook, and twitterfeeds from bed. Yes, I know – it’s a sickness.
  • 8:35a: make 6 cups of coffee (2 for the hubs, 4 for me) and turn on my DVRd episode of Judge Judy from Friday. I always start my day with some Judge Judy justice.
  • 9:05a: head to my email and start looking at the group exercises/emails from Operations! clients sent my way. Print out all their exercises, mark ’em up with some notes, add ’em to their files in Batchbook, respond to their emails, check their private Facebook groups for updates and respond to anything new. Eat oatmeal for breakfast in front of the computer.
  • 10:05a: respond to an email from a prospective client, and some well wishes, too. They’re the sweetest.
  • 10:15a: respond to a client who needs to schedule a session, confirming it as well as adding it to her Batchbook profile (and checking off the To Do to follow-up with her about it later in the week)
  • 10:20a: get ready for my group session, take out my notes, refill my coffee, grab my quilt (it’s cold in here!) and the phone.
  • 10:28a: dial in to the 10:30a group session.
  • 11:30a: finish the session, acknowledging (a) I have a ton of energy and the hour flies by and (b) I stink.
  • 11:35a: respond to emails about my teleseminar-turned-product, as my collaborator & I need to figure out how payment between us will work now that we’re selling it as a product on both of our sites as opposed to it being a live event.
  • 11:45a: I post the 10:30a session recording in the private Facebook group, along with a link to next week’s group homework (our last!), a whole bunch of links to help one of the clients create a budget for her biz, and more links to help my client get connected to other local writers. Also, answer other emails that have come in from Operation-ers and lurk around the private Facebook group more. Watch a video one of my clients made on EFT and tell her why it was amazeballs.
  • 12:20p: talk to my husband and my mother.
  • 12:35p: respond to tweets.
  • 12:40p: realize the stink has to stop. While I’m usually adamant about taking a shower first thing (and getting dressed for “work!”), I’ve put myself on self-imposed house arrest until Wednesday to properly recuperate from my lumpectomy last week, and that involves not having to get out of my pjs. I take this too far by waiting so long to shower on top of it. So, I think of my husband not having to sleep on the couch and get my hygiene on. (OK, I’m now mortified by having admitted this. But, I got a can’t-be-disputed excuse: boob cancer! Let’s me get away with everything)
  • 12:55p: warm up some matzoh ball soup my Mom made for lunch. Return the call to my Nana. (Can these 20 minutes be any more Jewish?)
  • 1:15p: update my WordPress plugins. Realize I broke the back-end of my site and I can’t load any of my pages. Call my husband and ask him to rescue me.. He does. I decide to keep him.
  • 1:30p: update everything on my site to reflect my teleseminar-turned-product, removing dates from everything, taking it off my Events page and adding it to myWorkbooks page. I think of putting it on it’s own page because I don’t necessarily wanna call it a workbook (there are 5 MP3s that go along with it), but decide against it. I have a thing for making everything more complicated than it is, and so I recognize that this would classify as that. I resist the urge and pat myself on the back.
  • 2:25p: realize that some of my testimonial people on the sidebars of some pages are broken. Sound the alarm to my Virtual Wizard, who fixes it lickety-split.
  • 2:30p: answer questions for a blog post for Tamarisk, all about connection. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy. Goes quicker than I thought, and I send them her way for review.
  • 2:55p: write tomorrow and Wednesday’s blog posts, find images that suit ’em, and double-check that all the links work.
  • 3:55p: update my Grads about the next group call, and close up the one that’s supposed to take place tomorrow. I don’t have any takers yet and I need a night off.
  • 4p: write this post! Well, start writing it. I promise to accurately reflect the rest of the day and not make it up 🙂
  • 4:40p: prep for my private client at 5p. She always sends me big fat updates as to what happened since our last session, and I wanna make sure I have time to read and digest everything. I print it out (it’s 6 pages!), read it through, and mark it up with the points/questions I wanna address on our call.
  • 4:55p: get ready for my private session, taking out my notes, getting some water, going to the bathroom(quickly!), turning on the lights (it’s dark in here!), grabbing the phone, and settling into my comfy chair.
  • 5-5:55p: private client session on the phone. It went over, so I have to rush a bit to my next one.
  • 5:55p: open up the group homework that my client sent me. Print it out, mark it up, add it to her Batchbook file, grab my notes, and get back into the comfy chair.
  • 6-6:35: group session
  • 6:35p: talk to husband
  • 6:38p: eat 3 handful of peanuts to hold me over ’til husband comes home
  • 6:40p: watch a funny video posted on Facebook
  • 6:45p: post the session recording in the private Facebook group (it’s a different group than the one this morning), along with a link to next week’s group homework (our last!) and some notes on us wrapping up
  • 6:50p: send an email to my 5p client with a link to our call, a crapload of links I think she’d find helpful, info on wrapping up (it’s our last session next week, too!), and a summary of the homework she agreed to do for this week.
  • 7:10p: answer emails (from a group coaching client, more well wishes, and a media request). At this point I’m pretty much working until my man comes home.
  • 7:45p: husband comes home. All work stops. Kisses and mail-opening and “I’m so hungry!” ensue.
  • 7:50p: proofread this post and send it off to April
From here I can tell ya that we’ll have dinner, watch TV, have our weekly-ish finance meeting, and head to bed somewhere between 11p-12a. It ain’t glamorous, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.
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Editor’s Note {aka, what April has to say, yo!}: Thank you sooooooo much for the taking the time to participate in this series and for the kind words, Michelle. One of the things I love so much about Michelle is her honesty and authenticity, and including that she needed to do something about the stink in this timeline made me laugh so hard that I had to compose myself before reading further. If you don’t know Michelle, I’m telling ya that you need her in your life, especially if you like to have a good time, laugh, and don’t take yourself too seriously.

Check out Michelle’s website and connect with her on Twitter.

11 Comments · Filed Under: A day in the life of...

A Day In the Life Of…Jessica Van Den

- November 25, 2011 | by April -

G’Day all, and thanks so much to April for having me here on Blacksburg Belle. For those who don’t know me, my name’s Jess Van Den, and I’m a full-time creative entreprener – a jeweller, blogger and the editor of *bespoke* zine. I live in the lovely warm state of Queensland down here in Australia.

Because my business has many different facets, each day is a little different – so today I’ve chosen to take you through my regular Tuesday!

Somewhere between 7am and 8am: I’ll be roused by my lovely husband Nick, when he puts a cup of tea down on my bedside table. It takes me a bit of time to wake up in the morning, so the tea is mandatory! I’ll then grab my laptop, check e-mails and deal with anything urgent (like renewing items that have sold in my Etsy or madeit shops). I’ll also finish and send out the *bespoke* Weekly Goodness newsletter, as I do every Tuesday morning.

8:30 am: I spend 20 minutes on the exercise bike while reading a novel on my kindle. I’m a voracious reader, and it’s not uncommon for me to read a whole novel each day. Thank goodness for .99c novels by indie authors!

9ish: Time for a shower, some sort of breakfast, and a bit more time on the computer.

10 am: I move over to my bench and start making my latest orders. Generally I make orders all day Monday, so today I’ll be finishing up what I didn’t get done yesterday. I’ll move between the bench and my computer desk throughout the day, chatting on twitter, checking e-mail etc.

12:30 pm: Nick and I will sit down together and have our main meal of the day – lunch – around 12:30 or so, and I’ll take a bit of a break, perhaps read some more of my novel. He’s an awesome cook (and is in charge of all cooking/shopping etc) – we’re currently working our way through Jamie Oliver’s 30 minute meals cookbook!

1 pm: Time to pack up all the orders I’ve completed, and give them to Nick. He’ll head out to the post office for me, so I can keep working.

2:30 pm: Back to the computer. I’ll deal with some more e-mails and other admin tasks, as well as perhaps writing a blog post or two. Chances are I’ll do some work on *bespoke* as well! I’ll catch up with twitter, write something on my Facebook biz pages, and do a little thinking about my priorities for the week. I’ll probably take a 15-minute break in here and fit in a bit more reading, too!

5:30 pm: Tuesdays are one of my running days. I’m working my way through the C25K again at the moment, so honestly they’re more run-walk-run-walk days at the moment 😉 Working from home, in a sedentary job, I REALLY notice the difference in my body when I don’t exercise. It really is vital to keep me feeling my best.

6:30 pm: Another shower (yes, I love showers, they’re such a great chance to relax both body and mind). Then we’ll have a light dinner – usually some sort of big salad with plenty of protein.

7 pm: I’ll either hop on the computer and do some more work – like writing a blog post or two – or read a little more. Sometimes we’ll pull up an episode of something to watch on the TV.

11:30 ish: Time for bed and cuddles with our kitty-cat, Gobbolino. Though he’s kinda avoiding us right now, because it’s almost summer-time temperatures down here now!

Editor’s Note {aka, what April has to say, yo!}: What a sweet husband bringing you a cup of tea. Shut the heck up–you read a novel a day! I’m jealous and impressed. And, your kitty is sooooooooo cute. Thank you so much for sharing a day with us.

Check out Jess’ site and connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.

2 Comments · Filed Under: A day in the life of...

A Day In the Life Of…Erin Giles

- November 11, 2011 | by April -

{Image provided by Erin Giles}

Lately I have been crazily unpacking boxes in our new home, so this day in the life of Moi is on a normal day.

6:00 am: Alarm goes off and make my way to the snooze button once or twice.

6:30: Up and at it with some pilates and a power walk outside.

7:15: Check email, schedule some tweets using timely for the day, and get my tea on.

7:30: Get Zoe out of bed, get her dressed, and have breakfast with her and my husband.

8:00: Get ready for the day while Zoe plays in her room.

9:00: Meet with a client at Starbucks for some biz brainstorming.

11:30: Home in time to have lunch with Zoe.

12:00: Play with Zoe which either includes dancing, reading, or coloring.

12:30: Lay Zoe down for a nap. Check and respond to emails, twitter, and reply to comments on my blog post for the day. Write a pitch for a guest post, package two orders, write my blog post for the following post, and make some changes to my website.

{Image provided by Erin Giles}

2:30: Snack with Zoe and then a trip to the park.

4:00: Run to the grocery store to get some ingredients for my husband’s favorite Peanut Butter Cookies.

4:30: Bake cookies and yes I sample while I bake.

5:30: Turn on Baby Einstein for Zoe while I check email, Twitter, and respond to blog comments.

6:00 Cook dinner, yummo Stuffed Acorn Squash.

6:30: Eat with the fam and then while Fred gives Zoe a bath, I do dishes.

7:00: Shower and get in my comfy clothes.

7:30: Catch up on reading some blogs and my current read, The Creative Habit.

9:00: Grey’s Anatomy with Fred, our favorite show!

10:00: A bit of reading in bed before I am out!

10:30: Fast asleep, after a long day of biz, baby, and wife to-do’s.

Editor’s Note {aka, What April has to say, yo!}: I loved seeing how you spend your day, Erin, especially since your a hands on momma who’s also running a creative biz. So inspirational! And, I also sample while I bake–it’s the only way to do it! Thank you so much for sharing.

Check out Erin’s site and connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.

9 Comments · Filed Under: A day in the life of...

A Day In the Life Of…

- November 4, 2011 | by April -

Don’t you love seeing how other people spend their time? I sure do.

I always wonder how other creative entrepreneurs spend their work days. I want to know how much time they spend on social media, if they prioritize exercising {and what they do for exercise}, and when they stop working for the day. That’s why I’m changing the Follow Friday series into A Day In the Life Of….series.

I’ve really enjoyed featuring creative entrepreneurs each week, but I’ve also realized that I have a little gift for getting people to take action—and helping people get from A to B and increase their productivity. So, I want to focus even more content on productivity, time management, and taking action. This series is a piece of that.

Each week, I’ll feature a creative entrepreneur and they’ll share one of their work days from the moment they wake up to the moment they fall asleep with us.

I’m gonna kick it off by sharing one of my work days with you.

5:30 am: Alarm goes off. Press the snooze button.

5:35 am: Alarm goes off again. Fight the urge to press the snooze button again and get my butt out of bed. Get dressed for the gym.

5:45 am: Have a little protein shake with my husband.

6:15 am: Gym. Running on the indoor track for 30 minutes and then power walking on the treadmill while reading The Help for 15 minutes.

7:15 am: Pull back into the driveway and love on my dogs who are waiting at the backdoor for us. Make tofu scrambles with spinach and red pepper, gluten-free toast, and green juice for breakfast while my husband feeds and plays ball with our dogs.

7:45 am: Eat breakfast with my man.

8:15 am: Singing and dancing in the shower. Get ready. Throw some laundry in the wash.

9:00 am: Review my to-do list for the day and get started on a guest post.

10:30 am: Send completed guest post and jump on to Twitter for a quick break. Get up and dance to Sexy and I Know It by LMFAO to get my body moving.

10:50 am: Put the laundry in the dryer and work on a new class for ARTrepreneur.

12:00 pm: Make a quick sandwich with hummus, sprouts, and tomatoes and throw together some cut up veggies for a side salad. Watch part of Desperate Housewives while I eat lunch.

12:40 pm: Feed my doggies lunch and play ball with them outside.

1:00 pm: Check Twitter and Facebook for five minutes before responding to emails.

1:30 pm: Continue working on a class for ARTrepreneur.

3:00 pm: Get up and dance to Super Bass by Nicki Minaj. Give my sweet doggies a treat. Hop on Twitter. Call my man to see how his day is going. Check the mail and pet the horses in the pasture next to our front yard.

3:30 pm: Post a new photography tutorial in ARTrepreneur.

3:45 pm: Work on next Monday’s blog post.

4:30 pm: Check and respond to email.

4:50 pm: Fold laundry and put it away.

5:10 pm: Sit down to finish the work day by reading a business book like Start with Why by Simon Sinek

5:50 pm: Feed my dogs dinner and then play ball with them outside.

6:15 pm: Cut up potatoes and get them roasting in the oven.

6:30 pm: Husband gets home from work. Talk about our days and continue cooking dinner which consists of chickpea cutlets, roasted potatoes and gravy, and asparagus.

7:00 pm: Eat dinner, enjoy each other’s company, and watch Grey’s Anatomy.

8:45 pm: Get in bed. Husband watches television and I read The Help.

9:45 pm: Lights out, television off, time for sleep.

And, there you have it! That’s one of my days from start to finish.

24 Comments · Filed Under: A day in the life of...

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