I wanted to write to you a little bit about what I see a lot of times on social media, especially in business forums. A big question I see a lot is “How are you able to be an entrepreneur and also a husband and father?” That can be a very daunting task just because being an entrepreneur by itself is tough. And also being a husband by itself is tough. And also being a father by itself is tough. So how do you take all of those and put them together and still be able to have any kind of sanity? How are you able to be successful at any of those if you’re doing them all at once? So today, I want write a little bit about that. So let’s go ahead and get right into it. Okay?
Tip #1 Tasks
So number one is tasks. I myself actually use Google Tasks. But you can use any kind of app that might be on the Google Play store or the Apple Store or whatever, or even pen and paper. Setting these tasks have to be aligned with your goals. And if you’re not writing down your goals every single day, you’re not going to make it. So make sure that you have yearly goals, monthly goals, weekly goals, daily goals and action plans to go along with all of that. I actually have a task app on my phone that I follow every single day and I have daily tasks to make sure I meet my weekly, monthly, and yearly goals.
One of my top tasks is to actually make sure I’m spending time with my family or a member of my family for a dedicated amount of time every single day. So Monday nights, for example, we actually have a “family night” and this night is where we actually sit down together as a family for maybe 30 minutes (This time frame varies based on topics and time needed to be with the family). My kids are really young, so their attention span is tiny. So we sit down, we counsel together, we talk about what a questions they have (about any thing). We talk about school and church and all sorts of things to make sure that we’re answering any kind of questions or concerns they have and just spending that time as a family. Then we play a game and have treats. And so that’s what happens on Monday. But then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I have dedicated time for one hour with each of my kids and we get to do whatever they want.
That can be playing a board game or playing a video game. It could be reading, it could be a going out to eat, it could be anything that they want for the one hour they get. And that’s because your kids should be your top client. You know, as a dad, I am a mentor to them. So spending that time is the most precious time to be spending with any one of my clients. And then of course my there’s my wife. We have a dedicated date night and most of the time it’s on Saturdays. We have to be a little bit flexible. Sometimes it’s Friday nights, but we have a dedicated night where me and her go out, just me and her. We actually have a date night where it is just the two of us. No kids or anything like that. But we talk, we go out to see movies, we go out to play golf, whatever it is. So number one is set those kinds of tasks.
Tip #2 Calendar
So that actually leads us into number two, which is calendar. I live and breathe by my calendar. We actually, as a family, use G Suites a to set our calendar and sync our calendars together for each one of us. My wife has one, I have one. We sync it all together to kind of see exactly what we’re doing that day and then making sure that we have that time set aside for each other, but then also that they can see exactly what I have going on, what my kids have going on at school or what my wife has going on at Church and what I have going on with my businesses. So we can kind of plan and maneuver with each other to make sure that we’re in sync there.
Tip #3 Your Phone
Number three is your phone and your phone time. Now most people have smart phones like this and it has made doing business so much easier because I can be anywhere and be at work. That’s also a bad thing, I guess, but having a smart phone with you; being able to run business wherever you are; has been a tremendous help. But also it can be a detriment because if you’re on your phone all the time, then you’re going to go absolutely crazy. So you have to set time limits for when you’re actually using your phone and when you’re on social media. A good example of this is when we sit down for dinner, we actually put our phones away and we have that dedicated time where we’re sitting down together at the dinner table. We discuss our day at work or day at school and all those various activities we had throughout the day without our phones and without any kind of interruption.
Tip #4 Social Media
Number four is social media. If you are not on social media as an entrepreneur, you are not going to make it and you have got to be posting like crazy. I mean, just like what Grant Cardone and all of these other big entrepreneurs say “If they don’t know you, they won’t follow you“. So you have got to have a ton of presence on social media. You also don’t want to be tied to your phone every time you’re having to make a post. So what are some of the things I use? Well some of the things I used actually are things that are free, like Hootsuite or Buffer. Those apps will actually schedule your posts, and links and videos and all that kind of stuff to your various social media outlets.
I used that for awhile and then I also used “If This, Then That”. It’s I.F.T.T.T. if you look on your app store, but you can actually set it up to where if this happens, then do this. So if I post a Facebook, then also post to Twitter. So that’s some of the free stuff. The best thing that I use here is actually a website called Meet Edgar. Meet Edgar is a fantastic social media manager, not only because you can schedule your posts out, but also it will recycle those posts. So if every Monday I’m coming out with a podcast and I want to post throughout the day about the new podcast and quotes and all that kind of stuff, I’ll set that time throughout the week and then it will create variations of that post and send that out at dedicated times.
And then once those have been completed, it will recycle the new variation automatically without me having to do anything. So that’s a great way to kind of schedule out your social media and to be constantly posting without having to be tied to your phone or your computer, to have that presence on social media.
Tip #5 Training
So the last thing, number five on this list is a doing your training. Okay So I listen to audio books, podcasts, and I watch a ton of YouTube. Get off of Netflix, get off of Hulu, get off of all of those kinds of things and dedicate your time to actually receive information rather than just being entertained. Now I’m not saying that you can’t ever have Netflix, because you can’t go absolutely crazy. But you do want to have a dedicated time where you are uninterrupted to receive new knowledge and training.
So early in the mornings when my kids are still asleep and my wife is still asleep, I’ll put on my headphones and I’ll start listening to audio books, podcasts, meditate, guided meditations and I’ll watch YouTube videos. And then when my day starts, after the gym or whatever, I come in and sit down and I start doing video training from either, Cardone University or Clickfunnels. Then when I’m done throughout my day, my kids are asleep and things are kind of settled down, I’ll do more training or I’ll schedule time to do my social media posts. So make sure you’re dedicating time to invest in yourself and then look for those opportunities where you could be learning. So if you have a long commute, make sure you’re listening to podcasts or audio books in your car.
Don’t just sit there and listen to music every single time but actually listen to what people have to give you. You can actually earn enough knowledge from an undergraduate degree or something like that from, from listening to audio books and podcasts from people who are actually working in the field and not just from academia. So that is a huge opportunity there to be listening in your car while you’re commuting. My drive is only maybe about 10 minutes to my office, but that still means that I have 20 minutes a day. I could be listening to an audio book or a podcast and gaining that knowledge every single day.
So that’s some of the things that I do. What kind of things do you do? Anything different from what I do? I am always looking for suggestions and new ideas to take away. If you have any questions, please let me know them. I will do my best to answer any kind of questions you might have. And if you want to hear/read about anything else, be sure to make a suggestion for me so I can do another article on it and we can learn together!
-Michael Glover