Crafting a Realistic Livestream Schedule: Make Video Marketing Work For Your Life

Tanya Smith [00:00:00]:
Getting ready to talk about this whole idea of crafting a realistic schedule because I think that there is this thing with us content creators where we are told that we have to be on twenty four seven. And I'm just not about that life. I don't know about you, but I actually enjoy spending time with my family. I enjoy being able to read a book now and then, and sometimes just to do nothing. So we don't have to do this twenty four seven to be successful and to be visible. And that's really I wanna go all in on that tonight and give you some tips. So we've got three tips to share with you, and we're gonna break them all down.

Tanya Smith [00:00:41]:
Welcome to Stream Like a Boss TV, the podcast, your on the go version of our popular live stream show. Tanya Smith will be your guide to getting the most out of video and other cutting edge digital marketing strategies that transform crickets into clients and cash. Tune in as we dive into practical tips, expert interviews, and actionable insights to grow your business online. Let's start the show.

Tanya Smith [00:01:11]:
Alright, folks. Welcome back. Tanya Smith here. And, again, we're gonna be talking about your livestream schedule. Like, how do we make this thing realistic? Before I do a deep dive, I wanna go ahead and acknowledge some folks here in the comments because I wanna thank you and tell you that I appreciate you so much for being here. So first of all, I'm gonna pop in with Erica Bates from Talk Virtual. She is a summit creation queen. I see Valerie Pinkston in the house.

Tanya Smith [00:01:41]:
What's up? I know you are an OG Talk Virtual. I see you there. Let's see what else. Valerie said I'm not about the twenty four seven either. I have to have some real life happening. Okay? It's true. Tech troublemaker, I love to see you, and I've been checking you out too. Whenever I can, I pop in on your shows as well? What's up? Yes.

Tanya Smith [00:02:04]:
The scheduling struggle is real. It is reality. John Lacey all the way from Australia. OG in the house. I love to see you. Thank you so much for showing up. Look, we're gonna dive into this thing. And, I can tell you it's something that I was on a call the other day and I was doing a, I was being interviewed for a podcast.

Tanya Smith [00:02:26]:
And and this topic came up and I shared, you know, I'm at a different season in my life right now than I was twenty, thirty years ago, where I probably didn't care as much maybe or didn't think as much about time. I just kinda went through the thing. Like, I just checked off the task list and went every day, you know, just in the grind. But at some point, we get to a place, a season, and this may be earlier for you than it was for me, but at some place, we get to a point to where we realize, look, I'm just like, my life is going by and I'm not enjoying it. Like, things are happening and I'm not even really taking the time to stop and experience what is happening. And so I feel like as content creators, and that doesn't matter what type of entrepreneur you are, you probably are creating content to market yourself and your business at some point. What has happened is we have put ourselves into this situation, this zone, where it is expected of us to be on twenty four seven. But I am here to tell you that that is a myth.

Tanya Smith [00:03:34]:
We don't have to accept that. We get to choose. And so I wanna talk a little bit about some practical ways for you to choose and for you to really kind of think through strategically because this is what I do on this show. We talk about the strategy behind the streaming, the strategy behind the content creation. I want you to really think about what are the practical ways in which I can really live my life, but still create the content. So this tip that we're gonna these three tips we're gonna talk about tonight matters because I think most advice assumes that you have unlimited time. And even if you are being told, oh, we recognize you don't have, unlimited time, but you can always outsource. That's not really the case for everybody.

Tanya Smith [00:04:26]:
Okay? Let's just be realistic. You maybe you can, but maybe you're not in a position to do so. So you need a system that's gonna work for you in this moment, in this time right now, something that's gonna work for you and not against you. And when you have a realistic schedule that works for you, then that means more consistency. That means less burnout. That means better results. And we want those things. So here's what I wanna ask you to do.

Tanya Smith [00:04:57]:
If your biggest struggle is time, I want you to find the clock emoji. You can either find, you know, the traditional clock emoji or the sands of time emoji, either one of those. But if your issue if you think your issue isn't so much time, but it's energy, find the lightning bolt and put the lightning bolt emoji in. I'm curious as to to know what you all think. Which one is the struggle for you? Is it the clock, or is it the lightning, the energy? Okay. So I do have my notes up, but I'm definitely going to be making sure that I pop up some comments and pop up these message points so that you have them as well. And, yes, I see the Get Hired strategist is in the house, Nicolette Barrett. And I love this from Roy, what he said.

Tanya Smith [00:05:46]:
Until your business is making some money, outsourcing is not practical for a solopreneur. And I know, I know, I know there are people that will say differently y'all, but you gotta make these choices. These are individual choices and personal choices. That's what we're talking about. So, yeah, he's got the clock and he's got the lightning bolt. He said time and energy. John says it's energy. Yeah.

Tanya Smith [00:06:11]:
Okay. Talk virtual. Erica says it's energy. Okay. I love it. So you're the first step really is recognition that it's one or both of those things that is potentially an issue or a roadblock for you. And so now that we know that, let's talk about some tips, let's implement a few things. So here's point number one.

Tanya Smith [00:06:37]:
Point number one is this: identify your priorities. Now, sometimes we think we've prioritized. But really, we're just going throughout the day. Just I mean, going through the motions and not quite taking a few minutes to sit down and to really identify our priorities. Okay? And so here's what I want to say when it comes to that. A couple of things. Number one under identifying your priorities is to identify or define what is not negotiable at all. So when you're looking at your calendar and you're thinking about when can I do this task? When when can I do content creation? When can I do my lives? And I'll tell you my personal journey to this.

Tanya Smith [00:07:34]:
When you're thinking about that, you need to think about what you're not willing to give up. Now at the point that I started my livestream journey, I recognized that I was in a situation I had come out of a situation where I had been doing some other, business ventures that were taking away every weekend with my family, and also any extra moments that I had in my life. And so that you kinda have an understanding of what my life is like and has been like, I am a corporate analyst. I have been a corporate analyst and in a corporate role for thirty three years. Additionally, at the time I started live streaming, I was raising two daughters, two young daughters in their teens and tweens. I had three dogs. My husband was traveling overseas all the time, so probably 85 to 90% of the year, which he still does. Right? And we had an elderly my father-in-law was elderly with his wife who was going through a dementia.

Tanya Smith [00:08:49]:
Okay? And we ended up losing her over a period of years slowly to that disease, to that illness. So there was a lot. When I say there was a lot happening and so what I had to do is to think about when is it absolutely not going to happen? When am I absolutely reserving and creating boundaries around the time in my calendar? And I said, not doing it on the weekends. So one of the things I'm gonna recommend you do first is go through your calendar and figure out, like, when am I absolutely not negotiating? This will not be a content creation day. This will not be a live stream day. And that could be your birthday. It could be holidays. It could be your your loved one's birthday or anniversary or whatever it is.

Tanya Smith [00:09:39]:
It could just be days that you say, no. These are my days. These are days I take for myself. So defining your nonnegotiables and prioritizing your wellness is key. Now, also under this bullet for, points. So point number one, again, let me go back to it. This is the main thing we're doing right now is identifying your priorities. Right? So also under this bullet, streamlining your content.

Tanya Smith [00:10:07]:
So as you're thinking about ways to really make life easier, first of all, you've already identified when you're not going to do it. Now that leaves more room for days that you will. So when you're thinking about what am I going to do, that means you're thinking about not only the livestream itself. Right? So not just the day, this is the days I'm not gonna do it, but you're thinking about, here's when I'm gonna actually do the stream. This is when I'm going to prepare the materials and the content to promote the stream. This is gonna be the day that I produce the stream after the fact. Like, I'm repurposing and I'm doing things to ensure that this content gets everywhere. I've been talking about this a lot in my community spaces because they're like, Tanya, we see you everywhere.

Tanya Smith [00:10:58]:
How do you do that? And part of it is because I'm strategizing and I'm prioritizing and I'm time blocking. So there are certain days of the week that certain things get done. So my goal, for instance, if I'm going live on Thursday, is that my intention it doesn't always work out this way, but you need an intention. My intention is that on Monday, I would have confirmed that my planner, that the thing I was gonna be talking about for that week, that that's the one thing that I wanna talk about. Because there could be trends or things that are happening in the world that make you wanna make a shift. But Monday, I'm looking at that, sometime Sunday afternoon. By Tuesday, I would like to send out an email promoting and letting people know, but sometimes I get behind on that. We'll talk about that in a minute.

Tanya Smith [00:11:48]:
And then Wednesday is a freebie day. I might look at my notes. I might not. Thursday morning, I'm going back through my little mini script or my outline. And then Thursday evening, here we go. So I'm thinking about what this process and and workflow looks like, and I'm prioritizing by looking at what I'm not willing to do and what I'm willing to do. Okay? Alright. And yes, I see this.

Tanya Smith [00:12:18]:
I love it. Let me put this up on comments because this is truth. Weekends are mine, she said. Okay. We're just gonna make the weekends mine. Cast ahead Chris Stone in the house being everywhere. It does take strategy, sir. Cast ahead, Chris Stone.

Tanya Smith [00:12:39]:
Look, first of all, let me give him some kudos and a shout out because Chris Stone has been jamming with some of my clips for me and making me show up and shine in a positive way. And I just love him. I do. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Everywhere. Absolutely.

Tanya Smith [00:12:57]:
You are everywhere. Your systems are so tight. Thank you. I try. All right. A free day during the week. I want that too. Yes.

Tanya Smith [00:13:07]:
So you get to claim it, Erica. You get to claim it and you get to say, this day is my day. Nicolette is working to claim Sundays as hers. You get to choose. And that's what I'm talking about. So my system may not work for you. You get to create your practical, realistic system, but you're gonna start with some of the things I already talked about. So figure out what your nonnegotiables are and decide what is my plan? What are the days of the week that I'm going to implement and institute these little parts of my plan? That's what we're doing.

Tanya Smith [00:13:42]:
K? And then finally, within that identifying of your priorities is use scheduling tools so that you can plan your content in advance. So I will tell y'all that Google Calendar is like a big deal in my house. I use a Google a color coded Google Calendar, and it keeps me sane, for a couple of reasons. Because one, any type of tool or platform I'm using, I'm integrating with it. So my CRM, I use GoHighLevel. My my scheduling tool for appointments and for people to be on the show and all of that is in a a tool called Trafft, t r a f f t, which is amazing. And that also integrates with Google. Anything that requires time of me is gonna be in the Google Calendar.

Tanya Smith [00:14:38]:
And part of the reason for that is because it's not just me being able to access it. My family members, wherever they are in the world, can access it too. And so we have color code that's orange for the family. So it's a family event or household event is orange. Then I've got purple for certain things that I'm just doing on a personal level. I've got green for business because, you know, cash. Hey. And I've got I've got other colors too.

Tanya Smith [00:15:06]:
But the gist of it is I'm thinking through, like, how do I ensure that I can see at any given time what's going on? And then when I'm using other integrated tools with that Google Calendar, what I'm making sure it does is it doesn't double book. Now here's a secret to the calendar as well. Book yourself some personal time. Like, block that on your calendar, because you don't have to be available all the time. Put yourself in a mental state. Right? The right mental state. You know if you're going to be doing coaching calls, you shouldn't be doing them at a certain time of day when you have low energy, which we're gonna talk about in just a few minutes. Okay? So identifying your priorities is number one.

Tanya Smith [00:15:57]:
Okay. Let me see what we got. If you do have questions, pop those into the chat. If you can put a q in front of it, it will be easier for me to identify. But, let me ask you this. If you knew that your systems had your back, what's one thing you would stop doing right now? You can think about that and pop that into the chat. If you knew you had the time that you needed because you put the right systems, automation, calendars, schedules in place, what's one thing you would stop doing right now because you don't have to do it anymore? Just one thing. Okay.

Tanya Smith [00:16:35]:
I'm gonna go to point number two. All right. Number two is to use smarter time management techniques. So let me explain what I mean by that. When I first started doing streams, I was just like, I'm just gonna pop up, you know, like when I feel like it. This is, this is real talk y'all. I'm being transparent. I didn't just start out with systems.

Tanya Smith [00:17:04]:
I was trying to figure things out. And guess what? That's okay. You have to experiment so that you can find what's right for you. But here's what I was doing. There's two things I did. One is I do did the spaghetti method. So I just threw spaghetti on the wall and said, okay, it's gonna be this day. And then two, I was looking at what other people said.

Tanya Smith [00:17:28]:
Well, they said, when I looked up this article, it said, I need to go live on Tuesdays at 6AM in the morning, right, or 9AM, or whatever the time it was that it said. This is the same thing, y'all, with social media. This is what they do. They tell you you need to fit in a box. Fit in a box. Fit in a box. And the box doesn't always work for you. So what you get to do is you get to experiment and find those times that actually work for you.

Tanya Smith [00:17:55]:
You get to set a day and a time and try that out. What I would encourage you to do is to probably try it at least for thirty days. And if you're finding that that time is really not a time because here's what would happen. When I started, because I was doing so much, I would be running into the house out of breath. I would be like, okay. Hey, everybody. Is Tanya here? Right. Let me catch my breath because I just came in the house.

Tanya Smith [00:18:29]:
Yeah. That wasn't working. I wasn't in a good place. I was forcing that time because somebody told me I had to. And then I realized, wait a minute, I'm an adult. And I also had to experiment because it's the intersection of you loving what you do and having the energy to do it, and the people who are your audience, your chosen, beautiful, perfect audience, that intersection will come together. If you experiment and you keep doing what you're doing and you try different times that feel right for you, you'll find if you communicate and let folks know and if you research your audience and understand their patterns, then you'll have a better idea as to what time works for you. What's the best time for you to show up? Because if your niche, if your audience is a group of people who are at work during the day and won't have access to their phones, to their mobile or not mobile devices, but to their TVs or whatever, and that's the primary way that they watch you, they're not gonna be there if you go live at 02:00 in the afternoon.

Tanya Smith [00:19:44]:
So you have to think about those things and research and learn and understand and experiment with your audience. Okay. I'm seeing some things popping in, so I need to come and check this out. Let's see. Check tech troublemaker. My system is using AI for ideation and helping to refine ideas. It does save me time. Plus, I love learning how to craft better prompts.

Tanya Smith [00:20:08]:
Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. GoHired Strategists. I must have said something that resonated. Roy, thank you for reminding people to hit that like button to let YouTube know, oh, how amazing you think Tanya is. Thank you.

Tanya Smith [00:20:27]:
Stream like a boss.

Tanya Smith [00:20:30]:
Thank you, Roy. You are the bomb. Okay. People don't say bomb anymore. I know. So you are great. I've been told that was old. So I'm going to stop using that.

Tanya Smith [00:20:41]:
Okay, here we go. So point number two. Oh, not three. We're not ready for three yet, but we will be in a second. So smart time management techniques. So setting a go live day and time and letting it be consistent at least for thirty days so you can see how that's working out. Another thing is to create a pre show routine. So when you're talking about time management, you're thinking about, okay, what's my routine going to be? Because again, when I started, I had to learn this the hard way, but I kept having to try to remember, did I turn those lights on? Did I do this? Did I do that? So one of the things that I do now is I connect all my lights in my studio to my Alexa system.

Tanya Smith [00:21:25]:
And maybe you have a different system. Right? But that way, everything is ready to go. So I just come into the room and I tell the a word, she's listening, to either turn the studio on or turn the studio off, depending on where I am. And then I have shortcuts connected to my Mac to remind me to do certain things after after my show is done. So whenever I say shut it down, then there's certain reminders that pop up that tell me, okay. Remember to do this next. So we are living in a time where automation and technology is so available. Use that stuff.

Tanya Smith [00:22:01]:
When I talk about smart technology, that's what I'm talking about. The last thing I'll mention under this particular segment is to block out focus time because you need to be treating your content creation like it's an appointment. And so using these tools and this technology to help you to do that is gonna save you so much struggle, y'all. And AI, absolutely, to Roy's point, I am a I'm not gonna say a master at it, but I'm going to say I have become an expert at leveraging tools like AI to create templates. So I have templates and workflows and checklists so that all I have to do when I'm preparing to promote this stream before it goes live is I can go in there and say, okay, to the custom GPT that I created. Gail, some of you know Gail. Gail is a live streaming strategist, and Gail has access to all my templates. So when I go in there and I say, hey, Gail.

Tanya Smith [00:23:02]:
I need you to create me a, promotional script and an email to go out to my list, and here's the topic. And these are the things, the bullet points I want to cover, make that happen. And then she can create that in seconds. Right? Additionally, she can then turn around and create the script for me according to the format that I prefer. And that way, I have those notes ready to go and I pop on and I dive into the content, share with you what I need to, and then I have it automated even afterwards so that my video instantly from YouTube goes into another tool, creates an article format for me. Right? Create social media snips for me, which I can then now hand off to a team member to create images for me. So there are ways that you can really leverage tech to be more efficient. And I wanna encourage you to really get clear about how this stuff can work for you.

Tanya Smith [00:24:05]:
It's not replacing you. It's enhancing what you're already doing and saving you time and saving your sanity, for goodness sakes. Okay. Let me pop this in here because this is a great question. Thank you. Valerie asked, how long did it take you to train Gail? Yep. It's Gail the second way, g a y l e. I have Gail and I have Marva and I have a whole suite of tools right now that I use.

Tanya Smith [00:24:38]:
It's a shame. I don't have my screen share thing up. I might have to pull that up so I could show you. But I have created an entire suite of custom GPTs to help with video content creation. And so for me now, Valerie, it takes me no time. It takes me, I would say at the most, maybe ten to fifteen minutes. And then I can continue to train her by adding new documents. So one of the things, for instance, that I've done after creating, Marva, my multiplier and that, by the way, I'm gonna be giving Marva away to people who take my livestream multiplier method class when we deliver that in March, So look for that.

Tanya Smith [00:25:18]:
But one of the things that I'm able to do is to train her by uploading specific documents, techniques, and approaches that I teach anyway in my classes so that she understands how I think and can then help assist my clients in the same way and assist me. Right? But ten to fifteen minutes now. Now when I first started learning how to create these GPTs, Jonathan Mast has been a super excellent advisor in that regard. And then there have been a couple of other people as well that I've followed. But now that I've got the hang of it and I can put my own twist on it, it takes no time. So, yeah, that's a great question. Another comment that I saw pop up. Let me see from Erica.

Tanya Smith [00:26:03]:
I go live in my community then repurpose that content. I love my scheduler, but I feel like I could go live more. You can, but the question is, do you want to? You get to choose. What's up? James Hicks in the house. I see you. Right. Mixed for Business by Sue Ann, experimenting even with time. Absolutely.

Tanya Smith [00:26:26]:
You get to choose, you get to play around with this thing and you get to say, okay, this works for me. This is not working for me. Marva is awesome, Chris. I love it. I love it. AI is fantastic. I just wish that some people would have more integrity when using these tools. By the way, I love the names you're giving your assistants.

Tanya Smith [00:26:48]:
Yeah. You know what? I was like, hey, I'm gonna make these assistants mine. Like, they're gonna be my perfect partners in doing this thing. And I think to your point about AI being fantastic, but the integrity is important, I totally agree. This is why I love AI to a point. I love that we I love it when people use their brains. And I love it when people use their own knowledge plus AI versus the other way around. So start with what's in here, what you know, and what you want, and then ask AI to assist.

Tanya Smith [00:27:27]:
It should be an assistant. It should be a compliment to what you already know about yourself and what you want to get out of it. When you use it that way as an assistant, it's so much better. So let me ask you this. As you're thinking about your smart time management techniques and technologies, what's your ideal go live time? Do you know? Is it morning? Is it afternoon? Or is it evening? So to say morning, put a sun emoji in the chat. To say afternoon, put a cloud and a moon if it is nighttime? What's your ideal go live time? Because now I'm gonna talk about something else. I'm gonna talk about energy levels, and I'm gonna share a technique that I use to help me to figure this out. Because I did used to when I first started, I was trying to go live early in the morning, like, before I started my workday.

Tanya Smith [00:28:32]:
That didn't bode so well. It didn't bode so well. So I'm gonna give you tip number three, and we're gonna talk about that. Love it. Okay. So it is this. I want you to let go of the guilt and agree to balance your life and business without the guilt. I want you to give yourself permission right now.

Tanya Smith [00:28:58]:
I give myself permission to let go of the guilt. If for some reason life happens, you do not have to do the thing you thought you had to do. You don't have to push through. You just need to take the break that your body and your mind are telling you to. This happened in real time this week for me. Stream bosses who are in the house can tell you, I needed that break because I needed to spend that time on a situation. So here's what I'm saying. Okay, When we're talking about letting go of the guilt and leveraging balance however you can, that means you need to drop the perfectionism.

Tanya Smith [00:29:42]:
You are not going to be perfect. I don't care how much you think you are going to be perfect. Nothing is ever perfect. You can let it go. You can tell yourself right now, I will never reach perfect, but I'm gonna get as good as I can get. I'm gonna do my best, but I'm not gonna be perfect. And that's okay. Because the minute you start thinking that you have to be perfect, then what will happen is you will lose hope.

Tanya Smith [00:30:08]:
You will give up because there will be a mistake. There will be something that will go wrong. Look, last week, I couldn't find my comments. There was an error message. The week before that, I cut off in midstream. Something can happen. I'm not saying it will happen, but I'm saying something can. And you need to be okay with that, because no one's going to be injured with the making of your video.

Tanya Smith [00:30:32]:
I always say that. So drop the perfectionism. Let go of the guilt. If you can't, you've set this schedule in place and you just can't. So two things I'm going to share with you here. One, I was beating myself up last year because I was like, oh my god. I planned out these days, and I was gonna be on live every Thursday, and it's just not happening. Like, I have to miss at least a Thursday every month, and then I realized something.

Tanya Smith [00:31:03]:
I realized what I told you earlier. I am an adult with adult things happening, and so I'm gonna give myself some grace. So now what I say instead of going live every Thursday, because that's aspirational, I say, most Thursdays you've heard me say this. Most Thursdays, I will be live. And that way, that gives me some grace because if I need that break, if I especially right now, y'all. If I need that mental space, I'm going to take it. And you should too. Okay? Now the key is communication, to let people know.

Tanya Smith [00:31:45]:
So this is why I'm communicating about when I go live, and I'm letting my list know, and I'm going out on, you know, Facebook, LinkedIn, etcetera, and saying, Hey, I'm gonna be live, so that people know when that's gonna happen. But I don't have to commit to beating myself up because I didn't make a day. Okay. This is all about your mental and physical and emotional wellness is so important, y'all. It's so important. Okay, I'm seeing times when people are loving to go live. Okay. Gotcha.

Tanya Smith [00:32:23]:
Yep. Okay, clouds. Morning, or is that a moon? That might be a moon. I think that's a moon. Talk virtual afternoon and evening. Okay. I'm loving it. I'm loving it.

Tanya Smith [00:32:38]:
I can relate, Tanya. Life happened hard for me lately. Sue Ann. Okay. I'm sending you some sending you some vibes, girl. I need to get my online mojo back. I'm hesitating after I was just getting it going before that hard hit, trying to shake it off. Look.

Tanya Smith [00:32:56]:
It will come, but you give yourself the grace and the space to make that come back. The right I believe I am a firm believer in this. Everything happens in the perfect timing. Everything happens in the perfect timing. And I have to remind myself of that sometimes because sometimes we try to force things to come, and it's just not the time. So give yourself the grace. And at some point, you're gonna say, you know what? This is the time. And when it is, it's gonna be right.

Tanya Smith [00:33:31]:
It's gonna work. It's gonna flow, and it won't feel like you're pushing up against a brick wall to make it happen. So give yourself that grace right now. This is the other thing I wanted to say. As you're aligning streams with your life, you're going to schedule them around your natural energy peaks. And so here's what I did. Because remember I said I was going live early in the morning, and it just was horrible. I was trying to force it.

Tanya Smith [00:33:58]:
So Sue Ann, hear me on this. I was trying to force it and it felt horrible. Like I didn't want to do it. I was telling myself, I really don't want to do this. I kept saying that to myself and I knew, here's why. I'm a very early morning person. So when I get up in the morning, the last thing I want to do is to get online and talk to people. I don't even talk to people in my house early in the morning.

Tanya Smith [00:34:28]:
That time when I wake up, because I am so early, I wake up because I need that time to just decompress. I need that time to prepare for the day, to think about things, to write, to just have quiet. And I absolutely have no intention whatsoever. And everybody in my house for the most part is like that. Like, we're not talking in the morning. We say good morning and keep it moving. So that was a bad idea. And I did not realize that at first because I was trying to do what somebody said I should have done.

Tanya Smith [00:35:03]:
Like, you need to go at this time because this is when people are there, so do that. That didn't work. Now what I ended up doing is I found this app on and I don't know if it's available on Android too, but it's definitely on iPhone. It's called Rise, r I s e. And for those who might be looking this one up, it's a sleep and and peak levels tracker. Let me find what the actual name is. It might be called Rise the Sleep app. Let's see.

Tanya Smith [00:35:36]:
I love this app. Rise Sleep Tracker. That's what it's called. So it's purple with some, like, rainbow circles or something like that. Rise Sleep Tracker. Now, part of the reason is because I was tracking sleep because I wasn't getting great sleep. But the other thing that it gave me the extra benefit that I didn't know it would give me is the ability to figure out when I was at my peak, when I was on the downscale, like downslope, like low energy, when I needed to stop drinking coffee, like, it gives you these different responses about your day and where you are in your day, based on your sleep cycle, because it's tracking that. And so in using that app consistently, I started seeing the patterns and I started experimenting with, okay, so at what time of day or evening could I be in good enough shape to to deliver at my best? And it ended up being right around this time that you see now, because we experimented with that.

Tanya Smith [00:36:42]:
And I went a little bit later, recently for a couple of reasons. One, because I have a lot of things happening right before this time, because I'm doing coaching and some other things. And then secondly, because I did notice that a lot of people were getting off work, decompressing, making their dinner, and then they wanted to sit down and have this conversation with me. So we have experimented and we have moved things around. But one of the biggest aids to me being able to find the time is tracking my levels of energy. It worked for me. I don't know. It may or may not work for you, but I think it's worth a look if that is an issue for you.

Tanya Smith [00:37:25]:
Okay? Let's pop up some things. Yeah, I see some fellow some people who understand. I don't talk to people in the house that early. Oh, you're just repeating me. It's true. I don't. I need I need that space in the morning. Hey, David Hunt in the house.

Tanya Smith [00:37:46]:
What's up? What's up? What's up? My phone has an eight a 9PM bedtime to let me know I should put it down. Yep. Yep. We can do these alerts and all kinds of stuff with these phones now. So it's super helpful. And I do love being able to use that in conjunction with what I know and how I'm feeling to really be able to just kind of like wind down or find those times in the day when I have high energy and I'm really like popping, like I can get a lot more done. So I want to ask you this. Because my last piece of advice is this.

Tanya Smith [00:38:26]:
Set clear boundaries to protect your time. I'm gonna say it again, set clear boundaries to protect your time. The reason for this is because if you don't and I'm gonna say this and then my sister's really gonna be she's gonna just I don't know, she's probably watching or my niece is watching, but I'm gonna say it anyway. There are certain times where you are going to be in the right mindset, mental state, whatever, where you can take on certain energies or information. This is why I have been really diligent about the way in which I create my coaching calendar. Because there's certain times of day and certain days of the week where I'm going to be more susceptible and open to hearing and being curious and listening. And then there's other times where I am just totally not in that zone. So my sister, when she calls, I've told her, if you call and I don't answer, I either may be busy or tied up with a client, or I'm just not mentally prepared for the download.

Tanya Smith [00:39:47]:
So you just need to know that and respect that. Now it took me time to get to that place. And I'm saying this with the spirit of love and compassion for others. You're not always gonna be in the best mood or in the best space to help other people. I know many of you are nurturers because I know a lot of you. I see you in the chat, and I've worked with you, and I've, you know, been on your show, and you've been on my show, and all of those things. So you're nurturers, and you want to nurture and encourage other people, but you have to do so from a full cup. Encourage other people, but you have to do so from a full cup.

Tanya Smith [00:40:20]:
If you're empty, you're not going to give your best. And so when I say protect your boundaries, I really mean that from the space of do what you need to do so that you can feel whole and you can be well when you are giving. That applies to daily conversations as much as it applies to live streaming. And the better you can be about creating those boundaries and making sure that you're positioning yourself for success so that other people can succeed through you, the better off everybody's going to be when you create protective boundaries. So giving yourself grace and all of those things. Let me pop up this comment exactly. Right? So David Hunt, love your neighbor as yourself. Yeah, you're thinking about it's not rude for you to do that.

Tanya Smith [00:41:15]:
It's not rude for me to tell my family members, look, if I don't pick up, it's better that I'm telling them that because I don't want to pick up and just be ornery and rude and not be the help that they need. Oh, I didn't mean to pop that one back up. Although it is true. Understanding your own needs is half the battle. John, exactly. Exactly. You need to know when you're in that space to be able to help others. So you can't love your neighbor if you don't love yourself enough to create the boundaries needed.

Tanya Smith [00:41:54]:
That is well said, David Hunt. I agree. I agree. Yes. So I hope that this has been helpful. I'm gonna go back through all three really fast and, share a recap. I want to encourage you to, if you haven't already, to hit the like button, share this with someone who might need a saner live stream schedule or other content. If you're creating a video podcast, if you're creating any type of content, you need to be looking at how you're doing it realistically and in a way that is practical and right for your lifestyle.

Tanya Smith [00:42:32]:
Not in a box, not using some formula that someone gave you, but really taking a closer look. So here's the three things that we said. We said, identify your priorities. So you know that here's the things that are not negotiable at all. Here's the things that I will not do. These are the times and the days of the week and the month that I will never my intention is to not create content on these days. This time is reserved for whatever. Fill in the blank.

Tanya Smith [00:43:07]:
Also identifying your priorities means that you know what's most important. So if you are going through a health situation, if you're going through a financial situation, if you're going through whatever, if it's tax season, which is coming up on us very fast, and you need to reserve time to focus on that, then do what you need to do. Take care of the other aspects of your your situation. Okay? Your life. Point number two was this. Use smart time management techniques. And I would add technology to that as well. So get smart about what you have.

Tanya Smith [00:43:42]:
You probably have resources right now at your disposal that you're not using effectively. You probably didn't even know you could use ChatGPT to create all those templates I talked about. And that you could use, you know, whatever the systems and the tools are that you have to just take away the repetition of steps that it requires you to take right now to create your content. If you are good about mapping out what that list of things is, that repetitive list that you do every time, then you're creating an SOP, a standard operating procedure, which gives you the ability to be able to hand off some of that work, some of those tasks to other people, or to automate it if you can learn how to do that. Step number three was to let go of the guilt and recognize that perfectionism is not real. It's never going to be real. But you can do your best. I'm about showing up with excellence, not perfection.

Tanya Smith [00:44:42]:
I'm going to do everything I can to show up as excellent as possible on this screen every Thursday when I come or most Thursdays when I come to see you. But I am over the idea of it being perfect. And because I'm over that idea and I know that nothing's ever gonna be perfect, when things do go wrong, I get to just push that aside and say, okay. Well, what's the fix? What do I need to do next? And be calm and not worry that that's going to all of a sudden lose me a hundred followers, and all of those things that people worry about that really aren't priority. Right? So let go of the guilt. If you need more structure, reach out. Just DM me. Go to my website at streamlikeaboss.tv.

Tanya Smith [00:45:31]:
Y'all take care of yourselves, and I will see you next time in the stream.

Tanya Smith [00:45:38]:
Thank you for tuning into this episode of Stream Like a Boss TV, the podcast. We hope you found today's insights valuable and inspiring. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed the show. To catch the full visual experience, head over to streamlikeaboss.TV. See you next time in the stream.