9 Steps to Shift from Survive to Thrive in Quarantine
I don't know about you, but here in Kentucky where I live, those first 3 weeks of lockdown were hard enough to wrap my head around.
"No school for 3 weeks? Is this a freaking joke? How am I going to do ANYTHING?" I can remember the shock like it was yesterday, even though more than a month has passed.
At first it felt a little bit like a really bad snow storm was coming. Most of us rushed to Target and maybe raided the wine aisle (or was that just me?) We were suspended in some weird holding pattern for those first few weeks. Most of us were thrown for a real loop when our precious routines were snatched away from us.
Those first few days held a lot of high hopes for many of us. There were color coded homeschool schedules & fantasizing about what to do with all this "free time." But pretty soon the blind optimism gave way to a lot of stumbling around. Healthy habits were thrown out the window as we each just tried to get through each day (and if you're juggling kids, it's often hour by hour).
Personally, I didn't really exercise. We ate whatever. Drank more wine than usual. Chucked the iPad at the kid. Downloaded Tik Tok. Watched Tiger King.
You know. We were in "survival mode".
But then… we learned the jarring news that those 3 weeks would give way to more weeks. Maybe months. And now, we're all settling into the sobering reality that this "quarantine life" is actually our new normal -- at least for now.
I know this is an incredibly weird time for all of us. There are many people who are sick and even fighting for their lives, or bravely going to work each day to care for the sick and keep us safe. There are many people out of work.
My friend & coach Jessica Eley said this part extremely well over on Facebook: "Some people will NOT be ok right now. They are our most vulnerable, not necessarily in terms of health, but financially, emotionally, mentally, their access to resources, their physiological ability to not live in survival mode, etc. If that's you, stay alive, and use whatever will power you have to ask for help. We will help. But for the rest of us, THIS IS LIFE, AND YOU CAN LIVE RIGHT NOW TOO. You don't have to "wait this out," biding your time until things go "back to normal."
Sometime last week it hit me this is no longer like a very temporary vacation, when you can have a free for all and probably not notice any difference in your life… Instead, it's an extended period of time when REAL PROGRESS or REAL DAMAGE will be made.
I'm not trying to scare you or pose as the business grim reaper here. But I DO want you to recognize that whether you actively choose "progress" or "damage", you're choosing all the same.
We had our "survival mode" moment. Now, we choose if we will continue to stay there, operating at "neutral", or if we want to take the bull by the horns and work with what we've got to create a life we're proud of, right now.
Here are 9 steps to shift from survive to thrive during the quarantine:
Stop believing that more time = more money [7:31]
See the opportunity [10:00]
Get really cozy with your MVI [13:46]
Get scrappy [18:31]
Balance short-term game plan with long-term goals [20:32]
Pick 2 goals [23:54]
Find a daily rhythm [27:05]
Embrace mediocre [30:57]
Know your non-negotiables [33:52]
1. Stop believing that more time = more money
I'm listing this as #1 for a reason. When we were pitched into this quarantine life, this was the first real hurdle I personally had to cross -- and I've seen it from many of you in the community too.
Particularly if you have kids at home, you likely just lost a lot of your work time. And with that loss, you might be tempted to believe that your big dreams just went out the window right along with that time.
Us humans like linear logic. Concepts like "more time, more money" make sense in our brains. But I'm here to tell you (and myself) that you can still hit your money goals and be of service with little slivers of time.
It's possible, and lots of people are doing it. And yes, it goes against everything we have been taught from a traditional standpoint about what "hard work" and "wages" look like.
The first step is to open your mind to the possibility that you might be able to have everything you ever wanted with less time. As Price Pritchett says, "If you need to doubt something, doubt your own limits."
2. See the opportunity
What if we chose to see that the entire world just paused so we can take a second, hit the reset button, and figure out what we WANT life to look like?
Perhaps it's the wake-up call that showed itself more subtly to you before. It's the call we kept pushing to voicemail. Now, the call is coming through louder -- are you going to pick it up?
"In the rush to return to normal, use this time to consider which parts of normal are worth rushing back to."
3. Get really cozy with your MVI
If you've been hanging out with me online for any amount of time, you know I'm a huge evangelist of knowing your MVI: your Minimum Viable Income. That is, what is the minimum you need to earn to pay your bills, feed your family and not be an absolute stress case?
Now more than ever, you need to know this number and you need to not free wheel it.
Sit down with pen & paper and your expenses and do the math. While you're at it, ask if there's anything you're willing to ax.
"This is an extended period of time when REAL PROGRESS or REAL DAMAGE will be made."
Your first order of business for thriving in quarantine is to make sure you're meeting this number.
If you're already hitting it, or you do not NEED to be earning due to how your family is set up, your work right now is to accept that it's enough. This is a gift, not something to torture yourself with. Many people in this camp really benefit from setting some goals for themselves regardless. Maybe it's $2k or $5k -- whatever resonates with you. I'd still advise you pick something, because if you don't it's never going to feel like "enough" -- and the whole goal here is learning what "enough" is and living with that.
Once you hit your MVI, are on track to hit it, or simply don't need to worry about MVI, you can move on to longer term goals such as growth, which we'll be covering in Step 5.
4. Get Scrappy
You knew I was going to hit this one, right?!
I'm always a fan of looking for easy, impactful ways to serve others without overcomplicating it -- but now more than ever, all of us need to get scrappy and make some sales in the short term to hit those MVI goals.
If you attended my Scrappy Selling workshop a couple weeks back, you're familiar with my "quick, easy & fun" framework. The task here is to identify your lowest hanging fruit when it comes to making money.
In other words, if your life depended on you getting a customer by the end of today, how would you do it?
I challenge every single person reading or listening to this to put together a scrappy offer.
We might not be able to predict the future or have any idea when our quarantines will be lifted, but we can control the generation of some cash while we also help + serve others.
5. Balance short-term game plan with long-term goals
We've actually already knocked out the short-term game plan: earning your MVI for this month.
Once you've ticked the box on this month's MVI, spend the rest of the month working on your long-term vision.
The question to ask here goes like this: What needs to happen in the long-term to continue to support my ability to hit MVI and beyond?
A hint: this long-term goal is probably going to be growth-related.
So if you've spent a few weeks working on the money-making (revenue) side of your business working towards that MVI goal, you then turn your attention to growing -- increasing the number of eyeballs that see what you're creating.
6. Pick 2 goals
While working & living in our new upside down reality, I've found it helpful to choose one revenue goal and one growth goal.
Your revenue goal likely correlates with your short-term game plan. For me, it's $10k / month in revenue. If you've listened to the podcast for a while, you'll know I've locked in on this number months before our mouths uttered the word "Coronavirus". But especially now, my ability to hit this goal is my true guidance as I make decisions about to work on with limited time.
Next comes your growth goal. This is the goal you'll work on when you've checked the box on that short-term revenue goal. For me, it's doubling my email list. I don't have a hard & fast timeline on this because what is "time" anymore anyway? There are too many unknowns to try to ballpark a deadline. Instead, I keep it really simple: when not directly working on increasing my revenue, I'm asking myself what kinds of things I could be doing to work towards doubling my list. Could be getting on podcasts, learning ads, working on a new community anchor -- the criteria here is that it points back to my north star of doubling that list.
So pick your 2 goals. Allow yourself to let go of anything that's just not serving one or both of these goals. There's no time or space for extraneous BS in Quarantine Times. If you've been looking for permission to stop or delegate, this is it.
7. Find a daily rhythm
Now that you know what you need to do, it's time to figure out how you will actually do it.
When we first entered quarantine, I tried my hand at a daily schedule and even posted up an hour-by-hour activity plan for our family. I'm pretty sure my 3 year old scribbled over it with marker by day 2 so, that tells you about how well *that* plan went.
As we've settled in, I've opted for a daily rhythm. This means favoring a pattern of daily moments and activities versus a rigid schedule.
If you have kids, I think this is *crucial* for not losing your marbles, and even if you don't, I'd still wager that we can all benefit from a predictable steady base-line of routine to guide us right now.
The key is to keep it simple. If you're into the idea of Pinterest crafts or baking sourdough bread from scratch, then awesome! But if you want to just keep it easy and stay sane by setting the bar low, that's perfectly great too.
Here's a peek at the daily rhythm that's working for us right now:
The kids wake us up. Coffee, breakfast, milk for the baby, possibly a TV show for the preschooler. This is normally when I get my workout in, while John (husband) presides over the morning things.
Once we wrap that up, everyone gets dressed and baby goes down for his first nap. Preschooler gets her iPad reading app and this is a 45 minute work sprint.
Baby wakes up. Snacks followed by an EASY activity. Bubbles, chalk, scooter & walk if it's nice outside. Painting our nails, creating art, letter writing practice, stickers, or the Starbucks drive-thru if it's not nice out.
Lunch & naps for the kids. This is my MAIN work time, 12:30-2:30 each day.
Family activities in the afternoon, much like the morning. Whatever we didn't do in the morning we do now. Sometimes that looks like a movie or a show.
Dinner, bedtime routine for the kids, clean up the kitchen.
Back to work OR enjoy an adult show with John.
Notice there's not a single timestamp on any of this. I can tell you some recurring patterns, like the fact that my main work time is normally 12:30-2:30 and the kids are winding down for bed by 7, but we're not timing it out or ushering anybody from one thing to the next.
Patterns, not perfection on this one.
8. Embrace the mediocre
I know it's kind of weird to hear me tell you to embrace the mediocre, but I recently heard Glennon Doyle talk about "the mediocre middle" and I resonated so much, I was nodding my head off to her Facebook Live about it.
In this hilarious & comforting video, she references her time as the owner of an in-home preschool. During that time, she noticed the children only seemed to remember the very last thing they did each day. No matter how many cool things they did all day, it was only the last thing that really stuck.
For us parents, she urges to adopt a mediocre middle. It goes like this: start the day strong, maybe some books together, something that fosters connection. Also seek to finish the day strong with another bond-building activity.
But then, be okay with the mediocre middle. Does that look like some screens? Sure! Do you need to fuss around with Pinterest activities and complex crafts if that feels really stressful? Nope.
Even if you're not a parent, think about how this can translate to your clients. Do you need to WOW them every second of every day? Nope, not even close. Will there be some "mediocre" moments? Probably, although it's probably FAR more mediocre in YOUR mind.
"If you need to doubt something, doubt your own limits."
Look for the places where you can pack a punch. For me, that's with my coursework + Office Hours coaching inside of my signature program, Crickets to Customers. In my free community, that looks like podcast episodes and free workshops.
Let go of the idea that you have to be perfect in all of the places all the time. Instead, aim for concentrated quality and give yourself some freaking grace in the in-between moments.
9. Know your non-negotiables
Each week, protect the non-negotiable tasks that serve the 2 goals we outlined. If you have time for more stuff, great. But if your entire world gets set on fire by the chaos of this season, these are the things you should have done no matter what.
For me, it's getting this podcast out. I've done it at night. I've done it in my bedroom, hiding from my family. This is the thing that I've committed to every week -- that's my one growth goal. And my one revenue goal is to get to 10K the scrappy way.
From here, I make a list of all the things that must be done to accomplish these non-negotiables. Here's what it looks like for me:
Write C&C email (this becomes the podcast)
Record the podcast (Tuesday)
Serve customers (workshops or Office Hours calls, reading + replying to posts in C2C community, voxer for 1:1 intensive students)
Customer or sales related administrative tasks
Answer any question from team members that could be holding up their processes
And if I have time or feel like it:
social media
Extra writing
Answer non-customer, non-prospect emails
We don't need to over-complicate it. We can just focus on 2 goals, and that can (and should) be enough. If it takes a pandemic to help a lot of us realize this, I would argue that maybe on some level that this didn't all happen for nothing.