3. Improve Your Productivity, Improve Your Life w/ Mike Vardy of Productivityist
Explicit content warning
08/02/18 • 51 min
Do you ever feel like there’s just not enough time in the day to deliver to your clients, hone your craft, and grow your creative business? Yeah, me too. As Mike Vardy explains, the problem might not be that we have too little time, but that we’re not using the time we have effectively.
Mike is an expert in personal productivity and time management, and is ready to help us get our productivity back on track. He is the founder of Productivityist, the creator of TimeCrafting and a renowned author and public speaker.
Before joining us at The Experience this October in Vancouver BC, Mike is bringing his wealth of knowledge to the studio to simplify the process of being a more productive and attentive person. By using his background in comedy as a way to stay both entertaining and informative, Mike helps people all over the world ‘define their days, funnel their focus and make every moment count.’
Tackling topics like your to-do list, evening and morning routines and the importance of which app you interact with, today’s episode is necessary for anyone looking to improve their time management. Have you tried any of Mike’s productivity tips? What helps you maximize your daily productivity? Let us know in the comments on the episode page!
IN THIS EPISODE:
- Money and time – the currency of life
- Easy tips to be more productive in everything you do
- Why you should write everything down
- How daily journaling can help you live a more productive life
- How to pick the right app for your photography
- Why morning and evening routines can be a key to productivity
QUOTES:
“Slowly I went away from being the parody of productivity into an actual pundit and even a philosopher. Which is what I have become, I’ve gone from being a productivity enthusiast to a specialist to a strategist and now, even more, a philosopher.” (5:24)
“Time management is a really dry topic, it just is! So by making it more human, and one of the best ways to make something more human is to bring the humor to it, I think that makes it more accessible.” (10:00)
“The app is not the important thing, it’s the framework, it’s the skill, it’s the intention, don’t worry about the app because the app comes secondary. Instead, focus on the app within first.” (18:50)
“It’s about creating boundaries for yourself, it's about knowing yourself first, saying ‘hey this is what I’ve seen’ creating boundaries so that you work within that data that you have, and then respecting boundaries, which is the hardest part.” (33:22)
“It’s all about awareness. And in order to be truly aware you have to be honest with yourself, and sometimes that can be painful.” (35:23)
RESOURCES:
Take your craft to the next level at The Experience in Vancouver this October
Follow the Productivityist on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube
Check out the full show notes page here
Do you ever feel like there’s just not enough time in the day to deliver to your clients, hone your craft, and grow your creative business? Yeah, me too. As Mike Vardy explains, the problem might not be that we have too little time, but that we’re not using the time we have effectively.
Mike is an expert in personal productivity and time management, and is ready to help us get our productivity back on track. He is the founder of Productivityist, the creator of TimeCrafting and a renowned author and public speaker.
Before joining us at The Experience this October in Vancouver BC, Mike is bringing his wealth of knowledge to the studio to simplify the process of being a more productive and attentive person. By using his background in comedy as a way to stay both entertaining and informative, Mike helps people all over the world ‘define their days, funnel their focus and make every moment count.’
Tackling topics like your to-do list, evening and morning routines and the importance of which app you interact with, today’s episode is necessary for anyone looking to improve their time management. Have you tried any of Mike’s productivity tips? What helps you maximize your daily productivity? Let us know in the comments on the episode page!
IN THIS EPISODE:
- Money and time – the currency of life
- Easy tips to be more productive in everything you do
- Why you should write everything down
- How daily journaling can help you live a more productive life
- How to pick the right app for your photography
- Why morning and evening routines can be a key to productivity
QUOTES:
“Slowly I went away from being the parody of productivity into an actual pundit and even a philosopher. Which is what I have become, I’ve gone from being a productivity enthusiast to a specialist to a strategist and now, even more, a philosopher.” (5:24)
“Time management is a really dry topic, it just is! So by making it more human, and one of the best ways to make something more human is to bring the humor to it, I think that makes it more accessible.” (10:00)
“The app is not the important thing, it’s the framework, it’s the skill, it’s the intention, don’t worry about the app because the app comes secondary. Instead, focus on the app within first.” (18:50)
“It’s about creating boundaries for yourself, it's about knowing yourself first, saying ‘hey this is what I’ve seen’ creating boundaries so that you work within that data that you have, and then respecting boundaries, which is the hardest part.” (33:22)
“It’s all about awareness. And in order to be truly aware you have to be honest with yourself, and sometimes that can be painful.” (35:23)
RESOURCES:
Take your craft to the next level at The Experience in Vancouver this October
Follow the Productivityist on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube
Check out the full show notes page here
Previous Episode
2. Make The Transition Into Full-Time Creative Work w/ Caroline Tran
For many of us looking to get established in the photography, or really any creative industry, two of the biggest struggles are finding enough time to hone our craft while balancing the rest of our lives, and knowing when the time is right to make the leap into full-time creative work.
LA wedding and lifestyle photographer Caroline Tran began as a physics teacher, and after years of being creatively drained, she decided to make the switch to photographer. Her work can be seen internationally in print and online, and is centered around passion and playfulness.
Juggling kids, starting and maintaining a business and staying sane can be a juggling act, one that Caroline knows well and is more than qualified to share some tips and advice on. Caroline gives us some insight into how to transition from a 9-5 by setting concrete goals, playing off your individuality and educating your clients. She focuses on building a business to fit into your lifestyle, not the other way around. By starting your business from within and marketing yourself in the right way, Caroline helps remind us of the passion for photography that we all share.
Are you currently trying to make the transition into full-time creative work? What's holding you back? If you already have made the leap, how did you know when the time was right to do so? Let us know in the comments on the episode page!
IN THIS EPISODE:
- How to create hype around your products
- Marketing yourself as ‘one of a kind’
- Lessons for anyone in their first few years of their photography business
- The importance of passion and exclusivity
QUOTES:
“If you market yourself as the artist there will never be any other competition, you are the only one.” 7:30
“When I started this business the first thing I did was [figure out] who my target audience is, what I was trying to do, how I was trying to market myself. And I think I just had a lot clearer vision coming into this business.” 13:15
“One of the most liberating things as an artist is to remind yourself that you don’t have to please everybody. The quickest way to not please anybody is by trying to please everybody. Because you are not going to be able to please everybody, so once you give yourself permission to not have to please everybody you can start creating without fear.” 18:36
“Each milestone in your life demands of you a little bit differently. So being realistic about that and setting your yearly goals for that purpose [is key]” 30:19
RESOURCES:
Follow Caroline on Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter | Facebook
Check out the full show notes page here
Keep up with everything ARC here
Next Episode
4. How To Build A Signature Brand w/ Carrie & Nicole of Junebug Weddings
For most of us as freelancers or small studios, we often get so caught up chasing clients that we forget to put any time into building up our businesses. As today's guests, Carrie and Nicole of Junebug Weddings share, however, creating a strong, unique and recognizable brand is something we all can - and should - be striving towards.
Carrie Schwab and Nicole Seligman are the co-editors of Junebug Weddings, the essential guide to planning a stylish wedding, offering utility tips, wedding inspiration, and vendor relations.
Junebug weddings goal is to help couples plan the wedding they have always been dreaming about. Once their business began to thrive, Carrie and Nicole, realized they needed to be more selective in the bigger picture of their brand to raise their quality standards.
By putting the best of the best out there for the wedding world, Junebug weddings has gained a large following on social media and has set themselves up as a beacon of wedding photography. Listen in on their tips for how to understand a company’s vibe, how to get your portfolio to a higher quality and how to master the art of social media marketing.
What do you do to build up a brand around your work? What characterizes your brand? Let us know in the comments on the episode page!
IN THIS EPISODE:
- A day to day look at the operations behind Junebug Weddings
- How to create your own unique brand
- How to up the quality of your portfolio
- Mastering social media marketing
- How you can increase the value of your photography business
QUOTES:
“One of the most fulfilling parts of our jobs is getting to work with such talented people all around the world, planners in Italy and photographers in Vancouver, and being able to connect those people with the readers that are coming to our site.” (8:24)
“There are no rules anymore when it comes to weddings, it can be exactly what you want it to be, and that gets me so jazzed to come to work every single day.” (10:33)
“We want people to take away from this talk is to use your content to your advantage. Market your business with your content, figure out how to get your content funnel or your marketing funnel in place, to have a long-lasting impact on your business that lasts longer than an Instagram post.” (23:44)
“We are storytellers too. And when we receive a wedding and we can't tell what order it happens it’s really hard for us to imagine our own feature because we can see the story being told.” (38:40)
LINKS:
Take your craft to the next level at The Experience in Vancouver this October
Follow Junebug Weddings on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
Check out the full show notes page here
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