671: Use THIS 4-Part To-Do List Strategy to Manage Your Time Better

24:03I was just trying to put the pieces together. And I was at that point dealing with a lot of imposter syndrome. Who am I to build this thing? I don't know what I'm doing. There's got to be someone out there smarter than I am. And so I'm the story, any story that starts like this is terrible. And it's, I met a man on Twitter. Great. Never is going to end well, right? Right. So I meet this guy on Twitter who I think, you know, oh, this person must, you know, know what he's doing and I'm going to bring him, invite him into my business and help. And we're going to grow this thing together. And long story short, what ended up happening was this person took total advantage of me, promised a lot of things that never happened, legal paperwork that never happened.

24:46And I, for whatever reason, told myself I was going to give this person 51 % of this company. They changed the company name. They had access to like bank accounts and my Facebook groups, my email list, all this stuff. Until one day I came and I was like, you know what? Something's fishy here. Like this is not going how it's supposed to go. And I put my foot down and I said, I'm done. And being Midwest nice, Jenna, you know what I did? I didn't protect myself at all. So an hour later, my bank accounts were drained. I was blocked from my Facebook groups. My email list was gone. Everything I had worked for for a number of years was instantly gone.

25:21This person took all of it. And in that moment, I can remember just sitting back like, well, what now? Do I have to go get a real job? What am I going to do? And my husband is so... He's such a gem. He's so supportive. And I'll never forget him walking up to me and he's like, you know what? He's like, you have every right to be mad, angry, upset. If you need to lay on the couch for a couple of days, I get it. Do your thing. He said, but then you have to make a choice of what you're going to do next. And I was like, okay, my choice is I'm going to fight. I'm going to stand up and I'm just going to serve people.

25:54And I just started getting back in touch with customers and trying to help them. And being a servant leader to me is just the most important thing. So I started serving and serving and serving. And eventually, this person, there was a whole karma story that happened and they ended up going away. And really from that moment on, the Boutique Hub flourished. And I think that moment for me was, that is a CEO moment. It's deciding that I don't have to know everything, but I have to know people who know more than I do. I have to know how to ask for help. I have to know how to just put one foot in front of the other.

26:26There's no secret to building a successful business. The secret is just figuring out one thing at a time and taking action on that one thing. That's what being a CEO really has been for me. And it will be every single day going forward because we're all going to face those moments, new levels, new devils, the more our businesses grow. And we just have to keep learning that lesson. It's no secret that business owners are under a lot of pressure right now. We're pressured to get more leads, close deals faster, get better insights to create the best experience for customers and so much more. So how do we manage it all while still ensuring the best customer service?

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27:46Can you believe that we're already wrapping up 2025? This year was packed with travel and so many new memories. One of my favorite moments was our team retreat in Arizona with the incredible women who helped me keep this business running. I also recently took the kids to Nashville during fall break and somewhere in between I squeezed in a trip to Puerto Rico with friends. We booked some of our most memorable stays this year on Airbnb. There's something special about finding a place that doesn't just look great in the photos but actually feels welcoming the moment you walk in. That this feels right kind of feeling.

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29:46It's such a crazy story, but at the same time too, I feel like so many entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, you know, when you have that imposter syndrome, like, who am I to do this? If there's someone ahead of you that says like, here, let me just make this easy for you. You know, I mean, I feel like especially a lot of women can sometimes turn to men in that way of like, oh, surely you know more than I do about this thing. But I think a lot of times in that process, we aren't listening to our intuition or our gut, which usually reveals itself to us later. You know, it's interesting when you told that story, Ashley, because I feel like so many entrepreneurs think like, if this all disappeared today, what would I do tomorrow?

30:26And so let's just say, thank goodness this isn't the scenario, but let's just say everything that you have right now is wiped out. Where would you start tomorrow if you were starting to build a fresh business from scratch? What would be your number one priority? Oh, this is simple. I think about this question all the time because for me, it would just be serving people. Like that's it. If you're building a company, no matter what your company is, if you're more focused on the profit than the people, there's a high likelihood it's going to crumble at some point. But when you flip that and you start to just say, okay, these are the people I want to serve.

31:03What do they need? And if you just start showing up and just helping other people, the profit will always follow. Maybe not in the way you think it will. That was certainly my experience. But I think when you do things for the right reasons and you're a good person, you just want to help other people, the business will always come in and take care of itself. And I think second to that, like once you're serving people, the second piece to that then is making sure you're building a container for yourself and your company that you're charging appropriately. Whatever the product is you're selling, that you have enough margin on it that you can build something sustainable.

31:34Because I've also been in that trap of, well, I'm just going to serve and I'm going to do it for little to nothing because I want to help people. And the intention's great. But But when I think about that, it's such a money mindset thing. It's kind of like, I didn't want to make money because I thought it was going to make me a bad person for a while. And someone finally came to me and they're like, you know, Ashley, money's like a brick. It's amoral. It's neither good. It's neither bad. You can take this brick and you can build a beautiful cathedral with it. Or you can take this brick and you can crash it through the window of a cathedral.

32:08And so I was like, oh my gosh, this is a light bulb moment. I need to charge. I need to build something sustainable with margin so that I can do more for other people around me in that way. That was a big light bulb moment as well. I've heard the quote that money is a multiplier. So it's like, if you are good, money can make you double down on your goodness. And if you are not a good person, money just brings that out. And I feel like that's so true. And I also think, Ashley, you bring up a really good point here that I think a lot of people could benefit from is that a lot of times we either get stuck in the trap of like profit only or like service only.

32:46And there are always going to be people who need and want free. And there will also be another level of people who are ready to pay for the next steps. And finding that balance of like being of service while still having a profitable business, you're serving both levels of people. And if you do it well, the people who are in that free model if you get them results that will get them the ability to invest, then they will become the next generation of your paid customers. And so I think a lot of times people almost neglect one side of that audience in whichever direction that is. And it's such a disservice to both aspects and to yourself.

33:28Yeah, absolutely. And it's funny because I've had so many people challenge me on this concept. Early on at the Boutique Hub, almost 10 years ago, when we first started, there was no model for a membership and like what you should charge for a membership. And so we started our very first price point was$24 a month. And we just like load our membership with so much stuff. Today, it's only$39 a month. So still very low. But along the way, everyone has come and said, that's too low. You need to raise your prices, you know, all these things. But to your point, I'm a big believer in this idea of there's a funnel.

34:01You should start free and overload people with really high quality free content because it really just is the integrity of who you are. And that will lead into a lower price point. Like for us, that membership, we're going to always keep it really low. But then as people want more, they're willing to pay more. So it might be a$300 course or a$2 ,000 product or whatever it is. But I think if you start free and just show that integrity up front and keep those prices like there's some stepping stone, there's all kinds of opportunity to grow. What would you say if we circle back to this idea of time and if somebody's listening and they're kind of newer in their business and they're like, okay, I do want to serve, but I also have to figure out like the profit piece.

34:43Do you have any tips on kind of how to find that balance or what that balance could look like for someone to know like, Hey, be investing in this space, but also don't neglect this other area. Oh, that's such a good question. So I'll give you my EOS answer for that. since you and I were talking about this earlier. So just to give everyone a little backstory. So we've been going through this process called Entrepreneurial Operating System, EOS. There's a book called Traction by Gino Wickman, which I highly recommend. And so our company has been totally immersed in this. Because in every company, if you think about the structure of who's on your team with you, typically as a business owner, you're the visionary.

35:21So you and I both, we're visionaries, right? Like big picture. We probably have lots of squirrel ideas. People probably hate our squirrels, right? They want to wrangle us in. And so it's easy for entrepreneurs to chase ideas. And so in order to be effective, you have to have the visionary, the big thinker, but then you have to have the integrator, which is the person who comes along like your right hand and who actually says, wait, hold on, back up. What are we going to accomplish and complete before we move on to the very next thing? And so for us, that's been a huge process of like our team building accountability charts and systems and a leadership team and a strong visionary integrator relationship so that every single quarter we can step back and go, okay, here's our three -year vision.

36:09Here's our one-year plan. And then each quarter, how do we break those goals down into our quarterly rocks? and then the quarterly rocks that we execute every quarter, then our team, all the individuals on our team have personal rocks that are tied in and accountable to those quarterly rocks. So for us, that's how we kind of keep it all straight and understand like, where are we going to put most time? Because we know what is the return on investment going to be for these big projects we're working on quarter by quarter versus me, the squirrel, just chasing all the wild ideas at once. Cause that does not work at all.

36:44Yes. Oh my gosh. When I finally got an integrator, Marissa is like, she is my other part of my brain. And I was always at first like so challenged because I'd be like, I have the best idea. And she'd be like, but yesterday you had another best idea. You know, like where I was like, what do you mean? And, you know, I think too, for so many of us, for you and for me, Ashley, we had to learn how to do both for so long. That's that hustle phase. And so it's really interesting because I don't necessarily say I'm anti-hustle culture. I believe that hustle is required, but it cannot be maintained. And so when we think about those hustle states of our business, we were being the visionary and the integrator and the virtual assistant and the, you know, like we were doing all of those things.

37:27And I definitely subscribe to the fact that that is a lot of times required to get an idea into reality. but as you start to expand and as the scales start to tip and all of a sudden your time is more important than your money that's when you start to outsource and get those key players that can either wrangle your ideas or help you bring them to completion or help organize you and i remember even just my first virtual assistant caitlin i had this terrible habit i still have this habit so i can't even say that i had i have this terrible habit of sometimes reading an email and then like marking it unread, like I'll circle back to that.

38:04And so like my first integrator quote unquote was an hourly VA that would just help me respond to people, right? Like just get back to people. And so it's like, you can absolutely start small. And I think both of us did and expand, but it's interesting for a listener to think about, you know, we're talking about entrepreneur versus CEO, visionary versus integrator. it'd be really great for every listener to kind of really reflect on like, where am I? What am I doing? What do I want to be doing? And like, how do I move myself out of doing it all into a space where I can accept help? Yeah. You know, one of the best like litmus tests I can give is if you're thinking about where am I at in this space?

38:48If you're going to be the CEO, think about your time as money, right? So whatever task I'm working on, it has to be a hundred dollar an hour task at minimum. And anything that's not, anything that's a$10 an hour task, I have to find help for. So I can clean toilets with the best of them, Jenna. I can do it. I can clean all the things. I can cook all the things. But is that the best use of my time right now? It's not. So for us, where we started, Eric and I, when we started the Boutique Hub, we had a babysitter. That was the very first hire, right? It was a babysitter. And then she started to enter data into spreadsheets for us.

39:25And then she started to answer emails. And it was just like one tiny little step at a time. And then it grew into, okay, now I can hire another person and another. But if you think about, like I use this example for retailers a lot. I say, all right, for easy math, if you hired someone at$10 an hour, which I know you're going to pay more depending on where you live, but for easy math,$10 an hour for five hours a week. Okay. So I invest 50 bucks into someone to help me. If I, as a CEO have five more hours, what income generating activity would I work on? And how much more money could I make? And 10 out of 10 times, they're like, well, I would go live and I would build out my email automations and I would launch new arrivals and I would make at least 2 ,500 bucks.

40:08And I'm like, okay, great. You invested 50, you made 2 ,500. Let's do it again next week. That's the difference in being a CEO versus an entrepreneur. Yes. I remember when I I was a wedding photographer. I finally, like my third year in hired someone to help me edit my photos. And when I did the math, it was like 10 cents an image and I saved like 30 hours. Right. And I was like, if I just did one more shoot per week, I would not have to edit a million photos. I'd be off of my computer, which is why I did all of this to begin with. Like, it's so funny. I feel like I constantly make those decisions.

40:42Have you made any good investments or interesting investments recently to get you back your time, business related or life related? Well, I think EOS. EOS was a huge investment for us to get us back our time. We have an implementer who flies up to be with us every quarter and walks us through and holds us accountable and is trying to give us back our time as a company and as individuals. And it was a huge investment. Anytime you get a coach, I feel like it's a huge investment. Yes. But it's 100 % worth it. I would not walk forward in business without having a coach because that investment gives me back tenfold the time.

41:22This has been a coaching investment also I've made in the last year. And I'm curious if you've been on this track as well, because I think it's very popular right now to have this line of thought. But there's feminine energy and masculine energy. And what I have found is when I'm in hustle mode and I'm working from like the energy is like in the top of my shoulders and I'm just going, right? That's my masculine energy just trying to push through. And so I have this coach who's been so great to help me and help me step back and say, you know what? If I use that when I need it, but then I can turn it off and work in my feminine energy and allow more flow and allow the ideas to come in and allow things to happen for me, man, I can be just as effective as if I'm trying to hustle and push this thing through.

42:09So that mindset shift, again, huge investment, but huge opportunity as well. I feel like this also goes for marriage because you and I can snap on our masculine energy real quick. And I was on a call the other day with a bunch of CEOs who are moms. And we were talking about masculine and feminine. And they were like, sometimes it's good to have your masculine on when you work. That's usually your go state. But there is something to be said about bringing more of that feminine energy into your relationships. And I was like, oh yeah. I felt convicted. I was like, that is huge and hard for me sometimes as a micromanager and things.

42:48And so I was like, that's a really good reminder. I feel very seen right now hearing you say that. Oh yeah. I'm still working on that. But it's been true for us too. So Eric's been our CFO at the hub for a number of years. And it's interesting. There's this new wave of all these amazing female entrepreneurs out there. And again, being from the Midwest, we've got lots of friends and family who looked at Eric right away and they were like, well, you're working for your wife. What are you doing for your wife? And there's just a lot of negativity around that. And he's like, yeah, what a huge blessing it is to have a family business.

43:24We work together, but we compliment each other so well. I'm the creative one. He's very analytical. So we have to know our roles in order to work together effectively. But to your point, we also have to know the masculine and feminine. And I have to know when to turn it off and to be a supportive, loving wife and not come in and try to drive the household like I want to drive the operations at the company at the same time. Oh, I love that. Oh, my gosh. Okay. So I want to know what is something that we could share with small business owners to help them maybe measure or track their progress in terms of time.

44:03We've talked about time a lot today. I feel like it's something you and I have in common of valuing our time. Do you have any ideas of what is something that someone can do after this episode to maybe just analyze their time? Is it going in the right places? Is it time to outsource? Anything you got? Really quick. Really quick thing I think anyone can do is this. So often we focus on a to-do list and we're constantly adding to this to-do list because we just want the dopamine hit to cross it off, I would just challenge everyone to just pause. And today, rather than make a to-do list, I want you to get to the end of the day and make it to done list.

44:40Ooh, okay. Tell me more. Well, so often when you're making the to-do list, it's such a practice of gap. It's such a practice of lack because we're constantly putting ourselves here at the bottom of this list and saying, here's how far I have to go. Look at how all these things I have to do in order to get something done or to feel worthy, like I'm accomplishing something, right? So every day we're waking up and we're ending the day in a series and a status of gap and lack. So what if we just flipped it on our head and said, today I'm going to look back and say, here's what I did. Here's what I actually accomplished.

45:17Because so often I feel like we get to the end of the day and we don't know. We're like, I just hustled. I just chased and put out fires. Did I actually do anything effective? I actually ended up scrolling on Instagram for four hours by accident. And our phone will tell us that we were on Instagram for four hours. So just make the to-done list to analyze, am I being busy or am I being effective? And then I would use that going forward and say, all right, if I could only accomplish three things today on my to-done list, then what would I want to work on as my priority tomorrow? Because the truth is we only have room for about three things a day, three priorities a day.

45:51And then everything else is busy work. Your email inbox is the biggest culprit. So an email inbox, in my opinion, is a holding place for other people's agendas. Ooh, that is a mic drop moment. Wow, yes. It is. And we get up in the morning and that's the first thing we do is we think we're going to be effective by answering emails. But what did we actually answer in that inbox that was for us? Or was it all for someone else? So don't do email first in the day. make the to-done list instead and then start the next day with just three most important things to accomplish and watch yourself accomplish them and celebrate it.

46:30Look, I've become kind of a systems nerd and anything that gives me more space in my day, I'm all in. And a reliable connection is a huge part of that because when the internet lags or cuts out, everything pauses and suddenly the simplest tasks take forever. I learned really early on that dependable internet, it's not a luxury. It is a must. Whether you're a content creator like me, a restaurant owner, or running a busy dry cleaning business, you need that steady connection to support your team and your clients. That's why I'm excited to share a solution for my fellow business owners. Spectrum Business keeps businesses of all types connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, and mobile services, all with connectivity solutions built for your budget.

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48:36Go to shopify.com slash gold digger. Shopify.com slash gold digger. That is so good. Okay, Ashley, you have something called summer school coming up. Tell me about that and who it's for. Absolutely. So e-commerce stores, boutique owners, anyone with a product-based business, typically the life cycle of our businesses are the J months, January, June, July can be sometimes the roughest, right? It's just out of our typical retail sales cycle. So we have this whole program in the summer. It's June 5th, 6th, and 7th called Summer School. And it's our time. It's totally free. It's a week of training just to kind of put our arms around everyone, especially in the year that we're in, because this is a tough year for retail.

49:21So it's okay to admit that it's a tough year for retail as well. So we're going to come in during kind of a low point, but also during a tough year, we're going to wrap our arms around and give as much strategy as we can. Strategy on a couple of things. Number one, strategy on how to use the slower times to absolutely catapult your business. Because these are the times of opportunity, right? We don't grow when it's busy. We might sell when we're busy, but we don't personally grow. So how can we use the time now to grow and be prepared for it to be busy? The second thing we'll dive into is technology and how to use technology so you can create more time.

49:53Personally, I'm obsessed with what's happening with AI right now and want to go into all the details during summer school. And then the third thing is in retail, there's the two busiest times of year and that's back to school season and holiday shopping season. And so we'll map out exactly how to make those seasons work for you during summer school. Amazing. And you can sign up and join that at JennaKutcher.com slash boutique. We are so excited. I have been getting so many requests for more product-based businesses. And so you have been the perfect person to come on. And I just want to say firsthand for anyone that runs a product-based business or a boutique, Ashley is your girl.

50:32Just seeing the people that were at your event, it felt like a family. And I just feel like it's so rare to walk into rooms that are filled with people, but feel that energy. So you have truly cultivated just an incredible community through how you serve and how you sell as well. And I just, I adore that and respect you so much for it. Oh, that means a lot. Seriously. Thank you so much for that. And thanks for being a part of it because you fit perfectly in our community. You know, from you standing on the stage and talking about the interpersonal parts, the how are you really parts that no one's talking about enough in this industry, and then backing that up with a strategy and the work.

51:14And so all the tips that you shared with our audience on Pinterest and just maximizing your business, that was greatly appreciate it as well. Where can everybody find you and connect with you and learn more about you? Well, if you would love to know more about the Boutique Hub and any of the resources we have, it's theboutiquehub.com or theboutiquehub on Instagram. Or if that's not you and you just want to be my friend, I would gladly invite you to be my friend. And it's AJ Alderson on Instagram. I'd love to hang out anytime. Amazing. Thank you so much for coming on the show today. I am so excited that we got to have this conversation.

51:48Me too. Thank you so much for having me. I don't know if it's our shared Midwest roots or the fact that we're busy moms and entrepreneurs or that we are obsessed with systems. But when I met Ashley, I knew that we would become genuine friends. In fact, we just set up a weekly accountability date to stay in touch because I I love when I meet people who think the way I do, but also who challenge that way of thinking. And I feel like Ashley is just that. She has an absolute heart of service. And it is so apparent in the way that she shows up both in person and online. And I am just so excited about her summer school.

52:30Make sure that you sign up at jennacutcher.com slash boutique. If you are a product based business or a boutique owner or someone aspiring to become one, the way that she shows up and adds value is unlike anyone else. And so make sure you don't miss this opportunity. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of the Gold Digger Podcast. Until next time, keep on digging your biggest goals. I'm over here giving you a virtual high five because you just finished another episode of the Gold Digger Podcast. Did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, head over to golddiggerpodcast.com for show notes and all the discount codes from today's sponsors.

53:08And if you're looking for a new crew of movers and shakers like you to bounce ideas and ask questions, be sure to join my exclusive community for Gold Diggers on Facebook. The link's waiting for you at golddiggerpodcast.com.