There are only so many hours in a day, but Sarah Laws has discovered how to maximize her limited time so she can reach her goals. The best part? Her tips and tricks also help her unlock more hours to spend with family and friends so she can scale her business without sacrificing what means most to her.
It’s the best of both worlds, and if you want to follow in Sarah’s footsteps, tune into this episode of the Conquer the Chaos Podcast as Clate Mask and Sarah discuss how to structure your routines to reach your goals and build a life and business you love.
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Transcript
[00:00:00] Clate: Hi, I'm Clate Mask, and on the Conquer the Chaos Podcast, I talk with inspiring business owners about what it takes to build a great business and a great life. That means more money, more time, more control, more impact, more freedom. So keep listening to hear the tough lessons they learned so you don't have to repeat them.
[00:00:23] Clate: Alright. Welcome, everyone, to this episode of the podcast. I am Clate Mask, the host of the Conquer the Chaos Podcast and co-founder and CEO of Keap. I am so excited because the person that I get to bring to you today and introduce you to if you don't already know her — which by the way, if you don't, I'm sorry — is someone that I've known for a long time.
[00:00:45] Clate: We've worked together at Keap for many years. She's a partner, but she’s an amazing entrepreneur. She's a fantastic marketer, and she is an automator extraordinaire. She knows all kinds of things about small business automation, so when we talk about the keys, it's something that's really fun to talk about with this guest because she knows them backwards and forward, left and right, up and down. So without further ado, let me introduce to you Sarah Laws. Sarah, great to have you here.
[00:01:15] Sarah: Hi, Clate. Thank you for having me. I’m really excited. I really loved the book, as you know, I shared with you last month when we saw each other.
[00:01:24] Clate: Yeah, that was really fun for me. When we were talking that night, it was at Donald's, Donald Miller's house, we were talking and you shared with me the impact of the book. And I'll tell you, I told Charisse, I said, you know what? It's really fun to have people who I've known for a long time, and they don't need to tell me whether the book's good or bad. That's not the point, but to see it really have an impact. It was really cool.
[00:01:50] Sarah: Yeah. And I mean, it was tough and challenging to say to you, I didn't think I'd get that much out of it lovingly because we have known each other for a really long time. I've heard all the things I thought and assumed and was just really blown away. And my son, who's 16 and going to be 17 in a couple of weeks said, “Mom, are you, what are you enjoying about the automation section?” He's like, “You do that.” And I was like, “Well, I'm just sitting here and thinking, ‘Do I do it enough for myself?’ I do it for clients and I help people with it, but am I doing it enough for me and my business?”
[00:02:25] Sarah: So, even when we take off that expert hat and just can self-reflect a little bit, and yeah, I loved it and talk about it all the time. I'm sending it to people, and I'm like, ‘Read it,’ and I gave it to my aunt, and she's like, ‘It's not autographed.’ And I was like, ‘It's hardback, and I was traveling, so next time I see Clate, I'll get him this.’”
[00:02:45] Clate: Well, thanks for spreading the word. I love that. And we'll come back around to it. But let's make sure that everybody knows. because you do amazing things in the world of small business. You've done incredible things in Keap Nation. You won Partner of the Year. You've done so much with so many different platforms, really.
[00:03:04] Clate: I mean, you're so skilled and so knowledgeable about the real practical issues that small businesses face when they're trying to grow and it starts with being a great marketer. So maybe just share a little bit for our audience — things I haven't said that people should know about you.
[00:03:20] Sarah: Well, I think it really comes down to, I don't even know if it’s about me, but people don't become entrepreneurs to do all the things all the time and work 90 hours a week. And how can I help people use skills and look at things in a different way to help them save time? And, and I always hate saying, “What do you do?” My go-to is, “As little as possible for as much money as possible.” That's what I love to do all the time —
[00:03:57] Clate: Here lies Sarah Laws. She did as little as possible for as much money as possible.
[00:03:58] Sarah: Completely. And a little Gucci stamp on it. It'll be fine. But it's my goal in life to help as many people as I can. And your mission, your personal one, I resonate with that so much with just, I want to help people. And what does that mean? Helping them see a different way — we don't have to and our kids don't have to go into a nine to five.
[00:04:16] Sarah: And if my son decides not to go to college, I can be okay with that. I'm a high school dropout. My husband retired seven years ago. You can make anything come true if you put your mind to it. And the visioning that you talk about in the book and the daily habits — and I shared with you in Nashville that I have to hack myself a lot because I'm a serial entrepreneur, which means I get all the squirrels and I like to chase all of them and dabble in all the things and how can I trick myself to get those done and do my goals. In the book, you talk about the planning and for so long I would do planning and then I get to the end of the year and I review it and it was like, “Well, my dreams aren't coming true. My dream list that Dan Ralph's had me craft is not getting done.”
[00:05:07] Sarah: So every week now I pull up my dream list, my goals, personal business, and if they're not all aligned, I have to readjust because if I'm not making my big dreams come true every day, why?
[00:05:21] Clate: Yes. Okay. This is one of the things that it's been really fun getting feedback from entrepreneurs who have read the book. And you said something similar when I saw you in Nashville, and I've had several other people say the same thing — that one of the things that they didn't expect to get from the book, but they took away was the connection of the long-term dreams and goals to the day-to-day execution. And if entrepreneurship is nothing else, it is one big series of distractions.
[00:05:51] Clate: There's just so many different things. And it's hard to stay grounded in your long-term vision, your goals, your dreams. And so you're doing all this stuff and you just articulate it really well. You get to the end of the year and you're like, but wait, hold on.
[00:06:05] Sarah: I was so busy. How did I not — How did I not accomplish all that stuff? What was I doing? What was I so busy with? We fill our time. And if we're not doing it towards a purpose and our goals and what those are, we're going to just end up somewhere, but not where we want to be.
[00:06:20] Clate: Yeah. And that's why I love the weekly winning exercise because you fill out that worksheet. I mean, I write it out every week and I'm no different than what I teach.
[00:06:30] Clate: I write it out every week. And when you go through and you write your identity, your purpose, your values, your mission, your goals for your life, and then your 10-year goals, that just always keeps it literally at the top of the page front and center — here's the big picture that I'm working on. And then you go through your week and design your week to execute and have a great week moving you toward those goals.
[00:06:52] Clate: And then of course the pieces at the bottom. So that's the vision and then the pieces at the bottom is the rhythm to keep you moving in more of your short-term stuff. So I love hearing that. It's one of the things I probably have found the most — and I didn't expect this, much like your son who's like, “Hey, I didn't expect to get these things.” I wrote the book and I put it out there and what's happened is a lot of people have really emphasized the personal keys.
[00:07:16] Clate: And I live in my work life. I'm living the business keys all day long, but I practice the personal keys all the time. And I didn't expect it to be so strong in the feedback.
[00:07:27] Sarah: With entrepreneurs it’s all so connected. It's not like you can't separate the one. You can't just shut down. And my husband will look at me and be like, “What are you thinking about?”
[00:07:35] Sarah: And it's like, “Literally nothing about what is happening right now. It's like my mind is completely here and elsewhere. And I can't focus on anything right now.” So we're all connected all the time to the different things that are happening and “Am I making the right decision?” or “How could I have handled this differently today?”
[00:07:58] Sarah: Am “Am I doing the right things?” I think a lot of times people in general are waiting for permission to do things. I've moved. to Scotland. I've moved from Pennsylvania to here years ago. It was moving my entire family. And it's like, “What? I can just do that? I can just pack up my life and sell my house and move.” You don't have to ask permission from anyone. And I think a lot of times people are looking for permission or comparing themselves, especially with social media to what's happening. And I love in the book that it's just reflecting. One thing that you — so a couple years ago, we were in Hawaii for President's Club and you talked about habit stacking.
[00:08:42] Sarah: And I love the book, especially your book, because of the step-by-step little pieces that you could break down. I'm the kind of person that's like, “Okay, this 87-step process that I have to do to be successful. Great.” I do them. I'm going to mark them all down. And then the next day I do sixty and then thirty and then twenty and then none. And I like to think that I'm not out of the ordinary with that, but the habit stacking of It's very —
[00:09:06] Clate: It’s very ordinary to do that, but it's normal.
[00:09:08] Sarah: Go all in. Right. I was born in September, so I would get a journal, like a diary, every September. The first three pages of a stack of diaries are completed. It's absolutely silly and ridiculous, but the habit stacking and you talked about being the person that you want to be.
[00:09:26] Sarah: I had just stepped into a new role that I was in for a client. And it was like, in my mind, what does showing up as this type of person look like? And I might not feel that way now. And I think that gets a lot into imposter syndrome, which entrepreneurs struggle with massively. How can I just make little tweaks every day to turn myself into that person and tell that story to myself?
[00:09:54] Clate: Yeah.
[00:09:54] Sarah: We can be our own worst critics.
[00:09:56] Clate: Totally. I want to dig into that a little bit. I do want to come back around to the time because I think you're such a great time-hacker And I want to talk about some of the principles in the book and just what you found. But let's talk for a second about identity because what you're really saying is, in the book, I talk about how we want to say, “Okay, well, what would a person like that do?”. And then take on the behaviors of a person who is the identity that we want. You just described it. And I think that because we're our own worst enemy, our mind is constantly weighing whether or not we are that. “See, no, you're not. I told you you're full of crap, right?” — that's what the mind is doing.
[00:10:35] Clate: And yet all we have to do is recognize that it's never just clear black and white. The fact is we're just trying to put pieces of evidence that demonstrate we are that kind of person.
[00:10:48] Sarah: Yeah.
[00:10:48] Clate: And when we make a mistake or we don't do something we wanted to do like that kind of person, however you want to think of it, all we're really saying is, “Well, now there's just a piece of, now there's just a vote on that side. Well, let's just go put some more votes on this side and stack up the votes that say, I am indeed that kind of person.”
[00:11:04] Sarah: Yeah. It's like an energy bank, right? A positivity bank with ourselves. We should do jelly beans on our desk like in kindergarten, like “I'm just killing it today.”
[00:11:12] Clate: That's right. By the way, one of the things that I find that especially high achieving entrepreneurs are their worst critics and I think it can be very hard living with yourself when you are that way. And so I wrote the book in large part because I understand what that is.
[00:11:37] Clate: I understand what that's like. And I have learned how to get better at that. I have lots of compassion for people who are still in that place because it’s a very hard way to live. When you start to give yourself a lot more grace and you recognize it's about the progress, not trying to be perfect and practice makes progress.
[00:11:57] Clate: That's what we want. Practice makes progress. Then you can get into a place where you start to love yourself because of the progress, however small it is. But I find that because of that inner critique that's just going all the time, there's a little phrase that is out there that's popular that I want to just take a second with you to kill.
[00:12:18] Clate: And I think you'll be able to relate to this, and I think people will relate to this, but people will say, and they'll think that what I'm describing and what you and I have just talked about is “fake it till you make it.” That's not what this is. So I'm going to give you a different phrase. It is “be it till they see it.”
[00:12:36] Clate: They will eventually see what you are being and you are becoming. And what I found is when we say “fake it till we make it,” we've actually already done the wiring wrong in the first place. We're faking it — “I can't do that. I am an imposter.” We're feeding the critic that's saying you're an imposter.
[00:12:52] Clate: But on the other hand, when we say “be it till they see it,” we're just stacking enough of the actions that look like what the identity — when I say “they,” guess who the most important “they” is? That mirror — until they see it, until others see it. Whoever matters that you're trying to mark, “Hey, it'll be great when they see it,” whatever those games are.
[00:13:16] Clate: I just hope people will get out of the “fake until they make it” mode and get into the “be it till they see it” mode and recognize that it's okay. Because I think when you take that approach, then you don't have to worry when you aren't being that. It's okay. Give yourself a little grace and then just work on being that some more.
[00:13:32] Sarah: Yeah, I love that. I love masterminds, and they completely changed my life. I like putting smart people together in a room, and you talk about that in your book as well, of surrounding yourself with people who care. And it's okay when you have a bad day because we do, right? Life is a journey and we're going to be on it.
[00:13:48] Sarah: And we've talked about this before of if we accomplish our to-do list, there'll be a whole new list right behind it of all of the things. With a supportive group around you, when you have those bad days and challenges and struggles, it is so important to have — when you're, inner critic is raising their voice and screaming — that grounding connection of somebody to just say, “No that might be how you feel right now, and that's okay, but this is the reality and this is what I see from the outside.” Having a support system is incredibly important. What I love about Keap Nation and our community is It's incredibly supportive and resourceful and helpful. It’s one of the things that I love most.
[00:14:37] Clate: Me too. And you've been such a huge part of that over the years and you do great. I mean, Sarah's a mastermind leader extraordinaire. She won't say that, but she is. She's great at leading masterminds. That skill, that power to bring people together and people learning from each other and sharing their perspectives — you do a great job of that. You add so much to the Keap Nation because of that. We talked a little bit about the habit stacking, but is there anything that's worked for you as you've found ways to try to build up those habits? Because we're all working on doing that better.
[00:15:14] Sarah: Yeah. I tell you that I try and hack myself because I know how to wiggle out of a lot of my own responsibilities. And as entrepreneurs, who's going to know if I don't do all the things that I need to do? I can say I had a great day today and then realize that nothing actually got it done or accomplished. Something that I shared at the event in Nashville was that when I get overwhelmed and in a place of overwhelm, I take that to-do list and I just put one thing at a time and mind dump to get rid of everything. I put it on individual index cards and then order them. And I can just sit there and do just the one thing that is going to move me forward towards my goal.
[00:15:53] Sarah: So instead of looking at an entire list that’s overwhelming, chaotic, and stressful, I just do this one thing. And that's all I can do. But then you get in, it's like putting on your exercise shoes — I'm going to go for a run, but once you put your shoes on and you dress and your water's ready, then you go for it and you can hack yourself a little bit. What are the little things that I want to do and change that I can just look at my goals on a yearly basis every week instead of quarterly or whatever to make sure that I'm doing those intentionally, that I'm making progress forward.
[00:16:31] Sarah: I think the more we know ourselves and the more we're open and honest with ourselves, the more we can figure out how to trick ourselves into doing the things that we don't necessarily want to do or love to do, that need to be done to move forward.
[00:16:49] Clate: You're so right. That's why I talk a lot in the book about the sneaky little ego because if we're not careful and we don't have checks against that, then we think we're doing all the steps, but it's actually the ego that's steering it and we're playing into that.
[00:17:05] Sarah: I don't want to say I felt attacked with the ego section, but I was like, “No, I checked my ego at the door,” and it's like, no, no, you don't all the time. You definitely don't.
[00:17:13] Clate: Well, there's a reason why it's on my doormat as you walk into my office. There's a reason why it hangs around because, I think a lot of people think, “Oh, check your ego means that that only applies to people that just have these overarching gargantuan egos.”
[00:17:26] Clate: Oh no, it's for everybody to understand. There's another counterforce to what we're trying to do all the time inside of us. And if we're not careful, that thing wins.
[00:17:35] Sarah: Absolutely. I'm like, “No, I'm way too self-conscious to have an ego. That's definitely not a thing. It's like, no, you have to know your own weaknesses and be able to move forward.
[00:17:45] Sarah: I think a lot of times with entrepreneurs, we have all this stuff going on and we live in organized chaos. Life is chaotic. It just is., So how can we do it in a way that we can move forward and live the life that we want?
[00:18:01] Clate: Yes. Love it. I love it. Okay. We're going to keep this going, but first a quick message for you.
[00:18:06] Clate: Conquer the Chaos listeners, let me talk to you straight for just a minute. You're running your business, and it dominates your mind. It can be very difficult to take a step back and see what's needed to create balance in your business and your personal life, and to create great growth and development and progress in your business and personal life.
[00:18:25] Clate: One of the most powerful ways to gain the perspective that you need is to get away from things and immerse yourself in an environment where you're going to be inspired, where you can see possibilities, where you can create connections, and where you can learn and grow and develop. And I know of no better place for entrepreneurs than Keap’s Let's Grow Summit. For years. We ran this conference as just an amazing mecca for entrepreneurship. And then, truth be told, for a few years, we didn't run it. We got back to it last year, and this year, we're putting it on and it is going to be awesome. I am so excited about this.
[00:19:05] Clate: And I want you as our listeners to not miss out on this event. It's going to be November 20-22nd in downtown Phoenix with the main days being the 21 and the 22. You can register for it by going to keap.com/letsgrowsummit. That's https://keap.com/letsgrowsummit. And you can take advantage of our early bird registration pricing, which expires at the end of July.
[00:19:25] Clate: So if you are needing a reflection time, an opportunity to take a step back, gain greater perspective, inspiration, and most of all, see what automation (the fifth key to success) can do for your business, then make sure that you attend the Let's Grow Summit. Keap.com/letsgrowsummit, November 20-22 in Phoenix. I look forward to seeing you there. Alright, now back to our chat.
[00:19:48] Clate: I love what you're doing around finding ways to do the one thing and starting to build on that. It was really interesting for me because for years I had a good morning routine with my exercise. I kind of think about habits and routines where you get the one thing that's really working well, and then you just start to build around it and expand it. That one thing starts to take on new dimensions to it. You add new things to it. And once you get things on autopilot, it enables you to build out, but it also requires you occasionally to go in and look at it and say, “Well, is it on autopilot in a way that's not so great?” “How can I improve that a little bit?” And what was interesting for me is that if you would have asked me before COVID, “Do you have a good morning routine?” I would've said, “Absolutely.” But I didn't yet have morning mastery. And as you know, it's about mastery for me. It's about really, really making it.
[00:20:49] Clate: I almost called it magic because it is so incredible when — and it wasn't until COVID — I really got it going. And so what happened was our gym shut down, so I needed to do something different. So I created a little gym in my basement and then I started to realize, “Oh, well, you know what? I'm just going to do kind of my spiritual practices that I always do after. I'm just going to stay down in this room and do it down here.” And then pretty soon that room started to turn into this sanctuary of all these things I started adding. I'm like you — I've got like 50 journals that have four pages written, that kind of thing.
[00:21:23] Clate: And then I started, while I was in the morning, I started doing the five-minute gratitude journal and that opened up a whole new thing for me. And then I was like, “I got way more to write.” So I started doing the gratitude journal and another journal. I started writing and started realizing the power of calming the mind through writing, which is just amazing when you start doing that.
[00:21:44] Clate: But if you would have told me before COVID, “Hey, just journal every day,” I'd be like, “Yeah, sure. Whatever. I write.”
[00:21:51] Sarah: Yeah, exactly.
[00:21:52] Clate: It's just so interesting how it starts to evolve when you take that approach of evolving the morning so you can get it started with something and then turning it into mastery and something that you just love, which now like I just I love my morning. Part of this is everybody's mornings are going to look a little different because of seasons of life and all kinds of different things, which is also why it's important to have a long version, a medium version, a short version, and a very short version.
[00:22:20] Sarah: Right. When you're traveling, you're doing whatever. Right. Exactly. My husband's still asleep and I don't wanna have him up or the dog or the kids or whatever's happening. It can be challenging, and I think I talked to you a lot about that because I do travel a lot and it was like, “How can I craft this in a way that I feel like I can be consistent with it?”
[00:22:37] Sarah: And consistency is the key, right? That's the real — it's the diet and exercise of how you lose weight. You have to do it every day, not just one time, once a month, and figure you're gonna get results. I absolutely love that and one of my biggest takeaways from the book was what are my three non-negotiables of my morning routine that I have to do?
[00:23:00] Sarah: And with the journaling, the gratitude, I love the five-minute journal. They're so great, aren't they? Because it's prompted. I don't have to think, I just write down what it is. The first one I ever did was years ago and I challenged myself not to write the same thing I was grateful for for at least a month so that I had to think of different things.
[00:24:19] Clate: That's awesome.
[00:23:20] Sarah: Well, it's challenging. Let me tell you, it was not as easy as I thought when I set out on that mission. It was tricky, but it's not dated. So I just pick it back up when I fall off the wagon. But meditating was always a challenge for me and a struggle. And it's like, how can I calm my mind? Because even like going for a massage, I'm just sitting there and I'm processing all of the things. So I just bought the calm app and I did guided meditations and I didn't win at all of them. I did not. If I would have been graded on them, I would not have aced it at all, but just doing it and going and sitting with it, then you get better. Nobody goes out and just knocks it out of the park every time. Practice makes progress. Yes. Now I like to think that I'm perfect.
[00:24:09] Clate: Well, you, you probably are really good at meditation. I'm like you. I was the same way. If someone would have told me 10 years ago, “Hey, you're going to be a really consistent, prolific journaler,” I would have been like, “What happened? I've tried so many times. You don't know me.” If they would have said, “You're going to really enjoy meditating,” I'd be like, “Really? I don’t know.”
[00:24:28] Sarah: I could sit there for X amount of minutes, not thinking anything, just empty my mind?
[00:24:33] Clate: Right. You know Steve Hardison, my coach, he used to say, “Hey, you need to try this, try to work on meditation.”
[00:24:40] Clate: And I would try to listen to my breathing for a minute. I got to like 10 seconds every time, and I just couldn't do it. And then I found different ways to do it. And music's so powerful to just calm. I love it and I have different forms and different ways that I do it, but it's really amazing. Part of why I love my morning is because I have variations to have different things.
[00:25:05] Clate: It's like playtime. There's some really fun things you get to do. Yeah. So I love it. And I think that's actually the key. When people get to a place where their morning is really mastery, it's magic. It's because they love it. It's no longer a chore.
[00:25:21] Clate: It's not a thing they have to do anymore. It's like, “How can I get more of that? Because I really, I love that.” So anyway, I love that you're doing that. Let's talk, let's shift for just a little bit about time. What are some of the things that you see that entrepreneurs maybe get stuck on a little bit in the way that they're viewing time or the way that they — because a lot I mean, let's face it, the audience and entrepreneurs who are busy doing lots of things … Pretty quickly you realize in entrepreneurship that money's not the most important thing, that time is the thing that's the most scarce.
[00:25:53] Clate: Sometimes it takes two, three years to get to that point, but you get to that point and you start to realize, “Oh yeah, it’s time,” so what are some of the things that you see maybe people get tripped up on? Or some of the things that you've discovered or ways to get time back on your side?
[00:26:11] Sarah: Yeah time has been — I've been a little bit unique just with life experiences. When I was 21, I was widowed, and you think you have your whole life ahead of you and then suddenly it changes. So when I found Infusionsoft and Keap, it was like, “Oh, this is how people can make magic and save time.”
[00:26:33] Sarah: Automation is the way you can still do the things that you want to do and deliver the experience that you want for your customers. You want it to be personal and you want them to feel all that. But you can do it in a way that isn't slimy and sleazy or takes a million times.
[00:26:50] Sarah: I've never wanted to grow a big team. I like to take care of just me and my family and I don't want those responsibilities. So I've been really intentional with what I do and what I build. And one of my first clients that I ever worked with with Infusionsoft, back in 2011, was a mom who would do consultations with people. Then afterward, it would take her two hours to write up her notes on everything that they discussed and send them information that they could work with. And we just created a form and her two-hour process went down to 15 minutes and it was like we just magicked up an hour and 45 minutes of every client that she gets to spend with her boys and she can still help her clients in a way that's impactful, but gets to live her life on her terms.
[00:27:43] Sarah: And I think when we use tools that are out there — entrepreneurs, like we talked about in the squirrel syndrome, there's a million things that we can do — keeping it simple is so… What is the first step that we have to do? I talk about there's a three-step process, and step one is do the thing, step three profit and step two — what is that? Nobody knows That's the hard work. Step two is the hard work. You have to get to that to get to step three, but being able to utilize any tool that we can, and now with AI, it’s absolutely a game changer. We don't have to start with blank pages anymore and it's helping businesses in incredible ways that, 10 years ago, I wouldn't have even imagined as possible. With tools like Keap and AI, anybody's dreams can absolutely come true.
[00:28:38] Clate: I love that. I mean obviously using automation to get time back in your life is really what we're all about at Keap. And you're right with AI. It's so incredible. In fact, you might remember Richard Tripp, our former Chief Product Officer. I got a text from him about two weeks ago and he said, “Hey, remember years ago when we were envisioning the future? And you said that you think that our software will write people's emails for them?” And I said, “Oh, that's right. I remember talking about that.” He's like, “I think you can do that.” I said, “Dude, we're doing it. It's in the product now. You can actually do it right now.” Yeah. So, it's so fun. I mean, just the time that you can get back through automation, through AI… And it's funny — Dan Martell of SAS Academy wrote the book, “Buy Back Your Time.” I'm actually speaking to the SAS Academy next week.
[00:29:26] Clate: And I'm speaking on how to buy back your time with automation. A lot of people think it's kind of mystical. In your example, you gave so many little things that we do all day every day that you can automate that gets time back in your life that enables you to conquer the chaos through automation.
[00:29:48] Clate: You do it extraordinarily well with your clients, and you've experienced that but I think it's because you come from a mindset of how can I make the most money with the least amount, right? Like that's what you said from the beginning. And if you don't come from that mindset, if instead you come to the mindset of I have an amount of time I work, then time's not on your side, you're actually working
[00:30:11] Sarah: Parkinson's law will fill up that time with all kinds of ridiculous things. But only
[00:30:16] Clate: “But only always,” as my coach says.
[00:30:19] Sarah: But I still have to do time inventories for myself. What am I busy actually doing? And my good friend, Melody Moore, challenged me to just open a Google Sheet and write down literally all the things that I do, not the things that I think that I do all day long — just step by step every five minutes ask, “What are you doing during your day?” And at the end of the day, it can be painful when you look at it. And it's like, you talk about the delegate, the 3Ds, 5Ds.
[00:30:50] Clate: 5Ds. Yep.
[00:30:51] Sarah: I apparently only like three of them. It's all I can commit to. Yes.
[00:30:55] Clate: So dump it out — delete first so that you don't do it because there's a bunch of things you shouldn't do.
[00:30:59] Clate: So dump it out of your brain. Delete. That's number two. Delegate. So, it needs to get done but by somebody else. Oh no, you need to do it. Can you defer it? Do it later? Or do you need to do it now? Yeah. So, those are the D's.
[00:31:13] Sarah: So, when you do a time inventory of what you're actually spending your time on, it's real and reflective on how you waste your time.
[00:31:21] Clate: Yeah. So true. So true. And we all need someone to help us be accountable to that because it's easy for us to think, “Oh gosh, I'm just so busy.” And when you slow it down and you take note, you're like, “Okay. Oh, yeah, there's some areas where I could optimize here a little better.”
[00:31:38] Sarah: I clearly spend way too much time… I was writing down goals during a prompted goal setting session. And one of the things was, what were you willing to give up to achieve this goal? And I was like, “Oh, that's that's harsh. What am I willing to give up?”
[00:32:00] Sarah: And my kids would tell you that I'm very old — I don't do TikTok. I would watch Facebook Reels. And they're like, “Those are the TikToks of eight months ago, Mom.” And I was like, “I'll just, I'll stop watching reels.” And then I was like, “How can I action that?” because it's one thing to say it. And it's like, well, I could just move a little icon on my phone and then I won't have muscle memory of just going to it. And I was like, “No, we're just going to delete it.” And I just deleted it. It was like, I'm willing to commit to 30 days of not watching Facebook Reels to help my goals and dreams come true.
[00:32:30] Clate: Good for you. It's awesome.
[00:32:31] Sarah: Tricking myself. Just how can I hack myself to —
[00:32:35] Clate: Yeah,
[00:32:36] Sarah: to do the things I love?
[00:32:37] Clate: Those are the kinds of things that put time back on your side and back in your day. It's hacks. It's automation. It's a mindset. It's adjusting things and really having that accountability where you stop and look at it. When you lay it all out, you can't run from that.
[00:32:54] Clate: It's like, okay, that's it. It's there. Yeah. And I think this is where that sneaky ego wins sometimes because it's telling us, “Oh, I'm so busy. There's no time.” It's like, no, slow down.That's how you can actually change, but the ego fights for the status quo. The ego fights to keep things the same and not make adjustments.
[00:33:14] Clate: And I just want to honor who you are not only as an entrepreneur and a thought leader on automation for small business, but also marketing — we haven't even touched on your marketing expertise — but also in just personal development, getting better and better. I say all the time to my team, one of the things I love about entrepreneurship and small business is who it pushes us to become.
[00:33:42] Clate: The lab for life that is entrepreneurship is just amazing. And I think that you have to have a certain appetite and willingness to do that for sure, to really enjoy entrepreneurship. And some people I think they don't have that appetite, but I honor you because I see that appetite, just that desire to get better and better. Thanks for sharing a little bit and a little bit of your story and how you came to be an entrepreneur and such a successful one.
[00:34:10] Clate: Is there anything else that you wanted to touch on? I'll give you a chance to share if people want to get to know you better and learn more from your expertise. But anything else you want to touch on in the six keys before we wrap up the discussion around Conquer the Chaos?
[00:34:22] Sarah: I mean, if you haven't read it, you have to, even if you think you've heard it all from Clate before and how could you possibly get anything out of this — because you're going to see him next month, so you better read it or else you're going to be real embarrassed when you talk to him. Definitely read it, and I'm probably going to read it quarterly and by read, I definitely mean Audible. I shared with you what speed I was listening to you on and what I'm hearing.
[00:34:49] Sarah: We slowed it down at the end of it and my daughter was like, “That didn't sound like Clayton at all. Who was that? Wait, what?” Just having the reminder. And one of the things in the book is that books are the cheapest form of education. And what are you doing? What are you putting into your mind to make your dreams come true? Is it reels based on Facebook's old tiktok algorithm, or are you doing the work to set out what you're ready to achieve?
[00:35:22] Clate: I love that. I love it. Thanks for sharing that. Thank you for… It really was meaningful to me when you shared the impact that it's had on you when we saw each other in nashville. I've loved hearing that I've loved hearing that feedback. I really do.
[00:35:38] Clate: I mean, I poured my experience, but also my heart and soul into that book. I really did.
[00:34:38] Sarah: You can tell.
[00:35:38] Clate: I'm glad you feel that because it means so much to me, because I know what the cost of entrepreneurship can be. And I know what the dark side is. You know. We know. We've seen it, and when you flirt with that dark side personally or when loved ones or people you care so much about give into the dark side of entrepreneurship, it's just sad. It doesn't have to be that way. This has been awesome. For people who are like, “Okay, Sarah clearly has a beat on entrepreneurship that I need a little bit more understanding of,” how can they learn more about you?
[00:36:16] Sarah: Not TikTok. I am on Facebook. I'm on LinkedIn. Sarah Laws — L A W S. It's easy to read, but challenging sometimes to spell and get across. But yeah, I'm out there.
[00:36:30] Clate: Okay, awesome. Reach out. Sarah Laws, thank you so much for being with us and sharing your wisdom with the Conquer the Chaos audience and Keap Nation more broadly. We appreciate everything that you do to serve entrepreneurs and thanks all for being here.
[00:36:46] Clate: And I know that this was valuable. I hope that you'll listen to what Sarah's shared here. And like she says, if you haven't read the book, read the dang book. It's really good. So until next time, make sure you like, follow, share and all those things that they tell me I need to make sure I say. And we'll see you next time on the next episode of the Conquer the Chaos Podcast.