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Sometimes the most challenging part of a project isn’t the work itself, but rather getting ready to do the work. Maybe you have doubts about your abilities. Maybe you feel overwhelmed by what may happen when you finish the work. Maybe the ideas and brainstorming come easier to you than the execution itself. Maybe you don’t have the time that the commitment seems to be require. Whatever your difficulties are, a little exploration into yourself and what’s holding you back may be the cure-all.
Stephanie Synclair aims to help the everyday person with these fears in her new book, Shut Up And Do The Work. As the book’s title would suggest, it aims to get the reader to explore what is holding them back to accomplishing their goal(s). Refreshing about it, as compared to other business-related books that have self-help roots, is that Stephanie explains how she put all of these ideas into action, leading to her long-term success as an entrepreneur, investor, and media personality.
Stephanie caught up with Downtown and was refreshingly-honest with our Q&A. Her views on competition were especially admirable. She can be visited online at www.stephaniesynclair.com and followed on both Facebook and Twitter.
At what point in your life did you notice the need to be organized? Was there a particular event that inspired it?
Stephanie Synclair: To be 100% honest with you, I am not that organized! I have my own sense of organization, for which if anyone walked into it they wouldn’t think it was organized at all, but I have a system that works for me specifically. What inspired me to create these systems, that I follow and that my team can follow, was knowing I wanted to grow my business. Grow, meaning, I needed to expand and add to my team. I realized I couldn’t take the chaos in my brain and give that to someone, I needed some sort of organization. I have my own type of organization, but a random person walking in wouldn’t call it organized at all.
Have you always been an optimist?
SS: Yep! I have always, always, always been an optimist. I’ve never really had to deal with a whole lot doubt. I’ve always looked at the glass half-full as opposed half-empty. Naturally.
Aside from buying your new book, what’s the first step you’d recommend for someone getting organized?
SS: The first step I would recommended in order to get organized, other than reading Shut Up And Do The Work, would definitely be to get a clear picture of what it is you’d like to accomplish. I feel that more often than not people just kind of go into business and start new projects without a vision, and unfortunately when you do that, you kind of get what you get because you don’t have a road map. You’re just throwing cooked noodles at a wall to see what will stick. So the first thing you would need to do is decide what you want to accomplish and know what that looks like.
What inspired you to teach others? I mean, most people are content with holding onto their productivity secrets…
SS: What inspires me to give away my productivity secrets in life really is the fact that I know that’s what my calling is. I know that I have information that people need, not only want, and I truly believe that it’s selfish to keep information to yourself. I feel that when people get information and keep it for themselves that they are in fear of competition. I don’t have any fear of competition because I’m in my own lane, and as long as you worry about you and what you’re doing instead, there is no competition. I’m my own competition.
I really am trying to be better than I was yesterday, better than the last book, better than the last training, better than last year’s revenue. I’m beating myself. I’m not out to beat anyone else, so I enjoy seeing my clients do amazing things. When I hear my clients have months better than me, I enjoy those things because I’m not meant to have that information just for me. I’m meant to help grow a society that can sustain itself.
Overall, are you a fan of social media when it comes to organization and work?
SS: When it comes to social media and organizing yourself to start your business or to grow your business, I’m definitely a fan of social media. Social media reigns supreme. Right now anybody who’s not using it is going to be left behind. Old time marketing no longer works, you have to be on social media if you’re going to stay ahead of the curve. And get in front of your ideal audience and it’s really the cheapest way to find your ideal audience.
Any upcoming speaking engagements of yours that our readers may be able to attend?
SS: I actually have several live workshops coming up all over the United States and in the UK, just visit Shutupanddothework.com/workshops to see which workshop is coming near you.
When you’re feeling low on motivation to do something, do you have a process of getting psyched?
SS: I actually do have a process! Probably completely different from what people would think, but when I’m feeling low on motivation I turn on upbeat music and I dance around the house and I sing. That’s what I do, that’s my process for getting motivated and when I’m done I can sit down, I can write, and I can train and create webinar. I can do everything I need to by moving!
Do you have any goals for your new book? Plans to write another one?
SS: My goal for my new book is to get it in the hands of 10,000 entrepreneurs. Yes, there will definitely be another book! Shut up and do the work is the first book in a series. In 2017, there will be another edition in the Shut Up And Do The Work series.
Is there anything you haven’t yet accomplished but still hope so?
SS: Yes, my biggest desire that I would love to accomplish is buying a villa in Italy with olive trees and lemon trees, everything you could possibly think of! Grapes to make wine and hosting retreats there.
When not busy with work, how do you like to spend your free time?
SS: Fortunately, the way I’ve built my business, free time and work kind of blends in. To be really, really transparent here, I spend plenty of time at the beach traveling all while working, so you know it’s not really a thing of “free time” and “vacation,” it all really intertwines. I guess what I would do if I’m not working is lay on the beach somewhere on a beautiful tropical island or in the Mediterranean.