It’s time to simplify, in your life and in business. The things that have the biggest impact, controversial to common opinion, are actually the ones that are SIMPLE. Tune in as Blair and Theresa talk about the importance of creating space and stillness to tap into more creativity and expand your capacity to receive.

About the Hosts:

Blair Kaplan Venables is an expert in social media marketing and the president of Blair Kaplan Communications, a British Columbia-based PR agency. She brings fifteen years of experience to her clients which include global wellness, entertainment and lifestyle brands. She is the creator of the Social Media Empowerment Pillars, has helped her customers grow their followers into the tens of thousands in just one month, win integrative marketing awards and more. 

Blair is listed in USA Today as one of the top 10 conscious female leaders to watch in 2022 and Yahoo! listed Blair as a top ten social media expert to watch in 2021. She has spoken on national stages and her expertise has been featured in media outlets including Forbes, CBC Radio, Entrepreneur and Thrive Global. Blair is an international bestselling author and has recently published her second book, ‘The Global Resilience Project.’ She is the co-host of the Dissecting Success podcast and in her free time, you can find Blair growing The Global Resilience Project’s community where users share their stories of overcoming life’s most difficult moments.

www.blairkaplan.ca

You ever wonder what success actually means?

How do you get it?

And how do you keep it?

We all want it yet sometimes it feels only some of us get to have it. Hi, Teresa and Blair

here we are to badass entrepreneurs, best selling authors, coaches and business mentors who have had success, built success, questioned our own success and reclaimed it. Let's be real for a hot minute. 2020 has been a roller coaster ride, and many of us a start to wonder if the loser things that made them successful. So we got curious, Ron real about what success is truly about?

Can you put it in a box?

How can you get it?

Can people take it away? Or are you the one with the power?

Does it mean the same to all of us? Or are we the ones that create it?

From PGA golf pros to doctors, CEOs, entrepreneurs and spiritual mentors. We get together to meet with successful people from around the globe to dissect success for vibrant conversations and interviews. Make sure you click the subscribe button on the app store because each week we will drop a new episode to bust through the myths around success and dissect its true meaning. Hello, hello, and welcome back to another episode of dissecting success. I am your co host Teresa Lambert and I am here with the one and only fabulous brilliant social media experts. Maven, PR genius Blair Kaplan Venables and we are going to have a conversation about keeping it fucking simple. Keeping it fucking sir ball. Okay. Success, business, doing things like we have the tendency as humans to like, overcomplicate the bejesus about everything, okay, like, somehow we have decided that the more complicated something is, the better it is. And the more valuable it is. And what I have come to find is that it's actually the opposite. And it's the most simple things that are the most potent things that also lead to, you know, talk about success, as in the external success, that lead to that external success actually faster. And not only do they lead that faster, but while you're on this internal journey of success, you're also going to feel more fulfilled, more energized, and more lit up, because everything isn't that freaking complicated. And bland, I both do things differently in business. And I definitely, you know, I am all about keeping things simple. But I've also just recently realized working with my coach, that maybe I'm making things a little more complicated than they have to be even for me, and that was a bit of a hard pill to swallow. I mean, not gonna lie, you know, like, I think I usually I'm pretty good at keeping things simple, but that's why coaching is so so powerful, too. And now I'm like, you know, what, actually simplifying Systemising strategizing in different ways. Streamlining feels really good, because it'll open up space and capacity for more clients and more money and more abundance to come in. So that's the fucking conversation we're gonna have today.

And I love it. And I think you just did a really great job at explaining that. Because this also goes hand in hand with the hustle culture and how hustle culture is dead. And being busy how being busy is chaotic, and toxic. I think that's the same with over complication. Often, we try something, it doesn't work, we try something new. And we keep adding these layers to it. And it becomes a very complicated process. But it doesn't always have to be. And you can figure stuff out on your own. We can hire someone to do it for you or to help you through it. But once you figure out the formula, it becomes something that's easy, and that you can replicate over and over and over again. And, you know, when I started my business, I love the hustle culture. I loved I love the perception of me seeming to be able to solve very complicated problems. Well, Blair, you're so busy. Oh my God, you've taken on so much. Well, how are you doing that? That was kind of a badge of honor. But now I'd rather just like sit in a rocking chair and like looking at the sky and birdwatch, right. And when you simplify your life and when you simplify your business, including how You spend your time, your services, your products, your processes, the people that you have in your business in your life. You just all around, do better make more money are happier. And Teresa and I heard just yesterday messaging back and forth. What was that quote? I said, I said something. Was it like creation? Uh, I'm not even going to are you looking it up? She's looking at? I'm looking at. It's like, you know, when you were? Yeah. So when you work out? No, I think it was Instagram. But when you work out, and you're pumping iron and you're growing your muscle, you have to have rest days, because that's when the muscle starts to heal and to grow and to get stronger. And that same happens in between those moments of taking action in your business.

Did you find it? I did find it. Yeah. And so

when you're taking action in your business, it's important to give yourself the space to Rest Digest, percolate, because in those moments, of stillness we create in stillness we create. And that really actually boils down to simplification of your life and not having too much going on. And I'm watching Teresa do some really cool stuff in her business right now. And I think it's really interesting. So let's talk about what do I offer my services, my services that I offer are always changing. I don't actively promote everything that I'm doing. But I have private coaching. I call it the up leveling. That's me mentoring and coaching one other person. I predominantly work with entrepreneurs and coaches. I also do some work with marketing executives who want to or marketing professionals who want to learn publicity and social media. I have a group coaching program, which I'll be launching very soon. It's called empowerment, you can learn more about it on my website. Right now I'm going to have one launch year and 90 day program, I'm probably going to move it up to two cohorts a year. Teresa and I together have momentum, which is a group coaching program, but it's highly curated. It's a very intimate experience. And those are like my main main offerings. And then because that is what my main focuses, most of my marketing has to do with that. So you're listening to this. And you might be like, oh, I want to check blare out, guess what, just so happens on May 23, I'm launching a five day challenge. Okay, so I'm launching a free five day social media challenge, you can sign up, if you go to the link in my bio on my Instagram, or you follow me anywhere on social media, you're going to see this everywhere. And it's a five day challenge is educate, entertain your way to your next 1000 followers. And I'm going to teach you how to like show up and post what you want when you want. None of this like following the rules of the other social media experts say how to hack the right angle algorithm, I'm gonna tell you to actually tell your story and show up and be a real human. But this contest is going to funnel into a masterclass which is going to funnel into me opening my cart for my group coaching program. So everything I'm doing is leading up to one of my signature products. And when I am focused all my time and energy on those specific things, there's a really big impact. And then I also have the capacity to take on other projects that I want. Do I want to do this? Do I want to write this article? Do I want to help this person with a campaign like right now I've brought out a few other clients and I'm helping with PR strategies because I love it, I have the capacity for it. And I love what these businesses are doing. So when you create systems and you create a simple but very impactful product suite, you have the ability to use your time in whatever way you

want. I love that Blair and the thing that I really love about you and the way you teach so social social shooter, shooter shooter, social media, social media,

remix remix, did add,

I feel like I was freestyling it this morning hard in my master class that I delivered anyways, sidetracked. Now I'm saying no, what I love about the way you teach social media and the way you you have this set up is the simplicity that you bring to it like I know what you're teaching in your in your group program. I know about the empowerment pillars. I love how you break it down and you make it really simple. And I know that this five day challenge is going to be really impactful for people because social media is another thing within our businesses that we make so got them complicated. We're like, oh my god, what am I gonna post? What I'm gonna say? One of them? What if they don't like it? What if a little a little a little a little a little, you know, like, seriously like, It's the simple things, it's the authentic things, it's you sharing your story, it's your being bold, it's you being audacious, and sharing some of the things that might be scary to share, but that are real and raw, that you have people move. And this morning, delivering my mouse to class was such a potent reminder of it. And you know what, I kept it simple. I went into it, usually I have a bit of a plan on what I'm going to talk about. And I didn't I just knew the story that I wanted to stop this conversation with. So I kept it really simple. And then I just let myself lead with the energy that came up. And it was very, very potent, with simple takeaway, and one powerful question that released all sorts of breakthroughs. So it wasn't 10 different things that I was teaching, it wasn't all this different stuff. You know, it was simple. And the simplicity of it, holy shit, I was like, like, I was like, wow, like that just happened. That just happened. And that is so cool. When you see the simple things, the micro things to keeping it focused things, making such a big impact in motion, like when you get to experience and experience it. And that also gives me a whole sense of safety, with rearranging some of the things that I do, because I do have a pretty big, big product suite. I love teaching on different things. And I still get to do that. But it doesn't mean I have to launch as many things. It just means I'm more focused with my containers and simplifying that and that feels really good. Because I know how important that is to have this capacity, bringing it back to you in stillness we create. Right? Like when we when we get still, when we slow down. That's really when the space opens up. And the creativity opens up. And one was signaling. Oh, yeah, I've got capacity, I've got space. And keeping it simple is part of that. Because the second you may get complicated, you're just cluttering your schedule with shit, you know, even like overthinking your social media posts instead of just keeping it simple.

You know, it's you what you're seeing is actually making me think I think it's Steve Jobs. You know, Steve Jobs always had like the same like turtleneck and jeans. And his wardrobe was very similar. And I watched that Theranos Docu series, and Elizabeth Holmes had like very, like very few pieces of clothing in her wardrobe and just more of the same things over and over again. It's about simplification in your day and in your life. So you're not using your brain to your brainpower and or the creative juices that you could be using for things that really matter on the things that don't. And so I think this is actually a cool conversation that we can apply to anything like, what in our day, are we overcomplicating? So I'm just thinking about what do I do every day or in my life, that's very no brainer routine, simple, like shower, washing my hair, I have my products they use, I put it in and go, I really often don't often, like style my hair, when I have, you know, when I have a couple of meals that are pretty much the same that it's on autopilot, and I actually do meal prep. So I do meal prep, so I can grab a baggie of what I need and dump it in the blender and hits. So I create systems to make my days, you know, simple not like I'll wake up in the morning, what should I do to my hair? What should I wear now? What am I going to have for breakfast, look at all those decisions I'm going to have to make before I even get to my desk. And I think when you can build systems. It makes your life more simple. It makes your business more simple. Like, you know, I do a lot of things that don't have systems. And I'm like I'm in the process of actually creating new systems and creating SOPs because I'm going to bring in help to help me with things that I can outsource so I can spend my time doing what I'm best at. And that is going to simplify it. When really, I should have done this years ago, like my business is going to be 14. But I was very stubborn, and I liked the way I did things. But then I had this epiphany in Mexico, where if I just do things a little different, I'm actually going to free up more time and my schedule is gonna be more simple. My tasks are going to be more simple. And essentially I can bring on more and make more money. It's like what so In fact, being more simple and simplification has an impact on your bottom line. What do you do in your life that has pretty system like systematized? Like, you and I are starting to get into like a certain specifics like routine with the podcast? Who does the notes? And who hits? who uploads the audio? And who does this? And who does that? And, you know, like, you have systems like, what are some stuff that what are some things that currently are working for you that makes everything flow?

Oh, I feel like I've so like, I have a few different things. I want to start with sort of like life strategy. And I like to like think about, you know, strategy is really just a framework, like think of strategy, like the foundation of a home, the walls, like the roof, like that is your strategy. And then everything inside is what makes it pretty. But really, it's the foundation of your home that allows you to feel steady and grounded and, and safe and held and supported. So so when I say strategy, it's it's really very much still connected to flow and creativity and space. It's just having a really strong platform. So my life strategies really having a really solid morning routine. That's something that I've done for years and years and years now. And that morning, routine changes from time to time, but currently, what this looks like right now, this moment in my life, I'm on the road, I'm traveling, I've made some pretty massive life changes recently. And that is exciting. And I feel like at one point, we'll have a conversation about this journey on this podcast as well. But I am not there yet to share this, this publicly. But I'm on the road. And with being on the road, I also really recognize that there's still this level of routine that I want to have and habits that I want to have. And so my morning routine comes in that. So what I do is generally like right after I wake up, I either meditate or a journal. If a lot of downloads come through I journal first then I meditate but it's really stillness, right, like it's stillness, and then just downloading. So meditation, journaling. And then once I've done that, I've just started introducing actually doing a more specific journaling process that my coach gave me, that is sort of mapping out what my day is going to be what the first thought was, that came up what my priorities are for the day, what my one thing is that I'm going to do. And the idea is that if you do the one thing then you you don't have to do any more work that day. So that's kind of cool. But there was a contractor is a thing that he teaches around a one hour work week, one week, one hour work week, not quite one hour work day. And anyways, I'm working towards that. So I do that journaling process that I've been given for him sort of get ready and then I move my body usually, or I actually do my hour of work. So this is where I'm playing a little bit with like the setup, but like it's probably like a solid, like, you know, we're talking like a three to four hour block. And I get up early like that is the thing like this morning, actually, I woke up at 4:44am Exactly. And I was like oh, okay, clearly some some if your connections going on there right now. So I have this morning routine and that sets me up for success and and I think that it's so important that you spend some time and your own energy in the morning and download what you have to download and make a bit of a plan for what your day is going to be and setting an intention for your day and being really clear about that. You know, whether you're an entrepreneur, or whether you're working for someone else, or whether you're a stay at home mom, like whoever watches this, whether you know you have, you're on the road, whether you're traveling, whether you're living Nomad life, like whatever it is, it's really key to know how you're going to lead yourself through your day and what's coming up and that'll set you up just to go through it in a more grounded way. You know, like I generally set powerful intentions like Thursday's is is a big client call day I have most of my client calls on Thursdays. And that means I also set the intention to show up powerfully for my clients right like little things like that go a really long way. So morning routine is huge. Moving is huge. I love doing the class I find that really helps me.

And then the other thing that helped me with that is really having things ready to go and when I say ready to go like in terms of like programs and things that I am selling actively on my social media through my social media, I like having certain graphics and things ready that I can easily share my story. So It's kind of like you never know. And then there's a bit of a commercial that runs through. And it's fun, and it's beautiful. And, and that's a way to have some stories ready to go, that are about your business about your products that you can share. So, you know, even for Blair, she has these evergreen programs like she has a signature programs that she has. So the ability to share about them on your social media without having to create something new every single time is really powerful. So that works really well for me, in terms of business. Also, simple, simple automation. So you know, whether I speak on a stage, and there's a downloadable that I can give to build my lifts, like everything's automated, if you join me for a master class, if you join me, in one of my programs, like things have set up that like right away, once you join, you get an email, that email lets you know, the next steps how to find the Facebook group is that if there is one, how to connect with me through Voxer, if we're in a Voxer container together, like whatever it is, like there was just a simple automation that's already in place. And by having that it really does things for me. So I don't have to manually reply to people, especially not the initial response. And so those are just some examples of very simple automation, but that I have a pretty big impact on people's experience once they're coming into my business. And so all of that really helps me to be able to run my business, to sell my programs at any time of the day, knowing that the person on the other side is 100% taken care off, until I wake up and I'm ready for my one hour workday.

I love that. So good. And, you know, I think I like this simplification in our lives is coming at a really important time, because the last few years with the pandemic really showed us this possibility of happiness in a slower life. You know, we don't need to live such a fast life. And you know, the world's coming back online and people are resuming the they're picking up where they left off. But some of us were reminded about the happiness that happens in between the things that we do. And you know, Theresa and I actually just spent some time together in person. She's been on a journey and she came to stay with me in Kamloops. And I think she's going to come back and I have this really beautiful yard that's coming to life because it's spring and it's green, and it's lush. And we just spend time sitting under my cherry tree, looking at the birds, smelling the lilacs, listening to the wind. And there's something to be really said about that. That what can you do in your life to create that space. So you can just be so you can create in that stillness. You know, like, like I said that, you know, maybe I created that quote, maybe I heard it somewhere I'm gonna Google it. But you know, the in stillness, we create concept. You know, how are you giving yourself that space? And I think a big part of simplification is, is creating those things that you could just replicate over and over again. In fact, you know, here's a little social media tip like Facebook memories, right? You can see what you posted last year, two years ago, three years ago, I look at my memories on Facebook and Instagram and see what I posted. And if the post comes up, and it's awesome, I take it and I repurpose it. And maybe it goes out that same day. Or maybe I put it in my drafts and it's ready to go. Like you've created content for how many years how many days you could repurpose that. If you want to go back through 500 posts and find the identical posts I made. That's great. That's your use of time. But I know since last year, I have a lot more followers. Some some people haven't even seen that post. Right. So like if you want to use your time to like dig up what I've already posted. I'm okay with that because I'm here to inspire. I'm not here to you know, like you see on TV shows cable, there's Marge Simpson, Marge Simpson wears the same dress every single day. But then you watch something like the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, or like any reality shows you never see someone wear the same outfit twice. Right, Marge Simpson wears the same dress every day. Very simple, like Steve Jobs. Homer wears the same outfit almost every day, like Steve Jobs. But like in TV, like you see, like celebrities on the red carpets and stuff like very seldomly. Are they wearing the same thing over and over again? Well, like, you know what, I have brain power, and I have a lot of really great ideas. But if I made a post a year ago, that was fucking epic. I'm going to share it again. And guess what, I'm probably gonna share it again next year. And maybe every day on May 12. I'm going to share a specific type of post and it's gonna be the exact same posts maybe modified a bit because the image is awesome and the words are awesome. So I mean, like we overcomplicate so much in our life, and we don't have to, and we don't need to and I think it's because we feel like we shouldn't be busy. We Should we feel like we don't, you know, that sense of calmness? Really, people don't know how to sit with it. That sense of calmness causes panic. It's like, I feel like I should be doing something. And you fill your time with stuff, right?

Yeah, I love that you're bringing this up. You know, one thing I was thinking about yesterday. I mean, it's been like, just if we can a half since I've made some life changes. And like in nearly Yeah, like, you know, just a bit more than 10 days, 1011 days. I only watched TV once and, and that was with you, we actually watched a really cool documentary about Marilyn Monroe, which was fucking awesome. Like, I loved it. We were in the cave and Blair's cave.

But I have a cave, I have a cave, not a grotto, a cave. But anyways,

like I've just these laughs like this last little bed really just set with myself, like, very just sat listening to music writing, just being like in stillness, like you said, like I've just been being in stillness, I've slowed down and I'm moving slower. She's even my, my bookkeeper followed up with me today, because I hadn't responded to the email from a few days ago. So I'm accounting things about April. I'm like, I'll respond when I get to it. But the thing is, like I've slowed down and I have just allowed myself to be in sit and that stillness, a lot of things are coming through. And it's, it definitely made me realize how, you know, we've so much time, like, so often we just clutter things in, or like we fill it with something, and we don't really have to fill it all. So I've been just doing a lot of that just sitting in stillness, just being in my own energy, like moving through whatever I'm moving through healing from what I need to heal from. And it's been really powerful. And it's created a lot of ripples in the way and the impact I'm having, and what's coming through in terms of the way I'm sharing, which is really cool to see. And I think to your point of reusing and recycling on social media, you know, I mean, I do that all the time. And like, I just like the other day, I was like, oh, let's go through some of my posts. Like I usually use my analytics and insights. And I will look at the most engaging posts like to post that had the most actual, like, overall engagement. And I will read comments, I will see what people picked up, I will read through posts, I pick up one or two lines from a post. And I make quotes out of it, and statements out of it. And I reposted and that content does really well. And I know it's going to do well. Well, why do I know it's going to do? Well? Well, because the analytics have already shown me that that particular topic is something that my audience is interesting. And it's very simple. And I create a lot of content this way, by recycling. And I also like Blair, I bring posts back because the thing is, too, you can read the same post five times and you wouldn't notice, because you will be in a different headspace and in a different energy when you read it. So you might it might click that you have seen it or read it before. But consciously and unless you see all of them next to each other, you wouldn't actually clue into it. And so this is another way where we're keeping it simple, but also understanding that your messaging the simpler, you keep it and the more clear you keep it in a more of a broken record you are, the more it will actually land with people in sync and with people. So all this simplifying this being this stillness, the hitting the easy button, you know, like not making it so complicated. It all actually has an elevated impact. And that's really cool.

Yes. Oh my God, it is I love it. So I guess in wrapping up this conversation. A couple things. If you're feeling stressed out about social media and you feel like it's complicated and taking too much brainpower, you probably should join my challenge, which starts may 23. And you turn your way to your next 1000 followers, to go back to your older social media posts and repost those, we both do it and figure out what your life what can you create systems for and be, you know, be more still how can you add more stillness into your day so that you can create and by doing you know, I'm watching Theresa in this really beautiful transition and she's created this space in her day where she the one she's working she's extremely efficient, and then has this other space to be steal or to create. And I love it. And it's just a really beautiful thing I'm watching. And it's inspiring. It's really inspiring. And, you know, while Therese was talking, I did a sneaky Google and I in fact, did come up with, in stillness we create, no one else is using. So sometimes I say things that I think they're from someone else, but they're from me, but maybe they're just from my other personality. So I'm gonna actually make a cool graphic with that. You're listening to this and you love it, maybe share it, but, you know, build in stillness to your day, so you can create and do you have anything else you want to add Teresa?

No, I think that, you know, I would love to encourage all of you to just take this to heart and really think about this, like, you know, you could even ask yourself this question like, you know, where am I like, everywhere, my life or when my business I'm overcomplicating it, right? Just to start building some of the awareness to see where is actually those, you know, bottlenecks in your business to bottlenecks in your life that crowds up your fucking calendar that, you know, has you feeling like you're always having to hustle or grasping for our, you know, pay some attention there, put some cad there, bring some energy to it, shed some light on it, so that you can actually transform it into what you want it to be. And, you know, I feel like we gave you a lot of tools that and, and I feel like, we'll make sure that this happens. But I feel like the episode that will air next week should be the one we did with Marcus because I feel like this would be a nice, like, add on to the conversation we had. And then you also get to learn from the person who was teaching me the one hour workweek and who's inspiring me right now to simplify and take back my day. Yes. And it'll blow your mind and like a million other things because we went long, like we couldn't stop having a conversation. Yeah. So

next week, we'll do more next episode is going to be Marcoses. It's a long one. It's a very good one. It's very inspiring. So thank you for tuning in to another episode of dissecting success. We're excited for you to be a simplified successor, just like us Peace.

That's a wrap for another episode of dissecting success. enjoyed this episode. Make sure to subscribe to black goblin Venables and Theresa Lambert's podcast dissecting success on the App Store.