Today we talked with Meagan Beltekoglue about cutting out the noise in the digital and workspace. It's so easy to get bombarded with digital noise, from new articles, to emails, to newsfeeds. It can literally be never ending. Meagan and I talk about mindfulness when it comes to our digital consumption and share a few easy to take steps to set boundaries and reduce the digital noise that's preventing you from getting work done, or invading your personal life.

Meagan Beltekoglu is the owner of New Leaf Digital which  gives multi-passionate women expert strategies and solutions with ClickUp (and more) to simplify, systemize, and innovate at work and at home. 

Find us on instagram at @cowgirlartistsofamerica and join our waitlist at cowgirlartistsofamerica.org.

Cutting Through the Noise with Meagan Beltekoglu

[00:00:00] Hi, welcome to Calgary artists of America's podcast, a podcast dedicated to Calgary artists. I'm your host, Megan Wimberley. Today we talk for the second time with business owner, Megan Beltekoglu. Megan helps women find focus and direction by living into their mission, vision, and values and their work. Today, we talk about cutting out the noise.

[00:00:25] Meagan Beltekoglu: Hey Megan.

[00:00:28] Meagan Beltekoglu: I'm good. How are you?

[00:00:32] Meagan Beltekoglu: Oh, it was great. It was a lot. Fun. A lot of crazy stories, that we'll have as a family to look back on and, great times spent with family there.

[00:00:45] Megan Wimberley: How long have you been back in the US now?

[00:00:49] Megan Wimberley: Oh, not very long. Do you feel like you're caught up? ,

[00:00:54] sleep schedule is still wacky. And there's just like a reverse culture shock, yeah. Like being back [00:01:00] here and everything is so expensive and we, my, my youngest daughter keeps asking like to walk places, but we don't live like in a walkable area.

[00:01:12] Meagan Beltekoglu: It's, it's a big gift and a big challenge to have family on two sides of the world.

[00:01:26] Meagan Beltekoglu: 100%. Yes, definitely. I totally agree.

[00:01:53] And we talked last time about using click up, but this time we had we touched base on all the [00:02:00] noise and we were like, oh, we should do a podcast about that.

[00:02:06] Meagan Beltekoglu: Yes, thanks. For the introduction, Megan. Yeah, I re I read a book, I guess it was probably a year ago now. All the posts on my social media are all recycled, so they're not always 100% accurate with the dates, but I read it was called Digital Minimalism.

[00:02:43] There's so much pressure to do things a certain way. , especially if you are an online business owner. There are all these like gurus out there who are like, you have to do this, or you don't do this, or you must do this. And I think [00:03:00] that was like getting me down. And I wanted something different.

[00:03:29] So going back to those foundations, And thinking really intentionally, what kind of business am I trying to grow? Why am I trying to grow this business? What am I actually trying to achieve? And so one of those things is that I wanna be able to create a legacy for my family, for my kids, but also I wanna be able to spend time with my kids.

[00:04:17] You're always scrolling, swiping, looking for more, but the browser versions are not. So the browser versions are are awful and hard to use that you just give up after a few minutes because it's just like your break, the like pathways in your brain. They're just like, this is boring, this is dull. Turn it off.

[00:04:57] So that really has helped me be [00:05:00] intentional with my social media use and time, and cut out all that noise so I can be more authentic in my business.

[00:05:22] The far reaching effects that it has for people and we just became part of it. And it's so interesting cuz I used to work in a school and I felt like the kids were a lot more adept at understanding, obviously they can totally get addicted and deal with bullies and all that, but a lot of the kids were a lot more adept at understanding the negative aspects of social media.

[00:05:55] people and it did not work in that realm. And then you talk to kids and they're like, [00:06:00] oh yeah, we just blocked that person. And to them it's just an immediate oh, I'm not gonna waste my time with that. But for those of us that it developed with us. It was like we had to wade through all of that because we didn't understand the distinction between our in-person interactions with people and our interactions with Facebook.

[00:06:24] Meagan Beltekoglu: Yeah that's totally true. When looking back on it, like social media has been part of my life for 20 years now, .

[00:06:51] So it, it's definitely important for that personal side of things, but I think it's also equally important for how you use social media as a business owner. . [00:07:00]

[00:07:09] But the big takeaway for me was, okay, these things were designed to be addictive. They affect us in these certain ways. They can actually sap us of energy and joy in productivity, but they can also be really useful tools. And so how do we get back to that basis of this is a tool and we make sure that we are using the tool and a tool is not using us.

[00:07:56] There is an endless supply of current [00:08:00] events and technological news and art news and whatever it is that appeals to you that you could read and just, you never ever will be caught up and realizing that I didn't have to know everything. , I realized I can't know everything, but I felt I had an obligation to know as much as I could and recognizing that, no, I don't have that obligation. That was a huge burden lifted off of me. Was there anything like that for you?

[00:08:39] I just , my brain definitely stop, which, is its issue. But I really I like learning and knowing new things. My latest thing is that I wanna learn all these different AI tools and, how can I use AI in my business? I don't really need to know this, but my brain is just learn.

[00:09:26] 12 problems that you wanna solve. And it was a really amazing experience to think through and write out 12 problems that I want to be able to solve in my lifetime. I had never done something like that before. and I was really surprised what I came up with. And having that limitation of 12 was also a challenge because actually there were more, but I needed to [00:10:00] prioritize and get it down to 12.

[00:10:18] and content out there. So now I can quickly, go through, like I'm always looking at Apple News on my phone. I can quickly go through Apple News and say okay, is this within my realm of interest?

[00:10:49] Is it like something about a cute animal who like saved somebody's life? Like, all right, that's something that make, might make me feel better, right? So I might read it, but if it's just something that's, [00:11:00] Just total trash or click bait or something, just trying to waste my time.

[00:11:25] Megan Wimberley: Yeah, it's interesting, I would be curious too, to see if this affects men and women differently, but I know for myself, there's a lot of things that give me a strong feeling of obligation.

[00:12:09] When we think about digital versus real, like the way our bodies were created to function, our bodies and minds were created to function in like communities. Obviously we do have our community at large in our countries and our states and our world, but like as far as physical and psychologically, like really we're made for a smaller community group and our brains aren't meant to handle that much that the digital realm creates.

[00:12:55] Or it's. Businesses and events that might be [00:13:00] beneficial for my business. Facebook is not a place for me to keep up with people and then also setting boundaries for how we're gonna engage with people. I have just made it a rule for me on Facebook

[00:13:26] But also there's like this, like once I start doing that, then there's a whole nother way that people can like contact me about my business and it gets crazy and overwhelming and that's not what I use that for. And so being able to recognize this is how this can be used, beneficial for beneficially for me.

[00:13:47] Meagan Beltekoglu: Yeah. I feel like it's really important to have boundaries and not just think about them like, oh, I, I should spend only 30 minutes a day on social [00:14:00] media, but to write them down and to review them and to remember them and so that you can then live them and I.

[00:14:33] But the nice thing about social media and the algorithm is that you can teach it to show you what you like. So the more that you access or click on profiles of people and businesses that you do wanna follow, Then it will show you more of those things. So you and that's something that I also learned in that building a second brain course, is that you can train your social media to.

[00:15:05] Megan Wimberley: Yeah. And that's

[00:15:18] write out, review, revise, and share their boundaries. Don't be afraid to share them with your people. Whether it's, in a, like, how I work or, how we can connect, document, put it, , upload it somewhere, put it on your website. PE people are, I think now more than ever really respecting that, having an autoresponder on your email, like I don't reply to emails outside of this time.

[00:15:59] respect [00:16:00] that.

[00:16:19] No, we're not gonna do that. And there was this moment between the one teacher who's young and new and all excited, and the teacher who's more seasoned and she Said to the younger teacher, it's not that we don't care, it's that we care too much to burn out. And I thought that was such a good statement of yeah, boundaries are about not burning out

[00:16:39] that's for sure. And I think that's something that every business owner goes through and has to unfortunately learn in some uncomfortable way sometimes that if you don't have those boundaries in place you do burn out or, , you don't want to be part of your business anymore, or [00:17:00] you're unable to be present with the people that you care about.

[00:17:25] That's okay. But if I let it go over too much, like why am I doing that? Why do I feel like they. This right, or they have, they deserve to have more of my time. You really have to, and it's a hard conversation to have with yourself sometimes. Yeah. But I think for me, it all goes back to being really clear on my mission, my vision, and my values.

[00:18:18] I'm able to say no and not feel guilty about.

[00:18:36] And that doesn't happen right away. , it takes a little bit of practice I think at the end of the day it comes down you can't tell me how it's gonna work best for me.

[00:18:53] And some of the tasks that we have to do as business owners drain us that doesn't mean I shouldn't do it, but finding [00:19:00] out which things are going to be productive and which things are not.

[00:19:10] tikTok is It just feels like a time suck to me as far as like posting, and I don't get a lot of engagement. But the thing about TikTok for me, I love it as a small break,

[00:19:45] While I'm not using it well for my business, it is a tool for me. For getting a little pep in my step or like refreshing my brain. Or it could be a transition from work to, because sometimes it's really hard to go from work to family time.

[00:20:13] And I think that goes back to what we were talking about before, which is, , being intent, intentional about how you use different things and understanding like, just because everybody seems like everybody is on TikTok and make go on these videos these days doesn't mean that you too have to do that.

[00:20:54] And chill out. . I did that the other night with my kids and it was fun. The, I know that [00:21:00] YouTube is not the place for me to be creating business content. So I think really being purposeful, prioritizing how, prioritizing what we want to do, and also being kind and. Forgiving to ourselves because it's hard.

[00:21:45] to chill out.

[00:22:04] It may not work for you, but what would be one of your top rules for yourself with your technology and social media? ,

[00:22:24] It blocks it and you can't break through it and it actually blocks it, like you can't get around it. I tried . So do yourself a favor and buy one and block this.

[00:23:03] Meagan Beltekoglu: Yeah, I have almost every single notification off on my phone, like including, I only have text messages, notifications on from my husband.

[00:23:11] Megan Wimberley: Yeah,

[00:23:13] Megan Wimberley: Mine's mostly like that too. Yeah.

[00:23:19] Meagan Beltekoglu: I don't think so. ,

[00:23:44] So schedule it out when you can. And when you can't make sure you go and you're mindful of, I'm. Going on here right now to scroll through my feed. I'm going on here to post this thing and then do it. And don't get distracted down the rabbit hole.

[00:24:07] for my social media profiles, and then I have my VA just schedule those to recur every three months. Nobody remembers if they saw the same post three months ago, so it's, it's totally fine and it works really well. I also have another tool for anybody who blogs. There's a tool called missing Letter and that.

[00:24:54] And then you just tell it like, okay, do a six month campaign, do a six week campaign, do a [00:25:00] one year campaign, and then it schedules them all for you and it's really affordable.

[00:25:06] Meagan Beltekoglu: Missing letter.com. But there's. The last E in letter is not there.

[00:25:13] Meagan Beltekoglu: So it's missing L E T r.com.

[00:25:16] I'll have to look at that one.

[00:25:20] Megan Wimberley: stuff. It's pretty wild. I just experimented with like a, and this could be a time saving tip, but I experimented a little bit with just like a AI writing software because. I can write, but it's a process, and it was so I was like, this is ridiculous how good it was.

[00:26:06] Yeah. Cool. Any parting words of wisdom?

[00:26:23] audience.

[00:26:30] Meagan Beltekoglu: Yeah. So

[00:26:48] So you have the next year of your business mapped out in line with your mission, vision, and values. All in a nice plan so you know what to do what to focus on each month [00:27:00] that's really gonna get you closer to your goals. You couldn't find me not really all over social media but you can always reach out through my website, which is www.newleafdigital.net.

[00:27:15] Meagan Beltekoglu: Thank you.