Questions Make You Think Differently

In a week when just about everything that could go wrong DID go wrong, Nicola’s taking her place on a rota of driving and cooking duties for a dear friend’s husband, but a chance conversation with someone who asked some great questions, helped her think differently about how to handle a tricky project and her stress levels have dropped dramatically as a consequence. Who can you have a conversation with that might help you think differently about something you are worrying about?

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Clicks And Leads is a “tongue in cheek” digital marketing Vzine by entrepreneur, author, podcaster, speaker, Nicola Cairncross.

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Well welcome to this week’s Vzine, it’s Nicola here and I’m back in Greece, as you know, and it’s been absolutely appalling weather, you’ll be glad to hear. It’s been thunderstorms, it’s been hail, and lots of snow on the mountains. I’m pretty toasty warm because that, that stove over there works a treat.

This week, it’s all been about neighbourliness. One of my very good friends just a few doors up has been taken ill unexpectedly and her husband has been having to go to Kalamata, which is a 45 minute to an hour drive each way, and he’s obviously worried sick about her.

And so all the neighbours in Stoupa have been taking it in turns to take him in and it was my turn today. We’ve also been dropping food round for him as well, and people have been inviting him to dinner because he’s not known for his cooking skills.

But she’s on the mend, we think, I saw her today briefly, and she seemed much brighter, although the weird food they give you in ICU in Greek hospitals is really strange, it’s like a sort of rice gruel. I wouldn’t want that at all, no matter how ill I was. So, get well soon Stella, I know you don’t watch this, but get well soon anyway.

I’ve learned some stuff this week, so I’m going to tell you all about that in the next bit.

This week on the Own It podcast

We were talking a lot about when you should hire a coach or a mentor and what you should look for in that coach or mentor. And I’ve had a fantastic experience this week of actually just talking to someone who is a very experienced business person, I might add, and they asked me one question which shifted my whole thinking about everything.

And the reasons really, you need a coach and a mentor, I just made some notes here, is that you don’t know what you don’t know and you don’t know lots of things.

You know, you don’t know the pitfalls, you don’t know the things that can go wrong, you don’t know the ways to save time and money, there’s a lot that you don’t know, but your mentor or coach will know.

The great questions thing is really important. A coach will know, a good coach, a trained coach will know the kind of questions to ask you to get you thinking differently. That’s exactly what happened to me this week, and I want to tell you about that in a minute.

And there are other ways to do things. There are ways that work better, there are ways that you might not have thought of, there are ways that other people would do it differently to you. And that’s really valuable to be able to knock those kind of ideas around with someone who is very experienced, ideally in the thing that you want to achieve.

So this happened to me this week. My sister Sarah is moving on to pastures new and I’m recruiting for a new VA. And I was getting quite stressed about it, because Sarah’s, while she’s making all the training videos and tick lists and things for the new person, there was a little bit of ambiguity about when she would actually get those done by.

So we had a little bit of ambiguity around the dates that I needed to hire someone for. And then I was thinking I was going to have to train them myself. I can’t just throw them in the deep end, getting them watching a load of videos, and pray that it works. So I was going to have to make myself available for a week or two on the crossover, handover period.

And I was getting super stressed about that, especially when, you know, the accident happened to my friend up the road, because we’re all sort of mucking in with driving and things like that. So I’ve got that on my plate, as well as the trying to get my normal work done, and trying to create a new product for my client, Jane, and also get my book out. So there’s quite a lot happening that was worrying me and I didn’t really need any extra work.

And so, I was talking to my friend Steph, who is a extremely experienced business person. She used to run a massive telecoms company, you know, and she was sent out to run the India office, and stuff like that, that’s how good she is.

She just made me think that I don’t need to do that myself, I could… I don’t know what happened, we were just having a conversation, and I suddenly thought, “Oh my God, she’s right. I don’t have to do that myself as well. I could hire someone to do the changeover for me, to help me recruit the right person, to help Sarah get the videos and training tick lists together in time, and then she can train and manage the new person, and make sure that they’re supervised properly, and that they’re able to ask questions, and all that jazz.”

I didn’t have to do that bit myself, which was such a relief, I can’t tell you, because I can just crack on with my day-to-day work, my marketing, you know, creating the videos, doing the things that only I can do.

And in the mean time, you know, a very experienced project manager is going to look after the handover, so there’s a smooth transition. And it’s well worth the investment for me, because I was getting pretty stressed, I can tell you.

So, there we go, it’s a really good idea to have a coach or a mentor. One of the main things is you don’t know what you don’t know, it gets you thinking differently, and it saves you time and money. And it makes you, you know, think about things differently.

No you’re not necessarily having to do everything yourself. You could find people abroad who don’t cost very much money, who are super skilled and super good at English and in your time zone. So I’m looking for someone in eastern Europe, or in South Africa, in Portugal, anywhere really that’s on the same kind of time zone as me.

So, that’s it, that’s it for this week. What can you do differently, how can you think differently? Where can you find yourself a coach or a mentor who can help you get there faster? Hope you enjoyed this week. And do feel free to ask any questions underneath.

What’s on the blog and the podcast this week?

On the blog, I’ve been covering social media marketing, right the way through from why you should be thinking about using it for your business before it’s too late, and that’s on the Vzine as well.

So Vzine 85 is an amalgamation of the short videos on the blog. I tried that for a week and I’ve decided I don’t like it, I’m not going to be doing it again I don’t think, unless I’m absolutely desperate for time and pressed for content.

On Own It episode 211, can you believe it? We were talking about pro blogging. Sarah, my sister, and Judith both fancy being pro bloggers, just writing for a living, basically, and we talked a lot about what it takes to do that and what it takes to make that work. So do check that out if you’ve been thinking about becoming a pro blogger.

I still think it’s a very valid way to make a living, but you need to know some of the tricks of the trade, and I’ve interviewed quite a few pro bloggers, so I know quite a few of those. So go and check that out at NicolaCairncross.com/Blog, and I’ll see ya next week.

Creative Direction & Video Editing
Phoebe Soremekun

Intro Music
Pool Cosby

Incidental Music
[No Copyright Music] Fresh Start – Joakim Karud
[Non-Copyrighted Music] Chill Jazzy Lofi Hip Hop (Royalty Free) Jazz Hop Music
Chill & Relaxing Lo-Fi Hip-Hop Instrumental – Warm Nights // No Copyright Music

Drone footage of The Mani
Georgios Ser-Aouas

Drone Footage of Shoreham by Sea
Scott Wright Photography

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