I’ve been on a 9-year entrepreneurial journey. For 8 of those years, I’ve been moseying along without a detailed roadmap. Instead, I’ve had a vague outline of a path that I’ve consistently stayed on. I’ve stumbled, ran, walked and sat down in the middle of the path and had a crying spell. But in my alone time, I’ve discovered two key things about myself. I am competitive and I require accountability to ascend this mountain that is life.
Along the way, I’ve met some phenomenal people, implemented some dope apps/software and come across some bomb tools/concepts that have helped me be a better human, stronger mentally and ultimately more successful in leveraging my time. I’m going to share a few of these things with you and please note some of these are affiliate links, where I get a small percentage if you use my link. As always, my philosophy with most things is for you to take what you need and leave the rest.
First, let’s get a bit of challenging work out of the way. I need you to get comfortable with introspection/going inward. When you step out onto Beyonce’s internet streets, how will you know what resonates? What you need to take in and implement/execute. And what you promptly need to throw in the trash, cause it’s just not your vibe. If I’ve learned nothing else, I know for sure everything isn’t for everybody. Some of the things that work for me, will not work for you because you require something different.
So, take a look at some of the things that have been game changers for me:
Dubsado is a business management solution/customer relationship management system. I’ve used it for years and implemented it for a client. It allows you to build relationships, schedule appointments, create workflows, send proposals, contracts and invoices. You can start using for free, pricing kicks in after 3 clients. https://www.dubsado.com/?c=thelifestylegroup
Calm is an app for sleep and meditation. It helps you experience better sleep, lower stress, and less anxiety. To be honest, I rarely use the meditation part of this app, the sleep stories are what I love. They describe sleep stories as an innovative take on the classic bedtime story and have a saying that they hope you never hear the end of a story. And I haven’t because I’m usually asleep by the middle of the reading. If you want to try it out for free, they have a free resource page, with meditations, stories, music, talks and more. Just google calm sleep stories free.
Shine is a meditation app. And you might ask, “Well Jamie, why do you use Shine AND Calm?” Well, I actually discovered the Shine app first and what drew me to it, was that 90% of their meditations are voiced by women of color. I want to hear that in my ear as I am focusing on protecting and strengthening my mental health. Even the meditation topics themselves speak to my intersectionality as a black woman. Topics include things like, My rest is non-negotiable, You deserve to prioritize yourself, Representation Burnout, Conquer your inner critic and Focus on what you can control. These topics confirmed that I made the right choice.
Focusmate is a software that changes the way you work by connecting you to other professionals who have committed to being accountable for finishing their most important work. When you choose your time slot, the software pairs you with an accountability partner from around the world for a live virtual co-working session that will keep you on task. I love this company and guess what? You get 3 free sessions every week and if you want to upgrade it’s $5 a month, yep only $5!!
Forest App is an app that helps make the idea of focusing away from our phone into a fun game which is allowing you to grow a wide variety of trees when you successfully stay off your phone for different lengths of time that you specify.
I hope you can create the intention to make time to try at least one of these resources or shoot all of them!! They are integral parts of my progression and I use most of them on a daily basis.