30 days to DONE [my big Feb project reveal]

IN THIS EMAIL:

🥸 THE BIG PROJECT I’M GOING ALL IN ON IN FEBRUARY: Yep, I’m gonna tell you alllll about it [before anyone else knows]. 👀
👉 ALL THE JUICY DETAILS: Exactly how I’ve mapped this project out, broke it down and plan to get it very fucking done by the end of Feb.
👁️ SETTING YOU UP FOR SUCCESS: Some resources for you to use in case you wanna make February your GSD bitch too.

MY NEW PODCAST: BRAND POP
This is my 30 day project that I’m focusing on in Feb

I’ve wanted to launch a podcast foreverrrrr. Literally EVER.

Why haven’t I done it yet?

Especially when I get at least a few messages every week in my DMs from ppl in my audience who randomly just ask me to do one with zero prompting?

Or when I hear back from other podcast hosts who I do interviews with who tell me that my episode was one of the highest rated all year?

Fuck if I know. 🤦‍♀️

But all that’s bout to change…cause next month is the month this thing is coming to life, bay-beyyyyyyyyy.

Here’s the one liner I’ve written to describe this soon-to-be, definitely happening, get ready to slam your finger down on the subscribe button, podcast of mine:

Brand Pop is a podcast  that takes a deep dive look at business, marketing and personal branding through the lens of bad reality TV, pop culture and juicy TikTok trends. If you’re a business owner who wants to learn how to brand yourself like a Real Housewife, connect with your audience like Emma Chamberlain, set the trends like Alix Earle and document your life like Gary Vee so that you can truly become a “category of one,” put your headphones on, grab your Amazon “hot girl walk” matching set and strap in. 

TELL ME THE TRUTH RIGHT THE HELL NOW: what do you think? ⬆️

I’m planning for this to be a big fat combo platter of all the shit I already am full-on obsessed with and spend way too much time thinking about just for funzies: pop culture, business, marketing, branding, vibes, TV shows, social media, standing out from the crowd, ‘how to become a category of one,” polarizing hot takes, behavioral economics and buyer behavior.

Ok, so now let’s get into the details of the project planning shit:

The first thing I ALWAYS do before I plan a big project is to create a Pinterest vibes board.

These are always different depending on the project and my mood, but it’s basically a combo of all sorts of photos: fashion, interiors, vibe-y images, cities, spaces, etc. Don’t be precious about what you pin the first time…get anything on there you feel a “ohhhhh” type reaction to. You can always remove or edit it later.

Here’s my Pinterest board for Brand Pop.

This serves a few main purposes: since I’m such a visual chick, it immediately gets me excited and in the mood to do the thing I’m bout to do; it helps me think through and define the visuals as well as the feelings, energy and emotions of the project; it also always gets me thinking bigger and more creatively about the project [even if the project itself doesn’t feel particularly creative].

It’s now become such an important part of my processI HIGHLY recommend you do this too.

Now I’m gonna specifically lay out the rest of my planning process step-by-step so you can steal it and make it work for you.

HOW TO PLAN YOUR OWN 30 DAY PROJECT
These are all the steps I take when I’m planning shit in my biz
or in my life

Ok, so after I’ve got my Pinterest vibes board locked and loaded, here are my next steps:

1️⃣ DEFINE THE PROJECT GOALS: Here’s where you gotta get hella specific about what you plan to do. Cause what does “launch a podcast” actually mean? There’s like one gazillion steps in between declaring you’re gonna launch your podcast and getting it ACTUALLY launched. So here’s how I defined my goals for Brand Pop:
// Final cover art
// 3 complete solo podcast episodes recorded and edited
// A trailer/intro episode recorded and edited
// Music chosen, purchased and edited for show opening
// 12 week episode calendar mapped out
// Launch date finalized
// Social media launch plan [2 weeks - 1 month]
// A “commercial” for joining this very email list
// SOP process created and documented for all future episodes
// All podcast copy written [about, show notes for first few episodes, etc].

2️⃣ BIG PROJECT BRAINSTORM: This is where I like to get all of my ideas for a project down on a google doc so I can get em all out of my head. I let this brain dump be as chaotic as it needs to be—out of order, random ideas, bits and pieces of info—just all of my messy thoughts. If you’re on your game, you can then try to organize these, but honestly: I usually go back later and do that.

3️⃣ BREAK EACH TASK DOWN INTO INDIVIDUAL TODO ITEMS: Again, you gotta get focused on all the steps required to do shit. So, for example: exactly HOW do I make sure at the end of the month I have 3 solo episodes recorded and edited? What are the steps to get me there? For each item on my list, I break down the individual todos with as much specificity and detail as I can.

4️⃣ RE-ORDER, GROUP, AND PRIORITIZE MY LIST OF TODOS: This is where you have to put things in order and make it all make sense. So here’s what I mean: I can’t create or record an opening for the show BEFORE I choose the music for the opening. So you’re gonna have to cut/paste shit all over the page at this stage to get things in some semblance of an order.

5️⃣ BREAK ALL TODOS DOWN WEEK BY WEEK: Now you’re going to have to try to assign each of these tasks and todos a logical order week by week. We’re doing our sprint over 30 days so I have my projects broken down by week 1, 2, 3 and 4. You’re then going to need to take a look at your calendar and create blocks of times to get each of these todos done [and fit stuff in in between your other appts and responsibilities]. And remember: since you’ve already broken shit down step-by-step, you shouldn’t have rando blocks of time…you should know your todos for each appt on your calendar.
**Now this is gonna require some guessing, but you can always adjust your cal or todos later on. This is also the time you MIGHT realize that your project is way the hell too big if you can’t fit everything into your cal in a logical way.

Now you’ve set yourself up for success for getting this project done: you’ve defined your goals, broken each goal done by specific tasks and todos, got it scheduled on your calendar and you’re ready to go.

Now you just need to make sure you actually DO all of these things.

**If you feel like you need more help figuring this project planning thing out for yourself, want to see my exact google doc where I’ve mapped this month long plan in detail, want more examples or are dying for some 1:1 brainstorming time with me on your specific project and goals, get your application in today for [One] so you can join us tomorrow at our February sprint planning sesh.

RESOURCES
Here are some more resources for you if you wanna go at this project sprint month planning thang on your own

➡️ How to be effortlessly disciplined: 5 Mindset shifts 

➡️ A bunch of Notion project planning templates [the one I’m using isn’t for sale anymore 😢 but I’ve been crazy loving Notion for staying organized lately].

➡️ I’m pretty positive you’ve probably said out loud by now: “IF ERICA TALKS ABOUT THE ARC BROWSER ONE MORE FUCKING TIME I’M GONNA PUNCH A PUPPY.” And yet….I just can’t leave it off my list. It’s still changing my life on the daily [If you have ADHD, run, don’t walk to get this thing]. It’s also free, which is even more confusing, but yeah. Get it.

➡️ Teux Deux is a simple, verrrry basic todo list platform and I’m newly obsessed. I used this years and years ago when it first came out and a couple of weeks ago someone in our membership recommended it. So I checked it out again and now I’m back and all in.

➡️ Calling this is a “resource” is stretching things, buuuuut, I got this recently on Amazon and I’m full on obsessed. It’s a phone stand, charger, wireless speaker combo and I love it so much I’m literally dragging it from room to room with me. The speaker isn’t great, but it works fine for my purposes. And I just love the way it displays your phone more at eye level.

Ok, so now it’s time to start planning YOUR Feb project. I promise to keep you posted on how mine is going…and look out for Brand Pop coming to a podcast platform near you.😎