How to Integrate Change and Improvement in Your Business

📣 We’re publishing this week’s solo episode a day early as a friendly reminder that the Free Time podcast is nominated for a Webby Award, the "Oscars of the Internet!" Please visit http://itsfreetime.com/webby to cast your vote by the end of today, Thursday, April 20! This nomination alone is a major achievement, putting us in the top 12% of nearly 14,000 projects entered—thank you so much for being here and for your support :)

There’s a wall in my house that I know would look gorgeous if it were painted a deep, velvety, rich navy blue. It’s behind the TV, so every day I stare in its general direction while watching shows, and on some days I even remember (fantasize about!) my vision of painting it blue.

But the wall remains stubbornly bare, stuck on factory settings. Why is it so hard to change one seemingly simple thing, even when a future vision is so strong?

🌟 3 Key Takeaways:

• Remember the awkward stage within the four Levels of Learning: Unconscious incompetence (you don’t know what you don’t know), conscious incompetence (the hardest mentally and emotionally!), conscious competence (awkward but functional), and finally, unconscious competence (the new skills and systems are fully integrated and automatic)
• Plan for integration time: Deadlines press on, and yet doing the same work takes 2x or 4x as long because you’re improving, growing, and stretching into new arenas.
• Create support scaffolding through new systems: Old process grooves are well-worn, new ones take time, habit change, and updated systems. For example, when I want to change what we include in our show notes, the templates we currently use to create them are still based on our old way of doing it. Making all of the necessary changes takes extra effort, but ultimately makes the new method easier.

📝 Permission: You have permission not to do everything all at once and for things to take longer than you think they should. You also have permission to be incredibly awkward, a little confused, maybe lost, or even discouraged as you traverse the different levels of learning from unconscious incompetence to conscious competence.

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Set up one new template or process that could help you integrate something you’re learning or implement an improvement to the business.

📘Books Mentioned

• Out on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio by Jessica Abel
• Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
• Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One

🔗 Resources Mentioned

• Jay Acunzo’s podcast: Unthinkable and community: The Creator Kitchen (use promo code FRIENDOFAFRIEND for $100 off your membership for life)
• Jessica Abel’s podcasts: The Autonomous Creative, Out on the Wire and article: Hustle Culture is Really a Scam — On Cyclical Burnout
• Jenny’s Community: BFF (apply promo code PODCAST)
• Licensing: Pivot Programs

🎧Related Episodes

• Pivot: 47: Live Fiercely, Study Deeply . . . While Earning a Living — with Jonathan Fields
• Free Time: 181: Be Irreplaceable with My Creative Coach Jay Acunzo, 057: You+ vs. You 2.0 with MBS

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https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/182

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