Day in the life of an online business owner | Full BTS with Paige
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Mentioned in the Video:
Tripod - ROLLEI Tripod C5I Carbon*
Teleprompter - Pad ILight Pro 11*
Camera - SONY A7 MK4*
Lens - Sigma 16-28MM F2.8 DG DN*
Microphone - Rode Video Mic Pro*
Lights: Neewer Lights WITH Attachable Softboxes*
*That’s an affiliate link - my margarita fund thanks you kindly!
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Today I wanted to give you a full day in the life of an online business owner!
I woke up this morning at around seven, started to get ready, tidying the apartment, washed my hair, and then looked at my phone for what I had to do today.
And then I realized that I was supposed to be already filming a day in the life.
So I kind of miss the morning part, but whoops.
It is now. 9:00 AM I need to get all pretty now because I'm filming videos today.
It is Wednesday and that's the day I always film on. I have a fair bit to film because we were just in Germany for Easter and kind of took like a long-ish weekend there, so I didn't film anything last week.
So I have a bit more videos than normal on my plate today.
Now I know you might be thinking like Paige. Easter was a really long time ago, and you would be right!
As you can tell, I like to work ahead.
I don't like last-minute.
It stresses me out.
So, our videos always come out about a month after we've actually filmed them, so just so you know!
But anyways, let me catch you up to speed on what is happening right now in the business we are in pre, pre-launch phase for my course Square Secrets Business™.
This is one of our two major core sales of the year, and we have 30 affiliates helping us promote the course, which I am so exceptionally grateful for, and it's so much fun to launch with affiliates.
However, of course, it being a launch, I am definitely thinking about the launch like 24 7, even while I'm sleeping!
I'm thinking about the launch all of the time.
So I had a dream last night. I woke up and I was so stressed out cause I was like, oh my God, I had this dream that one affiliate had an email us to 4,000 people and I brought a thousand leads into our bootcamp.
And I was like, there's no way that's possible. Like, what is going on here? What's wrong? I'm thinking there was something like wrong with our tech or something. I don't know though!
Anyways, that is the honest truth about launching is your brain is on it 24/7.
So I thought I would share that with you because, uh, one of my past students, Ayesha, shout to Ayesha, she had asked, she's like, what is the reality of launching?
Like people always talk about course launching. They're like, oh, it's so stressful. It's so stressful. Like, whatever. But then, but then they're like, yeah, but you should totally do it!
And she's like…
do I actually wanna launch? Like, I don't know, it doesn't sound like a good time. LOL…
The reality of it is that your brain is just on it a lot, it doesn't really shut off for like however long you're launching for basically!
I got a little update this morning. We were doing well on launch numbers!
I actually didn't look at them myself cause I find that does stress me out. But we are on track for whatever we hit this time last year in leads into our pre-launch event.So I'm like stoked if we literally do the exact same as last year. I am so thrilled cuz last year we only had one launch with affiliates and this year we have two launches with affiliates. So even if we do the exact same, but two of them, it's gonna go well. So that's good!!
But yeah, so I am so stoked to knock some socks off of some attendees next week - I love hosting live trainings. It brings me so much joy!
I get such a buzz from them. I'm like on a high after I finish them, and especially when we have like a really engaged group of people who are like really active crowd and everything!
I just have so much fun delivering trainings and teaching things, so I am thrilled for the launch, but also thrilled for like a more chill work life after it's done #truthtalk !!
The plan for today
So lemme tell you exactly what is happening today. I need to film this video, which I'm filming right now, and then a few others. The other ones are more talking head-type videos, which thankfully are super quick and easy to film and not as complicated as this.
Then I also have two appointments today, which is kind of unusual.
I have at 11:00 AM call which is so exciting - it’s a Soho House orientation call. I'm thrilled to have been accepted to join Soho House. It took a surprisingly short amount of time. I heard people say it could take like six months or more until you get accepted, but I applied like maybe one to two months ago. So anyways, I'm just stoked to go to Soho Farmhouse and check out that whole situation!
They have a pool and a spa and riding and everything, so I'm stoked.
And then they also have the thing, which I think is the most practical for me - they have a Soho house in my neighborhood, which means that my parking pass works there, which means I can get there in 15 minutes as opposed to the co-working space, which I'm going to now which takes me a good 40 minutes to get there, and that's a bit of a mission, so I don't go that often!
And then at 1:00 PM I have a live that I'm doing with one of our affiliates to promote our bootcamp. So that is the other thing that we're doing.
And then this evening, very excitingly, my husband and I Florian, I'll just start calling him by his name now. Y'all. So Florian and I are heading to a concert this evening at the Royal Albert Hall.
I got him tickets for this for Christmas, and then we literally looked at our schedules for today and then was like, oh, we have that tonight.
So I'm gonna have to very quickly whip together an outfit for that.
It's at 7.30, so I have a hard stop time for work today!
So anyways, that's it. Let me finish getting dressed and getting ready and then we can actually start doing some work.
Filming outfits
If you have ever wondered why I seem to wear the exact same every day. It's just because on days when I film my editor and I figured out the perfect outfit, we need a top, which contrasts the background when I'm filming, which the kitchen behind me is very light colored. So we need something which is dark.
Then we need something which doesn't have too much jazz happening.
So if you have like stripes or like very small print on a shirt, then that can look messed up when you're filming.
And then finally, also something which is high necked as well. So sometimes I’ll be talking and then my neck goes red and it just looks dreadful, it happened in one video and it was so awful and I was like, I'm just gonna where black turtlenecks from now on!!
So if you wondered why, I always wear black turtlenecks in my content. That is the method to the madness!
Onto the morning’s work
I know that you're supposed to do the big work first and then do the little things later. I've read Traction*.
I know the way you're supposed to work, but I just don't do it that way!
In traction they say - put the stones in first and then put the sand in after so it fills up the extra space, but I honestly do it the other way around cuz I feel like I can't focus on my work until I have like blank mental space!
So I just looked into my asana and my email and realized a few things I needed to do before I jump into the day!
I’ve rearranged a few things, figured out which videos I'm filming, assigned myself tasks to do those things. I made a grocery list, which I need to do afterwards, so that is what I'm doing.
A few other random, things which just appeared from team members. I pushed to tomorrow or Friday because I do need to actually film a lot of videos today!
How I batch my week
How I batch my week by the way, is on Mondays and Tuesdays I write scripts for YouTube videos, plan content, plan thumbnails, those sorts of things.
Wednesdays, I film.
Thursdays, I do anything related to
course launches. Granted, of course, we were a week out from a course launch, so I'm still doing like a live with someone today, and that does tend to happen. The closer you get to a launch, the more launch stuff you kind of have to do other days a week, but typically do launch related things, course related things on Thursdays…
And then Fridays I do admin and business planning also!
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The team behind the scenes
In terms of the team that helps me run this because I know that to people it seems like there's a lot of Paige Brenton's running the show, or I must be a super-human and that's not the case!
It’s just that I have a team.
So on the team I have one girl who does our tech stuff and our customer service things.
Then we have another one who does video editing. And things related to drafting, copywriting and emails.
And then we have one person who manages our affiliate program.
And then we have, me and I do content creation and course creation and general like managing the business admin type things.
So we have a pretty simplistic structure and I'm super happy with that.
It's just four people and that's so much easier to manage than it used to be back in the day!
I feel like when I look at other businesses, they're doing 47 things and I'm like, we have a pretty simple business!
We have a couple of products, a couple of courses that we sell, but we’re not constantly creating, I maybe create one new product a year, as opposed to some people, who are creating like five mini-courses every year and I'm just like… wow… that sounds like a lot of work!!
And then our marketing is pretty streamlined and consistent as well.
So that's pretty easy.
And everything in the business we try to figure out like how can we simplify this?
How can we make it super simple and like automate as much as possible?
So before I hop into the call with Soho House I’m going to set up my filming equipment for later!
So right after the call, I can start actually getting some filming done!
My filming gear
So I just came back from the weekend, which means that I brought all of my, before Germany, I went on a trip to the Netherlands, so I brought all of my content creation stuff with me.
I'm also excited because this summer I'm going to Canada for a month, and then I'm going to Greece for a business trip after that.
So I'm gonna need to bring all my work stuff. And so this is everything that I have with me when I need to create content. And I'm traveling. Oh and the bag is the Kamrette Lyra Backpack - I’m in love!
So here’s the whole list of things I use for filming!! Want alll the deets on my Youtube Set up - read this where I break it down for you!
Camera - SONY A7 MK4*
Lens - Sigma 16-28MM F2.8 DG DN*
Tripod - ROLLEI Tripod C5I Carbon*
Teleprompter (old) - Pad ILight Pro 11*
Teleprompter (new) - Podcaster, Parrot Teleprompter*
Microphone - Rode Video Mic Pro*
Lights: Neewer Lights WITH Attachable Softboxes*
There are also memory cards in here. Battery charging thing with multiple batteries.
I've got a new teleprompter and I really like this one - it is the Podcaster, Parrot Teleprompter so small and therefore a lot easier to use than the other one!
I also have a gimbal, which to be honest, I don't use that often. And then I have a memory card adapter thing for my laptop, little rode mic, a wireless one… other bits & pieces!
Those are all the bits and pieces that I have, which I bring with me when I need to create away from home
Oh and there’s even space inside for my laptop which goes in the back. And I just put the charger in the front pocket as well in my AirPods. Lip balm too very important!
So yeah, that is the bag that I bring with me anytime I need to create content abroad!
Update - it’s 11.45!
Okay we are finally almost ready to actually film something!
I’ve straightened my hair a bit, so it looks a little nicer and right now I'm just getting the script out of the plan, which I had made.
I put it into my notes app on my computer. And then I open it. I copy the entire script into my old iPhone, and then I put it into the teleprompter app, which relates to the parrot teleprompter & voila!!
And then I just read that out.
So now I have my script in. I am finally ready to film the video!
As you can see, the amount of time that it takes to just get ready to film a video is like so insane that you need to do a bunch at a time!!! #batchlife !!
Once I actually put this in, sit down and start filming it, I can do them really, really fast.
Like I have an entire script. I script it down to the like jokes haha!
So I literally just have to sit and read it out basically and try to make it look like I'm not reading something, which is not actually that tough, once you get the hang of it!
It is 2:00 PM and I've already finished work!
That literally never happens.
There's still more I could do, but for the most part, everything that's important that I had to do today, I got done, which is awesome!
So now what I need to do is go for shopping, cause we have no food and pick an outfit for the concert this evening.
Something so exciting has just happened too! We got tickets to the King's Garden party in May, just before his Coronation!
Mind-blown that we got those. But very exciting!
But I do need a pair of beige, nude heels for that. So I was thinking of going to do that anyways, but seen as I just finished work early and I like going shopping when there's no one in the stores. I might when I go grocery shopping, stop by one of the stores on the Kings Road, and see if I can get some heels, which I could also potentially wear tonight!
Off shopping!!
Okay. Very successful shopping trip. I bought a pair of heels.
They're tall!!
I have the same ones in black, so I know how comfortable slash uncomfortable they are to wear haha.
They look fantastic.
They always like, they don't look that tall and then you wear them. Legit I feel pretty tall! We'll see. I might wear them tonight.
I'm definitely gonna wear them to this garden party. I don't know how long the garden party actually is. We have to go pick up the tickets and we haven't done that yet. So I'm not really sure how long of an event it is. It can't be more than like three hours, so if it’s like that I should be good and not have too sore feet at the end!!
And I have managed to wear those shoes in black for a wedding for six hours or something. So that hopefully is fine.
Top London food tip!
I just picked up two spiced carrot cupcakes.
These things taste so good.
I went to a Pilates class one time at this place called Vita Pilates and then had a carrot spiced carrot cupcake after, and it was the best part of that Pilates class haha!
The Pilates class was good, but the carrot cupcake was amazing!
So every time I go by now I stop in - Highly recommend if you're ever in the area!
Okay, getting back to business now.
We are going to go grocery shopping, so we actually have some food and I have milk so I can make a coffee and we're gonna go to the new Waitrose!
There's a new Waitrose on Kings Road and I haven't been to it yet, so we're gonna go there. Very exciting. And then after that we're gonna go home and I'll do last few things, I need to upload all the videos, which I filmed today, I need to take thumbnail photos and then I think we'll actually have time to cook dinner before we go to this concert!
How many hours I work in a day
Okay, it is 5:00 PM and we have a nice, very frothy coffee!
So I took maybe like an hour and a half to go grocery shopping and get those shoes. So I think I've worked about six hours today and I feel like that is pretty typical.
It's kind of hard to define exactly how much I work, and my husband liked to joke when he was a teacher that he would work so much harder than I would! But the truth is, I don't normally do like an eight-hour day sitting at the laptop, but I do pretty much spend like every minute of my life thinking about my business, if I'm not living my life or seeing friends or doing hobbies or whatever!
So I'm always either thinking about work or learning for work.
I listen to podcasts and watch YouTube videos on business while I cook dinner.
I read business and personal develop books before I go to bed and once I wake up.
So while I might not be completing a task all of the time, if you ask how much time my brain is on the business.
It's pretty much most of the day!
I used to feel like, oh no, you should shut it off, it's bad to work that much, but the truth is, I'm not trying to win some medal for running a huge business while only working three hours a day or something.
I just want to spend my days doing the things that bring me joy and learning about business and researching things about business is something that brings me a lot of joy.
So next, I just need to take down this filming equipment and make dinner - it’s not gonna be anything special! And then say bye to you so I can head to this concert!
Okay, we are dressed!
I have my pearl earrings and pearl necklace from my mother, and then a Strathberry Bag and I actually went for little light blue heels. They're really comfortable and I think the ones which I got earlier are too tall and they're gonna be too uncomfortable to wear for like a really long event, so I actually think I'm gonna go exchange them for a shorter heel height!
I' will actually say goodbye to you here because I don't think I'll be able to chat with you at the concert - but thank you so much for watching. See ya next time!!!
Oh & if you can’t wait - have a peek at my London apartment - here’s the full tour!
