4 ways to context-switch easier

(5 min read) Switching between creative and business thinking throughout the day is hard. Maayan Gordon has some tricks to make it easier. Featuring Wordpress, ChatGPT, ConvertKit, Splice, Acorns, Kartra, Stripe

Maayan Gordon

When we take in a ton of new information or meet a lot of new people, our brain needs time and space to process all that new information and integrate it.

Maayan Gordon is constantly shifting between business and creative; for her, content is a vehicle to acquire consulting clients.

Balancing between the two is a challenge for many Creators, but Maayan has figured out systems and tactics to make it work.

Let’s get into it!

Links

The Business

Breakdown

Observations

Maayan has a business that looks very similar to mine! The bulk of her revenue comes from consulting:

It’s usually related to social media strategy development; influencer marketing strategy development is another area. Sometimes I help optimize systems and processes, just because I've built my own businesses and have a lot of awareness of how things can be optimized.

While she’s usually paid in cash, she does sometimes accept equity. Given the risky nature of equity compensation, she looks for ways to get other value out of the partnerships.

I look at it from an asset acquisition standpoint…Are they building a technology that, by being an advisor, I would get access to for free or at cost to use for one of my other businesses or to drive monetization and revenue?

100% of Maayan’s clients are acquired through LinkedIn, as she’s found it to be an incredibly effective place to build client and partner relationships.

LinkedIn is my absolute money-making platform. It's where all of my consulting contracts have come from. I would say Instagram and TikTok are supportive, trust-building tools, and skill showcase tools, but I build relationships through LinkedIn.

More importantly, LinkedIn is also where the spenders are.

LinkedIn is the place where 80% of the people on the platform have money.

Creating content on LinkedIn and elsewhere is Maayan’s main source of both credibility and client discovery; as such, she finds herself context switching between creative and business-thinking quite often.

Here’s the thing about context switching - it kills productivity and creates burnout. I’m not making that up - it’s science!

You lose 20% of cognitive capacity switching back and forth between two functions e.g. content creation and consulting…and, as we all know, thinking is tiring, so this leads to exhaustion (and burnout) as well.

Some work, however, requires context switching - and being a Creator who monetizes through consulting is one of them.

Content —> Consulting is currently my business model, and context switching is one of the biggest challenges I struggle with. I was very curious how Maayan handles it.

She shared four (4) tactics that work for her to minimize either stuck in one project or having trouble adjusting to another:

  1. Go outside

When I have really good Zoom meetings or I do a podcast…it's very hard to do focused, sitting-at-my-desk analytical work right after I have that kind of hyped energy.

So, I'll go outside and spend five minutes outside, because naturally, just by shifting my environment and being in a different space, I don't feel like I have to force that mental change.

  1. Read something unrelated

Literally reading three pages of a book will do it for me, because when I'm reading, I have to focus on the words. It's again, just completely different brain pattern processing.

  1. Create time capacity with ChatGPT

A lot of mental creative time is spent searching through what I'd call the blank space in our mind, trying to find something to bounce off of or pivot in the right direction.

Instead of searching through that blank space, I can immediately bounce an idea off ChatGPT to reach the next closer stepping stone.

  1. Cycle business and creative work in 2-week “seasons”

I might go really hard on meetings for two weeks, and then intentionally push any meetings that people want to schedule with me two weeks out after that, so I have space to do all the other things I'd like to, that I didn't get to do in those two weeks of heavy meetings.

I find that to be incredible for an incubation period. When we take in a ton of new information or meet a lot of new people, our brain needs time and space to process all that new information and integrate it.

The Stack

If a product isn't consistently growing and working on development, at some point you're going to want to switch to a different product.

Website - Kartra, moving to Wordpress

I love WordPress, but it's just a little bit harder to set up. Platforms that are more packaged with fewer features are much easier to set up, which is what I initially did when I didn't want to invest a lot of time into it.

Email - ConvertKit

When I look at technologies, I don't just look at what they're doing now. I look at what are the efforts they're taking to grow and step into new spaces. So ConvertKit has their own Creator marketplace that they've launched…

Whether I use that or not, the idea that they're thinking in that direction, to me, is a really positive indicator that there are going to be more features and other things that come out that benefit me.

Scheduling - Schedules directly with people

I used to use Calendly…I wasn't able to optimize my energy flow nearly as much. For me, my energy flow is a huge, huge component of my productivity levels.

What that means is sometimes it makes sense to schedule two meetings back to back. Sometimes those two meetings need to be on completely separate days, depending on the topic and depending on who I'm talking to and depending on the other things that are happening that day.

Payment Processing - Stripe or Wire Transfers

I have lots of friends who disagree and say that I should always get a check or a wire transfer, but there's something in the security [of Stripe] for me.

I've experienced homelessness for significant periods of time, and…that is an almost permanent part of my psyche that I don't know I'll ever be able to erase.

…I can afford to pay a 3.5% fee. It's not a big deal.

Link in Bio - Direct to website or ConvertKit landing page

I haven't done recent research, but Linktrees used to have lower conversion click-through rates because people have to click two buttons…I like sending them directly to something.

Project Management - Calendar + Google Docs/Drive + Tracks in her head

Google Docs and Google Drive I use almost daily. I have a huge, huge amount of architecture of seeded and nested folders that are all searchable. I've got a system for how I label things so that if I forget where it is, I can still search for it.

I've used Trello in the past. For me, Trello only works if I have a virtual assistant or someone else to help me manage it, because I can get too lost in it.

Communication - Slack + WhatsApp + Telegram

Brand Deals - Inbound, self-negotiated

Speaking - Inbound, self-negotiated

Finances - Quickbooks (husband manages), CreditKarma, Acorns, Whole Life Insurance policy

I also use the Acorns app, not because it's a good investment tool—I actually don't think it is at all—but because it's a good savings tool. It takes little chunks of money that I would otherwise probably waste and puts them in a separate spot that is somewhat diversified from other things that I do.

Video Production - Splice + Light Ring + Rode Wireless Go 2 mics

AI-based programs that can do different video editing things are things I'm really interested in.

I've tried out probably five to ten different ones, where I just was not impressed with what they're doing or I was impressed but it would take way too much time.

Other Content Production - ChatGPT + Dall-E 2 + Canva

I never ever use the content ChatGPT creates in a LinkedIn post, because in my opinion, it's not very good. It's very dehumanized sounding compared to when I'm writing. I've done quite a few experiments trying to get it to adopt my style of speaking, and it has not been able to even come close, I'll be honest.

Video Distribution - Direct upload

Written Content Distribution - Direct Upload

Team - Looking to hire 1-2 people part time

Maybe I need to hire someone, and maybe that only looks like an hour or two a week. That's fine. People don't have to think of hiring as this giant, scary thing. You can start out really small. Even if it takes one mental task off your plate, that might be huge in terms of the results for your business.

This is something I advise with Creators. Many Creators build a great following, but their videos take them eight hours to make. Like, hire an editor. Obviously, finding the right person is important, but hiring out just one tiny piece of what you're doing is a huge step toward creating a really optimized workflow where you have way more freedom.

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