Industry: Productivity Hacks & Personal Branding
On this episode of The Lounge, Nick chats with industry experts Phyllis Harbinger and Farah Merhi. Phyllis shares her tested and approved productivity hacks and Farah jumps in on building your personal brand.
Productivity hacks with Phyllis Harbinger
Phyllis’s year is off to a great start and some this can be attributed to changes she has made personally to help her be more productive. Here are Phyllis’s productivity hacks:
- Work out in the morning: Working out in the morning gives you a jump start on the day to be more productive and have more willpower. Often, it is hard to motivate yourself to exercise after a day of work. It may hard to get this practice put in place, but you may find more success by making small adjustments and changes over time, which can include going to bed earlier. Phyllis and Nick also stay in hotels with gyms, so there is no excuse to miss a workout, even when traveling.
- First thing, scan your email, but don’t get sucked in: It’s easy to spend hours or even days putting out fires in your inbox and not get any “real work” done. Phyllis recommends scanning your inbox in the morning as well as using rules and filters to help prioritize your actions for the rest of the day. It can also be helpful to turn off email notifications on your desktop or phone and make time to intentionally check. me can help reduce your influx of mail. It can also help to schedule emails to go out at specific times.
- Don’t skip breakfast: Phyllis recommends fueling yourself for success, which can mean not skipping breakfast and eating smaller, more frequent meals. In time, you can feel so much better by eating the right things that eating something that just tastes good doesn’t seem worth it.
- Prioritize your To-Do’s: It is easy to procrastinate and put things off, but Phyllis says to do the hardest item on your list first. For example, if you dread estimates and put them off for days, you may be losing business. By turning those estimates around within a day, you can capitalize on your customers’ readiness to purchase your services.
- Standing meetings: Standing during your meetings with your colleagues or clients can save time and increase productivity. It can also allow for quicker decisions.
Phyllis has incorporated these practices into her day to day. She also spoke about creating a morning ritual and meditation.
To learn more about Phyllis, email her or visit Facebook.
Personal Branding with Farah Merhi
Farah Merhi is a designer, stylist, social media influencer, and founder of Inspire Me Home Decor. More recently, Farah has started curating questions from Instagram to answer on her Youtube channel. What has started as an outlet for her passion for interior design has turned into a brand.
Personal branding is the way you represent yourself to the world. Farah recommends staying true to yourself, your design aesthetic, and your fans. Also, make sure that brand collaborations make sense. Your credibility is crucial and can affect how people perceive you and relationships with other brands.
It matters how you present yourself online for networking purposes and getting new clients. You have to start somewhere and every post is important. Farah recommends having a goal where anyone who sees your posts or photos to know that it is from you and to be recognizable.
To learn more: about Farah, visit Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and Inspire Me Home Decor.
- Wrap Up
If you would like to hear more episodes, please visit us on iTunes or on our website at TheChaiseLoungePodcast.com. Lastly, find The Chaise Lounge on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter or post a review on iTunes, you may even hear your review read live on our next podcast. With that said keep dreaming big, and keep designing a great design business. See ya!
