Join host Spring Richardson Perry and guest Jean-Luc Boissoneault as they discuss the importance of time management for business owners. Jean-Luc is a business coaching wizard whose journey from fitness coach to entrepreneurial success epitomizes the power of disciplined scheduling. No more chaotic to-do lists or multitasking mayhem; this episode promises to steer you towards a future where your calendar commands and your focus remains unwavering on the path to your vision. Whether you're a budding startup or at the helm of a flourishing enterprise, Jean-Luc's insights on syncing personal habits with business efficiency are the golden nuggets you've been searching for, all delivered through enthralling tales and a wealth of experience.
Join host Spring Richardson Perry and guest Jean-Luc Boissoneault as they discuss the importance of time management for business owners. Jean-Luc is a business coaching wizard whose journey from fitness coach to entrepreneurial success epitomizes the power of disciplined scheduling. No more chaotic to-do lists or multitasking mayhem; this episode promises to steer you towards a future where your calendar commands and your focus remains unwavering on the path to your vision. Whether you're a budding startup or at the helm of a flourishing enterprise, Jean-Luc's insights on syncing personal habits with business efficiency are the golden nuggets you've been searching for, all delivered through enthralling tales and a wealth of experience.
Welcome to the Spring Forward Podcast. I'm your host, Spring Richardson Perry, the organizational change agent that is going to help your business achieve the excellence you desire. If you're a business leader looking to take your business to the next level or simply looking for new ways to spring your business forward, then this is the podcast for you. So let's get down to business and spring forward into excellence. Welcome, welcome to another episode of the Spring Forward Podcast. I'm your host, Spring Richardson Perry, and today we have a fantastic guest with us, Jean-Luc Boiseneau. He is an entrepreneur, an author and an international speaker. He started with nothing and he built several successful multi-million dollar businesses. He's worked with many small business owners one-on-one and eventually Jean-Luc discovered a blueprint for helping local small business owners go from putting out fires all day to building a well-oiled machine, and so we know that is the key to success and sustainability in any business. So he calls this blueprint his signature system method. He lays out this blueprint in his book called Time Management for Small Business Owners. So let's welcome Jean-Luc to the show. Welcome.
Speaker 2:Jean-Luc, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:How's it?
Speaker 2:going Great. I'm super excited to be talking about this subject that I'm so passionate about. It seems riot first, maybe when you hear of time management, but it's just not dry to me.
Speaker 1:No, it's not dry at all, because if we don't manage our time efficiently, truly you're gonna fail at life because even just so much as small, something as small as having an appointment, especially for me. I have four kids, so if I have an appointment at 9 o'clock in the morning, I gotta make sure I get up on time to get them fed, clothed and off to school and then make sure that I get out, because most times appointments are 45 minutes away for me and so I have to like make sure everything is in place and know, like, how much time each thing takes. So it seems dry, but it's really not, and so I'm excited to lift up this point today and really talk about your book and just some things you you're talking about in this book time management for small business owners. So, to kind of just kick things off, can you tell us a little bit about your background and what it is that you do?
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, I'm a business coach. I started in the fitness world as a personal trainer when I was 17. I'm now 40. So I've always been a coach. I started building businesses. I've always been around. You know, even when I was a personal trainer, I was training millionaires, billionaires. I trained some billionaires and just observing them and like how they manage their time is really something right, like they had assistance and and it really gave me, you know, as a young guy, just sort of a sponge, observing these people and how they're running these successful businesses.
Speaker 2:And then I went into the stress aspect of things. You know, like I went from fitness to health, to stress and I was helping business leaders get less stress and time and stress you know they go together. Deadlines create a lot of stress in your body. So I started doing corporate talks on stress and learning everything. I fell into meditation. Meditation led me to sort of timelessness, you know, like no time because you're in this oneness, and I started meditation studio. You know this could go on and on, but then eventually reconnecting with my leadership and my fire and going okay, how does, how do I relate to time now that I've let go of time and come back to time and you know, one thing that I noticed was that when starting to work with business clients, leaders in all sorts of industries, you know, the common thing was when we would start, it was all about time.
Speaker 2:It's like the generally the business owner, the leader, is overwhelmed. Like I have too many things going on. You know, I'm drowning, I'm running around putting out fires and it's like whoa, whoa, whoa. Where do we start, right? So we start with time, we start with you, because to me I say this all the time it's that your business is a reflection of you.
Speaker 2:If your business is chaotic, it's because you're chaotic, right. And if it's sloppy in the way it's running, it's because your own habits are sloppy and we need to start there. And actually when we start there, it trickles, there's the, you know, it ripples out to all of the organization and like I'm talking small business owner that's even a solopreneur coach to working, you know just recently, like a leader that has a $20 million business. You know, with 50-plus employees, they're all going through the same thing. It doesn't matter, it's just we end up getting overwhelmed as we take stuff on and we don't know what to prioritize. Like, what matters, what should I be doing that's gonna move the ball forward and we get a little mixed up when we're like drowning, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, time is a constant challenge, and I feel a little honored here, because when you were saying about how your business is sort of a reflection of you and we were kind of just talking before we started recording about how organized everything was, I kind of feel like, oh good, I'm, maybe I'm a little bit more organized than what I thought, because I think we are our biggest critics, right, and so what other people and what we see a lot of times is very different, right. It's like I feel like I could be a lot more organized. But then, with you just kind of organically telling me that I was like, oh okay, well, maybe it's not as bad as I thought it was, and so talk to me. So talk to me a little bit about what inspired you to write this book, because, again, like we said, time is a constant challenge. We are our biggest critics, and so how you know what inspired you to write this book and how is it helping businesses, individuals, entrepreneurs, how is it intended to help them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, yeah, first off, just to say what you're talking about. The first question I always ask this business owner is let me see your calendar, show me your calendar. And that, to me, is the biggest indicator of the organization of their business, Because if they're not managing their own time, they're not gonna be managing and delegating properly and holding people accountable. So I know, just in the fact that we you know setting up this podcast and how well you were organized with it, and the automation that went out, and then the you know how you outlined everything so clearly, this tells me so much about you and it also tells me so much about how you run your business. So, like I said, I've done a lot of podcasts and I'm like, wow, I already know that you have a very tight ship, you know, which is great. And when you said how many kids you have, I'm like, okay, yeah, no, that makes no sense.
Speaker 2:you know, so I just wanted to say that it is really. You know, it's not, it's a complete reflection. Yeah, so to answer that, the question how I got to this and why this became important is simply for the fact that I kept repeating myself Every new client that would come on with me, that was a leader. It was like this is where we have to start, right, because you can't prioritize. So, actually, the starting point is the vision. Okay, there's three components to it, so I'll give you a framework. It's a triangle. Okay, it's the simplest model I could come up with. It started with five. It's now deciphered out. It's distilled out to three.
Speaker 2:Vision okay, because if you don't have a vision, then you don't know how to prioritize. Because what are you prioritizing for If you don't know where you're going? Right? So the more crystal clear the vision is, the more I'm gonna be able to know what to place in that time slot. That's going to be a highest impact for the organization, right? So vision is the starting point.
Speaker 2:If you don't have a clear, crystal clear vision with conviction on where you're going, that's going to have a huge impact on your efficiency. And if you have many employees, that's going to trickle down and you're gonna wonder why are my employees not working so well? Why is the culture not working? Why are they not so efficient? Why are people leaving? And we can all narrow this down to the vision. Do they know where they're going? Did you show them where you're going? Did you? Is it remind? Or do you remind them on a regular basis where you're going? Do they care about where you're going and does it impact them if you get there? So much of this, you know, is the issue. So that's the vision, once that is clear, and that includes Building a business that serves your life, not the other way around. Okay, so when I say that, when I say that there's a lot of people just Building a business, building a business, and then have no time for themselves, no time for their family, no time for their health, their hobbies, they're missing the mark.
Speaker 1:And that's the point right of building a business is so that you don't, you're not, you're, you're not a slave, I should say but I hate to use that word, but I can't think of another word to use in this, in this moment, to To time and to someone else's vision.
Speaker 1:But then along the way, somehow, somewhere, things get lost and then you get more stressed out as a business owner, as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:Then if you were actually working for someone else and then sometimes you don't even see the return on your investment in the way that you were expecting to.
Speaker 1:And so again, like you're saying, it's super important to To, to manage your time, but to have that vision, to know where your time should be spent, so that you know where you're going and you can clearly get there. Because if you allow your, if you allow things to just sort of happen and Come at you, you will get thrown off course. You will be chasing the wrong things and not the things that that help you to continue to build that vision out, and you'll get frustrated and and then you'll eventually just be like you know what forget it, I don't even want to do this anymore and you sort of forget why you started this journey in the first place, and so I Really, I really love that the vision and then building a business that serves you and not the other way around, because if you, if you Build a business and you're serving it, it's it's gonna feel like you're constantly spinning your wheels, like you're on this hamster wheel and you can never catch up.
Speaker 2:Exactly exactly. And it's not hard work that wears us down and stresses us out. It's when you're not in your passion. When you're in your passion and you enjoy what you do, like I do, it's not work, it's play. And when you can understand that and Allow that to be the spearhead, and always Tuning into that, like am I, is this the type of work that's meant for me, or is this something I should delegate to somebody else? I should hire somebody else for? And when I stay in, I call it the fire. When I stay in my fire, no one can compete with me, because I can just play all day, and Somebody that's not in their fire, doing it out of effort, can't compete with me, right? So, and this, this goes on an organizational level too, you know, yeah, so so that brings me really to the second point of the triangle is is focus, and Focus is is about setting boundaries.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love it.
Speaker 2:So now? So now we have, we have a vision, we know where we're going. And I mean to the listeners listening to this if you actually Really take in what I'm saying right now, it has the potential to radically change your life, because we've gotten away from this. And To me, when I was 21 and 1 7th in the world in bodybuilding, okay, that takes so much vision and so much focus, and it's the same principles apply from sport to business, because business is a game at the end of the day.
Speaker 1:And that's amazing at 17 that you were able to achieve that and have that focus at such a young age.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for you know every, you know you're looking at it's like the Olympics, like you're looking at like four-year blocks of like. Okay, I got four years that I need to every single day show up to work out every single day, watch my nutrition. You know, working else one thing watching your nutrition for four years. That's where the challenge is. But anyways, the focus, okay, the focus is. It means we're channeling all our energy towards a vision. Okay, and and these days this is very hard, I, because we have this idea of multitasking, like moving and you know, and it's very luring to go into different businesses, different services, start different things because we're not really focused and every time we do that, there's an old proverb that goes chase two rabbits, catch none.
Speaker 1:And I I have some guilty of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's something that I see a lot. I face a lot with leaders where they're starting to move to another direction or they'll start another service and then I say you know, how are your? Let's see the profitability in each one of these services and across the board they're not really doing well, but one, you know will analyze that, and often what I say is let's cut them all except for one, the one that is the most valuable, the most connected to your heart, the one you believe the most, the one that has the highest profitability, the least amount of headache. Let's focus on that one and channel all energy into that, and that is the lead domino that knocks all the other dominoes down, because without profit it's shitty, it doesn't feel good, you know, no matter what, and what's the point?
Speaker 1:right Without a profit, what's the point?
Speaker 2:So we get lost. We get lost by going, chasing different things, and what I do as a coach is I really try to help them really stay focused. And the focus if we're to take one tool around, focus right, it's the calendar. The calendar is a right. There's nature and then there's the world of time. This is how I see it. There's nature that works on rhythms and cycles, and then there's time that was man-made, like invented into tick-tock. Tick-tock. It's not how our biological body happens. It works, you know, like nature does.
Speaker 2:But we impose this thing on culture to be able to connect with each other, like, hey, let's meet at three o'clock. If we go, based on nature, they'll be like okay, you know, around this time when the sun comes, and now we've wasted a lot of time. So we invented this thing for a reason, for our connection. But that portal from nature to time based reality is the calendar. The calendar is where we start to move, prioritize things into this tool. And now I've gone to the point where I don't. I like to eliminate to-do lists, like all we want to do, because a to-do list is putting something on the back burner without a deadline, and so I like to say no, no. When are you gonna get that done? Start using that tool as your only tool. That, if you have something to think about, put it at 3 pm today. Think about this Everything.
Speaker 1:Elaborate on that for me, because I am the queen of to-do lists and so talk to me about that. When you say you're, you want to eliminate to-do lists, do you mean you want to put like, you want to have a to-do list but set like a time limit on it, almost like a smart goal, but in smaller chunks, or like explain that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So basically, instead of going to your to-do list which you're gonna now have two tools, right, chase to rabbits, cash none You're gonna have two tools. You're gonna have a to-do list that just piles itself up and sometimes you never get to those items because they just keep going down and it's like this, right, it's just not efficient, like it's not as efficient as it could be, instead of taking that item on the to-do list and just going right to your calendar and starting to get used to saying, okay, I'm gonna, if I can't deal with this right now, or I can't have the headspace to think about this right now, let's put it in my calendar tomorrow at 3 pm for 15 minutes. Boom, and you did this. It took you slightly, a little more time to go to your calendar instead of just jotting it down, but it's more efficient because you know exactly what you're gonna do and in having one place, one tool, it really becomes that portal for you that you really manage everything.
Speaker 2:Okay, so that's on the focus point. It's about boundaries. I could talk about this for so long, because that's also not just your own management of your time, but it's also getting rid of distractions. It's saying no, it's closing the tabs you know on Facebook and closing all these tabs, removing all distractions and also saying no to people, people that are trying to infiltrate your mission, trying to distract you from the vision where you're going Right. So you're either on my mission or you're not on my mission, you know, like, help me get there, anyone that's trying to pull me away, or they're just not part of my mission.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love this and especially the part where you say take it off of a written to-do list and put it on a calendar, because for one, I live by my calendar. It's not on the calendar, then it doesn't exist. And so I've learned just organically in the way that I work and I love that you're pointing this out that I need to schedule myself in blocks, and so if I know specifically I have something that I wanna get done and I know that it's gonna take me an hour to do it, then I will put that on my calendar For one hour I'm going to do this specific thing, so that nothing else can get in the way of me doing that. It is on my calendar. My calendar is gonna send me a reminder 10 minutes before I need to do that to say, hey, this is coming up, so you need to get that done, and then I have that full hour blocked with no distractions because it's on my calendar to get that piece of work done. So I really love that you have this.
Speaker 1:And so we have two things so far from your key concepts here. We have the vision. You got to set the vision and you have to build your business around your life, and so that is your vision. Whatever your vision is, you have to make sure it fits into your life in the way that you want your business to run and your life to run. And then two we have the focus, where you have to set boundaries and you have to minimize distractions. And so what is your third thing that you focus on in your book and that you work with individuals businesses on in terms of time management? What is that third thing?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So just before I go to the third, just to give a physical, like a real life example OK, I was working with a leader and the boundary, the focus for him was just shut your office door. He had this open door policy. So sometimes it's not the calendar itself, but it's actually the physical interaction with employees where he said, after 12 weeks with me, he said you know, the greatest thing we did together is the fact that I shut my office door. It's as simple as that. So the third one is commitment. So the base of this triangle is commitment. So it goes commitment, focus, vision. It starts at the top.
Speaker 2:Vision and then focus. And then you have to commit. And what is commitment? Commitment is doing what is necessary over what feels good. Ok, so that means like in sport, hey, I don't feel like working out today. I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 2:If I start this attitude and Jackal Willis has a great, really line that stuck with me, maybe I'll stick with you guys. It's just he says you know, it's like when that alarm clock goes off in the morning and you decide to stay in bed instead of getting up, and it's like you know that self-commitment, but you just, in not getting up, you just eroded it a little more and now tomorrow is going to be even harder. So commitment is saying this is where I need to go. So trickle from the vision. Ok, I'll start. Trickle from the vision. We've now established that you need a crystal clear vision of your life and your business. You need focus. Now that I have a vision, I can prioritize my time. So we prioritize the elements, the skills that I need to be doing in order to get to the vision. And now that I've put that in my time, I need to figure out what daily habits do I need to do that is going to get me to my vision.
Speaker 2:Ok, so we have to start with the vision and then break down right down to daily actions. Get up at 5 AM. I got to go work out. I got to meditate. I got to OK 6 PM. I come home, it's family time. I turn this off the more we can Create these boundaries. And then you know, because we could, we could put it in your calendar with some, but you have to follow it Right at the end of the day. If it's just written out and you're not following it, you're giving up on yourself. So you need such strong commitment To these things and and you can only have that strong commitment when you create the vision to be aware of what actually matters to you In your life. What do you actually value?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. If you don't, if you're not dedicated to bringing that vision to life and you're, you're not focused on it like minimizing those distractions, like you said, set in those boundaries so that you can Bring this vision to life. And again, what's the point? How are you going to achieve that goal if you're not doing those things? And so this makes perfect sense. I love how you've put all this together. And again, guys, those three key takeaways that Jean-Luc was just talking about time management and in building the business that actually fits into your life are One, you have to set the vision to, you have to focus, you have to set those boundaries. Do decrease those distractions. And then, three, you have to be committed to carrying it out. And again, like he said, if you start off your morning by just Slamming the snooze button on that alarm and get up later and later and later, you know where's your commitment. That was kind of me this morning, but hey, we won't tell you, that's not a little secret.
Speaker 2:It'll be hired tomorrow.
Speaker 1:I know it's just one time thing. I promise tomorrow I'm gonna be on it. I promise I'll check in with you and let you know for sure. But I Love that, jean-luc, I love, I love that. This is all in his book, guys. Again, his book is called time management for small business owners by Jean-Luc Guasano. And Before we, before we wrap it up, one final thing here. This is all in season two about community, and so talk to me about how you're building communities, on whether it's through your business, whether it's in your local community or whether it's at home with your kids, because, because community, really community building, really starts at home. So talk to me about that.
Speaker 2:Hmm, I love that. And I I'm here on an island, right? I choose to live my my time in the way I want to live it. So I work, you know, 10 hours. I only take on 10 clients. I do 10 hours a week and I prioritize a lot of my Health and fitness and time with family, time with my daughter, you know, like that's really what matters to me and, and again, I'm committed to that. So, first and foremost to me, community, like you said, starts at home. So my commitment is to be a great leader, and that's a leader in family, leader in community, leader in my business. Leadership is everything to me, is everything I need to step into more and more and I'm not perfect. I need to just keep getting better at it. And in terms of how I serve here on the island, is I, I? I Teach martial arts with men and I try to.
Speaker 2:I do personally Jiu Jitsu with men twice a week. I do it free, I just do it. I invite everyone to come because I believe that Going back to fighting is where we remember these things like boundaries and vision and and commitment to ourselves, and it's actually done, not from an intellectual speaking sort of thing with other men, but it's done through action and when we step into our own selves as men, we then get everything. I'm talking about everything. I've talked about this vision, focus and Commitment. It all happens when you decide to show up physically when it, you know it's gonna be hard, you know you're gonna be wrestling some other guy and that's like damn, that's, you know we're punching some other guy. It's like that, for men is really. It's gonna build commitment in you and that's that's how I feel I can contribute the most. It's more of an internal change that ripples out outwards and they can then help their community in their way. They can do it.
Speaker 1:I love that. And again, guys, jean-luc Boissonneau. He is the author of time management for small business owners. He just gave you his take on building community, which is what we're all about here in season two. Thank you so much, jean-luc, for being a part of the podcast and coming on and giving us some of your tips today and again. Those three things that Jean-Luc talks about in his book for time management are Number one, setting the vision. Number two, having the focus, which means that you are Minimizing those distractions, you're setting those boundaries. And number three is commitment being committed to bringing forth that vision. So thank you so much, jean-luc. I really appreciate you being here.
Speaker 1:Guys, I hope this was insightful for you. I hope you took away some of these nuggets that were shared today and I hope that it helps you spring forward into excellence. So until next time, guys, see you later. Thanks for listening to the spring forward podcast. I hope you were able to capture some of the gems that were dropped and are excited to start using the information to help your business Spring forward into excellence. I would love to hear some of your biggest takeaways from this episode, so connect with me on LinkedIn or Facebook or tag me on Instagram at springy, underscore Springtime and don't forget to subscribe to the show so you don't miss an episode. And if you'd like to learn more about how we can work together, visit the website at time to spring forwardorg. That's T I M E T O S P R I N G F O R W A R D dot org. And until next time on the spring forward.