Sometimes You Just Need To Escape (WT794)

Sometimes You Just Need To Escape (WT794)

Blog

by Shirley Dalton | 12 Sep, 2025 | Blog, Mindset

WT 794 Sometimes you just need to escape

Sometimes you just need to escape.

Last week we went to Coolangatta for a few days.

We were celebrating a milestone birthday for Ross.

After months of researching different travel destinations, he kept coming back to the Gold Coast in Australia.

“That’s where I want to go”, he repeated.

“Ok. That’s where we will go.”

Flight times didn’t suit our itinerary, so we decided to drive.

He had me captive in the car for a full two days, up and back.

No work on this trip.

It’s amazing how inspired you can become when you get away and escape.

Even though it was only a couple of days, it was invigorating.

The sun was shining.

The whales were waving.

The motorised surfboards were criss-crossing and gliding across the top of the waves.

The surfers were competing for waves. (We counted over 50 surfers in the water at Greenmount Beach.)

We walked everywhere and especially enjoyed the early morning walks on the beach.

Oh, those magical days of not thinking about work or the business.

Sometimes you just need to escape.

If you’re feeling a little burnt out at the moment or feeling overwhelmed, I encourage you to give yourself permission to take a few days off.

The world isn’t going to stop or fall apart if you’re not there to answer the phone for a few days.

Give yourself the gift of time.

If you do, you’ll be rewarded with renewed energy, inspiration and ideas.

Where will you go?

Reply and let me know.

Even better, go and let me know how you feel when you return.

P.S.  Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thought delivered directly to their inbox.

Go to https://shirleydalton.com/Weekly-Thoughts.

Get The Back Up You Need (WT793)

Get The Back Up You Need (WT793)

Blog

by Shirley Dalton | 5 Sep, 2025 | Blog, Mindset

WT 793 Get the back up you need

One of my colleagues reached out to our community recently to ask for support for her to complete some coaching hours to get her advanced advanced coaching certification.

Always happy to help my fellow colleagues, I volunteered to be coached by her for a few sessions.

Thinking I was the one doing her a favour, I quickly changed my mind.

I’ve said it before, when you have a coach, a coach B.A.Q.S. you up.

A coach helps you see your BLINDSPOTS.

A coach helps keep you ACCOUNTABLE.

A coach asks QUALITY QUESTIONS.

A coach always SUPPORTS you.

The past few weeks I’ve taken more action towards my goal of becoming known as a Writer, than I have in the past 10 years.

Even though I have mentors and I’m continually learning, it’s been a great reminder for me, for the value a coach provides, and positive feedback understanding the value I bring when I coach my clients.

My coach asks me, “What actions do you want to take this week to advance your goal?”

I’m compelled to answer or we’re wasting both our time.

Because I come up with the action and because I have said it, I’d feel like I would be out of integrity (my highest value) if I didn’t do the work.

Essentially, I am committing and although she doesn’t have to do anything to keep me accountable, because my word does that, without the coaching:

  1. I wouldn’t come up with actions to take
  2. If I did, I most likely wouldn’t tell anyone, and
  3. I most likely wouldn’t hold myself accountable.

My quality question to you, as your pseudo coach is this:

What are you doing to get the back up you need?

What goals have you got that without someone in your corner BAQing you up, are really just dreams?

A coach doesn’t have to be a professional and there are many ways you can provide a fair exchange for each other.

The main thing I want you to get from this week’s thought is that we all need someone in our corner who B.A.Q.S. us up.

Reply and let me know who your person is and what your goal is and what action you are taking toward it.

P.S.  Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thought delivered directly to their inbox.

Go to https://shirleydalton.com/Weekly-Thoughts.

Play With It – The 30 Minute AI Test (WT792)

Play With It – The 30 Minute AI Test (WT792)

Blog

by Shirley Dalton | 29 Aug, 2025 | Blog, Business, Leadership

WT 792 Play with it, the 30minute AI test

I was showing a client what can be done with AI.

I showed him how easy it is now, compared to 20 years ago when I first started my business helping business owners streamline their operations.

Twenty years ago, it would take me 3-4 hours offsite to draft procedures for every hour I spent onsite.

These days with the help of AI, I can get a draft procedure is less than 15 minutes.

That saves me and the client.

A few days later he came back to me and asked if “that thing” I showed him could analyse data.

“Let’s find out.”

We trialled a pdf which didn’t work so well.

We trialled a single tab from an excel spreadsheet and gave it specific instructions for what we wanted analysed, including suggestions for categories of expenses plus a total for the number of items and the amount spent.

Amazingly, we had all the information we wanted within about 30 minutes of trial and error.

What we found in 30 minutes could save hours and hours of painstaking data analysis, not to mention eye strain.

We were both amazed and thrilled and excited at what we could do.

He almost skipped out the door as he headed home.

If you’re not using AI you’re going to get left behind.

If you’re not using AI, your competitors are—and they’re delivering better outcomes, faster, at a sharper price. And no, AI won’t make you dumber. It makes you more strategic and creative because it rewards better questions.

We didn’t know if what we wanted could be done. We took the attitude of playing with it.

Here’s your challenge for this week:

Identify one thing you could potentially get AI to do for you and play with it. Have fun.

  • It could be data analysis.
  • It could be writing copy for a Facebook ad.
  • It could be creating a procedure.
  • It could be as simple as using a recording and transcription service such as Otter.ai or screen capture your procedures using Loom.com

You might be surprised at how much help you can get and how much smarter you can become.

Let me know what you find.

P.S.  Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thought delivered directly to their inbox.

Go to https://shirleydalton.com/Weekly-Thoughts.

A Coffee Isn’t A Consulting Fee (WT791)

A Coffee Isn’t A Consulting Fee (WT791)

Blog

by Shirley Dalton | 22 Aug, 2025 | Blog, Business

WT 791 A coffee isn't a consulting fee

This week a past client messaged, “Got time to pick your brain over coffee?” I felt the familiar tug — I love helping. But I also know unpriced advice often lacks context, commitment, and outcomes. So I tried a new reply and offered for him to book in a professional consultation.

I didn’t hear back.

I love this quote, from an unknown source, “Boundaries aren’t walls; they’re doors with handles.”

Pricing is a promise — when we value our expertise, we show up at our best and invite clients to do the same.

Saying “yes” with structure is kinder than a vague “sure” that breeds frustration.

A similar thing happened when Ross and I had The Family Foto Man. When we offered additional prints for free, the clients didn’t value them as much as the ones they paid for.

Ben Harvey says that “Buying Begins Their Breakthrough”. What this means is that once a person commits to paying for the service, they show up differently. They take it more seriously, they do the work and they get better results.

And from another angle, I have a colleague whom I like to get advice from and I always preface my enquiry with, “this is a paid consultation” because if she doesn’t invoice me, I feel like I can’t ask her and I would prefer to ask her because:

  1. she has a brain the size of a planet and has the best advice, and
  2. I want to support her, and if I can’t pay her, I would feel like I’m taking advantage of her, which means, I’d have to take my business elsewhere.

As much as I love to help, I’ve had to learn to put boundaries in place, because consulting is what I do for a living. It’s how I earn my money. A coffee isn’t a consulting fee.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love catching up with my friends and colleagues over a coffee, breakfast or lunch, but that’s different. It’s a different dynamic.

Your mission this week is to look at your own boundaries. Have you got any? If not, now might be the time to set some. Boundaries make it easier to say “Yes” when you want to.

P.S.  Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thought delivered directly to their inbox.

Go to https://shirleydalton.com/Weekly-Thoughts.

When You Expect To Be Perfect (WT790)

When You Expect To Be Perfect (WT790)

Blog

by Shirley Dalton | 15 Aug, 2025 | Blog, Communication Skills

WT 790 When you expect to be perfect

This week’s thought is for all the learners who think they have to be perfect when they’re learning something for the first time.

Hand on heart, I know this personality well. 

Years ago, I was learning how to set up a studio with greenscreens and lights for our online TV show.

The trainer was in the USA so we were waking up around 3:00am for a 4:00am class.

It was winter. We were in the garage and it was cold and uncomfortable.

“The lights aren’t right Ross”, I bellowed.

“You can see the edge of the greenscreen. It needs to be moved.”

On and on I went, getting more and more frustrated because my set-up wasn’t perfect.

Until …

Ross had had enough and he snapped back, “You’re learning. You’re not supposed to know this yet. That’s what you’re learning.”

So it’s top of mind for me this week as I watch some of our Leading Yourself and Leading Others students struggle to learn Active Listening.

It’s a hard skill to learn, let alone master.

You aren’t expected to be perfect. You aren’t expected to get it right when you’re learning.

Cut yourself some slack and stop overthinking it.

Remember Aristotle’s quote: “The thing you think you need to know how to do before doing, you learn by doing”.

To get to the 4th stage of learning, where you are “unconsciously competent” (i.e. it’s second nature to you, you don’t have to think about it, it’s a habit), you must first pass stages 1, 2, and 3.

As a reminder:

Stage 1: Unconsciously Incompetent (You don’t know what you don’t know)

Stage 2: Consciously incompetent (Now you know you don’t know something)

Stage 3: Consciously competent (You have to think about every step and practise practise practise)

It’s not until you get through stages 1, 2 and 3 that you can get to Stage 4.

Note to self: “You are learning. Don’t expect to be perfect. Take the pressure off yourself to get it right and stop overthinking it.”

I’m curious, what sort of learner are you?

P.S.  Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thought delivered directly to their inbox.

Go to https://shirleydalton.com/Weekly-Thoughts.

Stay In Your Lane (WT789)

Stay In Your Lane (WT789)

Blog

by Shirley Dalton | 8 Aug, 2025 | Blog, Business, Teamwork

WT 789 Stay in your lane

The past few weeks I’ve been working onsite with a client on a major project.

Parking is tricky, so Ross has been driving me to and from the premises.

Sitting in the passenger seat, I found myself clinging to the seat.

“God! Look out! They’re coming over.”

“I know!” replied Ross.

This didn’t happen on just one occasion.

It seems to be a daily occurrence.

What happened to people’s ability to drive and stay in their lanes?

Are they on the phone?

Are they reading a text message?

Hopefully, they’re not trying to watch a youtube training, like the guy in Melbourne this week who got fined for “driving whilst distracted”.

Anyway, as we navigated our way to work, I reflected on the metaphor.

At work, it’s also important to stay in your lane.

The clearer your role descriptions are, the easier it is for people to stick to their lane.

Unless, of course, they happen to be people who can’t help themselves and have to do everyone else’s job except their own.

You know the ones. They exist in every business.

In our leadership experience participants complete an activity where they work with a team member to build a business.  This activity requires them to separate their roles, stick in their lanes and trust their team member to do their job.

It’s amazing to see the reaction when participants realise how much they CAN actually trust their team mate to do the work and that in fact, they MUST TRUST them because they can’t win if they try and do everything themselves.

Your mission this week is to reflect on your role.

Are you staying in your lane, or are you veering off into someone else’s lane?

If you don’t trust others to do their job, ask yourself how come?

If they’re really not capable, are they unable or unwilling? If unable, do they need more training?

And if they are capable, then maybe you need to look at yourself and get out of the way and let them do their job.

P.S.  Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thought delivered directly to their inbox.

Go to https://shirleydalton.com/Weekly-Thoughts.

Pin It on Pinterest