17: Outsourcing, best laid plans don’t go to plan, Instagram, April holiday ideas

Welcome to fireflies to your latest Riviera Firefly podcast! Coming up we have a quick and to the point pod from Hanna Schar Riviera Nannies on Instagram and some tips and a challenge for the April holidays ..so listen in

First  I’m going to tell you a short story?

Once upon a time there was a mum called Antonia she had 2 gorgeous teenagers a handsome husband . When she wasn’t busy being a mum and runner of households she had her own company to run looking after 150 other children every week .

One month , it was March .. despite all of the Kidooteam’s excellent planning (because they really didn’t like firefighting) they decided they had to make a strategic change . This was a fairly big unplanned change and would mean they all had to redo lots of planning .. such a pity as they had already been planning for A but that this new opportunity was going to make them happier in the longrun even if it meant replanning.

So they had to put other projects onto the back burner for a while and work on the new strategy.

Luckily Antonia had a fantastic team , 10 supportive , positive and happy team members all pulled together with ideas on how to make things even better than before and as one of the team said “Things happen for a reason”  .. so they got to work .. even Brexit couldn’t keep them down for long ?

Along the way there were more challenges ?..a  podcast interview that had to be cancelled ,  thunderstorms that did lots of damage to fences and gates in Antonia’s home and so lots of time was spent doing jobs that were urgent but not anticipated.

Of course with Murphy’s Law this meant that the teenagers also chose this month to do their very best Harry Enfield Kevin impressions (do you tube the Ken becomes a teenager for a reminder) .

What challenges you makes you stronger Antonia kept muttering to herself.

The long intense days replanning and with 2 Kevin’s at home Antonia was getting too tired to come home and have to work on geometry or Spanish vocab..and then the clocks changed oh la la?

An idea had been bubbling in the back of her head for a while .. her own business coach had told her outsource more .. outsource the things you don’t like doing. You are the CEO of your company in charge of strategy not the doer of everything.

Gradually she gave more and more responsibilities to her team . They liked this as they were able to show how brilliant they could do these more important jobs. They felt trusted and valued. Antonia was happy too because she had more time to go out and do networking with other CEOs and find out how they did things.

There was still the problem of running the household tasks .. if Antonia was honest this wasn’t where her interests lied – she was fed up doing laundry and could use this time to do strategic work for Kidooland or spending important quality time with her family ..and finally start painting, playing golf, walking the dogs, learning an instrument .. anything that was going to fill her boots as she was starting to realise the work life balance is actually made up of 3 boxes work ? home and her

Suddenly from nowhere appeared the Fairy Godmother “Google” ..I can help she said and sure enough she did ?together they created a job advert  to find someone to do the laundry and  all those tasks that Antonia didn’t want to do anymore? not only would this make Antonia really happy but it had a knock on effect which in turn would make Mr B happier, the teenagers who really were just exhausted from their day where they leave the house at 7 and often don’t get back until 6 wouldn’t have so many weekend chores.

She felt so much happier when she pressed publish on the advert and wondered why she hadn’t done it before.

Looking back at her 12 week goals from January she realised she was just about to cross off another objective she had set herself.

It felt so good to be able to free up more of her time to do more things she was good at and enjoyed.

Tune in next time to find out how the interviewing process and find out if they are going to live happily ever after!!
Well I hope you enjoyed that short story.

Here are the key takeaways ..

1) Plans do not go to plan.

2) People won’t necessarily share their dirty washing on Facebook but everyone has challenges and you just have to pick yourself up and dust off ..move on.

3) don’t be afraid to ask for help. .. but make sure you ask help from the people that will bring you support and raise you up ..avoid the naysayers when things get tough.

4) outsourcing is key.

Thanks to my mastermind chat today I am going to Upwork to outsource some digital work and free up more of my time.

If you have 4 minutes left then I’m going to hand over to Hanna from Riviera Nannies who uses Instagram a lot.. Social Media Marketing World is the worlds largest SM convention .. and a clear message from this years was video is king right now specifically live in Facebook .. but that  as Facebook has become saturated .. Instagram is now going to be in the spotlight moving forward..so over to Hanna

 IDEAS FOR THE APRIL HOLIDAYS

I asked for some ideas for the holidays in the Cote d’Azur Living Facebook group and here were the top 3 ..

Phoebe Thomas from Lou Messugo the gorgeous apartment rental in Roquefort les pins said

Check out the 1st ever month long garden festival on the Côte d’Azur looks great with pop up gardens, show gardens, gardens open to the public and more.

Scape Design are presenting a garden in Nice and won the Professionals Prize for their entry.

Hannah French suggested Live musical evenings at Roots international bar in Valbonne Village  on Wednesdays and Saturdays

I love Roots great atmosphere and it has a great range of beers ..if you’re the designated Driver then I can recommend their spicy ginger ale ? delicious!
And finally Farahana Dee suggested you could try out Riviera Touring for some  guided Vespa and Motorbike tours in the area. Sounds like a Unique and fun way to discover the Riviera

Heliar Monaco are running a promotion in April go and do a taster session for just 35?!

Feel free to join in the discussions and the top liked answers will get a shout out in these pods. Check out this episode!