Val Selby [00:00:06]:
Hey, this is Val Selby and after over 20 years online, I can track where my mindset has blocked me. If procrastination, impostor syndrome and a lack of focus have been blocking your biz, then Val Full Volume is here to help you see choices you are making. Get ready to use your expertise to collaborate like a pro as you create the business of your dreams. Now is the time to make changes and live your best life. Let's get to it!  

Val Selby [00:00:35]:
Hello. Welcome to Val Full Volume. I'm Val. Oh my gosh. Okay. So today, I am definitely - I am going to share the craziness - that craziness? No. I am going to share what my COVID foggy brain led me down to. This is a positive. This is a positive. My husband's laughing.

Val Selby [00:01:09]:
You know? Because it's not like I'm, like, trying to turn all of, you know? It happens. When it happens, I can be in the ick. I'm alright with that. I am not toxic positive. Okay? But if you've had COVID, I actually I do know some people that have not, and I've also known some people that didn't get COVID and we didn't get the same way. Right? This is the third time I had COVID, and this time - the first time was really bad. The second time was not so bad. This time was like a little bit there's a little Goldilocks.

Val Selby [00:01:49]:
It's like a little bit in the middle. However, I came into it, and as soon as that brain fog hit, I'm like, I'm not even opening my computer. I am not gonna pretend that I'm going to work because I'm probably gonna break my laptop even more, having it sat on my lap because COVID brain, I'm gonna be the idiot that stands up as I'm watching TV, getting off the couch, forgetting that it's on my lap because I haven't looked at it in hours. But it's open, and it's on my lap because I'm gonna work. You've been there? Just me? Post in the comments. Just me? So I knew I could tell. I was like, alright, here we go.

Val Selby [00:02:32]:
I'm getting the COVID brain. It's gonna happen. We're just gonna let it happen. And I've been stuck. And I had ideas, and not just ideas. I mean, obviously, you can see I've got ideas if you're watching on the video, because there's post it notes. I started using the post it note system. Right? My closet doors, because why the hell wouldn't I use that white space? I've had ideas.

Val Selby [00:03:00]:
And not only have I had ideas, I've worked with that strategy coach. So those ideas are built out. The first course, everything's built out for ideas for 2 phases. The first phase, I have the first six modules, all of the assets and everything is done. I just have to go in and actually do the talking recording part. And I have said in a previous one, I'm not sure which one it was, said in a previous recording or could have been a membership. I don't know. This was supposed to launch.

Val Selby [00:03:39]:
My Optimize and Align sprint was supposed to already happen. I had the marketing all mapped out for, you know, doing the webinars, and then I moved the dates. But then I had the dates moved, and I use a giant desk top calendar because I still have some old school in me, and I absolutely love having the desktop calendar so that I can highlight and I can just be messy. Right? But it maps it out better in my head for marketing, and it's like, okay. I'm looking at the month ahead. It's a ginormous desk top calendar. I'm looking at it going, okay. These are the days I wanna run the Optimize and Align.

Val Selby [00:04:23]:
So that means this is open cart launch week, and we're gonna open the cart. These are the webinars. Right? So I had that mapped out. I didn't even have the feeling of anything. I couldn't figure out why it wasn't getting done. And even my accountability buddy, is like, did you record that today? Did you record that today? Did you work on that? And just being an awesome accountability buddy, just to bring it to my head. And then especially as we talk, we get together once a week for a big session to chat. And I'm like, I don't know what's going on.

Val Selby [00:05:06]:
I don't know why I'm not doing those steps. I don't feel like there's a certain fear coming on. I don't feel the normal reasons that I'm procrastinating with this workshop that I really want out, that I have never mapped out. 12 modules felt 100%. This is what I wanna deliver. This is what I want to deliver. This is how I want to help my community. I've never had this connection to exactly what I wanted to deliver. And that's why when it wasn't happening and I could not figure out what the blocks were, that it wasn't any of these fears, which was the weird thing.

Val Selby [00:05:46]:
I mean, I'm getting used to working through those fears. So those fears pop up, the red flags pop up, the procrastination pops up, you know, my house is getting clean. I'm like, oh, shit. But I could not. It was new. There was a new reason why I wasn't doing, why I wasn't delivering and running with it the way that I had talked out and we were gonna run with it. So insert COVID foggy brain. Insert randomness, but not in my usual squirrel brain because here's my squirrel brain.

Val Selby [00:06:22]:
We can do this. We can do that. We can do this. We can do that. Oh my god. Let's do this. Shit. Let's go create a cookie baking website.

Val Selby [00:06:28]:
And not in an ADH way. There's just ideas in my head, and I know I'm never gonna follow-up on them. I don't even pretend I'm gonna follow-up on them, but the ideas are still popping. Right? That's not how COVID foggy brain works for me. COVID foggy brain for me is just like, woo, and the ideas are all floating around. So like I said, the last two times, I was fighting it. I was just like, I know. No.

Val Selby [00:07:00]:
No. No. This is not gonna happen. I must get emails out. I must do this. I must record a podcast. I was forcing myself to do things that, I mean, at the end of the day, I couldn't even tell you and with, you know, my husband here, you know, what did we talk about an hour ago? That's just how the foggy COVID brain works. So I went all in on COVID foggy brain.

Val Selby [00:07:29]:
Like, okay. What dumb TV shows can I put on that I'm not even gonna care because I'm not missing anything? You know, it's this is not the time for me to watch a show that I've been wanting to watch or get caught up on a show that I really, really love and wanna watch because I'm gonna have to rewatch it. Right? What can I watch, sit here, be comfortable, comfy cozy with my blankie, with bunches of water, and just embrace the fact that this is the way it is? Just embrace it. And the amazing thing that happened was by embracing it, I ended up with clarity. How is that? That's the crazy part. Isn't that crazy amazing? Here I have just absolute fog. Can barely make a sentence.

Val Selby [00:08:18]:
I'm like trying to have a conversation with my husband and then I'm just laughing and like, I'm just gonna give up. Just give it up. You're not gonna be able to understand me. I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore. I'm like, I was gonna save you from me and I'm gonna be shhh, okay. And to have all of that fogginess end up in clarity is amazing. I'm so glad that I gave myself permission to just be in the foggy brain. Because like I said, when I've got this COVID foggy brain going on, the ideas are all just, oh god.

Val Selby [00:08:57]:
The sixties, seventies songs are coming to my head. They're just swinging in the wind. So they're just all over and random. Nothing's making sense. I don't even know why some of the stuff's in my head. You know, it's not even things I'm working on or I thought of. And maybe the not having some of these thoughts was why at the beginning, maybe some of that popped in. I am not analyzing.

Val Selby [00:09:25]:
I'm just gonna love it. Maybe that was like I had enough of that little bit of message that's like, hey, you know what? We need to embrace this because some crazy cool is gonna come down. So what I found out was I was not delivering my Optimize and Align course because the delivery methods that I was thinking were going to happen because I did not know any other way to do it were not what I wanted to do. However, my brain couldn't let go of the fact that this is the way it needed to be delivered. Right? Okay. So there's 12 modules. So my brain's going, all right, we're going to do a 2 week sprint, get together, do the masterclass every day. And it's a sprint.

Val Selby [00:10:15]:
We're going to do the work. I'm going to help them through the work. It's going to be a nice quick sprint. So I had already worked it out. I'm like, okay, record the first two modules because those ones are gonna take a bit longer when they first sign up. They're gonna get those first two modules so that they can work through it like homework. And then I've got 10 modules left. That's one every day for 2 weeks.

Val Selby [00:10:36]:
So my brain's like, yeah. Look at the math. The math works out. No. My brain was just like, I don't wanna have an appointment on my calendar every day. Every day. I can't. I just can't.

Val Selby [00:10:55]:
And not only I can't, I don't want to. It does not feel good for me to have live meetings and conversations scheduled every single day of the week. It's just is not working for me right now. In the past, I have absolutely rocked that. Right now? No. I am a no. So then I got excited, and this is all pre COVID. Right? This is when I'm going to do this.

Val Selby [00:11:25]:
And the last iteration of how this was going to be delivered, I swear I was all over it. I was so excited. I don't know anybody doing this. I'm gonna have a retreat. It's gonna be a 2 full day retreat. We're gonna meet like, like VIP days. Right? We're gonna meet for 2 full days, and we're gonna go through it, and it's gonna be an experience. And it's gonna be just like we met in person, except for we're doing it online.

Val Selby [00:11:51]:
And then after that was one day, the next day, I was like, ew. Ew. Ew. Ew. I don't wanna do that. Heather. I'm like, I'm pretty sure just thinking about being online for 6 to 8 hours live for 2 days has already made my brain explode. And if I don't wanna deliver it, then the delivery is gonna suck.

Val Selby [00:12:21]:
And how am I gonna sell it because I'm just gonna be like, I know you probably don't wanna spend as much time with me either, but I got just great one workshop and we're gonna get together and it's gonna be so much fun. And I was like, hell no. It ain't gonna be fun because I don't feel like it's fun and I haven't even written the fucking sales page yet. Right? So these were the 2 things that I was stuck in, and I have a monetary reason of why this workshop needs to get out. I absolutely have already gotten my money's worth from working with my strategy coach. However, I paid cash, which means that my oh shit fund is oh shit. I used my oh shit fund for my coaching, which was exciting to me to be able to do that. However, I want to deliver this workshop.

Val Selby [00:13:16]:
Right? I want this out there. I know the value in it. This is what I want to deliver. This was not my strategy coach telling me what to create. This was my strategy coach pulling the information out. It was just, I mean, I probably want to go and rewatch some of our sessions because they're all recorded and go watch some magic happen because it was her literally pulling the information out of me, and it was amazing. Absolutely amazing. Super, super fabulous.

Val Selby [00:13:50]:
So it wasn't that I didn't wanna deliver, and it wasn't that my mind had changed even of delivering this. It was 100% how the hell am I going to deliver this the way I want to show up? Because I am 100% aware that I have to show up and it has to be in lined, aligned, not in lined. I think I said in lined - aligned with how I want to deliver it right now. Am I gonna deliver it in a different way next time? Possibly. Very possible or maybe not. Don't know. Don't care.

Val Selby [00:14:33]:
Right now, I need my highest energy to deliver this. So, COVID brain. COVID brain starts going through and COVID brain, I'm like, good grief. I am not connected to my memberships right now. I don't even know what my memberships are doing, what direction they're going. I started, was that, it might have been right before I started the Skool group for the free group. It might have been right in that time. So here I am with COVID brain creating a new group that I have 2 weeks to do because it's gonna charge me $99 after the 2 weeks.

Val Selby [00:15:09]:
Right? So I'm working through this stuff in my head, and, of course, I'm like, okay. How can I monetize this new free group so that I'm making the money back from the $99? And I'm like, okay. So Collaborate and Grow. Absolutely love Collaborate and Grow is sticking around, but it's getting revamped. And I thought that that was the direction I was going was, okay, I'm gonna be revamping, Collaborate and Grow, and that's happening immediately, full revamp explode. Then all of a sudden, my brain is still trying to like put the puzzle pieces together up there in cloudy foggy land of COVID, and I'm like, seriously, this workshop, it has to get out. I have to get this workshop out. Every time I open the assets, I am excited versus oftentimes if something sat there for this long, my brain would be going, ugh, so over that.

Val Selby [00:16:05]:
I'm done. I didn't even wanna deliver that anymore. Not the case with this, and I've been working on it for months. So I'm like, okay. Well, that's too much for what I want Collaborate and Grow to be. It's going to be that's next step. Right? It's next step. So then all the puzzle pieces are coming together.

Val Selby [00:16:22]:
Right? It's like, oh, next step. Oh, you mean, like, my Bash Pass membership is next step? And there's hasn't been a focus, and you're looking for a focus. And you thought this was gonna be the focus, but that's not the focus. And then I'm like, oh, okay. So what if I did this, this, this. I have 12 modules, 12 modules. There's 12 months. I mean, you see where this is going.

Val Selby [00:16:48]:
Right? My brain filled it in and went, oh, we are revamping the Bash Pass membership. And so I let all that play out. I just let it sit and let it play out all through COVID. I talked to coach and my accountability buddy for the next - that next week, I didn't even - I still didn't even know. I thought I was still like going into ginormous full revamp of Collaborate and Grow that is getting revamped. Added to, I should say, it's not getting revamped. It's getting added to Bash Pass. However, Bash Pass as it is right this minute, as of me recording, will not be how it is when you get this recording on Tuesday, next Tuesday, the first week 1st Tuesday in November.

Val Selby [00:17:40]:
My designer right now is creating the new graphics, the new logo, and, going forward, this is - I hit up the members today, and I said, okay. This membership is about ready to get really, really fucking exciting. And I can't wait to deliver it. I'm like, I'm not doing this as tease kinda thing. I'm like but show up on Wednesday for our usual weekly meeting, and, you know, I'll spill more at that time. But just know on Monday or Monday, Friday 1st, November 1st, you're getting the 1st module. And changes are gonna be happy, and we have a direction. And I cannot wait to help you build your business in a simple way, simple, simple way to make you look really fabulous and start collaborating more.

Val Selby [00:18:32]:
So sitting with the AI, sitting with the names, trying hard not to force a name, which, I mean, I'm not the best at coming up with names anyways. I've tried the whole, okay. Well, don't tell yourself you're not the best. I've tried that. It's just - I'm just not a fan. So then I was excited. Okay. Well, I'll work with the AI to come up with a new name, and AI was just, like, boring, or it was coming up with stuff that didn't even have - it was coming up with names where I could tell you the name, and you're like, the hell is that? You know, exactly what I would tell a client.

Val Selby [00:19:11]:
Hey. Does that talk to anybody? Does anybody give a shit? Does anybody know what that is? Does it say anything? I was coming up with some of those, which was hilarious. And I was sharing that with my clients and my accountability, but they do because I'm laughing. I'm like, okay. I'm just gonna look at this, and I'm throwing ideas past, you know, my accountability buddy, and she threw words right back at me, and I was laughing almost hysterically. I'm like, did I not just say this to you 2 days ago? Exact same thing. It's hard to coach yourself. You need outside sources.

Val Selby [00:19:44]:
That's why coaches have coaches. Anyways, I finally figured it out because I've already figured out my word for 2025. 2024, I had a phrase, back to basics. Back to basics wasn't enough. What the hell is back to basics? I have never deciphered what back to basics meant to me. So I took it a step further down and simple came out. Simple. Not basic.

Val Selby [00:20:12]:
I know. Basic just has to me this connotation with it. I'm simplifying everything. I'm making my business more simple. I am making my resources more simple. I'm making my memberships more simple. This doesn't mean there's no value. This doesn't mean they're not high value even.

Val Selby [00:20:35]:
It just means they're simple implementation. I don't believe in fluff. I mean, how many times have I come on here and recorded a podcast and it's like 10 minutes? It's like, I'm not just gonna sit here and just keep yapping. I mean, I can. I absolutely can. You know that. But if I've got this message and I got the message out, it's like, alright. We're good to go.

Val Selby [00:20:56]:
We're golden. And so I'm really paying attention. That was part of the fog as well, was I have too much stuffs, and I want things simple, and I need to figure out what that means. You know? Again, if you're watching me on the YouTube video, you'll see behind me, this is part of me going simple. It is different colored post it notes. Look, I'm like my Asana, Trello. I used to use Trello, but look, I'm like my Asana board of down in a line, you know, with a hierarchy. And to me, that is so wonderfully simple, and it's helping me be more creative, and it is helping me be more productive and helpful with my coaching clients.

Val Selby [00:21:43]:
And, you know, another reason why I had to go to, why this simple was coming more into places. I have a coaching client who's never been done anything online before, and she's taken over a website. And if you think that starting a business from scratch is hard, take over a business. Because there's bits and pieces all over the place and they're already all in place, and it doesn't mean that those are the places that you want to be or the pieces that you want. It's hard. And, you know, even today, I had the meeting with her before I started recording, and I'm like, we are doing this simple. From now on, we're going to do this and this and this. The end.

Val Selby [00:22:29]:
Then we're gonna get data, and then we're gonna figure out what's working, what's not working, and we're gonna move on from there. We're going to keep this simple. I promise you. My message for myself, for my business, for my clients, for my community, for my members is simple. I don't wanna be frantic. I can get frantic in a heartbeat just all on my own, because I get so gosh gosh darn excited. Right? I mean, I can go into excited mode at any second. So I want everything to be super simple, and the more simple it's been, the more engaged and excited I have been.

Val Selby [00:23:11]:
So by the time you're looking at this, the new sales page will be up, and you will be able to now join the Biz Accelerator Hub, the No BS blueprint. And it'll have 12 modules working it all through, making you look fabulous, making you understand the expert that you are so that you get your expertise out there. And I'm gonna be creating ripples and then together, we'll be creating waves because that's what I like to do with my collaborations. That's why I love collaborations. Collaborations are the fact that I can make a ripple. I can contact you. You join my collaboration, and I made that ripple by connecting with you. But that collaboration coming out once a month is gonna be a fucking wave.

Val Selby [00:23:57]:
And I love that. I love that. Okay. Simple. That's what I got from my COVID brain. I let everything flow around until it just started like mixing up and going in weird ways. And then all of a sudden as my COVID brain was coming back to human, the clarity started. I'm not saying there was no, like, bam.

Val Selby [00:24:23]:
Like, I just woke up and here you go. There was working through bits and pieces, testing things, ideas, and talking it out with people. And then all of a sudden, I was just like, oh my gosh. That feels right. That's why I haven't launched it, ran it yet. It's because that feels right, and that's what I was waiting for. So I am excited that it's gonna be part of the membership now. And every month, we'll be working through the modules in the order of the 12, and I will also have everything in place so that if you don't want a membership, some people don't.

Val Selby [00:24:59]:
I was pulling people, and I know some of you don't want memberships. Some of you don't want coaching. Some of you absolutely love a self study course. So it will come out, and it'll be self study as well, but not quite yet. It's coming to the members first, then it'll go. Then it'll go into self study. But that's what I wanted to tell you. Embrace.

Val Selby [00:25:25]:
Embrace if you are in a space of being sick, unhealthy, you know, whatever's going on, acknowledge it. Be okay sitting in it. And then I cannot tell you to look for the positive in it, but if positive starts showing up, just ride that, you know? That's what I did this time. It's like, alright, hmm. I'm liking all these ideas just floating around up there, and I like the fact that I'm so foggy headed. I don't feel like I have to figure it out. And in that was ended up being that space where I didn't have to work it out on paper. I didn't have to journal it out.

Val Selby [00:26:04]:
I didn't have to, like, find that freaking answer that I've been looking for, which is how I was feeling. I'm like, I have to get this out. I have to get this out because I want people to have it. So I'm glad that I was able to use my COVID brain for a positive, and I just encourage you to look at something that might not feel like a positive and how can you turn it around and where are you stuck? You know, how can you maybe just sit in the stuckness and figure out why? Start worrying or not start worrying. Don't worry. Start working through. Why do you feel stuck? What do you not want to do? Which was what I knew what I didn't wanna do. I didn't wanna deliver it in either one of those options, but I couldn't come up with another option until I let go of all of it, until I had no choice to let go of this is how it has to be delivered.

Val Selby [00:27:01]:
It's the only way. I would love it. I would love it if you're delivering something in a way that is out of the norm for you. This isn't necessarily out of the norm for somebody else, but for me, it was totally out of my norm of, oh my gosh. Yes. I can just do that. Oh, I can. Because I can do whatever the hell I want.

Val Selby [00:27:20]:
Alright. We just hit 30 minutes of recording and it's Monday and that module has to be out to my members by Friday and sales page and and and so I'm gonna get off of here. I'm gonna go get my booty doing the work. Plus, it's Halloween week this week, so I also need to go watch all of the Halloweens because the seventies girl grew up in the eighties, so this girl's a horror, horror movie junkie. But I like the classics, so I'm yapping now, I'm rambling now. I hope that you will come and join me in the new business, biz, just biz, Biz Accelerator Hub. Come check it out. Come get your site in order, all your pieces in order, so that you are looking fabulous and out there making connections and collaborating.

Val Selby [00:28:18]:
Alright? I will talk at you next week. Go get shit done.