Toucan Talks
Toucan Talks is a podcast for Wilmington-area business owners and entrepreneurs who are eager to learn from those on a similar journey. Each week, we talk with an area business owner about their successes, challenges, and experiences in business. Don’t worry – we keep it fun as we bounce from topic to topic.
Toucan Talks
The Focus Shift: Doing Less, Better
The fastest way to create momentum this year isn’t adding more to your plate; it’s choosing one focus and building everything around it. We dig into how a single quarterly objective clarifies decisions, reduces noise, and improves your results, then show how to turn strategy into action with simple, reliable execution habits.
We start by picking a priority KPI for the quarter, like lead capture, and shaping a plan that aligns content, budget, and measurement to that singular goal. Using a dental practice example, we explore how one strong offer can drive first visits: highlight what makes the experience distinctive, keep the message clear, and make the call to action simple. From there, we get practical about testing—hold the core offer steady while you iterate on audiences, hooks, and video variations so you learn fast without losing focus.
Execution is where focus lives day to day. We break down large projects into atomic steps: for video, think scripting, edit passes, color, titles, and QC; for websites, map domain and hosting setup, theme install, wireframes, copy, approvals, and SEO. Assign owners, estimate durations, and track dependencies so you can move work forward even while waiting on reviews. With tight checklists and time blocks, you’ll hit deadlines with less stress and more clarity.
By the end, you’ll have a framework to do less and achieve more: choose one objective, craft one compelling offer, test with intent, and execute through detailed checklists. If the idea of fewer, better projects sounds like relief, you’re our people. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a quick review to help more builders find the show.
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Meet your hosts and learn more about Kickstart Collective at kickstartcollective.co
Kickstart Collective is a creative marketing agency based in Wilmington, NC. We offer our clients a creative advantage through creative content and marketing strategies.
Welcome to this week's Kickstart Your Week. We are going to talk about something that is always a work in progress, and that is focusing and doing less, but doing it better so that you have a bigger impact, you're more productive, um, and everything's better, you know, focusing. It's a new year. Um, hopefully you have some goals that you want to focus on. Um, but if you have a hundred goals, that might be too many. You might need a focus. Right. Let's just start with one. Let's start with one. We're gonna start with one. Yeah. Um, but for real, I think the premise of what we're gonna talk about today is kind of twofold. One big picture, how do you pick what to focus on and when, um, and not make it too many things at once so that you can actually do it well and accomplish the goal. And then Joshua and I share a similarity in our um project management, if you will.
SPEAKER_00:I like that, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And it's very granular. So we're gonna just chat a little bit about that. Um and hopefully some of you guys have the same personality project management style and it will be helpful. Um, if not, just keep it to yourself. Keep it to yourself. Yeah, don't just or fast forward. Well, I don't care.
SPEAKER_00:If it's helpful, great. If not, just move on.
SPEAKER_01:Move on. Um so yes, here we are. January. Um things are probably moving and grooving. You probably came back from the holidays, and I have to imagine, like all of us hid the ground running. Right. Um holidays are hectic. Maybe you slow down for a second and then it's it's right back at it. So um I we're gonna talk a little bit about focus from a marketing business perspective. Um, so I think the easiest way to kind of tee that up will be an example. Um, so if you are working on even if you're, I mean, you might already have your Q1 marketing plan. And if you do, good job. If not, don't worry about it. So take this either for Q1 or for Q2, depending on where you're at. Um, but think through like what is your business's main objective for this quarter? Um, is that getting more leads? Do you need to increase your branding? Um, obviously, sales is always the main objective at the end of the day. Right. But um, is there a specific objective or KPI you need to focus on? Um it's probably not branding, lead capture, nurture, yeah, conversion, nurture and repeat sales. It is, but yeah, what is the one that you really need to focus on for this quarter? Right. Um, and then how do you build your marketing plan around that? So let's say, for the sake of conversation, is lead capture.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um, and I think one of the things that we do well um is these lead capture campaigns where you're creating the video content. Um, and it is, you know, punchier, usually a punchier campaign, or at least a very specific campaign. Like there is one specific call to action either in the video or that the video is supporting, um, to where then we are helping capture leads for the client and then in a lot of cases, leads these campaigns, and it's sent to the client and becomes on their sales folks to nurture. Right. Um, as an example, um, we do work with um some dental clients. And so obviously you're heavily involved in those campaigns. So do you want to talk through like from the creative aspect to what that call to action is um on their client lead side and just how you know, staying focused um on the campaign, the goal for the client and then the messaging for the customer all ties together?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so specifically with dental clients, they're they're usually their their goal is to get new clients into the door. So it's very, you know, very specific reason for that. Um and we we typically want to kind of start out with, okay, what is your messaging and what is the something that you're trying to, what what is gonna attract the client to your dental practice in the first place? Um, whether that be, you know, a nice looking um like walk-in area, like lounge room area, or top of the line uh practices that you're actually doing, or of like say maybe the amenities, like the uh like headphones or like a like a puppy's there to like you know bring comfort or whatever. Yeah. So you you're trying to find like a sharp point to actually focus the the brand and campaign with. Yeah. And then you'll kind of build your ads off of that.
unknown:Cool.
SPEAKER_00:And that's kind of a good example for that. So it shows the primary focus that you're trying to do and then building the the content to kind of fit that with it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. And I think um, yeah, that's a good way to explain it. Cause there is there's a branding element to it, like what makes that practice unique.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um, but then the goal is lead captures, so then creating some sort of offer for their audience, their potential customers. Yes. Um, so whether that's like a free whitening offer or something like that, again, that's focused. It's one message, um, one step filling out a contact form. Yep. Um, so there's not a lot of messages out there. I'll play devil's advocate a little bit. There is like some testing that needs to be done. So you might have to test new offers um at the beginning. But then once that is done, or if you're working with someone or you've been in your industry and maybe you've tested offers through other campaigns, once you know what that is, um, stick with it, have a clear message. Um, and then yeah, keep all that focused for you, for your business goals, but then for what your audience sees as well. Yeah. Um, because doing more isn't always better.
SPEAKER_00:It's not. And also too, with that, with with the messaging, don't be, don't be discouraged if the it doesn't hit initially. Yeah. You're talking about with testing. Yeah. So just kind of keep that main focus there for at least a good amount of time, a period of time before changing just to get an idea of um what your actual audience will be as it's kind of coming in.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, for sure. And especially if you're doing doing it on the paid ad side, yeah. Um, if the offer is strong and that's been tested, it might be more of a matter of testing different audiences. Right. Um, so yeah, I mean, and even with when we've done free whitening ads, um the offer is the same that you know, the free whitening on their first visit, but we've tested different variations of the video, um, different lengths, different, you know, different clips. Um so it yeah, there's there's some testing that needs to be done. But I think at the end of the day, kind of like you were saying, the goal is to have a focused campaign for both your business and then again for your audience. Yeah. Um yeah, I like that. Um so do you want to get granular for people?
SPEAKER_00:Let's keep granular.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So that that is talking kind of bigger picture for your marketing. Um, it can be the same for your business goals too, whatever. However, you need to apply that. I think the main thing is just again focusing on whatever the one or two top priorities for, and then building, building everything around that, your KPIs, measuring against that. Probably do it every quarter. Yeah. Day to day, we live in a crazy world. I have notes on my phone and it's buzzed like 10 times in this episode. I should have put it on do not disturb, but all that to say. When there are projects that are big, like if we're doing a campaign, um, there's lots of steps involved, depending on your personality, right, types, and how you work, you might have to organize that in different ways. Joshua and I are both very detailed step-oriented people.
SPEAKER_00:And we we have to be with what's usually what we're doing. Like for me, video editing or for you, like website or um campaign building or whatever that looks like. You have to, we have to really be hyper detailed.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, we can each share an example. But I think the goal of Arch Inc is figuring out how detailed you need your truly just like straight up checklist to be for whatever project or tasks you're trying to accomplish. Um, so that you can see realistically, like, hey, how long is this gonna take me? What needs to be done to get to this phase? Do I need someone else to jump in here? Like, what is dependent on other people? Um, and setting those plans and checklists and timelines up front, then allows you to focus on said project or task. Yeah. Um, and hopefully we'll avoid distraction or heck. Sometimes I'll sit down and be like, this is a lot. Yeah. I'm gonna knock out these other little things real quick. But in reality, if my list is how it needs to be, all those things that build up into that one project are the little things that is just like mentally we can run through them. Right. So I just talked for a lot. You want to talk about, you know, sure. Even just taking like the editing process of a video. We don't have to give these people video editing checklists they're doing. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, editing, editing can be fair fairly uh intense just with the amount of steps that it takes. Yeah. And it can feel overwhelming, but there's easy ways to make it not overwhelming and very like obtainable. Yeah. I think this can be useful for uh you in your situation. You don't have to be an editor, but just someone who is um working in a field like this, it's an easy way to kind of overcome it and just to like easily push through. Um for me, you know, if I just have a task as simple of like, hey, edit this video, that's gonna, you know, it's hard for me to get an idea how long this is gonna take. Um, what steps I actually have to go through, what software is I have to use. Um so if I if I can break it down to okay, I need to um section it off, color correct the footage, then go through and actually edit the thing, add the effects, the title cards, or whatever else. I kind of like we'll just break it down to points. Makes it so much more obtainable. And then also I I usually hit my deadlines much better, and I also am able to uh feel better about the project in general from start to finish. And I'm not feeling those like stressful feelings. I'm feeling okay, I'm on top of things and I'm getting things knocked out. Yeah. And I think that can be really useful for for you too, just in situations where, hey, maybe you have a whole whole bunch of new people just kind of are interested in what you're selling, or um, you're looking to put out a whole new like content schedule for the next quarter. Okay, how can I break this down? Let's let's come up with the idea first, or let's let's uh let's break down the list of new new leads first and then kind of just go from there and just kind of take it step by step.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, and I'm kind of the same, same way out. Websites are easy example, but it's you got to build a website. But in building a website, you gotta get the domain, you gotta set up the hosting, right? You've gotta get, you know, WordPress, whatever, WordPress or whatever it is installed. You gotta add in the theme. So it's like all that is like set up the website. But it's all these things into that. Um, so then when it's broken out, it's very easy to be like, okay, this is gonna take me 20 minutes, this is gonna take me an hour, check to check. Okay, that's done. Now you have the content create, the written content creation. You have, you know, before that, you got wireframing. It's all the little things that build on each other to get the project across the line. Um and similarly, like, okay, if we're writing the content in the copy, that involves, you know, meetings with the clients up front, writing it, getting it approved, editing, SEO, all that. So even like branching each of those off into different steps just helps organize and build in, like, for example, if the client's reviewing it, like they might need a week or two. So in our timeline, true, I'm not working on copy in that particular like phase of it, because the client's reviewing it, but like, hey, what can I be doing getting images together over here while that's happening and really just building on those timelines to make sure everything stays focused and on tracked. Um, so yeah, I know that's a little bit granular project management, but I think as you're thinking about how to stay focused, really breaking it down um is helpful. I even go down like as far as like this is gonna take, like I've mentioned like the time frames, like this is gonna take me 15 minutes, this is gonna take me 20 minutes, this can't happen unless this is happening. Um, and just so I can see the full project and then, you know, hey, websites due in two months. I can go into my daily calendar and figure out, like, okay, here's my time blocks, but I can, you know, get all this done. So um just figuring out, I guess, which there's a ton of productivity resources out there. So figuring out like what systems work best for you to help you stay focused. And but again, going back to that bigger picture of like what do you need to focus on first and then bringing it full circle.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and mapping out like that can really help with the flow of the project to go so much smoother. And in like in the website case, you have a lot of moving parts and you're needing to like get uh approval from different people sometimes. And so having that mapped out and that helps the flow so much with the actual project itself.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Cool. Um, so yeah, you don't have to do more. Yeah, do less, just do it better. Right, just be better. Um, no, but I think just moving throughout the year, just really trying to define like, hey, what should I focus on, and then figuring out for you and your you know, personality and workflow and your team structure um how to how to stay focused and manage all those projects and different things. So yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you guys for tuning in to Kickstart Your Week. Um, if you aren't already subscribed, you can do that on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, wherever you listen to podcasts. Um, you can also join our email newsletter at kickstartcollective.co and we will email you these episodes every Monday morning. So thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next week.