We were lucky to catch up with Tess Trotter and Alysa Scanzano recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tess and Alysa, so glad you were able to set aside some time for us today. We’ve always admired not just your journey and success, but also the seemingly high levels of self-discipline that you seem to have mastered and so maybe we can start by chatting about how you developed it or where it comes from?
While self-discipline can seem like a scary and daunting concept, it doesn’t have to be! To us, self-discipline stems from simply developing the right habits and systems. Even if these habits and systems are small, incorporating more and more of them on a consistent basis is what will help you reach new heights.
Keeping this in mind, it is also important to allow some wiggle room for setbacks and errors. We’re only human after all, so these setbacks are inevitable. Instead of getting thrown completely off track when they occur, self-discipline reels us back in, helping us acknowledge that this is part of the process and to keep our eyes on the prize.
And if we ever find ourselves losing steam, we envision our dream selves. We can’t let them down. Not only are they capable of success, but they deserve success as well. This mindset shift is an essential component of staying disciplined because you already believe you are THAT person – a person who is meant to achieve everything they dream of in life.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Speaking of self-discipline and achieving dreams, we are launching a new planner in April, the DreamMaker – a tool for dreamers to turn their thoughts into actions.
This isn’t your typical planner that only features bland sections to fill in meetings and tasks. We believe it takes a little more than writing down your to-do list to stay on track. That is why the DreamMaker perfectly blends inspiration, accountability, and practicality, in order to help you create and stick to a digestible, doable plan for achieving your dreams.
Here are the features of the DreamMaker:
– Fill-In Dates: Everyone has an individual journey, which is why there are no pre-set dates in this planner. You write in the date based on your own unique starting point. Each day features the same layout for you to customize as you wish.
– Vision Board: This planner includes a vision board. In order to create a game plan, you must first envision the end picture. And whether you want to glue pictures to the page or write out your goals in words, this page is meant for you to get your dreams onto paper so you can start creating a plan.
– Weekly Goal Check-In: At the start and end of each week, you’ll find a Weekly Goal Check-In to stay on track.
– Daily Mantra: On each page, you’ll find a unique mantra that is meant to encourage and inspire you.
– Morning Checklist: On each page, you’ll find a checklist of morning activities we compiled based on true-life practices that many successful people adopt.
– Journaling Section: On each page, you’ll find a unique journal prompt. This will help shed light on what old habits or belief patterns you may need to shake. It can also help you discover more about the kind of life you want to live.
– Meeting Column: You’ll find a column to the right of each page that is dedicated to meetings and appointments. The rows are divided into hourly increments.
– Task Column: To the left, you’ll find a column for to-dos. Here you can list out your tasks of the day and cross them off one by one upon completion.
We are so excited to launch this planner to help dreamers make the seemingly impossible possible!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The qualities we have found the most helpful throughout our journey include…
1. Planning: Not having a plan in place is like driving endlessly with no sense of where you are or where you are going.
2. Motivation: If planning acts as your map, motivation acts as the gas in your car. Staying motivated is what energizes us to keep going.
3. Commitment to Self-Development: If you want to change your life, changes must first start from within. It is crucial to learn your strengths as well as your weaknesses, so you can continue to evolve. A commitment to self-development is what sparked our self-awareness, which in turn is what sparked our resiliency. If you acknowledge your weaknesses and try to learn from them, failure no longer seems personal. Instead, it represents a chance to get better.
If you are early in your journey, we suggest checking out the DreamMaker. This planner incorporates all the above qualities through goal check-ins, mantras, daily planner pages, and journal prompts. It offers a perfect blend of features to help you maintain clarity, enjoy the journey, appreciate the progress you are making, and feel encouraged to come up with creative ideas that better serve your end goal. In fact, it is what we used to scale and grow our marketing agency, CEP Communications (https://cep-communications.com/). Stay tuned for our launch date in June!
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
Because we have started multiple businesses together, we always talk about how our friendship has helped us overcome the inevitable challenges that come with entrepreneurship. And through our shared experiences with business obstacles, we have developed the key insight that these hurdles are actually essential for growth.
A mantra we both resonated with recently states, “My fears are calls from the universe to heal with courage.” Growth never comes from your comfort zone. This means that taking those scary risks, which inherently come with ups and downs and continuous challenges, will lead you on a progressive path. Lean into those risks by showing courage.
A driving force for creating the DreamMaker planner was to offer others the inspiration, accountability, and motivation we have received from our friendship.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thedreammakerplanner.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dreammakerplanner/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@dreammakerplanner
