Her backstory:
In 2008, out of desire to create a business focused on social consciousness through crafting and design, Nicole founded Darn Good Yarn. Over the past 11 years, Darn Good Yarn has saved more than 2 million pounds of manufacturing remnant material from ending up in landfills or rivers, upcycling it into hand-spun, hand-dyed silk yarn and craft supplies and employing more than 300 Indian and Nepalese artisans. She is a self-professed ‘Jane of all trades’: a proud United States Air Force veteran, serial entrepreneur, mom, wife, founder and CEO.
How do you master your "to-do" list?
When I was pregnant with my daughter, my to-do list very quickly became my “to-don’t” list. I learned to start pruning and saying no to anything that didn’t serve my mission. At that time, my mission was to not get overloaded personally while growing my business. As time went on and the business continued on its growth trajectory, I needed a better way to manage my ever-growing to-do list while still getting the important tasks completed in a timely manner.
I finally started to master the list when I realized I’m not always the best person to do everything on it. If it’s a marketing idea, I present the seedling of an idea to my marketing director and let her amazing team run with it and work their magic. Now I process my to-do list with the idea of—right person for the right task—and doing so always produces the best results. Rather than just checking things off the list, ideas get executed and great products are launched.
This method of delegating allows me to focus on my prime activities and keep the business pushing forward. More importantly, I’ve learned how to check things off my list that I don’t need to get done. If I realize that it’s not important, I drop it. The type-A in me had to consciously train myself to “let it go.”
