The Group Chat Goes Live... Slightly Salty Edition

Accountability, Inbox Zero, And The Joy Of Crossing Things Off

Leanna DeBellevue

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We turn procrastination into a plan by launching a “forcing party” and a weekly accountability collective to tackle taxes, inbox chaos, and the tiny tasks that steal focus. Real systems, real deadlines, and a safe room to say the hard things out loud.

• why accountability beats willpower for business owners
• how to structure a forcing party for real results
• email triage, reminder systems, and notification hygiene
• setting quarterly goals and weekly checkpoints
• managing mental load and limiting beliefs
• when to celebrate wins and reinforce habits
• inviting listeners to join and share their task lists

There will be a link in the comments to our to my website, I guess. I'll put it on the website. And then let us know what you would include on your own forcing party. Or if you're having a forcing party, if you've had one, what should we do? What should we not do? Make sure you follow, subscribe, and slide into our DMs with your own slightly salty stories.


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Leanna: https://www.facebook.com/ldebellevue/

Kerri Ann: https://www.facebook.com/kerri.carmodyvalenzuela

Want to send us a message? Contact us here:  

Adrianne: adrianne@lynchteamaz.com

Kerri Ann: info@allaboutyouplacement.com

Leanna: info@debellevueconsulting.com

Salty Welcome & Setup

Kerri Ann

Are we starting over?

Voice Over

Yeah. Welcome to the Group Chat Goes Live, Slightly Salty Edition, where your three favorite troublemakers turn the chaos of the group text into a full-blown weekly show. We're talking real life, real opinions, and just enough sass to keep things interesting. No filters, no perfection. Just three women with big personalities, bold stories, and a habit of saying the quiet parts out loud. So grab your drink, brace yourself, and join us. Because the group chat didn't just spill the tea, it went live.

Introducing The Forcing Party

Leanna

Okay, so I have a topic for us to talk about today. It's something that you sent me that I think we probably need to do, but I think that there's lots of people out there that also need to do it. It's called a forcing party, which sounds horrible, which is how I know I probably need to do it. It's where you have a party and women come together with three to five things that they have been putting off doing for months and months, and you all sit in the same room and you get it done in a certain time frame. And I love that. Yes.

Adrianne

I have so many things on my list.

Leanna

I was gonna say. I have lists for lists.

Adrianne

Yeah. What would be on your list?

Taxes, Shredders, And Procrastination

Adrianne

One would be to actually have my accounting done before April 15th. Okay. Which just never happens. But this year I feel it in my bones. Even though I have to do an extension, you know, on my escort. But I feel in my bones I could make this. I used to be on time every year. In the last two years, I don't know what the heck has happened with me.

Kerri Ann

Because you're an empty nester.

Adrianne

Maybe it is. I'm like out partying too much. That I just don't have time for taxes.

Kerri Ann

Yeah.

Adrianne

But this year, so I need to that's my top item.

Leanna

Okay.

Adrianne

Is that are we gonna have a shredder there? Because I have a stack of things that need to be shredded. Really? That I just have no patience to sit there with my tiny little shredder and shred. I get sidetracked.

Kerri Ann

Like I shred it.

Adrianne

Not about a fireplace. You can come to our house, we'll light it. I do like six pages and then I'm like a squirrel. I'm like, oh, look at this TikTok. Oh, look at that. Oh, wait, do I need a snack?

Leanna

And then before you know it, there's definitely there.

unknown

Yeah.

Leanna

No, I think for me personally, well, taxes is always on there. We have tax people, but apparently we have to get the information to give them something. Why? I know. Well, I don't, I don't know. But ever since we have to write checks now, somehow, even if I don't need an extension, we need an extension. But I talk to so many business owners about accountability, right? There's so many little tiny things that we don't get done on a regular basis just because either they are they're tedious, yeah, or it's because you're not working in your area of brilliance. Like you give me anything number related, I will find anything else to do. I will like, you know, watch paint dry and be happy about it. So what would you bring, Carrie Ann, to our forcing party that you are now forced to attend with us?

The 27,000 Email Confession

Kerri Ann

Well, I believe last time I checked, I have 27,800 something emails. Oh my gosh. That are you just make my chest. I know that are just in the forever like a lot of things I've put in folders, but then others I'm just not sure what I want to do with them, and then I can search them and they're there. So I would love to just sit and be in a space where I can do something with that.

Adrianne

And we could do that. There's that app. I used to do it once a year, and I need it because my inbox is getting ridiculous. That you can download and then it will delete and unsubscribe you. What? There's an app that unsubscribes you from things. It'll it'll pull it up and say, okay, you never open these, and then you can click a button and it'll unsubscribe you from we need that.

Kerri Ann

But those 27,000 plus ones are not. Oh my gosh, that's like actual tasks.

unknown

Oh gosh.

Adrianne

Oh my gosh. You definitely need a forcing button.

Kerri Ann

But it doesn't mean I didn't answer people and I didn't attend to them. It's just a lot of them I just didn't put in a folder or do something with because I didn't. Very dressed me out. I'm feeling very uncomfortable, right? I don't know if I want to be a part of a forcing party with you. My body is a forcing party that there's no judgment.

Adrianne

We'll be like, You, the doors are locked until you have 100 left.

Leanna

Dude, I can't go to bed if I've got more than one page of email, like open. They have to be filed or they have to go somewhere.

Kerri Ann

I know. I started off really well with the best intentions of that. But 27,700 ago, I gave up, I guess.

Adrianne

Oh my gosh, I feel like we need to go in. We gotta sort them by name and then highlight all them and move them over to a folder. It's all in my. So I will say I used to use the deleted as my saved five folders. Like if I did something and I was done, but I know I might need it, I would put in deleted until Google changed their rules and after so many days it deleted. Auto delete. And I I lost a lot of information because that was just like, I don't really want it in my vision. I don't want it in a folder, but if I need it, I can go back. And so I used to do that.

Kerri Ann

Well, now I'm kind of scared because if I bring my laptop to this forcing party and I open it up and you guys see what my what is the open screen? What is that called? You know when you get in and then there's the screen that's Oh, you do you have a bunch of folders saved to your desk? Oh no. What is happening here right now?

Adrianne

Oh, you're we have so much to do with the forcing party.

Leanna

Okay, this is what's gonna happen. You're just gonna leave us with your laptop for 24 hours. Bring us a bottle of wine, some cheese and crackers.

Adrianne

We got you.

Kerri Ann

Am I the only one that has this issue? I mean, in this room, obviously. I mean, in this room, yes.

Leanna

Okay. I am married to someone who has over 10,000 emails and it stresses me out. Okay. Terry does too.

Adrianne

And Terry has so many text messages unread, and I'm like, how do you know you don't need he's like, Oh, it's not important. I go, but how how do you know how do we know that? When there's there's a lot. So I changed my phone. So I used to have an inbox issue, and it would stress me out when I'd see like, you know, a thousand, a thousand showing up. And now my phone is it's designed where it shows me everything for that day. And by the end of the evening, I delete everything I don't need and I move everything else. And so every night before I go to bed, there is nothing in that inbox of today's. And is now kept my email, because I run three email addresses, it is kept and they all go into that box. And then I delete, sort, or whatever. And so now what's in the actual inbox for each email is stuff that I'm still working on. So when I click on it and I might have 30, I know those are 30 things I still have to finish, but every day I just I set up my phone. So I every day I have to I clean up before I go to bed.

Leanna

I can't stand to have any numbers, any notifications. Well, Brian's that way. He cannot stand it.

Kerri Ann

Any number, any dot makes him nuts.

Leanna

Oh, I didn't realize that I was so Oh, it's crazy.

Kerri Ann

I hope I don't still have something. If I turn on my phone and he sees it, he'll be like, fix that. Why don't you look at that? I'm like, because I don't want to.

Leanna

He gets completely sideways. I'm pretty sure that we marry, like we attract the opposite. Yes. Jeff is

Daily Systems And Notification Anxiety

Leanna

always like, I'm like, what are you doing today? He's like, not much. I'm like, great, could you attack your emails? He's like, why? Why do we even care? I'm like, because I know it's there. All right, moving on from the emails.

Kerri Ann

Yes, we know what my entire time at the forcing party is gonna be spent doing. Yes. So I don't need to tell you any other things that I don't need to work on, obviously. What about you guys?

Voice Over

No.

Kerri Ann

I love the idea though. Because I did say when we a while back, we did a mastermind accountability group, the three of us with two other ladies. And that time was like the most growth because of the accountability part and of getting together and talking and supporting, and like there's something to be said for that.

Leanna

Yeah.

Kerri Ann

So I think the forcing party would be really cool because everybody's coming because they have crap they need to take care of. Right.

Adrianne

Yeah. And I feel like you can't you can't move on in your brain when you have a thousand to-dos. And some of these to-dos are so easy where like on that on a forcing party, we can go and have fun, but get things off of our list. Yeah. And then really then focus on because I'm a squirrel. If I have 20 things on my list, I'm gonna pick also the easiest items to do. I'm not going to do my taxes for six months because I don't want to. And I don't like that. I don't like those kind of numbers. If you want to ask me a house number, I'll tell you house numbers all day long. But if you want me to do my taxes and like why I went to Walmart, I just don't want to take the time. So I love like being the accountable and just getting some of this stuff off.

Kerri Ann

And it's kind of but it definitely has to be structured. Yes.

Leanna

Yeah. Well, and I think there's a couple of different ways. I don't really talk about it too much, but I do business consulting for for people that don't know. And accountability is the number one thing that business owners identify as the reason why they're not growing. Either you don't know what you don't know, or it's those tedious little things, or there's something that's more important, especially when you have staff. If there's anything that your staff needs, even if you really need to get your taxes, you're gonna put your staff's needs to be. Yeah, you're putting out fires. Yeah. One after the other. So having that accountability, but having a forcing party, again, as much as I sounds horrible, because I know it's on my list, how do you like I don't know. I think it would make me feel better to know that you've got a list and you've got a list and I've got a list. Because in our I think in your head, it's really easy to think I'm the only one who's not getting this done, or everybody else has something done and I don't, right? It would just be how do you make sure that you're doing stuff that you need to do? Because yeah, if you give me a list, I'm gonna pick the stuff I hate the least, and the only thing that's gonna be left is the stuff I don't.

Adrianne

Well, and I sometimes think when you have a group, like you were talking about, you know, when we all supported each other and were accountable, is some people, you know, if we did like a forcing party and someone, some people might come that they're stuck and they don't know how to get a task. Yeah. Where when you're with a bunch of other business owners, what I loved about all of us is we all came from different backgrounds and businesses and we gave different perspectives so we could help each other on a different perspective because our minds are not thinking like you think.

Kerri Ann

Yeah.

Adrianne

And so that helped you grow and helped me grow.

Kerri Ann

Well, it speaks to what you said. You don't know what you don't know. And people can feel stuck but not know why. Yeah. But when they go and talk to others, it's like, oh, okay, maybe I see now where I'm stuck and what I need to do and accomplish.

Leanna

Yeah. And collectively, I think obviously you're stronger together. Agree. Right. And so I'm super

Accountability And Business Growth

Leanna

excited. I haven't really publicized it yet, but I am launching an accountability collective where it will be those groups that you can feel safe in to talk about growth and things like that. So important. But same with my business, I grew exponentially that year that we were working together, mainly because sometimes you just need to say it out loud. And when you hear it repeated back, like I recognize my own limiting beliefs, the things that I was scared to do, but I knew I needed to do anyways. I think sometimes we all know what those things are. We just need to feel like we're supported in making hard decisions.

Voice Over

Yeah.

Leanna

And when you're the owner, you can't really go to your staff and say, like, hey, I'm really afraid to grow. Like, what? Like that's you know, that's kind of an inside thought. Drop stability, feel very good. You know, hey, I don't know if I'm gonna make payroll this week, but it'll be fine. It'll be fine, don't worry. Don't you worry.

Adrianne

Do you by chance have any suggestions for this week?

Leanna

Right? But having an an area, so I think that I might create have a forcing party.

Kerri Ann

I'd go. I think obviously I think it would be a good one. I'm going to go many times.

Leanna

I know. I don't know. What would be, I guess, what would success look like at the end of that for you guys? I want to create something that's meaningful for people.

Kerri Ann

I think just having a space and a determined time to get a task done. Yeah. Because like Adrian said, like I work out in the field a lot. So I'm in my traveling office, and there's a lot of things that I can't get to. And then when I get home, I do everything in my power to get things done. But there's a lot of other things that take me away from that. So I think to just say, okay, here's the list. I'm going here to be around like-minded people, talk and get even one thing accomplished. Like you said, you just take things off the list. Because like if you put something on a list and you don't do it, doesn't that one thing sometimes turn into two or three others? Absolutely. So the list just grows because you're not getting it done. Yeah.

Leanna

My post-it notes become like then an actual notebook page, then becomes like an entire book and the list goes on.

Adrianne

That's the notes in my phone. I have a thousand notes in my phone. Do you seriously? I do, because I if I write it on a piece of paper, I mean I guess I could clean up my notes. But if I'm at if I'm writing on a notebook and then I'm not in my I'm in my car, I'm at home, then I'm in another notebook and then I couldn't, I'm like, where did I put that note? So I put everything in notepad in my phone and I can then search keywords so that I know how to find it. Yeah. So that between that and reminders, it's ridiculous. Like if you tell me to do something, I'm always like telling my phone, I'm like, set a reminder at six o'clock to do this. Set a reminder tomorrow at three, set a reminder, and then I have all these reminders that pop up and will stay up until I'm done to clear it to make sure I get those items done. But it that can get out of control where I keep ignoring my reminders and then I finally have to clear them. I'm like, oh shoot.

Leanna

I'm like, this is darn.

Adrianne

It's the only way I can at honestly, I feel like at this age, it's the only way I can remember anything is but Well, because there is also so much going on. Yeah.

Kerri Ann

And it's on my phone.

Leanna

In that moment. If you tell me you need something from me, if I don't do it in that moment, it can get put off. Yeah.

Adrianne

But I live half my life in my car. Yeah. So like constantly when people need something or want something, or they've sent me a text or they've called me, I will forget if you call me and ask me to do something. Yeah. Until if I don't have it as a reminder. And so I normally will set it for later in the evening. So when I know I'm home and then it pops up, I'm like, oh yes, get that done, or send that message out, or do something.

Leanna

I'm just wondering how many times am I a reminder on your phone? Because as far as I can recall, you've never missed anything that I've asked you for.

Launching An Accountability Collective

Leanna

So I'm all You all are reminders.

Adrianne

My life is a reminder.

Leanna

Yeah. You're crazy.

Adrianne

I drive Terry nuts between my phone and Alexa at home that were they both remind me. And the new Alexa sounds like my assistant. I love her new. She'll be like, like, hey, set a reminder at 8 a.m. tomorrow. And she'll be like, one moment, please. And then she'll be like, it's taken care of. I'm nice. I don't know who the new Alexa is, but I'm like, thank you.

Leanna

She keeps asking me if I want to listen to her, and I tell her no. Oh, you need she's an amazing online assistant. Alexa does? Yes.

Kerri Ann

To you at your house?

Leanna

Yeah. I have a new voice. Would you like to hear it? Oh, yeah, no. No, thank you.

unknown

No.

Adrianne

I love the new voice. It sounds like an assistant. It's so prompt and so professional.

Leanna

Really?

Adrianne

But I feel like I have an assistant at home now. Yeah.

Leanna

Very interesting. Okay.

Adrianne

Even though it calls me Adrienne Lynch's A Z, it hasn't learned. It goes by my email. And so it cracks me up.

Leanna

Okay, but in all fairness, I know a lot of people say your full name when they talk about you. Remember Caden used to do that. Yeah. Adrienne Lynch. Yeah. Yeah. Of the Lynch team. Yes. He was like five or six. There's a number of cards for some reason.

Kerri Ann

See, there's a couple people that we all know that when I see them, I cannot say just their first name.

Leanna

Yeah.

Kerri Ann

I have to say.

Leanna

And the fact that you're not saying it right now is driving me crazy. So I'm going to say it and then I'm going to tag her in it and tell her that we talked about the case. Heather Parker.

Kerri Ann

Oh, no. And Christy Boutane. And who else is the team? And Martin was the first one. Anne Martin.

Adrianne

I always say Anne Martin.

Kerri Ann

I can never see Anne and be like, hi Ann.

Adrianne

And that's funny. I always say Heather Parker, too. Heather Parker.

Kerri Ann

Every time I see Heather Parker, I'm like, hi, I saw her at the at the gala event with her family. I'm like, hi Heather Parker. And I'm like, this is what I do. Her husband's like, okay. So back to the forcing party. I would lean into it like crazy. And we do it soon.

Adrianne

Because I'm trying to get my tax thing. I need to hit a tax goal. I think it's a good idea.

Kerri Ann

So is there like pre-work before the party? Like we have to send it in for accountability of what we want to accomplish, or yeah, I'm making this up on the spot. So it's whatever we come up with. No, you're not. You've done this before.

Leanna

Well, yes. But I do like that idea of sending it in beforehand so that you don't get to make it up when you show up. When you show up. Because then I'll be like, I'm not in the mood to do that. So let me pick this. Yeah. But if we did that, we could have it.

Kerri Ann

Yeah, have like a fun appetizers and wine. Some we have one.

Adrianne

You know what though?

Kerri Ann

But how oh wait, do we not get the wine until after we've completed our no, I'll never get a glass of wine. I will get prosecco the whole time. It's gonna take me. We'll have it sit there looking at you. No.

Leanna

Open once completed.

unknown

No.

Adrianne

We'll like slowly pour it.

Leanna

You're gonna have a little check mark. I gotta we gotta check off.

Kerri Ann

No, that's like going to a torture group. I'm going to a forcing group.

Leanna

The bubbles run out, you're done. No, we can totally do that. I think, but no,

Defining Success And Structure

Leanna

I like that. It's a set afternoon or maybe probably end of day, late afternoon, early evening. Two two hours. How much can you get checked off your list? And two hours, and whether that's shredding papers or going through email or getting tax. I probably wouldn't recommend doing tax stuff when you're drinking. I'm just I'm no I already.

Kerri Ann

Two or three glasses of per second. Oh, and it's all ready to go. They owe me four million dollars. I'm not doing the taxes, I'm just getting them together for my tax person.

Leanna

Yeah, no, that's Jeff's job. But no, in two to three hours, and this is what we're gonna accomplish and see how many things we can get checked off. Because you're right, it does rent space in your head. And I think as business owners, we are very, very hard on ourselves, especially successful. The more successful I think you become, the harder you become on yourself because now you've got more writing on it, right? And how much stuff takes up space in our head, rent-free, and or adds to, for me, the negative self-talk of like, yeah, of course you didn't get this done today. Of course this needs to be done. Yes, you're behind on this, or you know, but when you look in the totality of things, we really are doing amazing things. There's just these little tiny little stragglers. Yeah.

Kerri Ann

Yeah. So could someone come to the forcing party that has something they want to accomplish, like a like a starting of something, and that's the space for them to do it? Or is does it have to be something you ha want to check off?

Adrianne

Does that make sense? I feel like it'd have to be something as business owners, we all have stuff we want to check off. I feel like because I'm just gonna assume you're gonna do this this coming quarter because I'm just assigning that that you're gonna do this. So I would say like Q1 is done. Right we know there's stuff that people didn't hit goals on.

Kerri Ann

January, February, March. It's not fully done.

Adrianne

So it will be done. All right. But you know, you have goals you probably didn't hit or things you didn't complete. So I feel like to launch into your next quarter, why not release a few items and then maybe the intention is set, you know, because we'll just assign Leanne and we'll you know, have more meetings. So then the intention would be set, like, okay, we cleared these off, so we're ready for Q2. And then and maybe at the end of that you're setting your intention of like, what do you want to accomplish at Q in Q2?

Leanna

Yep.

Adrianne

Because then you've gotten rid of this. Here's what here's the three things you're going to get done or do in Q2. Because I feel like I can set yearly goals, but I do better by quarter.

Leanna

And then we can just have them every quarter. You know that you're gonna be forced to do something that's gonna make you uncomfortable and help you grow.

Kerri Ann

Is it just one time per quarter or are we meeting multiple times? Because if it's three things For the forcing party, I say three three forcing parties, one a month. Or one a quarter.

Leanna

One a quarter for the forcing parties, and then I'm gonna launch the accountability collection. Oh, got it, got it. And that's gonna be a weekly thing. That's a weekly thing. So that'll be more like the power card.

Kerri Ann

So in a quarter I have a hundred emails left on my laptop.

Adrianne

That are that has been recorded, so everyone hears what she just agreed to.

Kerri Ann

Well, it isn't started yet. We haven't been to the party part. I think it's the starting part.

Leanna

Yes, and apparently it's happening very soon. Yes. Yeah. So I'm gonna get that started.

Kerri Ann

Yes, I need it. Yeah. Debel View Consulting Forcing Party and Accountability Group. That's it's happening.

Leanna

See, that's my that's my launch. Yep. Right here. I didn't know. Way too many words though.

unknown

Yeah.

Adrianne

I can probably figure out an angle. Two different groups. Yeah. Yeah. Two different things. But I do miss us meeting weekly and how much we accomplish. Oh, I agree. Good. I mean, we started that for an entire year. Yeah.

Leanna

First week of April, we are meeting weekly. Okay. But we're gonna invite people to be in that group with us.

Adrianne

Yeah. I think that would be that I would I just felt like we had an amazing year that yeah.

Leanna

We did. I agree. Exponential growth. I agree.

Kerri Ann

Actually, I look back at that time and long for it sometimes. Yeah. Because it was like, you know, when we all get together, I love it no matter what. But we it we held each other accountable. So each week, because of the respect that we all had, we were moving forward in crazy wonderful ways.

Leanna

Yeah. And I think honestly, it we're we're all very competitive in what it is we do. Otherwise, we wouldn't be performing at the level we perform. Right. I think that there is one, a respect for each other's time because I know you guys are making time. I don't want to show up and say I didn't do something. Right. But two, there's a competitiveness in me that I also don't want to show

Quarterly Goals And Cadence

Leanna

up and be the only one who didn't do it. So I might get it done that morning on the way to as I'm walking in the door, but it's done, and that box does get checked. Yeah. Right. So that's what I'm there's my big, my big launch. There you go. I love it. I do. I love it. And so I would love to hear from other people though, what should be on a forcing party list? Yes. What are some of the things that they're holding off on that they haven't gotten done yet? Who wants to join us?

Kerri Ann

And I know there's gotta be somebody else out there with the laptop faced thing and the emails. I'm can't I'm not the only one in this room, obviously. Yes. But uh we don't have to go back at it.

Leanna

But everybody can I just can I please just for one day just the can I just borrow your laptop for a minute? I just need a minute.

Kerri Ann

What are you gonna break it? It's gonna smash it, make me start off. But it'll be all right. But the emails, that's right, the emails don't go away. Yeah, 100%. I mean, I might not be technological, but I know that smashing my computer is not gonna make my emails go away.

Leanna

Awesome. Okay, well, that is what we're gonna be doing. So yeah, if you want to join us, there will be a link in the comments to our to my website, I guess. I'll put it on the website. And then let us know what you would include on your own forcing party. Or if you're having a forcing party, if you've had one, what should we do? What should we not do? Still wondering if drinking should be something that's allowed. Oh, come on. But I do know I know how to read the room. We'll give out tickets.

Wine Tickets And Closing Banter

Adrianne

You can only have so drinking tickets, and when you complete, you may have another.

Kerri Ann

Yes. There we go. Oh, you guys are very like angry mean people.

Voice Over

Awesome. Okay, till next time. See you guys. And that's a wrap on today's episode of the Group Chat Goes Live, Slightly Salty Edition. If you laughed, cringed, nodded along, or mentally texted your bestie, good. That means we did our job. Make sure you follow, subscribe, and slide into our DMs with your own slightly salty stories. You know we love the chaos. Until next time, keep your group chat spicy and the real world slightly saltier.