0:00

This is what I call the delusions

0:02

of deadlines , brought

0:04

to you by the everyday entrepreneur

0:07

, where we have a tendency

0:09

to get really excited about what we're building and then we

0:11

create these deadlines and then we

0:13

freak out and wonder why we're so

0:15

, quote-unquote , stressed and overwhelmed when

0:18

all of the work that's required to meet

0:20

that deadline is piling up and

0:22

not happening . It's

0:24

overtaking our lives . This

0:37

is the podcast for the entrepreneur

0:39

who wants to make a big impact , who doesn't

0:41

shy away from hard work but also

0:43

wants to enjoy life along the way

0:45

. Hi , I'm Heather Sager , former

0:48

executive turned entrepreneur , and I've

0:50

spent the last 20 years working with premium brands

0:52

on sales , marketing and communication . I've

0:55

learned that when you become a magnet

0:57

with your message , you only need

0:59

a hint of hustle to achieve your goals

1:01

. Get ready to be inspired

1:03

and ignited each week with tangible

1:06

strategies on sales , speaking , marketing

1:08

and so much more . This

1:11

is the Hint of Hustle podcast . Let's

1:13

go Well

1:47

. Hey , friends , welcome back to another

1:50

episode . You have me in

1:52

sexy voice today . Fun

1:55

update I apparently

1:57

had the flu last week and

2:00

I was down for the

2:02

count . I

2:06

was literally horizontally stuck

2:09

in my bed for days

2:12

at a very critical

2:14

time , not only in my

2:16

brew and a baby and , approaching the end

2:18

of this

2:20

process , I have a countdown

2:22

for taking time off to get

2:25

said baby out and I'm

2:27

in the middle of facilitating a live

2:29

cohort . So there was not

2:31

a shortage of things that I

2:33

mean quite literally had to get done

2:36

last week and

2:38

they physically could

2:40

not get done last

2:43

week . Which brings me to what

2:45

I wanted to talk about today on today's

2:47

episode , and it is

2:50

this we're going to talk

2:52

about stress today . All right , we're talking

2:54

about stress and we're talking about

2:56

the stress that

2:59

we create for ourselves

3:01

as entrepreneurs

3:03

. I'm going to unpack this . I'm going to share

3:05

with you my take

3:07

on stress and how it shifted

3:09

over the years and

3:12

hopefully share with you some words

3:15

of wisdom that might resonate with you . This

3:17

very well might not resonate with you . You might be

3:20

way more developed than me in this area

3:22

and kudos to you . I

3:24

don't know , but I always find it interesting just hearing

3:27

the insights of other people's brains around

3:29

, how they operate and recalibrate

3:32

. I'm

3:34

a big believer that you learn something

3:36

and then you continue to learn evolutions

3:39

of the same lesson over and over

3:42

again and , if I don't know , if that's true for you too

3:44

, but I learn new

3:46

things all the time , but what I actually find

3:48

is more powerful in my learning , and

3:50

things that truly shape my life , is me

3:52

learning different angles on the same

3:55

lesson , reminding myself of some of the same

3:57

fundamental principles that have worked for

3:59

me in the past , but somehow I've gotten away from them

4:01

and I just need to get back to them

4:03

. So if you are a

4:05

lifelong learner like me and always

4:07

striving for finding

4:09

ways to be more present

4:11

, to be more pleasant , to

4:14

be more productive , just

4:17

to be more you at the best version

4:19

of you , then I think you're going to enjoy

4:21

this episode . I

4:25

don't know if I should say you're welcome for this

4:27

voice or if I should apologize , but

4:29

either way , it is what it is . We are here

4:31

. I am intentionally

4:34

. Let me just add to this little fun picture

4:36

Well one . I

4:38

look phenomenal right now . I

4:41

say that mildly , sarcastically , but also

4:43

mildly truly , because

4:45

I put on a new style

4:47

of eyelashes this morning and

4:51

I very much like them . They look great . But

4:54

it was to overcompensate for the fact

4:56

that my sickness led to a

4:58

epic cold sore on

5:01

my nose and

5:03

I yeah , I'm one

5:05

of . I don't know , I don't know if you get cold sore , so if you get grossed

5:07

out by this , I mean I'm so sorry

5:09

it just hit , skip forward 30 seconds , but

5:12

it's real reality . I feel like other

5:15

influencers or personal brands

5:18

. People don't talk about the real shit of

5:20

what happens in life . I didn't post on social media

5:22

very much at all last week when my sickness . But

5:25

the reality is I have a fat cold sore on

5:27

my nose , which normally

5:29

cold sorts do not go on your nose , they go on your mouth and

5:31

I get those two sometimes . But I got cold

5:33

sore on my nose . It's gross

5:35

and I'm don't want

5:37

to show up for anything . But part of

5:40

being a business , sometimes you do have to show up and

5:42

one of my commitments was I had to record

5:44

a lesson today for

5:46

my signature topic , celebrity cohort

5:48

, and had to get it done . So I

5:50

put on these big ridiculous eyelashes

5:52

to overcompensate for my gnarly

5:54

nose . I

5:58

know it's fine , everything is fine . I just made

6:00

my little camera window very tiny in the slides

6:02

, nice and large . I sure that

6:04

would be that some , I don't know . I

6:06

think sometimes we get this picture that you have to show

6:08

up perfectly and you have to like , feel your best

6:10

. It's okay if sometimes you show up and you

6:13

don't feel your best . You're just Just

6:15

surviving . That is just kudos

6:17

to you if you were just surviving . We

6:19

have seasons of that . That

6:21

is where I am at right now and , honestly

6:24

, I think it creates some of my most

6:26

enjoyable work maybe not my most effective

6:29

work , but I've heard from many of

6:31

you my most enjoyable work In

6:33

terms of when I am a little bit more

6:35

laid back and not so focused

6:37

on being Polished and

6:39

effective and whatever else

6:42

is that I am . I just

6:44

the shit that flies out of my mouth sometimes just resonates

6:46

. So here we are for that today . So

6:49

let's talk about stress , baby . Let's

6:51

talk about you and me . The

6:54

idea of stress . This is something

6:57

that is how

7:00

man really relevant . To me , this

7:02

has been , by all accounts

7:05

, a seemingly

7:07

stressful year

7:09

and , as I've shared

7:11

in many podcast episodes this year , I

7:14

haven't really been stressed at all . I

7:17

we've had a lot going on , right from the business change

7:19

To the move across the state , to

7:21

finding out we're pregnant , to we can't

7:24

sell our house for some reason

7:26

in our old town , so we are now living with a

7:28

giant ass mortgage and a giant

7:30

house rent payment , with

7:32

a baby coming in less than

7:35

five weeks . There

7:37

is a lot going on . There is there

7:39

is a lot going on , and I

7:41

would imagine you

7:43

have your own version of that right now

7:45

. It kind of feels like things are piling

7:48

up . Hi , we always talk

7:50

about this delusional mindset we

7:52

all have . Every

7:54

professional on the planet is . We talk about

7:56

the busy season and we assume that

7:58

there is ever not a busy season

8:00

. There's

8:03

always . There's always something . It's always back

8:05

to school , or the stress

8:07

of starting summer , or the stress of the holidays

8:10

, or the stress of a lunch or you

8:12

we could check anything up to being busy and

8:15

stressful . And I believe it's all about

8:17

how you label it . Two

8:19

people can look at the same experience and one

8:22

can choose it as something exciting

8:24

and oh , it's amazing , and

8:26

the other one could be like , oh my gosh , that's so

8:28

stressful and taxi and I'm already tired

8:30

just looking at it . True

8:32

, right , you just look at it from a different perspective

8:34

or your different vantage point , from

8:37

different experiences , and you have a different

8:39

take on it , and I'm not

8:41

here to say that your

8:43

version of stress is wrong . It's

8:46

just maybe different than mine . I'm

8:48

just gonna share with you my take around how

8:50

I've adjusted my relationship With

8:53

stress and what I do

8:55

when I'm feeling stress , and I'm gonna tell you right now . It's

8:57

not anything fancy , it's

8:59

actually really frigging

9:02

simple and stupid . But

9:04

this simple and stupid hack I'm

9:06

gonna share with you . It's literally like four things

9:08

I do every time I'm feeling stress . My husband

9:10

knows you so well , he actually prompts me doing

9:12

this . I'm gonna share with you today

9:14

at that , at the end of the episode . But

9:17

let's talk about let's talk about stress

9:19

now One thing I want

9:21

to share out . What's been really incredible

9:24

doing what I do is I get a lot of work with a lot of experts

9:26

from a lot of different backgrounds

9:28

and modalities , experiences

9:30

, and inside this latest

9:32

version of the signature talk

9:34

accelerator cohort , I had

9:36

multiple people Addressing

9:39

the topic of stress inside

9:42

their signature talk and they were all from different angles

9:44

and different experiences really fascinating and

9:46

it's so . Side

9:49

note . So there are definitely

9:51

qualified professionals who help

9:54

you handle stress if this is a

9:56

huge focus in your life

9:58

. So please do not take lightly that I

10:00

know that overwhelm and

10:02

stress and physical Sometimes

10:06

, if the physical manifestation of stress

10:08

can be very , very debilitating . So

10:11

if that is you , I'm not trying to solve

10:13

your stress problems . This is not a . This

10:16

is not meant to be a like

10:18

cure all thing . Today I just want

10:20

to share with you as someone who is in

10:23

a quote unquote very stressful season

10:25

, specifically coming out

10:27

of a very stressful week . I'm

10:30

just share with you my take around , how I approach it , and

10:33

take , take what you want , leave with you , don't

10:35

. I hope something resonates with

10:37

you and also shout out to my

10:39

students who talk about stress y'all inspire

10:41

me so much . I appreciate so much . One of the

10:43

things that you often say I'm

10:46

gonna love to share with the larger audience

10:48

today is this big truth

10:50

I think a lot of times , people

10:52

are in pursuit of trying to eliminate stress

10:54

. The goal isn't to eliminate

10:57

it , it's to learn to work with

10:59

it . It's a learn to let it ride

11:01

. I'll say these are my words I

11:03

let it ride shotgun in your life , but

11:05

not take over the driver seat . So

11:07

shout out to my stress reducing

11:10

teachers and educators in the

11:12

space . I

11:14

hope I do you proud today . All

11:18

right , so the thing that I think about the reason

11:20

why this topic came up for

11:22

me Honestly , I

11:24

had not planned on talking about this today . This

11:26

was a . I woke up to

11:28

pee at three thirty this morning and I

11:30

could not get this idea out of my brain

11:33

and I laid in my bed In

11:35

my pregnancy insomnia for about an hour and a half

11:37

just thinking through this , this

11:39

topic . So that's where this came from . But

11:42

specifically what popped up for

11:44

me is I had a lot

11:46

of opportunities where I could have been very

11:48

Frantic , in

11:52

a frenzy and an absolute stress

11:54

mode this year , but specifically

11:57

within the last few months and

11:59

I will not lie and say that

12:01

I do not get those feelings

12:03

of freak out and overwhelm my

12:06

husband knows this very well but

12:08

what I've learned to recognize

12:10

is the difference between when

12:15

I am creating my

12:17

own stress for

12:19

no reason versus

12:21

feeling the stress and pressure others

12:24

have placed on me . Let's talk about

12:26

the nuance difference . One thing that's , I think

12:29

, very fascinating in this online

12:31

world that we live in , specifically in

12:33

online marketing and in this coach , course

12:36

creator business , we

12:39

have a tendency to

12:41

well , we have the

12:43

ability and we always do . We create our

12:45

own deadlines . So let's say , for example

12:47

, you want to launch a new program

12:49

or you want to launch a podcast

12:51

, or you want to launch a course

12:54

or do a new webinar . Whatever

12:56

it is right . You get to decide

12:58

when you do it . In fact , you have

13:00

to decide when you're going to do it , and

13:03

what I often see is entrepreneurs

13:05

wait to declare

13:08

a deadline . You're just going to work on something

13:10

. And then they think miraculously oh

13:12

why am I not making sales

13:14

? Well , it's because you never actually released the thing in the

13:16

world that you've been working on . You've just been working

13:18

on it . But paired with that is

13:21

I see this happen all the time working

13:24

with my private clients in my CEO intensive

13:26

day when they're getting ready to launch

13:28

a new product or a course or just go through a live

13:30

launch . In general , they pick a date

13:32

. And here's what's interesting

13:35

the date they always pick is

13:37

super , super close to

13:39

the current date we were living in . And

13:42

this is what I call the delusions

13:45

of deadlines brought

13:47

to you by the everyday entrepreneur

13:49

, where we have a tendency

13:52

to get really excited about what we're building and then we

13:54

create these deadlines and then we

13:56

freak out and wonder why we're so

13:58

quote unquote stressed and overwhelmed when

14:00

all of the work that's required to meet

14:02

that deadline is piling up and

14:05

not happening . It's

14:07

overtaking our lives , and

14:11

this was the thing that was on my mind today around

14:13

how interesting it is , I had deadlines last

14:15

week that needed to get hit because they were promised

14:17

forward facing to my clients as part of my offer

14:20

. And I

14:22

was so sick , I

14:24

had such a high fever I

14:27

thought my water broke last

14:29

week when I woke up in the middle of the night

14:31

, but nope , it was just my fever breaking

14:33

and me sweating through my sheets . Like

14:36

that's how I was very , very sick last week

14:38

and , yes , I know , I was making sure I

14:40

was safe . I was monitoring things with my doctor

14:42

. They were making sure the baby's okay , we're all

14:44

okay , everything's good . But

14:47

what I was thinking about is I had these deadlines

14:49

and they were very real

14:51

deadlines because I communicated these deadlines

14:53

and old

14:56

me , meaning me , like years , years , years

14:58

, years ago , like a decade ago , I

15:00

would have busted my

15:02

ass to work through

15:05

the sickness to deliver on that deadline

15:07

. But me today

15:10

, who has incredible

15:12

relationships and a lot of clout , credibility

15:14

and established good faith with my clients

15:17

, I know that

15:19

I have leeway and

15:23

the funny part is is this is the

15:25

first time that I have

15:27

leeway and what would be my leeway

15:29

right is you can push it back . You don't want to be the person who always

15:31

pushes their dates back right , because then you lose

15:33

your trust and credibility with your clients . But

15:36

it's happened before . I've had to push back and

15:38

release date or push back a module

15:40

airing date or a coaching call . That happened

15:42

last week . We had to move a coaching call around and

15:46

what's fascinating is

15:48

this last week the reason why this topic

15:50

was so relevant for me is

15:52

this last week

15:54

I wouldn't have thought twice about moving

15:56

it , like obviously I'm sick my clients , even

15:58

all of them , were like emailing back , going oh my gosh

16:00

. Like don't even worry about rescheduling the call

16:02

. You like take care of you and the baby . But

16:05

there was this other thing happening where

16:07

I had a real

16:10

deadline , and what I mean by

16:12

real deadline is I have a ticking time bomb

16:14

baby happening that come the

16:16

end of November I have

16:18

to be on maternity leave because this child is

16:21

getting out . This child

16:23

is coming out , I'm going to have a newborn in the world and I will

16:25

not be creating course

16:28

content or doing coaching calls

16:30

whilst in the delusions of

16:32

postpartum , especially in those

16:34

first few weeks . That's not going to be good for

16:36

anyone involved and

16:38

that's not why I'm building this business right

16:40

. I don't want to put myself in that position . So

16:43

I found myself last week in this interesting

16:45

dichotomy between the deadlines

16:48

that I've set , which could

16:50

be flexed , paired with five

16:53

weeks from now is a hard

16:55

, immovable deadline , and

16:58

it got me thinking about this . That's enough for that

17:00

situation . We all got through it . By the way , I just recorded

17:02

a beautiful module for them

17:04

this morning . Everybody is going to get it tonight

17:07

. They're going to get . We're back on track

17:09

with our schedule . Everything is great . We all

17:11

worked it out . But it got me thinking about

17:13

this concept around how , as entrepreneurs

17:16

, oftentimes deadlines is

17:19

the source of

17:21

a lot of our stress , and

17:23

whether that's a deadline for sending an

17:25

email or guilt over , I didn't

17:28

send out my newsletter again or I forgot to reply

17:30

to that person , or we

17:32

have these quote unquote deadlines that we have

17:34

in our brain . Whether it's the hitting our

17:36

weekly content rhythm , or

17:38

it's sending

17:40

out a promotion or launching

17:42

a course or doing a webinar or

17:44

whatever it is right . We create these

17:46

deadlines , and there's a difference between

17:48

deadlines you set for yourself

17:51

, deadlines you set

17:53

for your clients , deadlines

17:56

that are flat out delusional

17:58

, and

18:00

deadlines that are based

18:03

around collaborations or

18:05

events or strategic

18:07

partnerships that you book . They're

18:10

not all the same , and

18:13

what's fascinating to me is when

18:15

you think about these different types of

18:17

deadlines , oftentimes

18:20

we react and

18:22

treat all of them as high

18:24

stakes , high pressure , therefore

18:27

high stress . So I

18:29

don't know about you , but when you what I see for

18:31

a lot of business owners when they look at their calendar , when

18:34

they look at their to-do list , they instantly

18:36

become overwhelmed because they know

18:38

the deadlines are looming . And what's worse

18:41

is when things are overdue therefore

18:43

like late , they're

18:45

past deadlines it just amplifies

18:48

the stress . So now , if you're listening

18:50

to this going , I never miss a deadline

18:52

. Kudos to you . Koo fricking

18:54

does to you like teach me your ways

18:56

. I

18:58

think that's a great thing . I think the reality is most

19:00

entrepreneurs have a lot

19:02

of deadlines and I

19:05

think the majority of those deadlines

19:07

are absolute , they're

19:09

delusional , they're fictitious , they're just things

19:11

we have in our minds . So , for example , when

19:14

you think about your to-do list right now , I mean I

19:16

have probably 73 post-it notes

19:18

sitting next to me of all the things I wanna get done before

19:21

this baby comes , and

19:23

I know that they will not . So

19:27

I excuse me , I just

19:29

hiccuped . I

19:32

know that when I am brainstorming

19:35

ideas or thinking about what needs to

19:37

get done for the quarter . I know

19:39

that the way that I operate is I always come

19:41

up with way more ideas than I have capacity

19:43

for and way more ideas

19:45

than I actually need to hit my goals

19:48

. So

19:50

we have to play this role of allowing

19:53

ourselves to come up with these ideas

19:55

, allowing ourselves to write out these ideas

19:57

, but then exercising some

20:00

way to say , hold up . How

20:02

are we truly setting ourselves up for success

20:04

here and not for stress ? Here ? There

20:07

is a difference . I

20:09

think many business owners are

20:12

intentionally setting themselves up

20:14

to be stressed out , and

20:16

if that's you , if you operate from stress

20:19

often and going , oh , like

20:21

I'm just there's so many things to do , I'm just so busy . I'm

20:23

working all the time . You are working

20:25

on the hours , the nights , the weekends . It's

20:27

constant . You're not taking time off

20:29

. I'm gonna tell you you're planning

20:31

for stress , you're operating

20:34

in stress mode , and I

20:36

really wanna challenge you to start thinking about

20:38

the work that you're doing . Is

20:40

it true , valuable work that's

20:42

contributing to your outcomes

20:45

, your goals for the quarter ? Is it contributing

20:47

to the experience of your clients ? Or is it

20:49

busy work that you've added to your schedule

20:51

that someone else said that you should be doing

20:53

, because that's what we do

20:56

as online creators

20:58

. There was like a big

21:00

air quote around that . I hopefully got that in sarcasm

21:03

in my voice , but what I find

21:05

is we need to get really

21:07

good at being more disciplined

21:10

and more strict with what we allow

21:13

on our plate and when it comes

21:15

to deadlines , I think we need to be far

21:18

more discerning on what

21:20

kind of deadline we're facing . So

21:23

, for example , one of the things that I do is

21:25

I know that I create delusional

21:27

deadlines versus real

21:30

deadlines . So one of the practices

21:32

that I put in place is when I , let's

21:35

say , I agree to a partnership with

21:37

someone , or I'm guest speaking inside their group

21:39

, or they let's see here

21:42

, they want me to be on their podcast , or

21:44

I don't know some other kind of thing is happening involving

21:46

another person . Couple things that I

21:48

have learned about me in this season of life

21:50

that I do and I don't do . One

21:53

of the things I always do is I always

21:55

now learn my lesson

21:57

. I never say

21:59

fully yes or schedule without

22:02

passing people to my assistant

22:04

, dorothy . What happens is every

22:07

time that I say yes and then I send

22:09

it to Dorothy to get like scheduling happening

22:11

. We always find

22:14

that it creates stress somewhere else

22:16

in the business , because me saying yes

22:18

to this opportunity means that we'd already

22:20

had a plan and now we're having

22:22

to shove this into a pre-existing plan , aka

22:25

more work and whether or not that work

22:27

is needed . There wasn't a lot of thinking

22:29

around that . I just get excited about opportunities

22:31

and let me to speak . Hell yeah , I want me to come to your mastermind . Hell

22:33

yeah , but feasibly . I

22:35

need a little bit of a pit bull to block my schedule

22:38

a bit to make sure that I'm preserving

22:40

my sanity and my energy

22:43

. And my pit bull is Dorothy . I know my

22:45

pit bull . She's the sweetest person ever . She's like

22:47

the kindest at helping people

22:49

, either rejecting their request

22:51

or sidelining

22:53

their request , putting it on the sidelines until we

22:56

can get to the point , and she's really great at circling back

22:58

when that time comes . So

23:00

that's one of the things I put into place is my own executive

23:02

assistant to field those inbound opportunities

23:05

. I still build relationships . I get a ton of DMs

23:07

with these requests . If you've been one of those people

23:09

who've reached out , I consistently

23:11

say , yeah , this sounds like an awesome opportunity . I'm

23:13

going to pass you over to Dorothy on my team

23:15

and she will work with you on the details . And

23:18

that does not mean necessarily mean yes . It means yes , we're

23:20

going to try , but then Dorothy

23:23

can help me look at it from a more objective

23:25

perspective and say all right , what does

23:27

this look like Now ? Second thing

23:29

that we do one of the things that we

23:31

get is we get a lot of requests from people

23:33

and a lot of those requests

23:36

have very pressing deadlines

23:38

. So , for example , I've gotten a lot of

23:40

podcasts , speaking requests lately , or

23:42

guest groups , and they wanted to

23:44

happen in August , september

23:46

, october Well , august

23:49

, my kids were still home and my internet was crap

23:51

. September , we were launching the accelerator

23:53

. October , I'm facilitating the accelerator

23:56

, prepping for matleaf . As you can tell

23:58

, those are three very , very busy months

24:01

. So what Dorothy

24:03

did is we exercised a

24:06

deadline driven question . So

24:08

when we were talking with people asking

24:10

the clear question is this critical

24:13

in this month or are you open

24:15

and flexible on the timeline and

24:18

by simply asking that question , we found out

24:20

who really needed to fill , like they had a specific

24:22

thing they were focused on , versus most

24:24

people were like , oh , we're totally open , and

24:27

that allowed us to set realistic

24:30

, aligned collaboration

24:32

opportunities versus just hammering

24:34

things on the calendar . So that's

24:36

another thing that we've done . That has worked really well . Another

24:39

thing that we don't

24:42

do in our business is I

24:46

don't live and die

24:48

by a calendar . This might seem weird

24:51

to you , but I do not live and die by a

24:53

calendar . I do not put all of my tasks , all

24:55

of my work , all of my things on a calendar

24:57

. In fact , I rarely ever follow

25:00

my calendar , with the exception of live

25:03

calls Live calls

25:05

, which I drive the

25:07

strategy behind

25:09

when I do live calls and when I don't . So

25:12

I've learned and I've changed my . I

25:14

changed based off the season that I'm in whether

25:16

or not the kids are home from school , whether or not it's

25:18

the holidays , whether or not I'm in a hustle

25:21

season or a rest season . We

25:23

are very intentional around what goes on my

25:25

calendar . I try

25:27

very hard not to allow

25:30

calls on my calendar every day , so we

25:32

try to block out . I also don't do the thing

25:34

where I have like a call day . That's like very

25:36

, very stressful for me . I hate the idea of

25:38

being on Zoom all day . So the

25:40

point here is I don't

25:42

I don't subscribe to anybody

25:45

else's productivity model . We are

25:47

constantly looking for ways that work

25:49

for me to bring my best

25:51

in the season that we're in . This

25:53

means that we revisit how we

25:55

schedule things . Very often we meaning my assistant

25:58

Dorothy and I we're constantly looking

26:00

at , all right , what's on the calendar

26:02

that's coming up , meaning like strategically coming

26:04

up , not the physical calendar , so like , for example

26:06

, what's launching , what events are happening

26:08

, what blah , blah , blah . We get stuff

26:11

and then we schedule them on the calendar based

26:13

around when I'm going to be performing at my

26:15

best . So , for example , right now I'm in a

26:17

season where this has been all year I

26:20

do most of my coaching on Thursdays

26:22

. That allows me to not have

26:24

to worry about things on Fridays . We don't really schedule

26:26

things on Fridays or it's like a catch all bonus

26:29

day , but it also makes sure that

26:31

the beginning of my week we can

26:33

focus on more strategic work , whether

26:35

that's podcast recording , whether that's creating

26:38

content for my

26:40

courses , whether that's me

26:43

taking days off , which I have

26:45

done a ton this year whether that's

26:47

me laying in bed with the flu , or that's me

26:49

just taking a random Tuesday off because I feel

26:51

like I need it , or taking time

26:53

off with my kids or working on creative

26:56

projects . I need days

26:58

. I just need free space

27:00

in my calendar . I know that for myself , but

27:03

for calls , we know that

27:05

Thursdays I'm not feeling at my

27:07

most creative , but I do really really

27:09

well coming to live coaching . So Thursdays is

27:11

a great day for me for coaching . That wasn't always

27:14

the case . Sometimes I wanted to do my coaching on Fridays

27:16

or Tuesdays . So we

27:18

open it up . The takeaway here

27:20

is you need to figure out what

27:23

in the season that you're in

27:25

. Don't be so tied to coming

27:27

up with the perfect , ideal batch

27:30

calendar . And

27:32

more so , read the season that you're in

27:34

, read the strategic goals that you have and say

27:37

how can I set myself up to be at my

27:39

best ? If you're the kind of person who loves to schedule everything

27:41

on your calendar my friend Sarah

27:43

is like that it totally gives me anxiety

27:45

. No , thank you . But if

27:47

a little bit of structure would work for you

27:49

, get it going . Get it going , babe . So

27:52

that's what we do is I use the calendar for

27:55

live stuff . I do not use

27:57

it for mapping out all the things that I

27:59

do , except for right now it's very

28:01

full with , like , ob appointments , physical therapy

28:03

appointments , chiropractor appointments . That's

28:06

the exception of that , but there are . Those are live appointments . So

28:08

I guess case in point still true . So

28:11

scheduling and timelines , that

28:13

is a huge thing for me

28:15

is one recognizing am I

28:17

setting delusional deadlines or realistic deadlines

28:20

? And two , what are we actually putting on my

28:22

calendar ? So those

28:24

are really powerful . Okay , so let's say I'm

28:27

in a season where I'm feeling I'm

28:30

feeling the heat of my commitments , whether

28:33

they were delusional commitments to myself , realistic

28:35

commitments to myself or commitments to

28:37

other people . I'm feeling the stress of

28:39

it . Or , let's say , in my

28:41

personal life , I'm feeling overwhelmed

28:43

and stressed by this sheer volume

28:46

of shit we have going on . Both

28:48

of these things are very real examples that happen

28:50

to me . I mean , often

28:52

in life and business , I have a moment of like

28:54

ah , and what's interesting is

28:57

I don't recognize them as me being stressed

28:59

out , I just recognize them as oh my gosh

29:01

, I have a lot going on . That's my cue

29:03

to go oh , pause . Okay

29:05

, here's the simple non-fancy

29:10

. Don't come after me about how dumb

29:12

this is , but this is what I do . This

29:14

is exactly what I do to navigate

29:17

those moments into

29:19

. Okay , I feel confident in how

29:21

I'm moving forward Literally four

29:23

steps . Of course , I framework out this to

29:26

be able to help you , should this be helpful ? So

29:29

, number one I take a

29:31

brain dump . I

29:33

know that's very forward , but

29:36

my brain gets constipated

29:38

because I am carrying

29:41

a lot of mental

29:43

load . You've heard that phrase before , right

29:45

, just thinking about all the things that need to happen

29:48

and all the in-betweens and all the tasks

29:50

and all the timelines and all the deadlines and all the people

29:52

involved . Our brain carries a lot

29:54

. This is especially

29:56

true for us in business . It's very true for

29:58

us in personal lives . When I'm feeling

30:00

it , I know I need to take a

30:02

brain dump Now . For me , specifically

30:04

, that means I need to write it out

30:07

. So I sit with my remarkable

30:09

tablet it's my favorite way to do it

30:11

and I just write out all the stuff that I

30:13

have going on . I have to get it all

30:15

out . Even though it's in our project management

30:17

tool , even though the whatever

30:20

is on the calendar , even though I

30:22

have , like a specific plan written

30:24

somewhere , it's still living

30:26

in my head and I have to get it

30:28

out . It is my process . It might not be

30:30

yours , but , number one , I have to

30:32

get it out . I need my brain

30:34

to be released from all of that mental

30:37

loat . Number two

30:39

, I need to get back

30:41

aligned and present with what is

30:43

the real priority and

30:45

goal right now . What is dead

30:48

? Drop the focus Now in business

30:50

. For me , that is what's the dead drop , the

30:52

revenue . What is the focus for this

30:54

quarter for revenue ? How are we doing on revenue

30:56

? Which leads me to step

30:58

three . I look at my list and say

31:01

how much of this shit that I just

31:03

wrote down has to do with

31:05

the goal and how much is extra ? Which

31:09

brings me to step four . Is

31:11

I purge and rearrange

31:14

and organize , and

31:16

what I mean by that is it's permission

31:19

for me to go like why do I even have this written

31:21

down ? Is this a delusional thing that I wrote

31:23

down ? That would be like a cool one day . Great

31:25

, if I wanted to , I might write that on what

31:27

I call my later list , which

31:29

, quite frankly , I never look at again . But it just makes me

31:31

feel better knowing it's on a list somewhere . But

31:35

other things I'll do . I'll say what can I delegate ? So

31:38

this is typically where I would bring Dorothy and

31:40

my assistant into the mix and

31:42

she would take on things that

31:44

I had some . For some reason we all do this

31:46

as entrepreneurs had been hesitate to delegate

31:49

because I thought I had to do myself . Time

31:51

and time again . A good chunk of that list

31:53

goes over to Dorothy and she smashes

31:55

it . She just does phenomenal at it . Other

31:58

things are I start adjusting dates . So

32:01

this has happened to me multiple times . If I

32:03

was in a stress mode coming up for a launch that

32:05

was in the future , me going , but do I

32:07

have to launch it that week ? If we

32:09

pushed it back a week , what would that do ? And

32:12

just playing with the dates and the calendar

32:14

, that's where things

32:16

start going okay . Does that feel ? You

32:19

can see your physical reaction ? Does that feel better

32:21

? Does that cause you more stress ? Does

32:24

that like ? For me , one of the things is is sometimes

32:26

that the timeline is too so far out . That's

32:28

what's actually causing me stress . I just want it to get done

32:30

. I would rather just do it dirty

32:32

and get it over with

32:35

to get the shitty rough draft done , versus

32:38

putting it so far in the distance

32:40

. I'm putting all this pressure on myself to make

32:42

it beautiful and perfect and that's

32:44

just BS . You and I both know that it's just procrastination

32:47

tactic . So sometimes

32:49

I actually have to crunch the timeline because I'm

32:51

pushing it too far out and it's just lingering

32:53

there . So that's it

32:55

. That's what I do and that dictates then what

32:58

goes on my actual to-do

33:00

list for the week . So , brain dump

33:02

, I clarify the goal . I then cut

33:04

the clutter . I look based off of the goals

33:07

to cut out the clutter and I start reorganizing

33:09

, delegate , rearranging off of that . That's

33:11

literally what I do , and every time I do that

33:13

I just physically and mentally

33:16

feel so much

33:19

better . It allows me

33:21

to show up at my best . It allows

33:23

me to show up clarified and

33:25

with more intention that what I'm doing is

33:27

actually going towards something

33:29

that matters , something more strategic

33:31

, and I mean it's

33:34

not a very sexy process and it's not something that

33:36

I do like . The question is well , heather , do you do

33:38

this every week ? Do you do this activity every

33:40

month ? Can we systematize this ? No

33:42

, fricking all that hell . No , I'm not

33:44

trying to create a system here . I'm not in a stage

33:46

of my life where I can do I

33:49

can do a Sunday planning session

33:51

. I'm not at a phase in my business where I

33:54

can have a consistent routine

33:56

around this . One day I would like to , but it's just not

33:58

the season I'm in . So my

34:00

schedule ebbs and flows based

34:02

around the priorities and

34:05

we set specific . Here's

34:08

what Heather has to get done this week . We

34:10

have something called the harass

34:12

Heather list . Dorothy has

34:14

that when there are things that are on

34:16

deadlines that are true deadlines . Part

34:19

of her job is she stays on

34:21

me and says , hey , just the reminder

34:23

, these are your four things coming up the next two weeks . How

34:26

can I help ? And part of

34:28

her value is making sure that

34:30

I don't drop the ball . That is the power

34:32

of assistance . Some people would be like , well , that's kind of a

34:34

waste . Shouldn't you manage it yourself

34:36

? I could , but I

34:38

don't need to If I know that somebody

34:41

else let me just end with this piece . Me

34:44

knowing that someone else

34:46

has it as their priority and the ball won't

34:48

get dropped is the most

34:50

freeing feeling ever . If

34:53

I didn't delegate that to Dorothy , to say

34:55

, dorothy , your job is to harass the crap out

34:57

of me to make sure it gets done , I

34:59

would then be stressed out

35:02

and be like I have to get the newsletter done , or

35:04

I have to get this thing done , or I have to whatever . Just

35:06

that mental load that I would have , that

35:08

mental piece of

35:11

always just nagging there . It

35:13

would cloud my ability to show up in the best

35:15

way that I needed to in other areas of my life and

35:17

business . So sometimes a solution

35:20

is really quite simple or

35:22

it seems so silly , but

35:24

the point is , do what

35:26

you've got to do for

35:28

you to be able to release some of

35:30

the delusional deadlines and

35:32

fictitious crap

35:36

that we think we need to do and get really clear

35:38

around what actually matters

35:40

, what needs to happen Today

35:42

, tomorrow , next week . Beyond

35:44

that , say , don't worry about it , you

35:46

could do your strategic planning , but do not do that

35:49

whole thing where you plan everything out to a T , because

35:51

it's going to change anyways . So

35:55

this would be my thoughtful

35:58

and stress All right , friend , I hope that this episode

36:00

was helpful for you . I

36:02

hope that you liked my voice and my cheeky

36:04

style today and I will see you back

36:07

, hopefully back at 100% , next week

36:09

. Bye , friend . Oh , oh

36:12

, oh , oh , oh

36:14

, oh , oh , oh

36:16

, oh , oh , oh , oh

36:18

, oh , oh , oh . Well , thanks for listening to

36:20

another episode of the Hint have Hustle podcast

36:22

. That flew right by , didn't it , gosh

36:25

? I hope I didn't say anything super embarrassing today

36:27

, but if I did , it's pretty much on brand

36:30

. If you loved today's episode , be

36:32

sure to scroll on down wherever

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36:36

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36:39

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36:48

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36:50

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36:52

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36:54

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