Episode 358: Navigating The Journey To Full-Time Entrepreneurship with Christy Romano

Episode 358 - Navigating The Journey To Full-Time Entrepreneurship with Christy Romano

In this episode I’m talking to one of our PGSDers, Christy, about her journey to becoming a full-time entrepreneur with the help of PGSD.

Christy Romano is a Certified Health Coach on a mission to help perfectionists nourish their bodies, break free from anxiety, and love the skin they’re in. Through her healing journey she learned effective strategies to rewire her anxious mind, overcome perfectionism and take care of her body holistically. She’s now guiding her clients as they build a healthy, balanced lifestyle to thrive inside and out.

Christy joined PGSD in 2020 and went full-time with her business in 2021. I’m excited for you to hear the ups and downs of Christy’s business journey, especially if you’re also navigating the journey of going from full-time work to being full-time in your business.

This important episode is going to normalise what often happens when you make this transition, including the decisions to be made, the questions to answer and the feelings that come up. This will show you how the experience can look like so that when you go through it with your own business, you never mistakenly think you’re off track.

Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode358.

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

  • Christy’s honest experience moving from full-time work to full-time entrepreneur
  • The decisions and questions that came up for Christy through this transition
  • How navigating the transition to a full-time business often is not linear
  • How to handle the fears and doubts that come up during this transition
  • How Power Planning helped Christy in her journey to being full-time in your business
  • What to do if you’re technically full-time but not really (because you aren’t making enough money yet)

PGSD is opening to new students on 26 October 2022:
The PGSD Process will have you getting out of your own way in your business and planning properly as a perfectionist. The doors to Perfectionists Getting Shit Done will be opening at 6am New York time on 26 October and closing at 11:59pm New York time on 1 November 2022. To find out more about the program and be the first to know when the doors open, join the waitlist here: samlaurabrown.com/pgsd.

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In this episode I’m talking to PGSDer Christy Romano about how she navigated her journey from full-time work to full-time entrepreneur. Tune in to hear what’s normal during this transition so you never mistakenly think you’re off track.

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Introduction

Hi, and welcome to another episode of The Perfectionism Project. A podcast full of perfectionism advice for entrepreneurs. My name is Sam Laura Brown, I help entrepreneurs release their perfectionism handbrake, so they can get out of their own way and build a fulfilling and profitable business. I’m the founder of the perfectionist getting shit done group coaching program, which is otherwise known as PGSD. And for even more perfectionism advice to help you with your business, you can follow me on Instagram @perfectionismproject.

Sam Laura Brown
This episode is a really important one. And I’m so excited to be sharing it with you, especially if right now you are on the journey of navigating, going from full time work to being full time in your business, Christy Romano, who is a certified health coach, and she is also a PGSDer. She has been so open and honest and generous with what she shares in this episode, I really wanted to share the journey of going full time in your business and not just what we typically hear, which is that someone has gone full time, the rest is history.

Like they kind of skim over those decisions about timing the conversations they needed to have fears that they had that came up about maybe having to go back, maybe not being able to balance things, just all of those things that go on as we’re navigating that transition. And I myself made that transition over a number of years, I quit my full time job in 2017. I went to part time work at that time I talk more about it in this episode. And then in 2019, I left my part time job and went full time in my business. And I did an episode, episode 125, where I share my journey in detail.

But at this point in time, that’s now a few years ago, it is not top of mind for me, it’s not a super recent experience. But I know that it is something that so many of our PGSDer is navigating, and that even if you’re not a PGSDer yet, that you might be navigating that journey. And I think it’s just so helpful to hear about someone else’s experience the decisions, they had to make the questions they had to ask themselves, fears, doubts, all of those different things.

Also, in this episode, we talk about power planning, and how it has helped Christy with this journey and everything along the way. So I just want to say a huge thank you to Christy for being so generous with what she shared in this episode, I know it’s going to be incredibly helpful. And even if you’re already full time in your business, whether that means you don’t have another job, or anything like that to support you. And you are making a full time income in your business, or you aren’t working anywhere else.

And you aren’t yet making an income that really supports you full time. So technically, you’re full time, but you feel like you’re not really and we talk about that a bit in this episode. This is going to be so helpful for you as well. There’s just so much that comes up on this journey that relates to all stages, but particularly if you are navigating this if you have a goal of going full time in your business and fears and doubts around that I talk about why I felt like a smart and responsible thing of waiting until I had replaced my income was actually in hindsight, not the smartest thing I could have done.

So anyway, just things like that we talk about a lot in this episode, it’s going to be incredible helpful, all the things. So Christy, I will link up where you can find her in the show notes. But her Instagram is @nutritionrefresh her website is also at or not at nutrition. It’s www.nutritionrefresh.com. So that’ll be linked up for you. If you want to find out more about Christy work with her she does work with perfectionists on nourishing their bodies breaking free from anxiety and loving the skin they’re in.

So if you are on a health journey, you might want to look into her. But I hope you enjoy this episode. And I also want to mention one thing, that the next episode, after this one coming next week is the beginning of a five part Planning series to help you plan properly as a perfectionist, and get out of your own way in your business so that you are doing the most important tasks in your business and you are doing them in a consistent, sustainable, productive and courageous way. And this series is going to be covering why your business isn’t growing fast enough.

The ways that your productivity is going to skyrocket when your power planning and is not just about being consistent. Consistency is really just the beginning. So I talked about that in that episode. There’s an episode on the three steps of power planning. There is an episode about how to use your calendar as a tool for kindness and kindness. Like just know that kindness is really about honoring that you have. You really have goals and dreams and you were put here to make a contribution to make an impact. You can feel that and being kind to yourself is about honoring that and doing it in a way that supports you long time.

And it’s not about just doing whatever you want whenever you want. It’s definitely not about beating yourself up. And it’s not about just having rest time. I know I preach clean rest a lot. It’s not just about, okay, get a lot of clean rest, like I barely mentioned clean rest in that episode, it is all about how to be kind to yourself during your work hours. And that flows over into everything else as well. And then there’s also an episode, the final episode is going to be about identifying your needle movers when everything feels important. So just know that if you have been struggling to trust yourself with deciding what you actually need to focus on, and then you’ve been feeling a lot of resistance to following through.

Because you can’t trust that you’re actually doing the right thing. And even if you are you can’t trust it, it’s actually going to add up to anything and going to make a difference. And so you’ve got a lot of resistance, that you’re constantly having to overcome procrastination overwhelm all those things, then I invite you to put it in your calendar, this planning series of the first episode is going to be released at 6am, New York time on the 17th of October, and it will be an episode every other day.

For those five episodes, they will be coming out. And they’re just gonna be so incredibly helpful. And this is such a great time of year to learn how to plan properly, I go more into that in the series. I won’t share too much on that now. But this is such a great time, and I’m so excited to be bringing you this series. And then once that series is complete the doors to PGSD, Perfectionist Getting Shit Done. My program for perfectionist entrepreneurs will be opening. And I will tell you more about that in the planning series as well.

But enrollment will open at 6am New York time on the 26th of October, and closing at 11:59pm New York time on the first of November. So this is our final enrollment week for 2022. I want to make sure you know about it. I want to make sure you have everything you need to know about PGSD. So you can decide whether or not to join us for this enrollment period. So if you can relate to this podcast, if you find it very helpful, then again, I want to invite you to listen to the Planning series.

And if you find that helpful, I really want to invite you inside PGSD, because PGSD not only helps you get into growth mindset and out of your own way through the PGSD process, which is to plan properly as perfectionist, follow through 80% of the time rest without guilt and repeat. But it also provides the accountability. So that becomes something that you can do long term and is sustainable, you don’t just have this productivity spared and then you go back to how you were working in spurts of motivation stops and starts going in that you know all or nothing mindset where we’re all in and then we go skiing, we want to get out of that and have showing up consistently and sustainably and productively and courageously have that be our new normal that we can set on autopilot.

And then we get the benefits for the rest of our life. It’s like learning to drive you learn at once, then you put it on autopilot. And you get all those opportunities that come from driving all the time saved from being able to drive there are so many things that become available once you just invest that initial time in learning, it might be a little uncomfortable at first a bit new. But then very quickly you are driving to maybe it’s your parents house or your friend’s house or whatever, the grocery store and you kind of remember how you got there, even though you were driving because it’s so automatic.

So that’s what we do with power planning and PGSD provides the accountability, the three types of accountability, self accountability, which right now might not be very reliable, because you haven’t been following planning advice that works for perfectionist. So it’s okay, you’re going to develop that inside PGSD. But there’s also the peer accountability and the expert accountability as well as that coaching and support so that it becomes something that you can put on autopilot and you can benefit from it for the rest of your entrepreneurial career and your life as well.

So you can find out more about PGSD if you’re wanting to look into it now at samlaurabrown.com/pgsd The link will be in the show notes for you alongside the links for Christy and anything else that I think he might find helpful that flows from this episode. And yeah, mark your calendar 17th of October is when the Planning series begins 26th of October is when our final enrollment week for perfectionist getting shit done begins. With all that said please enjoy this interview with health coach and PGSDer, Christy Romano.

So today we have Christie on the podcast who is a PGSDer. And I’m So grateful to have you on, we’re going to be covering so many helpful things, especially for those who are navigating the transition from working in a job while building their business to being full time in that business. We’re going to be talking about your journey with that the ups and downs and everything along the way. So thank you so much for being on the podcast. Would you mind sharing a bit about who you are, and also how perfectionism was coming up for you in your business?

Christy Romano
Sure, yeah. Thank you so much for having me on. I’m so excited to be here. Like you said, my name is Christy. And I’m a certified Integrative Nutrition health coach. So I actually help perfectionist on their health journeys. So I help them nourish their bodies break free from anxiety, and really just love the skin they’re in. But obviously, I’m a PGSDer because I’m a perfectionist myself. So while I was able to really break free from the perfectionist mindset on my health journey around food and my body, it definitely showed up in other areas, one being entrepreneurship and my business.

So I’m trying to think I found you through your podcast, and it was way back in 2020. So it’s been a while now, but really, I I knew I was a perfectionist, but I didn’t really have a label for it. So when I started listening to your episodes, I was like, Oh, my gosh, this is totally me. Every single time a new one would have come up it was it was like Christmas, because I just see the the title of it. And I’d be like, yes, like, that’s exactly how I feel. So I listened to your podcast for a really long time. And I actually joined PGSD about six months into building my business. So it was, I think around like February of 2020.

And earlier that year, I had actually just invested in my first group coaching program to grow my business. So I was like, Alright, I’m getting serious about this. And the program was really more focused on strategy and ideal client, Instagram, all that stuff. And I had started it and so much was coming up for me, where I had all these tools to utilize to grow my business. But there was so many mindset blocks, I was so scared to put myself out there, I was overthinking things, things are taking, like way longer than they probably needed to and you started marketing PGSD on your podcast. And I was like, alright, even though I just invested in this big group coaching program, I was like, I know, this is the work I need to do. So that’s kind of how I fell into that program.

Sam Laura Brown
I love that you share about the different ways that came up for you like the overthinking, and being scared to put yourself out there. That was really how it manifested for me as well that I just felt so scared to be me. And like, for me, coaching just felt like the truest expression I’d had of myself. And it was really scary to just share that and to do it fully. Did you find yourself like, Would you mind sharing a bit more about like, did you find yourself being scared to tell people in your life? Or was that easy for you? Because that was really a challenge for me. Like, how was it showing up in your personal life?

Christy Romano
Yeah, so I think part of me was a little embarrassed, like, I didn’t think people would take me seriously, like, oh, okay, I’m starting this health coaching business. And it almost was treated as like a hobby. So I think I was scared, just that people wouldn’t see me as a professional. But I was also just really scared to put myself out there online. Because I was so fresh. And also just, you know, talking in front of camera and doing things that you know, normal everyday people don’t really do really intimidated me.

So I can remember it took me forever to talk on my Instagram story for the first time and actually have the video. It’s funny, I go back and look at it because I’m like, wow, I’ve grown so much. But I showed I showed my face for like, maybe like three seconds. I was like, Hey everybody, this is my meal prep. And I turned the camera around. And I just like was like spanning over like the sweet potatoes talking. And really, it was just getting out there and talking about you know, my passion for health and the business I was growing and just having a lot of obstacles in my way, mindset wise.

Sam Laura Brown
And then when it comes to this is really what I wanted to talk to you about in detail in this episode, navigating building your business while working in a job and then deciding to leave that job and then we can talk about the different steps along the way but I really wanted to get into the nitty gritty of that because as I shared before we hit record that. I feel like a lot of times there’s people sharing like I was working in a job and then I went full time in my business and the rest is history.

And I probably even share it like that now, because for me, it was a few years ago, quite a few years ago that it’s not really top of mind that I’m thinking about navigating that. But when I was in the thick of that journey, I was just so hungry for information. I don’t even information stories about other people who are navigating that and how they decided when to you know, take less hours, or leave their job or go back to their job, or the different fears that were coming up.

Because I had so many fears around leaving, and I did an episode, I think it was episode 125, if people are interested in hearing my full story, but I was working full time in accounting, I have a law and finance degree, I was working in insolvency accounting. And then in 2017, when I was making, I think I made about $3,000 or so from an online course that I had, I decided I was going to leave the corporate world behind that was so scary, and we can get into some of those fears. But I was gonna leave all of that behind on my degrees behind. And I was gonna go back to a job I had as a university student as a medical receptionist, and working that job, so that I could have more attention on my business, because my accounting job was very mentally draining.

And then I was there for a couple of years as I built up my business. And then in 2019, I left that part time job. And as I’ve shown again, before we hit record that I wish in a way like I don’t regret anything, but I really stayed it, especially that part time job, but also the full time job longer than I needed to because I had so many fears around, leaving too early and a lot of pride around like not wanting to do anything that wasn’t smart or responsible. Like I really wanted to make sure I was like doing this smart thing.

And so even though by the time I left my part time job, my business was making about 150,000 that I could have left a lot earlier, if these fears like if I had been able to overcome those fears, and have the courage to do that, I want to get into your story with navigating that and what it’s looked like. And thank you for sharing agreeing to share it. And I know that some bits of it might be challenging or fresh or all of that, but I think is going to be super helpful. So tell me about, say in 2020, when you sign up for PGSD 2021, what kind of job were you in? What was the balance, like between in terms of like dedicating time to your business? And then dedicating time to the job? Like, what was that like for you? I guess a starting point really, before all the things that happen?

Christy Romano
Yeah, so in 2020, when I signed up for PGSD, I was working as a social media manager for a health and wellness company. And I really enjoyed my nine to five job and I was so fresh into the coaching industry that, you know, I was waking up really early at like 5am to write blog posts, or I was doing coaching calls in the evening. And 2020 was when COVID hit. So I kind of had like, almost some space to really actually focus on my business, because then we transitioned out of the office to working from home and things like that. But in November, I actually transition jobs and I was working as a Content Director for another health and wellness holistic company. And I think one of the biggest struggles with me, or for me with my coaching business.

And also my full time job was that I really loved both. Like I had almost a dream job being a Content Director for a company whose mission I was in line with and the people were great, the hours were great. It was I don’t want to say a golden handcuffs. But it was almost it was really hard for me to think about, potentially, like stepping away from that. And I really didn’t cross my mind until I started to get really burnt out. I was growing in my coaching business a lot which is really exciting. And I was also taking on more responsibilities in my nine to five. So I just every day was feeling so burnt out going from the nine to five coming home to doing coaching sessions and I knew deep down in my heart like what I wanted was to be full time in my business.

But I just I never thought that I would actually be able to take the steps to leave so I kind of went through a good like six to eight months of just really being in a bad headspace just constantly tired like feeling tired and worn out and a little bit resentful until I finally hopped on a coaching call with you and kind of reworked my mindset about it and got the courage to take the first step, when when I first set my impossible goal I had kind of to I was like, I’m either gonna make, you know, $40,000 in my health coaching business, or I’m gonna quit my full time job. And as you were working through that, you kind of helped me see that, all right? Well, in order to quit the full time job, like I have this, in my mind, money obstacle were like, you know, I can’t quit until I’m making, you know, X amount where would be considered like, a regular entry level of salary or whatever, you know, I had to at least be able to support myself financially.

So on our on our coaching call, I kind of was like, Alright, I’m not ready to go full time yet, like, I’m making good money on my coaching business. But to completely just get rid of my nine to five sounds terrifying. So we kind of decided, like, alright, let’s just see if I can adjust my hours, maybe I can go part time, maybe I can transition my role from, you know, being in charge of all these things to almost, you know, being more of like a content creator or something. So the first step was really deciding to, like, have a conversation with my bosses and see what the possibilities were.

So I ended up having that conversation, you gave me a deadline for it. And so I think it was in March, I was like, Oh, my gosh, I remember I was so much anxiety, but I was like, I just have to do it. I drove into the office, and I met with my bosses who are so sweet. You know, like, I love them. And they, you know, they listened to my concerns how, you know, I was just not able to balance the demands of both my business, they knew I was a health coach, as well as you know, show up like I wanted to, and my nine to five.

And we talked about some opportunities for me to potentially transition roles or go part time. And it was basically one of those things where it let’s just keep the conversation going, like thank you for bringing this to our attention, and we’ll see what we can do. So I left still feeling a little, like, uneasy, because I was like, Uh huh, I don’t know if this is really going to, to change the way I was feeling. And then they had come back a couple days later. And when I look back in hindsight, it was like, the biggest blessing ever, but they gave me an ultimatum.

So they said, you know, right now we just need full time employees on our team. And since you have you know, a higher role, it would be kind of hard for us to transition you into part time. So right now, you know, let’s either you stay with us full time or you go after your business and that was that was a very easy decision for me to make and the moment I had such clarity and such peace and such joy even though I was like I have no idea how I’m gonna figure this out because I wasn’t, you know, in my mind financially ready to do that. I was really excited.

Sam Laura Brown
Yeah, and I think as well just I want to highlight about that we can sometimes be an all or nothing thinking when it comes to leaving a job. And this is the thinking that I had been in. And so I think when you came to me, and we’re sharing what you had shared, that, I could just see that you will also in that all or nothing thinking about I either need to be fully supporting myself, like what I was in, I was like, I need to fully support myself from my business, before I can leave this full time job.

And there’s nothing in between I’m either full time in my business, or I’m at this job. And supporting myself with that, while I’m building a business. And it was such an epiphany for me, when I realized that there were actually other options that I could work part time hours, or a completely different part time job, that there were so many other ways that I could support myself, besides just having to be only in that full time job until I grown the business to a certain point. And as I tried like that job that I had, I could, I was kind of figuring out how to do both in a way like I would wake up early, it didn’t feel super sustainable.

But I was just very tired. I wake up early, because I didn’t have energy for the business. At the end of a workday, I was just spent, I had like no courage to do anything at the end of the day, it would just take me too long. So I was waking up early to do things. But it was just seeing that, like I could have other options. Once I realized that then my brain was pretty quickly able to figure out how I was able to make a transition and I transitioned to for me, it was a part time job. And as I shared, like I wasn’t making much money at all, like I definitely wasn’t in a position to financially support myself with the business.

It wasn’t like, proof of concept, so to speak. Like there wasn’t really that at all, in a lot of ways. But I just knew that I would regret not trying and that I would regret kind of just taking the safe path. And I can see, especially I don’t know, if you had this experience, it sounds like you had a bit of a different job situation. But I could see the people that were in my workplace who were successful, like they were the partners, or they were managers. And they weren’t having a good time, they were super stressed. They didn’t love what they did. Like I wasn’t there. Because I love what I did, it was just kind of, I need to get a job.

And this kind of makes sense. Like I have a friend who likes this jobs. I’ll try it too. And just seeing like, you know, if I keep climbing this ladder, like what’s at the top of the ladder was like, even if the other part doesn’t work out, like I just, I know, I already know, I don’t want to be at the top of that ladder. So I just want to invite anyone who’s listening to this, who has been in that all or nothing thinking about it. Of I have to stay here until my business can support me that there are other options as well.

And again, that’s one of the reasons I really wanted to have you on the podcast to talk about navigating that and different decisions that come up along the way. Because often it isn’t just, oh my business is really successful, I left my full time job. And that’s that there’s fears and doubts and concerns and conversations and a lot of courage that is required for that transition, I think if we can normalize that, that it makes the transition much easier than we think like, well, everyone else is having such an easy time making this change, I should be as well. So when it came to that ultimatum, so what did you decide? Was that deciding to leave the job completely and go full time in your business?

Christy Romano
Yeah, that was like a no brainer for me where I told them I was like, you know, unfortunately, like I’m going to have to leave to pursue my business just because I even told them this, like, kind of like what you said, if I don’t do it, I know, I’ll regret it. You know, I know this is almost like, I feel like God gave me this opportunity. Because he knew I probably would just keep procrastinating on it to actually pursue my dream with all of my effort and just give it a shot. And in that moment, you know, I was so there was no fear in that moment. When I made that decision. The fear came a little bit later. But I can remember just, I have actually had like a selfie in the bathroom of me like because I was just so happy. I was like, I want to remember this moment of me actually, like being courageous enough to go after this.

Sam Laura Brown
Yeah, and I want to mention to the like the courage, it definitely isn’t needed. And it can feel really scary. But it’s so liberating as well. But I want to mention what you’d said about the deadline and that I gave you a deadline to have that conversation and in my journey with this as well that I had found. I was just like I really want to be full time but I can’t yet, but I want to be, but I can’t, but I want to be, but I hadn’t actually sat down and figured out, you know financially what things needed to look like, this is what I was thinking I had to go straight into supporting myself full time from the business. But when I was in that mindset, I was like, I just know I need to make like a lot more money than I’m making.

I don’t even know how much but also for me, once I was able to like when it came to leaving my part time job, which came a few years later, that again, I was in this mindset of like, I need to leave, but I don’t know exactly when. And once I had a deadline, and my coach had said to me, like, you know, when do you want to leave by? And I was like, oh, what like, huh, like, I don’t know, if I’m ready. And like it just felt, even though I could always go back. And like all these things that other people are saying to like, see was like, you can go back to it if you need and like all these things that I just felt so much pride around it.

And that I just, and shame I guess like I didn’t want to be the person who left and then came back, even though that’s so no problem at all. And I think it’s so helpful when we leave that option on the table. And so I stayed at that job longer than I needed to because I didn’t have that as an option for myself in my mind. But once I had a deadline, so I think I’d said the end of 2019. And then she was like, Well, how about we do this is just from memory, might be fuzzy. Now maybe I said something different in the podcast. I wasn’t I didn’t this. But I think then she’d said like the end of September, I was like she kind of moved up the deadline on me. And then from memory, I had that conversation with my coach in April.

And I think I handed in my resignation in June. Because with this deadline, like it just actually got my brain thinking about it and being decided about things and finding solutions rather than when I just had it be this open ended thing that I wanted to do. But I couldn’t do but I want to do it. But I can’t and like kind of in that mentality. My brain wasn’t powering at a high level, like I wasn’t thinking at the highest level, because I didn’t really have constrained and parameters to have my brain asking better questions. And it was just like, well, one day, that would be lovely too. And like, it was just this nice, vague thing to go after. But once I had a deadline, and a deadline that like felt uncomfortable to me, I left my job so quickly after that, it’s very similar to what happened with leave my full time job.

Because my mind was like, Well, okay, if we’re doing that, then here’s a solution. And things just kind of fell into place. And I was able to leave. So I just wanted to mention that. But let’s talk about when you went full time. So you were mentioning that you weren’t able to support yourself financially, fully from the business. And so what was that like for you, like you said, when you made that decision that, like in that moment, you just had so much clarity, you knew it was the right decision to make and the fears came after.

But before we hit record, we were talking about just how a lot of people when they talk about making this transition, if they’re not able to support themselves fully from their business, they just kind of leave that part out. And so we kind of end up with this assumption that everyone who goes full time in their business is because they’re making a certain amount of money and like, our assumption is usually that they would be replacing their full time income. And that doesn’t have to be the case. And I think it can be so beneficial to leave before you’re able to support yourself full time financially, so to speak from the business. So what was it like for you to make that decision when you were at the place you were at financially in your business at that time?

Christy Romano
Yeah, so I feel like when I made the decision, I wasn’t really, you know, thinking, because I just, it was, initially when they gave me the ultimatum, like I didn’t even ask to think about it. I just decided because I knew in my heart, that’s what I wanted. And I just had trust and faith that I would figure it out. But me and my fiance at the time, we you know, had shared finances. So it was almost, it wasn’t only my decision, it was also our decision as like a family to kind of figure out like, Okay, how are we going to adjust the budget? And what is this going to look like? And I think having his support really helped. And obviously, we had his income to help us with rent and all that stuff. It was just going to kind of change my money mindset about going from being somebody who was really always like, on track of like budgeting and saving and I kind of grew up with that mindset where like I never wanted to have to stress about money or worry about money.

So to think about like removing a source of income, something that was very stable and secure, to, you know, lean on my coaching business, which sometimes it’s great sometimes wasn’t great depending on the month. I’ve brought up just a lot of fears, but it was, for me just a lot of conversations around like, Okay, we kind of sat down and we’re like, let’s reevaluate in 90 days. And then we can always make another decision, you know, you can always get a part time job, we can see, you know, if we have to adjust our budget or savings, like we’ll make it work, but I think it was really not just me that I had to kind of worry about, so it changed it a little bit.

Sam Laura Brown
Yeah. Did you feel like pressure in that sense having a 90 day thing? Or was that liberating for you to feel like, well, I can go back, like, what was that like for you to just have a timeframe that you were going to, like, think about the business and building that. And then after that period, you could turn your attention back to Okay, where am I at financially? Does it make sense to work in a job again? Does it make sense to keep building the business?

Like, what was that experience like for you? Because my guess is for some people, having that 90 day timeframe is super helpful to think about, like, that kind of thing. And then maybe when we’re in a certain mindset that might not be particularly helpful, or it might we might just be so much in that perfectionist mindset that we then just pressure ourselves and feel like, we have this ticking time bomb, like, kind of just, you know, with us all the time. What was your experience with? Like, with having that, that 90 day timeframe to think about?

Christy Romano
Yeah, that’s a great question. Because I think it was a mix of both. Like, oh, I’m being smart, and I have a plan, you know, like, the responsible thing to do, let’s reassess in 90 days, almost like, you know, telling my family and everybody, like, don’t freak out, like we have this figured out. But I also think that it did create a lot of pressure and stress, because then I felt like I had to perform to a certain level, or I was going to have to go back and get another job or figure something else out. And it’s funny, because I had set some metrics for those three months. And I don’t think I hit them, because I probably set my expectations way too high and being a perfectionist.

But even after that 90 day mark, me and my husband, we re evaluated and there was no reason for me to change course yet. So it was kind of changing that all or nothing mindset to be a little bit more growth minded and say, See that, okay, you know, maybe we’re not throwing a ton of money into savings right now. But if we evaluate all the options, like we’re not at that point where we’re like, desperate, and you have to go get something. So I feel like it’s almost been like that just setting, you know, check ins to see like, where we’re at and how we’re feeling. And that has helped a lot more versus having like, strict deadlines.

Sam Laura Brown
That sounds so helpful to just have check ins to keep out of the all or nothing mindset in the sense of like, I’ll reevaluate, and we can see what needs to be done. But when I was thinking about it, and in that all or nothing mindset, it was very much like, once I leave, I’m leaving forever and into business forever. And it just like, that kept me at the job so much longer than I needed to be there. Because I was thinking like, once I’m in that, like, I have to make sure, basically kind of this mindset of like, I have to make sure everything’s perfect before I leave and like, have all my ducks in a row so that I can for the next 50 years, be in business and not have to work a job or anything like that. And so I think that’s super helpful that I want to mention, too, that when it comes to feeling pressure from our goals, so like in PGSD, we set the growth goal and that our experience can be that the goal is creating pressure.

And it’s so important for us all just to remember that it’s our brain that is telling us a story about the goal that is creating that pressure, and I love having the growth goal. So for those who don’t know we have a 12 month revenue goal. And that set a bit above what we believe is possible. And then we have quarterly milestones that kind of build up each quarter and get bigger, that add up to that revenue goal overall so that you don’t need to like jump to being the making income at a certain level right away, you can build up to it. And then we have our realistic weekly plans that we do with that power planning.

And when we’re feeling pressure about it, like we have that goal one of the reasons it works so well for perfectionist is because initially we’re gonna feel pressure with that goal and we have to learn like it’s a tool to unlearn the pressure like to learn instead, how to have a goal and have it be beyond our current level of belief and not pressure ourselves, not shame ourselves, not beat ourselves up, not have to like hustle and do super unsustainable things, but it’s just an opportunity to relearn and instead of having like, well, I don’t want to feel precious, I’m gonna have no goals or I’m gonna just gonna have these small realistic goals to instead have a goal that you need to like rise to the occasion in order to achieve it and learning how to do that.

Without the pressure because the pressure comes from our brain, not the goal, like a lot of times, like, I might just reduce the goal to relieve the pressure, it’s like it’s only released pressure, because you have a different thought about the goal when it’s smaller. And you can have that thought without having to change the goal. So I just wanted to mention that because when it comes to pressure, we can often delegate a lot of responsibility to our goals for that, and it’s so much more empowering for us to recognize that it’s our brain.

And so just because I mentioned about pressure before, I wanted to just round that in and mention that. But when it came to be men full time in your business, what were some of the things that came up for you like when you went navigating, like what the day to day would look like, like now you had, like you’ve gone from not having the time and the energy to work on your business. And now like, obviously, you have still family commitments things you’re doing with friends and like life admin, like there’s still stuff going on.

But something that was taking a lot of time is no longer taking a lot of time. And now you have more time for your business. So what was it like navigating that and figuring out like, what your day to day is going to look like like structuring that, where to spend your time? Can you speak to that a little bit, I think it would be really helpful because for me, like it was a journey, really getting myself into a routine and a rhythm and figuring out how I work best and power planning was super helpful with that. But what was that like for you?

Christy Romano
Yeah, it was tough, because I think going from a nine to five and I worked like I could do seven to three or eight to four. But regardless, like I had those structured hours, where when I was, you know, doing the power planning for PGSD, it was really easy, because I just put a big chunk of time from my nine to five, and then didn’t have that much space to work with to try to figure out like my business tasks. So I mean, even before I left the job, I had like this three month transition where I had put in my notice, and then I had three months to transition and just think about like, oh, gosh, what am I going to do when I have the whole day to myself?

So for a while, I started focusing on kind of I don’t want to say their silly things, but almost, you know, thinking about like, oh, when do I want to do my morning routine, and when do I want to work out and trying to get so specific with it and almost try to make it perfect. Like I was definitely in a perfectionist mindset around it where I was like, when I hit the ground running on the first day going full time, everything has to look perfect, I’m gonna have my Monday money mindset days where I like, update the books and to, you know, that type of mindset. And I learned really quickly that that just wasn’t going to be the best approach. And a lot of things came up because now that I had so much time, I didn’t have the excuse of not having time.

So I realized that oh, okay, you know, there’s a whole other set of mindset blocks. Now I have to overcome having the school day to plan. But it’s crazy to think because now I’m over a year into being full time and I don’t have those issues anymore. So somewhere along the way, you know, through power planning and giving myself time to adjust. I was able to make it work but I think at the beginning I just didn’t even know where to begin and was just kind of trying to structure it like a nine to five would.

Sam Laura Brown
Yeah, what is your structure with your day? I mean, it might be different every day. But what did you find does work for you? Because I think that it’s very common for that to happen. And I went through that myself of when you leave to be like, Well, I kind of know like how things were structured at my job. And you know, we had lunch at this certain time, I started this time ended at this time, maybe we had, you know, certain kinds of tasks around different times a day, depending what kind of job it is.

But we can kind of just, you know, lift that template off the job, and then put it in our business. And sometimes that works incredibly well. And then other times, we actually have a different walk rhythm that works quite well for us, or, you know, a different start time. Like, for me, personally, I prefer to start earlier than I did when I was in that corporate world, and finish a bit earlier, rather than like starting at nine and that kind of thing. So for you. What does that look like, at the moment? Like, what was some of the things that you figured out like you thought it would work for you, but actually, you found something better?

Christy Romano
Yeah. And I feel like it’s transitioned so much like throughout the months, yeah. But I think allowing myself the freedom to do things during the day, like it even like if I needed to get a workout in or go on a walk, reminding myself that I don’t have to be working 24/7 between the hours of nine to five. So I definitely one thing that I realized is huge for me is getting outside of the house now that I was working from home. So I learned very quickly that if I go to a coffee shop, I am so much more productive, so much more energized, just having some interaction with people.

So that has become a staple in my routine. But also just not putting as much on my plate, like realizing that I can just get like three big things done in a day. And usually I wrap up around four, and I go to the gym with my husband in the evening. But just you know, having space to actually accomplish the tasks and be present instead of trying to multitask and put a million things in my calendar. So I wouldn’t necessarily even be that I have like a specific schedule I follow with times because it’s kind of always changing depending on what’s going on that week, whether I have calls or not. It’s more so just been my mindset around what I’m actually like putting on my plate and giving myself more time to rest.

Sam Laura Brown
Would you mind speaking to busy work and identifying when you’re doing things that maybe aren’t the most productive, or are the biggest needle movers and shifting over to things that are because this is something that just have like when we’re power planning and we start to become present to where our time is going and what we’re actually working on. And we can see it a lot more clearly than when we just have this big to do list that were just, you know, never taking off fully, or we have like we’re doing time blocking, maybe in the fall behind on your calendar.

And then like, it’s, you don’t even know what you did, because it was just like it, you just look at it. And you can see all the great intentions you had. But when we’re Power Planning and we’re updating it to see. So we could see the end of the week, we’re making these little tweaks in our weekly review, seeing, Okay, where did my time actually go? And what’s working and what isn’t, and we take that time to reflect and that can help us see where our time isn’t being well spent so that we can make those changes. So was there anything for you that you notice when it came to busy work because it’s it’s so important to know, to it’s not a problem if you see yourself doing busy work. And I think we just get better and better at brains at like, doing, like trying to do the comfortable things.

And they can be really justified things, things that other people are doing that might not make the most sense for us. But our brain loves to do them because they’re comfortable. So it’s really important. If you’d see yourself doing busy work to nighttime yourself or beat yourself up, it’s part of it. And part of the growth is then getting yourself to see what would be a better use of your time and shifting into that and having the courage to do that, to just do something that might be a bit more uncomfortable or maybe a bit more boring, or whatever it is. So what has that look like for you with busy work and noticing when that’s going on and shifting out of it?

Christy Romano
Yeah, I feel like the busy work comes up for me a lot when it surrounds content creation, because it’s something that you can justify taking forever. So like even, you know, sometimes I feel like, I’ll want to just fill the time completing little tasks to make myself feel more productive, even though those little tasks aren’t going to be big needle movers for the business. For example, you know, I just started up my Pinterest account and I have a ton of recipes where I could literally spend probably 16 hours creating beautiful pins and looking up SEO and all this stuff and not that that down the road might not be a needle mover for my business at this stage, I don’t use Pinterest for marketing. So to pour so much energy into that right now takes away from some of those more scary tasks that, you know, I tend to avoid.

But for me, it would definitely be the content creation, whether it’s blogging, whether it’s Instagram graphics, instead of making something easy and simple, like repurposing old content, which I struggled with for a while, like, oh, I can’t use something I already use, I have to always reinvent the wheel or redesign it. Kind of breaking that mindset. And that has simplified my calendar so much, and created more space, which is definitely like an adjustment. But at the end of the day, those things that I’m doing now are creating more growth than all of the little things I was doing.

Sam Laura Brown
Yeah, if you wouldn’t mind sharing a bit more about that mindset shift when it came to repurposing content, because I think this is something that is a really common form of busy work, I’ve definitely been in it myself of thinking, like, we can kind of get in this mindset of like, the content is the job, and that we need to do it just right, and have it look a certain way and be aesthetic and all these different things. And also, it needs to be original and profound.

And no one who’s following me has ever seen it before has ever heard me talk about this before. And it’s exhausting for us. And it’s completely unhelpful for the people we’re helping as well, no matter what kind of business we have. So what was that mindset shift that you had to get into so that you were able to repurpose the content and then put your time into the needle movers instead of creating things from scratch all the time?

Christy Romano
Yeah. So I think one of the things I used was the PGSD forum. So I was trying to debate I was like, Is this okay, if I repost something. And I think just having the community confirm that no, you know, that’s totally fine. If it’s been a couple months, or, you know, the posts I was sharing were like over a year old, just realizing that I’m always getting new followers to my feed, and nobody remembers things as much as I remember them in my business. And sometimes you need to hear a message multiple times, sometimes it hits differently. And again, I think as perfectionist, we like to make things so much harder than they need to be.

So for me, I got a sense of like productivity and fulfillment by completely redoing a graphic or rebranding it or rewriting something, even though the content was already really great, instead of just saying, Oh, wow, I can create like 20 Instagram posts in an hour and not having that be an excuse or an issue anymore. So even I started to get really creative, but also really excited about not having to have that be a block. So even thinking about like old stories, I went through my archives and turn them into reels, and it was just so much more efficient and effective. And I think doing it for a couple of weeks, I realized that nobody notices except me.

Sam Laura Brown
Yeah, and not even that they don’t notice, like then noticing that you have really helpful content. And like, I think when we’re, at least in my experience, when I’m wanting to create things from scratch, I’m thinking about myself and my experience as a creator and how I want to be perceived and keeping myself entertained and intellectually stimulated. And when I’m thinking about the people that I’m helping, it’s like, well, of course, I’m gonna keep sharing, like, the fundamentals of basics, like the those things that feel now so obvious to me that I’ve said, What feels to me like a million times. But there are people who haven’t heard it or who need to hear it again.

And there are so many things, I intellectually know that I need to just keep hearing until I’m actually really embodying that. So I just wanted to touch on that, because I think a lot of us can really have our calendar, our power planning, even full of content creation, coming from this belief that we need to create it all from scratch. And it can feel really justified to do that. But then it’s even just an interesting thought experiment. Because what often happens is we do that because like, I don’t know what to do with my time, if I’m not busy creating content, I’d have to actually be selling or have to actually be like doing these other things that are really scary.

So we like to just pull is content creation, but to just know that it’s safe to repeat stuff a lot, and to repurpose and reshare those things and that we often just have fears around not knowing what to do with our time and not wanting to do other things that we’d rather be in this problem around content creation and like needing an Instagram core. So like all this different things, even though we intellectually like we have the knowledge, we’ve done the things before. We know what to do. But we’re like, well, but maybe I need to learn a different strategy. And like, it just, I found for me really easy to stay busy in that stuff, and to not actually double down on the things that really matter. So thank you for sharing about that.

Would you mind speaking to getting like thrown off, so to speak, when life happens, like showing up for your business while navigating a difficult season? This is something that you mentioned, like you’ve talked about in your persistence log and that kind of thing that you’ve had life events, like moves and a wedding and other things like that happening? So what has it been like for you, and what’s been helpful for you, and it’s come to navigating life, and being present for that while also continuing to build your business?

Christy Romano
This is a great question, because I feel like the last couple of years have just been crazy in my personal life. And I even think about it, I’m like, they’re not going to get any more simple. But yeah, so I had two kind of big, big transitions in my life that really made it difficult for me to put the business as my top priority. I think when I went full time, I had a couple months before my wedding where I was like, alright, gone call on my business, I was seeing so much results, or so much growth in my business.

And I actually had like a higher month in coaching that I did on my nine to five, and it was so exciting. But then, once the wedding started approaching, my mindset kind of shifted to really wanting to be present for that. So I kind of struggled with this teeter totter of dividing my energy and giving myself permission to kind of reel back on the business and just maintain and sort of try to grow. So I had to do that through my wedding. And that was, that was hard, because I kind of felt like I was failing that at my business, even though I knew like, intellectually, that I’m only getting married once this is a really important season for me.

Subconsciously, I was kind of like, shaming myself telling me like, I should still be doing more, I should be doing more. And then after the wedding, I kind of picked back up steam and kind of went through. I feel like every time a life event happens, I have to kind of re rebrand myself, get back to my mission and everything like that. So I did that for a couple of months. And then shortly after and March, my husband and I, we were house hunting, and that became a huge stressor in our life. And we were actually debating on moving from Florida to Ohio, which was very overwhelming, and I had some hormonal health issues pop up on top of that.

So I think what I learned through all the transitions was just how to navigate like creating space for myself to be present and prioritize what I needed to prioritize in that season without all of the shame. Because I think building a business, and putting yourself out there as an entrepreneur is challenging because you have to feel good. You have to you have to have that energy to do it. And if you don’t have that you’re not taking care of yourself in different seasons. There’s just like that friction. So I don’t know if that answers your question. But I guess it’s just been it’s been a roller coaster.

Sam Laura Brown
Yeah. And I think it’s really important for us all to acknowledge the season that we’re in, and that there might be seasons where our business isn’t our top priority. But we don’t have to be all or nothing about it of I’m either, you know, focus on the business, or it’s just completely falling by the wayside, that we can do the like mental work to be able to be committed to both, but at the same time, just giving ourselves permission to be there for something that’s going on, in our personal life, whether it’s a move, whether it’s a wedding, whether it’s having children and being pregnant, or whether it’s a death of a loved one or something like that, like there are so many different seasons of our business and our personal life. And I think if we expect ourselves have to always be like on all the time and just be so consistent and how we’re feeling that then we’re not really connected to ourselves.

And what I love about power planning and the Growth Goal and clean rests are really tools to help you connect with yourself, like nurture your relationship with yourself and your future self and that we want to make sure that yes, we’re showing up fully and doing that kind of stuff. But knowing that showing up fully is going to look different at different stages of life in different seasons. And I think it’s so beautiful, what you shared about just the different things that can come up and happen and that they can be stressful. In this, there are different seasons. And that’s okay.

And I found it for myself personally really helpful to be like, Hey, this is the season that I’m in at the moment and kind of giving it a label in the sense of like, this is, you know, this might be a time in my business where at the moment, so like now that I’m pregnant, that that is something I’m putting a lot of attention into and focusing on and I’m still showing up in my business. But I’m in a different season to when I’m not pregnant, like before I had children, or I only have one child currently.

But before I had a child that that it was a different season, and I was able to work in a different way. And those different seasons all have different benefits to them as well, I think we can kind of I know, I’ve been myself and like, Oh, what did I even do before I had Lydia with all my time. And it’s like, while I still had like thoughts about time, then that wasn’t particularly helpful at times. And like, it’s just we can end up comparing different seasons and beating ourselves up for like showing up differently in one season to another.

So I think just that word seasons, or if we want to call it something else, just like acknowledging there are different periods is so helpful. But I think just to wrap up our conversation, when it comes to where you’re at with your journey of your business in time in terms of working. You mentioned in your persistence log, that you’ve taken a contract position from your last employer. Could you speak to that a little bit and like what that decision was like, for your business and for yourself personally?

Christy Romano
Yeah. So over the summer, well, I guess this is just this year. So we decided to move from Florida to Ohio. And I think with that transition also was like a time of revaluation just financially and with the budget and knowing almost for myself that it was going to be good for my mental health to get something just so I knew I had something consistent coming in. So I could almost relieve some of the pressure of on myself to make you know, X amount of dollars each month in my business, just knowing that I had something we could add into the budget.

And I was still like supporting and contributing was important to me. So I started just kind of like dabbling on indeed, and things like that. And I really struggled with this, because I you know, I was trying to do like the pros and cons like do I take like $10 an hour job? Is that really worth my time? Or do I pour that energy into growing the business and just try to work to get more sales. And I knew that meant, we left on good terms in my last employer.

So I reached out to them just to see if they had any like freelance opportunities, or just open the conversation there. And that went really well. And they were able to hire me as a contractor for 10 to 15 hours a week. And it ended up being perfect. So I just kind of pick that back up. And that’s only been about two months now. But it’s been really nice to integrate some more diversity, I guess, into my workflow, and it’s actually helped me show up a little bit better in my business to, you know, having somebody else to have to accomplish work for almost drives me and motivates me to do it for myself, because sometimes being your own boss can get a little get a little tricky, you know?

Sam Laura Brown
Yeah, and I’m so glad you shared that. And particularly about that contract position. Because, as I mentioned, like for me, myself, I had been in the all or nothing mindset of once I leave, I can never go back. And it just wasn’t helpful to be in that mindset. And it now I’m more in a mindset of like, if I needed to go and get a job, like I would be completely fine going and getting the job and like, I’ve been able to get out of that. But thank you for sharing that because I think there will be people listening who feel like it is a good fit for them, too. I don’t think going back like that language itself is not helpful, but to have employment, that they’re thinking about that but maybe denying themselves of that because they think, well, I should just be able to make it work and I should this and I should that but it can be such a gift that we give to ourselves to do that.

And yeah, I just think it’s really important to hear like the ins and outs of things because it’s easy to gloss over things. And I know I’ve definitely been guilty of doing it of like, oh yeah, I went full time and did it and I like as I said at the beginning like it’s so helpful to just hear the ups and downs ins and outs and like different decisions that come along and things like that. So I hope this has been really helpful for those listening to just hear a bit more about your story and your experience with it and I think you have so much to be proud of like the growth that you have had.

And I can witness as your coach, not just in your business, which has grown a lot as well in terms of revenue and that kind of thing that personally like the way that you are showing up and navigating decisions, and different things like that, like, it’s so easy to see the growth. And I know at times when we’re in it, we could just focus on the things that aren’t working or still working on and not really see it. But I just really want to celebrate you for that. And thank you for coming on to the podcast. So would you mind sharing with everyone where they can find you how they can hire you and like, find out more about working with you if that’s something they’re interested in doing. But how can people connect with you?

Christy Romano
Yes, so first, thank you for having me on. This was wonderful. And I hope it helps a lot of people just to see somebody else’s journey. But I am found at nutrition refresh on Instagram. And my website is just the same thing, www.nutritionrefresh.com and Facebook as well. So those are the three places I mainly hang out.

Sam Laura Brown
Amazing, and we will link it up in the show notes. So I highly recommend that everyone goes to check out Christy and the amazing work that she’s doing. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. I appreciate you. And I’m so grateful for everything that you shared.

Christy Romano
Thanks!

Sam Laura Brown
That was my interview with Christy, I hope you found it so helpful. Again, she was so generous with what she shared and how transparent she was about fears and doubts and decisions she made. And I’m so grateful for that. So I hope it was helpful. And remember to stay tuned for the Planning series that is coming to the podcast next week. Mark your calendar, there are five episodes one coming every other day starting at 6am, New York time on the 17th of October. And then after that we will be opening the doors to perfectionist getting shit down. For our final enrollment week for 2022. I want to invite you inside. So listen to that Planning series.

And if you find it helpful, and if you find this podcast helpful, then please consider joining us inside PGSD so that we can help you turn knowing into doing then have you fully showing up for your business and learning the skill set of planning properly. That is going to make growing your audience marketing selling building a team. Basically, every single thing you do in your business requires a skill of implementation follow through and being able to do what you said you would do.

And that’s a skill set that you develop inside PGSD and we provide the accountability so that is a skill set. You have long term. It’s not just temporary. So again, Planning series coming soon then PGSD opening the doors for that final enrollment. We can find out more about it at samlaurabrown.com/pgsd. Or if you have any questions, email support@samlaurabrownbrown.com and we will get back to you. I hope you’re having a beautiful day and I will talk to you in the next episode.

Author: Sam Brown