Creating momentum in your business isn’t just about planning and strategy – it’s about trusting yourself, even when life feels uncertain. In this behind-the-scenes episode, I’m sharing a day in my life as I navigate maternity leave planning and mindset shifts, rebuilding my financial review habits and shifting operations inside my business.
You’ll hear the mindset shifts that are helping me grow my business with self-trust instead of overthinking, how I’m preparing for baby #4 while still staying connected to my work and the simple weekly financial review process that is bringing emotional safety back into my business finances.
If you’re craving more self-trust, flexibility and sustainable momentum in your business, this episode will show you what it looks like to live it day-by-day.
Ready to build self-trust and create real momentum in your business? Join the waitlist for my productivity program for perfectionist entrepreneurs – Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (aka PGSD) – at samlaurabrown.com/pgsd. Inside PGSD you’ll master our simple, proven process for getting shit done without burning out or building a business you hate.
For more advice: Follow me on Instagram – I’m @perfectionismproject – for more behind-the-scenes insights and support with getting out of your own way in your business as a perfectionist entrepreneur.
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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 Perfectionists 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
[00:00:28] There are some changes coming that I’m so excited about. One of those is me just leaning in to what I know works and getting out of my head and just back into what I had been doing from day one. I actually had in PGSD for one of the enrollments we did, we offered a bonus one-on-one decision call with me, and I had one with one of the PGSDers last week, and there was some personal circumstances.
[00:01:00] It meant that she wasn’t able to do it when we’d normally do it. So anyway, we rescheduled it for when she could. And she said to me like, oh, you know, back in the day when you were doing smart twenties, because she had been following me since my earliest days on the internet, essentially, she was like, oh, you know how you talk about how.
[00:01:19] You were wanting to create. Like there are people who are like, oh, you know, you are like, my life is perfect. Here’s what it looks like. And then there are people who are like, I’m broke, I’m struggling. I’d always said like I wanted to create just like, here’s what I’m personally doing as someone who doesn’t have a perfect life and who isn’t just wanting to complain.
[00:01:36] Like I’m just genuinely wanting to figure this out and I’m going to document what I’m doing and share that and talk in first person, share my insights, share the things that I develop. And when she said that, it just really hit me for myself that I’m still doing that, and it’s now just instead of about making the most of your twenties, it’s about business and my journey with building a business and that I’m not like, here look at my perfect business.
[00:02:05] And I’m not like, oh my God, business sucks. I’m just like, I’m genuinely wanting to build a profitable and fulfilling business for myself. And I’m wanting to document the journey of that, the personal development journey, but the business journey too and like the evolution of it all. And I’m just wanting to really return to that.
[00:02:27] And there have been times where I’ve returned to it, but then I’ve gone back in my head of like, this isn’t strategic enough. This isn’t what’s gonna build the business to seven figures per year from multiple six figures. Like this isn’t gonna work. And I’ve just let myself get back in my head about it and go into like strategic thinking, which if you’ve listened to this podcast for a while, you’ll know that I have said before when I’m trying to think strategically for me, that is when I have my perfectionism hand break on.
[00:02:58] And for other people, if you are being strategic, that might not actually be a perfectionist thing for you that is making you get in your own way. But for me, that’s code for, I’m trying to get it right. I’m trying to be someone I’m not. I’m trying to be better and. It takes me out of the magic of what I do, the spark of it, and I’m just bringing that back and just like going all in and essentially like putting reinforcements in the business so that we can really, and I’m using human design a lot as well and leaning into that, I’m a two for emotional projector in human design and regardless of whether you believe in that or know about that or not, I’ve just found it a really helpful guide for like what really works for me and things that I haven’t necessarily realized.
[00:03:45] It really just reflects those things back and helps me have a moral aligned business with what naturally works for me, which is what this whole thing is always about. Like working with your perfectionist brain instead of against it, working with yourself and with what you wanna do and like getting out of the shoulds and the have tos, but like actually having a business that’s not just successful but actually feels successful to you.
[00:04:08] Because you are able to be yourself in your business. It doesn’t mean you don’t learn or grow or do hard things. Definitely to become more of yourself, you have to do those things, but not from a place of should or have to or shame or comparison or those sorts of things. So anyway, this is just me returning to just letting myself speak, letting myself document, really going all in on having like a documentation style sense, what’s the word?
[00:04:39] Documentation style content where I’m not thinking about like five tips for this or whatever. It’s just like, here’s an experience I’ve had and I’m documenting it. Here’s an epiphany that I’ve had. Here’s an epiphany a client had, or like a distinction that I’ve figured out from coaching a client that I just feel called to share and I am just gonna go.
[00:05:04] All in on that it feels not strategic enough. But at the same time, it just feels very right And I’m willing, like it’s kind of the thing of like I would rather fail and this is like a growth minded thing because it wouldn’t have been this before, but I would rather fail from building the business the way I want to build it than from trying to get it right and like try to be someone that I’m not.
[00:05:27] And for me, what I’ve always done since day one, while also working on releasing my perfectionism, hand break visibility, fears, putting myself out there, fears like all of that is chatting, documenting, sharing. I also know that, well this podcast is for all kinds of entrepreneurs, so you might have a very different business model, but I also do attract in a lot of people who just want that permission as well and like want that example.
[00:05:53] And basically the only people I consume content from are people who document what they’re doing. And that’s just what I’m gonna be doing. So. With that said, I have just sat down, Steve and I did the daycare drop off this morning together, and I sat down and I usually start my Tuesdays with like a weekly review of the business with my power planning.
[00:06:17] If you’re imperfection is getting shit done, you’ll know more about those things. Um, but that is how I plan out my week in a way that really works for my brain, but also honors like the natural rhythms. And things that I have and really supports me in that sense. So it just gives me this flexible structure to support me to get things done.
[00:06:38] Instead of being this like, to-do list of shoulds or all this pressure. Um, I don’t over schedule myself. I actually have, and this relates to human design. I have like a lot of clean rest in my calendar in PGSD where like you can decide what amount of clean rest you have. There’s no prescribed amount because everyone’s in different, like different people, different life stages, different business stages, but you wanna have it actually be something that supports you.
[00:07:04] So for me, that means a lot of rest and time not working and permission to not be thinking about my business because that really, like, that brings me alive so much in the business as well, when I have that time to just reflect and lean back. And also I have a life outside of the business and it gives me time to develop out that life as well, which helps me with the business, be more growth minded, be more.
[00:07:29] Um, willing to be courageous because it feels like then if the business was to fail or if a launch was to fail or things like that, then it’s not actually, um, like it’s not, my whole life has come to an end. It’s just one segment of my life is having some turbulence, which is my career work segment, instead of like, when I was working all the time many years ago now.
[00:07:52] But if I worked all the time, like it felt like such high stakes, if anything failed because that was my whole life. And so it felt like I was a complete failure when it was actually just like, oh, you’re just going through some things in your professional life and there’s a whole other side of your life as well.
[00:08:09] Um, so anyway. I start the week with reflecting on the previous week with planning out my week for this week and having that clarity. I’m not perfect at doing power planning every week, which I know some people are surprised to hear, but I do it more often than not, and I’m always at least documenting in my calendar what happened so that at the end of the week, I really know where my time roughly went and what I was focused on.
[00:08:38] It tells me so much about my mindset, what I’m thinking about, what kind of energy I’m in, in terms of like, am I coming from this perfectionist place of like, I should do this or I should do that, or am I actually just trusting myself? I can really see that really clearly by what. I actually spend my time on, even if I didn’t plan it all out or I had a more flexible week.
[00:09:00] So I’m gonna be doing that this morning. And something that I’m really doing as well this week is just returning to being, um, like voice led. And that me speaking as much as when I’m speaking, it feels like I’m just often making no sense that that is actually such a key to growing the business, not just externally with the podcast, but also with how I lead my team as well.
[00:09:30] So we actually, last week I started for my business an internal podcast, which I’m very excited about. We already have like seven episodes on it. So I can just actually share things the way that I do on the podcast. That’s not for public consumption, at least not yet. Uh, at some point in time, we probably will share some of those publicly.
[00:09:53] Um, for like behind the scenes stuff, but it’s just for me to communicate with my team, different ideas and for them to communicate back as well. And so I can like listen to it as a podcast if I’m driving or things like that, and really just tap into more of like, what works instead of like, well, no, you have to do written updates in Slack, or things like that.
[00:10:14] Like actually just verbally expressing myself, even though it doesn’t feel clear to me, it actually is very clear is what I’ve learned. Again, even though my brain, I’m like, it’s not. Um, but it is, and I have built my business not through just like choosing podcasts as the medium to build it and trusting that, but really actually just trusting that, documenting and chatting and then coaching and sharing those insights and things like that, like that, that is sufficient, that that’s more than enough that do that.
[00:10:47] And so. Yeah, I’m kind of like looking at in the business as well this week, just returning to the, um, like the voice led creation, so to speak. So like podcasting, just documenting stuff on the podcast, like recording this, picking up my microphone. I don’t have any outline, I just have my thoughts. Um, the same as well.
[00:11:09] This morning I recorded an Instagram story of my office too. I was like, I just feel like sharing like what my office looks like. I asked on Instagram months ago, and then I kind of went into this like. Uh, and I’ll maybe talk about this in this episode or a different episode, um, but into this, like I need to have the perfect system to share content, which I think is really just my perfectionism, hand break wanting me to, or like having these visibility fears that a lot of perfectionists have, um, that I need to have this system to kind of like keep me safe and like have this perfect content structure and stuff like that.
[00:11:46] So a lot of the content that went out in the last few months was repurposed content, uh, that went out. And that’s not a problem that I think it’s really important to allow yourself to share things again, but I just know it was just missing like the spark and the energy and like that I was missing that because I was just hiding.
[00:12:08] And in this like behind the scenes I need to get systems set up also. Just an update as well. If you don’t know. I’m currently pregnant. I’m nearly 36 weeks pregnant with baby number four. So I have Lydia, who’s almost four. I’ll have four under four. Uh, Lydia, who’s always four. In July, she turns four twin boys, Jack and James, who turned two a couple of months ago, and then this baby boy.
[00:12:34] So I’ve been kind of preparing for this, like having three months off of mat leave. and I shared an update about this in PGSD as well because it’s so important. To think about this with your clean rest of like, what do I actually want it to be? And the higher your self-trust. So now I know how to switch off, um, and not be thinking about work when I’m not working.
[00:12:55] I know how to rest really well, um, and to just work in the work time that I have. Um, so I’ve really done a lot of that work. And now with my maternity leave, it was just like, it just feels like I’m tying my hands behind my back to be like, I need to have three months, not even like completely off, but like three months where I have no obligations or no anything.
[00:13:15] And it just felt like I was presuming incapability and I know I’m not incapable during postpartum, uh, even after having the twins and having three under the age of two. When the twins came, I was so capable and it was really fucking hard. But also like my capacity expands during postpartum and it doesn’t decline.
[00:13:37] And so I didn’t like that I was presuming I’m gonna be incapable and I wasn’t trusting that if I was having a hard time doing certain things that I couldn’t just adjust that. Um, so there was that piece of it too, but I was like, I don’t actually have the desire to have the time off like a normal, I mean, it’s even less than most people have in Australia.
[00:13:57] I. For a mat leave, but I just felt like I was just doing it because I should. And I was like, I actually just wanna keep being able to work if I want and to trust myself to work, to trust myself to rest, to really set up the business, to support how I naturally work and stuff. For example, like being able to record podcast episodes while I’m going for a walk and stuff like that.
[00:14:18] Like I don’t have to be sitting in my office in like my designated work time or whatever. Um, so leading into like in the last couple of months, I’ve had so many breakthroughs, uh, they will be shared. But one of the things that really came up for me was that what I unintentionally did was I was trying to like, have the business be able to grow without me during that period instead of ha like having the business amplify my voice and like having systems that make the business feel even more like me, even if I’m not personally available. I was kind of operating on this primary question of how do I get the business to grow without needing me at all?
[00:15:02] Which sounds like a good kind of question to be asking, but it was really trying to like remove me from the business. And I feel like a lot of the content, um, particularly on Instagram, but like just didn’t have that energy that I like, I’ve had times where there is that vibe and on the podcast too, and when there isn’t and I just could feel it was off.
[00:15:23] But I also was like, but we need to be preparing. And I was just like very focused on like needing to have systems in place and different things like that. So now I’m just returning to self-trust to. Letting myself decide as I go and trusting myself to do that. So, um, yeah. Anyway, this morning I recorded, I recorded a tour of my office.
[00:15:44] I was like, I’m just gonna post this. One thing we’re working on is having me not do the actual distribution, like the posting and the things like that. But for now, I am gonna do that because I was like, I just wanna get this out and like into the, the hands of the people, so to speak. But also one thing that’s worked so well with the podcast is me not being the one to upload the episode personally, that I feel like I can just share.
[00:16:09] And I have no thought in my head of like, oh, now I have to do all the admin to have this episode go up. That after I did the first 30 episodes, I was like, I need to remove myself from the posting of it. Because even though we have a really simple process to do that we don’t do a lot of editing and things, um, that I actually.
[00:16:30] Am not recording as much as I could be, because in my head I know I have to do the admin and I really don’t wanna do that. And so it’s reducing my desire to record and I just wanna be able to record and upload into a Google Drive folder. And that’s all I do. So I wanna have the equivalent of that with Instagram.
[00:16:46] But what I have learned from the last few months is instead of trying to make this perfect system that’s very strategic and has like content pillars or anything like that, and if you are a long time listener, you’ll know I’ve had this realization a lot of times and I’m like, oh, but now I’m actually like, with the self-trust I have, I’m able to bring it all together and um, sustain the realization or like really take action on it fully.
[00:17:12] And so just don’t be frustrated at yourself if you keep having the same realization because it’s, if you’re frustrated, you’re not gonna be able to actually put it into action. Um, but anyway, having instead of like, here’s the perfect system and now let’s insert the content into that, I just wanna be the prolific creator I am, which is, I have so many things.
[00:17:33] If I, all I needed to do is just record for Instagram or um, write something like an Instagram quote, I’m bringing those back. Um, just things like that. If I can just do it without having to know, oh, I have to be the one to post that and make sure it fully gets uploaded and whatever. That is a really key part of it.
[00:17:54] And I’ve seen it work so well with the podcast, but I’m gonna let that evolve and develop and iterate. I don’t know exactly what it’s also gonna look like around having this baby, but I trust myself to figure that out. And I don’t have any like, strict, like, this is what I’m gonna finish working or this is what I’m gonna start again.
[00:18:16] And it feels really good to have that of just like, I can just actually decide and I can also just like naturally, I have a lot of like, I’m always thinking about personal development stuff and like just conversations with friends. I’ll be like, oh my God, that’s like such an important distinction. Like in my head I’ll be constantly having that conversation and having somewhere to put that like I just am so grateful.
[00:18:39] I also have a business model that allows like that, has that be a key part of it. And also I’ve talked about And then I’m gonna wrap up and move on and come back and give you another update later. This is just preamble, I guess over the, with where my head is at. But I’ve talked before, I did an episode on, I think about.
[00:18:57] The business needs and the personal needs and having your personal needs met in your personal life. I deeply believe that. And you can have a business that’s really aligned with you and who you are, but also having outlets for, um, for example, if you’re a creative person, if the only place you have to be creative is in your business, then it is going to be harder to kind of like, um, how do I word it?
[00:19:26] If basically if you can only be creative in your business, then you will spend extra, like you will kind of drag out how long creative things take. Um, or you might even like just find yourself really resenting the business if there’s a period where it’s needing a different sort of your creativity or whatever.
[00:19:44] So for example, like one of my one-on-one clients. That I coach, she’s an artist and she didn’t have any time in her personal life to create art. So everything was done through the, um, like through the lens of the business. And then she wasn’t wanting to like really create the best system she could for creating her art, because that was her creative time.
[00:20:06] And it had her, like, she was saying like, oh, but I really wanna have the business actually like, essentially like meet the personally that I have to be creative. but also we looked at what if you just had creative time in your personal life and you still have that in your business, but you don’t then have a hundred percent of your creativity only happening in the business.
[00:20:28] And you can actually just purely create without an agenda. Because if you are like, oh no, I actually would create the same things for my business that I would for free if no one was watching, if it wasn’t related to any algorithm or whatever. I think in some sense you might be kidding yourself because if you really look at it there.
[00:20:43] Is this filter of like trying to be strategic, build the business, have it fit the business model, et cetera. So anyway, all of that to say now as well, because I’ve been doing a lot of that work of developing out hobbies and because I am a verbal processor, big surprise. I also have outlets for that now in my personal life.
[00:21:03] And whether it’s like voice messages with friends, um, other friends who like that style of things, not everyone does. Um, so I definitely pick and choose who I do that with. Um, but one of my really great friends. Also is similar in this sense. So we have lots of like 20 minute voice messages to each other.
[00:21:21] Um, my own like personal life self coaching, um, and things that happen and like documenting things that never will get shared publicly, uh, because I love doing this, but some of it doesn’t actually fit the business at all. And that’s okay. But having a different place for that. Um, having the internal team podcast as well, so that I have that need met, not just through the main public podcast that you’re listening to right now, but I have lots of different outlets for that, um, and for different kinds of creativity and connection and things like that.
[00:21:55] So. Again, here’s me thinking like, I dunno if any of that made sense and I will trust that it did. So I am going to now do my weekly review. I’m actually going to record it as a, um, I have been doing written, but what I’m actually gonna do is record it as a like internal team podcast episode. I also do my weekly financial review.
[00:22:19] This week I’m going to do my monthly financial review that I do as well, um, later on in the week. But I’ll do my weekly review, um, which is just like making sure the right money’s in the right account and just having a little look at that. Um, and then my power planning and I will report back at some stage, but I really want, like, my focus for this week is to have it be, uh.
[00:22:43] Really about bringing the spark back, just following like what I wanna create, letting myself talk, letting it feel like it doesn’t make any sense and keeping on doing it. I just really feel that we also wrapped up the PGSD launch, Perfectionists Getting Shit Done Launch last week, so I’m gonna talk about that as well because a lot of key insights have come from that.
[00:23:06] Um, and one of them was really about like the launch itself and that process. There’s definitely improvements to be made but is pretty dialed in, but it’s like what’s happening between launches as well, which is really, um, having the biggest impact overall, like it’s the needle moving thing to focus on.
[00:23:26] So I’ll talk about that a bit more at some point throughout the week. Tomorrow I’m catching up with my friend Sophia, Bernardi. She has a podcast, the Rising Coaches Podcast, I believe it’s called. I have been interviewed on there maybe a year or so ago now. Um, but we have been meeting up every three weeks.
[00:23:44] We go to a cafe in Newstead in Brisbane, and we just chat. It’s basically like, again, like an outlet like this that we could just talk through what’s going on in our businesses. Uh, we’re at a similar stage of business and working on similar things incidentally, um, not kind of like intentionally, but we’re just kind of going through similar things in terms of what we’re focusing on.
[00:24:11] And so we kind of just do like catch up and then one of us will be like, here’s what I need help with. And essentially the other person will coach them for like an hour or so and then we’ll flip it. That has been so good. And also just having that, um. Like knowing that I’m gonna meet up with Sophia in three weeks time, that I’m like, okay, this is the thing I said I wanted to move forward, so I’m gonna make sure, like I keep moving that forward and not be like, oh yeah, I totally forgot about that.
[00:24:37] Like, it’s been really helpful. So, and we message each other in between. So I’m doing that tomorrow. That will be most of the day. Then Lydia’s daycare has an Easter event at 3:00 PM so I’ll be going to that. And then what else have I got? I have a personal, like life coaching call. Um, Michelle Weeks is my coach, so, and she used to be a PGSD coach and I actually met her through her being a client of mine.
[00:25:04] Uh, but she coaches on like motherhood particularly, and I have a coaching call with her tomorrow at 5:30 AM and then I also have a one-on-one coaching call. Um, I’ve wrapped up a lot of my one-on-one coaching pre like having baby. And then once he’s out, I will start one-on-one again. Um. Sorry if you’re interested, link show notes somewhere to get on the wait list for that.
[00:25:30] But um, I have a one-on-one call as well at 6:00 AM on Thursday morning. A meeting with Daisy. I’m just looking at like, I, so in my power planning I have the outline each week before I even power plan, I already have an outline. I do this kind of like a quarter at a time. I will have like for me, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, a clean rest days.
[00:25:52] Um, I’ll have any commitments I have already marked in there like catchups with people and things like that. And then I will have kind basically like drop the kids at daycare, pick up the kids from daycare and then like an empty block between that and kind of a rough guide of if there’s anything within that.
[00:26:08] So when I’m power planning, I’m not looking at a blank week, I’m already looking at a week that has a little bit of structure based on how I work best and then I kind of fill in the blanks. So find that helpful too. So there’s that. I will be 36 weeks pregnant. On Friday, which is exciting. Um, I’m very excited to meet this little baby boy.
[00:26:29] So, um, yeah, and tomorrow I’m gonna, when I drive to that cafe, which is about a 30 probably in traffic, 40, 45 minute drive, I will probably record a couple of podcast episodes. Either a team one or for this podcast or maybe an update on this episode on my way in and on my way back. Uh, but I’m not really gonna plan much else for tomorrow, except catching up with Sophia.
[00:26:55] And then I have, it’s 10 20 at time of recording this now, some time today, time on Thursday, doing some Easter things this weekend, maternity photos next Monday, which is exciting. Um, sorry, that’s kind of where I’m at. I’m gonna do that weekly review now and report back soon. It is an hour later. I just thought I’d give a little update on what I have been doing the last hour because I think this is a, I guess like what I’m gonna be trying to articulate, planning, I obviously believe in that.
[00:27:31] I think it’s really helpful to have some structure and not just working off an endless to-do list. And also it’s so important to actually trust yourself, listen to yourself, honor how you actually work best instead of trying to just be better and change yourself and all these different things. And so your self-talk as you navigate your date.
[00:27:53] Super important. I just wanted to share about mine. So the last hour I have spent catching up on what the team has been up to, looking in Asana, slack, which is where we communicate. Um, if there have been any tasks where I could just quickly review it. And reply, um, so that that can move forward. I have been doing that, so that’s kinda like what I have been doing for the last little bit and just leading the team.
[00:28:20] But I haven’t yet done my weekly review. I haven’t yet done my power planning and that’s okay. And it’s just like letting that be okay and not going to, oh my God, I should, and now I’m behind. And like all of that kind of chatter that we perfectionists can have like this kind of imagined reality of like what it would be like to do it perfectly.
[00:28:43] And we’re allowed to feel good if we do it perfectly. And if we don’t, then we’re not allowed to feel that way and we should beat ourselves up so that we’re motivated to do it better next time. And all of the realizations I’ve been having over the last few months have really been centered around coming back to working with myself.
[00:29:02] And letting myself be. And when you do that and just like let yourself do things kind of like in natural timing, but doing it with a high degree of self-trust, I think what actually where people go wrong with letting yourself just do whatever you feel like is when you’re doing that from a place of low self-trust.
[00:29:26] And this is why self-trust is one of the key things that we talk about and teach inside perfectionist, getting shit done. It’s so essential is that if you are coming from a place of low self-trust, you are operating from a place of shoulds, from a place of feeling behind, from a place of comparison, from a place of I’m not good enough.
[00:29:45] And then you do what naturally happens that it tends to be that you won’t actually produce what needs to be produced. And you will find yourself procrastinating, overthinking, whether it’s productive procrastination or, and like working on something with your business that isn’t really important, or whether it is blatant procrastination like scrolling or watching Netflix or whatever that like I, when I’m in high self-trust, trust and in flow, I will do things like scroll and I will do things that are like procrastination, so to speak, but they’re actually not because of the energy that I’m doing them with.
[00:30:24] They’re either, a rest where I get to recharge and restore. Like, and it’s not to say, like, for me, I, I don’t think scrolling is, ever ultimately part of my ideal workflow. But when I do that without any kind of mental self chatter around it. and I’m doing it from a much more intentional place, not from this perfect place.
[00:30:49] I don’t even know what I’m trying to exactly say with this, but really just like working in tune with yourself is what I’ve always been about. And also how to do that in a way where you are not working, in a way that isn’t in tune with your long-term self that you want to be, the goals that you have, the vision that you have, like how do you work in tune with your present date and future self at the same time is kind of what I’m always thinking about.
[00:31:18] So what I am doing now is what I had planned to do before and I haven’t got anything in my power planning yet. I’m just gonna go in and update it to reflect, roughly speaking what I did this morning, which was like record the update for this. I actually already put that in my power planning recorded, the Instagram survey I mentioned.
[00:31:36] Essentially like the team check-in stuff I’ve been doing. I just went and had an early lunch with Steve. He’s gonna be going to work. So getting that reflecting and then in my calendar. Otherwise, at the end of the day, it’s just hard to remember certain things as well. Um, but then I’m going to do my weekly review plan out, roughly speaking what I’m going to do this week and then begin doing those things.
[00:32:04] And yeah, it’s just the key message is the self-talk when you deviate from your plans is really, really important. And if you beat yourself up for deviation, then that decreases your self-trust. If you support yourself through that and you also recognize some of the nuance around it, like you might have, like you wanna be flexible and be able to come up with a better plan through the day and not be like, well this is the plan that I have and I have to stick to it.
[00:32:35] And like all of that, it’s really about being able to have enough structure that you’re not just like, I have no idea what to do. I have no idea what’s actually important. Like all of this that I’m talking about, high level is done in the context of I know what’s most important for the business and what it’s needing in this stage of its life.
[00:32:59] And maybe I can do a separate episode on how I identified that, like what the needle movers are. So all of this is within the context of me having a really clear, high level picture of like what the business is needing overall, and then within that clarity, within that context that I’m able to. Be in the flow of what I feel like doing, um, and create stuff and create systems around that as a team and optimize that as we go.
[00:33:24] So again, not sure if this is making sense, but how you treat yourself throughout your day will really determine what the quality of that day was, more than how productive you were and how much you produced, more than how much money you made. It’s how you treat yourself, and it’s not just how you treat yourself in success, but how you treat yourself in failure, messiness, deviations, change of plans, obstacles coming up, how you treat yourself through all of that will determine.
[00:34:01] Ultimately your level of connection with yourself, self-trust, satisfaction, fulfillment. And that is something that I just wanted to pick up the microphone and talk about because I really realized that especially over the last few months as I’ve been getting into higher and higher and higher levels of self-trust and connection with myself and working in flow, even if it doesn’t feel like the strategic way to do it, that I have really been able to, uh, just kind of enter into a different level, like a different kind of self-talk throughout my day.
[00:34:39] And that has had a massive impact. And it’s just one of those things that you don’t really see, um, when you’re looking at someone else. Yeah, but I definitely feel the difference. So I have just completed my weekly review of the business, which I actually did as an internal podcast episode as planned, and it went for about 50 minutes and felt so good to just like verbalize it all out.
[00:35:05] So that was great. A lot of insights from that. And then I did my weekly financial review. I just wanna share a little bit about what that looks like, because I went through a period in 2023 and then in 2024, I like, I. Corrected isn’t the right word, realigned with what I wanted to do. Um, I used to have previously just a strong weekly clear financial rhythm with what I would do with my bank account for the business and my different accounts that I have.
[00:35:38] And then I became like financially avoidant due to feeling like in this fight or flight kind of state. I’ve talked about this on the podcast, uh, for different reasons and different things going on and whatever. Um, but I then went through a period of like not looking at the numbers, even though I have a finance degree, um, as well.
[00:36:01] Like I’m someone who has a great mindset around like, I love numbers, I love looking at numbers, but because I felt like I was looking at numbers I didn’t wanna see, then I stopped looking as much and then I would freak out more because I wasn’t actually looking, I was still checking in on things, but I wasn’t actually doing,
[00:36:16] The kind of like detailed look that I previously would. And so then I kept having these fears of like, we’re gonna run out of money that would feel really stressful. And so then I wouldn’t actually solve it because I would be frozen by that. And what I have done really over the last, I’d say like 12 months, uh, and the momentum was really slow with it in the beginning.
[00:36:39] Um, I’ve really felt the momentum with it in the last few months in particular. But I have just become intimate again with the business finances in a way that I never had been before. It’s not like I’m going back to how I was doing it. I’ve actually really learned a lot of important lessons from that and seen blind spots that I had and, um, errors in thinking that I had.
[00:37:01] So this is probably a separate podcast episode, but thinking for example, like having large cash reserves. Is really important and like will keep me safe and that’s when I feel safe. But having my emotional safety tied to a bank account number, very dangerous. Especially if you have a business and there will be highs and lows regardless that I hadn’t realized that it wasn’t actually that I was good with money so much as I just had built up through some pretty good financial habits.
[00:37:34] I had built up high cash reserves, but some of that was from like scarcity and like. All of that kind of thing. But I had about 300,000 in the reserves account for the business. And then I felt emotionally safe, not because of the number, because my thoughts about it. And then when that number started to go down, I felt unsafe and then freaked out and then didn’t do anything to correct it because I was so freaked out and frozen.
[00:38:01] Some people don’t freeze, uh, but my response tends to be more of like the freezing side. So I’ve just been like gathering that emotional safety with the current situation, not emotional safety. And I’ve coached a few of my one-on-one clients on this. Specifically the emotional safety doesn’t come from, oh, the money will come in the future, or I’ll be in a better financial position in the future that isn’t safety.
[00:38:28] Because if that doesn’t happen, then you’re not safe. And we know subconsciously it’s not guaranteed. So it doesn’t create safety, but it’s, I’m safe in the financial situation that I’m in right now. Even if it’s not ideal, even if I’m living week to week or whatever the situation is, specifically, I am safe.
[00:38:45] And from that safe place, then I’m gonna create the financial situation that I want instead of, I need to create the financial situation. I want to feel safe. But then because you don’t feel safe, you don’t actually do things aligned with creating that financial, um, stability or whatever situation you’re wanting.
[00:39:02] So I’ve talked about in previous episodes, I’m not sure which one exactly the cash injection cycle that I found myself in because of that, like frozenness around the finances. So I’m just really proud of myself just patting myself on the back for the like emotional work that needed to happen for this shift to be made.
[00:39:21] Uncomfortable conversations that needed to happen, uh, taking. Responsibility, being accountable to myself, having a regular weekly financial review again and a monthly financial review that I’ve been doing, as well as a quarterly financial review. Basically from this year. I have reinstated like doing that as a non-negotiable every week, and it has been so good.
[00:39:45] And so I’m not gonna go into like all the details of what that looks like in this episode, but I just wanted to share. Uh, like, kind of like what a bit of my process is. But the key is the emotional safety with whatever number is currently in your bank account, including if that is credit card debt, including if that is loans or overdrafts or money borrowed from someone, or your, like funding the business from your savings and things like that.
[00:40:15] That it’s not just like, I will feel emotionally safe when I have a thousand, a hundred thousand dollars in my bank account, or $10,000 or whatever it is that it’s like I am safe now and I feel that in my body and from that place I’m gonna manage my finances. So with that said, what I have been doing in my weekly finances is very simple.
[00:40:38] And then my monthly finances is more of the, my review is more of like that high level review where I’m looking at things, um, and more strategic. Kinds of questions as well about like, um, cash coverage. Like what is our OPEX operational expenditure does, like how for our cash that we have, how many months worth of opex does that cover?
[00:41:02] If it falls below a certain amount, then we would do some kind of like cash injection activity as a business. Um, but that it’s not an emotional decision, it’s a decision based on numbers, not based on like seeing numbers and being freaked out, but being calmly like, this is what I would want the cash coverage number to be.
[00:41:22] If it’s below that, then here the plans have already laid out for what I would do to get the business, the cash that it needs. So there’s that kind of thing that I do on a monthly basis and I’m looking more at the p and l profit and loss statement. Um, like poking around. I use Xero for our accounting.
[00:41:43] I also have an accountant and bookkeeper as well. But I’m more so like looking at profit and loss statements in all different kinds of views and things like that in the monthly, but for the weekly it’s just really more so about cash flow and about just having that like weekly pulse, like knowing what’s going on numbers wise.
[00:42:03] So what I do in terms of like how I portion out my money and with a lot of my one-on-one clients, we actually go through what percentages to allocate to different things. So I’m not saying here like, just do what I’m doing because also most likely I’m at a different stage of business then you are. Um, but just hearing someone else’s process, I hope will be helpful even if you don’t have the exact percentages or level of revenue or things like that.
[00:42:33] That I’m currently in. Um, but yeah, with my one-on-one clients we go through like specifically for you, what makes sense for you to do so that you can have that and so that you can regularly pay yourself? I coach a lot of my one-on-one clients as well about like the importance of regularly paying yourself an amount rather than just seeing what you have there.
[00:42:52] So for a lot of perfectionist entrepreneurs, that is something they need to clean up. Um, I have a lot of philosophies around that that I haven’t really shared much of on this podcast. Uh, but that is a key part of moving beyond like the productivity struggles that we talk about in PGSD. Um, currently it’s with one-on-one coaching, but I am planning to have a, uh, a way to work with more people because my one-on-one coaching booked out.
[00:43:17] Um, but actually being able to. Make sales from a place of self-trust, self-trust selling that I teach. And a lot of that also includes money mindset and emotional safety work and this kind of thing. So weekly I have, I actually have five accounts within my, um, business, what’s it called? Like bank account.
[00:43:41] I am one of these people who like having different accounts for different things. Some people like having it all together. I have just always loved, I think I learned this initially from t who has a book called Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, or something about the Millionaire Mind. That I read probably in like 2014.
[00:43:57] I probably did a blog post about it back on my blog back in the day. Uh, but he talked about having different accounts for different things. It’s a common thing people talk about having different buckets. Um, but that’s what I do. So I have five. One is for reserves for the business, um, one is for tax and PAYG.
[00:44:15] Which is basically just like tax that I need to withhold. I’m in Australia, um, tax that I need to withhold on my salary because I’m a salaried employee from my business. Um, so that’s just me putting aside my tax obligations, essentially opex operational expenditure, which is like the running cost of the business revenue.
[00:44:32] So I have an account where all the revenue comes in from Stripe and PayPal, our payment processes and a growth fund, which is for investments in things that will grow the business. Um, and then I also have a credit card, a business credit card as well. So that’s a separate account and I have it set up. So most of the business expenses come off that so that we can get points on that credit card expenditure as well in Australia.
[00:45:00] We don’t really have this like credit score thing that seems to happen in the States where that’s a really important thing. Um, but if you’re in the States, it could be helpful for that reason. I don’t know too much about that. Um, but it just makes sense from a like points perspective that I can actually, we get points if we have it be on a credit card instead of just from my bank account, so, or the business’ bank account to be accurate.
[00:45:25] So what I do each week is, and I haven’t talked about chat, DBT and I feel like I’m using it in such a powerful way for so many different things. I haven’t talked about that yet. I feel like I have a lot to share about that, but I’m also just like refining my processes as well. Um, but I use ChatGPT to do my weekly review.
[00:45:46] So I go, I have a specific chat for, I say like, Hey, I’m doing my weekly financial review and then it prompts me with what I need to do. Um, so the first thing is taking screenshots of different accounts that I have, and then I’ve already told it, here’s how I wanna app portion the money. So it will tell me just from the screenshot, the exact amounts to transfer to different accounts instead of me going into my calculator.
[00:46:07] I used to do that manually. So I have everything that comes into my revenue. I will then portion that out. So currently what I do is I have 15% goes to reserves, 20% goes to tax, then I have 5% goes to the growth fund, and then I have the rest currently remains in the OPEX account. And then I have each week an automatic payment that goes to my credit card for a thousand dollars, which is roughly what our credit card, like business operating expenses that come from the credit card.
[00:46:41] Are on average. Plus I have an auto payment for my personal salary that goes from the business to my personal account. Plus I have an automated payment that goes out on Mondays that goes from the operational expenditure account to the tax and PAYG account. So I’m never having to remember how to like to put money aside for the tax I need to withhold from my salary.
[00:47:04] Um, or I’m never having to remember to pay myself or like decide that on a weekly basis that’s a given. And the same with putting that money onto the credit card. That I’m not having to like manually decide that every week. That’s a standard. And so what I talk about with my one-on-one clients is creating a standard that you can rise to that isn’t a massive stretch that freaks you out, but having things as standard, like paying yourself.
[00:47:29] Because if you had an employee and like they were a proper employee, you wouldn’t be like, Hey, I can’t actually pay you this week. Is it okay if I just pay you half? You’d be like, oh, I’ve gotta figure out how to have the business generate enough money to pay that employee. If that employee isn’t generating the money that they need to, then that is a trigger to have a conversation about that and do something.
[00:47:52] When you’re the owner of the business, it’s not that you like, I just wanna be clear. It’s not that like, oh my goodness, I haven’t been producing money for the business and I should find myself and I’m not good enough and none of that. It also depends what stage of business you’re at, but also if you are really making it negotiable whether you pay yourself, then it is easy to hide on social media.
[00:48:17] It is easy to just keep having like a really safe, comfortable approach to how you’re doing things in the sense of like if you’re scared to sell and put yourself out there, it’s really easy when paying yourself is negotiable and it will also have you keeping it feeling like a hobby business because in a hobby business, you’d pay yourself just every now and again.
[00:48:39] Or if there happens to be money versus a business, it’s like, well actually you treat yourself like an employee and you solve for that. And so I’m not saying you have to pay yourself exactly what you get paid if you work for someone else or if you’re not able to do that, there’s something wrong with you.
[00:48:54] But it’s actually just deciding, even if it’s like a hundred dollars a week, this is what I’m committing to paying myself and I will solve for that and it will invite me not to hide. And you just need to choose, and I do this with my one-on-ones. you need to choose a level that, again, isn’t gonna freak you out and put a lot of pressure on you, but is kind of around what you’d be paying yourself anyway.
[00:49:16] And making that just a standard. And it’s just been so fun in my experience as well. But in my client’s experience, once they start doing that, they can pretty quickly increase that because once it becomes a standard and they are thinking about their business a lot more as a business and less as a hobby, they naturally start making more money and rising to that occasion rather than just.
[00:49:40] Not paying themselves and like kind of, um, having that be a negotiable, a negotiable, optional like hobby business thing. Like I pay myself if I have extra money there. Like no, actually I solve for how to pay myself even if it’s a hundred dollars a week or $50 a week, I solve for that. Um, and for me, I’ve documented it on this podcast, but I had a period where I needed to not have to take any money for the bus from the business personally because I just felt like if I had to rely on my business for any kind of personal expenses, then I wouldn’t.
[00:50:18] Like, basically I would be so freaked out by that, that I would make really short term decisions that I didn’t like. And that was when I was working in my accounting job. I was like, I wanna have a part-time job, which I moved to, um, as a receptionist that fully covers my living expenses, um, and also gives me money that I can put into the business so that I’m not having to feel the financial pressure from my business to deliver.
[00:50:43] But then once I was in that part-time job and like a year or so later, I was like, actually me not having any, um, financial pressure, if you will in the business is kind of like exacerbating me, hiding and me not showing up and me not selling. And so what I started doing, I think it was $400 a week at the time, and I just, I can’t remember exactly what I did.
[00:51:06] I did for sure talk about it on the podcast. I know. Um, but I started transferring, I think it was 400 a week. From the business to my personal, I don’t think I even actually put it in my personal account. I just put it like in a different account within my business that was like what I was paying myself essentially, or like reserves or whatever it was.
[00:51:27] I can’t remember. But I needed to kind of like start having the money I had in the business go down so that I had this invitation to increase it. And then when I did that, I started showing up more because it was just a very supportive thing to do. At that time. I could just feel like I have this security blanket of not having to pay myself and it’s not actually helping me.
[00:51:47] Whereas previously at a different time, this is why like the context of it really matters. It’s not just blanket advice. When I first was building my business, the thought of having any of that just like freaked my nervous system out. Whereas then when I made that decision. I was like, this actually feels really supportive.
[00:52:08] It feels a bit scary, but ultimately I feel like I need that invitation to show up differently for my business and for myself, and to make that a non-negotiable. And that was really a massive piece in me being able to go full-time in the business, is that I created that standard and then I noticed, oh, I actually then solved for it.
[00:52:28] Even not intentionally. I was just like, okay, well I can’t just like sit back and live off the business savings, like I actually need to make money in the business. And then that invited me to put myself out there more and things like that, which allowed the business to grow. So all of that to say that is something worth looking at.
[00:52:47] If any of that is like, hmm, I should look into that. I should like reflect on that for myself. And as mentioned, I help a lot of my one-on-one clients with that. It’s a really important piece of shifting from hobby business mentality to real business, if you will, and to discern what’s the most supportive way to do that based on the season of life that you’re in, the season of business that you’re in.
[00:53:12] Um, and there’s no problem with having your savings fund your business. I was coaching another one on one client on this, like there’s no issue with having your savings be what provides cash to your business. And it’s really important to just not have that expectation of like, I’ve been in business for X number of years, so I should already be full-time.
[00:53:34] And it’s shameful that I have to live up, like my business is getting supported by my savings that I have and that’s irresponsible. That is not irresponsible. Finding your dream is not irresponsible. And we wanna actually start looking at like, you know, you invested that money in a college or university degree and you did that for multiple years or took out a loan and you did that.
[00:53:57] So for me, like I have a law and finance degree, I did that without expecting that before I graduated I would be making a full-time income. It was like, actually it’s gonna take a little minute for this to pay off and I’m willing to make that investment instead of with business. I think a lot of, uh, just ’cause of the way it’s talked about as well with like instant overnight success stories, that are the minority or they’re not actually overnight.
[00:54:23] They’ve been like 10 years in the making. But then there’s this expectation and like perfectionist entitlement. I did an episode on that a while ago. This expectation that like, well, I’ve been in business for X amount of time, so by now I should be making X amount of money, which takes us out of our power, out of our resourcefulness.
[00:54:40] And then like has us feeling ashamed about actually investing in something that is worth investing in from savings. Whether that’s from a full-time job, a part-time job, a gift from your parents or someone else, a loan, that when there’s like, you’re actually doing the responsible thing of supporting the business with money.
[00:55:01] And then you’re feeling ashamed about it. There’s that mismatch and it, it doesn’t help you build self-trust if you’re actually doing something responsible and then you are shaming yourself for that. And my client said it best when, because we were going through a looking with her, like what she has deemed in her head to be responsible, which is for most people the same thing of like, you know, you go to uni or college, you get a degree in something that you are likely to have a well paying job from.
[00:55:31] Then you get that job, then you save money. Then essentially you never have a credit card, you buy a house, you retire, I guess essentially, ultimately after that, when you pass away, then your kids get that they’re doing the same kind of thing that’s responsible. And what she said was, I was like, that’s the most accurate thing I’ve ever heard.
[00:55:54] She was like, the summary of it was like. The responsible thing to do is not to have dreams when it’s like you look at it like that. Some people love like that process, but most people are doing that just because they should, not because they actually want to. And so it was really coming back to like, okay, we need to like look at what does it mean to responsibly pursue your dreams?
[00:56:17] And we’ve gotta think about it differently because if you feel like that other path is the only way to be responsible and you have this really strong identity about being responsible, you are gonna keep coming up against this resistance and this imposter syndrome and this like feeling like you’re failing when actually what we wanna have you do is responsibly pursue your dream.
[00:56:37] And what would that look like? And when we looked at it. She was responsibly pursuing her dream. She wasn’t being reckless about it. But also part of entrepreneurship is you need to take a risk and you need to do things that might not seem responsible to everyone else who’s following the other responsible path.
[00:56:56] But when it comes to responsibly pursuing your dreams, which is what I wanna be doing, and I was on the other track and then changed off that into responsibly pursuing my dreams, that you need to actually adjust what that criteria is. If you wanna keep the identity of being a responsible person, which if you’ve always been, that is probably gonna feel a bit too jarring to be like, I’m irresponsible, but okay, I was responsible initially in like pursuing this certain path, and now I’m gonna responsibly pursue my dreams.
[00:57:28] What would that look like if it was someone else? What’s a sign? That they’re responsibly pursuing their dreams. And I think it’s just such a good question to ask because of the way that it’s kind of baked into the narrative that we have as a society, at least where I am and like the things that I consume that like the responsible thing is not to pursue your dreams or is to not even have a dream and also to kind of be asking yourself what you wanna do, but ultimately the responsible thing is to work at a job you don’t really like, so you can get paid well to complain about that job.
[00:58:04] We were also talking about how like complaining about your job or your coworkers or things like that actually makes it feel like you’re really being super responsible because look how responsible you are. You’re working a job you don’t even like, so that you can be responsible and make money. That’s such a responsible thing.
[00:58:21] So just so interesting to unpack. So that’s a, a little tangent. I hope it’s helpful to hear that. So I was just doing the weekly financial review and um, as well, often when I’m doing it I’ll be asking ChatGPT different questions, less of like a, um, strategy side of things and more of a mindset side of like, here’s what I’m thinking or Here’s how I’m feeling, um, and can you help me like discern or decide what to do with this bit or that bit.
[00:58:48] Um, and things like that. I’ve found it really helpful to do that as well. Um, but I will save it a chat DBT update for a future time. But that was my weekly review and my business review done. So I’m actually having a meeting with Daisy at 2:30. We had been meeting on Thursday afternoons, but I want us to like, meet on Tuesdays.
[00:59:12] Um, and she is available and for us to like go over together the, um, project tracker that we’ve been creating or Daisy’s been creating. To have a high level look. Oh my God, I was so, I’ve been so frustrated. Ah, just seeing how many projects have started but then not being completed and things like that.
[00:59:32] And I could, like, when, you know, you’re like, I’m the problem. Like, and I can see it. And also I’m just holding space for like, that’s okay and we’re solving for it. Um, but so many projects that have been mainly just because of, we haven’t had a system to look high level at what we’re working on. We’d have a project start, but then not actually end up being completed.
[00:59:54] Or like not having clear ownership over like who on the team is responsible for getting that project completed? Things like that. So, um, we are, each week when we’re meeting, looking at all the projects in the business together and like talking through it, um, prioritizing it, things like that. That’s probably not a great explanation of what we’re doing, but just like aligning on.
[01:00:16] Those things and iterating that system each week. And also looking at the like weekly business review together, the, um, TPP, which is The Perfectionism Project, um, like weekly dashboard, which we’re also developing out, um, looking at that together and just having those conversations. So we’re gonna do that very soon.
[01:00:39] I have a few things I wanna hand over to Daisy, uh, which I’m just gonna record a couple of internal podcast episodes on to do that handover, which is we are doing a private podcast, so excited for this about power planning. So getting that set up, I have the vision and I’m going to communicate that. Uh, and then the PGSD sales dashboard, like we’ve been getting focused on having a lot more like data and numbers and being, how do I word this?
[01:01:11] Instead of being in like. Posting content for content’s sake, which there is a time and place for that. And also, I’m kind of, as I’ve mentioned, like coming back to like just letting myself talk and not being too strategic, but also needing the feedback loop of like making sure our email list is growing, that we have visibility over what those stats are.
[01:01:30] Um, and that the launch results we have for PGSD isn’t just about like how good the emails were, but like if there weren’t many new people who came into our world between launches, that is going to impact the launch results and things like that. So anyway, we’ve been developing that out as well. So I need to hand over, I’ve done the bits that I need to do, so I need to hand that over.
[01:01:57] And then I’m just gonna, after the meeting with Daisy, just create some stuff, see what I wanna do. Um, I still haven’t, it’s what time is it? Two 10. I haven’t done my power planning, but I’ve done. Essentially like I have, but I just haven’t put it in my calendar. So that is my next step after this is to do that so that I have it.
[01:02:18] I will also plan out next Tuesday morning as well. Um, that’s my plan. Feeling pretty good. I feel like a bit tired and low energy today, but I also feel energized at the same time. It’s just like physical fatigue in a sense, but like mentally I don’t. Anyway, um, I’ve just learned or the last, well, I mean pregnancy is such a great teacher of this for me, but just to let that be okay and to not be like, I should be being more productive or whatever of like, no, I’m actually exactly where I need to be doing exactly what I need to do.
[01:03:01] And I will notice if that’s not the case and I can trust myself to make any adjustments I need to make. And if I am tired or whatever, that’s okay. I don’t need to try and like pretend that I’m not. But just actually allowing myself to accept, like not accept real reality, but like not be arguing with like, I shouldn’t be tired.
[01:03:24] That doesn’t help. That makes me more tired to think I shouldn’t be tired or I’m so tired. I’ve just been noticing like I feel more in this like slower kind of pace today and I’m kind of like meandering through the day and that’s okay because I know when I let myself also have days like this, then there are days that I’m just like getting shit done and they’re not better or worse than each other.
[01:03:45] But I’ve just really been getting into the rhythm of things. Also, last thing I will say is that I know you might be listening to this, especially if you’re a woman and thinking about like, oh, tee things up with your cycle. As I’m pregnant, I currently don’t have a cycle to tee things up with. Um, so I am curious, I mean, I’m nearly at the end of the pregnancy, but I am curious what people do on that front when you’re pregnant and you don’t actually have the cycle.
[01:04:10] I obviously there’s moon cycles and things, um, but I’ve just noticed and human design has helped with this, like my own personal cycles that I tend to have and that I will kind of have like two days of sort of feeling like this. And then the third day, if I allow that, if I resist it, this doesn’t happen.
[01:04:28] But if I allow that, then the third day I’ll just have this like surge of ideas and inspiration and energy. But if I resist the not having energy or like not feeling in a certain flow or whatever, I think then I don’t get like the other side of that. So it’s just like these waves of different, um, not different feelings, but I just feel like different kinds of seasons and that they repeat.
[01:04:58] I wanna say about roughly every three weeks or so. Um, but yeah, I do look at that in my power planning, but I haven’t, I often, so often I’m just scrolling back through my power planning. ’cause I get a really good high level look at like a lot of things that aren’t explicitly in that, but just like the vibe of what I’ve been working on and like how in my head I’ve been or like in flow and different things like that.
[01:05:26] And I just, over time I’ve seen the patterns emerge of what happens when I resist feeling a certain way and what happens when I process and allow myself to feel a certain way and just how much better it always is. What I allow myself to feel and process and just be where I am without resistance. When I’m not in resistance about it, then I’m like, okay, well I’m just gonna do what I want and get on with it. Okay. That’s my little update for now. I probably won’t do another one today. Maybe I’ll do a little recap at the end of the day. It’s pretty long now too, so I might just keep it to a one day update. We shall see. I just had a meeting with Daisy. It is 4:55 PM so I’m gonna be wrapping up very shortly.
[01:06:10] And we had planned for the meeting to go for an hour and it went for two hours and 15 minutes. And we were just reviewing the project tracker and going through the projects that we are actively working on and different things like that and just, it was so helpful. And also I feel like such a good example of like, I would rather not go through all the different projects.
[01:06:39] When is it getting done? What’s the priority order? Why is it stalled out? If it’s stalled out? What’s the upstream issue of that? Like I love to look at not just what’s the like downstream symptom of something, but like upstream. Was there an issue that created this downstream issue, if that makes sense.
[01:07:00] So we, and I was chatting a lot in that and so was Daisy, but I feel like I’ve done so much talking today, which also feels very energizing as well. But that is what I have spent this afternoon doing. And I also recorded a team podcast episode for Daisy about the private podcast that we’re gonna get set up that I mentioned.
[01:07:23] And I’m now gonna hand over the PGSD sales dashboard where I got to that too with that, so that Daisy can take that on as well. But we’re just going through at the moment. Team wise, a shift in really going from like me being the operations lead and like having all the ideas for projects, prioritizing the projects, and then delegating out the execution of that project to my team that now Daisy is really like owning that and I’m just getting her to push back on me.
[01:07:59] As well and looking at like, not like when can I get this done by, but like when does the business need this completed by? And if I don’t have the capacity to do the bits needed from me, let’s solve for that. And that doesn’t just mean like we need to hire someone or you need to work extra. But I love having the constraint of time.
[01:08:20] And instead of saying, okay, we’ll just extend out the due date, which sometimes makes sense to do, but the first port of call being, okay, if we still wanted it done by this date and we wanted to work within these other parameters of how much time we have or the resources we have as a team, how might we still achieve this same result or outcome or produce this thing by this timeframe?
[01:08:42] And really having Daisy push back on me when a lot of times my brain’s like, I don’t want to, things like that. Like, oh, we could just, you know, or, um, like, I don’t feel aligned with doing that or whatever. But like, also, there are certain things that the business needs to have done by a certain timeframe and it’s, it’s not like doing that in this like pushy, masculine kind of way, but I really feel like.
[01:09:08] Where I operate best is this blend of like the masculine and feminine energy, and I work really well when there is that structure around like this is the goals that we have as a business. This is what is needed to be completed, to produce the, essentially like the hypothesis we have about how we’d achieve that goal.
[01:09:29] This is needed to be able to produce that or test that hypothesis and. Having that and then me creating within that framework I find really helpful. Versus it just being like a pure, like very like fully feminine approach in the sense of like super flowy, intuitive and all of that. I find, and I don’t have deep knowledge of like the masculine and feminine energies and the different ways it works and all of that, but for me personally, I just noticed that if I’m almost like too far in the feminine like I do, like having the the masculine structure around certain things and then being like in my feminine energy within that.
[01:10:14] So yeah, I’m just saying to Daisy basically like push back on me. I’m not really feeling much pushback at all currently that it’s kind of like, okay, well if Sam said this is the priority, then we need to get that done instead of like hate. No, this is actually like. You said this is a priority. And I said to Daisy, like, I’m always gonna say everything’s a priority and I want it done right now.
[01:10:36] And I used to then have to prioritize that myself. But now I’m saying that at you and I’m doing it without me prioritizing it. So I need you to do that. And essentially, like Daisy was saying, like in her job, um, that she has, that she does this with her boss. And I used to do this with my manager when I was in the accounting world of like, okay, I hear that this is important.
[01:11:01] My current priority is X, Y, Z. Are you happy for me to deprioritize X, Y, Z so that I can work on this instead and to at least present, here’s the cost of what I’m gonna deprioritize to get this done for you. Uh, but also to be able to be like, if it is like these things are actually both important, then we need to just figure out a, a better creative solution to get them both done in that timeframe.
[01:11:27] We also, there are so many projects that we have that are like things that need to be tidied up and different things, future projects. And a big part of this is just sitting with the discomfort of seeing so many projects that would be impactful for the business and then selecting the three projects that we are moving forward with and essentially deprioritizing everything else except like, obviously like the admin and delivery aspects of the business and like running that.
[01:11:58] Um, but in terms of projects and moving things forward and in pg SD we teach the momentum project philosophy, uh, where you have one key project that you focus on for a six week block. And essentially in some ways like we’re doing that, but also at the more advanced level of that, um, that we are having still a constrained number of projects because if everything feels like it’s important and due yesterday, then nothing really is important.
[01:12:28] Then everything keeps being due yesterday because then important things don’t actually get prioritized and completed. And so it’s just jumping from thing to thing. So that is a big thing that I’m solving for currently in the business with Daisy and I feel like we’re making great headway with that. And I’m just gonna hand over, so the PGSD sales dashboard, hand that over wrap up.
[01:12:51] Just take a minute to unwind a little bit before I go and pick up the kids, because then I am straight into the nighttime routine. Steve is working tonight, so I’m doing that solo. While heavily pregnant with three little ones. And so that typically will take, usually it’s about two, two and a half hours of being like, in that evening routine mode of like getting dinner ready, doing bath time, brushing teeth, getting everyone into their bed, getting everyone asleep, um, and all of that.
[01:13:21] So I’m just gonna take a minute, a few minutes to just do nothing, to have no input of any kind before I get in the car. I just find if I jump straight into the car, like as soon as I close my laptop, even though there’s a drive, it’s a five minute drive to daycare. So it’s not that long and I kind of need more like 15 minutes.
[01:13:41] So 10 minutes at home and then a five minute drive is pretty good. So I’m gonna do that. And that has been my day. I think I’ll just like leave it at that for now. I might do this again tomorrow. and I’m thinking too, like. Things that I recorded could just be standalone episodes, like the financial stuff that I mentioned.
[01:14:01] So I am not sure if it’ll all go out together as I’ve recorded it or if we’re gonna pull it apart and be separate. But that’s part of what I’m wanting to document, is that I am in now creating in the format that feels easiest to create in. And then if different formats emerge from me doing that, then we can reorganize it to have it go out that way.
[01:14:25] But I’ll record it in the easiest way for me, instead of being like, I wanna do an episode on what I do with my weekly financial review, that just emerged because I was talking about my day and being willing to share whatever, including stuff I think might be boring or whatever. And then if that ends up being like, actually, we’re gonna just not have it go out as a like day in your life kind of episode, am I just gonna have it go out as three separate, like, episodes on different topics. Great. So I’m being open to that and excited to see what emerges from it as well. And I’m just finding it really helpful to have the permission from myself to just be able to record without having it to like meet a certain framework or criteria or feel helpful or useful or anything like that.
[01:15:14] Like I can just literally record and trust that A, whatever my brain thinks is boring, it’s typically quite helpful to hear for other people and we can reformat it or whatever after. So I can just share. So that is my update for today. That is all I’m gonna be sharing. I’m gonna record this stuff for Daisy, just 10 minutes on that and then be wrapped up.
Outro
If you enjoy this podcast, I recommend signing up for the waitlist for my program called Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (aka PGSD). This is a program designed to help you get out of your own way in your business. You’re gonna learn how to release your perfectionism handbrake by setting a growth goal for your business, planning properly as a perfectionist with Power Planning and getting regular guilt-free clean rest. You’ll learn the skills required to get out of your own way and be supported every step of the way to do it.
While the doors to PGSD are currently closed, they will be opening again soon. So to find out more about the program and join the waitlist today, go to samlaurabrown.com/pgsd.