Re-defining Productivity and Reducing Overwhelm: Strategies for Success with Louise Miller

Your Dream Business

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Louise Miller, where we are talking all about a new, human-first definition of productivity, and how business owners who struggle with procrastination and self-sabotage can overcome this to take action in their business.

In this episode, Louise shares some incredibly useful practical tips and advice, including her treehouse analogy, that she passionately believes is your fastest route to success.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

1. The re-definition of productivity that all business owners need to embrace
2. How to balance productivity with maintaining self care
3. Why productivity actually happens before you take any action

Louise is a productivity mentor, the founder of Make It Happen Club and host of the Unfrazzle podcast; and she is on a mission to change the world by helping her clients change the world. Described by her clients as a soothing balm and a magician, her experience of work-related stress and anxiety led her to develop a slower, more mindful approach to productivity, which she uses to help her clients get the important things done. If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to iTunes and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Download Louise's 5 Step Guide To Go From Frantic and Frazzled to Focus and Flow Tune in to Unfrazzled, Louise's podcast Connect with Louise on LinkedIn Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook

Transcript

Teresa: Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. How are you doing this week? I hope you are good. Okay. So this week I have an interview and as I was prepping and reading, when someone comes to an interview with me, I get them to fill in a form. And in that form, They tell me, you know, various things about what's important or what we can talk about, what questions I can ask and all that jazz. And the way this guest filled out the form and the details she gave does not surprise me one little bit when it comes to what she does, because it was an excellent, it's making my life very easy, which as you will find out in this episode. That is her job and she does it brilliantly. So today I am interviewing Louise Miller and she is on a mission mission to change the world by helping her clients change the world. She partners with coaches, consultants, and community community builders who have a big exciting vision, helping them land their ideas into reality. She's reaching more people and making a bigger impact whilst take caring of everything they're juggling day to day. Cause as we all know, as business owners, We are not just running our businesses. If only that's the easy bit and being kind to themselves along the ways. Louise is a productivity mentor and the founder of the make it happen club, and also the host of unfrazzled podcast. Louise has also been working with me for the last month or so. So I am very excited to welcome her to the podcast today. Welcome Louise. Louise: Thank you for having me, Teresa. And I'm glad that form made your life easier. That's made me very happy as well. Teresa: Well, do you know what's so funny? And I'm just going to have a look on my Asana form to see when this episode. Okay. So an episode hasn't come out yet by the time yours comes out, but it was with another guest. And when I said, what questions could I ask you? Because that's one of the form questions. This person said, Question one, why are you so charming and incredibly good looking and modest? As in for me to ask him that question, right? And obviously he was joking, but the thing was, although he's joking, he actually didn't write any questions I'd ask him. So yes, the way you wrote yours, where you not only said, these are the questions you could ask, but this is, What you're going to be covering for that question was excellent. So thanks. Louise: You're welcome. Thank you for having me. If I didn't already say that. Teresa: Well, yeah, I completely digressed as we do. So Louise, we have had a conversation about what you do and we have, and I liked seeing that you put yourself down as a productivity mentor because I do think that's a really good description of what you do. And we had a conversation about actually how difficult it is to explain what you do and how you do it, but what is even more. I guess interesting at this point is how did you get to do that? So let's talk about how you got to do what you do and what it is that you do today. Louise: Yeah. Okay. So I'll try and cut a long story short. Basically back in 2015, I was absolutely run ragged. I was, I was that person, you know, if you need something doing, give it to a busy person. That was me for 15 years. And I got to a point in 2015 where work related stress and anxiety had really got its claws in. And as a result of that, my GP signed me off sick, which was actually the best thing that could have happened because it gave me some space to actually think about what I was going to do next. And I decided at that point, I wasn't going to just keep bouncing from job to job. I was going to take a step back and figure out what on earth I wanted to do, so I handed in my notice knowing that I wasn't going to get another job and very much excited to strike out on my own. And then I had an existential crisis because what I realized was that my strengths, which are very much around helping people to focus, helping people get stuff done, I'm very naturally organized and efficient, but all of that felt in really deep conflict with my realization that actually there is more to life than getting stuff done. And I didn't want to feed that narrative that really damaging narrative that made me ill, which is that our self worth is tied up in our productivity because I'd been running around like headless chicken for 15 years, waiting for somebody to lean over and go, it's all right, Louise. You've done everything now. Yeah. Have a rest. That's never going to happen. So on the one hand, I knew these are my gifts. These are my strengths. This is what I know I can help people with. And on the other hand, I'm going, but I know how damaging that can be. And on the third hand, I also knew that small business owners, particularly people who are really comfortable in their right brain kind of space of creativity and ideas, which is a lot of small business owners, that's why they go into business because there's loads of things they want to do. They actually needed my left brain to help them to get their work actually out into the world. So it wasn't just forever rattling around in their heads or stuck in notebooks. So I knew that I wanted to support those people, but before I actually felt comfortable doing that, I first needed to change the way that we think about productivity. And so I redefined it firstly for myself. And then secondly, for everyone else. And I've been sharing this new definition for years now. So in my definition, productivity is not about doing more in less time and cramming more and more in. So that we can just keep doing more doing. For me, productivity is about doing what's important as efficiently as you can, so that you can create space for what you love, not so you can create space to do more doing so that we can actually enjoy the journey. And, you know, I'm not here for the hustle. I'm here to enjoy the journey, hence the creating space bit, not the cramming more and more doing. So. For me, I know it's not about trying to do all the things, but about doing the things which are going to make the biggest impact. And sometimes the thing that would make the biggest impact is rest or fun. Yeah. And so, you know, you mentioned earlier about make it happen club, which is a space where we gather together and I guide planning. And a very big part of that is me reminding people to protect space for fun and for rest, because those are the things that are going to keep them moving forward. And the other really key thing, actually, I think particularly working with my private clients is that it's not only about the stuff that they're getting done. It's about how they're feeling around what they're doing. And one of my clients I'm working with at the moment. The last, the most recent school holidays were the first time in her seven years of running business that she'd been able to completely switch off without feeling guilty, knowing that she'd done everything she wanted to do. And to me and to her, that's a huge win. Yeah. Teresa: And that's the thing, like, Otherwise, what are you being productive for? Why are you, you know, why are you getting all this work done, hustling in this way, trying to achieve all these things just to then do the next thing? And, and, you know, and I know we can't do that. We can't live like that. We can't carry on like that. And, and sometimes you need that person to look to. at what you're doing to go, hang on a minute, you need to just slow down or calm down or stop a second or breathe or whatever those things are. So yeah. So did you start your business as this? Louise: No, no. Great question. No, I started out as a VA. So I knew I wanted a transition that would feel quite easy, which I don't know why I thought that felt easy, but actually I think I was incredibly lucky that when I started, I made a very good contact very early on and I got fully booked very quickly, which actually gave me a full sense of full sense of security. But I became very fully booked very quickly as a VA, always knowing that wasn't the thing. And I noticed working with as many clients as I did during that time, that they were all struggling with the thing that comes really easily to me, which is the figuring out what to do, what order to do things in, what's most important, what can wait, how much time and energy have you got, how are you going to manage all of that? So when I realized that the VA thing wasn't what I wanted to be doing, really, I then I created a few courses to teach people productivity. I designed a mentoring program to teach people productivity. And again, very quickly realized, actually, this is not it either, because yes, I can teach you how to manage your time and, you know, all these various things that lots of people out there are teaching people. But what I realized for me and for my clients, where I give most value is when I'm actually in the trenches with them. So it's not this kind of theoretical, here's a way of managing your diary. It's more of a, okay, what have you gone? Yeah. How are you feeling? Yeah. You know, what's on your plate. Let's figure out how you're going to manage that. Because I think otherwise with the best will in the world, people just go back to their default patterns. They nod along and learn and listen to what you're saying. And it makes sense, but it's really hard not to just bounce back to your default when you've not got that person on your shoulder. Teresa: So, and even when you try it and you know, it works and we do know it works like we're not stupid, you know, the, the reason there are all these productivity things out there is because they work when you do them. But like you said, you know, we have trod a, path in our brain a certain way for a long time. And we are trying to then step off that path and try a new one. And when we do it, you're like, yeah, this works. This is good. Except keeping that up is really hard work. And we will by nature, just drop back onto that other path. And then we'll beat ourselves up and go, Oh, I can't do it. This is awful. This is, you know, when that isn't the case. Like some people had, I have someone in my world, which actually would be fascinating for you to work with her because she, and she'll know who I'm talking about her, but she used to come to me to every coaching that we did and go, I'm just not organized enough. I need to get more organized, need to get more organized, need to get more organized. And we, She was physically fighting with herself, trying to get more organized and was beating herself around the head every other minute. Why am I not organized? Can't believe I need to do more. And everything stopped for that. You know, it was almost like that. This was the dream that if she could get more organized and suddenly the business would be better, this would be different. This would be, you know, she would be different. And it got to a point when I said to her, maybe you're just not organized. Maybe that just isn't you. So stop trying to fight it. Stop trying to, you know, and you've said yourself, like, you know, left brain and right brain, right? Some people are just way more creative. So don't, and there's that great quote that I put up on Instagram once and Instagram told me it was fake. So deleted it, which was hilarious because I think it's, was it from, I don't know who the hell it was from, but basically it's like, if you, measure the ability of a, Oh God, what is it? What is it? What is it? What is it? Louise: Is it the thing about judging a fish by whether it can climb a tree? Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. And that's the thing. That's the point I was trying to get to her. Like if you're, why are you trying to make yourself something you're not? So stop saying it, stop trying to get organized. Just be like, kind to yourself of actually, this is the way I work and this just has to do. So yeah, so not everybody's like that. I just completely digressed then and pulled us back from somewhere. But so yeah, you started VA, you changed over to this and started doing this. Now, one of the things that we struggled with is how do we describe what you do? Because you, you and I had a call last year. So this comes out in March 23. We had March 24. We had a call end of the year 23. And you said to me, this is what I do. And I said, I think I've been looking for someone like you, but I was looking for the term coach and we, and when I said to you productivity coach, both of us went, no, don't like it. Like that doesn't sound good, but it trying to find that word. So talk and I don't mind you using me as an example at all, but tell us what you do for me. Louise: Yeah. Okay. So I think the reason that the word coach makes us both want to vomit a little bit in this context is because If people are thinking about true coaching, it's the whole asking the questions because you have the answers and I just need to get those answers out of you. Yes. That is not what I do. What I do is very hands on and very practical. So I will just talk people through what happens in a 90 minute session. I think that's probably the easiest thing. So first thing we do is we celebrate because people don't do that often enough. They don't notice what they've achieved. therefore spend the whole time feeling like they're behind, failing, haven't done as well as they wanted to. So we have to acknowledge the good things that have happened. So we do that. Then we look back at vision and goals to make sure that we are, you know, the client and me are connected in with that big picture, what it is that you're trying to achieve and how you're going to get there. And I make sure that that is a proper kind of check in. It's not just a quick, let's glance at it. It's spoken so that we can really embody and feel it really strongly because I think it's quite easy to go, Oh, I know what my vision and my goals are and not fully embody them. So we spend a couple of minutes on that. Then we'd have a look at capacity. So we'd be like, okay, so what is coming up? What have you got in your diary? How much time do you actually have? How are you feeling? Teresa: Because the last time we did this, I was like, Oh my God, I haven't got any. Louise: Yeah. I know you'd be amazed. Well, maybe you wouldn't be amazed how many people do their planning without actually looking at that. And then they write a big old long list without realizing they actually have very little time. And with that part of the process. You know, I talk about that as checking capacity. Capacity is not just about your time. It's about your energy. And if you can see in your calendar, you've got a really full week with lots of calls and lots of outward facing stuff, and you know, that's going to exhaust you, trying to cram a lot more stuff into that week. Again, it's not going to end well. So it's a time and energy kind of conversation. And then it's okay. Let's look at the specifics of what it is you're actually going to do this month. So we'll get really into the weeds and into the nitty gritty about these are the goals you've got. Maybe there was some deadline. So for you, you know, there's the summit and all this kind of stuff that we're in the process of organizing right now. So it's looking at all of the moving parts for those things and going, right, what needs to happen this month? and what kind of order do we need to do those in and then where it feels appropriate. Okay, so when are you going to do those? And let's see if we can protect some time to make sure you are not finding that that time's being stolen away by something else. Cause if we don't protect the time something else will come and take it away from you. Yeah. And we, we spend 90 minutes on that. And I think that is the key because for a lot of people, if they're doing planning, they'll go, Oh, I just need 10 minutes. Yeah. Just grab a sheet of paper and go, these are the things I'm going to do, crack on. Yeah. And it's, and then they wonder why it doesn't work out because it does take this time and space. Yeah. And really dive in. Yeah. Teresa: And without trying to sound rude, cause you definitely know this is not how I mean it, it sounds so incredibly simple and because it sounds so incredibly simple, people will sit there and think. Why the hell do I need that, right? And take someone like me. So I use my full focus planner. I plan my weeks. I'm very good at that. Like I do a lot of the things. I do the goal setting. I review my goals. I review every week, like I do all of that stuff. But there is something so very different about having someone who isn't you doing the stuff because. When it's you, you're not just thinking, I've got this thing to do. You've got a million other thoughts going around your head. So even if you do do all those things, which I do and did, I still can't step out of my head to make it all clear. But also someone who can look at your space, your...