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

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 The re-definition of productivity that all business owners need to embrace How to balance productivity with maintaining self care 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...