Ep 145: This is what’s REALLY causing overwhelm in your business

Episode Summary

What separates wildly productive entrepreneurs from those just spinning their wheels?

As a high achieving woman entrepreneur, it’s easy to mistake busyness for productivity. If you feel the constant urge to do more, this episode unpacks what’s really going on, why “doing more” often backfires—and what to do instead.

In this episode you will:

• Learn the unexpected thought shift I had in Italy that instantly released the pressure I had been feeling—and allowed me to create bigger results with more ease and trust.

• We’ll expose the hidden mindset loop that’s tricking you into overworking—and keeping your biggest results just out of reach.

• And you’ll discover what makes clients, sales, and momentum suddenly start flowing again—even if you’re doing less than you were before.

Press play now to trade endless hustle for focused actions that multiply revenue while shrinking your workweek.

Episodes:

Ep #6: How Entrepreneurship Made Me Woo

Ep #13: Allowing Yourself to Receive

Ep #16: Business Minimalism and Why We Overwork

Schedule a call with Jenna about joining the Clarity Accelerator--the same mastermind that we talk about in this episode--to unlock your inner genius, step into your leadership, and dial in the strategies and mindset that let you work smarter, not harder.     

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This podcast dives into the challenges of leadership, decision making, and delegation, helping women business owners and mompreneurs overcome overwhelm, decision fatigue, and the guilt of working less. Learn to build powerful habits, embrace smarter working, and master time management by streamlining tasks, implementing business systems, and even prioritising self-care. We explore efficiency, productivity, and automation to create passive income, reduce overworking, and finally take time off—without the fear or shame. Say goodbye to imposter syndrome and people pleasing while running a small business: It's time to shift your mindset, reclaim your work-life balance, and thrive! 

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] In this episode, you'll discover what's driving the fact that all your effort might be about as effective as pushing buttons on a kid's ride. You're busy, but not actually controlling the vehicle. Welcome, welcome back to the three day work week. We're bringing back a listener favorite episode today, number 16.

I love that some of these withstand the test of time, so well, I go back myself and re-listen and think. Oh, good point. I really need to apply that this week. So you are going to see why this one was so popular. In this episode, we're talking about what separates wildly productive entrepreneurs from those just spinning their wheels.

I'll share the unexpected thought shift I had in Italy that instantly released the pressure I'd been appealing and allowed me to create bigger results with more ease and trust. We'll expose the hidden mindset loop that's tricking you into overworking and keeping your biggest [00:01:00] results just out of reach, and you'll discover what makes clients sales and momentum suddenly start flowing again.

Even if you're doing less than you were before, enjoy. Welcome to the three day work week, helping women entrepreneurs run profitable, meaningful businesses in just three days a week if they like without stress, guilt, or sacrificing growth. I'm your host, Jenna Harrison, sharing practical strategies, mindset hacks, and even some woo, to help you work smarter, lead boldly, and find true balance.

Let's dive in. Hey everyone. Welcome back. I'm settling back in from Italy. I was really interested in how quickly my brain released the internal pressure of needing to be busy. Those are two separate things, right? The hours you work are one thing, and the pressure you feel to work to be doing things is another.

I was studying myself like, huh, what am I thinking exactly? That's allowing me to do this. As I mentioned last week, I was working what many would consider to be [00:02:00] an obscenely low amount of hours per week, and yet my business didn't suffer. It's because of business minimalism, which is when you're solely focused on the areas of greatest leverage in your business.

And that can only happen when you're willing to not satisfy the urge to work on a bunch of other things too. And you'll only be willing to restrain yourself when you trust that you don't have to do any more to create bigger results. You just have to do what you're doing better to create bigger results.

But before we go there, I wanna give a shout out to some people I know are listening. One is a podcast listener who told me that she goes back and listens to earlier episodes, two or even three times in order to get more out of them. And I can completely relate to this and appreciate it because I remember once I was going to see a coach of mine and I kind of wanted to brush up and I looked over [00:03:00] my past notes and.

There was something from a year ago that was almost exactly what she was just telling me on a call. And so it's like our brains can't fully receive it until we're ready to receive it. And so this is a practice that I've started doing with my own coaching is really going back to refresh my brain and hear things, listen to calls, hear things, or see things.

See my notes several times. In order to absorb more than I would've the first time. So I just really wanna honor her for doing that and really committing to getting the most out of this podcast that she can. Okay. Business minimalism is not the normal way of doing things. That's true for pretty much everyone in the US, but many other countries too.

We tend to pile on more and more and more. If I have more time in the day, that means I should do more things. Let's call it maximalism. At its core, overwork is a [00:04:00] product. If you believe in, you can control your business results through. You believe there's a correlation between doing more and positive business outcomes, which is understandable, especially if you've grown up hearing you can have anything you want if you work hard enough.

Most of our societies still run on a factory mentality. I clock in, I clock out, and I get money for those hours. If I work for more hours, I earn more money, and we start thinking like, how much does that doctor or lawyer make per hour? We're not always thinking about the overall result they bring or the years of investing and honing their skill that now allow them to create those results.

No, we're like $500 per hour. That's crazy. Talk. Plus we see these well-known business gurus with huge teams that are churning out social media webinars, free challenges, live events, et cetera, et cetera, and our brains figure, well, [00:05:00] the more I approximate that behavior, the closer I'll get to that person's success.

Nobody is paying you for the hours you work anymore. You know this logically. I know you've heard it a thousand times. If a dentist says it will take six months to do your root canal, you are not gonna pay her more just because of all the hours she's putting into it, right? You'll happily pay a premium to the dentist down the street who can do it in one day.

And yet we see so much chronic overwork in entrepreneur circles. It's like you're moving the vacuum around frantically back and forth, right? But it's not plugged in. Yes, you have the lines on the carpet to show for it, but that doesn't mean it's effective. I know of someone who posts all the time on social, responds to comments, engages with others, and has built up 40,000 Instagram followers.

I know for a lot of you, you think that must equal success, but she makes no money, none. [00:06:00] It's a classic case of all the marketing in the world won't make up for a of messaging. Now you're probably thinking, okay, Jenna, if doing things doesn't create results, what actually does? This is a huge clarity gap for entrepreneurs at all income levels.

I see six and multi six figure entrepreneurs frequently saying things like, I'm not really sure what creates my results. I think that was just a fluke, et cetera, et cetera, friends. This is of foremost importance in your business. You've got to be attuned to the levers in your business that create the most results.

This is what I help my clients do. I help them find their own uncommon way, and it changes everything. Now there are often overlaps among different people, right? I've touched on several important factors in past episodes, like clarity about what you're offering in your people, for instance. That's a very [00:07:00] important lever, and I'll gladly do a future episode just on the topic of what actually creates results, because I wanna help you plug your vacuum in.

I really do. And then I wanna help you set up your Roomba, right? The world changes with the more women that do this. But what I really want you to take away from this episode is that in order to really hear this discussion about what creates results, you first have to divorce yourself mentally from the reliance on doing, or at least invite in a little bit of space to play with the idea that maybe results don't come from doing.

Don't get me wrong, I want you to do things in your business. I want you to do very challenging things that stretch you and help you grow into exactly who you're here to be, but quality over quantity. When I say quality, it's both the quality of the actions you're taking and the quality of your frame of mind.

So let's break those down. [00:08:00] Hey, many entrepreneurs say they want freedom, but most decisions telling yourself. You're ready to align and simplify your business, rewire your brain without guilt, and actually claim the freedom You started this for all while scaling your business. I'll show you how to do it inside the Clarity Accelerator Mastermind.

Quality of actions means that you're focused on the things and only the things that truly move your business forward. Rather than spreading yourself thin, you're giving more to the few selected things. In beginning of your business, you're solely concentrating on the steps required to prove your business is viable, and that language and assets will with your people in quickest.

You won't be filling your time with all the low yield activities that most new entrepreneurs fill their time with, like creating a website when you are [00:09:00] not even exactly sure who your people are or what they think the problem and solution is and what moves them towards a sale. I. Or spending time scrolling social media, because that's what the algorithm likes or listening to tons of webinars.

You know what you're focused on, why you've chosen that. It makes sense. You are decided and now you're executing it so you're not watching 10 different webinars every day. Now how you go about this can be different for everyone. Again, that's your uncommon way, your secret sauce. If you don't have a feel for this yet, get support to get clear on its stat.

I've had clients that were big networkers and their method was creating group offers and doing things like running Facebook groups. I've had others who were really great in person and tested language at networking events. I've had others that would invite people to free mini offers so that they could really have that one-to-one experience for a lengthy amount of time.

[00:10:00] So many ways. There's no one right way to grow your business the right way is the one that plays to your strengths. And later on in your business, you are still focusing on the few selected levers that create the most results, but your work now lies in creating higher degrees of value and impact for your people.

You must trust that your current portals or methods are enough. By portals, I mean the places through which people can find you, and that's hard work. Trust is. Becoming a business minimalist is scary work. It requires vulnerability. It requires a leap of faith. Believe me, I know I've been doing a lot of this work myself for the last few years so that I can now help my clients through it more easily, and I know how hard it is to stop moving all the controls and pushing all the buttons.

Okay. Okay. That's a fun image. It's like you're on one of those kids rides where you put in the coin and then it moves [00:11:00] up and down. Right? Dylan became obsessed with this Spider-Man ride in Italy. I lost many, many euros to that thing. But anyway, there's the airplane and you're pushing all the buttons, but really it's inserting the coin that makes a thing go up and down.

All the other things are distractions that give you the illusion of control, but really all it's doing is making you feel better to push them. Oh, I pushed this button and the plane moved up at the same time dopamine hit. Right? That's not a perfect analogy 'cause I would never advocate for anyone to just sit there and let the plane move up and down, but relinquish the superfluous stuff.

Just let it go. I know of many coaches that have seven figure businesses purely through referral business and their own networking. There's my mentor, Brooke Castillo. She has a 40 million business and until this year wasn't on social media. She created that through her podcast and Facebook ads. My own [00:12:00] multiple six figure business comes through a few different places where I'm featured with all of the above.

The people are working less than 40 hour work weeks. And that is the power of clear focus. It's also a product of really knowing yourself, knowing your people, and learning to speak to how those two connect. Of course, it's creating assets that work in the world on my behalf, so I don't have to hustle to get clients.

They come to me now. I thought I'd just share with you some of my thoughts that I identified while I was in Italy, so you can try 'em on and apply them to wherever you are in business if they're a. It will get done. This was my absolute favorite. I could compare that to some thoughts that I have here sometimes where I'm thinking there's not enough time to get everything done right.

And in Italy I was thinking it'll get done. I love it. There was another where I said, if it's important enough, I'll get to it later. So [00:13:00] that was showing me I trust my mind not to forget it. And I trust my mind to be able to sit with something and then have that discernment to decide if it really is important enough later.

If it's meant for me, it won't pass me by again. There's that trust, right? I don't have to worry about jumping on this offer or launching this new initiative right now, because otherwise I'll lose that opportunity. For instance, I'm thinking of maybe a person that markets with scarcity and they say that right now is this great offer, this discount or this opportunity, and I could hire them right now.

Again, if it's meant for me, it won't pass me by. I can still take advantage of this when it feels aligned. And then this one will be really big for a lot of you. There are plenty of people within my current pool. I can reach my goals within my [00:14:00] current pool, so of the areas of the portals I have where people can reach me, there are enough people there.

For me to reach my goals. Like I was talking to a client the other day who was going to be doing some market research and she was concerned about whether she should be talking to her network or going into Facebook groups, or, you know, trying all different angles. We broke down the numbers and she had 20 people that she tended to message just within a very close networking group, and I know they all know 20 people.

Right. And so maybe you're looking for three people. To speak to, to interview, and you've gotta remind your brain that it's very possible and very likely that it will be the easiest solution at all. You'll just send out a note to your friends and all you need is three people. So there's plenty of people within my current pool to reach my goals.

Therefore, I don't need to add anything extra to my business. The [00:15:00] only question is if something extra at. And I'm not alone in this. Now, this is something I personally believe that the universe wants to bring my clients and I into contact the universe will help them find their way to me. Like I had a client who happened to pull out a t-shirt from a conference from five years ago and it said, an uncommon way of living or an uncommon way of life or something.

And she just had the random thought, oh, that would be a great name for a business. And she Googled and found me. Right. So there's no way I could have made that happen through effort. Okay, well, I shouldn't say no way. Maybe I could have created the top view Super Bowl ad or something and, and she would've seen it, but she wasn't even looking for a business coach until she read my site.

So anyway, that is always powerful for me to remember that I'm not alone in this and that what I'm searching for is searching for me too. What I [00:16:00] want wants me. It really allows you to relinquish a lot of the nervous energy that drives you to do this in the first place. And we'll talk about that in a minute.

But bottom line, you can work smarter without working harder and create even bigger results. Alright, that was quality of actions. Let's talk about quality of your mindset. The need to do, do, do is always driven by some form of discontent. Discontent is the emotion you feel when you're asking for more than you're letting in.

I'll say that again. Discontent is the emotion you feel when you're asking for more than you're letting in. You might wanna go back and re-listen to the episode on allowing yourself to receive in order to fully understand what I'm saying there. But when you're tapped in, when you're really in alignment, things are unfolding steadily.

You may not have the exact result you want yet, but it. [00:17:00] There's so much happening, so much unfolding that you don't have space for discontent. There's too much gratitude and excitement and anticipation, but when you're asking for more than you're letting in, there's not enough action in the world to compensate for that misalignment.

Again, think of pinching the flow. I talked about that in the receiving episode. You're saying, I want a million dollars. Where's my million dollars? A million dollars isn't happening fast enough. But there's a million dollars right on the other side of that hose. You are the one who's pinching the hose.

It's like the clients are definitely there, but we're effectively blocking that sale. We aren't able to tap into our creativity. We aren't showing up as our most grounded self, or we're missing opportunities, or maybe we see the opportunity, but we're like, Ugh, I just don't have the bandwidth for that.

Patience is what you need when you aren't tapped in. Believe me, I know about [00:18:00] this. I'm an mg. For those of you that are familiar with human design, we want everything to move fast, fast, fast, and I'm intimate with the frustration that comes from impatience, but we can catch ourselves when it's happening, right?

We all have this ability. Let's talk about that aligned word. Let's break that down. When I say alignment, I mean a few things. One, there's integrity between what you're preaching and how you're living. You're actually using the tools you're talking about and are a product of those tools. Big one. I also mean that you're aligned with who you are.

You're following your true north, your uncommon way, your design, and I mean that you are rested and well-nourished and have a balanced nervous system. And then again, you are not pinching the flow if you're asking for a six figure or a seven figure business, but deep down you're thinking, I don't really want that many clients because I won't be able to deliver for them all, and then they'll all hate me and I'll feel [00:19:00] awful.

Then you're not in alignment. Or if you're thinking, I don't really want that big of a business because then I'll have to work too much and I don't wanna burn out. You're not in alignment. Your internal world is not aligned with what you're asking for. And it's okay. None of us are perfect with this in every way at every moment, but having this knowledge helps expose us to where we're not in alignment, where we're not aligned with our higher self, our highest potential, and we're grateful to have that exposed.

I. So that we can heal it, so we can work on it and grow. We're now beating ourselves up. We are where we are for a thousand. Very understandable reasons. It's all good, and thankfully we're seeing where our areas of growth are. You exposing an area of growth doesn't mean you're doing it wrong. It means you're doing it right.

It means things are happening for you. Change is unfolding right in front of your eyes. Shift is happening. When you can start moving [00:20:00] away from this whole, why isn't it working type of energy, you will start to see your world transform. I have a, a client who has really dived into this work, and now she has more clients than ever.

She's booking more sales calls than she can believe. Her Instagram has exploded, and she's doing all this inspired work and gets thousands of views and really good engagement. Much better than really well-known coaches with huge followings by the way. Her clients come to her when she's staying out of her head, out of her doubt when she's riding the wave.

I have another client with a product-based business who uses Facebook ads and when she is in an aligned place, her revenue increases. When she's not, it declines and these are set it and forget it ads she's got going in the episode. That's called How Entrepreneurship Made Me Woo. I talk about my own journey through this.

I don't change my copy, and yet the clients coming to me [00:21:00] change. Maybe this is correlated rather than casual, all the things I just mentioned, right? Maybe this is all chance or confirmation bias. I'll let you make your own decisions about that. But for me and many of my clients, we believe our alignment and whatever we're working on in our growth at that moment plays a huge part in our business results.

The work of this alignment is work, and that's the kind of work you need to be focusing on frequently for maximum long-term results rather than filling your time with all the frantic busyness. A little bit of balance, please, and focused intentional effort. This is business minimalism, focusing on what really matters.

Your efforts are going into the quality of your actions and the quality of your mindset. And before we wrap, I just wanna say that we don't do any of this because we're afraid of working long hours or [00:22:00] afraid of burning out. You never wanna be resisting something to be moving away from something. You wanna be moving towards something.

We don't need to be scared of working long hours because it's not the long hours that create burnout. It's the mind that creates burnout. When you're in flow, when you're in alignment, it can be hard to stop yourself from working because you're so loving what you're doing. So for those of you who are under working.

I meet some of you sometimes too. You're underworking and not moving your business forward effectively because you're so worried about overworking and burning out. Probably. 'cause you've done that in the past. Obviously, if you knew how good it feels to be in alignment, you wouldn't be afraid you'd be doing more of it.

You'd be trusting yourself to balance the alignment side with the productive action side. The reason we purposely choose to work fewer hours isn't to avoid work. It's so [00:23:00] that we have full multidimensional lives and so that we give our nervous systems a chance to rest in order to do the big scary things that really move us forward, but challenge us emotionally because we have human brains.

Not things that require time necessarily, but things that require chachas right for you. That might be telling old colleagues that you're now a coach, totally activate your nervous system, or it might be holding a live event. And we also choose to work fewer hours in our business so that we can be working on ourselves, on the alignment pieces that fuel our business in so many ways.

Alignment really is the assignment. Okay, my friends. That's it for today. Remember, deep down, you know who you are and what your strengths are. Each day, you're moving forward into what you're here to create.[00:24:00]

Thanks for joining us here at the Uncommon Way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business and life, including the clarity first strategy for growing and scaling your business, visit the uncommon way.com. See you next time.