Badass Is The New Black (Season 3) Episode #4: Cracking The Code To Greater Productivity With Claudia Garbutt

Lack of productivity can burn out a lot of entrepreneurs. We have massive, ever-growing to-do lists because we are ambitious, we have big goals and we aren’t afraid to work hard to reach them. But if you aren’t actively working on being more productive in a way that works for you, you will reach a tipping point and endanger everything you have ever worked for. It may sound a little dramatic but it doesn’t mean it’s not true.  One way to prevent burnout is to get more productive. Listen as Krissy Chin dives in with mindset coach Claudia Garbutt as she shares some tips to level up your productivity and beat burnout from the onset.

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Cracking The Code To Greater Productivity With Claudia Garbutt

Lack of productivity can burn out a lot of entrepreneurs. We have massive ever-growing to-do lists because we are ambitious, we have big goals, and we aren't afraid to work hard to get them. I know you know what I'm talking about, but if you aren't actively working on being more productive in a way that works for you, you will reach the point of no return. You will burn out. You will go MIA from society and social media. Everyone will wonder who kidnapped you because you have vanished from this planet. They will forget about you and they'll move on to the next coach who is showing up and giving them what they need. I am a little bit dramatic, but it is true. One way to prevent burnout is to get more productive. Let's dive in with a mindset coach, Claudia Garbutt, as she shares more about productivity and how to get started and being more productive daily so you don't burn out.

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I want to introduce Claudia Garbutt. She's a mindset coach. I'm super excited to have Claudia here. I'm going to give you a little bit of background and then she's going to give us some more. Claudia is a molecular biologist turned mindset coach for ambitious, mission-driven entrepreneurs who want to shatter invisible ceilings and up-level their business and life. After deciding she wanted to spend more time with her family, she left academia and became a certified life coach as well as a certified CBT and NLP practitioner and combines the best of both worlds in her coaching business. Her holistic science-based approach helps entrepreneurs fight the constant overwhelming doubt and worry and teaches them to leverage the power of their mind to create more inner peace, income and impact. I love so much of that. Thank you for being here.  

Thank you for having me. It's my pleasure.

I feel like we're a little bit connected because I am a nurse. I still have my license, but I'm not practicing as a nurse. We have this little science background connection and now we're entrepreneurs. Thank you for being here and connecting with us. I'm excited for you to share more about productivity with the community, but before we get into that, because that's going to be our topic, let's hear more about your journey and what led you because that is a big shift. You didn't go to business school like me. I want to hear a little bit more of your story about what led you to making this big shift in your life.

That's a long story, but maybe I’ll focus on some key points. My entrepreneurial journey could probably be titled The Unexpected Journey because, unlike many other entrepreneurs, I never wanted to become one. I started biology because I was driven by my curiosity. I wanted to understand how life works on basically every level. This is still one of my major driving forces, although my focus has slightly shifted. Why did I change my career path? I've had a couple of those key experiences that slowly but steadily shifted my focus. The first one was when I got suddenly diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 28. That pretty much turned my whole life upside down from one day to the next. I clearly remember my first reaction to that diagnosis which, strange as it might sound, was a sense of relief.  

Why relief? It is because, at that point in my life, I was suffering from major burnout. Being sick finally gave me a break. I was relieved that I didn't have to go back to work for weeks, even months. To understand that, do you have to know that I grew up in a family where everyone was always busy. Everyone was working hard. You didn't just take a break. Breaks were for the lazy, the elderly, or the sick. Finally, I had the right excuse if you want to take that break without feeling bad, going through chemotherapy, a break that is, which wasn't fun. It sounds weird when I say it out loud now, but that's often the case when we talk about these things that are holding us back from doing the sensible things.  

They made perfect sense in our heads, but when you talk about them, they sound ridiculous. That was the first time that I ever started to question those beliefs that I grew up with, “Is it necessary to work 24/7? Is struggle noble? Do I have to fulfill everyone else's expectations?” Any near-death experience is something that changes a lot. Suddenly, you start asking questions that you maybe have never asked yourself before. You start asking yourself those important questions like, “Do I like my life now? Do I like the direction in which I'm going? What would I regret not having done if I died sooner?” I realized at that point in my life that my entire life was dominated by fear. I only made fear-based decisions. I chose to stay in that familiar suffering because I was too afraid to face any new uncertainty. I couldn't deal with it.

I decided that things needed to change. I was too young to die. There were things I wanted to experience and I wanted a loving relationship. I wanted kids. I wanted to live abroad. I wanted to find a job that fulfills me. I had so much to live for. That relieved me of that constant fear. Now I'm proud to say that I've accomplished all of these things, but it's still been a roller coaster getting there. I want everyone else out there to know that you don't have to wait for those experiences. You don't have to wait for these bad things happening to you before you give yourself permission to change direction. You can do that at any point in your life. This is something important that I wanted to share with you.  

I'm glad that you said that because I was thinking that when you were talking about it and in my life, I haven't had any near-death experience, but the same type of thing. It's like getting me to look at my life. Do I want it to continue like this? I love that you gave everyone the permission to not wait until a life-threatening, near-death experience, or traumatic event to stop and assess and take a look at what life looks like now, and is this what you want it to look like for the next years? If not, it's okay to make a change and shift. We give you permission to do that. That’s powerful and liberating for some, and it's scary.  

You mentioned fear. It can stop us from doing a lot of things and cause us to do different things. Also, permission to release that fear and not operate from a fear-based place can be powerful. Thank you for sharing your story with us. It is a powerful and hard but liberating journey that you've had to get here. How have things or life been since you've made this shift from academia to an entrepreneurial life? We know it's not always easy, but how have things shifted for you?  

After that initial shift, it was still a roller coaster. I still hadn't found the path that I'm on now. The next defining moment was when I had my own kids and being in the lab 24/7, it wasn't the lifestyle that I wanted for me or my growing family. I had to find something else. Even though I had no idea what that would look like and after giving it a ton of thought, I finally came to the conclusion that building my own online business would be the best option as it allowed me to work flexible hours and to be patient independent. That was something that I wanted because my husband is from New Zealand. He used to live there. We moved back to Germany and weren't quite sure where we would end up.  

That's why I wanted to have something flexible. I've tried a couple of different things online. I honestly experienced every single mindset block that you can have from feeling like an imposter, the fear of failure, fear of judgment, perfectionism, and everything in between. Since I'm stubborn and I don't give up easily, I worked my way through all of these things as they came up. At the same time, I also saw many other entrepreneurs out there struggle with the same issues. That's why I became a certified life coach and certified CBT and NLP practitioner to help others work through the same mindset issues that I was facing too.

You don't have to wait for bad things to happen to you before you give yourself permission to change direction.

Finally, it fell into place when I found a way to incorporate my biology background into the mix and then specialized in helping other entrepreneurs rewire their brains for more success in life and in business. That's when I felt that I had found my true calling because I can now help people work through these issues on a physiology level, as well on a psychology level, leveraging the body-mind connection. That's what makes it powerful because it works on many different levels.  

I noticed when you were in that last little bit, the next question that I was going to ask you about is your strengths. You talked about it and maybe you have more and you can share with us, but the personal strengths that you have within you that you've been able to leverage to keep you moving forward in your entrepreneurial journey to generate the success that you've had. You mentioned your stubbornness. It's like, “Your biggest weakness is your biggest strength.” It sounds like your stubbornness is what has kept you able to move forward and to work through those difficult things like, “No, I’ve got this. Even when I’m getting sick, I'm not going to die. I'm not ready to die. I'm stubborn and I'm going to get through this,” and you did. Are there any other strengths that you've recognized that helped you build your business?

I would say that one of my key strengths is that I'm analytical as well as very intuitive. I'm usually good at reading people and figuring out the root causes of their problems that they are often not aware of. They are usually aware of some surface-level problem that they're having, and this is more often than not just a symptom of something much deeper that's going on underneath and that I can help them become aware of. You can't change what you're not aware of. Helping them to become aware of the real issues and then guiding them to overcome these blocks is what I would call my superpower.  

We all have superpowers. Part of this show is finding your inner badass self. We're all badass already, so let's find those inner strengths. Let's pull them out. Let's use them to generate the success that we want. I love that yours are different than mine, but you've been able to be successful. I love what you're doing and you’ve been able to be successful. Thank you for sharing that. I want to dive into productivity. I was excited to bring you on the show and talk because this is something I am always working on, getting better at being productive with multiple brands and teams. I've got a lot on my plate, so productivity is money to me. There are a lot of other people doing homeschool now and raising a family. I can run a business and all this stuff. Let's get down to the root causes of productivity problems. What are the root causes?  

The way I see it, productivity is one of those surface-level problems that I was just talking about. To me, it's the symptom of much deeper issues going on. I can see three main causes that lead to a decrease in productivity. Number one that I'm seeing a lot is the missing clarity around someone's purpose and mission or strategies, which often leads to procrastination and people spinning their wheels and not getting anywhere. The second thing that I see a lot is working against the way that your brain processes information, which makes things much harder because you're effectively working against your brain instead of with the way that your brain is wired. The third one that I see a lot is a lack of prioritization and time management, which leads to overwhelm and confusion, but most strategies out there, or most courses or things out there teach you the time management piece and strategies. If you only focus on those and you don't look at the other things, you might try to fix the symptom without addressing the real core issues that are going on. That's the way I see productivity.  

I always say, “I need to do this. I want to do that, but I don't have time. It's not that I don't have time. I haven't made it a priority.” Since I've learned the excuses, things like, “I don't have time. I don't know how to do it.” It's like, “I have the time, but am I making it a priority?” That is the real issue of like, “It's not becoming a priority and then looking deeper and internally, why am I not making it a priority? Is it because I'm afraid of failing at it? Is it because I'm afraid that I don't know how to do it? I might waste all this time trying to learn and then I won't be successful. What is that vicious cycle tornado going around inside subconsciously? I've learned these strategies and been able to bring them from subconscious to conscious. You can then address them and work through them. You can crush them and be like, “I’ve got this. That's not an excuse anymore.” You can come up with a new excuse.

That's what usually happens. That makes us humans. We are not perfect and we will never be perfect, but we can always try to get a little bit better and that's enough.  

You mentioned these certifications that I am not familiar with. Maybe I am, and I don't know the acronyms that are used. How are you helping entrepreneurs become more productive?  

About the acronyms, CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and NLP is Neuro-Linguistic Programming. It helps people become aware of what's going on underneath and then addressing it on a conscious level, as well as on the subconscious level. What I did, for example, I was working on with this new productivity course for entrepreneurs. That teaches them to win back 1 to 2 hours of precious time each day. What I did there is I've focused on those root causes that I told you about. I'm taking them through different steps. It's a five-day course because I wanted to zoom in on these things and not put everything in there that they could do and give them all the strategies, and to overwhelm them even more.

We wanted to focus and drill down to the basic things. We're looking at uncovering those root causes we talked about, then we've focused on being productive versus being busy. A lot of people think productivity is cramming more things into their day, which is not what productivity is all about. I also teach them some brain-based productivity hacks that make it easier for them to get the work done without draining the energy so much and without spending too much time on it. I also help them to create that personal action plan for achieving that goal. It's streamlining and bringing it all from the big picture to the action plan that they can go and implement straight away.  

Can you give us a little bit of inside of determining the root causes? A little bit for people to maybe get started at home to figure out the root cause of what's keeping them from being productive.

A good thing to think about is what productivity means to you. What does it mean to you to be more productive? Is it that you want to do more things during your day? Is it that you want to increase your sales? If so, how many sales do you want to generate? You want to be specific about how you define productivity or success. Learning a new skill, for example, is that productive or do you see that as a waste of time? You want to drill down on what it means to you and how this relates to all the different areas in your life so that you can define what you want to achieve.

Let's look and figure it out. We're all different. We're all unique. We all have different measures of success. We all have a different definition of failure. We all have different productivity goals. That seems so key to figure out, what does being productive looks like for me? What do I wish I could achieve in this amount of time? I love those little things. I think that's a good nugget for you guys to think about. What productivity looks like for you? What would you want it to look like to get you started on that path to being more productive?  

It's not universal. Often, we grow up and think that what we believe productivity is the same definition for everyone else. This is just not the case. It's your conditioning and your experiences. They all define, what do you understand on the productivity, success, or what do you see as a failure? That's a good thing to question, what do you understand?  

Our brains are completely different. They function, think, and operate differently. While your brain can tell your arm to go up and mine can tell my arm to go up, that internal thought is different. These definitions of things seem very concrete but are not. Before we dive and give them your freebie because I want to connect them with that and let them connect with you, I'd love to know because this has to do with productivity. I love learning about systems and processes that other entrepreneurs are incorporating and implementing into your business. What is a system or a process that you have implemented for you that's been a complete game-changer for your business?  

It would have to be my own productivity system, but to make it more concrete, what I wasn't doing in the beginning, I was trying to wing it. I had this big goal at the end. I was trying to wing it and get there, but I didn't have a strategy or a plan. I started to implement monthly and weekly plans to take the big goal down to break it up into those milestones for each month. You take those and break them down to weekly milestones, and then your action steps, and then it's all aligned. One thing leads to the next. That is something that changed everything. It's simple, but it's powerful to have a plan.

It's often the simplest things that make the biggest impact. I want to point out that you started by winging it. That’s super powerful. While I love teaching systems, process, how you can build a team to support you and automation to support your business, you're not doing everything and you still have free time to do the things that you love and be uber-productive. You don't start with perfect systems and process. That often happens by trial and error. As much as Claudia is going to help you eliminate some trial and error with being more productive as your coach, I do the same thing. There's still some trial and error that has to happen and you don't start perfectly. The fact that you started winging it, I love that. That's an inspiration to me and others. You have to start there and then you can get the guidance along the way to make those to fine-tune the process and to create those systems. That can make things so much better. It's often the little tiny ones that make the biggest impact.  

It's the ones that are almost common sense, but nobody does that.

Tell us about the freebie that you have.

I've got a great free resource for your audience and I think they will love it. On my website, you can download a free prime your brain in five minutes each day audio file specifically designed for those ambitious, driven entrepreneurs out there who are ready to get to that next level of success and to want to get there with ease and flow. In my own experience and from talking to a lot of other entrepreneurs, I know that many of us are waking up and are already stressing out about the never-ending to-do list and about all their daily worries. By simply listening to my short brain climbing audio file every day after waking up, you will find that you can focus your mind on the important things rather than on your worries. You'll start your day much more relaxed and inspired, and it will help you stay focused throughout the day, which will also help you eliminate stress, overwhelm, and procrastination. That's a great thing to incorporate.

That sounds awesome. I'm going to be downloading that. Last time, I was outside after the nanny had left and the kids were riding bikes. My daughter says to me, “Mom, when are you going to be done with work? When are you not going to have any more work to do?” I said, “Sweetie, I am always going to have work to do, but I am taking the time now. I'm done with work for now.” She goes, “Is it because we want a lakehouse?” I said, “Exactly.” They're always alert because we're working for that lakehouse. It was sweet, but it is true. We have these ever-growing to-do lists. As an entrepreneur, if you have that drive in you. It's never going to stop when you're done, you're going to create more things to serve more people and do the things that you love.

It's such a blessing. It's something that will be valuable so that you don't let it get a hold of you. It's okay to have long to-do lists and ever-growing to-do lists, but to not let it stress you out. You mentioned the course that you have these five days to get your life back productivity course. That sounds juicy, amazing, and super valuable for my business. Before we play our little game, everyone knows how they can find you. Do you have any last little nuggets that you want to share?  

Always question your truth. That's the one thing that I found valuable. Whatever you think is true, question it.  

We're going to play a little game I like to call Rapid-Fire. For those of you that haven't heard this yet, I'm going to say two things to Claudia, right off the top of her head, she's going to pick which one is more fitting for her. It is a fun, little way for you to get to know her. Claudia, if neither of the options, you're like, “Neither of those fit me,” you can throw out an alternative. We’ve got ten of them. Books or podcasts?

Both.

For books, audiobooks or reading?

Always question your truth.

Both. I started with the audiobooks at the moment, and then I buy the physical book as well.  

Heels or flats?

Flats.

Phone call or text?

Texts.

Movie or TV series?

TV series.

Pajamas or real clothes on the daily?

Real clothes.

She’s a real clothes girl. I got dressed up in real clothes just for you. Plain water or flavored water?

Plain but sparkly.

Dark chocolate or milk chocolate?

Dark chocolate.

Bath or shower?

It’s 50/50, probably.

Cats or dogs?

Cats, I have two.

Last but not least, a big gathering or a small gathering?

Small gathering.

Thank you, Claudia, for chatting with us. If you want to connect with Claudia, you can find her on Instagram, @Wired_For_Success. You can search that on Instagram, also Facebook, LinkedIn. She's got a podcast, Wired For Success. Please connect with Claudia. Thank you for being here. It was a pleasure. Until next time, guys, remember to channel your inner badass and take imperfect every single day.

 Important Links:  

• Claudia Garbutt
• @Wired_For_Success - Instagram
• Facebook page – Wired for Success
• LinkedIn - Claudia Garbutt
• Wired For Success - Podcast
• https://www.Facebook.com/claudia.garbutt.1/

About Claudia  Garbutt