From a Harvard-trained Neuroscientist: This Counterintuitive Strategy Can Help You Succeed in Your Career

PodcastMindset

Apr 17

Episode 840: Show Notes

People often believe that in order to succeed at their work, they have to be absolutely excellent at everything that they do. But what if following that path would only lead you to burnout? Today’s episode was inspired by an article I read by Morgan Smith for CNBC. She interviewed Harvard-trained Neuroscientist and Adjunct Professor Juliet Han. Han suggests a totally different approach to growth. Rather than self-examining your strengths and weaknesses, what if you focused predominantly on your job responsibilities?

Here’s the thing, though: you’re a business owner. So, as the CEO and head of your company, what is most important for you to do? What do you need to be excellent at? What tasks do you need to be good at? What tasks can be low-effort or delegated? There are a couple of things you need to focus on to make your business thrive: cash flow, sales, and messaging. In the digital product world, it’s all about driving continuous traffic to your product rather than constantly improving the offer. Every company is different! Let’s get into it.

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What Changes When You Figure Out What Really Drives Your Company

What brings in the most sales in your business right now? How can you continuously improve your skill set around the things that are actually going to grow your business revenue? And how do you balance that by delivering on all the promises you have sold to your audience? With that in mind, what do you need to be good at? And what are some low-effort things that you can delegate and take off of your plate? What if you looked at your responsibilities and really understood what you needed to excel at, what you needed to be good at, and what you simply needed to get done? Doing this highlights the true avenues for growth. Which deliverables are most critical to the long-term health of your company?

Why Asking For a Second Opinion Could Highlight What You Really Need to Change

Han also suggests that you ask for a second opinion. Tell someone you are evaluating your current workload to maximize your productivity and focus in order to reach bigger goals. Ask them what areas they think you’re doing well in, where you might be falling short, and if the priorities you’ve outlined are contributing to the company’s mission or bottom line. Some things that you are terrible at are critically important to your job’s success. So why are you continuing to backburner them or pass them off to someone else? Social media is a great example of this for me. When I have dedicated myself to understanding how it needs to work to be helpful and to get me to where I need to go are the times when my company has grown the most.

How to Get Out of Autopilot and Put Yourself Back in the Driver’s Seat of Your Career

How do the things you need to excel at support your long-term career goals? Whether it’s positioning yourself to grow your company or your bottom line, make it so that your business is scalable or sellable in the future, and you get to decide what that roadmap looks like. Where is your time currently going? Does that make sense? Han gives a great example: you might be less responsive to emails, but if you’re using that time to deep-focus on work, you’re probably doing better quality work. It’s not always about letting it go. Sometimes, it’s about not letting it interrupt what’s most critically important. Thinking about all the components of your business really helps you to get out of autopilot and really sit in the driver’s seat of your career.

Getting Hyper-specific About the Types of Skills You Need Most

How are you going to make time to prioritize development? That’s one thing that often ends up being set aside when we are busiest. You can’t do everything all at once, but you can highlight those big, important tasks. What if you got hyper-specific about the type of skills you need most? What I’m thinking about at Boss Project is ranking those important tasks from the things that I am naturally good at to the ones I lack knowledge in. When we talk about skill development, I am looking at those low-knowledge skills. What are one to three areas I can focus on in the next 30, 60, or 90 days? Instead of putting a band-aid over it, what if you started to rebuild the structure of your business to eliminate those holes?

Most of the change that needs to happen is high-level change. It’s systemic. You probably have something screaming at you right now! Check yourself and make sure it’s not something you feel pressured to do but something that is actually critically important. Instead of focusing on what everyone else is talking about, think about the thing that you need. Then you can decide what you’re going to take on and what you’re going to delegate to people on your team. I’m excited to see where this takes you next! If you’re ready to have more support, and you really want me in your corner to help you focus, I would love to be your coach. Go to creativetemplateshop.com/coaching to be a part of it. I would love to support you as you prioritize the things that are most important to you in your business!

Quote This

Most of the change that is going to make the biggest difference is systematic change.

Highlights

What Changes When You Figure Out What Really Drives Your Company [0:05:27]
Why Asking For a Second Opinion Could Highlight What You Really Need to Change [0:07:39]
How to Get Out of Autopilot and Put Yourself Back in the Driver’s Seat of Your Career [0:12:08]
Getting Hyper-specific About the Types of Skills You Need Most [0:14:49]

OUR HOST:

Abagail Pumphrey

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Abagail Pumphrey, the Co-Founder & CEO of Boss Project, has been a driving force in the creative entrepreneur industry since 2015. With a passion for empowering service-based business owners around the globe, she became internet-famous after the launch of the transformative training, "Trello for Business." This innovative system revitalized the operations of over 10,000 business owners, making a significant impact on the online business landscape.

Under Abagail's leadership, Boss Project has been featured in prestigious publications such as Forbes, Marie Claire, INC, and HuffPost. Her twice-weekly podcast, The Strategy Hour, is a staple in the business community, continuously topping Business and Management Charts on Apple with millions of listeners from around the world.

Abagail's superpower lies in her ability to break down complex concepts into easy-to-implement, duplicatable systems. As an expert in online sales and a data-driven strategist, she has turned a layoff into a 7-figure work-from-home business. Abagail's mission to help more female founders become financially free, without letting their businesses take over their lives, continues to inspire and guide entrepreneurs on their path to success.