If you’ve ever felt like you don’t quite fit into the “introvert” or “extrovert” box, this episode is for you.

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In Chinese culture we celebrate Chinese New Year for 15 days, so I am still in the new lunar new year spirit so again Happy New Year! May the New Year continue to bring you joy, success, blessings and endless new possibilities! .

And as the new year approached I came to a really big revelation about my own life that’s been very eye opening to myself.

For the longest time, I thought of myself as a weirdo because I am super introverted, I speak on confidence, I live and breathe wanting to help others be more confident, yet I love being the quiet one in the room, I love being by myself.

So the strange part has always been that I’m at the same time extroverted. I love being around other human beings, I love to speak publicly and I don’t have a problem standing up for my thoughts.

Even taking personality tests, one year I’m introverted, the next year I’m extroverted. I always thought how weird am I?

For many years, I told myself I’m not weird, I’m unique, I’m limited edition, I’m special.

But it wasn’t until recently I discovered the word “ambivert” and I finally feel truly at ease knowing that I am an ambivert.

So today, we’re going to break down what it means to be an ambivert, how it can be a strength, and how we can use this personality trait to fuel our self-growth. Let’s get into it!

So what does ambivert mean? What is the meaning of ambivert?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary an ambivert is a person who has features of both an introvert and an extrovert in their personality. Ambiverts are sometimes also called outgoing introverts or social introverts or extroverted introverts. 

Because I so resonate to be an ambivert myself of course I went down the rabbit hole of learning all about ambiverts.

Most people don’t actually strongly identify as introverts or extroverts. Ambiverts naturally engage in a flexible pattern of both talking and listening.

In the right context, in the right mood, around the right people, ambiverts can be extroverted. But even though an ambivert typically enjoys other people, we also need time alone.

If you are like me, you’ve loved a party or an event one day but needed a full day of solitude afterward, you might be an ambivert!

There are alot of Pros of Being an Ambivert

1. Adaptability: One of the biggest strengths of ambiverts is their ability to adapt. Whether in a meeting, at a networking event, or working alone on a project, you can adjust your energy accordingly.
2. Great Listeners & Communicators: We are great listeners because ambiverts understand both introverted and extroverted tendencies, we can be excellent communicators, knowing when to speak up and when to listen.
3. Emotionally Intelligent: Since we can relate to both ends of the spectrum, ambiverts often have strong emotional intelligence, helping us connect with different personality types. Isn’t that amazing?

Now that we know the strengths of being an ambivert, how can we use them for personal growth?

Here are some ideas:

1. Honor Your Energy Cycles – This is really important! Pay attention to when you need social interaction and when you need rest. Schedule accordingly to prevent burnout.
2. Use Your Adaptability to Your Advantage – If you’re in a social setting and feel overwhelmed, lean into your introverted side. If you’re feeling stuck in isolation, push yourself to go out and socialize.

Now I totally think being an ambivert is a superpower. 

You get to experience the best of both worlds and use that flexibility to grow in ways that others might not be able to.

The key is to recognize your own patterns and embrace them fully.

So, are you an ambivert? Let me know! I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. 

Connect with me on Instagram @mslucyliu, and let’s keep the conversation going.

Thanks for tuning in, and as always, stay true to yourself. Until next time!

Happy New Year beautiful souls! Wishing you a year filled with happiness, prosperity, and good health! May this Lunar New Year bring you joy, success, and endless opportunities! May the Year of the Snake bring you strength, wisdom, and great fortune!

In the beginning of every year we always set goals, but unfortunately for many, almost immediately after, we start to give excuses. Oh I can’t because of xyz. You fill in the blank with plenty of excuses. So I’m here to remind you that if it is really what you want, it is possible. Even if you come up with a reason why you cannot accomplish something, there are people out there who’ve done it. This episode serves as a dose of inspiration for you to know that even if you have ADHD you can be focused and consistent and run a successful business. This also goes with any other conditions or difficult circumstances that you might be going through. There is always a way and believe that more blessings are coming your way! 

My guest today is Skye Waterson who is a former academic PhD turned ADHD Coach For High-Value Entrepreneurs. She is the host of the ADHD Skills Lab and the Founder of Unconventional Organization, an international ADHD support service that provides research-backed coaching programs for late-diagnosed ADHD professionals looking to go to the next level in their career without burnout and breaking ADHD stigma one successful CEO at a time. Not only does she run a successful business having ADHD, her entire work team has been diagnosed with ADHD and everyone is thriving.

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You are so amazing. You run a business and you had ADHD.

So what are the symptoms of ADHD?

Yeah. ADHD symptoms, they include hyperactiveness, impulsivity. If you have primarily the attention deficit, it can also be a distraction.

Yeah. So lots of different kinds of symptoms related to executive functioning.

So what causes ADHD then?

Genetics is kind of what we know at the moment. There’s still looking into whether there are any sort of other lifestyle factors that could be affecting it. But at the moment, we just know it’s a genetic genetic causes.

And from what I understand, there are different types of ADHD, right?

Yes. Yes. You can have primarily hyperactive, primarily inattentive, or you can have combined type like myself, where you’ve got a little bit of both.

Can you talk about a little more about the different types?

Yeah, definitely. So primarily hyperactive is one of the biggest things for that is, you know, you feel driven by a motor, you know, so you’re very on the go, maybe more of the impulsiveness, more of the sort of out, outward demonstrations of ADHD, you know, talking, fidgeting, all of those kinds of things, whereas primarily inattentive is more of the struggling with focus and attention. And so it might not be as obvious to other people that you have it, but it is as much of a struggle.

And then combined type kind of brings those two things together.

So do you have to get tested in order to know for sure that you have ADHD?

Yeah. So you can, you know, do a lot of testing, you know, on the internet, there’s lots of resources out there. That’s the one way a lot of people find out they might have it, but to actually know you have ADHD, you need to get a diagnosis.

Yeah.

And how does that work?

You can go to a psychiatrist and that’s often through a private channel. You can go to a psychiatrist and they will give you a variety of testing. So with our clients, we hear all kinds of different ways, but eventually, you know, they go through a survey.

They might talk to your family. They might do some, you know, brain scans depending on who they are and what kind of support they need to make that decision. And then, yeah, they’ll find out if you have ADHD or if you have some other, you know, neurodiversity or maybe something else entirely.

Does ADHD ever go away?

So that’s an interesting question that that’s been sort of argued a lot in different spaces, but basically what we find is that ADHD, to get diagnosed with ADHD, you need to struggle with executive functioning and other things. Obviously I’m not giving the full diagnosis here. And for some people that they may find that their struggles can reduce.

And so therefore they wouldn’t meet the criteria for ADHD, but ADHD itself is like a neurobehavioral condition. It doesn’t, it doesn’t go away, but it might shift in terms of what it looks like. And in fact, we want it to shift because one of the things that we do in coaching is we help you with those executive functioning challenges that you can have.

So what was your own journey with ADHD?

So for myself, I was diagnosed with ADHD at the start of my doctorate, which was quite a good, interesting time. I went in thinking I might have dyslexia or something like that. And I came out realizing that, yeah, I had, I had ADHD.

And so I was really interested in it. I learned a lot and I learned a lot about how I was already, and then other strategies for supporting it. Because it’s not just about the negatives, although we do talk about that, there is research that people with ADHD are more likely to be entrepreneurs, are very, you know, have original thinking, all of those kinds of different things.

So being able to support the struggles while spotlighting those strengths is kind of what we’ve been doing as part of our organization.

So what would you say would be the strength of being an ADHD and running a business?

I think it’s probably problem solving and original thinking. So there’s research to show that people with ADHD tend to have this strength when they did studies with neurotypicals and people who had ADHD. And I definitely find that for myself, when I was in the workplace, people would often say, Oh, I never thought about it like that.

Or I never thought that way when I was kind of problem solving. And now in my own organization, it’s really helpful to be able to kind of think outside the box a bit more when it comes to problem solving in business, because we definitely have a lot of problems to solve in business.

And that’s the core of running a business is to have a problem to solve, right?

Exactly.

Would you say there are any cons of running a business with ADHD?

Yeah, I think one of the biggest is it can, it can be very overwhelming. I mean, obviously it can be overwhelming in general, but there’s a lot of administrative work, especially when you’re starting out that goes into running a business that can really bog you down with ADHD and can make it very hard for you to progress. And so being able to find strategies to support that, finding an assistant, for example, figuring out how to get them to help you.

I have an assistant who kind of taps me on the shoulder, you know, Hey, when you do this, when you do that, and that makes everything so much easier when it comes to working with ADHD.

So you actually have a neurodiverse team running your business, right? What’s that like?

It’s great. It’s great. We all talk very fast, well, depending on who it is, but yeah, most of our most of my organization is neurodiverse.

All of our coaches are diagnosed with ADHD. It’s very, I imagine it’s very unique, but for us it feels very normal, but it is about sort of figuring out where everybody fits in the same way as you would in any organization. But particularly in this case, understanding, you know, people have what they call a spiky profile where they’d very good at some things and not very good at others.

So really understanding, you know, where somebody’s strength is and putting them in that part of the organization, giving them freedom in that area. And then maybe saying, Oh, you actually love to write. Why don’t we do that?

Or you love to do research. We could add that and kind of keeping people engaged as is a really big part of what we do.

So you work with a lot of clients that are in the same situation. So what are some other examples that you’ve seen with entrepreneurs? What other strength or struggles can you talk about to inspire our audience who have possibly think they have ADHD themselves, but still run a successful business?

Yeah. Yeah. I think often it can feel overwhelming things like hiring, for example, or turning on sales funnels, the, the executive functioning tasks that, you know, bog us down in the day to day reports processes, you know, having to build those processes can be a real struggle.

And, and I think it’s important to know that, you know, a lot of people with ADHD end up in the, in the entrepreneurial space. It’s something that we have a lot of strengths for. So if you have it, you know, this is an area that you are, you know, designed to do in many ways, but there are those struggles and it’s important to know how to solve them in order to then just keep doing what you’re doing and keep, keep growing because it is possible.

I guess is what I would say. Don’t feel disheartened. If you think, Oh, I have ADHD and I run a business.

That’s awesome. But it’s just, you know, there’s just a little bit of tweaking that sometimes needs to be done.

I love that mindset shift and in your days running your business, when it gets tough, what is your favorite quote that you go by to lift yourself up?

The quote that we have in the organization that we use for everything is we rise by lifting others. It’s just a reminder, particularly in what we do, that our goal is to help the other people, both people in the organization, talking to each other, our clients, everyone to kind of help them improve, and then we will improve as well. And so it’s sensing that we’re going to, all support each other.

I love that. That’s beautiful. Let’s rise together.

Thank you. Skye, where can we find you at?

You can find us at www.unconventionalorganization.com or at Unconventional Organization on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. We have a lot of free resources there, articles about ADHD, articles about ADHD and entrepreneurship. So feel free to check those out.

Beautiful. Thank you.

This episode is for you if you are a small business owner and you want your business to go from unknown to being seen, heard and valued.

And for this very reason I have with me today award winning PR coach Gloria Chou. As a former TV producer and U.S. Diplomat, Gloria spent her entire career using various media to elevate and inspire. Now she is the host of the Small Business PR podcast and has helped over 10,000 small businesses get featured in TOP TIER media without ads or agencies.

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Hello, hello, beautiful souls. This episode is for you. If you are a small business owner, and you want your business to go from unknown to being seen, heard and valued.

And for this very reason, I have my expert with me today, award winning PR coach Gloria Cho. As a former TV producer and US diplomat, Gloria spent her entire career using various media to elevate and inspire. Now she is the host of the small business PR podcast and has helped over 10,000 small businesses get featured in top tier media without ads and agency.

Doesn’t that sound amazing? 

Welcome to the show, Gloria. 

Thank you, Lucy.I’m so happy to be here. Awesome. 

So a common theme I hear from coaching calls for whatever goal they’re working on is that they are not ready yet.

So from your perspective, who is ready for PR?

Oh, I love this question. This is the biggest roadblock. I always say, if you’re ready to take a customer’s money for whatever product or service, you’re ready for PR.

And the biggest myth that we’ve kind of all bought into is that the news only wants to cover, you know, big players and businesses of a certain level. And that’s simply not true. And I think this is what the PR industry wants to tell us.

So they can charge us crazy fees. You know, in New York, it starts around $10,000 a month for a retainer. 

But there is another way.

And it starts with you believing that journalists want to interview people from all walks of life. They want to feature fresh, diverse perspectives, not just the big names. Because otherwise, they would probably lose credibility very quickly.

Think about it, right? If they only cover the Elon Musk of the world or like big Fortune 500 companies, no one would really believe them. So you’re actually doing them a favor by putting your name in the hat and just sharing your perspective.

And you’re making their work easier because they are churning out content all the time.

Yes, conventionally, when we hear PR, we think of big agencies, huge budgets, right? But I know your work is all about debunking this myth that you need big budgets. 

So walk us through what kind of budgets do most of your clients work with when they first start PR?

So actually, most of my people are very bootstrapping. So they don’t really have a budget. And if you look at what’s available to them, right, if you want to get more eyeballs, you’re really doing one of three things.

One, you’re pouring all your time into social media, which honestly is not great because you don’t own it. And we know that TikTok is going to be banned. Who knows how long it’s going to take for Instagram’s algorithm to even go harder on us, right?

Right now, all across the board, we’re seeing views are down about 30%. And that’s because they simply want you to pay to boost your reviews. Or you can pay for ads, which historically, they have gone up over 400% in cost in just the last few years.

So that’s really also not great for us too. And let’s be honest, these two methods have no SEO. So you’re not really building a long-term asset.

And that’s why PR, I mean, like earned media, so that’s you getting featured in an article or you being on a podcast, not those scammy DMs that you get about those fake features.

I’m talking about like real organic features. That’s the most highest leverage marketing activity that you can do because it simultaneously checks all the boxes.

Not only does it give you credibility and traffic, but it also gives you SEO. So as founders, we always need to think, am I working smarter and not harder? And am I really creating a long-term asset for my business, which SEO and PR is, or am I just doing busy work?

And so I think having a mindset, a perspective shift of like, I am going to prioritize PR and that it is absolutely available to me. And even if I don’t have to pay an agency is absolutely game-changing for the entrepreneurs who do choose to get featured in the media.

I love what you said. So how do you get in the media for free if you’re just starting your business?

Yeah. So this is a great question. First thing is that let’s just distill what PR is.

And I think for so long, it’s been shrouded in secrecy, complexity, privilege, and at its core, PR is two things. It’s writing a good pitch and sending it out. And if you know how to do those two things, you can put it together and create a system in your business where you’re constantly planting the seeds for visibility because you never know when that garden might flourish.

Journalists have a very meticulous way of organizing their inbox. And so you don’t know when they’re going to be tasked with writing an article and they’re going to go back into their inbox and do a quick search and your name might pop up. This has happened so many times.

Some people get featured right away. Some people get featured three months later. What matters is that you need to throw your name in the hat to get featured.

And so it starts with us knowing that we are ready and that they want to hear from us. And journalists don’t care about how many followers you have. You can buy followers today.

So it’s not a popularity contest. What we need to know is that journalists are not going to buy from you and they don’t care about your product brochure and your benefits and features. So fundamentally, this involves a different way of communicating, right?

As founders, we’re so good at marketing ourselves. But I’m telling you that in order to get featured in the media, you need to take off that marketing hat and put on a different hat. And that hat is one of an expert, of an industry authority.

And so instead of leading with what you sell, who you are, the results, you want to lead with things like what is the seasonality of things? 

Is there any seasonal relevance? Is there a greater news trend?

Is there something trending on social media? Can you give commentary? 

And so I always talk about the 10 top angles that get you featured and seasonality is one of them.

For example, at the time of recording right now, it’s new year. So new year, new angles, habits, wellness routines. If it’s around graduation, it could be something around career advice or job seeking.

If you are in an industry that’s very heavily regulated like pharma or healthcare or taxes or finances, there’s always a change in policy and regulation. And that is always newsworthy. Also think about ways that you can take a contrarian angle.

So if all the experts are saying, do it this way. And you’re saying, I found this to be helpful. That’s a great angle.

Another great angle is to piggyback on what people are already talking about. So right now there’s a lot of news about AI. There’s a lot of news about what’s happening in the world.

So think about what are the changes happening in your industry and how can you pitch according to that? And so these are the big ways that you can start to formulate your story angle. Because remember, there’s no such thing as a newsworthy company or product.

I’ve written pitches for bath salts and candles. They all get featured. It’s just about tailoring your story into something that has seasonality and relevance to the news cycle.

Would you say pitching is a numbers game or more of a strategy and technique? Yeah, I think it’s both. I think once you have your three or four buckets of topics that you want to talk about, and then you have your…

Again, remember PR is writing a pitch and sending it out. And then you have your media list of who to send it to. And obviously in our program, we have a database of like 100,000 journalists.

Then it becomes a numbers game. Yes, because you want to be able to keep sending it out and you want to keep following up. A lot of times the biggest mistake is that, okay, the founders sent a pitch and then they’re hiding in the bathroom because they’re like, oh my God.

It’s a very unnatural act. And so don’t feel bad that you’re afraid or anxious, but just know that this is how news has been for decades. They accept cold pitches.

Journalists understand that people cold pitch them. And it’s just a matter of doing it and feeling comfortable pressing that send button. I had a student who actually ended up selling his company and now he’s building his third startup.

And he got so much press success. And he told me, everything you want is on the other side of that send button. So if we can orientate ourselves and realize that it’s just a numbers game and you just have to keep pressing that send button, it becomes less daunting.

And trust me, from all the journalists I’ve talked to, they’re not sitting there on their thrones, judging us, thinking, oh, well, this Gloria sent me a pitch again. No, they don’t have time for that. They are writing out stories and it’s just about you putting a story in front of them so that they can use it.

And so always think, how can you be of value to their audience? What is your audience looking for? And there’s ways around that.

You can find out what are the Google search trends, what’s happening. And then there’s also other ways you can find journalists. So we can definitely go into that.

But I’ve given you what to think about in terms of what to write. And the other part of PR is, okay, now you have what you want to write, who do we send it to? And you can find that online.

I mean, this is public information, but I would first install a Google News Alert, which is free, by the way, Google News Alert about your industry. And it’ll give you all the articles written about on your topic every day. And it’s as simple as you copy and pasting the writer’s first name, last name, and email, which is again, public information into an ever-expanding Excel spreadsheet.

And then sooner or later you have your own media list. You can also use things like Quoted or Haro, which now has changed. But basically there’s all these websites where you can sign up as a source and journalists are looking for people to interview every day.

And you kind of can see what the inquiries are. And if you do fit the description, then you can respond, right? You can also follow hashtags on social media, whether it’s LinkedIn or Twitter.

And a hashtag I like to follow is journal requests. And it means that journalists are requesting certain types of interviews with different people. So these are kind of the grassroots way you can kind of figure out who might be interested in writing about you in a kind of a more reactive way.

But let’s talk about other times of year, right? How do you just pitch a story if they’re, let’s say, not saying, oh, I need to interview someone. Well, one way to do it is to know that you need to find who are the writers covering your industry or beat.

So you’re not going to be sending an email to editor at buzzfeed.com because they’re not reading it. You need to find out who is the specific industry writer. So if you are someone in fitness and health, it might be the fitness or health writer.

If you are someone who makes a physical product, it might be the shopping or commerce writer, commerce writer. If you’re in travel and luxury, it could be a person that covers travel. So do you see where I’m getting at?

You want to find the specific writer who is writing about your topic. A lot of writers now are freelance, which means that they write for multiple outlets and they’re constantly kind of rotating around. And you can find out where they’re writing by just simply going to their Instagram bio or their Twitter or LinkedIn bio to see where they’re writing.

That was a lot of goodies. Thank you so much for sharing, Gloria. 

And I remember in the early stage of me pitching to be on other people’s podcasts or opportunities, it was really daunting to hit that send button, as you talked about, right?

It’s about just hitting that send button, but it’s it could be hard in the beginning. And what helped me was instead of hitting send, like getting that emotional roller coaster ride right away, I used to schedule them out for another time, like in the afternoon or the following morning so that it didn’t feel so stressful. And then when it actually went out, it wasn’t on my mind. So that took off a lot of load for me. 

Yeah, no, that’s so good.

And you can also schedule send, right? Like there’s a lot of different things where it’s like, as long as you have your pitch, you load it in there and then you can schedule send. And here’s another great tip for your audience is don’t send any emails until you have an email tracking software.

And this is great because it tells you if someone is opening your email, if someone is clicking it. And that way we don’t have to have this drama in our head about, oh, this journalist hates us because honestly, they don’t care about you. They’re very busy.

And so if they’re not opening it, we need to solve for that first. So is it a deliverability issue? Is it an out of office issue?

And then if the email tracking device is saying that they’ve opened it and they’re actually opening it multiple times, your pitch, it means that they really like it. They’re just looking for a place for it. That’s when you would go in with a followup, engage with their content.

Remember, journalists are people and they have egos. So like compliment them and say, hey, I love the article that you wrote last year on this. Are you doing the same for this year?

Or I think it’s fabulous that you wrote an article on this. So like having a compliment and like showing them that you’ve read their article is such a great way to start an email off.

Such good advice. I love it. I love my email tracking.

And that goes the same with clients who, if they’ve opened my mail eight times, you know, they’re more interested than someone who’s just opening it once. Right. So it goes a long way.

You talked about mistakes. I love what you mentioned. Are there any other mistakes that you’ve seen people do wrong with PR?

Yeah. So I teach a proprietary CPR pitching method and that’s from just cold pitching thousands of times. So fun fact for your audience, I’ve never worked a day in my life in any PR or marketing agency.

So being an outsider and not having any contacts, I had to cold call the operator at the New York Times. And I think from just cold calling and emailing and just getting honestly rejected so many times, I started to figure out, okay, what gets someone to respond and what doesn’t. And I put it in this framework called CPR method, which I teach inside my program.

But basically CPR stands for credibility, point of view, and relevance. And you want your pitch to have all three elements. And so if I’m pitching someone, let’s start with the subject line.

The subject line should not have your name, your company name, or the word pitch in it, because it’s relevant to the journalist. Instead, you want to have something that’s timely and specific. For example, three top communication tools for 2025 for introverts.

Do you see how that’s timely, relevant, and specific? And then if you are to start the email off, you want to start off with the relevance, which is the R in CPR first, because you want to get their attention right off the bat. So talk about as people are looking for X, Y, and Z tools to start off the new year, because right now it’s Q1.

Do you see how that’s relevant? And then you have the P in CPR, which is point of view. So usually three bullet points.

So that could be three insights, three tips, three contrarian things, three data points. And then you want to conclude with one sentence credibility. 

Don’t go too crazy here.

You don’t need to have lots of previous press mentions. It could be as simple as, I am a founder, and here’s what I’ve noticed with my audience. I’m happy to chat more about these insights, and here’s how I can be reached.

Do not attach your pitch deck or your resume, please. It’s going to trigger their spam filter. Instead, use a hyperlink and say, I’m happy to share more.

Here’s my story. You can click here. If you are in e-commerce or product, you could probably embed one photo because it’s visual.

And then for more photos, you can attach a link to a Dropbox link or more high resolution photos. So use the hyperlink.

Love your tips. Thank you so much for your knowledge. And if people want to learn more about doing PR the easy way, where can they find you?

Yeah, for sure. So I have a free PR masterclass that actually shows you word for word, a CPR pitch. I got someone featured 12 times without any PR agency experience or context.

And I show you like word for word. And you can watch that at Gloria Chow PR dot com slash masterclass. That’s Gloria Chow PR dot com slash masterclass.

And I’m on Instagram as well. So I share a lot. I share anything from healing generational trauma with my mom to funny Cardi B memes.

So you’re in for a ride. 

You can hit me up on Instagram at Gloria Chow PR. And if you DM me the word pitch, I will also give you an additional freebies that you can take the first stab at your CPR pitch.

Beautiful. And what is the favorite quote you go by in life?

Oh, I love this quote by my Maya Angelou. And she said people will not remember what you said and what you did. But they will always remember how you made them feel.

I love this so much. Thank you for being with us. 

Thank you, Lucy.

Hello, hello, beautiful souls.

This episode is for you if you feel scattered all over the place and want to learn how to stay focused so that you can stay on track to accomplishing your goals this year. 

I’ve previously talked about this. Being scattered is a bad habit that can kill your confidence. 

The good news is being able to stay focused is a learned skill. 

So here today, I present to you the seven action steps to help you stay on track.

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The first step is to be super clear about your goals. 

When you write down your goals, if in any way you feel it’s unattainable or impossible, that just means you haven’t chunked it down small enough yet. After you write down your goal, ask yourself this question.

From a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being most likely, how likely are you to accomplish this? 

If your answer is anywhere below an 8 or a 9, that means you have to chunk down the goal even more. Make sure your goals are smart, specific, measurable, relevant, and timely. 

I’ve talked about SMART goals in another episode, so you can refer there.

The second step in staying focused is to plan and prioritize. 

We will always only have time for our priorities. So it’s important to consider your most important tasks, and we call them MITs.

These are things you need to take action on that will actually move the needle, that will actually help you move towards your goals. So these are the actions you actually want to be taking. Use Google Calendar and other tools to help you schedule in your priorities.

And don’t forget to structure your day around your non-negotiables. Non-negotiables are activities that you absolutely will not give up and negotiate of not having them in your life. So for me, that would be eating my meals on time, sleeping on time.

I know exactly what time they need to go in my calendar, and then I schedule my work around that. 

The third step is to time block. 

Establish daily routines that incorporate dedicated time blocks for your goals.

When I first learned about time management, I was doing half an hour blocks. So that means 25 minutes of focused work and then five-minute break. And then you repeat again for another half an hour. 25 minutes of work and then five minutes of break. 

Later on, I learned there’s actually a name for this technique, and that is called the Pomodoro Technique, which is exactly just that. 

Stay focused, sharp, and crystal clear on what you’re doing for the next 25 minutes, and then take a break.

This structured approach keeps the mind alert and engaged, and significantly reduce the tendency for you to procrastinate, and therefore a deeper focus. 

The fourth step to staying focused is to eliminate distractions. 

It’s normal, we all have them.

We all have millions of thoughts a day, many of them repetitive, unnecessary, unproductive thoughts while we’re working. 

So it helps to minimize these distractions if we have a cluttered workspace, clean environment, clear mind, decluttered space, declutter your mind. So of course, turn off notifications when you’re working.

In the beginning, it might be hard. When I try to stay away from my phone in the beginning, I would actually leave it in another room. So I don’t have the tendency to play with it while I’m supposed to be focused on something else.

You bet now my phone is on silent most of the day. And I love to use countdown timers. When you’re on YouTube, simply search for countdown timer for five minutes with relaxation music, or for however minutes you want.

There is a ton. And don’t forget to feel free to clearly communicate with those around you about your boundaries and how you wish to stay focused so that they’re not distracting you. 

The fifth component in staying focus is to manage your energy.

Remember that you are the CEO of your life. 

And that means you are the chief energy officer of your life. So you get to manage your energy, you get to decide where you let your energy go.

So work during your peak energy hours. And for that, everyone’s different. You could be a morning person, you could be a night out, there’s actually no right or wrong answer as to when you are productive.

I’m a morning person myself. So I schedule my calls in the morning. And even once in a while, I do open up my laptop at night, if I’m replying an email, I will still schedule it to go out the next morning.

So that way that recipient will receive it during my working hours. And therefore I’m letting them respect my working hours. And that’s when you can expect a reply from me is during the daytime.

Of course, good habits like staying hydrated, getting good food, healthy food, and enough sleep. Those are all essential. And stay motivated by celebrating small steps.

What gets celebrated gets repeated. So no matter how small of a win, feel free to celebrate it. Keep a reminder like a mantra or vision board or a phone screensaver, wallpaper, whatever that reminds you of what matters to you, sticky notes on the wall, whatever works for you to remind you of where you’re headed.

And because we’re human, because we have bumps on the road, because we forget. 

And that’s where number six comes in is to leverage accountability.

Check in with your accountability partner, or even better yet, share your goals with a coach because your goal is your coach’s goal. And as a coach myself, I know I am not judgmental.

I don’t care what your goals are. But if they’re your goals, they’re my goals. And last but definitely not least, and actually very important.

The seventh step is to be kind to yourself. 

Recognize that focus actually comes and goes. So avoid beating yourself up.

Don’t beat yourself up. Simply have more awareness when you lose focus and pull yourself back up. Meditate or use other mindfulness techniques.

There are tons of apps to help you stay grounded. But what’s important is you want to train your mind to be more focused. So being grounded is a great way to help the mind get there.

When your mind wanders, guide it back without being harsh on yourself. Time to time reflect on your progress, what’s working, what’s not. And remember that it’s okay to pivot.

It’s okay if something went wrong. It’s okay if things are not going the way you thought you wanted. And it’s okay to adapt.

These are great skills. And therefore, together, collectively, you are practicing your skill of staying focused. Keep restarting when distractions happen.

Persistence matters. Consistency matters more than perfection. 

So which one of these steps are you working on? Message me and let me know.

This episode is for you if you want to start off the year right 10 x your life 10 x your business, whatever your goals you have, because my expert is just about that. Maya Elious today I have with me is an award winning business coach, personal branding strategist and the go to expert when it comes to clarifying your message and attracting high end clients. Doesn’t that sound good?

Maya is the CEO of built to impact and through her programs and live events. She’s helped 1000s of clients built six figure businesses and has been featured in top publications like black enterprise, Forbes Business Insider. 

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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to the show, Maya.

Oh my gosh, thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to start off the new years with you and the listeners.

Thank you. Well, it’s the beginning of the new year. And we all are looking to 10 x our life business, whatever, right?

But what does 10 x your life and business actually mean to you, Maya?

When I think about 10 x in my life, I think about how can I create a big enough vision that forces me to completely shift my identity from who I am into who I have to be to have the money that I want the relationships that I want the life that I want. 

So when I think about 10 x, it’s not just about, oh, here’s a couple different, you know, new things that I could try. It’s about who do I have to be, I need to completely shift my thinking, shift my habits and shift my routines.

I love that so much. I talk about this with my clients as well, right? You are version 1.0. Right now, say you want to upgrade to version 2.0. But actually, what you want to think about is what would version 10.0 of you think, right? What would that version of you think and act and and what kind of embodiment does that need to happen?

100% I have this live event every year in Atlanta called impact weekend. It’s actually not that far from now it’s gonna be in February. But one of the first things that we do before we even dive deep into the business strategies is we do a guided visualization exercise.

And during that exercise, I’m having them think about three to five years into the future. And I’m like, what does your house look like? What does your body look like?

What are your relationships look like? What are your biggest achievements? And then once I have them visualize that in the visualization, I also have them journal in real time, what did I do five years prior to get to the life that I have now, and then I have them just embody being that person throughout the entire weekend.

So when I’m giving them the business strategies, and they’re running into resistance, and they’re running into fear, it’s like, you already know that this is possible for you, you have to have the mindset that I can do hard things. And then I’m fully equipped to be able to overcome any challenges that would keep me from having the life in the business that I want.

I love that. And you said the key word mindset, right? So before you have the 10x life and it’s really about 10x your thinking and 10x your mindset first, right?

100% 100%. When I think about mindset, the way that I frame it with my clients, I’m like, how can we have a VIP mindset? And what does that even mean?

I have them first think about the vision because you always have to have a level of clarity of where you want to go. It’s like, well, where do you want to go?

 You don’t know what’s going to happen in your life five years from now, if you haven’t already made the decision in your mind what you want to happen.

So we have to get very, very clear on that vision. And then the I stands for identity, who is the person that you need to become? If you think about what you want for yourself five years from now, and you honestly answer the question, is the version of who I am right now capable of creating this life?

Or do I need to change some things? Do I need to wake up earlier? Do I need to start working out?

Do I need to work longer hours, you know, whatever it is starting to think about who I need to become? What are the new habits that I need to set? What are some of the routines that I need to start implementing?

And then the P’s stand for the people in the places, which really this is all about environment. Who are the people that I’m spending time with? And where are the places that I’m spending my time?

And sometimes we think about this so literally, we think about like, oh, where, you know, where am I hanging out with people? Or who am I talking to through text or on the phone or like going out to dinner with? And even just thinking about the people you’re following and the social media platforms that you’re on, how you’re allowing that to influence your mind, you have to be in so intentional about the podcast you’re listening to the books that you’re reading, the shows that you’re watching the music that you’re listening to, it can seem like those things aren’t a big deal.

But the way that we think affects our reality and the way that we think is heavily influenced by what we are watching and listening to.

Totally. And you mentioned podcast, I forgot to mention your podcast house, do and your podcast is called my podcast is called work hard, live soft.

And we just talk about what is the work that’s needed to be done. So you can live the soft life. So you can live a life that is fulfilling, impactful, and really enjoyable.

I love it. And I was listening this morning. And Maya is coming actually to us from Mexico, right?

Like that’s the soft life.

Yes, yes, I’m usually based in Atlanta. But when my lease ended, about a week and a half ago, I’m like, I want to just travel the world now. So I didn’t renew my lease, I made the decision, like, let me go to Mexico right before Christmas, just get some beach time, get some sun time, I love being by the water and getting some sun.

And then I just want to travel the world after this. I think I’ll try Columbia, I’ll try Thailand, I’ll go back to Bali. So I’m really excited to see what 2025 has in store in terms of just new revelation and exploring the world and exploring just my own growth.

That’s awesome. That’s just so awesome. And I mean, people say I’m going to travel, but a lot of people actually don’t do it.

Right? Like people say, I love traveling, I want to go travel the world. But where Where have you been?

Right? Right, you’ve been saying this, why haven’t you gotten that passport stamps? Why haven’t you booked the flight?

Yeah, but you know what, sometimes I mean, I absolutely believe in baby steps, because most people are actually doing nothing. They’re not taking any step forward. So even if you take baby steps, that’s actually what it takes to help move you forward.

So baby steps is always better than inaction. And inaction is a decision. And it’s all about decision making, right?

The type of decisions you make each day will add up to your entire life. But sometimes I feel like, yes, I believe in baby steps, but expedited growth could actually be easier than slow growth, meaning 10x is actually easier than just only two x in your life. Would you agree with me?

Yes, 100%. Just doing the big scary thing versus trying to tiptoe in. It’s kind of like, you know, when you go to the beach, or you go to the pool, and you’re like trying to put your toe in or you’re trying to slowly go in because you’re afraid to be cold.

And it’s like, girl, just jumped in, it’s gonna feel so much better if you just jump in versus trying to tiptoe in and feeling the slow pain along the way.

But, you know, we’re not talking about 10x like working 10 times the amount of hours that you do now. Okay, we’re not talking about that. We’re not talking about doing more work, because a lot of people feel like you actually need to do more work in order to make more money or accomplish more.

But I think what I preach is that we can actually accomplish more by doing less because we value our time more because we stay more focused. 100%.

Yeah, I completely agree with that. It’s not about doing more. It’s about having a bigger vision.

So what you do, you can maximize it better, and you can leverage it better. So even like when I think about my work ethic at you know, $100,000 versus my work ethic at a million dollars, I still had a lot of great work ethic. But a big difference with 10x in my revenue was not working harder, it was thinking bigger, and then making sure that I had the support and communicating that vision to the right people who could help me execute that vision.

Like if you’re trying to work your way to 10x, you’re going to get burnt out at about 3x or at about 5x, you have to think bigger and then say, what’s the type of work that I need to do so that way it gets better results faster. It’s kind of like going from one on one coaching to going to one to many. It’s like I can have the same results, but I’m spending this the same or less time working to get better results.

And you mentioned going from 100k to a million, like what is the biggest difference for you?

I think the biggest difference is honestly vision and having people who can help me execute that vision. When I was making $100,000, I remember the year before I had my first six-figure year, I made about $89,000. And I knew that I was like, this $11,000 gap is not a missing strategy that I have in place.

I knew for me, it was something mindset related. And so I asked myself and I’m very reflective and I asked myself questions and I’m like, what was that $11,000 gap? Why didn’t I make $100,000 when I had done five-figure months consistently and I was doing very well and I had a good audience.

And I know for me that it was, I lacked boundaries and there was a limiting belief that I didn’t deserve to make $100,000. And that limiting belief came from the fact that I was always the person amongst my friends and family where if they needed something, I would step in. I was that person that was essentially like a savior.

Like I just was not good at boundaries. And so one of the things that I had to figure out was how do I establish boundaries so I don’t feel like I have to give all of my gifts and all of my resources away for free. Once I started to develop my mindset around boundaries, I made, I think maybe like $150,000 a year later.

Then three years later, when I made that million dollars, I expanded my thinking and my beliefs to what was possible for me. I think we can work our way to $100,000. And then when you’re going to a million, your mind really has to shift into believing that not only can you do it, but that you’re deserving of it.

At any point, if you don’t believe you’re deserving of it, you’re going to ultimately self-sabotage the work that you’re doing or the opportunities that you attract or self-sabotage and you subconsciously reject. And so I think I needed to believe that it was possible. And I also needed to release a little bit of control on the how.

I remember writing down like prayers and affirmations. And I remember writing down like, I am so happy and grateful that I run a multimillion dollar company, helping women of faith without sacrificing my integrity. I knew what I wanted to do.

I knew the type of person I wanted to be when I hit that goal, but I didn’t have enough experience in business to know exactly how I was going to do it. I had some ideas in my head. And I think just having the vision, writing it down, making it plain and holding that vision every single day, you start to transform into the person who can attract that and actually build a million dollar business.

I love that. I love how you mentioned you’re attracting, you’re not begging for it. You’re not desperate, right?

Because sometimes women resort to a different energy when they’re not doing as good as they imagined. And they’re just desperately seeking the next marketing technique, or, you know, a different business coach that’s going to just magically wave someone and help their business. But I love how you your example was your boundaries, right, your control, your worthiness, it always comes back to self worthiness.

So it’s always about personal development, no matter where you are in life and business and career, wherever you are in life.

100%. And I love what you said about desperation. Like one thing that I tell women in my community is that desperation causes you to dismiss your discernment.

You make decisions differently when you’re desperate versus when you are feeling empowered. And when you are desperate, you’re grasping for anything. You’re not making decisions using wisdom, you’re making decisions from a lack mindset of like, let me just work with this person, or let me just sell this thing, or let me just price it here, because I’m so desperate, I need to make this money, or I need to be able to have these opportunities.

But when you have a strong belief that this is possible for me, and this is the standard at which I want to operate, you are confident saying no to more things, right? Here’s where boundaries come back into play, where you’re like, I’m okay with saying no to this thing that has been presented to me as an opportunity, because discernment has already clearly communicated to me that this isn’t for me, and that what is for me is not going to pass me by, because I’m feeling confident, and I’m feeling empowered. And I don’t need to operate with this level of desperation thinking that if I say no to something that I’ll never get the opportunity that I desire.

Beautifully said. So with your clients, what is the number one mistake you see them making that’s killing their confidence?

Oh, that’s killing their confidence. I would say, probably two things. I think comparing themselves to other people, and just like part of that comparison is making an assumption that what somebody else is doing is working.

Whether or not it’s working for them, it’s like, it doesn’t matter what’s working for them. Girl, you got to figure out what’s working for you. And so they’re making this comparison that this person is better, that what this person has going on is working, and whether or not it’s working.

The other mistake is your work ethic isn’t even matching. So if you’re going to compare somebody’s results, you better compare the work ethic. I don’t want to hear that you’re jealous that somebody made money.

I don’t want to hear that you feel a type of way that this person isn’t as talented as you, but they have more recognition. They’re still doing the work. And at the end of the day, when it comes down to business, the best marketer wins.

So if you’re not willing to create the content, you’re not willing to go live, you’re not willing to be visible, you’re constantly trying to build a business where you don’t have to do sales calls, you don’t have to do webinars, you don’t have to create content, you don’t have to write emails, you have no right to be trying to compare yourself to somebody who’s actively doing the work. And confidence comes from seeing the results from the work that you’re putting in. And so consistently, oftentimes what I see with people is that they’re upset about results that they didn’t get from work that they didn’t do.

And it’s like, it doesn’t work like that. You’re going to have to put in the work. And then we could start talking about maybe what we can tweak within your work for you to see better results.

Oh, I love that. I remember my first business coach, she really inspired me because she was making six figures with a email list of 400 people. So she was like, it doesn’t matter the size, it’s about what you are actually doing.

And I know this reminds me of one of your Instagram posts where you showed your past videos, like, you know, where you said, it’s not overnight success. So it’s like a 10 year in the making where you showed your videos from the past where there’s bad video quality, bad audio quality, when you said you had 30 subscribers, we all start from zero, right? There’s no overnight success.

We’ve all been there.

Yeah, yeah. And I think that goes back to your point where you said you believe in baby steps. And I love one of one of my inspirations is reading the Bible and just taking scripture and saying, How can I apply it or use this for And the word says that don’t despise small beginnings.

And I think sometimes we are when it comes to 10 xing, it is about 10 xing your vision, but also knowing what work needs to go in place to see that vision come to fruition. And it’s like the version of me that started when I was 18 years old, the version of me that started with zero, the version of me that started with janky video quality, janky audio quality, and not knowing what she was doing. Had I not been that version who was willing to start willing to fail, willing to look silly in front of people, willing to risk, you know, not looking like the perfect example of a brand strategist or the perfect example of an entrepreneur had it not been for that version of me that was willing to start small to then get something bigger, I wouldn’t be where I am right now.

So I just have to encourage everybody while you’re thinking about the bigger picture, you have to say, but what steps am I taking right now today in every single day to make sure that I am growing as a person because I have to do something today in order to make it better. Most people are so riddled with perfectionism because they’re so afraid to fail. And it’s like, you can’t perfect anything that you haven’t started.

You can’t make anything better that you haven’t put out into the universe. So take the small steps so you can live the bigger life.

Beautiful perfection is illusion. And practice leads to improvement, not perfection anyways.

Right? It’s like, perfection totally is an illusion. I’m like, I haven’t done anything perfectly yet. And I’ve been for over a decade.

Awesome, Maya. Well, on your low days, what is one quote that you go by that’ll help you pick yourself back up?

A quote? I don’t know if it’s a quote, more so than it is a perspective. I, I really operate with a perspective of gratitude.

And I think about how the worst part of my day or the most annoying part of my day truly highlights how blessed I am. If it’s like the worst part of my day was I had to walk in the rain and it’s like, well, girl, you are able-bodied and you’re able to walk. Or the worst part of my day was that I didn’t hit my revenue goal.

And it’s like, well, thank God you have a business where you’re hitting goals to the point where you feel sad that you didn’t make as much money. And so I think just having that perspective of, if this is the worst part of your day, you have a very rich life.

I love that. Thank you for sharing. Awesome.

So where can we find you?

Yeah. So you guys can find me on Instagram at Maya Elias, M-A-Y-A-E-L-I-O-U-S. I would love to connect with you.

And if you’re mapping out your 2025 goals and you want to see how I plan my year and my life in business, you can go to mayaelious.com slash dream life. I have a free dream life planner on there that I think will be very helpful for you.

Awesome. Thank you.