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July 1, 2025 16 mins

Hustling was my superpower. As valedictorian and achievement addict, I believed I could outwork anyone. This mentality propelled me through academics and into entrepreneurship—until it didn't. What happens when the hustle that built your business becomes the very thing holding it back?

This episode explores the frustrating ceiling that high-performers hit despite putting in extraordinary effort. If you're wondering why your business has plateaued despite your consistent content creation, sales strategies, and late-night work sessions, you're encountering what I call "scaling on chaos." The problem isn't your lack of effort or skill—it's attempting to grow without proper systems, support, and structure.

When you wake up each day recreating the wheel—manually sending client materials, desperately trying to remember what content to post, and handling everything without automation—you're not just wasting time. You're depleting your nervous system and creating unsustainable patterns. This nervous system dysregulation (operating in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn mode) combines with your lack of business infrastructure to create an invisible ceiling that hustle alone cannot break.

The solution requires both business systems and nervous system regulation. By implementing automated client onboarding, content repurposing frameworks, and other key systems, you free mental bandwidth and create sustainable growth. Whether you're stuck at $3,000 or $10,000 monthly revenue, these foundations are what will propel you forward without the burnout. Ready to transform your business approach? Check out my new System Seer Playbook, designed to help you identify and implement the exact systems you need right now to scale with ease. thesystemseer.com

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 0 (00:01):
Welcome to today's episode of Effortlessly
Productive.
Today's episode is for all myfellow high performers,
overachievers.
If that is, you stay tuned.
We are gonna be talking aboutwhy hustling harder isn't
scaling your business faster,and we're also gonna chat about

(00:21):
what will.
So a little bit about mybackstory, growing up,
especially with academics.
Things came very naturally to me.
I was good at school.
I was good at taking tests, Iwas good at achieving things and
as that went into high school,part of it was that I was
willing to put in the work, nomatter what.
I was willing to study my buttoff until midnight or 2 am, if

(00:46):
that is what it took.
I was willing to work harderthan anybody else and I could
outwork them right.
That was my superpower is.
Give me anybody and I willoutwork them.
And also, again, the schoolpart of it came very naturally
to me and I also loved achievingright.

(01:07):
I loved those awards.
I loved some of the recognitionthat came along with that.
I loved being proud of myselffor what I had done, loved acing
those tests right.
I was getting those littledopamine hits from every one of
those and I started to wear thatachievement as a badge.
Right.
That became part of my identitywas I was somebody who would

(01:30):
show up, do my best, work harderthan anybody else and I would
achieve the top.
I was valedictorian of my highschool class.
I got tons of accolades incollege.
I was in charge of a lot ofdifferent clubs and earned a lot
of different titles andrecognition, and it was because
I could literally hustle harderthan anybody else.

(01:54):
And then, when it came tobusiness, things were a little
bit different, because thehustle got me so far.
It got me off the ground.
It got me to a certain level ofachievement.
It got me off the ground.
It got me to a certain level ofachievement.
But what I found with thathustle is that I would hit that
burnout and, if I'm really beinghonest, if I look back in high
school and in college like I wasalso hitting that burnout.

(02:17):
However, I think that as youbecome an adult and you have a
house to manage and you have allthese other responsibilities,
and then, especially once I hadkids and was navigating the
schedules of three children orthree little babies and toddlers
at home and a marriage and allof that, that burnout would

(02:39):
happen a lot faster.
And it was because my nervoussystem was being taxed by lots
of different areas, so I wasn'table to just solely focus on
that hustle.
However, I found in businessthat I would hit these points
where it literally did notmatter how hard I hustled.
It wasn't even necessarily thatburnout that was happening.

(03:02):
It was that I would hustle andhustle and hustle and I would
see a certain level of results,and that was exciting and
fantastic.
However, I would get to thispoint where the results wouldn't
come anymore.
I would hit a ceiling.
It was very frustrating,especially as somebody who for
most of my life I could outworkthat right.

(03:23):
I could get to a certain pointwhere I could just work a little
bit harder, study a little bitmore, put in a little bit extra
hours on the paper, say no togoing out to a party in order to
do that.
It was frustrating for me, andthat was the point in my
business where I realized that Ineeded to figure something out

(03:46):
that would make the business alittle bit easier.
Because what I realized is itwas not a lack of effort, right
and I know this is true for youtoo.
It is not a lack of your effortand it certainly is not a lack
of your skill, you know how towork hard, you know how to

(04:09):
perform, you know what you aredoing.
You have so many skills in yourtool belt.
I guarantee if we were to sitdown and have a conversation,
you could tell me about allthese different courses that
you've taken and all the thingsthat you have learned, and all
of this stuff, all of thedifferent strategies that you
have for your business, yoursocial media strategy and your

(04:31):
sales strategy, and what you'reposting, and all of that.
However, usually what I find isthat, despite this effort and
despite this skill, where westart to get hung up, where that
problem comes in, is that weare actually trying to scale on
top of chaos, and what I mean bythat is, yes, maybe there is

(04:55):
some chaos going on in yourpersonal life and all of that,
and maybe that is playing intoit right, and we're going to
talk about some of that nervoussystem dysregulation in just a
minute.
However, what I mean by that ismore chaos in your business,
that you are trying to do allthe things manually.
Yes, you are hustling, you aresending those messages and those

(05:16):
emails and doing all the things, writing the posts and staying
consistent with all of that.
But my guess is that there areareas of your business where you
have no systems, you have nosupport and you have no
structure.
If you're waking up everysingle day and maybe you have a
to-do list but you're, in a way,kind of flying by the seat of

(05:38):
your pants, that you have theseprocesses in your business, that
you are doing literallyeverything manually and each day
is like you were starting overfrom scratch, you were starting
from ground zero, then that is ahuge sign that we have no
systems.
If things are not happeningautomatically in the background

(06:00):
in your business as well, thatmeans like there's not that
system in place.
Again, if you are waking up andkind of having to recreate each
and every day, that meansthere's no structure.
So when we try to scale ourbusiness on this chaos, that is
why we hit that limit, we hitthat ceiling.

(06:21):
We are going to chat a littlebit about that because, again,
you have all the strategy in theworld.
Let's talk about content for aminute.
So I'm talking about, like,social media and maybe email
marketing.
If that is something that youare doing, my guess is that you
know everything, all thedifferent kinds of posts to put
out there.
You know about putting postsand stories and you need to do

(06:45):
carousels and reels.
You have all of these differenttopics that you want to be
talking about on your socialmedia.
Maybe you call them, like yourcore content pillars or
something like that.
So you have the strategy.
Maybe you've taken a messagingcourse so you know exactly how
to say the things that you wantto say, and that is all amazing.

(07:08):
Maybe you've taken an emailmarketing course or learned by
trial and you know, hey, if Istructure my subject line this
way, it's going to get moreopens.
And if I do this format in myemail marketing, or I run a
flash sale every weekend.
Those are all things that arestrategy and those are amazing,

(07:30):
and we need that strategy sobadly in our business.
Where the problem comes in is ifwe don't have a structure to
hold that strategy.
That's where that burnout is,because, again, every single day
, you're waking up and going, ohmy gosh, okay, I have to write
a post, and today's post isgoing to be a carousel.

(07:50):
Oh, and I should probably alsoput out a reel.
And what am I going to do these?
On what topic are we talkingabout today?
And I have to create all thesestories and there's no system in
place.
I have to create all thesestories and there's no system in
place.
Maybe you're having to rememberall of this and like, oh,
should I send an email today?
What day was it that I wassupposed to send an email?

(08:11):
When did I last send an email?
There's no structure and noorganization to that.
You are spending so much time.
However, even more importantly,you're spending so much energy.
It's that mental bandwidth ofhaving to figure it out, and
that is where we come into thatburnout.
That is where we hit thatburnout spot.

(08:33):
And when I'm talking aboutburnout, burnout is a sign of
nervous system dysregulation.
Nervous system dysregulation.
Nervous system dysregulationmeans that you are operating
either in fight flight, maybefawn or freeze mode, and the
reason I keep saying burnout isbecause that is a word that I
hear so many entrepreneurs tellme.

(08:54):
Either they have experienced orthey're deep in the middle of
it and they're questioning do Ieven want to go on?
This can also just look likemaybe sometimes you wake up to
your business and like afrenetic kind of like crazy
energy.
I know I do.
Sometimes I'm like, oh my God,I have all this stuff to do
today and you're just kind ofall over the place and you're

(09:14):
not really focused and you'rejust doing a lot of stuff.
That can be a sign of like,either like fight or flight mode
.
To be honest, burnout is a signof freeze.
So these are all symptoms,these are all places of nervous
system dysregulation.
So, as I am talking about this,if this is hitting home and
you're like, oh yes, or maybeyou're in a place where you're

(09:35):
like avoiding, right, you'relike I know I have all these
things to do in my business andI have all this strategy, but
I'm going to go do this overhere, I'm going to go fold the
laundry, I'm going to go cleanmy house, I'm going to scroll
social media Again, that'sprobably flight, right, we're
talking about some avoidancethere, like running away from

(09:56):
what is happening.
So all of this is that nervoussystem dysregulation.
All of this is that nervoussystem dysregulation.
When we have that nervous systemdysregulation combined with
that lack of backend support inour business, that's where that
becomes a ceiling.
And when I say backend support,that can look like systems,
things that are happeningautomatically, that structure

(10:19):
that holds all of the strategythat you have to keep you
organized so you know exactlywhat you're doing every day and,
hopefully, all of the strategythat you have to keep you
organized.
So you know exactly what you'redoing every day and, hopefully,
some of the time that you arehaving it just done
automatically or done ahead oftime, no matter how much content
, no matter how much salesstrategy that you put in.

(10:40):
If that sounds familiar whereyou're like, I create and create
and create content all day longand I have all these strategies
for selling more, but I havehit that ceiling and I don't
know why I can't get any moreresults and I don't know why.
That is a huge sign that we'vehit that ceiling.
So we need to do somethingabout it and one of the best

(11:01):
things we can do is giveourselves and give our business
that support that we need andthose systems and that structure
.
Those are just as important asthe strategy.
So really, we're going to startto add in these systems and an
example of a system.
So I've talked a lot aboutcontent.
We can have a system forkeeping us organized with our

(11:24):
content and a system forrepurposing some of our content.
Right, if you are creating andcreating and creating and some
of it feels maybe similar tostuff that you did last month.
We don't have to just copypaste, but we can repurpose what
we've already done.
So if you actually have aprocess for doing that and
keeping yourself organized andknowing what you're repurposing,

(11:47):
what you're sharing, when maybeit's even repurposing that
email that you wrote and you'retaking that and you are now
turning that into a couple ofsocial media posts and maybe a
YouTube video and maybe a blogon your website, taking that
same thing and using it again,over and over again and tweaking

(12:09):
it, that is an example of asystem.
Another system that I find is sohelpful and so important for
entrepreneurs and takes such ahuge weight off of them is a
client onboarding system.
So when somebody joins aprogram that you have or
downloads something, maybe theyrequest to download something

(12:30):
free are you having to manuallyemail them and let them know or
send them the thing theyrequested or tell them how to
get access to it?
Are you having to do all ofthat and remember to do it, or
do you have an automated systemthat introduces them to you,
sends them an email?
Maybe they can downloadwhatever it is they've requested

(12:52):
automatically?
Maybe it gives them access toyour course, rather than it just
being like in a Dropbox folderor a Google Drive folder where
you have to manually send themthe link.
Is there a library where theycan just log in and access it
and can they access thatautomatically without you having
to get in there and do it?
So that would be an example ofa system that you can see.

(13:16):
It sounds small If you thinkabout all those manual actions.
If we are all of a sudden havingto send an email or send the
download that people requestedto each and every person, that
might be okay when we have like10 people a month requesting
that, but what happens when youhave 100 people a month or 1,000

(13:40):
people a month?
That's where we hit thatceiling right and that's why
it's so important to have thesesystems and these structures in
place to support you, to supportyour business, to help your
nervous system stay in thatplace of regulation.
As I said that, the idea ofhaving to manually reach out to
a thousand people in a month tosend them something they

(14:03):
requested, that started to giveyou anxiety.
That means that that is thatnervous system kicking in right.
Your nervous system is like ohmy goodness, like no, thank you
that sounds awful, and when wethink that that is gonna be
awful and that's gonna be morethan we can handle is going to
be awful and that's going to bemore than we can handle, that
we're going to drop the ball onpeople.
That's where we keep ourselvessmall, that's where we keep our

(14:26):
business small.
That's where we hit thatceiling.
So that's why this is soimportant.
So if you've been listening tothis episode and nodding your
head along the entire way saying, yes, that is me, oh my gosh,
you are describing me as where Iam in my business, I have hit a
ceiling and maybe your ceiling.
Maybe you're stuck around likethree to five thousand dollars a

(14:50):
month.
That's an area where I find alot of people really get stuck
and hit that ceiling.
Maybe you've hit ten thousand amonth and you're like but I
really want 20.
I really want to make thismassive.
I really want to be able tomake an even bigger impact than
I already am.
If you've been nodding your headalong and you're like, yes, yes
, yes, this is what I mean, Iinvite you to check out my

(15:13):
systems year playbook.
This is a brand new playbookthat, if you're listening this
episode, when it launches.
It is coming out in probablyabout a week, so, excited about
this, this is something I'vebeen working on to help
entrepreneurs both help themwith that nervous system
regulation so that they canbuild these systems and build

(15:33):
that structure into yourbusiness, and it walks you
through both of them.
It actually will help youcustomize a plan just for you,
because our businesses are notthe same as anybody else's and
what you need right now might bedifferent than what somebody
else needs right now.
What you need right now mightbe different than what you need
in six months.

(15:54):
So this is a system, a processthat I'm going to take you
through in this playbook to helpyou discover what the areas are
that you need to systematizethe most right now.
It's going to help youprioritize and walk you through
putting all of this in place.
So it is step by step, and itis both the system the business

(16:14):
systems and the nervous systemsupport that you are craving.
So go ahead, go to my website,check it out and grab it.
Thank you so much for tuning intoday to this episode of
Effortlessly Productive.
I hope you have a beautifulrest of your day and I will
catch you on the next episode.
Bye, everybody.
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