December 21, 2023 • 38 mins
In this episode, the I'm chatting with Liz Wolfe of Liz Wolfe Coaching about the topic of procrastination. First, Liz shares her journey from a corporate career to becoming a business coach for entrepreneurs and how she's built her business to fit her life just how she pictured.
Liz then shares why we procrastinate, ways to get out of procrastination and how to procrastinate well.
00:00 Introduction and Overview
00:28 Meet Liz Wolfe: From Corporate to Entrepreneurship
03:30 The Entrepreneurial Journey: Building a Business to Fit Your Life
06:33 Unpacking Procrastination: Understanding Resistance
09:37 Overcoming Procrastination: Identifying and Addressing Hidden Barriers
12:44 Real-Life Examples: How to Break Free from Procrastination
15:40 The Power of Small Actions: Discipline Comes from Success
18:35 Time Management Strategies: Time-Based, Task-Based, and Target-Based
20:01 The Satisfaction of Task Completion
20:16 The Power of Deadlines
21:30 Balancing Productivity and Free Time
22:37 The Importance of Structured Time
26:32 The Role of Accountability in Productivity
28:58 The Art of Productive Procrastination
30:45 The Power of Delegation and Elimination
35:09 The Joy of Creative Hobbies
35:59 The Value of Constant Learning
36:57 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Find Liz:
Website: https://lizwolfecoaching.com
Free Quiz to find your CEO type: https://lizwolfecoaching.com/quiz
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lizwolfecoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizwolfecoach/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiZPlPhb8fgW3sjD2vd6VZA
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizwolfecoach/
Other resources:
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Procrastinate on Purpose by Rory Vaden
Magic Lessons Podcast
Follow Dear Kate Brand Strategy on Instagram
Learn more at Howyoupicturedit.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kate (00:00):
Today's episode is perfectly timely for the end of
(00:02):
the year.
As we start to look forward towhat we're going to do next
year, what changes we need tomake and what things went well.
And our business this year andmaybe those things that didn't
go so great.
Today, I'm talking with LizWolfee of Liz Wolfee coaching,
and we're talking aboutprocrastination.
This conversation was so good.
I loved hearing all of her tipsand ideas around this.
We talked about why youprocrastinate ways to get out of
(00:25):
that and how to procrastinate.
Well, All right.
I am here today with Liz Wolfeof Liz Wolfe Coaching.
I'm so excited to talk to youtoday.
Liz, can you go ahead and givejust a brief introduction to who
you are and what you do?
Liz Wolfe (00:38):
Yes, thank you Kate, for having me on.
I, my name is Liz Wolfe and Ilive in New York City and I'm a
business coach forentrepreneurs, and what I do is
I help, especially starting outentrepreneurs.
So newer entrepreneurs launchand grow an abundant business.
Kate (00:55):
And you started in a different career, correct?
Liz Wolfe (01:00):
Well, let's see.
How many careers back?
Do you want me, do you want meto go?
Uh, I did.
I did.
Yeah.
Kate (01:08):
you were in kind of a corporate position previously
and then you moved intoentrepreneurship.
What made you make that jump?
Liz Wolfe (01:16):
Well, the back, back, back, back backstory is that I
grew up on a sheep farm inWestern Pennsylvania and we were
very entrepreneurial.
We had a cottage industryessentially selling wool
products, and that's a veryshort story to a very long
story.
That's a short sum summary of avery long story, and I was
actually a photography major incollege.
(01:38):
So I left thinking I'm gonna bean artist, and then I decided,
no, I like music.
So then I came to New York Cityto do music, and then I got into
the computer world.
I got, this was in the lateeighties, early nineties, when
people don't realize this asmuch now, but you know, things
like learning Excel or using aCRM system were very, very
(02:01):
impactful.
Like it was scary to people evenjust.
Using the internet.
So I had a illustrious careerfor 20 years, uh, really
coaching people in technology,in the technology world.
So I had a couple of very bigclients who needed B to teach
(02:21):
them how to use technology and.
Then, so actually I had my ownbusiness, but it was all
corporate clients.
was very corporate in nature.
So I spent a lot of time incorporate meetings, just like
lots of people I'm sure that arelistening to this, and I just
decided, you know, technology, Imean, it's matured and I just
(02:42):
don't have the same passion forit as I used to.
But what I was always passionateabout and am very passionate
about now, is helping peoplewith their mindset around how to
be successful and abundant,especially as this is especially
applicable to entrepreneurs,because we're constantly being
(03:03):
challenged by.
Thoughts of inadequacy aroundhow we're gonna make ourselves
be successful and, and live thelife we love.
So I broke free of that techworld and focused all my energy
on being the best coach I couldbe.
Kate (03:20):
I love that, and it sounds like you really had an
entrepreneurial start, likeyou've been part of that
entrepreneurial world from anearly age.
That's really cool.
Um,.How have you adapted andbuilt your business to fit the
life that you want?
Liz Wolfe (03:37):
Well, even when I was young, you know, I was growing
up on the farm.
My mother worked very, veryhard.
By the way, it was my mother'sidea to help this farm, not my
father's.
Uh, we worked, she was very hardworker and also a very talented
fiber artist.
In other words, she, she wasvery creative, artsy, right?
(03:57):
So you have to know that I had avery strong role model with a,
from a woman who was basically,at that time you were, you were
a housewife with when you hadchildren in the late fifties,
early sixties.
So, I.
Always knew that I wanted to beavailable to my children, should
I have them?
(04:19):
I do not like when somebody cantells me I can go on vacation or
go to my kids', you know, fifthgrade play or something like
that.
And just the idea of wanting to,like I, I own a townhouse in New
York City, so we have both ouroffice here, we, we bought.
(04:40):
A house that could accommodateour office.
I work with my husband, so he'spart of this too.
And we live and work here.
So I have zero commute.
Uh, and I just liked the ideathat I could leave my house at
three o'clock to walk down thehill, to pick up my daughter
from the bus, walk back up thehill and be here and have
freedom.
(05:00):
I, I think that more than money,people really want freedom.
I think that's.
Money.
People think money will bringthem freedom, but really what
they want is freedom.
Kate (05:10):
Yeah.
Liz Wolfe (05:10):
If they could do it without money, they'd do it
more.
Kate (05:13):
What was the, the shift from that, more corporate
coaching to, um, thisentrepreneurial world, do you
feel like that has helped, uh,get you closer to that ideal of
freedom?
Liz Wolfe (05:28):
Yes.
Because even when you have largeclients, like what I had, I
mean, I had, one of my biggestclients was a e television, and
I worked with them for verylong.
Like I was basically was theirtraining manager.
I was essentially had afull-time job while having a
full-time job of, of having myown business.
And it's really about, it feelslike more about choices.
(05:50):
Like when I had my baby, myfirst baby, I was.
I did not take three.
You would think, oh, well, Liz,you have your own business.
You can take three months.
No, I did that.
I got back as fast as I could,and I did that because I was
afraid of losing that position.
I didn't know how much theycould tolerate of me being away,
(06:12):
and I wanted to keep them as aclient.
I.
By the time I had my secondchild, which was like three or
four years later, I was like,nah, I don't care about that as
much.
And now, I mean, I, I literallynever have to answer to anyone
except maybe my husband a littlebit about where I'm going or
what I'm doing.
I design the whole thing
Kate (06:31):
I love that.
That's awesome.
Well, today we're gonna talkspecifically about
procrastination.
You've written a really, uh,great article about it.
How do you see procrastinationshowing up for entrepreneurs?
I.
Liz Wolfe (06:45):
Well, the biggest reason for, I'm just gonna
answer the question everybodyhas, which is why am I
procrastinating?
And the biggest reason peopleprocrastinate is resistance.
And the biggest lie we can tellourselves is that there's
something wrong with us and wethink, oh, I'm not disciplined
enough.
I don't have good timemanagement skills.
(07:07):
I'm lazy.
That's a very common one.
I, I know very few entrepreneursthat are lazy.
That's just not our style.
We're not lazy.
What?
But we don't understand when we,we have this feeling of being
stuck, like, well, why aren't Igetting it to why, why am I
leaving it to the last minute?
And what we do is we tellourselves stories like I'm just
(07:30):
not disciplined enough.
And then we work on the wrongthings.
We work on.
How many of you out there, raiseyour hand if this applies to
you.
Have ever thought, okay, I'mgonna time block, I'm gonna just
time block my days.
Or you say, okay, I'm gonna, Iplanner, I got a planner and I'm
gonna write everything downevery day.
And we just keep coming up withmore systems.
(07:51):
Now I like to look at systemslike a very good tool in your
entrepreneurial toolbox.
Systems are great and you doneed to figure out systems that
work for you.
And to be honest, I change mysystem sometimes.
Like sometimes I need to justwrite everything down on the
whiteboard and see what I have.
And sometimes I do need to timeblock and I have a lot more to
(08:12):
say about that type of working.
But if I'm not doing it, here'sthe secret.
People don't do what they don'twanna do.
I know I just said somethingreally obvious and I'm gonna
follow that up with somethingelse really obvious.
When you don't do it, it doesn'tget done.
(08:32):
So if you're not, if you, if youdon't understand why you don't
wanna do it, even though you sayyou do wanna do it, then you
get, this is where you getstuck.
So the way that I coach peoplearound this is I ask very simple
question.
What is, what is it that you areresisting?
(08:53):
If you ask yourself thatquestion, what am I resisting
then?
Typically you get a lot closerto the feelings.
Like, well, I'm afraid that ifI, uh, run a webinar that no
one's gonna show up and I'mresisting feeling like a failure
or, um, uh, it's hard and Idon't, big reason we don't do
(09:16):
things is we don't understand.
We don't know how to do stuff.
Learning curves, technology,right?
This is all the stuff.
So if you can ask yourself,rather than berating yourself
for not being better at what youare doing and managing your
times and your systems, if youcould ask yourself, what am I
resisting you, it will reveal toyou where, where you should put
your focus.
Kate (09:37):
So when you figure out what, what it is that is causing
you that resistance, how do yougo about correcting it or what
changes do you make to get pastthat procrastination?
Liz Wolfe (09:47):
Well, I have my customer journey with my
clients.
When I work with my one-on-oneis three parts.
The first one is vision.
You always have to know what youwant.
If you don't know what you want,uh, what that's like getting in
the car and just starting todrive right.
You know, we always put in alittle GPS system.
The second thing is, once youknow what your vision is, you
can have strategic action thatcould take you closer.
(10:09):
Now, a lot of people will stopthere and they'll say.
Okay, I'm in action now and so Ishould be getting results,
right?
And the results are great, butthe real value of getting into
action is specifically so thatyou can uncover what those
resistances are.
So we're not really talkingabout the whole first two parts
(10:31):
in this conversation, but if youdo know what you want, a
thriving business that's makingsix figures a year and.
Allows for time and moneyfreedom.
Let's just say it's prettygeneric, one that'll fit
everyone.
Then you say, well, I know whatI need to do.
I've never met an entrepreneurwhen I said,'cause they think
they're coming to me to helpthem to figure out what to do.
(10:54):
I've never, uh, so this is whatI do.
I'll say, all right, so, um,yeah, so tell me what, what
would your first actions be?
Everybody knows what I, well, Ireally gotta work on my website,
or I gotta do that.
Okay, now we get to why aren'tyou working on those yet?
And that's what I call thehidden barriers, where once you
(11:14):
get into action.
Have you ever noticed that howyou imagine something is, and
the reality of how it turns out,is often a lot different, right?
Kate (11:23):
Yeah.
Liz Wolfe (11:24):
So in my fantasy, in my, in my imagination, I'm, I'm
making so many sales calls aday, or I'm working on that blog
post, or I'm talking on a TEDstage, or whatever it is.
But in, when I start to do it, Ihave a lot more challenges that
come up, and those are the, whatI call the hidden barriers.
(11:45):
90% of those are mindset issues.
Talking yourself out of it,listening to your non-supporters
tell you why it's not gonnawork.
Uh, any, any fears that aregonna come up for you around
what it's gonna mean as areflection of you as a failure
or a success.
(12:07):
All of those old misconceptionsabout what it means to.
Ask for money, you know, all ofthose things are gonna start to
come up.
So getting into action, but thenyou gotta, it's not, you know,
how they say it's insanity isdoing the same thing over and
over again and not get andgetting, you know, same result.
But there's, that's, there'smore to it in that you are going
(12:30):
to get the same result unlessyou take some time to examine
what those fears are that arecoming up.
Kate (12:36):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so that's really that firststep too, like overcoming the
overwhelm.
That's kind of getting you intothat procrastination phase.
Um, can you tell me about a timethat maybe you've helped someone
through this?
Liz Wolfe (12:51):
One example that comes to mind is, um,
procrastinating about submittinginvoices.
So a lot of people say, Hey, Ireally want more money.
And then you say, great.
Have you invoiced your clients?
You know, a lot of people arebehind in billing.
(13:11):
You would think that that wouldbe the first thing everybody
would do.
In fact, I'm a little sheepishto admit right now that, uh,
actually.
There's a couple people thathave been meaning to email for a
few, you know, maybe at least aweek.
But Thanksgiving came along andI didn't do it.
So again, you, you know, the,the conversation that I had with
this person who was three monthsbehind on their billing
(13:33):
represents thousands of dollars.
You know, that's a lot of money.
And, and then it takes timeafter you bill them for people
to pay you.
Have you ever noticed there'sthat additional delays?
People don't wanna get rid oftheir money?
So in that example, you know,again, I, here's, here's the
method that I use.
First of all, you'll say to me,I need to do my billing.
(13:57):
And I'll say, you're right.
You absolutely need to do yourbilling.
Okay.
So I'll write down on my littledoc that I'm keeping track of.
Kate's gonna work on herbilling.
And then the next time I talk, Isay, so Kate, how'd you do on
your billing?
I say, oh, I didn't do it.
So it's, I think, pointless tothen say, okay, well let's just
put that on the list for nexttime.
(14:18):
Because if we put that on thelist for next time, you're just
gonna come back and say youhadn't done it.
So that's when the conversationabout resistance comes up.
And so in talking through itessentially, uh.
You know, here in thisparticular person's example, she
was afraid because the amount ofmoney was in the several
thousands of dollars, and shewas afraid that if she submitted
(14:43):
that it would come underscrutiny because there is
certainly a thing where certainlevel of money people are just
kind of pay it.
But after, you know, four or5,000 or$7,000.
Suddenly your work is comingunder a lot more scrutiny and
she had some underlying concernsthat, that the client would be
unhappy with it.
(15:03):
So the, you said it even just amoment ago, you know, let's
getting overwhelm comes fromlack of action, not being in
action.
And so you wanna think, what isthe smallest action I can take?
'cause I haven't taken the bigaction.
So what's the smallest action Ican take?
That will get, you know, it'slike striking the match or
(15:25):
pressing on the gas.
It's like gets it started, getsthat freight train moving
because a lot of times once youdo that first thing, you will
then want to keep going becauseit's small enough that you had
success with it.
People think that success comesfrom discipline, and I believe
(15:46):
that discipline comes fromsuccess.
It's actually opposite.
You'll be more disciplined whenyou have successes under your
belt,
Kate (15:55):
Let's, let's stop for a second and say that again.
yOu're saying discipline comesfrom success.
So you're feeling successful,um, it makes it easier to
continue to do that disciplinedthing.
Liz Wolfe (16:09):
Absolutely right because I think we have it
backwards.
We, we look at other people, youknow, like my husband goes
running every day or every otherday and he swims every day.
A lot of people would say, oh,he is, you know, he's so
disciplined.
He does that well.
He's also been doing it for areally long time, and he is been
very successful at doing it.
(16:32):
So it's a lot harder to getstarted with something than to
continue doing it.
Kate (16:37):
right?
So like when you see the resultsfrom the running or the
swimming, it makes it a loteasier for your brain to say,
yes, let's do that.
Um, and stay disciplined withthat action.
Liz Wolfe (16:48):
Yeah.
It's, uh, here's another goodexample is a lot of.
I mean, a big part of ourbuilding our businesses is
talking is, is prospecting.
Talking to prospects, either notso much social media, because
that's really, you don't get alot of clients from social media
unless you do, and I'm glad youdo if you do.
But for most of us, we have tomake direct contact with people.
(17:11):
People are not seeking us out,we are seeking them out and.
So why would I procrastinate?
Why would I procrast?
You just gotta ask yourself aquestion.
Why would I procrastinatesomething that is going to bring
me money if I do it?
Why would I do that?
That seems so silly.
It's the same thing for billing.
Why would I procrastinatesomething that, so there has to
(17:31):
be something else there, right?
Well.
I'm afraid of rejection.
I don't wanna be rejected.
I'm afraid that, uh, that won'tbe, I won't be good enough.
I'll feel awkward, I'll lookpushy.
Uh, you know, there's all thosetypes of things.
So that's why I'mprocrastinating.
It never fails that, you know,listen, I'm not, you know, I'm
(17:53):
not like a genius at notprocrastinating.
I sometimes procrastinate too,and I usually can feel the
anxiety starting to come up.
When I keep thinking, oh, Ididn't follow up with that
person.
Oh, I didn't follow up.
Oh, I didn't follow up.
So I can't tell you how manytimes I've just been like, ah,
I'm just gonna follow up.
And I pick up literally thephone.
(18:14):
I don't wanna do that anymore.
I pick up the phone and I callthem, and then they're very
receptive and happy to talk tome.
Now I wanna make more calls,right?
Because I just talked to'em.
Well, who else can I call untilyou get on a roll with it and
then it.
You're, you'll feel much moreinclined.
It's more about motivation thandiscipline.
Kate (18:34):
Okay.
You mentioned something abouttime blocking planners, those
tools that we use sometimes toget out of procrastination, and
you mentioned that you had somemore to say about it.
What, what are your thoughts onthose tools and things?
Liz Wolfe (18:48):
Okay.
There's three types of people.
People work in these, one ofthese three ways, time-based
task-based or target-basedtime-based people are the people
that like that pull up theircalendar, they print out a
(19:08):
planner, they have it and theydo time block their days.
There's people that do that verysuccessfully.
They time block their days.
They say, okay, I'm gonna, youknow, every day from eight 30 to
10 30, I'm gonna make calls,whatever.
Okay.
And those will be typically alsopeople who will have reasons to
(19:28):
have their schedule filled.
Like I have a lot of clientsthat I have to, I'm very
particular about my calendar, soI have to specifically block out
time to do the creative work.
Many of us do not do this.
I highly recommend you gottablock out the time.
Every Tuesday from 10 to 12, youwill find me writing because I
(19:48):
have a writing group and I doall my content.
It's only two hours a week thatyou'd be amazed at how much I
get done.
So time blocking.
This, and I have more to sayabout that, but I'll tell,
explain the other two.
Other people like to write outlaw tasks and check them off.
Oh, did it?
Did it, did it?
(20:08):
Okay.
That's very satisfying to knowthat those things, I have a
whiteboard and I erase it.
Like, yeah, did that.
Okay.
Target based are people thatwill work under deadline if they
have a target.
To get something done.
If it's too open-ended.
If there's no deadline, you arenot going to ever work on it.
(20:31):
Right.
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
So I am also inclined towards,now I'm sure everybody's hearing
a little bit of themselves ineach one of these things.
I am the most inclined to ta,uh, target, and that's why I
will do things like say, well, Ihave, I'm gonna send an email
every Thursday.
(20:51):
That's how I know on Tuesdaywhat I'm gonna be doing.
I'm gonna be writing my emailfor Thursday.
If I said I could send my emailon Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
or Friday, I'm never gonna do itright then.
It's gonna be the followingTuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
Okay?
Now, what I have found frommyself personally, that there
are times when I need to use anyone of those things.
(21:14):
So.
I do work on target base for themost part, but as I just said, I
have a calendar that gets prettyfull.
So I have, I have to schedule inthings that I really wanna get
done.
And the last thing on that, thatI'll say before ask if I you
have any questions about it, isfree time is not your friend.
(21:38):
You do not want an opencalendar.
Do you ever have a day whereyou're like, I have so much time
today, and then you get to theend of the day and you, you feel
like, what did I get done?
So it's good.
Kate (21:50):
I'm gonna, I'm gonna fight you on that one a little bit
because I do feel like thereshould be days where you don't
get anything done too, So, I,by, uh, another person that I'm
friends with, Sabrina Gehart,she talks about having white
space on your calendar
Liz Wolfe (22:05):
Mm-Hmm.
Kate (22:06):
where it's just open for you to not do anything, and
that's okay too.
And having that.
That space is an important partof like the creative process, I
feel like too.
Would you agree with that?
Liz Wolfe (22:17):
Yeah, I would definitely agree with that, and
I don't mean fill every hour ofevery day.
What I mean is that some peoplethink, oh, if only I didn't have
a job, I would have, I would beable to control all the time in
my day and so many hours, and Icould just do anything I want
all day long, every day.
That's what I mean by free timeisn't your friend.
(22:39):
So let me, maybe I need torephrase that for future, um,
unstructured time, unstructuredproductive time.
Isn't your friend
Kate (22:49):
it.
Liz Wolfe (22:49):
have free time so you can go do the things you wanna
do?
For sure.
Kate (22:53):
But yeah, I get it.
I get it what you're saying.
Totally.
Now that having just like noplan is going to you nowhere,
Liz Wolfe (23:02):
Right, having no plan and no structure.
And so it's helpful to start bya lot of times, again, if I'm
coaching a new entrepreneur,they have this recent like void
that opens up and you can alsospend a lot of time doing what
you would call busy work and andsay, well, what did I do?
So it is good to act like youhave to do certain things
(23:24):
certain times of the day.
You know, I have to, I mean, youschedule them in your day and do
that time blocking.
Until you can get into a flow.
Kate (23:33):
Yeah.
And I can see that the, that thetime blocking and the tasks list
are really important for thetargeted person still.
Um, because sometimes you havemore than one target and having
to fit all of those targets andgoals into one week, it's not
gonna happen unless you go inwith a vision and a plan, um,
(23:54):
and be strategic about it.
Let's talk a little bit moreabout that targeted, uh, person
and how maybe like the dopaminehit of having like a structured,
you know, the the thrill seekingpart of procrastination.
So
Liz Wolfe (24:11):
Yeah.
Kate (24:12):
someone might procrastinate to the last minute
to get that kind of likeexcitement over the project.
Is that something that you seehappening?
Liz Wolfe (24:21):
Yeah, so this is a funny thing.
I mean, many of us, either inhigh school or college or
whatever, we, we do the thingwhere we imagine that we will be
so organized and get everythingdone in our little milestone
project plan, and then weprocrastinate and then we get to
the part where we are.
(24:41):
So close to the deadline, andthen we rush through it by
staying up all night or youknow, just cramming everything
in and then at the end we'reexhausted, but we feel so good
because we accomplished it.
And then unfortunately,sometimes we do really well with
that.
And then we go, that was fun.
(25:02):
And so we, we think that that'sa, a thrill, right?
That really, that we get thatdopamine hit.
Um, what I always like to sayabout that is.
I will literally have peoplejustify to me that they do work
better if they're underpressure, and to which I will
reply.
I'm not gonna argue with you,I'm just going to point out that
(25:23):
you don't know because you'venever tried it the other way.
You don't know if your workwould be like that much better
because of the fact that you.
I actually had a relaxed amountof time to work on it, and what
I have found for myself is thathaving, you know, again,
everybody's done this right?
(25:44):
I, what I'm trying to do is pushwhere I start to get anxious
about the deadline I.
Farther away from the deadline.
So that, let's say I, um, I justdid a five day abundance
challenge and it started on aMonday.
Well, there would've been a timewhen every day I would've been
like preparing for the next day,preparing for the next day,
preparing for the next day.
(26:05):
But now I was like, yeah, but I,now I'm starting to feel anxious
about not having it prepared theprevious week.
Still have the same anxiety,still feel the same pressure,
but I have longer.
So I feel so much more relaxedwhen I'm actually going through
the process of doing it becausethey've the time to do it the
right way.
So I want to encourage people tohave that experience as well.
Kate (26:28):
So.
Liz Wolfe (26:29):
So.
Kate (26:29):
With that.
As entrepreneurs, we don't haveanybody telling us when
something is due all of thetime.
How do you go about finding thataccountability, setting
deadlines?
What do you do to make that workfor you and your business, and
how do you help your coachingclients with that as well?
Liz Wolfe (26:47):
Yeah, you have a really good point.
Well, as a coach, I am what Iam, the accountability for my
clients, and I'm very specificabout asking.
What are you going to work onnext?
And by when are you gonna havethat?
So it's very good to have arelationship with that type of
person.
A lot of people, when I'mtalking to them at the
(27:08):
beginning, just as prospects,they will say, I need
accountability.
There are people in the world,my husband is one of them who
will say, I'm going to dosomething and then do it.
Even though no one is noticing.
There are definitely people outthere in the world that that do
that.
Other people need are more ofwhat they would call an obliger,
(27:31):
which is somebody who needs tobe obliged to to someone in
order to be accountable.
So.
F.
That's who I am for my clientsand it's very effective.
People will come and they'll belike, oh, it's been a couple
months and I'll feel like I'mmaking progress.
And then it gradually they startto make more progress.
'cause I'm gonna ask you everysingle time, I'm never not gonna
(27:53):
ask you whether you did whateveryou said you were gonna do.
So that's for other people.
As far as myself, I mean, I havean accountability buddy.
That's another way to do it isget what we call an
accountability buddy.
And so someone else to beaccountable for, of course they
have to also be accountable toyou so that you feel like
(28:14):
there's, like, it can't be athing where they say, ah, I
didn't do mine and now you'regoing, well, I didn't you if you
didn't do yours, why do I haveto do mine?
I, you know, so it has to bethat empowered relationship.
Uh, but again, I would say themost powerful motivator for me
is success.
And the method that I use is Iwill schedule myself.
(28:38):
I have a little team, so I'lllet everybody, it's public.
I let everybody know I'm gonnado this, and now I'm a little
embarrassed if I don't do it.
So I do it.
Kate (28:47):
That's great.
And I love your, your writingtime, your two hour block a
week.
That's smart too.
And you have some accountabilitythere as well with your group.
That's awesome.
Um, is there any way that we canprocrastinate well or turn it
into something that is aproductive tool?
Liz Wolfe (29:07):
Yes.
Well, there's a lot of timeswhen you shouldn't be doing the
thing you think you'reprocrastinating about anyway.
Um, where you.
What, what we would callproductive procrastination.
So this is something that we dois as we think, oh, I should be
writing my book.
(29:27):
We say, but I also should be,uh, cleaning my house.
Or, you know, I have a used to,I just got rid of it, but a
cloth foot tub.
And you know, it's really hardto clean underneath those
things.
But when I have a reallyimportant deadline, oh boy, that
gets real clean under there.
I'm like, you know, I grew up inan Italian family, so you get on
your hands and knees and you getunder what?
(29:50):
But my bathroom is nice andclean.
So it's what we would callproductive procrastination.
Um, so one way to procrastinatewell is to have enough things on
your.
List, uh, that are meaningful toyou of your, you know,
proverbial task lists that aremeaningful to you so that if
you're not working on this, atleast you're working on
(30:12):
something else that is alsomeaningful to you.
And if you are going to do that,I highly recommend you pick
things that are annoying you orthat you're tolerating, even if
they're little things.
Cleaning off your desk.
Um, finally putting away a,some, you know, your suitcase
that you have had out since youcame back.
(30:33):
So that type of thing.
But there's also, there's areally, really good book called
Procrastinate on Purpose that Irecommend.
One of the things he says is.
You, you can delegate.
There's 11 eights.
There's delegate.
Um, there's other eights.
But one of the ones I liked waseliminate, maybe I don't really
(30:57):
need to be doing this or maybe Ican give it to somebody else to
do you.
That's, this goes right back towhat we talked about in the
beginning, which is.
Uh, what are you resisting aboutit?
Well, you know, it could be atask you just don't like
dealing.
So many people tell me they donot like posting on social media
as an example.
So either don't do it or perhapsdelegate to someone else.
Kate (31:22):
Yeah, I was having that conversation with someone
yesterday that, uh, I just don'tenjoy Instagram.
That's not something I wanna do.
And we talked about it and it'slike, well, are your clients
coming from Instagram?
No.
So how can we eliminate it orautomate it or.
Do something different.
So that is a great place to, um,end today.
Um, can you tell us, I have acouple more questions for you
(31:44):
for little fun lightning round,but can you first tell us where
we can find you, um, and do youhave a freebie?
That would be a great resourcefor us, if you could tell us
about that as well.
Liz Wolfe (31:54):
Yes.
Uh, I'monline@lizWolfecoaching.com, so
that's Wolfe with an E, so lizWolfe coaching.com.
And if you just do a littleforward slash quiz, you'll get
a, it is just a fun 10 questionquiz that's actually very
valuable to help you tounderstand.
What your work style is, whatyour CEO style is, and there are
(32:16):
four different types of CEOstyles.
And then if in doing so, you canunderstand why you do feel
stuck.
So some of the ways in which youmight be procrastinating could
be because of your work style.
So I recommend that you do that.
It's just a fun, easy quiz todo.
Kate (32:34):
Very cool.
And what is your favorite way towork with people?
Your favorite offer right now?
Liz Wolfe (32:40):
I work one-on-one with people in coaching
relationships, and I typicallywill start with people in six
months if they wanna get theirbusiness started.
I highly recommend getting yourbusiness started now because it
will never be I.
Any earlier than it is rightnow, and there's a lot to talk
about to get it going, to beginwith a lot of creative process
(33:04):
in the beginning.
And so if anyone is out therelistening or if you just feel
stuck or maybe you've been doingsomething for a while and feel
it doesn't work that well foryou, you absolutely, I'm I, I
have a pre-call.
You can just get on my websiteand sign up for a time with me.
Kate (33:20):
Wonderful.
All right, let's go into justsome quick fun questions.
something that you've readlately?
A book, um, that is either forfun or for business that you
really loved and wouldrecommend.
Liz Wolfe (33:32):
Yeah, well, I just mentioned that Procrastinate on
purpose book, so I definitelywould recommend that because
duh, we're talking aboutprocrastination, so I definitely
recommend that.
Another book that I alwaysrecommend to everybody all the
time, I just loved it so much.
It's called Big Magic byElizabeth Gilbert.
Did you read that one?
Kate (33:49):
that book.
I've read it several times.
Liz Wolfe (33:52):
Several times.
Yeah.
Great.
And it, I, you can also listento it if you, you know, if you
have library or audio app.
Uh, so I definitely recommend
Kate (34:01):
Have you listened to the podcast that accompanies it?
Liz Wolfe (34:05):
I actually have not, I didn't even know about that.
Kate (34:07):
she has a, uh, it's a two season podcast called Magic
Lessons.
That's fabulous.
So definitely check that out
Liz Wolfe (34:14):
Oh, thank
Kate (34:15):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So of podcasts, what, um, haveyou listened to a podcast lately
that you've loved either aparticular episode or just a
show that you in or enjoy?
Liz Wolfe (34:25):
Yes, and I listen to a lot of audio books, so I spend
less time listening to podcasts.
But my sister rec recommendedone and I listened to one,
which, uh, recently called WiserThan Me.
Have you heard about this one?
Kate (34:38):
haven't.
Liz Wolfe (34:39):
Um, it is.
Okay.
Julie.
Julie Dreyfuss?
Kate (34:43):
Drive?
Yes.
Liz Wolfe (34:44):
Yeah.
Okay.
I dunno.
Kate (34:45):
Elaine from Seinfeld,
Liz Wolfe (34:46):
friends.
never, I never, I mean,Seinfeld, I never watched
friends or Seinfeld, so Oh yeah,I was, but uh, yes, that's who
it is.
And she, what she does is sheinterviews older women and the
first one was with Jane Fonda,which was really fun.
I,'cause I really just love her.
So that, that's a podcast I'velistened to recently that I
(35:07):
thought was really enjoyable.
Kate (35:09):
Very cool.
And you said that you were intophotography and creative things
in the past.
Is there a creative hobby thatyou have now that you enjoy?
Liz Wolfe (35:18):
Oh, you gotta be careful about asking me about
that.
So I play bluegrass music and Ilead, I organize and lead jams a
lot, and way more than myhusband wants me to.
And I just had one here in myhouse last night, so, so much
fun.
I mean, again.
(35:39):
It's way.
If I knew 20 years ago how easyit was, let's say, to play the
guitar, now I'm playing the basslast night, someone who I was
flicking away on their mandolin,I don't play the mandolin.
I was like, this isn't thathard.
Where do we get the ideas thatthese things are so hard?
It's not that hard.
You can learn it.
Kate (35:58):
I love it.
Is there anything, lastquestion, anything that's been
sparking your curiosity lately,um, that you're just excited to
learn?
Liz Wolfe (36:07):
Well, I guess I would follow that to say that, um,
the, I'm learning how to playthe bass.
Who knew?
I didn't even know.
I wanted to learn how to playthe bass and that, that's a lot
of fun.
And, and I'm been picking it up,but I am constantly, I always
like to tell, say that myclients, to my clients, I do
those.
I read the books.
I do those$10,000 programs.
(36:29):
I make the mistakes.
I do all of that.
So you don't have to, wouldn'tyou rather I spend the money on
that and read the book so that Ican just distill it down and
give you that information.
So
Kate (36:39):
I love that I'm, I'm a constant learner too, so that's
why I always ask that questionabout what's sparking your
interest and curiosity
Liz Wolfe (36:45):
yeah,
Kate (36:46):
learning because there's so much to learn and enjoy in
the world.
Liz Wolfe (36:50):
so much.
So much.
Yeah.
Kate (36:51):
wonderful.
Well, thank you so much, Liz.
It was great talking with you.
We loved our conversation.
Liz Wolfe (36:55):
Yes.
Thank you, Kate.
Really fabulous.
ATR2100x-USB Microphone-1 (36:58):
Thank you so much for joining me for
this episode of how you picturedit.
I hope you enjoyed thisconversation with Liz as much as
I did.
Uh, one of my biggest takeawayswas sitting through when
thinking about why I'mprocrastinating on some of the
things that I do procrastinateon often, and also looking at
those different types of goals,the task, the time and the
targeted goals that Lizdiscussed in this episode.
(37:21):
I'd love to hear what yourbiggest takeaway was.
Shoot me a DM over on Instagramat dear Kate brand strategy.
And let me know what youthought..
If you're enjoying the, how youpictured it podcast, I'd love
for you to leave a review onwhatever podcast player you're
listening in.
It helps others to find the showand lets me know what you want
to hear more of.
Can't wait to talk to you againnext week.
Have a good one.
Today's episode is perfectly timely for the end of
(00:02):
the year.
As we start to look forward towhat we're going to do next
year, what changes we need tomake and what things went well.
And our business this year andmaybe those things that didn't
go so great.
Today, I'm talking with LizWolfee of Liz Wolfee coaching,
and we're talking aboutprocrastination.
This conversation was so good.
I loved hearing all of her tipsand ideas around this.
We talked about why youprocrastinate ways to get out of
(00:25):
that and how to procrastinate.
Well, All right.
I am here today with Liz Wolfeof Liz Wolfe Coaching.
I'm so excited to talk to youtoday.
Liz, can you go ahead and givejust a brief introduction to who
you are and what you do?
Liz Wolfe (00:38):
Yes, thank you Kate, for having me on.
I, my name is Liz Wolfe and Ilive in New York City and I'm a
business coach forentrepreneurs, and what I do is
I help, especially starting outentrepreneurs.
So newer entrepreneurs launchand grow an abundant business.
Kate (00:55):
And you started in a different career, correct?
Liz Wolfe (01:00):
Well, let's see.
How many careers back?
Do you want me, do you want meto go?
Uh, I did.
I did.
Yeah.
Kate (01:08):
you were in kind of a corporate position previously
and then you moved intoentrepreneurship.
What made you make that jump?
Liz Wolfe (01:16):
Well, the back, back, back, back backstory is that I
grew up on a sheep farm inWestern Pennsylvania and we were
very entrepreneurial.
We had a cottage industryessentially selling wool
products, and that's a veryshort story to a very long
story.
That's a short sum summary of avery long story, and I was
actually a photography major incollege.
(01:38):
So I left thinking I'm gonna bean artist, and then I decided,
no, I like music.
So then I came to New York Cityto do music, and then I got into
the computer world.
I got, this was in the lateeighties, early nineties, when
people don't realize this asmuch now, but you know, things
like learning Excel or using aCRM system were very, very
(02:01):
impactful.
Like it was scary to people evenjust.
Using the internet.
So I had a illustrious careerfor 20 years, uh, really
coaching people in technology,in the technology world.
So I had a couple of very bigclients who needed B to teach
(02:21):
them how to use technology and.
Then, so actually I had my ownbusiness, but it was all
corporate clients.
was very corporate in nature.
So I spent a lot of time incorporate meetings, just like
lots of people I'm sure that arelistening to this, and I just
decided, you know, technology, Imean, it's matured and I just
(02:42):
don't have the same passion forit as I used to.
But what I was always passionateabout and am very passionate
about now, is helping peoplewith their mindset around how to
be successful and abundant,especially as this is especially
applicable to entrepreneurs,because we're constantly being
(03:03):
challenged by.
Thoughts of inadequacy aroundhow we're gonna make ourselves
be successful and, and live thelife we love.
So I broke free of that techworld and focused all my energy
on being the best coach I couldbe.
Kate (03:20):
I love that, and it sounds like you really had an
entrepreneurial start, likeyou've been part of that
entrepreneurial world from anearly age.
That's really cool.
Um,.How have you adapted andbuilt your business to fit the
life that you want?
Liz Wolfe (03:37):
Well, even when I was young, you know, I was growing
up on the farm.
My mother worked very, veryhard.
By the way, it was my mother'sidea to help this farm, not my
father's.
Uh, we worked, she was very hardworker and also a very talented
fiber artist.
In other words, she, she wasvery creative, artsy, right?
(03:57):
So you have to know that I had avery strong role model with a,
from a woman who was basically,at that time you were, you were
a housewife with when you hadchildren in the late fifties,
early sixties.
So, I.
Always knew that I wanted to beavailable to my children, should
I have them?
(04:19):
I do not like when somebody cantells me I can go on vacation or
go to my kids', you know, fifthgrade play or something like
that.
And just the idea of wanting to,like I, I own a townhouse in New
York City, so we have both ouroffice here, we, we bought.
(04:40):
A house that could accommodateour office.
I work with my husband, so he'spart of this too.
And we live and work here.
So I have zero commute.
Uh, and I just liked the ideathat I could leave my house at
three o'clock to walk down thehill, to pick up my daughter
from the bus, walk back up thehill and be here and have
freedom.
(05:00):
I, I think that more than money,people really want freedom.
I think that's.
Money.
People think money will bringthem freedom, but really what
they want is freedom.
Kate (05:10):
Yeah.
Liz Wolfe (05:10):
If they could do it without money, they'd do it
more.
Kate (05:13):
What was the, the shift from that, more corporate
coaching to, um, thisentrepreneurial world, do you
feel like that has helped, uh,get you closer to that ideal of
freedom?
Liz Wolfe (05:28):
Yes.
Because even when you have largeclients, like what I had, I
mean, I had, one of my biggestclients was a e television, and
I worked with them for verylong.
Like I was basically was theirtraining manager.
I was essentially had afull-time job while having a
full-time job of, of having myown business.
And it's really about, it feelslike more about choices.
(05:50):
Like when I had my baby, myfirst baby, I was.
I did not take three.
You would think, oh, well, Liz,you have your own business.
You can take three months.
No, I did that.
I got back as fast as I could,and I did that because I was
afraid of losing that position.
I didn't know how much theycould tolerate of me being away,
(06:12):
and I wanted to keep them as aclient.
I.
By the time I had my secondchild, which was like three or
four years later, I was like,nah, I don't care about that as
much.
And now, I mean, I, I literallynever have to answer to anyone
except maybe my husband a littlebit about where I'm going or
what I'm doing.
I design the whole thing
Kate (06:31):
I love that.
That's awesome.
Well, today we're gonna talkspecifically about
procrastination.
You've written a really, uh,great article about it.
How do you see procrastinationshowing up for entrepreneurs?
I.
Liz Wolfe (06:45):
Well, the biggest reason for, I'm just gonna
answer the question everybodyhas, which is why am I
procrastinating?
And the biggest reason peopleprocrastinate is resistance.
And the biggest lie we can tellourselves is that there's
something wrong with us and wethink, oh, I'm not disciplined
enough.
I don't have good timemanagement skills.
(07:07):
I'm lazy.
That's a very common one.
I, I know very few entrepreneursthat are lazy.
That's just not our style.
We're not lazy.
What?
But we don't understand when we,we have this feeling of being
stuck, like, well, why aren't Igetting it to why, why am I
leaving it to the last minute?
And what we do is we tellourselves stories like I'm just
(07:30):
not disciplined enough.
And then we work on the wrongthings.
We work on.
How many of you out there, raiseyour hand if this applies to
you.
Have ever thought, okay, I'mgonna time block, I'm gonna just
time block my days.
Or you say, okay, I'm gonna, Iplanner, I got a planner and I'm
gonna write everything downevery day.
And we just keep coming up withmore systems.
(07:51):
Now I like to look at systemslike a very good tool in your
entrepreneurial toolbox.
Systems are great and you doneed to figure out systems that
work for you.
And to be honest, I change mysystem sometimes.
Like sometimes I need to justwrite everything down on the
whiteboard and see what I have.
And sometimes I do need to timeblock and I have a lot more to
(08:12):
say about that type of working.
But if I'm not doing it, here'sthe secret.
People don't do what they don'twanna do.
I know I just said somethingreally obvious and I'm gonna
follow that up with somethingelse really obvious.
When you don't do it, it doesn'tget done.
(08:32):
So if you're not, if you, if youdon't understand why you don't
wanna do it, even though you sayyou do wanna do it, then you
get, this is where you getstuck.
So the way that I coach peoplearound this is I ask very simple
question.
What is, what is it that you areresisting?
(08:53):
If you ask yourself thatquestion, what am I resisting
then?
Typically you get a lot closerto the feelings.
Like, well, I'm afraid that ifI, uh, run a webinar that no
one's gonna show up and I'mresisting feeling like a failure
or, um, uh, it's hard and Idon't, big reason we don't do
(09:16):
things is we don't understand.
We don't know how to do stuff.
Learning curves, technology,right?
This is all the stuff.
So if you can ask yourself,rather than berating yourself
for not being better at what youare doing and managing your
times and your systems, if youcould ask yourself, what am I
resisting you, it will reveal toyou where, where you should put
your focus.
Kate (09:37):
So when you figure out what, what it is that is causing
you that resistance, how do yougo about correcting it or what
changes do you make to get pastthat procrastination?
Liz Wolfe (09:47):
Well, I have my customer journey with my
clients.
When I work with my one-on-oneis three parts.
The first one is vision.
You always have to know what youwant.
If you don't know what you want,uh, what that's like getting in
the car and just starting todrive right.
You know, we always put in alittle GPS system.
The second thing is, once youknow what your vision is, you
can have strategic action thatcould take you closer.
(10:09):
Now, a lot of people will stopthere and they'll say.
Okay, I'm in action now and so Ishould be getting results,
right?
And the results are great, butthe real value of getting into
action is specifically so thatyou can uncover what those
resistances are.
So we're not really talkingabout the whole first two parts
(10:31):
in this conversation, but if youdo know what you want, a
thriving business that's makingsix figures a year and.
Allows for time and moneyfreedom.
Let's just say it's prettygeneric, one that'll fit
everyone.
Then you say, well, I know whatI need to do.
I've never met an entrepreneurwhen I said,'cause they think
they're coming to me to helpthem to figure out what to do.
(10:54):
I've never, uh, so this is whatI do.
I'll say, all right, so, um,yeah, so tell me what, what
would your first actions be?
Everybody knows what I, well, Ireally gotta work on my website,
or I gotta do that.
Okay, now we get to why aren'tyou working on those yet?
And that's what I call thehidden barriers, where once you
(11:14):
get into action.
Have you ever noticed that howyou imagine something is, and
the reality of how it turns out,is often a lot different, right?
Kate (11:23):
Yeah.
Liz Wolfe (11:24):
So in my fantasy, in my, in my imagination, I'm, I'm
making so many sales calls aday, or I'm working on that blog
post, or I'm talking on a TEDstage, or whatever it is.
But in, when I start to do it, Ihave a lot more challenges that
come up, and those are the, whatI call the hidden barriers.
(11:45):
90% of those are mindset issues.
Talking yourself out of it,listening to your non-supporters
tell you why it's not gonnawork.
Uh, any, any fears that aregonna come up for you around
what it's gonna mean as areflection of you as a failure
or a success.
(12:07):
All of those old misconceptionsabout what it means to.
Ask for money, you know, all ofthose things are gonna start to
come up.
So getting into action, but thenyou gotta, it's not, you know,
how they say it's insanity isdoing the same thing over and
over again and not get andgetting, you know, same result.
But there's, that's, there'smore to it in that you are going
(12:30):
to get the same result unlessyou take some time to examine
what those fears are that arecoming up.
Kate (12:36):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so that's really that firststep too, like overcoming the
overwhelm.
That's kind of getting you intothat procrastination phase.
Um, can you tell me about a timethat maybe you've helped someone
through this?
Liz Wolfe (12:51):
One example that comes to mind is, um,
procrastinating about submittinginvoices.
So a lot of people say, Hey, Ireally want more money.
And then you say, great.
Have you invoiced your clients?
You know, a lot of people arebehind in billing.
(13:11):
You would think that that wouldbe the first thing everybody
would do.
In fact, I'm a little sheepishto admit right now that, uh,
actually.
There's a couple people thathave been meaning to email for a
few, you know, maybe at least aweek.
But Thanksgiving came along andI didn't do it.
So again, you, you know, the,the conversation that I had with
this person who was three monthsbehind on their billing
(13:33):
represents thousands of dollars.
You know, that's a lot of money.
And, and then it takes timeafter you bill them for people
to pay you.
Have you ever noticed there'sthat additional delays?
People don't wanna get rid oftheir money?
So in that example, you know,again, I, here's, here's the
method that I use.
First of all, you'll say to me,I need to do my billing.
(13:57):
And I'll say, you're right.
You absolutely need to do yourbilling.
Okay.
So I'll write down on my littledoc that I'm keeping track of.
Kate's gonna work on herbilling.
And then the next time I talk, Isay, so Kate, how'd you do on
your billing?
I say, oh, I didn't do it.
So it's, I think, pointless tothen say, okay, well let's just
put that on the list for nexttime.
(14:18):
Because if we put that on thelist for next time, you're just
gonna come back and say youhadn't done it.
So that's when the conversationabout resistance comes up.
And so in talking through itessentially, uh.
You know, here in thisparticular person's example, she
was afraid because the amount ofmoney was in the several
thousands of dollars, and shewas afraid that if she submitted
(14:43):
that it would come underscrutiny because there is
certainly a thing where certainlevel of money people are just
kind of pay it.
But after, you know, four or5,000 or$7,000.
Suddenly your work is comingunder a lot more scrutiny and
she had some underlying concernsthat, that the client would be
unhappy with it.
(15:03):
So the, you said it even just amoment ago, you know, let's
getting overwhelm comes fromlack of action, not being in
action.
And so you wanna think, what isthe smallest action I can take?
'cause I haven't taken the bigaction.
So what's the smallest action Ican take?
That will get, you know, it'slike striking the match or
(15:25):
pressing on the gas.
It's like gets it started, getsthat freight train moving
because a lot of times once youdo that first thing, you will
then want to keep going becauseit's small enough that you had
success with it.
People think that success comesfrom discipline, and I believe
(15:46):
that discipline comes fromsuccess.
It's actually opposite.
You'll be more disciplined whenyou have successes under your
belt,
Kate (15:55):
Let's, let's stop for a second and say that again.
yOu're saying discipline comesfrom success.
So you're feeling successful,um, it makes it easier to
continue to do that disciplinedthing.
Liz Wolfe (16:09):
Absolutely right because I think we have it
backwards.
We, we look at other people, youknow, like my husband goes
running every day or every otherday and he swims every day.
A lot of people would say, oh,he is, you know, he's so
disciplined.
He does that well.
He's also been doing it for areally long time, and he is been
very successful at doing it.
(16:32):
So it's a lot harder to getstarted with something than to
continue doing it.
Kate (16:37):
right?
So like when you see the resultsfrom the running or the
swimming, it makes it a loteasier for your brain to say,
yes, let's do that.
Um, and stay disciplined withthat action.
Liz Wolfe (16:48):
Yeah.
It's, uh, here's another goodexample is a lot of.
I mean, a big part of ourbuilding our businesses is
talking is, is prospecting.
Talking to prospects, either notso much social media, because
that's really, you don't get alot of clients from social media
unless you do, and I'm glad youdo if you do.
But for most of us, we have tomake direct contact with people.
(17:11):
People are not seeking us out,we are seeking them out and.
So why would I procrastinate?
Why would I procrast?
You just gotta ask yourself aquestion.
Why would I procrastinatesomething that is going to bring
me money if I do it?
Why would I do that?
That seems so silly.
It's the same thing for billing.
Why would I procrastinatesomething that, so there has to
(17:31):
be something else there, right?
Well.
I'm afraid of rejection.
I don't wanna be rejected.
I'm afraid that, uh, that won'tbe, I won't be good enough.
I'll feel awkward, I'll lookpushy.
Uh, you know, there's all thosetypes of things.
So that's why I'mprocrastinating.
It never fails that, you know,listen, I'm not, you know, I'm
(17:53):
not like a genius at notprocrastinating.
I sometimes procrastinate too,and I usually can feel the
anxiety starting to come up.
When I keep thinking, oh, Ididn't follow up with that
person.
Oh, I didn't follow up.
Oh, I didn't follow up.
So I can't tell you how manytimes I've just been like, ah,
I'm just gonna follow up.
And I pick up literally thephone.
(18:14):
I don't wanna do that anymore.
I pick up the phone and I callthem, and then they're very
receptive and happy to talk tome.
Now I wanna make more calls,right?
Because I just talked to'em.
Well, who else can I call untilyou get on a roll with it and
then it.
You're, you'll feel much moreinclined.
It's more about motivation thandiscipline.
Kate (18:34):
Okay.
You mentioned something abouttime blocking planners, those
tools that we use sometimes toget out of procrastination, and
you mentioned that you had somemore to say about it.
What, what are your thoughts onthose tools and things?
Liz Wolfe (18:48):
Okay.
There's three types of people.
People work in these, one ofthese three ways, time-based
task-based or target-basedtime-based people are the people
that like that pull up theircalendar, they print out a
(19:08):
planner, they have it and theydo time block their days.
There's people that do that verysuccessfully.
They time block their days.
They say, okay, I'm gonna, youknow, every day from eight 30 to
10 30, I'm gonna make calls,whatever.
Okay.
And those will be typically alsopeople who will have reasons to
(19:28):
have their schedule filled.
Like I have a lot of clientsthat I have to, I'm very
particular about my calendar, soI have to specifically block out
time to do the creative work.
Many of us do not do this.
I highly recommend you gottablock out the time.
Every Tuesday from 10 to 12, youwill find me writing because I
(19:48):
have a writing group and I doall my content.
It's only two hours a week thatyou'd be amazed at how much I
get done.
So time blocking.
This, and I have more to sayabout that, but I'll tell,
explain the other two.
Other people like to write outlaw tasks and check them off.
Oh, did it?
Did it, did it?
(20:08):
Okay.
That's very satisfying to knowthat those things, I have a
whiteboard and I erase it.
Like, yeah, did that.
Okay.
Target based are people thatwill work under deadline if they
have a target.
To get something done.
If it's too open-ended.
If there's no deadline, you arenot going to ever work on it.
(20:31):
Right.
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
So I am also inclined towards,now I'm sure everybody's hearing
a little bit of themselves ineach one of these things.
I am the most inclined to ta,uh, target, and that's why I
will do things like say, well, Ihave, I'm gonna send an email
every Thursday.
(20:51):
That's how I know on Tuesdaywhat I'm gonna be doing.
I'm gonna be writing my emailfor Thursday.
If I said I could send my emailon Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
or Friday, I'm never gonna do itright then.
It's gonna be the followingTuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
Okay?
Now, what I have found frommyself personally, that there
are times when I need to use anyone of those things.
(21:14):
So.
I do work on target base for themost part, but as I just said, I
have a calendar that gets prettyfull.
So I have, I have to schedule inthings that I really wanna get
done.
And the last thing on that, thatI'll say before ask if I you
have any questions about it, isfree time is not your friend.
(21:38):
You do not want an opencalendar.
Do you ever have a day whereyou're like, I have so much time
today, and then you get to theend of the day and you, you feel
like, what did I get done?
So it's good.
Kate (21:50):
I'm gonna, I'm gonna fight you on that one a little bit
because I do feel like thereshould be days where you don't
get anything done too, So, I,by, uh, another person that I'm
friends with, Sabrina Gehart,she talks about having white
space on your calendar
Liz Wolfe (22:05):
Mm-Hmm.
Kate (22:06):
where it's just open for you to not do anything, and
that's okay too.
And having that.
That space is an important partof like the creative process, I
feel like too.
Would you agree with that?
Liz Wolfe (22:17):
Yeah, I would definitely agree with that, and
I don't mean fill every hour ofevery day.
What I mean is that some peoplethink, oh, if only I didn't have
a job, I would have, I would beable to control all the time in
my day and so many hours, and Icould just do anything I want
all day long, every day.
That's what I mean by free timeisn't your friend.
(22:39):
So let me, maybe I need torephrase that for future, um,
unstructured time, unstructuredproductive time.
Isn't your friend
Kate (22:49):
it.
Liz Wolfe (22:49):
have free time so you can go do the things you wanna
do?
For sure.
Kate (22:53):
But yeah, I get it.
I get it what you're saying.
Totally.
Now that having just like noplan is going to you nowhere,
Liz Wolfe (23:02):
Right, having no plan and no structure.
And so it's helpful to start bya lot of times, again, if I'm
coaching a new entrepreneur,they have this recent like void
that opens up and you can alsospend a lot of time doing what
you would call busy work and andsay, well, what did I do?
So it is good to act like youhave to do certain things
(23:24):
certain times of the day.
You know, I have to, I mean, youschedule them in your day and do
that time blocking.
Until you can get into a flow.
Kate (23:33):
Yeah.
And I can see that the, that thetime blocking and the tasks list
are really important for thetargeted person still.
Um, because sometimes you havemore than one target and having
to fit all of those targets andgoals into one week, it's not
gonna happen unless you go inwith a vision and a plan, um,
(23:54):
and be strategic about it.
Let's talk a little bit moreabout that targeted, uh, person
and how maybe like the dopaminehit of having like a structured,
you know, the the thrill seekingpart of procrastination.
So
Liz Wolfe (24:11):
Yeah.
Kate (24:12):
someone might procrastinate to the last minute
to get that kind of likeexcitement over the project.
Is that something that you seehappening?
Liz Wolfe (24:21):
Yeah, so this is a funny thing.
I mean, many of us, either inhigh school or college or
whatever, we, we do the thingwhere we imagine that we will be
so organized and get everythingdone in our little milestone
project plan, and then weprocrastinate and then we get to
the part where we are.
(24:41):
So close to the deadline, andthen we rush through it by
staying up all night or youknow, just cramming everything
in and then at the end we'reexhausted, but we feel so good
because we accomplished it.
And then unfortunately,sometimes we do really well with
that.
And then we go, that was fun.
(25:02):
And so we, we think that that'sa, a thrill, right?
That really, that we get thatdopamine hit.
Um, what I always like to sayabout that is.
I will literally have peoplejustify to me that they do work
better if they're underpressure, and to which I will
reply.
I'm not gonna argue with you,I'm just going to point out that
(25:23):
you don't know because you'venever tried it the other way.
You don't know if your workwould be like that much better
because of the fact that you.
I actually had a relaxed amountof time to work on it, and what
I have found for myself is thathaving, you know, again,
everybody's done this right?
(25:44):
I, what I'm trying to do is pushwhere I start to get anxious
about the deadline I.
Farther away from the deadline.
So that, let's say I, um, I justdid a five day abundance
challenge and it started on aMonday.
Well, there would've been a timewhen every day I would've been
like preparing for the next day,preparing for the next day,
preparing for the next day.
(26:05):
But now I was like, yeah, but I,now I'm starting to feel anxious
about not having it prepared theprevious week.
Still have the same anxiety,still feel the same pressure,
but I have longer.
So I feel so much more relaxedwhen I'm actually going through
the process of doing it becausethey've the time to do it the
right way.
So I want to encourage people tohave that experience as well.
Kate (26:28):
So.
Liz Wolfe (26:29):
So.
Kate (26:29):
With that.
As entrepreneurs, we don't haveanybody telling us when
something is due all of thetime.
How do you go about finding thataccountability, setting
deadlines?
What do you do to make that workfor you and your business, and
how do you help your coachingclients with that as well?
Liz Wolfe (26:47):
Yeah, you have a really good point.
Well, as a coach, I am what Iam, the accountability for my
clients, and I'm very specificabout asking.
What are you going to work onnext?
And by when are you gonna havethat?
So it's very good to have arelationship with that type of
person.
A lot of people, when I'mtalking to them at the
(27:08):
beginning, just as prospects,they will say, I need
accountability.
There are people in the world,my husband is one of them who
will say, I'm going to dosomething and then do it.
Even though no one is noticing.
There are definitely people outthere in the world that that do
that.
Other people need are more ofwhat they would call an obliger,
(27:31):
which is somebody who needs tobe obliged to to someone in
order to be accountable.
So.
F.
That's who I am for my clientsand it's very effective.
People will come and they'll belike, oh, it's been a couple
months and I'll feel like I'mmaking progress.
And then it gradually they startto make more progress.
'cause I'm gonna ask you everysingle time, I'm never not gonna
(27:53):
ask you whether you did whateveryou said you were gonna do.
So that's for other people.
As far as myself, I mean, I havean accountability buddy.
That's another way to do it isget what we call an
accountability buddy.
And so someone else to beaccountable for, of course they
have to also be accountable toyou so that you feel like
(28:14):
there's, like, it can't be athing where they say, ah, I
didn't do mine and now you'regoing, well, I didn't you if you
didn't do yours, why do I haveto do mine?
I, you know, so it has to bethat empowered relationship.
Uh, but again, I would say themost powerful motivator for me
is success.
And the method that I use is Iwill schedule myself.
(28:38):
I have a little team, so I'lllet everybody, it's public.
I let everybody know I'm gonnado this, and now I'm a little
embarrassed if I don't do it.
So I do it.
Kate (28:47):
That's great.
And I love your, your writingtime, your two hour block a
week.
That's smart too.
And you have some accountabilitythere as well with your group.
That's awesome.
Um, is there any way that we canprocrastinate well or turn it
into something that is aproductive tool?
Liz Wolfe (29:07):
Yes.
Well, there's a lot of timeswhen you shouldn't be doing the
thing you think you'reprocrastinating about anyway.
Um, where you.
What, what we would callproductive procrastination.
So this is something that we dois as we think, oh, I should be
writing my book.
(29:27):
We say, but I also should be,uh, cleaning my house.
Or, you know, I have a used to,I just got rid of it, but a
cloth foot tub.
And you know, it's really hardto clean underneath those
things.
But when I have a reallyimportant deadline, oh boy, that
gets real clean under there.
I'm like, you know, I grew up inan Italian family, so you get on
your hands and knees and you getunder what?
(29:50):
But my bathroom is nice andclean.
So it's what we would callproductive procrastination.
Um, so one way to procrastinatewell is to have enough things on
your.
List, uh, that are meaningful toyou of your, you know,
proverbial task lists that aremeaningful to you so that if
you're not working on this, atleast you're working on
(30:12):
something else that is alsomeaningful to you.
And if you are going to do that,I highly recommend you pick
things that are annoying you orthat you're tolerating, even if
they're little things.
Cleaning off your desk.
Um, finally putting away a,some, you know, your suitcase
that you have had out since youcame back.
(30:33):
So that type of thing.
But there's also, there's areally, really good book called
Procrastinate on Purpose that Irecommend.
One of the things he says is.
You, you can delegate.
There's 11 eights.
There's delegate.
Um, there's other eights.
But one of the ones I liked waseliminate, maybe I don't really
(30:57):
need to be doing this or maybe Ican give it to somebody else to
do you.
That's, this goes right back towhat we talked about in the
beginning, which is.
Uh, what are you resisting aboutit?
Well, you know, it could be atask you just don't like
dealing.
So many people tell me they donot like posting on social media
as an example.
So either don't do it or perhapsdelegate to someone else.
Kate (31:22):
Yeah, I was having that conversation with someone
yesterday that, uh, I just don'tenjoy Instagram.
That's not something I wanna do.
And we talked about it and it'slike, well, are your clients
coming from Instagram?
No.
So how can we eliminate it orautomate it or.
Do something different.
So that is a great place to, um,end today.
Um, can you tell us, I have acouple more questions for you
(31:44):
for little fun lightning round,but can you first tell us where
we can find you, um, and do youhave a freebie?
That would be a great resourcefor us, if you could tell us
about that as well.
Liz Wolfe (31:54):
Yes.
Uh, I'monline@lizWolfecoaching.com, so
that's Wolfe with an E, so lizWolfe coaching.com.
And if you just do a littleforward slash quiz, you'll get
a, it is just a fun 10 questionquiz that's actually very
valuable to help you tounderstand.
What your work style is, whatyour CEO style is, and there are
(32:16):
four different types of CEOstyles.
And then if in doing so, you canunderstand why you do feel
stuck.
So some of the ways in which youmight be procrastinating could
be because of your work style.
So I recommend that you do that.
It's just a fun, easy quiz todo.
Kate (32:34):
Very cool.
And what is your favorite way towork with people?
Your favorite offer right now?
Liz Wolfe (32:40):
I work one-on-one with people in coaching
relationships, and I typicallywill start with people in six
months if they wanna get theirbusiness started.
I highly recommend getting yourbusiness started now because it
will never be I.
Any earlier than it is rightnow, and there's a lot to talk
about to get it going, to beginwith a lot of creative process
(33:04):
in the beginning.
And so if anyone is out therelistening or if you just feel
stuck or maybe you've been doingsomething for a while and feel
it doesn't work that well foryou, you absolutely, I'm I, I
have a pre-call.
You can just get on my websiteand sign up for a time with me.
Kate (33:20):
Wonderful.
All right, let's go into justsome quick fun questions.
something that you've readlately?
A book, um, that is either forfun or for business that you
really loved and wouldrecommend.
Liz Wolfe (33:32):
Yeah, well, I just mentioned that Procrastinate on
purpose book, so I definitelywould recommend that because
duh, we're talking aboutprocrastination, so I definitely
recommend that.
Another book that I alwaysrecommend to everybody all the
time, I just loved it so much.
It's called Big Magic byElizabeth Gilbert.
Did you read that one?
Kate (33:49):
that book.
I've read it several times.
Liz Wolfe (33:52):
Several times.
Yeah.
Great.
And it, I, you can also listento it if you, you know, if you
have library or audio app.
Uh, so I definitely recommend
Kate (34:01):
Have you listened to the podcast that accompanies it?
Liz Wolfe (34:05):
I actually have not, I didn't even know about that.
Kate (34:07):
she has a, uh, it's a two season podcast called Magic
Lessons.
That's fabulous.
So definitely check that out
Liz Wolfe (34:14):
Oh, thank
Kate (34:15):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So of podcasts, what, um, haveyou listened to a podcast lately
that you've loved either aparticular episode or just a
show that you in or enjoy?
Liz Wolfe (34:25):
Yes, and I listen to a lot of audio books, so I spend
less time listening to podcasts.
But my sister rec recommendedone and I listened to one,
which, uh, recently called WiserThan Me.
Have you heard about this one?
Kate (34:38):
haven't.
Liz Wolfe (34:39):
Um, it is.
Okay.
Julie.
Julie Dreyfuss?
Kate (34:43):
Drive?
Yes.
Liz Wolfe (34:44):
Yeah.
Okay.
I dunno.
Kate (34:45):
Elaine from Seinfeld,
Liz Wolfe (34:46):
friends.
never, I never, I mean,Seinfeld, I never watched
friends or Seinfeld, so Oh yeah,I was, but uh, yes, that's who
it is.
And she, what she does is sheinterviews older women and the
first one was with Jane Fonda,which was really fun.
I,'cause I really just love her.
So that, that's a podcast I'velistened to recently that I
(35:07):
thought was really enjoyable.
Kate (35:09):
Very cool.
And you said that you were intophotography and creative things
in the past.
Is there a creative hobby thatyou have now that you enjoy?
Liz Wolfe (35:18):
Oh, you gotta be careful about asking me about
that.
So I play bluegrass music and Ilead, I organize and lead jams a
lot, and way more than myhusband wants me to.
And I just had one here in myhouse last night, so, so much
fun.
I mean, again.
(35:39):
It's way.
If I knew 20 years ago how easyit was, let's say, to play the
guitar, now I'm playing the basslast night, someone who I was
flicking away on their mandolin,I don't play the mandolin.
I was like, this isn't thathard.
Where do we get the ideas thatthese things are so hard?
It's not that hard.
You can learn it.
Kate (35:58):
I love it.
Is there anything, lastquestion, anything that's been
sparking your curiosity lately,um, that you're just excited to
learn?
Liz Wolfe (36:07):
Well, I guess I would follow that to say that, um,
the, I'm learning how to playthe bass.
Who knew?
I didn't even know.
I wanted to learn how to playthe bass and that, that's a lot
of fun.
And, and I'm been picking it up,but I am constantly, I always
like to tell, say that myclients, to my clients, I do
those.
I read the books.
I do those$10,000 programs.
(36:29):
I make the mistakes.
I do all of that.
So you don't have to, wouldn'tyou rather I spend the money on
that and read the book so that Ican just distill it down and
give you that information.
So
Kate (36:39):
I love that I'm, I'm a constant learner too, so that's
why I always ask that questionabout what's sparking your
interest and curiosity
Liz Wolfe (36:45):
yeah,
Kate (36:46):
learning because there's so much to learn and enjoy in
the world.
Liz Wolfe (36:50):
so much.
So much.
Yeah.
Kate (36:51):
wonderful.
Well, thank you so much, Liz.
It was great talking with you.
We loved our conversation.
Liz Wolfe (36:55):
Yes.
Thank you, Kate.
Really fabulous.
ATR2100x-USB Microphone-1 (36:58):
Thank you so much for joining me for
this episode of how you picturedit.
I hope you enjoyed thisconversation with Liz as much as
I did.
Uh, one of my biggest takeawayswas sitting through when
thinking about why I'mprocrastinating on some of the
things that I do procrastinateon often, and also looking at
those different types of goals,the task, the time and the
targeted goals that Lizdiscussed in this episode.
(37:21):
I'd love to hear what yourbiggest takeaway was.
Shoot me a DM over on Instagramat dear Kate brand strategy.
And let me know what youthought..
If you're enjoying the, how youpictured it podcast, I'd love
for you to leave a review onwhatever podcast player you're
listening in.
It helps others to find the showand lets me know what you want
to hear more of.
Can't wait to talk to you againnext week.
Have a good one.
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