January 12, 2024 • 30 mins
You can connect with Peggy at https://www.peggysullivanspeaker.com/
Owning a business is a challenge. Knowing how to keep innovating in your business is an even bigger one. Join restaurant owner, motivational speaker, and innovation expert Sara Frasca each week as she guides fellow business owners in taking the next step to level up their business. If you've ever pondered hiring a business coach but want a sample first, come along for the adventure!
Send us a message to join the show for free business guidance: https://pointnortheast.com/contact-us/
Sara Frasca is the founder and owner of Trasca & Co Eatery in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, an experienced and engaging motivational speaker, and the CEO of global business coaching firm Point NorthEast.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
You're listening to level upyour business, the podcast where
we talk to hardworking businessowners and leaders and help them
solve real issues in real time.
I'm your host, Sarah Frascarestaurant owner, keynote
speaker and business coach. I'vespent my career not only in
corporate America, but also asan entrepreneur, carrying on my
(00:21):
family's legacy through myrestaurant. Now a business coach
and consultant, I'm helpingother businesses to use creative
problem solving and innovativethinking, to drive lasting
change. Stay tuned to hear someinspiring guidance that will
help you to level up yourbusiness. All right. Well,
(00:42):
today, we are very excited totalk with Peggy Sullivan. And
Peggy, I just want to say fromthe bottom of my heart, thank
you for joining me, I'm veryexcited for the conversation.
And I'm excited to see you againin your beautiful read.
It's a pleasure to be heretruly.
(01:06):
Well, you are such a dynamicperson. So your beautiful read
today is like just it's like alike a microcosm of your
personality. So I'm just reallyexcited. So as we get started
today, at in kind of the earlypart of the year, which is
always kind of a nice refresh,and kind of let's get in the
zone, I wanted to ask you tokind of kick off a little bit
(01:28):
with your background, like tellthe listeners, where you've been
kind of how you built yourcareer, and what you're doing
today. Yeah,I'd love to, I spent about 25
years in the corporate worldworking for giants like Blue
Cross and Blue Shield and UnitedHealthcare. And I've reached a
point in my life where I reallystarted to think about my legacy
(01:50):
and how I wanted to give back.
And I was becoming acutely awareof some of the challenges that
people were facing, because Iwas facing them as well, too.
I'm a busyness, addict inrecovery. And I learned a lot
about time poverty, and how tosolve for time poverty. And so
(02:15):
really, over the last 10 years,I've been writing books,
speaking, conducting corporateworkshops, and helping people
get past time poverty, becausethe reality is 78% of our
population, our workingpopulation feels as though they
do not have time for what isimportant to them. And that's
(02:37):
almost sad, because life is somuch fun. And there's so much
that we can do and so much wehave to give. So I'm on a
journey to help people optimizetheir, their time and their
value. It's reallygreat. Really great. You know,
it's it's an interesting,personal connection for us. And
I hope you don't mind me sharingthis, but sharing you and I both
(02:59):
lost our moms. And, you know,we've talked about that. And
it's just one of those, youknow, kind of tragedies. But I'm
curious to know, does that weighin for you at all? Like is that
on your mind in terms of like,life is short, we got to really,
you know, pack as much in as wecan. But we also have to have
this balance of like actuallyliving life, right? So does that
(03:21):
well, my gosh, absolutely.
You struck a nerve, you you youhit my heart, right from the
start. My mom died really young.
She was in her 50s. She had abroken brain tumor, and then
pancreatic cancer. And I hitthis life changing moment. I
mean, I was there every step ofthe way. But I can vividly
(03:42):
remember walking into herhospital room. And one day, she
just wasn't depressed and upset.
And she wasn't focused on herpain. She was smiling. And she
was actually doing a littlefinger dance and listening to
some music. And I'm like, Mom,what's changed? And she's like,
I finally get it. She sayshappiness is my responsibility.
(04:06):
You know, I need to decide thatI want happiness in my life and
create it. And that statementwas just like, you know, I mean,
happiness is my responsibilitythat led me to write my first
book and to truly understandthat also, happiness is
biological, right? Like, you canturn on your endorphins to make
(04:32):
you happier, make you healthier,make you live a longer life,
make your brain work a littlebit better. And so long, long
answer to your question. Yes.
You know, my mom and my dad aswell, too. He he was a huge
influence in my life.
That's beautiful. Yeah, and Ifeel like we've talked about
(04:55):
this, but if we haven't, youknow, obviously I've I've said
Seeing your materials and youknow, you talk so beautifully
about your mom. But my mom alsodied at the age of 52 from a
brain cancer. So there's thatconnection there. And I think,
for me, it's the yin and yang.
It's the, you know, there'sterrible loss, of course, but
there's also a really beautifulreflection of how short life is.
(05:18):
And if we can do it in the rightway. And if we can live the way
that we, you know, each of ushas a different answer to what
that is. But I think it's a giftto be able to see how fleeting
life is. SoI don't disagree. I think it's
about aligning your values, youknow, your values are about
(05:38):
what's important. And we tend tothink about goals and time
management. But if we start tore align around values,
management, and what'simportant, and making sure that
we get these priorities thatthey are first and foremost,
when we choose what we're goingto do, I think they're game
changing. You know, I spent alot of time studying statistics,
(06:02):
and really understanding why arepeople in such a state of time
poverty, and there are so manylow value busy traps that we all
get stuck in, you know, whetherit's chronic meetings, whether
it's not getting a good night'ssleep, I mean, if you don't get
(06:22):
a good night's sleep, you're notgiving your brain the
opportunity to heal and mend andwork at its best capacity. So,
you know, we need to understandour busy traps and to work away
from them and do things that,you know, aren't going to waste
our time, but that are reallygoing to get us to the things
(06:44):
that we value and that are mostimportant. Yeah, that's great.
So let's say you're working witha client, you know, any random
client right now and they arestuck in this trap. Tell us can
you tell us a little bit abouthow you would work them through
that? Yeah, absolutely.
Um, you know, being a busynessaddict, myself, I know that
(07:07):
busyness is truly habitual. Imean, every time we get
something done, we get that hitof endorphins. So we want to do
it again and again. So Ideveloped something that I
called the busy barometer. Andwhat it does is it tests for the
21 Busy traps that most peoplefeel not only in the work
(07:28):
environment, but also in thepersonal environment. And so it
all of a sudden becomes anexercise in what are your busy
traps, you see them in black andwhite? And then what behaviors
can you change? And it gets verysimple because it's about these
micro steps. But it's a datadriven approach that is all
(07:52):
about what am I busy trapsawareness of my busy traps,
because we don't even thinkabout it, you know, oh, I took
no breaks today. Well, guesswhat, you know, you take no
breaks today, your brain kind ofhits this plateau, and you
didn't recharge and reset, andso you're not working to your
optimal capacity. So it getsvery easy to fix. So that for me
(08:15):
is step one in the process. It'sall about subtraction. It was
kind of funny, becauseyesterday, my husband was we
just got a new bag of sugar, andit was a five pound bag. And he
was trying to fit the five poundbag into the three pound bag.
And it just wouldn't work andthe bad busted in the sugar all
(08:37):
over the place. And that's whatwe do as human beings. And so
the concept of subtraction is soimportant, because then you make
room for the good stuff.
That's great. That's great. Youknow, interestingly, when I meet
with organizations, and youknow, I talk a lot about the
topic of innovation, and how canthey, you know, maybe kind of,
(09:00):
you know, let go of the statusquo to reinvent and those sorts
of things, the answer is notthat plus the new things, we
have to make sure if it's one inone out, or that it's one in one
out, because it's the same inlike a team setting or an
organizational setting. It'slike, you can't just keep
jamming more and more and moreand more and more. It's, it's
(09:21):
overwhelming. It's, you know,people start to become so busy
that they're not accomplishingwhat you have described as the
priority. So the bag of sugar isa great analogy for what I see
organizations doing. And I'mblessed. I'm guessing you do the
same. You probably see. Yeah,absolutely. And here's, here's a
stat that just seals it up. 68%of working people do not have a
(09:45):
schedule that allows them tocomplete their work. So imagine
every day you start yourschedule, you start your day
knowing that what's mostimportant you're not going to
have time You too, because youhave other commitments, other
obligations, you know, otherpressures, you know, and it just
begins like that. And then weget on this hamster wheel where
(10:09):
we're just going round and roundand round. And, you know, we
don't know how to get off. Soyou know, that's why I love what
I do. Because getting off thehamster wheel is really about a
series of micro steps. And it'sjust not. It's awkward as we
think about it. It'srecalibrating, every single
friggin day and saying what isimportant to me, and I'm gonna
(10:32):
spend my time today, and it mustinclude self care, you know,
self care is the non negotiable,no, no self care on the back
burner anymore. Because if youdon't put the gas in the tank,
the car's not gonna run, it'sgonna sit in the middle of the
driveway.
So how many people can actuallytake your advice and your steps
(10:56):
and implement this? I mean, Ifeel like, for me, I would get
caught up again and lost. And Imean, is it? Is it kind of like
a personal trainer like or afitness routine, where you like,
do it for a while, and then youfall back? And then you have to
get back on and try again? Or dopeople like, change their ways
(11:17):
forever?
Yeah, that's an interestingquestion. Because I refer to
myself as a busyness addict,kind of in recovery. And that is
because, you know, it's, I'm soused to the goal attainment,
being an overachiever, type, atrap, all of that stuff, that I
am constantly reminding myself,but here's the deal. I am
(11:39):
happier, healthier, and moreproductive, more innovative,
more creative. I'm a betterwife, a better collaborator, a
better mentor, a better coach, abetter speaker, when I am not
over the top busy. So I tried tothink about it as self sabotage.
(12:01):
And I get up every morning and Isay, I am not going to self
sabotage today. The world hasenough surprises. So I'm not
gonna, you know, put myself at adisadvantage. And for me, you
know, yes, it is a challenge.
And there are some days that Islipped, but those are the days
where I just say, okay, Peggy,stop, you know, what are you
grateful for, or go out for awalk or go hold your kitty cat,
(12:23):
or go call up your bestie? Youknow, and just take a moment to
recalibrate?
Mm hmm. That's great. That'sreally great. I mean, yeah, I
think there are parts as you'respeaking, there are parts of my
life that I'm like, Oh, I know,I need to fix that. I know, I'm
overly busy. So okay, so you arespeaking and doing I would
(12:48):
assume workshops on this type ofactivity. I'm
speaking I'm doing I'm doingworkshops. I'm also coming out
with a new book that's calledbusyness, how to do more with
less. And so I'm really rampingup for the book, I spent last
year doing a tremendous amountof research and a couple of
(13:12):
years prior testing my busybusting process, making sure it
was effective. And so I'm justI'm so excited about this year.
I've got some great speakinggigs coming up and some great
workshops coming up. And it'sjust all you know, for me, it's
about changing lives, addingvalue. I know what my life
(13:34):
looked like, when I was at theheight of my busyness, my hair
on fire busyness, and, you know,I mean, I did some pretty
outrageous things. You know, onenight I came home and I was so
tired. I ate cat food thinkingit was pistachio nuts. And I was
on autopilot. I didn't evenrealize it until my cat started
(13:55):
throwing up the pistachio nuts.
I looked down I'm like, oh mygod, I just ate cat food.
Remember, it was salty, chewy. Isaid, you know, and we're on
autopilot. We do these things.
But then you also think aboutthe things like, you know, I had
a stress related heart attack ata very young age. That was yeah,
(14:17):
that was due to the pressure ofbeing a single mom and a divorce
and a high pressure job. Youknow, and so the price tag for
our busyness is is you know,it's pretty significant, whether
it's your distracted driver, toyou know, your you're
sacrificing your self care andand really, you know, stepping
(14:41):
into your power.
Yeah, or sacrificingrelationships with the people
around you. I mean, Iunfortunately saw a lot of
people in my corporate days thatsacrifice relationships with
their kids or their spouse orYeah, so that's really a good
point. You know, someone earlyin my career said that you could
(15:02):
have a great career, greatrelationships, and be fit or
great health. But you couldn'tyou could have two of those, but
not all three. What do you thinkof that? I
totally disagree with that. Imean, you know, I think about,
you know, why would we want tosacrifice something that's
(15:25):
important? Why would we want alesson life, connection
relationships are superimportant. Self Care is super
important. And we want careers.
And as women, we want to be goodat our careers. But you know,
we're moms and we're got theseother roles and
responsibilities. So, you know,there are times I don't believe
in balance, I think there aretimes where your career is
(15:48):
calling you and you just need tofocus on your career. But it
doesn't mean that you're puttingyour self care, or you're
putting your relationships onthe back burner, I really
believe that when you step intoyour power, you have all of
those in your life. And I callit the sweet spot that I call
(16:09):
beyond busyness. It's where justeverything is humming. And
you're sitting there saying,Well, life is really, really
good. And I feel really good.
And I want to stay inthis sweet spot. That's amazing.
That's amazing. I mean, have youbeen in that kind of sweet spot
for a while now personally, likeyou've, you've been able to have
(16:31):
years of it.
I have to be very transparent,and very, very honest. You know,
I've gone through peaks andvalleys in my life. Last year, I
took on a lot ofresponsibilities. And towards
the end of the year, you know, Ilost my mojo a little bit, and
(16:54):
but I caught myself and then Iwent back to drinking the Kool
Aid, and really kind of lookingat, okay, what are the low value
activities? And, you know, howcan I have more happiness in my
life, I do these happinessrituals a couple of times a day
that, you know, are really smallactivities, but just really
light me up and relationships.
You know, I was divorced atafter 20 years of marriage. And
(17:20):
I thought it was a good marriageuntil, you know, my husband came
home and he's like, where areyou bet you haven't been
involved in our marriage, youknow, I just fell out of love
with with you. Because, youknow, you were so busy with your
career and your parents andlisten that and, you know, you
don't want to make those samemistakes twice. You know, you
(17:40):
don't want to make thosesacrifices and so yeah, I It's,
I'm a work in progress. And whenI catch myself a you know, into
a law you know, I just pickmyself back up and I say you are
a much better Peggy a much moreeffective a happier Peggy when
you do XY and Z. So sounds soself sabotaging, you know, take
(18:04):
care of yourself.
Right, right. That's reallypowerful. I mean, I can hear a,
you know, a number of differentveins of things I've tried to do
with maybe it's mindfulness,maybe it's gratitude work, maybe
it's, you know, other things.
And I think you're kind ofpulling it all together, which
which feels great and isexciting. Okay, so your business
(18:24):
is the business of helpingothers to not be slaves to their
busyness. I'm summarizing, and Idon't know if I've paraphrased
properly. Perfect. Okay. Okay.
So where are you headed? Whereare you going? Are you hopeful
(18:44):
that you'll write more books?
Are you hopeful to do morespeaking? Are you? What is the
future of Peggy look like?
Yes. In the future, I definitelywant to do one more speaking,
because that is one too many.
And I love I love helpinghelping other people who are in
(19:04):
a situation of time poverty, butI also like helping
organizations too, because somany organizations have this,
this group of middle levelmanagers that they just don't
know how to empower and they'rekind of caught in the middle,
they're stuck in, you know,having all this stuff and you
(19:25):
know, if we can empower them andgive them the tools to be
successful, then asorganizations we can be a lot
more successful. So I would say,you know, what is my next couple
of years look like a successfulbook launch. My book is going to
be launching in a couple ofmonths. I definitely want to do
(19:45):
more speaking, I've been doing alot of articles. I've got a
couple coming out and time andfortune and an entrepreneur and
things like that. And I just I Ijust want to continue to helping
people. That's what my futurelooks like. My research is
brash, my approach is fun, whenwe can have fun in life, to me,
(20:10):
that's when everything is justreally, really good. So I'm a
big proponent of, you know, I goin to have a seminar, or teach
or whatever, let's have somefun, let's make this memorable.
You know, let's walk away. Soincredibly Energize. You cannot
wait to begin the process. It'sreally great. It's really great.
(20:31):
So do you speak internationallyright now are you
do, um, I did a fair amount ofspeaking in in Asia over the
years. Last Last year, I took alittle bit of a break to finish
(20:52):
my book, and to rewrite, youknow, my signature speech and to
publish some of my data andwrite some articles. And so,
this year, I'm starting off witha couple of speaking engagements
in Charleston and Kiawah Island,and then over to San Diego, and
then over to Dallas. And so youknow, it'll be, you know, it'll
(21:16):
be a really fun, fun, fun ride.
That's amazing. I'm so proud ofyou. I mean, that's just, you
getting out there getting yourcontent. And obviously, there's
so much work that goes into allthe research you've done and all
of the testing and so Bravo onthat front, I really think
(21:36):
that's terrific. You know, I wascurious, this is actually a
maybe a little bit of a merge ofwhat you do, and I do. So one of
the things that, you know, pointnortheast, I believe, has really
maybe built kind of a specialtyon is that there's other
operating systems and otherstrategic coaches who can kind
(21:58):
of like, see the things that aremissing, but they say, oh, yeah,
you should go and do that. Andso point ne, we're like, Come
on, we'll help you and we like,walk with them where, you know,
other other coaches might dropthem off at the corner, a couple
blocks from their destination,we will walk them to their
actual destination. So I amcurious, do you have a way to
(22:21):
keep people accountable on theon the happiness tools are on,
you know, some of the microstepssome of the things that you're
teaching them? What's the what?
Yeah, thing they add into thedestination?
Yeah, you know, absolutely. Youknow, people tend to think of
busyness is a feeling, I feelbusy, and it never, and it's
(22:45):
also bipolar. I mean, somepeople love being busy, even if
they're over the top busy. Butum, my busy barometer actually
gives people a score for theirbusyness so they can measure it
on a week to week basis. And astheir schedule change, and they
get super busy with doing onething that's a low value
(23:07):
activity, you know, they'll seeit'll show up for them, and they
can get some data on and youknow what to do. But for me, I
love when people keep what Icall a happiness journal. And I
think that happiness journal isabout minimally to happiness
rituals every day. For me, I eatdark chocolate at 11am, no
(23:30):
matter where in the world I am,the cacao just, I close my eyes,
and it just resets me. And Ialso make sure that I understand
what are my non negotiables youknow, self care, sleep that and
then I look at myself and givemy give myself my happiness
report card. Did I do it? Did Inot do it? It's very simple.
(23:54):
It's in my journal. But I do iton a regular basis. And I also
have a value scorecard that isvery focused on what my core
values are, and how I spend mytime and making sure how I spend
my time aligns with my corevalues. And if I haven't done
things within those core values,I will make it a point like,
(24:18):
yesterday, I had a hectic day,and I wanted to exercise and I
didn't. So you know, my reportcard last night was no matter
what you are exercising two dayperiod, and then that's a
tomorrow thing to do. And so,yeah, I mean, I need to I'm a
data driven person. So if I canlook at the data, and the data
(24:42):
tells me what to do and how todo it. That just gets so so
easy. You know the schedule.
That's great. So if someonewanted to engage you, Peggy,
where do they start? Where canthey find you? Do have? I mean,
I've seen your website. It'sbeautiful, but what's the best
way for them to engage you.
Yeah, ifthey go to my website, and they
(25:03):
want to grab some time with me,that's perfectly fine. My
website is Peggy Sullivanspeaker.com. They can also reach
out to me on LinkedIn. LinkedInis my best friend, I have met so
many I met you through LinkedIn.
No, actually, we met through acommon friend. But um, yeah, I
(25:29):
mean, no, we did meet throughLinkedIn now that I'm thinking
about it. But you know, I'm abig advocate of LinkedIn, too.
And, you know, Penny Sullivan, Ilive in Palm Beach, you know, I
love talking to people, I lovehelping people. So they can, you
know, reach out to me mywebsite, my LinkedIn account.
(25:49):
And I also have my emailaddress, right on my LinkedIn
account, becauseevery place important, that's
perfect, that's fantastic. Imean, you know, at several
points in time, during ourconversation, I was like, Oh, I
could really use help there, orI have a client that I know,
could could use some help onthat. So that's going to be
that's going to be a greatresource that I will use as
(26:11):
well. So that's really great. Iappreciate that, you know, when
people get rid of their time,poverty, results, and
performance and happiness, justaccelerate, and those are the
things we want more life, right.
You know, so it's, it's just tome, it's about quality of life.
(26:33):
And if you want to really stepup your quality of life, you
know, this is a tried and truepath that has worked for almost
everybody that has engaged inthe process.
Gosh, so Peggy Sullivan,speaker.com. Exactly. Good.
We'll put it in the show notesto Peggy so people can quickly
(26:53):
link to you and find you. And isthe is the busyness barometer,
something that is like in anapp, or is it something that how
do people use that? Yeah,if people want to reach out to
me, I will send them a link.
It's a four minute onlinesurvey. And then it'll
(27:14):
automatically give them theresults. And then if they feel
like they need more help, ormore consulting, hey, I'm here.
But it's a great, greatcorporate environment. Because,
you know, everybody isdifferent. So getting a feel for
what's going on in yourdepartment, your organization.
(27:35):
And like, what are the key busytraps? It's a great way to see I
mean, I just did it for for Ithink about 7000 people, they
thought they knew they're busytraps, the data said, Nope,
they're different. They're notwhat they are. And then, so we
decided, okay, we're going afterwhat the data says, right? And,
you know, it really helpedfabulous people find time in
(27:57):
their life. So this busybarometer is just such a cool
tool. It's really fun.
It's really great. You know, forme, I think it would help me to
have control of my time, youknow, because we don't get any
more time that is a as mycolleague, Mike, the poem would
say, it's a perishable item thatwe don't you know, it's
(28:19):
perishable. So if we don't usethe time, it goes away, it never
comes back. And what I'mthinking is, you know, it would
help me to have control inknowing, and then I can
activate, you know, kind of dosomething about it. So I think
that's really great. And I'mexcited to try it.
The reality is, therecommendations in terms of the
(28:43):
busy traps are all from a groupof experts on how to eliminate
them. And so there was really apool of 1000s of people that
came together to, you know, whatare the key micro steps you can
do to eliminate this busy trap.
And so the stuff is very simple.
It's, it's so it's so easy todo. It's not major work. It's
(29:09):
it's, it's pretty profound, howincremental it really helps us.
That's amazing. Well, thank youfor explaining. Everything
you've done has been tremendous.
And I and I'm really, like Isaid, I want to try this
busyness barometer, I thinkthat'll be a good tool for me. I
will absolutely keep your mindas well as I have clients
(29:31):
because there's so many folksout there struggling with that,
you know, time poverty issue,and especially busy working
parents, I would say that's areally you identify that and
that's a really kind of keygroup of people who just don't
feel like they have a choice.
They just push through and thenof course, their mental state
(29:51):
suffers. So thank you for that.
And I'm excited for your book tocome out as well. Well, Okay, so
I send you love and a big hug. Imean big Pegler. So I'm sending
you a really big Virtual hug andhave an amazing week. And thank
you so much for the work you doand having me a guest on your
(30:15):
show. This was so much fun.
So fun. So fun. Great to see youagain. Happy weekend and thank
you for taking the time to kindof explain what you do and help
others so have a great day,Peggy. Okay, great. Bye. Bye.
Thanks so much for tuning intothis episode of level up your
business with me, Sarah Frasca.
If you have a problem in yourbusiness that's keeping you up
(30:38):
at night. Please join us in afuture episode so we can help
get you unstuck. Just clickingthe link in the show notes and
send us a message. Pleaseremember, stay innovative
friends
You're listening to level upyour business, the podcast where
we talk to hardworking businessowners and leaders and help them
solve real issues in real time.
I'm your host, Sarah Frascarestaurant owner, keynote
speaker and business coach. I'vespent my career not only in
corporate America, but also asan entrepreneur, carrying on my
(00:21):
family's legacy through myrestaurant. Now a business coach
and consultant, I'm helpingother businesses to use creative
problem solving and innovativethinking, to drive lasting
change. Stay tuned to hear someinspiring guidance that will
help you to level up yourbusiness. All right. Well,
(00:42):
today, we are very excited totalk with Peggy Sullivan. And
Peggy, I just want to say fromthe bottom of my heart, thank
you for joining me, I'm veryexcited for the conversation.
And I'm excited to see you againin your beautiful read.
It's a pleasure to be heretruly.
(01:06):
Well, you are such a dynamicperson. So your beautiful read
today is like just it's like alike a microcosm of your
personality. So I'm just reallyexcited. So as we get started
today, at in kind of the earlypart of the year, which is
always kind of a nice refresh,and kind of let's get in the
zone, I wanted to ask you tokind of kick off a little bit
(01:28):
with your background, like tellthe listeners, where you've been
kind of how you built yourcareer, and what you're doing
today. Yeah,I'd love to, I spent about 25
years in the corporate worldworking for giants like Blue
Cross and Blue Shield and UnitedHealthcare. And I've reached a
point in my life where I reallystarted to think about my legacy
(01:50):
and how I wanted to give back.
And I was becoming acutely awareof some of the challenges that
people were facing, because Iwas facing them as well, too.
I'm a busyness, addict inrecovery. And I learned a lot
about time poverty, and how tosolve for time poverty. And so
(02:15):
really, over the last 10 years,I've been writing books,
speaking, conducting corporateworkshops, and helping people
get past time poverty, becausethe reality is 78% of our
population, our workingpopulation feels as though they
do not have time for what isimportant to them. And that's
(02:37):
almost sad, because life is somuch fun. And there's so much
that we can do and so much wehave to give. So I'm on a
journey to help people optimizetheir, their time and their
value. It's reallygreat. Really great. You know,
it's it's an interesting,personal connection for us. And
I hope you don't mind me sharingthis, but sharing you and I both
(02:59):
lost our moms. And, you know,we've talked about that. And
it's just one of those, youknow, kind of tragedies. But I'm
curious to know, does that weighin for you at all? Like is that
on your mind in terms of like,life is short, we got to really,
you know, pack as much in as wecan. But we also have to have
this balance of like actuallyliving life, right? So does that
(03:21):
well, my gosh, absolutely.
You struck a nerve, you you youhit my heart, right from the
start. My mom died really young.
She was in her 50s. She had abroken brain tumor, and then
pancreatic cancer. And I hitthis life changing moment. I
mean, I was there every step ofthe way. But I can vividly
(03:42):
remember walking into herhospital room. And one day, she
just wasn't depressed and upset.
And she wasn't focused on herpain. She was smiling. And she
was actually doing a littlefinger dance and listening to
some music. And I'm like, Mom,what's changed? And she's like,
I finally get it. She sayshappiness is my responsibility.
(04:06):
You know, I need to decide thatI want happiness in my life and
create it. And that statementwas just like, you know, I mean,
happiness is my responsibilitythat led me to write my first
book and to truly understandthat also, happiness is
biological, right? Like, you canturn on your endorphins to make
(04:32):
you happier, make you healthier,make you live a longer life,
make your brain work a littlebit better. And so long, long
answer to your question. Yes.
You know, my mom and my dad aswell, too. He he was a huge
influence in my life.
That's beautiful. Yeah, and Ifeel like we've talked about
(04:55):
this, but if we haven't, youknow, obviously I've I've said
Seeing your materials and youknow, you talk so beautifully
about your mom. But my mom alsodied at the age of 52 from a
brain cancer. So there's thatconnection there. And I think,
for me, it's the yin and yang.
It's the, you know, there'sterrible loss, of course, but
there's also a really beautifulreflection of how short life is.
(05:18):
And if we can do it in the rightway. And if we can live the way
that we, you know, each of ushas a different answer to what
that is. But I think it's a giftto be able to see how fleeting
life is. SoI don't disagree. I think it's
about aligning your values, youknow, your values are about
(05:38):
what's important. And we tend tothink about goals and time
management. But if we start tore align around values,
management, and what'simportant, and making sure that
we get these priorities thatthey are first and foremost,
when we choose what we're goingto do, I think they're game
changing. You know, I spent alot of time studying statistics,
(06:02):
and really understanding why arepeople in such a state of time
poverty, and there are so manylow value busy traps that we all
get stuck in, you know, whetherit's chronic meetings, whether
it's not getting a good night'ssleep, I mean, if you don't get
(06:22):
a good night's sleep, you're notgiving your brain the
opportunity to heal and mend andwork at its best capacity. So,
you know, we need to understandour busy traps and to work away
from them and do things that,you know, aren't going to waste
our time, but that are reallygoing to get us to the things
(06:44):
that we value and that are mostimportant. Yeah, that's great.
So let's say you're working witha client, you know, any random
client right now and they arestuck in this trap. Tell us can
you tell us a little bit abouthow you would work them through
that? Yeah, absolutely.
Um, you know, being a busynessaddict, myself, I know that
(07:07):
busyness is truly habitual. Imean, every time we get
something done, we get that hitof endorphins. So we want to do
it again and again. So Ideveloped something that I
called the busy barometer. Andwhat it does is it tests for the
21 Busy traps that most peoplefeel not only in the work
(07:28):
environment, but also in thepersonal environment. And so it
all of a sudden becomes anexercise in what are your busy
traps, you see them in black andwhite? And then what behaviors
can you change? And it gets verysimple because it's about these
micro steps. But it's a datadriven approach that is all
(07:52):
about what am I busy trapsawareness of my busy traps,
because we don't even thinkabout it, you know, oh, I took
no breaks today. Well, guesswhat, you know, you take no
breaks today, your brain kind ofhits this plateau, and you
didn't recharge and reset, andso you're not working to your
optimal capacity. So it getsvery easy to fix. So that for me
(08:15):
is step one in the process. It'sall about subtraction. It was
kind of funny, becauseyesterday, my husband was we
just got a new bag of sugar, andit was a five pound bag. And he
was trying to fit the five poundbag into the three pound bag.
And it just wouldn't work andthe bad busted in the sugar all
(08:37):
over the place. And that's whatwe do as human beings. And so
the concept of subtraction is soimportant, because then you make
room for the good stuff.
That's great. That's great. Youknow, interestingly, when I meet
with organizations, and youknow, I talk a lot about the
topic of innovation, and how canthey, you know, maybe kind of,
(09:00):
you know, let go of the statusquo to reinvent and those sorts
of things, the answer is notthat plus the new things, we
have to make sure if it's one inone out, or that it's one in one
out, because it's the same inlike a team setting or an
organizational setting. It'slike, you can't just keep
jamming more and more and moreand more and more. It's, it's
(09:21):
overwhelming. It's, you know,people start to become so busy
that they're not accomplishingwhat you have described as the
priority. So the bag of sugar isa great analogy for what I see
organizations doing. And I'mblessed. I'm guessing you do the
same. You probably see. Yeah,absolutely. And here's, here's a
stat that just seals it up. 68%of working people do not have a
(09:45):
schedule that allows them tocomplete their work. So imagine
every day you start yourschedule, you start your day
knowing that what's mostimportant you're not going to
have time You too, because youhave other commitments, other
obligations, you know, otherpressures, you know, and it just
begins like that. And then weget on this hamster wheel where
(10:09):
we're just going round and roundand round. And, you know, we
don't know how to get off. Soyou know, that's why I love what
I do. Because getting off thehamster wheel is really about a
series of micro steps. And it'sjust not. It's awkward as we
think about it. It'srecalibrating, every single
friggin day and saying what isimportant to me, and I'm gonna
(10:32):
spend my time today, and it mustinclude self care, you know,
self care is the non negotiable,no, no self care on the back
burner anymore. Because if youdon't put the gas in the tank,
the car's not gonna run, it'sgonna sit in the middle of the
driveway.
So how many people can actuallytake your advice and your steps
(10:56):
and implement this? I mean, Ifeel like, for me, I would get
caught up again and lost. And Imean, is it? Is it kind of like
a personal trainer like or afitness routine, where you like,
do it for a while, and then youfall back? And then you have to
get back on and try again? Or dopeople like, change their ways
(11:17):
forever?
Yeah, that's an interestingquestion. Because I refer to
myself as a busyness addict,kind of in recovery. And that is
because, you know, it's, I'm soused to the goal attainment,
being an overachiever, type, atrap, all of that stuff, that I
am constantly reminding myself,but here's the deal. I am
(11:39):
happier, healthier, and moreproductive, more innovative,
more creative. I'm a betterwife, a better collaborator, a
better mentor, a better coach, abetter speaker, when I am not
over the top busy. So I tried tothink about it as self sabotage.
(12:01):
And I get up every morning and Isay, I am not going to self
sabotage today. The world hasenough surprises. So I'm not
gonna, you know, put myself at adisadvantage. And for me, you
know, yes, it is a challenge.
And there are some days that Islipped, but those are the days
where I just say, okay, Peggy,stop, you know, what are you
grateful for, or go out for awalk or go hold your kitty cat,
(12:23):
or go call up your bestie? Youknow, and just take a moment to
recalibrate?
Mm hmm. That's great. That'sreally great. I mean, yeah, I
think there are parts as you'respeaking, there are parts of my
life that I'm like, Oh, I know,I need to fix that. I know, I'm
overly busy. So okay, so you arespeaking and doing I would
(12:48):
assume workshops on this type ofactivity. I'm
speaking I'm doing I'm doingworkshops. I'm also coming out
with a new book that's calledbusyness, how to do more with
less. And so I'm really rampingup for the book, I spent last
year doing a tremendous amountof research and a couple of
(13:12):
years prior testing my busybusting process, making sure it
was effective. And so I'm justI'm so excited about this year.
I've got some great speakinggigs coming up and some great
workshops coming up. And it'sjust all you know, for me, it's
about changing lives, addingvalue. I know what my life
(13:34):
looked like, when I was at theheight of my busyness, my hair
on fire busyness, and, you know,I mean, I did some pretty
outrageous things. You know, onenight I came home and I was so
tired. I ate cat food thinkingit was pistachio nuts. And I was
on autopilot. I didn't evenrealize it until my cat started
(13:55):
throwing up the pistachio nuts.
I looked down I'm like, oh mygod, I just ate cat food.
Remember, it was salty, chewy. Isaid, you know, and we're on
autopilot. We do these things.
But then you also think aboutthe things like, you know, I had
a stress related heart attack ata very young age. That was yeah,
(14:17):
that was due to the pressure ofbeing a single mom and a divorce
and a high pressure job. Youknow, and so the price tag for
our busyness is is you know,it's pretty significant, whether
it's your distracted driver, toyou know, your you're
sacrificing your self care andand really, you know, stepping
(14:41):
into your power.
Yeah, or sacrificingrelationships with the people
around you. I mean, Iunfortunately saw a lot of
people in my corporate days thatsacrifice relationships with
their kids or their spouse orYeah, so that's really a good
point. You know, someone earlyin my career said that you could
(15:02):
have a great career, greatrelationships, and be fit or
great health. But you couldn'tyou could have two of those, but
not all three. What do you thinkof that? I
totally disagree with that. Imean, you know, I think about,
you know, why would we want tosacrifice something that's
(15:25):
important? Why would we want alesson life, connection
relationships are superimportant. Self Care is super
important. And we want careers.
And as women, we want to be goodat our careers. But you know,
we're moms and we're got theseother roles and
responsibilities. So, you know,there are times I don't believe
in balance, I think there aretimes where your career is
(15:48):
calling you and you just need tofocus on your career. But it
doesn't mean that you're puttingyour self care, or you're
putting your relationships onthe back burner, I really
believe that when you step intoyour power, you have all of
those in your life. And I callit the sweet spot that I call
(16:09):
beyond busyness. It's where justeverything is humming. And
you're sitting there saying,Well, life is really, really
good. And I feel really good.
And I want to stay inthis sweet spot. That's amazing.
That's amazing. I mean, have youbeen in that kind of sweet spot
for a while now personally, likeyou've, you've been able to have
(16:31):
years of it.
I have to be very transparent,and very, very honest. You know,
I've gone through peaks andvalleys in my life. Last year, I
took on a lot ofresponsibilities. And towards
the end of the year, you know, Ilost my mojo a little bit, and
(16:54):
but I caught myself and then Iwent back to drinking the Kool
Aid, and really kind of lookingat, okay, what are the low value
activities? And, you know, howcan I have more happiness in my
life, I do these happinessrituals a couple of times a day
that, you know, are really smallactivities, but just really
light me up and relationships.
You know, I was divorced atafter 20 years of marriage. And
(17:20):
I thought it was a good marriageuntil, you know, my husband came
home and he's like, where areyou bet you haven't been
involved in our marriage, youknow, I just fell out of love
with with you. Because, youknow, you were so busy with your
career and your parents andlisten that and, you know, you
don't want to make those samemistakes twice. You know, you
(17:40):
don't want to make thosesacrifices and so yeah, I It's,
I'm a work in progress. And whenI catch myself a you know, into
a law you know, I just pickmyself back up and I say you are
a much better Peggy a much moreeffective a happier Peggy when
you do XY and Z. So sounds soself sabotaging, you know, take
(18:04):
care of yourself.
Right, right. That's reallypowerful. I mean, I can hear a,
you know, a number of differentveins of things I've tried to do
with maybe it's mindfulness,maybe it's gratitude work, maybe
it's, you know, other things.
And I think you're kind ofpulling it all together, which
which feels great and isexciting. Okay, so your business
(18:24):
is the business of helpingothers to not be slaves to their
busyness. I'm summarizing, and Idon't know if I've paraphrased
properly. Perfect. Okay. Okay.
So where are you headed? Whereare you going? Are you hopeful
(18:44):
that you'll write more books?
Are you hopeful to do morespeaking? Are you? What is the
future of Peggy look like?
Yes. In the future, I definitelywant to do one more speaking,
because that is one too many.
And I love I love helpinghelping other people who are in
(19:04):
a situation of time poverty, butI also like helping
organizations too, because somany organizations have this,
this group of middle levelmanagers that they just don't
know how to empower and they'rekind of caught in the middle,
they're stuck in, you know,having all this stuff and you
(19:25):
know, if we can empower them andgive them the tools to be
successful, then asorganizations we can be a lot
more successful. So I would say,you know, what is my next couple
of years look like a successfulbook launch. My book is going to
be launching in a couple ofmonths. I definitely want to do
(19:45):
more speaking, I've been doing alot of articles. I've got a
couple coming out and time andfortune and an entrepreneur and
things like that. And I just I Ijust want to continue to helping
people. That's what my futurelooks like. My research is
brash, my approach is fun, whenwe can have fun in life, to me,
(20:10):
that's when everything is justreally, really good. So I'm a
big proponent of, you know, I goin to have a seminar, or teach
or whatever, let's have somefun, let's make this memorable.
You know, let's walk away. Soincredibly Energize. You cannot
wait to begin the process. It'sreally great. It's really great.
(20:31):
So do you speak internationallyright now are you
do, um, I did a fair amount ofspeaking in in Asia over the
years. Last Last year, I took alittle bit of a break to finish
(20:52):
my book, and to rewrite, youknow, my signature speech and to
publish some of my data andwrite some articles. And so,
this year, I'm starting off witha couple of speaking engagements
in Charleston and Kiawah Island,and then over to San Diego, and
then over to Dallas. And so youknow, it'll be, you know, it'll
(21:16):
be a really fun, fun, fun ride.
That's amazing. I'm so proud ofyou. I mean, that's just, you
getting out there getting yourcontent. And obviously, there's
so much work that goes into allthe research you've done and all
of the testing and so Bravo onthat front, I really think
(21:36):
that's terrific. You know, I wascurious, this is actually a
maybe a little bit of a merge ofwhat you do, and I do. So one of
the things that, you know, pointnortheast, I believe, has really
maybe built kind of a specialtyon is that there's other
operating systems and otherstrategic coaches who can kind
(21:58):
of like, see the things that aremissing, but they say, oh, yeah,
you should go and do that. Andso point ne, we're like, Come
on, we'll help you and we like,walk with them where, you know,
other other coaches might dropthem off at the corner, a couple
blocks from their destination,we will walk them to their
actual destination. So I amcurious, do you have a way to
(22:21):
keep people accountable on theon the happiness tools are on,
you know, some of the microstepssome of the things that you're
teaching them? What's the what?
Yeah, thing they add into thedestination?
Yeah, you know, absolutely. Youknow, people tend to think of
busyness is a feeling, I feelbusy, and it never, and it's
(22:45):
also bipolar. I mean, somepeople love being busy, even if
they're over the top busy. Butum, my busy barometer actually
gives people a score for theirbusyness so they can measure it
on a week to week basis. And astheir schedule change, and they
get super busy with doing onething that's a low value
(23:07):
activity, you know, they'll seeit'll show up for them, and they
can get some data on and youknow what to do. But for me, I
love when people keep what Icall a happiness journal. And I
think that happiness journal isabout minimally to happiness
rituals every day. For me, I eatdark chocolate at 11am, no
(23:30):
matter where in the world I am,the cacao just, I close my eyes,
and it just resets me. And Ialso make sure that I understand
what are my non negotiables youknow, self care, sleep that and
then I look at myself and givemy give myself my happiness
report card. Did I do it? Did Inot do it? It's very simple.
(23:54):
It's in my journal. But I do iton a regular basis. And I also
have a value scorecard that isvery focused on what my core
values are, and how I spend mytime and making sure how I spend
my time aligns with my corevalues. And if I haven't done
things within those core values,I will make it a point like,
(24:18):
yesterday, I had a hectic day,and I wanted to exercise and I
didn't. So you know, my reportcard last night was no matter
what you are exercising two dayperiod, and then that's a
tomorrow thing to do. And so,yeah, I mean, I need to I'm a
data driven person. So if I canlook at the data, and the data
(24:42):
tells me what to do and how todo it. That just gets so so
easy. You know the schedule.
That's great. So if someonewanted to engage you, Peggy,
where do they start? Where canthey find you? Do have? I mean,
I've seen your website. It'sbeautiful, but what's the best
way for them to engage you.
Yeah, ifthey go to my website, and they
(25:03):
want to grab some time with me,that's perfectly fine. My
website is Peggy Sullivanspeaker.com. They can also reach
out to me on LinkedIn. LinkedInis my best friend, I have met so
many I met you through LinkedIn.
No, actually, we met through acommon friend. But um, yeah, I
(25:29):
mean, no, we did meet throughLinkedIn now that I'm thinking
about it. But you know, I'm abig advocate of LinkedIn, too.
And, you know, Penny Sullivan, Ilive in Palm Beach, you know, I
love talking to people, I lovehelping people. So they can, you
know, reach out to me mywebsite, my LinkedIn account.
(25:49):
And I also have my emailaddress, right on my LinkedIn
account, becauseevery place important, that's
perfect, that's fantastic. Imean, you know, at several
points in time, during ourconversation, I was like, Oh, I
could really use help there, orI have a client that I know,
could could use some help onthat. So that's going to be
that's going to be a greatresource that I will use as
(26:11):
well. So that's really great. Iappreciate that, you know, when
people get rid of their time,poverty, results, and
performance and happiness, justaccelerate, and those are the
things we want more life, right.
You know, so it's, it's just tome, it's about quality of life.
(26:33):
And if you want to really stepup your quality of life, you
know, this is a tried and truepath that has worked for almost
everybody that has engaged inthe process.
Gosh, so Peggy Sullivan,speaker.com. Exactly. Good.
We'll put it in the show notesto Peggy so people can quickly
(26:53):
link to you and find you. And isthe is the busyness barometer,
something that is like in anapp, or is it something that how
do people use that? Yeah,if people want to reach out to
me, I will send them a link.
It's a four minute onlinesurvey. And then it'll
(27:14):
automatically give them theresults. And then if they feel
like they need more help, ormore consulting, hey, I'm here.
But it's a great, greatcorporate environment. Because,
you know, everybody isdifferent. So getting a feel for
what's going on in yourdepartment, your organization.
(27:35):
And like, what are the key busytraps? It's a great way to see I
mean, I just did it for for Ithink about 7000 people, they
thought they knew they're busytraps, the data said, Nope,
they're different. They're notwhat they are. And then, so we
decided, okay, we're going afterwhat the data says, right? And,
you know, it really helpedfabulous people find time in
(27:57):
their life. So this busybarometer is just such a cool
tool. It's really fun.
It's really great. You know, forme, I think it would help me to
have control of my time, youknow, because we don't get any
more time that is a as mycolleague, Mike, the poem would
say, it's a perishable item thatwe don't you know, it's
(28:19):
perishable. So if we don't usethe time, it goes away, it never
comes back. And what I'mthinking is, you know, it would
help me to have control inknowing, and then I can
activate, you know, kind of dosomething about it. So I think
that's really great. And I'mexcited to try it.
The reality is, therecommendations in terms of the
(28:43):
busy traps are all from a groupof experts on how to eliminate
them. And so there was really apool of 1000s of people that
came together to, you know, whatare the key micro steps you can
do to eliminate this busy trap.
And so the stuff is very simple.
It's, it's so it's so easy todo. It's not major work. It's
(29:09):
it's, it's pretty profound, howincremental it really helps us.
That's amazing. Well, thank youfor explaining. Everything
you've done has been tremendous.
And I and I'm really, like Isaid, I want to try this
busyness barometer, I thinkthat'll be a good tool for me. I
will absolutely keep your mindas well as I have clients
(29:31):
because there's so many folksout there struggling with that,
you know, time poverty issue,and especially busy working
parents, I would say that's areally you identify that and
that's a really kind of keygroup of people who just don't
feel like they have a choice.
They just push through and thenof course, their mental state
(29:51):
suffers. So thank you for that.
And I'm excited for your book tocome out as well. Well, Okay, so
I send you love and a big hug. Imean big Pegler. So I'm sending
you a really big Virtual hug andhave an amazing week. And thank
you so much for the work you doand having me a guest on your
(30:15):
show. This was so much fun.
So fun. So fun. Great to see youagain. Happy weekend and thank
you for taking the time to kindof explain what you do and help
others so have a great day,Peggy. Okay, great. Bye. Bye.
Thanks so much for tuning intothis episode of level up your
business with me, Sarah Frasca.
If you have a problem in yourbusiness that's keeping you up
(30:38):
at night. Please join us in afuture episode so we can help
get you unstuck. Just clickingthe link in the show notes and
send us a message. Pleaseremember, stay innovative
friends
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