Sarah Watson: [00:00:00] if we can take the slow down, if we can take the pause long term, it will help us with what our goals are and what our aspirations are for our business.

Because if we’re so busy. We can’t see what’s ahead or we can’t even be present in the moment. And that again, something I have to practice. And so I have to say to myself, Jade, I am not in the business to be busy, and I have to repeat that to myself. Almost as a mantra. I am not in the business to be busy.

I’m not in the business to be busy, so what can I do to support that?

And whether that’s adding things to the cut list or taking some time to plan. But just reminding myself that the slowdown is actually going to help me long term with the success versus adding, adding, adding or trying new things or just, you know, putting more cogs into this wheel. If I can slow down, that will ultimately help the success.

Jade Boyd: Welcome to the Business Edit Podcast, a [00:01:00] podcast about redefining productivity for the modern woman in business and finding ways to work smarter, not harder in business and life. I’m your host, Jade Boyd, an MBA business minimalist and productivity coach. I help overwhelmed business owners simplify and feel their service-based businesses by doing less but better.

I help my clients create business. Minimalist strategies and systems that allow them to pursue ambitious goals while working at a human pace. On this podcast, we’ll explore simple ways to grow your business with a life first approach. If you’re ready to scale your business, bring order to chaos, ditch the busy work, and spend more time living your life than managing your life, you’ve come to the right place.

Welcome to the Business Edit Podcast.

Welcome to the show, Sarah.

Sarah Watson: Thank you, Jade. Thanks for having me.

Jade Boyd: Yeah, it’s so good to have you here, and for those who don’t know you yet, I would love to start off with just a little bit of your story and your background and kind of how you got into [00:02:00] doing the work that you do today.

Sarah Watson: Yes, of course. I’m Sarah Watson. I work with the Restoration Project. We are a group of, it’s all Ladies and we do coaching consulting for leaders. I. Specifically individuals, teams, and organizations. And how I got to this point was I started in a, a corporate career. I worked in talent development for many years.

Then at one point I worked at a mid-size company in e-commerce and again, in talent development. And then I switched to sales and got really close to our customers and just working hands on with the groups that we were serving at the time. And then I made another drastic change and decided I wanted to work in nonprofit.

So I’ve had a multitude of careers. I’ve worked in a variety of different industries and I always kept coming back to the people. Always kept coming back to how do we best serve the team? How do we best serve the people of the organization? How do we best invest in the people? Because that’s when I found we got the best [00:03:00] results, both on the side of, you know, the company, the culture, the interactions, the engagement, but also for our customers.

So it’s something that I’ve always. Had a deep love for is just making sure people are taken care of, people are seen, heard, invested in, because that’s when we typically get the best outcomes.

Jade Boyd: So you have a really unique title in your work right now, and I’ve never seen anybody with this title. You call yourself the creator of calm, and so I would really love to know. How that title came to be and kind of how, what does that look like with your clients?

Sarah Watson: Yes. Thank you for bringing that up, Jade. So, yes I am called the creator of Calm. And how that came up was when I was on my next adventure, I was leaving my nonprofit gig and I was going to be venturing off on my own to start my own client base. I got in touch with a friend and I knew that she had been ramping up some of her efforts and I was going to be meeting with her for a networking [00:04:00] opportunity and she was talking to me a little bit about her business and I was really excited to learn more about what she was building and.

I said, I’m going to be looking for some clients. Here’s a little bit of what I’m interested in and excited to help serve with, particularly with small business owners and entrepreneurs. And I said, so if you, if you think of anyone or know someone that might need support, please think of me and, and we can exchange info. And she looked right at me and said, well, I could use some help. And I said, oh, great. Let’s, let’s chat through that. And so at the time, she was incredibly busy and running solo on her own. And so I said, well, I can come alongside you and help create some calm. And that’s how the, the title was formed.

And and so ever since then, when I worked with small business owners, nonprofits, individuals and entrepreneurs, I often tell them, you know, I can come in and help create some calm in, in probably what is a bit of chaos. So that’s, [00:05:00] that’s the running joke. Yes.

Jade Boyd: I feel like every business owner probably feels that to some extent. Stent because there are a lot of moving parts, like you said, especially if you’re a solopreneur managing all of the moving parts. There’s a lot going on and I would love to know, obviously you and your personality, I feel like it just makes sense.

Anybody who’s met you in person knows that you just have like a very calming demeanor in general. But what is the recipe as a consultant for your clients, for calm? Is it systems? Is it something else? Like what are the things that business owners should be looking at if they want to operate their business with that greater sense of calm?

Sarah Watson: Yes. Thank you for asking that question. So it really does boil down to a simple three-prong approach, which we talk about strategy, systems and structure, but underneath. At that level, Jade, it’s really about the business owner and the entrepreneur understanding themselves. And oftentimes in our line of work at the Restoration project, we talk heavily about first things first, we need to build connection, and that means [00:06:00] building connection within ourselves, understanding ourselves as the business owner, understanding ourselves as the leader.

If we know our tendencies best, if we know how we operate best, if we know what we can do well to fill our cups up and then we can then create calm externally, right? Instead of that chaos brewing inside. So yes, the approach of those three things are important, strategy systems and structure, but really to get the calm in any sort of line of business and work, we have to understand ourselves best.

Jade Boyd: I love how you connected, like even in the beginning in your intro of what you did. What you do, how you saw that through line of with when people are doing well, the business does well. If the people are enjoying their work and are in the right roles and you know, thriving, then they get better results for the business too.

And I think that we forget about that, especially as solopreneurs that we are the people in the business. I think it’s easier to think of your employees and wanting them to be happy where they’re at. Right. But we kind of [00:07:00] forget, like I should be happy too, probably if I wanna see great results from myself and.

I mean, toxic productivity is definitely a buzzword these days, and I feel like people are starting to be more cognizant or self-aware and kind of not celebrate it as often, and. Part of that is really knowing yourself and what’s driving you. I was doing just like a little chat, GPT chat before this of like, what is even toxic productivity?

’cause I feel like it’s a buzzword that’s thrown around a lot and what it spit out is it’s when the drive behind being productive becomes harmful instead of helpful, and it’s the pressure to always be doing something useful even at the expense of your health, rest, relationships, or joy. A lot of your work does focus on helping business owners operate from that place of, you know, healthy worth ethic and separating their self-worth from their productivity.

And so I would love to know what does that actually take for the business owner who’s even currently thinking like, yeah, a lot of my self-worth is caught up [00:08:00] in my business and like, I know this isn’t healthy and I’m not doing well. What are kind of those first steps to start moving towards a healthier direction as a business owner?

Sarah Watson: Yeah, that’s such a great question. So I’ll take you back a couple years ago when I was first starting out, becoming my own. So. Entrepreneur essentially of, I was leaving my my traditional job, if you will, and going off on my own. I had this notebook, jade, that I carried around for months, months and months that I used to sketch goals in this notebook and habits and tracking, and it was pages and pages long.

It was unattainable for any robot, let alone a human. And so that was me getting caught up in the, I must do, I must achieve. I must keep going. I must, I must keep building. I must. You know, check these boxes, et cetera. And that style while I can jump into that and [00:09:00] it’s, it can serve me in moments I. It wrecks me, it straight up wrecks me.

Because I, I have no stop. I have no limit to putting more on the list, adding more to the goals, inching the goal higher and higher, and so that’s not healthy. I’ve learned that about myself, and I’ve often found with small business owners, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, they have that same tendency. They will pile it on until it is insurmountable.

So again, back to what we talked about with building connection, we also have to understand also what is our intention. And so sorting through for yourself as a business owner, what are my priorities, what are my, my values, and truly what is meaningful to me? Because I had a, a mentor a long time ago that used to say to me, this was in my twenties, and I, I laughed at it for years.

She used to say to me, you’ll never get to the end and wish. Gee, I, I should have worked [00:10:00] more. I wish I would’ve worked more. I could have worked more. When you get toward a, a certain stage and age of your life, you’d never sit back and say, oh, gee, I wish I would’ve worked more. It’s no, I wish I would’ve spent time with people.

I wish I would’ve built relationships. I wish I would’ve gone on x, y, z experience or trip or made those memories. And so. As entrepreneurs and small business owners, we really do have to sort through that noise of not what others are saying, not what society says, but what’s, what’s important to us? What’s important to us?

What relationships do we wanna have, and what memories do we want to create? And so I had to lay that notebook down and not reference it, not keep going with it. I had to find a new way, a new path, and a new tracking system, if you will. Essentially my new mantra is goodbye goals. Hello memories.

Jade Boyd: Hmm. I love that. So how does that actually work for the entrepreneur who like [00:11:00] they know that they are. Struggling to reach, you know, the next goal and then it’s never enough. And then the next goal and the next goal. How do we unravel that need within ourselves to achieve more and more? Because there’s like the tangible systems of like what you’re focused on, but then there’s also just setting a different expectation or a goal or like learning to be content.

What is that thing that shifts, that makes that possible?

Sarah Watson: Yes. That’s such a good question. Yeah. The unraveling for that next level, next achievement, next, something is that’s, that’s a real I call it like a twitch inside of us, right? That it’s always there. And there is a stage and a season for that. So not all business owners are in the place to, I’m gonna take a pause here, or I’m gonna slow down here.

There is a stage in a season where we need to get to the next level, but we have to decide if we’re getting to that next level, what are we willing to give? What are we willing to take? What are we willing to that push and pull [00:12:00] of a sacrifice? But if we are in a position where we’re wanting to take a step back, take a pause, and really decide for ourselves, do I need this or am I just going to the next thing?

Because that’s what I’ve been conditioned, that’s what I’ve been taught. We have to slow down for a moment, and that could be really hard, Jade, to sit with our own thoughts to take the pause to do some reflection. That’s back to the, the piece. It’s one of our core values that at the restoration project is the in the restore of intention.

What is my intention here? What am I trying to really achieve, if you will use that word, or what’s my desired outcome? We have to ask ourselves those tough questions first. To then be able to sort out that noise on the outside. And oftentimes I think with the achievement, at least what I’ve had to do over the years is rewiring the what does good look like and what does great look like, and do I need the good version or do I need the great version?

I want to do the great [00:13:00] version every time. Of course I do. We all do in our businesses. We want the great version, we want the best version. But if we’re in a stage or a season where perhaps we’re starting a family or we’re caring for an aging parent, or maybe we’ve had a big life change, perhaps we’ve just moved to a new city, whatever it is, we not, we might not be able to hit the gas pedal and go for the gusto of the great version.

We might just need to do the, it’s good enough version and, and that’s okay. So being able to sort through those things and understanding the levels. And where we’re at, that’s when we can start to discern, okay, what’s my intention here and what level of greatness, if you will do I need in this moment?

Jade Boyd: Yeah. So how do we look beyond like individuals, especially like ourselves, how to unravel that need to achieve, but then how do you work with teams or like as a leader, if you have a team of people and notice that some of your [00:14:00] team members or employees are putting their worth into their work in an unhealthy way, what does that look like for a leader to invest in people so that they are getting results?

Like it’s great to have achievers work for you and. You want them to be productive, but how do you help them be productive for the long term? And like you said, healthy people create better results. So what does that look like as a leader and what are kind of the practices or rhythms that they need to be in to make sure that their people are being healthy too?

Sarah Watson: Yes. That’s, that’s great. So. When we sit down with teams, oftentimes we’re asking the leaders to be able to look inward themselves so that they can do this with their own group. So they have to be able to look inward and ask themselves, okay, what does success truly look like? What is the desired outcome?

If we can’t define that on the front end, then we have a little bit of work to do. So being able to just walk through that first, and then as the leader. Touching base with each of those individuals on the team and [00:15:00] understanding what their level of success looks like. What does good and great and those types of levels look like for them.

Because sitting down with a team, we might have a certain batch of people that yes, they might be more in that high performance category. We might have others that they, an individual contributor and they’re happy with their role. They don’t have the desire to move up to the next level. Then we might have some newbies on the team, right?

We might have some people that are just first getting started out in their career, and so they don’t know the, the navigating and the, the lay of the land, yet they’re just in the landscape trying to find their, their match and trying to find where they fit in. And so I think as leaders, it’s so important that we touch base with our teammates individually.

Really ask them what does their path look like? What does success look like for them? Because everyone is going to have a different answer to that question. Some really might love pouring themselves into their work. That might be their their baby, if you will, [00:16:00] and others they might be in a different stage or season and they don’t have the.

The energy to pour all of their, their time and efforts into this one piece, this one part. But they still wanna do really good work. And that’s okay. So as leaders, it’s really important to understand each of our team members individually, what their path is, what does success look like to them, and how they can best contribute on the team.

Jade Boyd: What are some common mistakes that you see new leaders make when they’re stepping into that leadership role for the first time? Because I think as business owners, a lot of us. To just create businesses because we love doing a certain thing and then the team grows and all of a sudden you have to be a leader and a manager of people.

And that is a whole different skill set that many people aren’t taught how to do. So for the business owner who is thinking about growing their team or stepping into leadership in some way what are some of the mistakes that you see people making often and what should we do instead?

Sarah Watson: Yes. [00:17:00] So when when I sit with new leaders, perhaps they’re either with a new team or they’re transitioning from being a peer to becoming a leader or a manager in that group, I. The most common mistake that I find is that they believe, they strongly believe Jade, that they have to have the answers. They have to know.

What to do and what the path is and where is, where am I taking the team and what’s the vision? And, and the, the truth of that is that you don’t have to know all those things on the front end. As leaders, our job is to incorporate the team and their strengths and other people, other contributors. And so there’s this pressure, this, this I don’t know if it’s external, internal, or a little bit of both, but we feel this.

Strong need of, I have to know it. I have to know all of it. I have I, if someone answers a question, I have to have the answer, and that’s not true. So that’s number one. And the second one I find is that they just [00:18:00] don’t realize how much to communicate. So they, they don’t wanna over communicate and necessarily be bugging their team, but they also don’t want to not communicate and have lack of transparency and trust.

And so finding that balance of communication, oftentimes leaders just don’t know how to strike the balance of. How much to touch base with their teams individually and how much to touch base as a team and as a group. And so each leader will do that a little different in finding their cadence and their flow of what works, but it’s almost impossible to over communicate.

So as leaders, we have to remember that more communication is, is better than none.

Jade Boyd: So our mutual friend, Molly Knuth, she was taking over my coaching program last summer when I was on maternity leave, and she dropped a resource from the restoration project on navigating difficult conversations and kind of. Digging into the topic of communicating well as a leader, it was very, very thorough.

And I think that managing difficult [00:19:00] conversations is a really tricky thing, especially for new leaders or business owners who are hiring people for the first time, or even, I mean, solopreneurs with clients, having to set boundaries or tell people, no, personally, it’s not something that I’ve ever really struggled with.

I don’t know why. I’m just kind of like, here’s what it is. Let’s talk about it. I’m not very conflict avoidant, but I know it’s something that, so I mean, it was dropped in my coaching program program because one of my clients was really struggling with some anxiety around a conversation that she was gonna have to have where she was gonna have to stand up for herself.

So what kind of tips. Do you have, I mean, like I said, the guide was very, very in depth, but if you had two or three tips for somebody who really does struggle with having conversations and having open communication when it feels like it’s gonna be uncomfortable or they’re a people pleaser and they don’t want people to think that they don’t like them, or something like that, what are two or three tips that you would have for them going into that difficult conversation?

Sarah Watson: Oh, yes, you’re asking the right person, Jade, because [00:20:00] I am the ultimate. I like an escape artist, if you will. I want to run in the other direction instead of having a, a tough conversation. And so I’ve really had to work through this. My number one saboteur is avoider. So it, it is real. I jump into a room and I, I look for the exit.

Where can I exit? So my number one tip is I, I always try to prep myself with what is my perspective, but also. What is going to be the other person’s perspective? I don’t know that yet. If I’m walking into a tough conversation or a situation where I have to confront someone about a situation, a problem, a something that has happened and I don’t know their perspective, I can see exactly what I think is the right answer in front of me and what.

I feel, and what I think, in my opinion, of course, I know all those things. I’ve gone over and over it in my head a thousand times. But what I have to remind myself is I don’t [00:21:00] know the other person’s perspective. So my number one tip when walking into a difficult conversation is to invite the person, invite the person into the conversation and ask.

What is your perspective on this? And then prior to the conversation, Jade, I always have to pump myself up a little bit for a difficult conversation because it is tough for me. And so I walk in with my inner CHE is what it’s called, which stands for confidence, honesty, and enthusiasm, CHE. So if I can walk into any tricky or tough situation with my inner CHE have that confidence, honesty, and enthusiasm. Usually the conversation goes a lot better than what I have it built up in my mind.

Jade Boyd: Do you feel like you’ve gotten easier at difficult conversations the, the more that you’ve practiced them, or have you seen that with clients?

Sarah Watson: I have seen it work well with clients when they can, have a few reps just continue to practice or continue to take that on. I myself have found that it’s [00:22:00] always worse in my head than what it actually is when I get into the room. And so giving that to myself as a friendly reminder and a nudge and just, you know, encouragement of Sarah, you’re building this up in your head probably a lot more than it is.

Go in there, ask them their perspective, invite them into the conversation. And usually that ends up, it ends up turning out just fine, right?

Jade Boyd: Yeah, I mean, there’s no conversation that’s ever ended. You know, there’s only so much risk that we have as business owners. I think that we overestimate how bad our worst day can be. I mean, we’re not doing surgery or anything like that, but oftentimes, you know. Physically it feels like it, like we’re running away from a bear or something.

But yeah, there’s really not a worst case scenario that we can’t bounce back from in very rare situations. I remember one time in grad school I was really frustrated in my MBA program, we had to do group projects for basically everything, and I’m a very like. I wanna work by myself [00:23:00] and have control.

And I was like struggling and one of my teammates was just being awful and I was so frustrated with how it was going and I was talking to one of my advisors and she’s like, okay, if you get like worst case scenario, what’s gonna happen on this project? I’m like, well, we would get an F. And she’s like, okay, if you get an F on this project, what’s worst case scenario?

Like I probably would end up with like a C in the class or something. And she’s like, and. Does that matter? Like to me it does, but in the grand scheme of things, no, it really doesn’t. Right. So I think that’s an exercise that helps me go through like, okay, what are, what is actually the worst case scenario here?

And usually it’s not that bad. I.

Sarah Watson: Yes, absolutely.

Jade Boyd: So kind of coming back to the topic of showing up as your best self in work. We talked a lot about like separating your worth from productivity, being able to slow down, reflecting on what you want your outcomes to be and being realistic in your [00:24:00] season. What outcome is doable for you in that season based on everything else?

Is there anything else that business owners need in your opinion to kind of show up as their best selves and be healthy at work?

Sarah Watson: Yeah, the, the number one thing. That I have found helps a business owner, especially if they’re in it, they’re in the scramble of building the business, growing the business keeping up with new clients, just all of those activity levels that are making all the bells and whistles go off at the same time is they have to take time to plan.

And that is the hardest thing to convince a business owner and an entrepreneur to slow down. I. Take time to make a plan, and whether that is taking 30 minutes or if you have the gift of time and having a whole day set aside to do some planning or a quarterly offsite, or however that shakes out. Any amount of planning will help in the long run.

But convincing a small [00:25:00] business owner and an entrepreneur to take the time to do it is tough. But seeing the greater good of, if I sit down and make a soft plan, this will help me in the long run. It will help with the, the scramble that I feel now, but it will also help me think through what are my dreams for the business?

What are some things that I really want to see come to fruition? What are some pieces or new things that I wanna incorporate? What are some areas of growth? What are things that are getting in my way? What do I need on the cut list? That’s another one that in these planning sessions that I do with business owners, is we talk about, let’s put that on the cut list and no one wants to add to the cut list, but everyone wants to add to the to-do list.

So we have to find a way to strike that balance. So anytime I can, nudging friendly in a friendly way, convince a business owner to set aside some planning time. It makes a big difference.

Jade Boyd: Are there any last [00:26:00] words of advice that you would leave for the business owner who is feeling a little bit burnout at the moment and like they are putting all their worth in their work and realizing that they have to make some sort of shift to make this sustainable? What advice would you give them? I.

Sarah Watson: Hmm. Yes. So the. Probably the piece of advice that I would give is one that I, I also have to remind myself, I too am still practicing this. It’s, it’s that concept of slow down to succeed. And that sounds very opposite, but it really does help us if we can take the slow down, if we can take the pause long term, it will help us with what our goals are and what our aspirations are for our business.

Because if we’re so busy. We can’t see what’s ahead or we can’t even be present in the moment. And that again, something I have to practice. And so I have to say to myself, Jade, I am not in the business to be busy, and I have to repeat that to [00:27:00] myself. Almost as a mantra. I am not in the business to be busy.

I’m on this path, and I am carving this out in a way because I want to be less busy. I selfishly want less because that helps my wellbeing and it helps my family and it impacts my community when I have a, a healthier approach to things. And so I have to repeat that to myself. I’m not in the business to be busy, so what can I do to support that?

And whether that’s adding things to the cut list or taking some time to plan. But just reminding myself that the slowdown is actually going to help me long term with the success versus adding, adding, adding or trying new things or just, you know, putting more cogs into this wheel. If I can slow down, that will ultimately help the success.

Jade Boyd: I feel like that’s something that’s really resonating with me right now in the season where I’m pulling back quite a bit on business until my daughter goes to daycare. I’ve just realized the less and less I have on [00:28:00] my plate, the easier things have gotten. Like I don’t have to try so hard to get things done.

Like I don’t have to be organized and have a, you know, schedule for when to wash the bedsheets or anything. It just like happens ’cause I have free time and it’s. It does seem so counterintuitive that you think that, oh, if I have more in my to-do list, then I’m gonna get more done instead of, oh no, actually the less busy I am, the easier it is to actually get things done.

Where you don’t have to force yourself to have that whole notebook of all these checklists with habits. You just have time to go outside and run when you want to. Right. It seems so counterintuitive, but that is so, so helpful. So where can listeners who are interested in learning more from you, find you after the show?

Sarah Watson: Oh, you bet. Thanks for asking. So our team is the restoration project. They can find us on our website, the-restorationproject.com. Then we are on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook at your leadership coaches and would love for you to jump on our learning hub. That’s [00:29:00] where we have a lot of our free tools, resources, downloadables things that you can certainly do on your own to self guide.

And then we do have online courses, in-person workshops, all of that. Certainly would love to see anyone pop into one of our in-person experiences. But a great starting point is to get connected on our learning hub.

Jade Boyd: Well, thank you so much again. We’ll have that linked all in the show notes and thank you for being here, Sarah.

Sarah Watson: You bet. Thanks Jades.

Jade Boyd: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Business Edit Podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, I’d be so grateful if you take a screenshot and share it on Instagram. Tagging me@jadeboyd.co. I’m on a mission to empower a new generation of women to become the types of wives, moms, and business owners that they’ve always wanted to be because empowered women change their families and communities for the better, and this is how we’ll change the world.

Sharing your takeaways from this episode on Instagram will help more women in business discover helpful episodes and level up in life and business [00:30:00] each week. Don’t forget to check out the show notes for the tools and resources mentioned in today’s episode because good ideas don’t grow businesses.

Action does. I’ll see you next time on The Business Edit podcast.