Episode 83

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Published on:

6th Sep 2022

Dealing with Procrastination as a Business Owner

Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow — the motto of all procrastinators. In today’s episode, Kim and Cara talk about how to both overcome and embrace (yes, embrace) the tendency to procrastinate.

Transcript
Jaz:

Welcome to The Business Animal podcast. Saddle up for a

Jaz:

gallop to the top of the animal industry, where you'll learn how

Jaz:

to tame your wild business beast with tips, techniques, and tools

Jaz:

that will take overwhelm to obedience school and have you

Jaz:

wagging your tail with joy. And now your hosts Kim Beer and Cara

Jaz:

Taylor Swift

Kimberly Beer:

Hey there business animals It's Kim with

Kimberly Beer:

Be More Business

Cara Taylor Swift:

and Cara

Cara Taylor Swift:

with Fast Horse photography. I was thinking maybe we should

Cara Taylor Swift:

just postpone this episode for a little while I've got some

Cara Taylor Swift:

emails I need to get done. I was

Kimberly Beer:

thinking of an equally interesting way of

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stating that we're going to be talking about procrastination

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today. Oh my goodness. Oh, never do today what you could put off

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till tomorrow. That's the motto of all procrastinators. And I do

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believe that we did procrastinate the recording of

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this because otherwise I wouldn't have drunk all my audio

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equipment to Casper, Wyoming so I could record

Cara Taylor Swift:

it. We should have recorded this episode

Cara Taylor Swift:

before you left before while me. So yes, we procrastinated

Cara Taylor Swift:

getting this done. And here we are talking about

Cara Taylor Swift:

procrastination, and I personally feel attacked today.

Kimberly Beer:

But I do want to note that in the procrastination

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of putting off this episode for recording, we do have fantastic

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internet I have fantastic internet at this motel and Cara

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is you're never leaving that motel for recording again. No,

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you're

Cara Taylor Swift:

gonna have to move to Casper Wyoming and

Cara Taylor Swift:

record from the lucky to end. So plug for La Quinta best bet for

Cara Taylor Swift:

recording a podcast we've experienced personally.

Kimberly Beer:

So in that case, the point that I want to make is

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that procrastination paid off. Yeah, you just got lucky up

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procrastination. Yeah, procrastination paying off. I'll

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take a boat. So procrastination is something I think we all feel

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victimized by the cultural perception of, I am not going to

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tell you procrastination is a bad thing. One thing that I have

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learned in my 56 years is that procrastination is something

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that our culture and that people like to use to judge you. And

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frankly, it has been one of the best things in my life. And I

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know I'm a weirdo for saying that. And I know Cara is looking

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at me like Kim, you have lost your mind. She's giving me that

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Cara blink like, Oh, God,

Cara Taylor Swift:

I don't have a blank. That's Oh,

Kimberly Beer:

you have a blank that I can't believe you're

Kimberly Beer:

saying?

Cara Taylor Swift:

Well, the truth is, is that yes, sure, you

Cara Taylor Swift:

can be like him and think procrastination is an art form.

Cara Taylor Swift:

And that there are some beauty to it. And I'm not going to say

Cara Taylor Swift:

that it's 100% that you can't enjoy some procrastination every

Cara Taylor Swift:

now and then. But the truth of the matter is, is when you find

Cara Taylor Swift:

that this is something that is stifling your forward momentum

Cara Taylor Swift:

on a project or in your life or on your job, that you really

Cara Taylor Swift:

have to set some boundaries around your procrastination

Cara Taylor Swift:

actions. So there are some signs that you might be

Cara Taylor Swift:

procrastinating Are you okay? If I go down my list right now, or

Kimberly Beer:

I don't procrastinate it don't put it

Kimberly Beer:

off another minute, a.

Cara Taylor Swift:

So first of all, when I was going through

Cara Taylor Swift:

this, I was feeling personally attacked. I am a bit of a

Cara Taylor Swift:

procrastinator, apparently, according to my list that I have

Cara Taylor Swift:

here. So if you tend to get bogged down every day with lower

Cara Taylor Swift:

priority tasks, this is sitting down at the computer with your

Cara Taylor Swift:

list of to do items and then realizing you have like 500

Cara Taylor Swift:

other little things that you can just knock out real quick, I

Cara Taylor Swift:

find myself doing that a lot, you find that you're waiting

Cara Taylor Swift:

until the last minute to do something over and over and over

Cara Taylor Swift:

again. And then you're stressing and you're rushing to get it

Cara Taylor Swift:

done. And maybe that makes you late for the next thing that you

Cara Taylor Swift:

need to be at if you keep pushing items every day, to the

Cara Taylor Swift:

next day. So you've got your to do list. You've got those big

Cara Taylor Swift:

items that you need to get done. And then you just kind of bumped

Cara Taylor Swift:

them to the next day. And you're doing this over and over and

Cara Taylor Swift:

over and over again thinking that there's going to be a

Cara Taylor Swift:

better day to get it done. People do this even with

Cara Taylor Swift:

important things. Maybe your workspace is really messy and

Cara Taylor Swift:

unorganized. I'm going to be honest with you this was on the

Cara Taylor Swift:

list that I found and part of the I found several lists and I

Cara Taylor Swift:

really kind of went through and cherry picked and I found this

Cara Taylor Swift:

to be a little bit of an attack. I don't know what this has to do

Cara Taylor Swift:

with anything like what Kim Why do you think having a messy desk

Cara Taylor Swift:

is a sign that you might be a procrastinator. I think

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that some people might think that I don't

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personally think it but I think that it shows that partisan

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people that you are not organized and people will dump

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organizational skills in the same line with procrastination.

Kimberly Beer:

So I think this has to do with a cultural perception of what

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procrastination is. And honestly like I said at the beginning it

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kind of flies in the face of what I believe procrastination

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really is. So I don't know as though a messy and run organized

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desk has anything to do with determining If you're a

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procrastinator or not, it just probably means that you have a

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different way of thinking than the people who make the rules.

Cara Taylor Swift:

Okay, so we're going to take the positive

Cara Taylor Swift:

spin on that one, and we're just going to throw that one

Cara Taylor Swift:

completely out. So to anyone out there that thinks that you're a

Cara Taylor Swift:

procrastinator because you have a messy desk like Screw you,

Cara Taylor Swift:

we're not procrastinators, because we have a messy

Cara Taylor Swift:

workspace. We like it this way. That's right. Another sign that

Cara Taylor Swift:

you might be procrastinating, you find that you aren't

Cara Taylor Swift:

finishing projects, you start or you're just not reaching your

Cara Taylor Swift:

goals that you set for yourself. I mean, that's a big one. And it

Cara Taylor Swift:

also takes a big hit, sometimes emotionally, when you're not

Cara Taylor Swift:

finishing things and you're not reaching your goals. If you

Cara Taylor Swift:

avoid making decisions about emails or text messages, direct

Cara Taylor Swift:

messages that you really need to respond to, you just kind of

Cara Taylor Swift:

keep putting those off, putting them off putting them off. Um,

Cara Taylor Swift:

another sign you might be procrastinating is if you let

Cara Taylor Swift:

yourself get distracted easily by social media, snack breaks,

Cara Taylor Swift:

right in the middle of a big task. I can't tell you how many

Cara Taylor Swift:

times I'm right in the middle of a big task, and I'm like, oh,

Cara Taylor Swift:

you know what, I'm gonna go refill my drink, or I just need

Cara Taylor Swift:

to walk around, do a little inflation jogging, I need a

Cara Taylor Swift:

snack that happens all the time. You might be procrastinating if

Cara Taylor Swift:

you find yourself waiting to complete tasks until you're in a

Cara Taylor Swift:

better mood, or in the right mood for the project. Yeah, so

Cara Taylor Swift:

those are some of the things that when I was doing my

Cara Taylor Swift:

research for this that popped up, they made me feel a little

Cara Taylor Swift:

personally attacked. But I know you have some comments on them

Cara Taylor Swift:

cam. So what do you think about this, so I'm

Kimberly Beer:

gonna get into most of my comments about this

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when we get into our big three. But I wanted to mention one

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other thing that is a big identifier for our expectation

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of what procrastination is. And that is something called

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structured procrastination. And there's a wonderful, very short

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book. So you don't have to put off reading it about this very

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topic. And the author's name is escaping me at the moment, but

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it is called structured procrastination. And this is

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another key that maybe you need to look at some of the things

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that are going on in your life, if you find yourself doing tasks

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that have nothing to do with what you really need to be

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doing. For example, if you're the type of person who says I

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really need to build a website for my business, and then you

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spend the next six weeks learning how to use WordPress,

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and researching all the various different hosting plans that are

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out there to build a website on. And then you find you want to do

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some better graphics. And now you have to go learn how to do

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Photoshop. And in the end, you never end up with a website, but

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you end up with a whole lot of education and on this whole

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crazy journey. That is what structure procrastination is.

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And there are some interesting concepts around structure

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procrastination, and how they work in our lives and in our

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minds. And I think this is a great time to bring into the

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play our big three for this episode, do you want to run

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those now,

Cara Taylor Swift:

the first of the Big Three is get to the real

Cara Taylor Swift:

reason you're putting off a task, Kim's gonna talk a lot

Cara Taylor Swift:

about this, I'm sure. The second is find a system that works for

Cara Taylor Swift:

you. So thinking about how to deal with procrastination and

Cara Taylor Swift:

get the stuff done that you need to get done. And then the third

Cara Taylor Swift:

of our big three is embrace your procrastination as part of your

Cara Taylor Swift:

creative process. So we'll talk a little bit more about that. I

Cara Taylor Swift:

think Kim was kind of diving into it a little bit already. So

Cara Taylor Swift:

let's get rolling. I'm gonna make you start by talking about

Cara Taylor Swift:

number one. Yes. So

Kimberly Beer:

this is to get to the real reason why you're

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putting off a task. Procrastination is not a

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disease, it's a symptom in so much of our culture, pinpoints

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it is that there's something wrong with you because you're

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procrastinating and that you're defective in some way that

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there's something intrinsically not correct with you. And the

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first thing I think we've got to understand is that some of these

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things that are signs that you're a procrastinator,

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according to our culture, are things that have to do with your

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temperament or typology. So I've done a lot of education, I went

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through a certification program it Gestalt, as you guys know,

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through touched by a horse and through with mentor, Melissa

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peers. And one of the things that Melissa was very good at

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teaching us about from day one through that certification

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program was to understand yourself and to understand those

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around you. Our culture is set up to be a very responsible,

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organized world. And if you are not meeting those checkpoints,

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chances are you're not that type of a person. So your temperament

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is different. It's the temperament that says, I enjoy

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the journey, not the destination. So our culture is

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set up to enjoy the destination. There are those of us out here

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and were designated as a type p in the Keirsey Bates or Myers

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Briggs typology. were completing a poll object is not the best

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part of that project for us. And it's this thing that we have to

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fight against in our own temperament to meet those

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expectations of that completion. So I want you to understand that

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knowing yourself is the very first step to understanding why

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you procrastinate. And if you don't know your temperament, or

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you don't know your type, or you haven't taken some of these

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assessments like Keirsey, Bates, Myers Briggs, you haven't dove

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into the Enneagram, or the disc, or the strict Clifton Strengths

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finders, you always feel like you're being judged poorly. And

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the truth of the matter is, is that you just need to set up a

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different work environment, and you need to understand your own

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temperament and start flexing that part of your temperament

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that will make your business successful. At the end of the

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day, when we're on this particular podcast, we're

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talking about your business and how you show up for that. And

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procrastinating things in your business can be detrimental. I

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don't care what type you are. So I do agree with Cara on that I

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just think procrastination always has a big reason behind

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it. And I think for a lot of us understanding ourselves is the

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very first step into understanding why we are not

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fitting into what we need to be fitting into. And we feel very

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judged and attacked by being called a procrastinator. And

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honestly, I think for a lot of these things on this list that

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we talked about that are signs you may be procrastinating, that

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has to do with your temperament and take that first step. But it

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actually goes in my opinion beyond that procrastination is a

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strategy for some of us. It's a way that we have dealt with

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trauma in the past, there's maybe some type of a limiting

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belief or something that happened with us in our

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childhood, or even more recently. And it can be where it

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doesn't even feel like that should be the reason why, like

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you can look at it logically and go, I don't get it. But until

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you suss it out and take a really deep look into why you've

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built up that strategy. Why are you putting off that task? stop

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and ask yourself those questions. Why am I putting this

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off? Is there something that is scary about it? Do I have a

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limiting belief around it? Do I feel like I'm going to be

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judged? If I put it out there into the world? Is it something

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that maybe I was judged for in the past or that there was some

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type of a trauma response around it? I personally think that's

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why I don't like to clean my house.

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So I procrastinate cleaning like crazy. And honestly, I think

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it's a trauma response. Okay. And I know that sounds really

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weird. But there were some weird things around cleaning in my

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family home. And for me, it truly may be a trauma response

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for you. There may be some trauma back there. And it

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doesn't have to be some what you feel is like some monumentally

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life changing thing. It could be something really simple that

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when you delve down and take a look at it, that's what US

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Gestalt lists are very good at helping you do. When you dive

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down and take a look at it, you can figure out why is this a

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problem? I work with a lot of people who struggle with

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procrastinating their marketing. So that's always been my

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specialty in business and working with those folks. And

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when I stopped just saying you need to do this and started

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asking the questions about like, why are you struggling with

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this, it's a lot more progress when you try to find out the

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reason back behind those things. The final thing I want to

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mention here with procrastination is sometimes

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procrastination is really attached to overwhelm. In other

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words, you just simply have way too much to do. And when you

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look at it, it feels so overwhelming, that you have

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developed a strategy and maybe your strategy in overwhelm is to

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do little tiny things that make you feel good, because you're

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able to finish them and lessen the overwhelm. So overwhelm is

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another thing that you need to dive into and figure out okay,

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if I'm living in overwhelm all of the time, there's something

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here that needs to be further looked at to take that symptom

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and say we're going to suss out what is the root cause of that?

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And then we need to eliminate the root cause because treating

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the symptom doesn't cure the problem. It just simply band

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aids over the top of it. Does that make sense? Cara? Imagine

Cara Taylor Swift:

being overwhelmed with your day to day

Cara Taylor Swift:

and then also having the pressure of knowing you have to

Cara Taylor Swift:

grow your business. But knowing if you take the steps to grow

Cara Taylor Swift:

your business, you're going need to bring in more work, which is

Cara Taylor Swift:

going to make your overwhelm even more. So I could see people

Cara Taylor Swift:

doing a lot of procrastination around marketing around just

Cara Taylor Swift:

been working on a website overhaul. So getting the pieces

Cara Taylor Swift:

and everything done. And some of that comes down to Am I ready to

Cara Taylor Swift:

take on the work that could come from the new marketing? You

Cara Taylor Swift:

don't I mean, I could see procrastination around that

Cara Taylor Swift:

100%. But you may not necessarily associated with

Cara Taylor Swift:

that. And then on top of that it's being compounded with the

Cara Taylor Swift:

guilt, I should be doing more, I need to get my business going.

Cara Taylor Swift:

Well, I see other people pulling in clients, why aren't I pulling

Cara Taylor Swift:

on? Well, because I'm procrastinating and not getting

Cara Taylor Swift:

these tasks done, when really, you're just trying to get by

Cara Taylor Swift:

with your day to day. So that all completely makes sense. To

Cara Taylor Swift:

me, one of

Kimberly Beer:

the best ways for you to get out of overwhelm is

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something that you care are exceptionally good at. And that

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is our number two in this episode, which is find a system

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that works for you. Because when you create a system, you have a

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framework for which to carry yourself out of overwhelm. And

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if you create that system where it works with your temperament

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or type, and you understand your well self well enough to know

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what in that system is going to work for you and what isn't,

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then you can start to eliminate two of those big things that are

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at the root of why you are procrastinating. So I'm gonna

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let you take this part away. I'm really good at developing

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systems, I'm not always so good at following them. I'd love to

Kimberly Beer:

hear your advice on this. Sure, I've

Cara Taylor Swift:

got several tips that have helped me that

Cara Taylor Swift:

I'd love to share. The first one is to make a list of the things

Cara Taylor Swift:

that you've got to get done day today. And that simple act of

Cara Taylor Swift:

starting your day. And putting your list together or ending

Cara Taylor Swift:

your day with a list for the next day just takes away some of

Cara Taylor Swift:

the stress and worry and you kind of have an idea of what

Cara Taylor Swift:

needs to get done. What happens though, and what I have

Cara Taylor Swift:

experienced in the past is I'll make a list and it will say

Cara Taylor Swift:

something I'm going to put a monumental task on here's

Cara Taylor Swift:

something like write my book. Well, obviously putting that on

Cara Taylor Swift:

the daily to do list is something that's going to get

Cara Taylor Swift:

pushed to every single the next day, the next day the next day.

Cara Taylor Swift:

So what I have learned is that a little trick is that if I take

Cara Taylor Swift:

the big task and break it down into little bite sized chunks,

Cara Taylor Swift:

and put that on the list, instead, it really makes it more

Cara Taylor Swift:

manageable. And instead of pushing that big thing to the

Cara Taylor Swift:

next day to the next day or to that when I have time or when

Cara Taylor Swift:

I'm in the mood or when I'm in a space where I can do that I'm

Cara Taylor Swift:

moving forward with the goal by knocking off the little tiny

Cara Taylor Swift:

pieces one step at a time, it gets me closer to reaching the

Cara Taylor Swift:

goal, it helps soothe my procrastination fears. And it

Cara Taylor Swift:

helps with the guilt factor that comes into not moving forward,

Cara Taylor Swift:

the next little thing that I would do is I like to commit to

Cara Taylor Swift:

an item on the list or commit to a series of items. So I've got

Cara Taylor Swift:

my to do list. But there are some things that absolutely have

Cara Taylor Swift:

to get done. And I will tell myself, if I don't do anything

Cara Taylor Swift:

else today, these are the things that are getting done. So I

Cara Taylor Swift:

really make myself focus on reeling myself back in not

Cara Taylor Swift:

getting distracted, not losing focus, until I at least get

Cara Taylor Swift:

these key things done that I said I was going to get done.

Cara Taylor Swift:

And that is a battle. So I will be working on something and my

Cara Taylor Swift:

cell phone will ping or I realized my drink cup is empty,

Cara Taylor Swift:

or I haven't had breakfast yet or the dog comes over and is

Cara Taylor Swift:

begging to go out for a walk. Like those are things that

Cara Taylor Swift:

happen and I have to recommit to that over and over and over and

Cara Taylor Swift:

over again, I'm not a singular focus person, like my husband,

Cara Taylor Swift:

he's somebody that can sit down to a task, and the world falls

Cara Taylor Swift:

away. I could be calling him his secretary could stand in the

Cara Taylor Swift:

doorway and be talking to him and he will just flat out not

Cara Taylor Swift:

hear it. He's so singularly focused. It's an amazing talent.

Cara Taylor Swift:

But I can't do that I'm easily distracted, giving myself a

Cara Taylor Swift:

little reward. So I'll say okay, when I finish this task, then

Cara Taylor Swift:

I'm going to go walk the dog and walk the neighborhood. Or then

Cara Taylor Swift:

I'm going to go refill my drink. So I make sure that I set some

Cara Taylor Swift:

boundaries around that. The other thing that's essential for

Cara Taylor Swift:

me is reducing the distractions. I have to turn my cell phone

Cara Taylor Swift:

over and put it on silent. I have found myself Wow, I really

Cara Taylor Swift:

committed and worked through a for a significant amount of time

Cara Taylor Swift:

without distractions. And a lot of times when I think about what

Cara Taylor Swift:

was different, I had realized I left my cell phone upstairs, it

Cara Taylor Swift:

was totally in another room. Because the cell phone is so

Cara Taylor Swift:

distracting to me, my family, the group texts that come in

Cara Taylor Swift:

every day. It's like a constant battle to like not pick it up

Cara Taylor Swift:

and just look at it and then your mind shifts and you're not

Cara Taylor Swift:

focused anymore. I recommend for your work from a desktop or a

Cara Taylor Swift:

laptop, close out those social media Windows on your computer

Cara Taylor Swift:

so that they're not bringing with updates and alerts

Cara Taylor Swift:

constantly and that you're not tempted to just click over

Cara Taylor Swift:

easily. You have to actually take Take the extra steps of

Cara Taylor Swift:

going to those websites, so that they're just not alerting you

Cara Taylor Swift:

and then turn off your TV as someone who spends a lot of time

Cara Taylor Swift:

at a desk, I oftentimes will have junk TV on in the

Cara Taylor Swift:

background, or I'll have the news going. But sometimes those

Cara Taylor Swift:

are the same going in the background. And just because I

Cara Taylor Swift:

like the noise, but sometimes you really have to just kind of

Cara Taylor Swift:

shut all of those distractions off so that the colors and the

Cara Taylor Swift:

sounds aren't pulling your eye away from your desk. There are

Cara Taylor Swift:

some amazing apps out there for keeping you on task. So you can

Cara Taylor Swift:

set timers, you can set uninterrupted time, like

Cara Taylor Swift:

dedicated time to really work on your tasks and projects, just

Cara Taylor Swift:

simply go into your app store. And Google time management task

Cara Taylor Swift:

completion apps, there's so many that popped up, I was just

Cara Taylor Swift:

shocked at actually how many there are. And then the last

Cara Taylor Swift:

piece of this pulls back for me anyway pulls back to what Kim

Cara Taylor Swift:

was talking about the underlying reasons for procrastination. And

Cara Taylor Swift:

for me, sometimes that is just a sense of overwhelm. There's too

Cara Taylor Swift:

many things that have to get done. And I need help and

Cara Taylor Swift:

outsource. There's nothing wrong with outsourcing someone to help

Cara Taylor Swift:

you do some of the things so that you can work on your list,

Cara Taylor Swift:

hire a virtual assistant, have someone else design your website

Cara Taylor Swift:

for you, there are so many things that you can pay other

Cara Taylor Swift:

people to do for you that they can do it quickly. They could do

Cara Taylor Swift:

it more efficiently. You don't have to do all the research to

Cara Taylor Swift:

learn about WordPress in order to build your website, hire

Cara Taylor Swift:

someone that knows WordPress already and can build your

Cara Taylor Swift:

website so that you're not spending all that time that you

Cara Taylor Swift:

could be working on your business in other ways. So

Cara Taylor Swift:

that's my list cam, do you have anything you want to add to that

Cara Taylor Swift:

or any comments because you know, me as a taskmaster over

Cara Taylor Swift:

here,

Kimberly Beer:

I do. And I love your lists. And I love your

Kimberly Beer:

sense of organization. And I know that it works for you. And

Kimberly Beer:

I know that for a lot of you out there listening to this, you're

Kimberly Beer:

going to go oh, those things don't great, I'm going to try

Kimberly Beer:

every single one of them, then you're going to kick yourself

Kimberly Beer:

because you are going to fail at them. Because you don't live in

Kimberly Beer:

that type of a temperament where having the very structured

Kimberly Beer:

stuff, or you're you just aren't that structured, which is me,

Kimberly Beer:

I'm just not that structured. So one of the things that I've been

Kimberly Beer:

working on recently, even with some clients that have come to

Kimberly Beer:

me wanting to build out businesses and building out a

Kimberly Beer:

business does require some organizational skills, it

Kimberly Beer:

requires you to get tasks done. And it requires you to put some

Kimberly Beer:

focus into things you can't be chasing butterflies, as my

Kimberly Beer:

mother always accused me of. You chase too many butterflies, you

Kimberly Beer:

can't always be chasing butterflies, you have to be able

Kimberly Beer:

to sit down and get tasks accomplished. And one of the

Kimberly Beer:

things that I found works for me in being a person who rebels

Kimberly Beer:

against structure, so one of my top values is freedom. And if I

Kimberly Beer:

get pushed against against freedom, and am I one of my move

Kimberly Beer:

away values is restriction. If it feels restrictive, I will not

Kimberly Beer:

do it. So I've started doing what I call time blocking. So I

Kimberly Beer:

set aside a list of things I need to get done in a day. And

Kimberly Beer:

the first thing I need to accomplish on the list is to get

Kimberly Beer:

myself up and get myself mentally prepared for work. And

Kimberly Beer:

that is perfectly fine. There's no set end or beginning to that

Kimberly Beer:

except for when I have to show up for the meeting. So I have to

Kimberly Beer:

be mentally prepared, then the next block that I work in, and I

Kimberly Beer:

guess I shouldn't say time, I don't want to associate this

Kimberly Beer:

with time. But the next block I work in is production, right?

Kimberly Beer:

It's a productive period of time. And in part of my getting

Kimberly Beer:

prepared for that I come up with the three things I need to get

Kimberly Beer:

accomplished for that day. And my first focus is to get that

Kimberly Beer:

done. So I get one or more of those things checked off of that

Kimberly Beer:

list. I pick three, that if I get those three things done, by

Kimberly Beer:

the end of the day, say this was a good day, I got a lot done

Kimberly Beer:

today. And honestly, people, when you're looking at this,

Kimberly Beer:

sometimes I will tell you that one of my three things is just

Kimberly Beer:

getting up and getting dressed. And I've dealt with a lot of

Kimberly Beer:

depression in my life. And that's another thing that you

Kimberly Beer:

can find to remember I mentioned the trauma piece being as the

Kimberly Beer:

why behind why you procrastinate. Depression is

Kimberly Beer:

another thing that shows up in your life that feels like you're

Kimberly Beer:

doing something wrong, but it's not wrong. You're not defective,

Kimberly Beer:

because you are working through a depression. And in those

Kimberly Beer:

moments, some of the three things on your list might be get

Kimberly Beer:

up and get dressed and make yourself a good breakfast that

Kimberly Beer:

may be your first productive block. And then take a rest

Kimberly Beer:

block then add another productive block then add

Kimberly Beer:

another rest block or a replenishing block or

Kimberly Beer:

rejuvenating block whatever you want to call it. But work your

Kimberly Beer:

way through the things that you need to get done on your list.

Kimberly Beer:

And then I have bonus tasks by get the first the top three done

Kimberly Beer:

then I can go on to the rest of the to do's on the list. But

Kimberly Beer:

that keeps me focused on getting the really important stuff done.

Kimberly Beer:

And then going back and coming up and picking up the rest of

Kimberly Beer:

it. And I do believe I personally subscribe to the eat

Kimberly Beer:

the frog system is where you do the tasks that you least like

Kimberly Beer:

first and get it out of the way. So eating that frog, it's a book

Kimberly Beer:

that you can read. So I think it's Eat That Frog, or something

Kimberly Beer:

along those lines, Google Eat That Frog, I'm pretty sure that

Kimberly Beer:

book will come up for you. But it's another way of looking at

Kimberly Beer:

get the things that you don't want to do out of the way first,

Kimberly Beer:

and then concentrate on the things that you do love to do,

Kimberly Beer:

because those will come easier for you. So those are a couple

Kimberly Beer:

of random system hacks that I have come up with to help with

Kimberly Beer:

my personal temperament, which is an NFP, which is a I have to

Kimberly Beer:

have the big picture. I can't do things in a super structured

Kimberly Beer:

way, because I'm going to rebel against it every single time and

Kimberly Beer:

want to move away from it.

Cara Taylor Swift:

Well, there you have it, I think there's a

Cara Taylor Swift:

little something out there for everyone. And I just feel like

Cara Taylor Swift:

this is something that probably most people to some extent deal

Cara Taylor Swift:

with, I can probably count maybe two people that I personally

Cara Taylor Swift:

know that I wouldn't consider procrastinators of any kinds,

Cara Taylor Swift:

like they really knock things out. They're super organized,

Cara Taylor Swift:

they can focus one is my husband. The other is a

Cara Taylor Swift:

photographer friend of mine, but that's probably it. I mean, most

Cara Taylor Swift:

of us, I think struggle with this in some regard. And

Cara Taylor Swift:

sometimes it's just because the daily tasks at hand are boring.

Cara Taylor Swift:

And we'd rather do exciting stuff on our to do list. I mean,

Cara Taylor Swift:

that's what it comes down to sometimes. So whatever the

Cara Taylor Swift:

reasoning is for you, we hope that some of these tips that

Cara Taylor Swift:

we've given you will help

Kimberly Beer:

Yeah, and life happens which is down to our

Kimberly Beer:

number three, or which is embrace your procrastination as

Kimberly Beer:

part of the creative process and or divine timing. This, I think

Kimberly Beer:

was the biggest freedom for me as a life long labeled

Kimberly Beer:

procrastinator is that I finally embraced the procrastination as

Kimberly Beer:

part of my creative process. And also divine timing. I found when

Kimberly Beer:

the times when I was accused of being the worst procrastinator,

Kimberly Beer:

and especially those times when I went against what my intuition

Kimberly Beer:

was the moment said, put this off, don't do this right now.

Kimberly Beer:

And I was like, No, I have to do it right now society says this

Kimberly Beer:

must be done at this minute, and I need to do it. And I did it, I

Kimberly Beer:

got the task done, I completed it. But it wasn't to the level

Kimberly Beer:

that it needed to be, or that it could have been if I would have

Kimberly Beer:

just allowed the procrastination a little bit. Now, I cannot tell

Kimberly Beer:

you that there's a free check out there for you to just create

Kimberly Beer:

your own divine timing and live by it. That's not what I'm

Kimberly Beer:

saying here. But what I am saying is that there are times

Kimberly Beer:

that procrastination is not a bad thing. There are times that

Kimberly Beer:

that procrastination is necessary for you to get to all

Kimberly Beer:

of the places that you need to be in a project to get the best

Kimberly Beer:

result out of that project. And or if you believe in divine

Kimberly Beer:

timing, sometimes procrastination is your

Kimberly Beer:

intuition telling you to just wait a minute, to stop, to

Kimberly Beer:

breathe, to look around you to allow those distractions in

Kimberly Beer:

because maybe one of those distractions is very important.

Kimberly Beer:

Or maybe just the process of waiting a couple of minutes

Kimberly Beer:

opens up a better opportunity for you. Procrastination is a

Kimberly Beer:

process. And I think when you stop and go back to that very

Kimberly Beer:

first thing I said and ask yourself why and dig down into

Kimberly Beer:

it. And if you can't find a really solid reason why you're

Kimberly Beer:

procrastinating something, then come to this one and say divine

Kimberly Beer:

timing or creative process may really be at play here. And that

Kimberly Beer:

may be the why as to why you're not getting things done quite on

Kimberly Beer:

the level that you want to get them done out or on the

Kimberly Beer:

timescale that other people are expecting. And as a creative as

Kimberly Beer:

somebody who has to use my creativity on a daily basis for

Kimberly Beer:

other people. There are times now when I am super honest, I

Kimberly Beer:

used to make horrible excuses about not getting things done.

Kimberly Beer:

But now sometimes I have to just say, You know what, my muse is

Kimberly Beer:

being a bee right now. And I just can't get in touch with

Kimberly Beer:

this at this moment. And I need to just allow that time for me

Kimberly Beer:

to process it. If you could be patient for another day or two.

Kimberly Beer:

I'd really appreciate that because I need that time in

Kimberly Beer:

order to give you the best result I can give you so if you

Kimberly Beer:

are working in a serve disoriented businesses like I

Kimberly Beer:

do, then you can say that to people, you can let them know

Kimberly Beer:

and be upfront and honest. And yes, there are some people that

Kimberly Beer:

are gonna go, Well, that just doesn't work for me. And I found

Kimberly Beer:

those people in my business, they're not a good fit for me.

Kimberly Beer:

And so it's best that they go find another designer. And this

Kimberly Beer:

is mostly in my design career consulting is a little

Kimberly Beer:

different. But the design part I always felt better if they moved

Kimberly Beer:

on to another designer that fit them. In the beginning of my

Kimberly Beer:

career, I felt all kinds of guilt because I let a customer

Kimberly Beer:

go as I've gotten older, I'm thinking bless and release. You

Kimberly Beer:

belong with someone else. And that opens the door for me to

Kimberly Beer:

have a better customer fit for me that's embracing it and Kara

Kimberly Beer:

you know what, this is so important to me. I wrote a poem.

Kimberly Beer:

Oh, gosh,

Cara Taylor Swift:

that's right. I forgot you had the poem. I

Cara Taylor Swift:

totally forgot about the poem. Okay, here you guys go. This is

Cara Taylor Swift:

your this is your daily moment of sin to end this episode.

Cara Taylor Swift:

Enjoy.

Kimberly Beer:

Okay, so the poem is called be a better

Kimberly Beer:

procrastinator. Make it a practice to wander, amble,

Kimberly Beer:

saunter, doddle, meander, roam and drift at every opportunity

Kimberly Beer:

take time to digress revel in getting sidetracked, stray from

Kimberly Beer:

the appointed, deviate from the common mosey away from

Kimberly Beer:

structure. Allow yourself to veer into passion road towards

Kimberly Beer:

jubilation prowl after pleasure swerve around happiness and

Kimberly Beer:

straw with delight. And don't you ever feel guilty in your

Kimberly Beer:

bliss Glee, euphoria, Felicity elation, rapture, or joy of

Kimberly Beer:

procrastinating?

Cara Taylor Swift:

Well, that's awesome. I hope people got

Cara Taylor Swift:

whatever they needed from this episode. Whether it was tips to

Cara Taylor Swift:

help them with their procrastination, or if it was a

Cara Taylor Swift:

feel good moment to feel better about their procrastination,

Cara Taylor Swift:

whatever that is, we hope that you got what you need out of it.

Cara Taylor Swift:

And at a minimum, you had your moment of Zen with Kim's poem.

Cara Taylor Swift:

So Kim, I forget Do you have your poetry online? Because I

Cara Taylor Swift:

always love your posts to tell people where they can find your

Cara Taylor Swift:

poetry online. As a side, let

Kimberly Beer:

me make sure the websites still up. It was at

Kimberly Beer:

Kimberlybeer.com. I had all my creative stuff there at one

Kimberly Beer:

point. Yep, it's still there. You can go read I haven't posted

Kimberly Beer:

there for a while but my poetry some of my short stories, some

Kimberly Beer:

of my non horse and horse photography. Are there be warned

Kimberly Beer:

there skulls with flowers? I get a little weird if you're easily

Kimberly Beer:

offended, you know, may want to stay away.

Cara Taylor Swift:

Yes. One of the things I love about

Cara Taylor Swift:

chemistry how creative she is. And so yeah, this poll was

Cara Taylor Swift:

pretty perfect for us today's episode. So we hope you guys

Cara Taylor Swift:

have enjoyed that you've left with us that you've gotten some

Cara Taylor Swift:

a little piece tidbit out of this episode. And at a minimum,

Cara Taylor Swift:

maybe you procrastinated a task and listened to us instead. So

Cara Taylor Swift:

we love you guys. Thank you for hanging with us. We're 80 Plus

Cara Taylor Swift:

episodes in and if this is your first time joining us, thank

Cara Taylor Swift:

you, we appreciate it. If this is your 80th time joining us it

Cara Taylor Swift:

means the world to us. So thank you guys so much. And just like

Cara Taylor Swift:

always, we'll be back next Tuesday.

Jaz:

Thanks for listening to this episode of The Business

Jaz:

Animal. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And

Jaz:

if you learned something today, leave us a review. To learn

Jaz:

more. Find us at thebusinessanimal.com We'd love

Jaz:

to hear from you. Until next time, keep your business well

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About the Podcast

The Business Animal
Tame Your Business Animal
Saddle up for a gallop to the top of the animal industry where you’ll learn how to tame your wild business beast with tips, techniques and tools that will take overwhelm to obedience school and have you wagging your tail with joy.

About your host

Profile picture for Kimberly Beer

Kimberly Beer

Think of me as your Entrepreneurial Wisewoman, I optimize the most important asset in your business: YOU! I do this through knowledge earned from 30 years of my own entrepreneurship helping my clients ideate, build, market, and automate their small business. I have a unique toolkit of skills that address the toughest aspects of entrepreneurship fall into the gap between your therapist and traditional business coach. I am known for my out-of-the-box approaches including drawing on the wisdom of nature and horses to inspire you in the changes you seek. I lead an active and supportive community of like-minded business owners who are creating a business that supports the life they want to live.