The Smart Twenties Podcast

I’m very excited to announce a special bonus to PGSD! If you’re looking for help on your marketing strategy - maybe you want more clarity around things like your niche, your offer, traffic, pricing…. Or if you simply just want to feel more confident in your marketing plan and be able to move forward with it effectively - then this is going to be SUPER helpful! Renae (my marketing manager) and I have decided to include a special bonus inside PGSD that will help you to get complete clarity on your business plan and the marketing side of things. Renae’s been on my team for 10 months and since 2016 she’s been doing digital marketing for start-ups and established businesses. Renae has helped build 3 million dollar marketing plans & funnels for 3 very different businesses. Renae is a leader and expert in Marketing and has catered to what aligns best for me and what I believe in. Renae see’s my zone of genius and packages that up. So I’d love to have Renae do that for you as well! This is why we’ve decided to pu

In case you didn’t know, PGSD is my group coaching program for perfectionists who are building businesses. And it will have you planning properly and getting out of your own way. Today I sat down with Renae (my Marketing Manager) and answered all of your questions about PGSD.  Tune in now! If you have any further questions about PGSD you can either: Email us at support@samlaurabrown.com Send us a DM on Instagram @perfectionismproject  Book a sales call with Renae by clicking here: https://calendly.com/pgsd/call  You can find out more and sign up to PGSD at samlaurabrown.com/pgsd   Can’t wait to work with you inside. Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode421. In This Episode You’ll Learn: How PGSD works to grow your business I answer specific questions about PGSD How to know if PGSD will make a difference in your business When you should join PGSD   Featured In The Episode: Sign up for Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (PGSD) - samlaurabrown.com/pgsd (*D

Natalie’s experience in PGSD is a great example of how learning to plan properly as a perfectionist can completely transform your whole life. Natalie explains… “Before PGSD I was chaos. I worked CONSTANTLY but I wasn’t getting any of the important stuff done. From the first week I started in PGSD, I knew it was going to change my life - and it absolutely has in the most positive way and it's rippled into my personal life too” On 11 January 2022, Natalie signed up for PGSD. With the help of PGSD coaching and power planning, Natalie was able to quickly launch her course - which she’d been putting off doing for MONTHS. On 3 March 2022, Natalie posted in the PGSD Forum to say that she had 125 people sign up for her sock knitting course and made over $34,000. She hit her first quarterly milestone for her Growth Goal three times over! A milestone that had felt impossible only a few weeks earlier. 8 months into PGSD Natalie had already doubled her previous year's income (2021 income was $59,000 and 2022 income is $1

There are courageous things you need to do to build your business that you might never feel excited about… like pitching yourself as a guest on one of your favourite podcasts or posting on Instagram when you’ve been getting 17 likes or publishing your sales page when you’re still working on believing that your product is worth the money. If you’re only able to do things when you’re in the mood to do them, your business won’t get much further than it is now. So far, this series has shared how to solve your planning problems. I’ve taught you how to stop procrasti-planning, what the Power Planning process looks like from start to finish, how to plan your week amidst uncertainty and the importance of the Three Month Commitment. In the final episode, I’m sharing how to master power planning using PGSD. If you’ve resonated with the 5-Part Planning Series then this episode will explain the best next step and how I can support you further. It’s time to solve your productivity and persistence problems so that you can

Power Planning will get you out of your own way in your business and have you doing the deep perfectionism work you need to do - all while you’re doing more of what matters than ever before (in less time and with less overthinking). But it won’t work for you if you give up on it prematurely. The habit of giving up too soon is one of the main reasons you’re not where you want to be in your business. Most perfectionists want overnight, struggle-free, push-of-a-button success and we quit when we don’t get it. We feel disheartened, discouraged and inadequate - when really, we just hadn’t tried for long enough.  Making the Three Month Commitment to Power Planning matters. You won’t feel like it’s working after a week or two - and that’s the whole point… The closer we are to being in the growth mindset, the easier it is to get out of our own way in your business - no hustling, willpower or ‘pushing through’ required. The very act of Power Planning will coax you out of your perfectionism. And the fact that Power Pla

Most perfectionists find it challenging to plan out their week when they don’t know what will come up or how much energy they’ll have. Whether you’re working an exhausting day job, doing shift work or raising young children alongside building your business - there are certain things that can feel hard to plan around. Especially when no one has taught you how to plan properly… Some perfectionists plan their week as if everything will go smoothly, hoping for the best and then abandoning their plans when the inevitable happens. Others feel like they can’t make plans at all and wing it day by day, praying they’ll be able to find the motivation to do what matters most. But neither of these approaches work. If your weeks feel too uncertain but you would like to be able to plan in a way that allows you to follow through consistently and sustainably, then this episode is for you! You’ll hear how I use my Power Planning to get out of my own way and get shit done in my business, even though I have a lot of uncertainty

Power Planning covers everything perfectionists must do to plan properly. It’s a simple 3 step process that anyone can learn. And I walk you through it in this episode. Here’s a brief overview of how Power Planning works but be sure to tune into this episode to get all the details! Step 1. Power Hour - in your weekly Power Hour you’ll put your needle moving tasks in your digital calendar and create simple contingency plans that make it easy to get everything done without feeling overwhelmed. Step 2. Little Tweaks - every day you’ll spend a little bit of time tweaking your calendar so you can get everything done without ever feeling behind or burning out, even if something unexpected comes up. Step 3. Weekly Review - at the end of the week you’ll do a brief weekly review to discover what worked, what didn’t work and what to do differently so next week’s plans are even easier to follow through on. Power Planning helps you avoid the planning mistakes that stop perfectionists from following through with their pla

Perfectionists get in their own way when they follow the same planning advice as everyone else. That’s why I’ve recorded a 5-part planning series for the podcast that’ll help you plan properly as a perfectionist. This planning series is for perfectionists who write and rewrite long to-do lists of business tasks they never start, fall behind because they underestimate how long things will take and have notebooks full of ideas they haven’t done anything with. This episode (part 1 of the Planning Series) is all about the differences between procrasti-planning and planning properly as a perfectionist. This will help you understand where you’ve been going wrong with planning so you can do something about it. In this episode, I also dissect common pieces of planning advice (from the top-ranked planning article on Google) and explain why this advice doesn’t work for perfectionists. The episode is worth listening to for this alone. Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode415. In Th

Fearing success is actually way more common than you’d think. And that’s kinda crazy, right?  Even though we’re consciously working towards it, we unconsciously stop ourselves from getting it. It’s no wonder we can feel so stuck. Fear of success means that you are scared that you’ll actually be able to accomplish the things you’ve been thinking about… and that feels so uncertain and unfamiliar that you hold yourself back. At every level of your business, you can experience this fear of success. I’m at the level of success I’m at now and I’m still experiencing this. I have to get myself to a new self-image where I’m able to create more success and feel safe in that success. In this podcast episode, I share why we experience fear of success and my personal struggles with it. I also talk about 5 of the signs that you’re scared of success and what to do about it. Fear of success might actually be the thing that’s stopping you from taking those next steps in your business. Listen to this episode now. Find the full

Have you ever been busy re-writting something you’ve already written? Do you feel like you have you fallen behind with things and feel like you’re off track? This is exactly what was happening for me at the time I recorded this episode. What I share in this episode is exactly what I would say to my coach or if I were to call Renae and talk it out with her. But instead I decided to pull out my podcast microphone… I was in the thick of feeling overwhelmed and overworking. I found myself re-working the scripts for the 5-Part Planning Series over and over again. And that’s a sign to me that I’m getting in my own way and I’m off track. I felt the pressure feeling like I just need to do it “right”, I felt rushed and impatient. In this energy I know pushing through these feelings wasn’t going to work. Tune in to hear the discussions I have with myself to so that I can get out of my own way and back on track with recording the 5-Part Planning Series.  I hope that this episode helps you when you are in one of these mo

If you’re anything like me, you love finding out how successful people *actually* run their businesses. What their office setup is like, how they structure their day, what they spend their time doing (and which tasks they don’t let themselves do), how they manage their personal life and the things that didn’t quite go to plan.  That’s why this week’s podcast episode on The Perfectionism Project is a chatty episode to take you behind the scenes of a productive week in my life. If you’ve ever wondered what a 3-day work week looks like when you’re running a $600k per year business  - or wanted to hear about the practical things I do to  ‘balance’ my business with being a mum of 3 little ones under 3 - this episode is for you. I also share a few of the things I self-coached on, including something so embarrassing it makes me cringe and want to hide in a hole (that might sound dramatic but it’s sadly 100% true)... Plus I share something super simple I did to improve my morning routine (this works especially well o

Your marketing strategy has a BIG impact on your ability to get shit done! And if you’re feeling resistence and out of alignment with your marketing strategy it’s going to be even harder to get shit done. In the marketing world people are always talking about the power of consistency but there is often a piece in the middle that’s missing… So in today’s podcast episode I’m going to help you create an aligned marketing strategy so that you can actually show up consistently. I may not call myself a marketing expert but I am somebody who helps you with productivity and getting shit done! Perfectionism leads us to want to do things the "right" way… This belief stems from the idea that by doing things the “correct” way, they will work instantly and effortlessly. If you run a business you need to be marketing and selling and I want you to feel good about your marketing strategy! Tune into this episode now. Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode411. In This Episode You’ll Learn:

Maybe you find yourself spending too much time on tasks that might be important, but they aren’t that important in terms of the amount of time that they are taking you.  Or maybe you’ve been prioritising the easy tasks over the stuff that you know really needs to get done. If you’re frustrated that tasks are taking way longer than they need to and you want to be more productive, you want to be organised, and yet you're struggling to get there - then this episode will help you! Don’t foret to mark your calendar! Perfectionists Getting Shit Done - my group coaching program for perfectionis entrepreneuers (PGSD) opens on 10 September 2023. And to celebrate PGSD opening I’m hosting a 5-Part Planning Podcast Series starting 1 September 2023. Starting on the first of September, there's going to be an episode every other day. So make sure that you’ve subscribe to this podcast! Also join the PGSD waitlist to be notified first! Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode410. In This Ep

We all have blindspots that we would never think to bring up to our 1:1 coach. But when we listen to others being coached, we can uncover hidden areas of our perfectionism and productivity that  might have otherwise gone unnoticed, until it’s too late. In this episode you’ll hear Sam coach two PGSDer’s. First Sam coaches Shoipei who’s was in a dip at the time of this coaching call. We all go through dips and slumps in our business, it’s apart of the journey. It can be so easy to say “get comfortable with being uncomfortable” but when you’re actually in the dip it’s much harder to see it from an intellectual perspective. The dips can serve as one of the best teachers to help us let go of the self-judgment and shame that we carry within ourselves.  You’ll be able to consider how you can structure your week as Sam coaches Samara. A lot of us are in a situation that is good and we are wanting to elevate to a new level. This actually takes a lot of courage to leave a good situation to create a great one. It’s easy

It's uncommon to hear detailed information about the breakdown of expenses in businesses. I hope by me openly sharing the numbers and providing insight into my business on a quarterly basis, it helps you to be growth minded and to not have your perfectionism handbrake on. And it’s especially uncommon to hear a detailed breakdown when the quarter didn’t go to plan. We made $80,914 in revenue but after expenses we actually had a significant loss in Q2, 2023. It’s so easy to interpret things that happen in our business in a way that makes us feel inadequate or incompetent. We can be in a habit of dismissing what is working and complicate things so that we can feel busy and deserving. I’m excited for you to listen to this episode because you’ll hear how I interpreted Q2’s financial loss without attaching any negative meaning to it and making it mean anything about myself and my abilities. I've made significant progress with my perfectionism so I'm wanting to share these insights with you incase you've been feelin

The entrepreneurship space can be so glamorised, we hear alot about people doubling their business year after year and that can leave us feeling behind if we aren’t experiencing that trajectory of growth. I enjoy being very open and sharing what most people aren’t willing to share and this episode is no different. I take you behind the scenes of our most recent launch sharing the 3 unexpected reasons why this launch completely failed and all of the launch numbers. Regardless of the type of business you have, this episode is relevant for you because at some point, no matter what guidance you're receiving, if you're putting yourself out there and trying new things, you will face failure. It's important to know how to approach failure and be emotionally regulated in those moments so that you don't make the failure mean something about you and then repeat the same mistakes because you were too ashamed to actually take a look objectively at what went on, in a really compassionate way.  Failure doesn't make you a f

I recently sent out a Perfectionist Power-Up that resonated with a lot of my email subscribers. It said: “Maybe your follow through problem is actually a planning problem”. So I wanted to record an episode to help you figure out whether this is what’s going on for you. There are a lot of things we can do to help us follow through with our plans consistently. I share many of them on this podcast! But first it’s incredibly important to look at the plans you’re trying to follow through on. Are they making your perfectionist mindset work for you or against you? Are your plans setting you up for success or are they setting you up for failure? I dive into this and more in the episode.  Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode406. In This Episode You’ll Learn: The hidden reason perfectionists struggle to follow through with their plans Why motivation and willpower aren’t the answers to your follow through problem The most important thing you need to know about struggling to

While perfectionists want everything in their lives to be perfectly organised, the irony is that they actually stop themselves from creating this reality - without even realising it! And one of the reasons they do this is because of their secret addiction to feeling behind. Most perfectionists would swear that they don’t want to feel behind, so it can be confronting to realise that you might be manufacturing behindness (if that’s a word!) in your life. In this episode I’m talking about why we do this, 2 signs that you’re secretly addicted to chaos and what to do about it. In This Episode You’ll Learn: Why perfectionists can become addicted to feeling behind The sneaky ways perfectionists make themselves feel more behind The real reason you never feel completely organised How feeling behind is secretly serving you Two ways that the addiction to feeling behind manifests for perfectionists How to stop being addicted to feeling behind   Featured In The Episode: Join the waitlist for Perfectionists

In this episode I’m interviewing Kristen Cain, a style coach and committed PGSDer, on all things perfectionism and Power Planning. Kristen heard me talking about PGSD on this podcast for an entire year before she signed up. Kristen listened diligently to every episode, worked hard to apply what she learned to her business and started to make progress with her perfectionism handbrake. If anyone was going to change their life with the help of the podcast, it was Kristen. During that year as a podcast listener she rebranded her business, created a new website, started offering mini styling packages and began showing up on instagram more often (though she still ghosted her followers from time to time). But in Kristen’s words, she was in a familiar place for perfectionists: “I was doing all the pretty, fun things so that I didn’t have to do the scary stuff that would actually help me be successful”. Here’s what happened once she joined…   Within 3 months of being inside PGSD, Kristen was planning properly as a per

In today’s episode, I interview PGSDer Jenn Baswick all about her Growth Goal and experience inside PGSD. Our most successful PGSDers are business owners who LOVE being productive and yet find themselves struggling to make the most of their time due to their perfectionism handbrake. And this was definitely the case for Jenn. Jenn is a registered dietitian and before she signed up for PGSD in December 2022, she’d tried everything she could to build her business. She invested in business programs to help her setup her business correctly and market it the right way plus she tried every productivity tool from to-do lists to time blocking to Asana to Notion.  And yet her business still wasn’t growing in the way she knew it could… Even though Jenn ‘knew’ what she needed to do, she wasn’t able to turn her knowledge into business growth - even though she was always busy working.   In today’s episode of The Perfectionism Project, you’ll hear from Jenn and I discuss… ✔ The hidden reason why to-do lists, time blocking,