The Smart Twenties Podcast

This episode is part 3 in a 3-part series on perfectionism. Perfectionism makes even the smartest entrepreneurs get in their own way. That’s why I’m releasing a three part series all about perfectionism - including the surprising truth that every business owner needs to know and the exact steps to follow to take control of your productivity. There are so many misconceptions about perfectionism that I didn’t even know I was a perfectionist when I first started my business! I thought that motivation problems, imposter syndrome and fear of judgement were to blame for the fact that I struggled to consistently promote my business and couldn’t get myself to consistent $10k months - even though I knew A LOT about how to build a successful business from all of the online learning I’d done. I slowly began piecing together that I was a perfectionist and that’s why I kept overthinking, procrastinating and burning myself out. It was also the main reason that I struggled to be consistent with my content creation and held

This episode is part 2 in a 3-part series on perfectionism. Perfectionism makes even the smartest entrepreneurs get in their own way. That’s why I’m releasing a three part series all about perfectionism - including the surprising truth that every business owner needs to know and the exact steps to follow to take control of your productivity. There are so many misconceptions about perfectionism that I didn’t even know I was a perfectionist when I first started my business! I thought that motivation problems, imposter syndrome and fear of judgement were to blame for the fact that I struggled to consistently promote my business and couldn’t get myself to consistent $10k months - even though I knew A LOT about how to build a successful business from all of the online learning I’d done. I slowly began piecing together that I was a perfectionist and that’s why I kept overthinking, procrastinating and burning myself out. It was also the main reason that I struggled to be consistent with my content creation and held

This episode is part 1 in a 3-part series on perfectionism. Perfectionism makes even the smartest entrepreneurs get in their own way. That’s why I’m releasing a three part series all about perfectionism - including the surprising truth that every business owner needs to know and the exact steps to follow to take control of your productivity. There are so many misconceptions about perfectionism that I didn’t even know I was a perfectionist when I first started my business! I thought that motivation problems, imposter syndrome and fear of judgement were to blame for the fact that I struggled to consistently promote my business and couldn’t get myself to consistent $10k months - even though I knew A LOT about how to build a successful business from all of the online learning I’d done. I slowly began piecing together that I was a perfectionist and that’s why I kept overthinking, procrastinating and burning myself out. It was also the main reason that I struggled to be consistent with my content creation and held

No matter how dialled-in your marketing strategy is, even if everything else is seemingly perfect in your business, if you neglect addressing perfectionism, you're unknowingly sabotaging your own progress.  Addressing your perfectionism is the missing piece that's been holding you back for years… In this podcast episode I chat through your results from The Perfectionism Quiz and put into words things that you might not have been able to articulate before. If you haven’t taken The Perfectionism Quiz yet, do it now. Your results from the Perfectionism Quiz provide valuable insights into how perfectionism has been influencing your business journey. They shed light on the ways in which perfectionism may have been holding you back and impacting your productivity. By understanding your results, you'll gain a clearer understanding of how addressing your perfectionism handbrake will positively impact your ability to build your business to its fullest potential. There are countless strategies to boost productivity, bu

If you know you are capable of achieving the goals you want and you know you have the intelligence… Then I’m here to tell you it's time to address the hidden obstacle that’s sabotaging your success: perfectionism. No matter how much you address other aspects of your business, if you don't tackle your perfectionism, it will continue to hinder your progress, make you get in your own way and prevent you from reaching your goals. In this episode I talk about why solving your perfectionism has a ripple effect on all the other areas of your business (and your life)! I introduce The Perfectionism Quiz, a powerful tool designed to identify the dominant signs of perfectionism hindering your progress. I’ve put my knowledge from working with hundreds of perfectionist entrepreneurs into The Perfectionism Quiz. In just 3 minutes you’ll learn which of the 5 signs of perfectionism is holding you back the most. Whether you’re in my Group Coaching Program, PGSD or not this Quiz is available to you for free. One of the most pr

Can you believe we're almost at 400 episodes!? I thought this would be a fantastic opportunity to reflect on the remarkable journey I've embarked on since the podcast's inception back in 2017. So much has unfolded and evolved since then, not only in my business but also in my personal life. Now, I’m a proud parent of three kids under two! Since 2017, I've tackled my perfectionism head-on, allowing me to make great strides in productivity and achieve remarkable growth in my business.  In this episode, I delve into the contrast between what my life looked like in 2017 and where I am now, particularly in terms of productivity and the impact of perfectionism. Get ready to discover what's possible when you release the handbrake of perfectionism and embrace a new level of productivity! Addressing underlying perfectionism is key to unlocking your true potential and achieving business growth. Take a moment to reflect on where you currently stand in your perfectionism and business journey as you listen to this episode

There are so many misconceptions about perfectionism that most perfectionists don’t even realise they are one.  As an entrepreneur, there’s a good chance that the only reason you’re not being productive and succeeding at the level you want is because your perfectionist mindset is working against you. In this episode, I share what perfectionism really is, what it means for your business and how to get your perfectionist mindset on your side. Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode396. In This Episode You’ll Learn: What perfectionism really is and why being a perfectionist isn’t a bad thing The 5 surprising ways your perfectionism is affecting your business Why I didn’t realise I was a perfectionist until I started my business The reason that most advice doesn’t work for perfectionists   Featured In The Episode: Join the waitlist for Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (PGSD) - samlaurabrown.com/pgsd Sign up for daily Perfectionist Power-Ups - samlaurabrown.com/powe

Do you ever feel like you're always busy working, but at the end of the week, you're left wondering where all the time went? It's time to take control of your productivity and work smarter, not harder. When you find yourself constantly working but not seeing much progress towards your goals, it's likely that you're not managing your time and productivity effectively. With strategic tweaks and adjustments along the way, you can steadily work towards achieving your goal of making $100k. As a perfectionist entrepreneur, you need a different approach to productivity than everyone else. Perfectionism is a strategy to avoid shame. It makes us (1) overthink, (2) procrastinate, (3) burn out, (4) have an all-or-nothing mindset and (5) fear judgement. In this episode I explore the five signs of perfectionism and how they can impact your productivity. Whether you tend to overthink, procrastinate, burnout, have an all-or-nothing mindset, or fear judgement, this episode will provide you with practical strategies to help y

In this episode I’m sharing some of the biggest productivity mistakes I made over the course of my business. Not only do I share mistakes I made in the past, but also some that I just realised I’m currently making in my business. This is the 10th year since I started my business initially as a blog, and I made a lot of productivity mistakes along the way. And looking back, perfectionism was often the cause of these mistakes. I hope chatting about them with you today will help you see where you could be improving your productivity, particularly if you’re making the same mistakes that I made. Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode394. In This Episode You’ll Learn: 12 of the biggest productivity mistakes I made in my business The surprising way I’ve been misusing my time the most How putting pressure on yourself can hinder your productivity The importance of the skill of seeing when your work is complete Why Power Planning is planning in a way that works for you

Today’s episode is my first Growth Goal update for 2023. I share the Growth Goal I chose to set (and whether we hit our Q1 milestone), as well as how having twins impacted our business growth last quarter. Power Planning helped me figure out what my real needle movers were in the 13 workdays I had in Q1, so that the work I was putting into my business will truly pay off. I also chat about how my role as a leader has shifted this quarter, along with what I’m working on to develop the skills I need to achieve my Growth Goal. Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode393. In This Episode You’ll Learn: Our Growth Goal for 2023 and whether we achieved our Q1 milestone How having twins (and 3 kids under 2) has impacted the growth of the business How to know whether the work you’re putting into your business will pay off What my role in the business looks like now that we have a marketing manager The professional development I’m doing and programs I’m currently in   Feat

“I don’t know if I should keep doing what I’m doing OR is now actually the right time to be doing something different?” This is a question we perfectionist business owners often ask ourselves, no matter what stage our business is at. How do we know if we should persist with the business strategy we’ve chosen or if we should make changes instead? Using superthinking can help you figure out the answer for yourself so you can keep growing your business! If you’ve listened to other episodes on my podcast, you might have heard me mention superthinking. Essentially superthinking is coming up with a hypothesis to solve a business problem, trusting that hypothesis, then coming up with a way to test and measure it. You then take the results of your superthinking and take action in your business. This is a way for you to lean into your own wisdom as you build your business. It’s something we all do at some level, but it’s often easier for our brains to think the same thoughts of ‘I’m feeling stuck’ or ‘I’m feeling behi

Before Power Planning, I often got in my own way in my business. I worked in stops and starts, I waited until the last minute to get the most important things done, I kept burning myself out from all the pressure I put on myself and I had countless planners that I abandoned after three weeks of filling them out perfectly. Then I came to realise (1) I’m a perfectionist and (2) being a perfectionist meant I couldn’t follow the same planning advice as everyone else. And that’s when everything started clicking into place… I was already good at planning - I just needed to figure out how to plan in a way that got my perfectionist mindset on my side so I could do all the things I needed to do… When I created what I now call Power Planning, 90% of the problems I was having with procrastination, overthinking and burnout just dissolved. Once I learned how to plan in a way that got my perfectionist mindset working FOR me (instead of against me), I woke up each morning feeling clear on exactly what I needed to do and wen

Long-time podcast listeners will have heard me mention Daisy, my community and operations manager, when I’ve chatted about my business. In this episode you’ll hear from Daisy about how my team and I run things behind the scenes, including the decisions and questions that have come up in the process of growing my business. You’ll also hear about Daisy’s journey to working with her perfectionism mindset since she joined PGSD in 2019. Daisy went from getting in her own way to following through with her plans with the help of PGSD. By the end of this episode, you’ll learn how my team creates processes to scale my business, how we support our clients, and Daisy’s #1 tip so you can begin working on your perfectionist mindset. Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode390. In This Episode You’ll Learn: Daisy’s honest experience with letting go of her perfectionism handbrake in PGSD Why the support inside PGSD helps perfectionist entrepreneurs grow How my community manager supp

The question of how to stop overthinking is one that all perfectionists face. So in this episode, I’m sharing the real reasons we overthink and practical tips to help you stop doing it - even with the big decisions. This is some of my best advice on how to stop overthinking, learned from years of my own struggles. By the end of the episode, you’ll know about why you seem to overthink everything, and how to stop it and boost your self-confidence. Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode389. In This Episode You’ll Learn: The real reasons you can’t stop overthinking Why perfectionists overthink everything Why creating more will help you to overthink less How to stop overthinking a big decision Practical tips to help you stop overthinking   Featured In The Episode: Sign up for The Power Planning Course - samlaurabrown.com/powerplanning Join the waitlist for Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (PGSD) - samlaurabrown.com/pgsd Sign up for daily Perfectionist Power-U

We still get questions about a popular interview I did with Kathrin Zenkina of The Manifestation Babe Podcast in 2020. And since this is also one of my favourite interviews and still so relevant today, we wanted to make sure you got to hear it on this episode of The Perfectionism Project. Kathrin is a world renowned master manifestation and mindset coach. She is a #1-Amazon-Best-Selling author, host of the Top-10 Podcast: The Manifestation Babe Podcast, powerhouse expert in the art of manifestation, and founder of the globally recognized personal development brand - Manifestation Babe® - which has grown into a $17M+ company in just 6 years. I know you’re going to appreciate the conversation we had about overcoming procrastination and perfectionism. Tune in to understand what perfectionism and the all-or-nothing mindset is, the true cause of perfectionism and how to finally become a non-procrastinator for good. If you’re someone who’s been feeling stuck and getting in your own way, this episode is for you. Not

Procrasti-working is when we work on our business as a form of procrastination. And if you do it, you’re not alone. Perfectionist entrepreneurs don’t procrastinate in the same ways as everyone else. Instead of avoiding work, we procrasti-work. This can look like scrambling to get all of your content created each week, moving sales tasks from one to-do list to the next or eating lunch at your desk while procrasti-learning something about marketing. This episode will teach you about the 3 types of procrasti-working. By the end of the episode, you’ll know how to spot procrasti-working and my proven process for cutting it in half. Plus you’ll learn why procrasti-working is a normal part of building a successful business (I still do it) and why zero procrastination is not the goal.  In this episode I dissect procrastination advice from some of the top ranked articles on google and explain why this advice doesn’t work for perfectionists. The episode is worth listening to for this alone. All you need to do is hit pl

Today I’m sharing an important episode to remind you that showing up imperfectly is exactly what would serve others and make an impact in the way you want to. This is a pep talk that gives you permission to share who you really are with your clients, your followers and your team. You don’t need to pressure yourself to spend extra time making things perfect in order to serve them. If you ever feel like you’re not ‘perfect’ enough to help or inspire others, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in to discover 5 reasons the world needs imperfect leaders like you - and why you don’t have to have everything ‘figured out’ before you can. Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode386. In This Episode You’ll Learn: How being perfect actually stops you from helping and inspiring others Why it’s so important to lead by example and how to do it Why you should share your message, even when others are sharing it too The power of imperfect leadership and why it works What to do if

In Episode 378, I talked about when following through with the plans we’ve made with ourselves can be an act of self-care - particularly when you have anything going on in your life that’s making operating at your normal capacity a challenge. Today’s episode continues that conversation, and I talk about when you determine that productivity is *not* an act of self-care and how you can create a sense of completeness even when everything isn’t done. Tune in to hear what that can look like for you. Sometimes productivity is an act of self-care and sometimes it isn’t. And I found the second was the case for me a couple of days before I took time off from my business. At that time, I had work I really wanted to do but hadn’t finished and I’d need to work more days than I’d planned to get everything done. I walk you through the experience I had solving this, including the questions I asked myself and the breakthroughs I had. By the end of this episode, you’ll learn how you can feel like you can switch off from work

Self-image is something we talk about a lot in my Perfectionists Getting Shit Done Group Coaching Program. The reason for that is the story we tell about ourselves impacts our beliefs, feelings, actions and ultimately, the results we create in our business. These all flow from how we see ourselves, whether we’re conscious of it or not. This is particularly true for perfectionists. When we try to make changes while skipping the self-image work, perfectionists often won’t sustain these changes long-term. Eventually we’ll go back to the habits and actions we had before. That’s why in this episode, I’m sharing the 10 ways I had to work on my own self-image to become the person who has the business I have today. Changing these 10 different areas made such a difference in my business journey, and listening in could help you uncover the self-image work you need to do to grow your business. If you find you’re having lots of breakthroughs in your business and they’re challenging to sustain, this episode was made for y

Fear of judgement is one of the five signs of perfectionism, and this can show up in different ways. Today, I wanted to chat about the 7 hidden ways I see this coming up for myself and my clients in Perfectionists Getting Shit Done, so you have more awareness about fear of judgement and how this is showing up in your business. People talk about perfectionism being fear of judgement or failure. But it’s really a strategy to avoid the painful feeling of shame we think will come if we are judged by others. When our perfectionism handbrake is on, we are masters at judging ourselves and feeling like something must be wrong with us. It’s a thought pattern our brains are used to, based on the beliefs we have about ourselves. If you are experiencing fear of judgement in your business, know that there’s nothing wrong with you. I share more in this episode, as well as why popular advice on this isn’t helpful for perfectionists and practical things you can do instead. Find the full episode transcript and show notes at s