EP 29: Finding True Focus-Tips to Help With Overwhelm and Procrastination

This week we have a great chat with Sarah Reiff-Hekking, Ph.D, and Founder of True Focus Coaching, Inc. based just outside of Boston. Sarah works with professionals at all levels to help them overcome procrastination and overwhelm and prioritize all the important tasks in their life.

If you are professional in the business world then you have no doubt experienced, overwhelm, distractions and have even procrastinated on various tasks. Sarah walks us through how to overcome various distractions in our business life and gives us actionable tips on how to be more productive.

Our conversation:

  • How Sarah worked on her own struggles with procrastination and overwhelm.
  • We talk about why procrastination is such a big issue with those in business
  • Sarah walks us through the four issues we struggle with when it comes to time management
  • Sarah’s three core philosophies when it comes to time management
  • Fives step to busting through our own procrastination and overwhelm.
  • The power of positive self-talk but understanding it is not the only solution

Sarah runs coaching programs as well as time management boot camps. Learn more about Sarah Reiff-Hekking here; https://www.truefocuscoaching.com/

Find Sarah’s eBook, 5 Steps to Bust Through Procrastination & Overwhelm at www.Truefocustips.com

Ep 28: Why Kindness Matters in Business and in Life

In this episode we talk about kindness and we touch upon the related item of respect. We discuss why kindness matters in life, your business world and more importantly, kindness to yourself.

This week’s guest is Tara Cousineau, PhD and author of the book The Kindness Cure; How the Science of Compassion Can Heal Your Heart and Your World. Tara is a clinical psychologist a meditation teacher and is connected with Harvard University.

In her book she talks about the many subjects related to kindness including, stress, compassion, emotions and gratitude.

On the podcast we discuss

  • The definition of kindness
  • In 2019, is kindness is lacking in our society?
  • She explains why kindness takes effort.
  • What does stress have to do with kindness or lack of kindness?
  • How do we be kind to ourselves? Despite our past experiences, etc…
  • Is kindness being embraced in business culture?  
  • The benefits of meditation both personally and in the business world.

You can find out more about Tara and her work at: https://www.taracousineau.com/

Her book The Kindness Cure can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Kindness-Cure-Science-Compassion-Heart/dp/1626259690/

The Ted talk she refers to in our discussion with Rick Hanson can be found here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpuDyGgIeh0

How to create distraction-free marketing in your business

The practice of marketing and public relations in a business has fundamentally changed in the past decade. When social media came into our landscape and began to take shape, it changed the way we did business on a number of levels. Those in business were left scrambling to make the best use of these new platforms. And that continues today as the rules keep changing.

In this podcast, we chat with Louis Gudema, author of the book, Bullseye Marketing. Louis helps us understanding the marketing trends in 2019 and beyond. We talk about how public relations and marketing has changed, what has stayed the same and how those in business can continue to create valuable and effective marketing and PR plans without letting is distract us into frustration.

Some points we discuss are:

  • Has marketing always been a somewhat confusing part of an organization?
  • Does Louis feel that marketing and PR frustrates certain people? Even marketers…
  • How has marketing changed over the past decade?
  • What are companies doing wrong in this digital age or marketing and PR?
  • Have marketing, PR and advertising become just the same thing in this digital world?
  • How do we begin to make our marketing less of a distraction and bring in more ROI?

And we have Louis Gudema’s top tips for getting an organization of any size on the right track in their marketing and PR.

You can find out more about Louis Gudema at: http://revenueassociates.biz/

And find the book Bullseye Marketing here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/173220361X

Ep: 26How to simplify your company messaging with verbal branding

When the message in your business is complicated, it causes many distractions as well as many other barriers to running a successful and growing company. From the front line, speaking with your potential customers all the way to the top to understand why your company does what it does, a lack of clarity and simplicity can make it difficult to convey what you do and why you do it.

This episode we chat with Stephen Melanson of Melanson Consulting based just outside of Boston. Stephen’s firm specializes in verbal branding and simplicity. He helps companies of all sizes get clear on a simple but effective message to help drive sales and revenue and provide a framework for that business. And in the end, help to differentiate your business from others in the market.

Here are some of our discussion points and takeaways;

  • What do companies get wrong in this area of messaging?
  • Why does a mixed message cause distractions in a business?
  • How does complicating matters around message, hurt a business? Internal, external?
  • For the busy and distracted entrepreneur or person in business, why is this even more important? Or for that matter, an entire organization that’s distracted, unfocused.
  • When everyone is aligned in an organization, what happens?
  • Is the elevator speech still a thing?
  • How does a busy company or small business begin the process of simplifying their message?
  • Stephen’s top tips for implementing solid verbal branding and simplicity in a business of any size.

You can find out more about Melanson Consulting here:

http://www.melansonconsulting.com/

Ep 25: How to develop mental toughness in your business

This week we chat with the high-energy Master Paul Melella. Paul is a 6th degree black belt in Taekwondo and runs a very successful martial arts business in New York. Paul is also a partner in the firm Empowered Mastery where he coaches high-performing individuals to take their career and business to new levels.

Paul talks about what is needed to gain and maintain some mental toughness in the business world. There are so many ups and downs as well as emotions when it comes to being in business or being in a career that has high demands. Paul walks us through what it takes to navigate the rough waters of business.

Some of the things we discuss are:

  • Defining mental toughness in business
  • Why is it important to have a little bit of toughness when you are in the business world?
  • What from the martial arts can someone bring into their business?
  • For someone that might be prone to distractions or unfocused, how does Paul work with them?
  • How do we work through frustrations, such as being in sales, building a business? Meeting goals?
  • Do things like fear and confidence tend to chip away at someone’s ability to hang tough in business?
  • Paul’s top tips for mental toughness in the business world

You can find out more about Paul and Empowered Mastery at: www.EmpoweredMastery.com

How to help distracted youth become responsible adults

What happens when the distracted child or youth becomes an adult? All kinds of things. And it’s the topic of many discussions of those who have children working their way through school and beyond. Between emotions, changing interests, demands from school and others, those who may be prone to distractions, including people with ADHD can struggle at first before they find their way.

With the proper strategies in place, routines and some self-awareness, a young adult with ADHD can thrive, become a responsible happy adult and make great things happen in their life.

Our guest this week is Brendan Mahan of ADHD Essentials. Brendan is an ADHD coach in Massachusetts and works with children, young adults, adults with ADHD and entire families.

Some of the topic we cover include:

  • How is ADHD different in adults than children. What are the more significant challenges in each?
  • As a young adult gets older, what types of challenges do you try to address?
  • Are there common issues that arise as a child enters adulthood? Opposition, defiance, or on the flipside, motivation and energy?
  • Does this time of change present anger, sadness, frustration? Etc…
  • How can a person be more self-aware?
  • How can those around them offer support?
  • Tools to be more focused.

You can find Brendan at www.ADHDEssentials.com

Ep 22: Procrastination-The true and fact-based reasons we procrastinate

This week on Overcoming Distractions the Podcast, we tackle one of the most misunderstood topics in the world of getting things accomplished. Procrastination. What you will learn quickly from our guest is that procrastination is not a time management issue. It is an emotional regulation issue. Does procrastination cause us to lose time? Yes, but at its core, it is not a time management issue.

Our guest is Dr. Timothy Pychyl Associate Professor of Psychology at Carleton University and the author of Solving the Procrastination Puzzle. Dr. Pychyl has been studying and researching procrastination for over 20 years and is the leading authority on procrastination.

If you have ever procrastinated this will be a fascinating podcast on procrastination that will have you engaged from beginning to end.

Here’s is what we cover:

The real definition of procrastination. 

What procrastination is not. 

Do “experts” out there that have procrastination wrong?

Recognizing procrastination. 

How do we break the cycle of procrastination? 

Tips for those who are habitual procrastinators. 

ADHD and procrastination. 

Assuring people, they are not alone… 

Find out more about Dr. Pychyl’s work at: http://www.procrastination.ca/

You can find his book here: https://www.amazon.com/Solving-Procrastination-Puzzle-Concise-Strategies-ebook/dp/B00DGZKJ3Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1548335913&sr=8-1&keywords=Procrastination+puzzle

Ep 21: How to set short and long-term goals

Everyone wants to set goals at the beginning of the year. And most of us do set some type of goals. But many of us also come away dissatisfied with our results or we just find ourselves not sticking to the plan. Maybe we try to set huge goals that end up being unrealistic or our goals are so big and broad that we don’t know how to take the next step.

This episode of Overcoming Distractions the Podcast we bring back Chris Berlow of Empowered Mastery. Chris will walk us through a number of items to help us set and archive our goals that we have set out to execute. And if you are prone to distractions, like many of us, he will offer smart suggestions for setting goals and staying on track. From our daily goals we set out to get done to long term goals.

This is not just another boring podcast on goal setting. This is real world and actionable advice.

Other topics we cover include:

Why do people hate goal setting?

Is a new year the best time to set goals?

Small goals or big goals?

How to stay on track when easily distracted?

What is an easy system for goal setting?

Ep 20: Lessons From the Real World-Not School

There are lessons we learn in school and there are those lessons, skills and habits we acquire out of school. For those who learn in a different manner, those that can be distracted and others that just love to use their time to leverage the right side of their brain, this is the episode for you.

Not every valuable lesson for the business world is taught in the classroom. In fact, it much the opposite. Real skills are acquired and built away from the classroom, where we can focus our attention on what makes us happy, what drives us and what ultimately gives us work that is satisfying.

In this episode we interview Nicolas Cole. Cole as he goes by with his friends is a regular writer for Inc Magazine, a top writer on the platform Quora, and runs Digital Press, https://www.digitalpress.com/ , a content marketing agency that helps founders, CEO’s and other top executives with personal branding.

Cole wrote the article 9 Valuable Lessons I learned in the Real World featured on Inc Magazine and that’s why he’s on this episode of Overcoming Distractions the Podcast.

This article and of course this podcast episode is a huge wakeup call to those who want reassurance that what they have learned by being and working in the real word is just as, if not more important than what they learned in school.

Ep 19:How to avoid the distractions of being in debt

Being in debt is one of the biggest distractions anyone can have. Not having the money to pay our bills can be both stressful and take our mind off important matters in our life and business. Avoiding our financial obligations can be an enormous distraction and one that won’t go away any time soon.

When we think of distractions, we think of not getting our work done, but money is a major distraction if not handled properly in our lives. It can take over almost all your thoughts and energy because for many of us, our lives revolve around having enough money.

On this episode, we interview Jeff DiMatteo, one of the owners of collection agency American Profit Recovery. Jeff goes through why people get into debt, the stress involved and then he gets into how to work with a debt collector. He gives some great advice for removing the stress of being in debt out of your life.

Other items he goes over include:
Reasons people get into debt.
Why is being in debt a major distraction for someone?
The process of working with a collector.
Why it is important to communicate with your creditors.
What resources are there to help those in debt?