Category: Mindset

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E#237 Three Tips for Creating Irresistible Offers

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Three Tips for Creating Irresistible Offers

Today we’re talking about crafting irresistible offers as part of my season about business and revenue growth. I want to help you craft mouth-watering offers that make it super easy for clients to buy from you, following a simple process.

There’s a lot to think about when crafting offers, let alone making them irresistible. You might like to check out my previous episodes on the topic, such as Episode 65, Discover and communicate your value, and Episode 205, How to Develop a Magnetic Value Proposition. Both of these do a deep dive into messaging.

But what else matters, and how else can you create an offer that is irresistible, mouth-watering and exactly what your audience wants? These three tips will help you get it right.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Tip 1 – Make it Relatable
* Tip 2 – Make it Valuable and Selective
* Tip 3 – Make it Easy to Buy

Make it Relatable 

When you’re describing the offer, you might find yourself going into technical jargon, being verbose, or fumbling with your words. 

The easier way to talk about your offer is to make it relatable to the person and what they are going through. 

The offer that sells most easily is the one that talks about the specific emotional struggles and then the emotional benefits your audience desperately wants, using their words. 

Remember: your suffering is your story, and your strengths are your solution. 

Here are two examples – a very dry version and a more emotive and relatable version. 

The dry version that uses coaching language: This 6-week program is designed to counteract the energy and sleep challenges that new mothers face and helps them to create a vision and goals that they set for themselves.  

Here’s the more relatable, emotive version that uses typical client language for the same niche: Are you a new mum who is struggling to sleep and feeling anxious? This 6-week program will help you to create simple, practical routines to help you feel calmer, grounded and sleep better so that you can be a happier mum and a great role model.  

Can you hear the difference? 

Make it Valuable and Selective 

Value is in the eye of the beholder. If someone is desperate, ready, willing and able to change, then your offer will be more valuable by default. 

Just this week, a coaching student in my P2P course discussed her market research interview results. She was trying to gauge interest in a coaching program she wants to run, for her niche who wants to achieve some specific outcomes and needs help to develop the habits to get there.  

One person in her niche was desperate to change and lacked confidence that she could do it herself – she said she’d pay $1500 for a program to help her achieve the specific outcomes that the coach had mentioned her niche wanted to achieve. 

The other person she interviewed had the same desired outcome goals but was already doing some of the work herself. She said she’d pay around $500 for the same program – she obviously didn’t place as much value on the support being offered by the program. 

The first lesson is that the offer needs to mention the outcomes and benefits that are meaningful to the target audience (not the features, and not what you think they want). 

The second lesson here is simple – don’t try to make offers to everyone. Target the people who desperately want to change, right now, with your help. They’ll have a greater sense of value around the offer, will be more committed and will likely pay more. 

Not everyone will want, value or succeed with your offer. 

So, be specific about who it’s for, and not for. Be discerning. 

It’s no use trying to sell something to somebody whose heart isn’t in it, who is too busy, or who isn’t quite sure. They’ll more likely try to beat you down on price. They’ll more likely be half-hearted in their approach and get mediocre results. Then they’ll tell people about their mediocre results – or tell nobody about your business.  

You’ll feel like an imposter! And it will affect your reputation. 

On the flip side, if you are targeting people who are the right demographic or niche, who are desperate to solve a problem right now, and are ready, willing and able to do the work, then they’ll most likely succeed, and you’ll get great testimonials that attract more people like them. 

Simple, right? It works. I’ve built multiple 6-figure businesses this way. 

When I hear someone talking about discounts, I immediately think less of their offering. I think about the crazy ads on TV telling me about all the stuff I can buy for next to nothing. 

Make It Easy to Buy 

What makes something easy to buy? 

It solves the problem you’re desperate to get rid of, that you feel is huge, complicated and overwhelming, by taking you through a process that feels easy and simple and relates to the solution or outcome that you want. 

This comes to life in your strategy session, webinar, workshop or other lead magnet where you speak specifically to the problem you help to solve and outline the two or three steps that the client goes through to get to their desired endpoint. 

When people hear that there are three simple steps, they are flooded with relief that there are only three steps, not the thousand that were in their minds. It shows that you clearly understand what they need to do to achieve their outcome, and they’re also confident that you know what works. 

For example you might help “people who are disorganised and want to take back control of their schedule and life.” That’s the appealing webinar you might run. 

Your three-step approach that you talk about in the webinar or workshop could be something like: 

  • Step 1: Define it – Identifying the areas of chaos at work and at home so you have clarity on where and how to start 
  • Step 2: Plan it – Developing a foolproof plan to overcome the key areas so you know exactly what to do and when 
  • Step 3: Do it – Follow a simple, step-by-step schedule to get it done with the accountability and support you need to achieve 100% success! 

See how I’ve used some language that the target audience might use, including the outcomes that each step gives. It sounds like a simple process that makes sense to them – define it, plan it, do it. 

What the coach might actually do in the program is help them create a vision (what needs to change and why), then step 2 is to develop some 3-monthly goals (the plan), and then step 3 is where you support them to navigate small weekly goals and any obstacles that arise. 

In this example I’ve just given, you can see how using powerful words that are meaningful to the client to position the service. Foolproof plan, simple, step-by-step, accountability, support. 

This way of communicating your offer makes it way easier to buy! 

Summary 

Creating irresistible offers comes down to a simple three-step process. 

Firstly, describe your offer simply and clearly using the clients’ typical wording, to address the problem and solution that your offer can help them achieve. 

Secondly, make it valuable by only making the offer to people who are the right type of person – desperate to change, and unable to do it on their own. They’ll place way more value on your offer and be more committed to your program. 

Thirdly, make it easy to buy by describing simply the key milestones that your program will help them to achieve. This is about translating coaching language and methodology into what the client will get out of that methodology as a result, if they do the work. 

Need help crafting an offer? Hit me up on the contact page of my website to enquire about my June intake of private business coaching. 

 

 

 

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#235 3 Proven Strategies to Grow and Scale Your Business

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3 Proven Strategies to Grow and Scale Your Business

In this current podcast series dedicated to business and revenue growth, let’s talk about three proven strategies you can use to grow and scale your business – even if you’re relatively new to the business and have a few paying clients. Two of these methods discussed today do NOT require you to find new clients – which is often the most costly and time-consuming way of building your business. That means you can improve revenue immediately!

Background

When your business reaches a certain size, you might find yourself working at full capacity in terms of the hours you can physically work or the clients you can physically service in your business.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Upgrading Your Systems
* Changing Your Prices
* Increasing the Offers

You may reach an upper limit of income or find that your start-up business systems (e.g. manual invoicing) are inadequate and time-consuming to manage.

While there are no immediate problems with either scenario, a business that relies solely on you presents a level of ‘risk’.

What happens to the business if you get sick? What if you want time off? And how can you outgrow your expenses and start making a real profit?

These are just three of many considerations that might inspire you to grow or at least improve efficiencies in your business.

There is a saying that goes, ‘If your business isn’t growing, it’s shrinking.’

If you want to grow your business and revenue, there are several options.

Here are three of the easiest options for businesses in the early stages of growth (‘seed’) who have some customers and are ready to expand their reach, sales and profit.

Upgrading Your Systems

Upgrading your systems becomes a relevant growth strategy if you have reached a limit as to how many clients you can see, and therefore how much money you can earn.

Before you consider upgrading, you’d want to make sure you have regular cashflow and enough profit margin to cover the costs you will incur via systems upgrades.

Two ways of upgrading your systems include:

– Getting specialist help (outsourcing) and

– moving away from manual systems into more automated ones.

Either or both of these can free you up to service more clients. Let’s look at each in turn.

Upgrading by Outsourcing

Thinking about the outsourcing, hiring specialist contractors is an easy way to get qualified help when you are busy or need help in a specific area. This is known as a ‘business to business’ arrangement whereby you engage another business to complete specific work or tasks within your business.

It is also helpful if you don’t want the burden of buying and setting up software (e.g. accounting software) and just want someone to do it for you.

If you are considering outsourcing, you might not have the workload or cash flow to employ someone permanently, but they could do some monotonous but important tasks for you, or cope with irregular busy periods, so that your time is freed up to service more clients.

For example:

· Hiring independent contract coaches can be helpful for irregular work e.g.

  • busy periods
  • when you go on holiday.

· Alternatively, outsourcing allows you to hand over specific tasks or regular roles to an expert e.g.

  • virtual assistant
  • bookkeeper
  • accountant
  • marketing consultant
  • IT professional.

I will be talking more specifically about VA’s in the next episode of this podcast.

If you do any outsourcing, you would need to have a formal signed agreement in place before work commences, which clearly outlines the scope of work, specific duties and payment arrangements.

You’d need to have some clear policies in place about privacy, conduct and other things that state your expectations around quality of work and expected behaviour, and procedures to help hand over specific tasks.

Upgrading by Automating Tasks

When you start a business, you’re often doing a lot of things manually. For example:

  • Creating invoices in Microsoft Word.
  • Keeping track of clients in a log book, or an Excel worksheet.
  • Posting your social media posts one at a time on each platform.
  • Manually writing individual, separate emails to your customers, before, during and after programs.

When you switch these manual systems to automated processes and/or use software, you can save yourself a lot of time and mistakes, which frees you up to coach more clients.

Examples include:

  • Using dedicated financial software like WaveApps (free), Quickbooks, or Xero
  • Using a social media scheduling tool instead of manually posting (e.g. RecurPost, HootSuite)
  • Using an email system like Mailchimp or Mailerlite
  • Using a booking system like Calendly or Acuity Scheduling. For more info on these, you can listen to episode #105 Best Essential Business Systems or episode #106 Best Advanced Business Systems.

Increasing Your Prices

When your business reaches a certain level, a very simple strategy to grow your income without any cost to you, or without working extra hours, is to repackage services and/or raise prices.

For example, you might decide to:

  • raise prices by 10% and may also offer a bonus downloadable training course with your program – which raises the tangible value of your services and makes the increase more palatable with only a one-off labour cost, or
  • raise prices by 15% and re-position yourself as a highly experienced specialist in one area of coaching –raising your tangible value, or
  • creating a group coaching model to increase ROI
  • develop a premium (high-priced) specialty service.

There are many pricing strategies to choose from.

Pick the one that best suits your niche, your level of expertise and your business and lifestyle (working hours) goals. Work with a business coach to create the right strategy for you. You might also be interested in my podcast episode #202 Should I show pricing on my website?

Increasing the Options

When you start out in business, you’re often just focusing on doing one or two things well, becoming known, and getting a good reputation.

As you start to get more customers, you will start to see more opportunities to work with people in different ways.

By increasing the number of service options you have, you can grow your business and revenue.

For example:

– A short, DIY program with email support provides a low-cost entry point for people who are interested in working on one small problem they have (e.g. establishing a bedtime ritual for better sleep).

This means you are getting some income for very little live client time and gives them a step into your main program. This equates to more money for less time and effort (note: you would still need to promote this program regularly in order to sell it).

– A 1:1 program is now available as a small group program

This means you are earning more money per session, and also building a community of like-minded people who work with you and connect with each other. They are more likely to want to stay connected.

– Your initial 8-week program is now followed up with a 6-month maintenance program (VIP high-end pricing for individuals or mastermind, or moderate price for groups) or a membership.

This means you are keeping customers longer, earning more money and/or over a longer period, and helping your clients get next-level results after their initial program has finished.

– A higher value program where you add specific resources, a welcome pack, or package up other services or products such as meditation playlists, or a recipe book.

This means you can earn more money in the same amount of time.

One important caveat is this – keep your number of available services to 3 or 4, maximum. Otherwise, you risk entering the paradox of choice, where customers walk away without making a decision as there are too many options or difficulties in making the best choice.

Summary 

When you are coaching enough clients that you hit a ceiling of available time or income, or if you notice opportunities to help clients more or for longer, there are a few strategies you can do to take your business to the next level.

We talked about just three of the options today, including

  • Upgrading your systems
  • Increasing your pricing, and
  • Creating more options for working with you (but not too many).

If you need help developing business and revenue growth strategies to suit your business and niche, contact me to join my private coaching waitlist, which runs for five months in February and June of each year.

My private coaching programs usually sell out within a week of advertising, and you need to qualify to be a part of them. To enquire or join the waitlist, hit up my contact page and I’ll get back to you!

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#234 The Connoisseur of Time: An Invitation to Presence with Dr Joel Bennett

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The Connoisseur of Time: An Invitation to Presence with Dr Joel Bennett

If you’re racing through your day struggling to manage your appointments and be present with your clients; if you’re stuck in your head worrying if you have enough clients, or whether you know enough; if you’re trying to get a lot done and procrastinating or experiencing overwhelm, then this episode is for you.

I’m interviewing Dr Joel Bennett, PhD, CWP, is CEO of Organizational Wellness & Learning Systems (OWLS), whose mission is to catalyse healthy cultures and communities from the inside out with science. OWLS programs, many tested in clinical trials, have reached over 250,000 workers.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Presence and resonance
* The inspiration for the book: The Connoisseur of Time
* How changing your relationship with time supports better coaching and business growth
* How being present creates more satisfying relationships

Dr Bennett’s programs, shown to reduce behavioural health risks and improve the work climate, have been recognized as effective by the US Surgeon General. Dr. Bennett is the author/co-author of over 30 peer-reviewed scientific articles and seven books, including “The Connoisseur of Time: An Invitation to Presence” (available for free at www.presencequest.life). He lives in Texas with his wife Jan and relishes mysticism.

If you’d like to connect with Dr Joel, please visit: Becoming present: www.presencequest.life Resilience Coach Training Certification: 

https://organizationalwellness.com/pages/resilience-coach-and-consultant-certification Stress management tools and toolkits:

Toolkits

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#233 Running Pilot Programs for Quick Revenue (and Growth)

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Running Pilot Programs for Quick Revenue (and Growth)

Whether you’re starting out in business or thinking of a new service line, it can be tough to break into a new market.

Pilot programs allow you to test a new service for the first time on a test audience in exchange for feedback but better than that – they are a great way to create business and revenue growth through live customer experience, results, reviews and referrals.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Why Pilot Programs?
* How to Create Value in Pilot Programs
* Building Revenue with Pilot Programs

 

Why Pilot Programs?

Pilot programs are a low-risk opportunity for you to test and refine your coaching or other program using live feedback from people in your niche or target audience.

But more than that, running a pilot program is a pre-marketing activity. It is essentially a soft launch that creates visibility, interest, engagement and excitement around your new program.

To answer the question – why pilot programs? – they are a great way to give people a taste of what you do, and to create initial revenue, results and reviews (traction) that lead to future sales.

What I mean is this: by running a test version of your final program, you’re giving people a live experience of what you do, which generates positive feelings and other outcomes (which is what people actually buy – feelings).

You are showing you care about the customer because they’re helping you to make it exactly what they want and need.

It doesn’t have to be perfect, and there is far less pressure for you as you work out the kinks and bumps with a willing audience.

In return, they feel wonderful about helping you and they’re also getting a result in a structured, step-by-step process. Then, they are going to tell people about what they’re doing – spreading the word for you.

You can also share wins, photos, insights and progress along the way with your future audience to build their interest and excitement for your next program.

That means you end up with a refined product that exactly suits your target market – ready to go for a full launch – and with plenty of eyeballs on the next intake of your program. Much more fun than a pile of ads for something you’ve never tried or tested!

If you choose the right people for your pilot program, you’ll get relevant feedback to improve the final product, and glowing testimonials that will attract more people to your business.

I covered how to get the right people for your pilot program in episode #134 Five Top Tips for Finding the Right Pilot Program Clients. I explained why being selective is important, and how to find the right clients for your pilot program.

To answer the question – why pilot programs? – they are a great way to give people a taste of what you do, and to create initial revenue, results and reviews (traction) that lead to future sales.

Now that we know why pilot programs are great, how do you get people to join your pilot program? Well, you need to create value by communicating the problem you help to solve, and the solution or outcomes people will get by participating.

How to Create Value in Pilot Programs

Two previous episodes of this podcast do a deep dive into creating value within the program. In episode #154, the Why, What and How of Pilot Program workflows, I talked about how to map out the steps of signing up clients, onboarding clients, and the key steps in delivering the pilot program to those clients, so that you can prepare properly, and then deliver a complete and wonderful experience to your clients that covers all the bases. In episode #155, The Value of Pilot Program Content and Emails, I described how to create value for your clients in different elements of a pilot program – basically, how to create value within the content of the program that you can then test with a pilot group!

Building Revenue with Pilot Programs

Someone asked me recently – does a pilot program have to be free or can it be heavily discounted?

The short answer is – it depends on the niche clients, the size and urgency of their problem, their ability and willingness to pay, and the importance of change to them.

If you think about it, someone with a big, painful, problem that disrupts their daily life will be more willing to pay, and to pay more, and to get help, than someone with a minor problem that has little to no impact on their life.

Let that sink in for a moment – it’s important.

How do you feel about paying for something versus getting it for free? Several people have told me that they want to pay me for coaching because then they have skin in the game and will be more committed.

And on top of that – as the saying goes – nobody wants a free kitten. Because then the question is – why is it free? what’s wrong with it?

So how do you price a pilot program? Firstly, I think the language is important. If you talk about discounting as it devalues what we do as coaches.

I prefer to say that “this first program as a pilot will cost $X, and future versions will be $X”. This can help people decide to buy now or to wait until later.

Generally, I charge about 1/3 to ½ of the retail price for a pilot program, with a clear requirement for feedback along the way (which includes verbal and surveys). So if it will eventually be a $1500 program, a pilot version might be promoted as a one-time-only price of between $500 – $750.

Remember that even with in a pilot program, the right clients will get incredible value, assuming that you pick a niche, you’re clear on the problem they want to solve, and that the aim/outcome/result is clearly defined and exactly what they’re looking for. That is where the value is created – the old ‘what’s in it for me’.

People love to help, and they love getting a sense of value (which is simply a function of the results they get – and how important the results are to them – in exchange for their investment of time and money). If they can get a result in your pilot program, they’ll be incredibly grateful and will spread the word.

This is how pilot programs lead to business and revenue growth.

Summary

To answer the question – why pilot programs? – they are a great way to give people a taste of what you do, and to create initial revenue, results and reviews (traction) that lead to future sales.

They are more engaging than the more formal and structured forms of marketing, in that they are experiential and give your customers a feeling. After all, that’s what people buy!

I’ve linked you to two other episodes of this podcast to help you map out the steps, create valuable content, and take your idea to the world.

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#232 The Work Habits of Self-Made Millionaires

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The Work Habits of Self-Made Millionaires

As a coach, you probably know about the power of keystone habits. But did you know that self-made millionaires share some keystone habits that helped propel them to success? This fourth episode about business and revenue growth highlights the importance of daily health-based routines as a foundation to show up with the right energy, mindset and well-being to achieve success more easily.

It’s no surprise that being healthy and having healthy routines is the platform for business revenue and growth.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* 5 Habits that Millionaires have in common
* How to get started with your own success habits

If you think about it, how you treat yourself and what you do for yourself has a profound effect on your mood, attitude, energy, health, sleep and stress – and your ability to show up and do your work well, even on the hardest of days. And those things directly affect your business and revenue growth!

So what are the keystone habits that could bring you success? A 5-year study of 233 self-made millionaires and 128 poor individuals by Tom Corely, author of the book Rich, found some common habits that helped them achieve their success.

This episode is on the edge of a bigger project I am initiating which I think you’ll like – and I’ll reveal more in about a year after I’m finished.

For now, I will give you a hint about my project – while the points I’m about to mention are keystone habits of a bunch of millionaires – not EVERY millionaire surveyed had all of these habits. And rather than just following this list, I encourage you to come up with your OWN success habits.

So let’s dive into the list of key habits.

While you listen, reflect on how many of these do you do. Or, what’s your version of these?

Reading

In Corley’s study, 86% of self-made millionaires spent at least an hour reading after work, usually self-improvement books. Only 2% of the average income earners were doing that.

I loved this because I start and finish my day with reading. Marketing and business books in the morning, and fiction in the evening, is how I like to roll.

For me, reading something non-fiction in the morning sets me up with a positive, inspired and focused mindset for the day. Reading non-fiction at night (and sometimes in the morning) helps me switch off from work or get lost in a story when I’m feeling a bit fragile.

I think the upshot is that reading helps you to feel positive, to grow, to engage in stories, and to separate yourself from the stresses of life. It boosts your vocabulary and helps you relate to others in a similar way.

If you’re not a reader, you might be into journalling, or a podcast listener, or an e-book listener. Work with your learning style on this one.

Or if you’re not into any of these – totally ok!

Exercise

Consistent exercise was another keystone habit of the millionaires in Corley’s study.

This makes perfect sense. After a busy day (or before one), exercise gets you up, out of your head and into your body. It helps you to maintain good physical and metabolic health, and to release endorphins that help you to feel good.

During exercise, you get time to reflect, plan, and dream, collect your thoughts and step out of the day-to-day stuff. You get a chance to blow off some steam and release tension.

Exercise helps you to get into the habit of setting and achieving goals, helping you to stay competitive with yourself and perhaps others, too. This obviously helps to build self-esteem.

Last week I went for a 5km run with a friend. It was tough but there was a sense of ‘instant gratification’ when we finished. In that 30-minute run, I got myself to finish, therefore I got a tangible result (doing the run), and I felt strong, amazing, invincible even!

Exercise also helps you get into the habit of creating schedules. You also bring in an element of discipline both within the workout, and in getting yourself to do the workout.

Do you exercise? Why or why not?

How does exercise make you feel?

What are some of the benefits for you?

Sleeping

The Sleep Foundation shares a list of recommended sleep hours for each age group. Adults need 7 – 9 hours per day to function optimally, or at least a minimum of 6.4 hours per day.

Corley found that the millionaires in his study slept at least 7 hours per night.

Sleep research shows that sleep gives the body a chance to undergo a tune up. At different times of night, the body goes through cycles of physical recovery and repair, processing and embedding memories, and mental rejuvenation.

It’s no wonder that the amount of time you sleep is linked to success. It affects memory, mood, cognitive function and physical health.

Interestingly, each person’s bedtime is unique, according to their chronobiology.

How is your sleep? What is the optimal amount for you?

Thinking Time

It’s no surprise that most of the millionaires in Corley’s study carved out time to think or brainstorm. We spend so much time in the micro details of each day, that we rarely sit back to reflect on life, our goals, where we are going or whether we are investing time and energy in the right direction.

Since blocking out thinking time for myself, I have noticed huge efficiencies in the way I work. The realisations and mental links I make in my time out have saved me spending hours on pointless tasks, and on making impulse decisions.

These days, my time out (usually walking, with or without a podcast) gives me ample reflection to get clarity, direction and focus for my next burst of work.

The Mean of the 5

Finally, millionaires choose their friends and mentors carefully. They spend time with supportive people who hold space for them, who have experience, who are calm and not pushy or overbearing.

Motivational speaker Jim Rohn says you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.

If you’re running a business or just doing life, this could include the podcasts you have in your ears all day, the coach you hire, your significant other, your family, and the people you work with.

If your people mix is not ideal, you can certainly make focused time with the right people, for enough time each week to keep your mind in the right place.

This is something I’ve done, and it pays in spades. I minimise the people and social situations that drain me or add no value. I intentionally choose to spend my time with, and cultivate relationships with, people who are smarter than me, better coaches, better critical thinkers, and who are thought leaders and knowledge leaders. That way, I know I am putting good fuel into my brain, having impactful conversations and building my mental and emotional energy.

Who are you surrounded by? How does that affect your energy?

How can you reduce your time spent with the negatives, and increase your time with the positives?

The Nutshell

While all these keystone habits are great, it is what they create that matters.

Effective habits are the ones that help you to feel inspired, invincible, strong, thoughtful, grateful, engaged, in flow, calm, full of zest, rational, creative, de-stressed, and empowered.

And why does that matter?

Because when you feel like that, you will show up with energy for your business, you will be consistent with the tasks that need it, you’ll be putting your best foot forward, you’ll overcome the hurdles more easily, you’ll be in a growth mindset, and you’ll feel the fear and do it anyway.

Summary

The habits discussed in this episode are based on a study of 200 people. We covered 5, but there were several more in the list.

The real point of this episode is that millionaires are committed to doing the habits that work for them. Their habits aren’t necessarily everything on this list – but their own secret formula.

As you reflect on what you’ve heard today, I encourage you to identify the habits that make you feel ready to tackle the world with energy, enthusiasm and confidence you need to grow your business and revenue.

References

CNBC Online https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/18/tom-corley-top-10-common-habits-of-high-achievers.html Accessed 6.2.23

Cohen, Jennifer. Exercise is One Thing Most Successful People Do Every Day. https://www.entrepreneur.com/living/exercise-is-one-thing-most-successful-people-do-everyday/276760 Accessed 6.2.23 Corley, Tom. Rich Habits Study – Background and methodology. https://richhabits.net/rich-habits-study-background-and-methodology/ Accessed 6.2.23

Loudenback, T. 2019. 17 habits of self-made millionaires, from a man who spent 5 years studying rich people. https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/good-habits-of-self-made-millionaires?op=1 Business Insider Website accessed 6.2.23 Suni, E. 2022. How Much Sleep Do We Really Need? https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need Sleep Foundation Website accessed 6.2.23

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

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E#229 5 Quick, Effective Ways to Quit “Busy Working” and Have More Fun in Your Business

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5 Quick, Effective Ways to Quit “Busy Working” and Have More Fun in Your Business

This episode is the first in a season that focuses on growing your business and your revenue.

Are you a small business owner who regularly feels overwhelmed at all the things you must manage every day, every week, every month? Does it feel hard sometimes, and exhausting, and like you’re spinning your wheels?

Let’s take a step back and map out five quick and effective ways to significantly improve your work life balance and therefore, grow your business more easily. My goal for you in this episode is to help you have the impact you want in your business, more easily and with less stress.

In this episode, we’ll cover the 5 key points:
* Creating Clear, Specific Goals
* Having More Fun at Work
* Setting Clear Boundaries
* Cultivating Hobbies (Flow) and Connections
* Reframing the Day-To-day

The Backstory 

When I first started running a business back in 1996, I was a biological scientist who had no idea or experience about the ins and outs of running a business. But working closely with the founder, and being in a managerial role, I intuitively started seeing things we should and could be doing to be more efficient, effective, professional and profitable. 

For example – not writing invoices out by hand on a pad of paper! Charging clients for photocopying and printing! Developing professional looking stationery and proposal templates!  

As our client base and staff grew, I found myself flying by the seat of my pants in business, trying to manage all of the little details, and feeling like I was an imposter with no idea what I was doing. This was the dawning of the internet, when emails first came about, and the learning curve was steep. 

The thing is, no matter when you start a business, it’s full of complexity and challenges that you can’t foresee. 

For that reason, a huge part of the journey to succeeding without burnout is learning how to trust yourself, and back yourself, so that you can cope with all the curve balls that come up. 

Right now, think about a time when you totally trusted yourself to be able to cope, to find the answer, to work it out, to get it done. 

How did you feel? 

And what’s the consequence of feeling that way? 

For me, trusting that I knew enough and could cope, allowed me to take my foot off the pedal. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t slacking off – I just quit all the busy work and made more effective use of my time at work. 

Busy work can include anything that sucks up time for little return.  This is a little avoidance rabbit hole that anyone can go down, when they have fears, self-doubt or uncertainty. It’s our brains way of keeping us safe – but you often end up feeling like you’re groping around in the dark for an answer, and this creates more fear and uncertainty because you’re not doing anything concrete that’s getting you traction. 

So what does busy work look like? It includes things like constantly checking emails or your social media profile, making website edits, poring over blogs, doing more courses, trying to perfect your elevator pitch, and anything else that gets in the way of marketing and servicing clients.  

After all, it’s marketing and giving clients an exceptional experience that creates a profitable, viable and sustainable business. 

So, what can you do to eliminate busy work, time wasting or low ROI activities so you can enjoy your work, do it more effectively, and therefore improve your business growth, client base and revenue? 

I’m going to share 5 things that have worked for me. And because of doing these things consistently, I now work fewer days and hours each week, I have greater clarity and focus on what needs to be done and where I’m going, and I work more effectively and efficiently.  

Creating Clear, Specific Goals 

It sounds like a no-brainer, but a lot of my business coaching clients have not set any specific targets for their businesses. 

When you are really clear on the outcomes you want to realise in a specific time period, and the steps required to get there, it helps you to manifest the outcome.  

How? Firstly, because you better understand the level of effort required to meet the outcome goal. Secondly, having specific outcome goals allows you to reverse engineer them to define the smaller milestones and actions that need to be taken, and in the right order. Go back to episode #227 – 90-Day Business Planning – for more info on how to do this. 

In short – creating clear, specific goals and reviewing them regularly helps you decide in advance what you’re going and how you will get there, so you can then just follow the plan. 

That is a MUCH easier way to work than trying to make it up as you go, or doing it on the fly. 

Having More Fun at Work 

I want to illustrate this point with a client of mine, who we’ll call Toni.  

Toni was struggling in her coaching business with making videos and doing FB lives, as part of her marketing. She really wanted to do videos as she was good at talking, but she was super nervous about it. Wanted to be perfect. Did 100 takes of every video. Wanted me to review all the scripts she had written. 

She kept telling me how hard it was. She told herself she was no good at it. These statements she kept making created and reinforced some limiting beliefs. 

In one of our sessions, I asked her how she could leverage her strengths and make it more fun. 

Toni found her solution. She realised that showing up nervous and fussy was creating a negative energy in her videos. They looked as awkward as they felt.  

Toni decided that she would find a way to have fun with the videos and to show up with confidence and conviction. 

It was as easy as tapping into her bigger ‘why’ – her passionate advocacy for women and women’s health.  

As soon as she approached her videos with that energy, the words flowed. There was confidence in her voice. And funnily enough, her fears melted away and she started to look forward to recording videos! 

And suddenly, this shift in energy created enquiries and engagement with her videos. 

Just as importantly, Toni no longer spent hours preparing and perfecting scripts, worrying about the perfect lighting, hair and makeup. That was her busy work, and she let go of it, instead showing up with confidence and professionalism, on a mission to change the world.  

This one shift saved her about 6-10 hours per week and she started sleeping better, feeling more energized and showing up with confidence. 

Another coach I know decided that she didn’t like long, boring written business plans. She found them tedious, so didn’t do them. But not having plans was impacting her work. 

Being a creative person, she decided it was more fun to create a one-pager with coloured bubbles highlighting her key goals, marketing processes and packages for the year. This was a fun way to plan, and it resulted in more ease, flow, clients and revenue. 

Now she looks forward to planning and sees it as a creative process that allows her to have fun in her business. 

Where can you have more fun at work? 

Having fun creates flow, which helps you to feel just the right amount of challenge, play to your strengths, be more present in the moment, and experience positive emotions. 

Setting Clear Boundaries 

If you are working from a place of fear, lack, uncertainty etc, then you might find yourself falling into the trap of working late, working weekends, seeing clients on any day or at any time, and being constantly on your marketing channels looking for leads. 

This is ends up being a bunch of energy leaks that leave you feeling unfulfilled, drained and disheartened. 

The better way is to set clear boundaries around your time. It might feel hard at the beginning, but that’s your brain trying to tell you that more time at the desk equals better outcomes. 

We all know that’s a lie! 

Having boundaries changed so many things for me. A few years ago I stopped working weekends, set a clear cut-off time on weekdays, and this year am only seeing clients and having meetings on 3 days per week as this allows me time to recharge my energy. 

Now I’m actually making more money with fewer meetings and clients than I did previously. Most importantly, I feel calm, centred and energized.  

That’s because having clear boundaries has allowed me to do more outside work to balance my intense focus of the day. 

Imagine working without guilt or fear, knowing you have done enough, and having the time and energy to decompress and recharge? 

It is a game changer. 

It changes the way you show up to client meetings – calm, present, confident, assured, professional. It changes the way you sleep – soundly and completely without a monkey mind. 

And you love going to work each day, knowing that your way of working helps you to feel like this. 

Cultivating Hobbies (Flow) and Connections 

Leading on from the last point, creating time outside work means you have the time to cultivate hobbies, social connections and other flow activities. 

Those types of things meet your needs in those other areas that are essential to your wellbeing.  

I also believe that creativity is the opposite of stress. When you have creative flow in your life, it counterbalances the demands in your daily work. 

On top of that, research shows that people with more hobbies end up at the top of their professions. The more diverse their experiences, the higher they go. I will share more of this exciting research in a future podcast!  

Reframing the Day-To-Day 

One last point is to keep watch over your mind. 

A lot of the time, having a tough time at work is related to what you’re thinking, or in other words, the sentences you say to yourself each day. 

When things get tough, the negative thoughts come out, and they create a downward spiral. They take up valuable time, space and energy. 

By catching your thoughts each day, you can reframe them to change the conversation you have with yourself and with others, to make work more pleasant and enjoyable. 

Here’s an anecdote. I recently started back at the gym after a long break. The long break was because I had a billion excuses not to go, and why I didn’t like it. 

This thinking made it impossible for me to get there. I never found the time. 

But then I changed the conversation I was having with myself, and I started looking forward to the gym. Now I seem to find lots of spaces in my calendar for the gym and I am desperate to fit it in. 

One of the conversations was about becoming the strongest I can be at 51, to be a role model for other women of my age. To apply my love of challenge to see what is possible.  

Another example is marketing. Years ago, I would say that I hated marketing. I was no good at it. It was hard. Guess where that got me? 

Then one day I realised some important things. That marketing is a coaching conversation. That marketing is a creative activity. That marketing creates connections and offers hope and leads to services that offer real, tangible change.  

Now I love marketing. I became curious about it, and it is one area that I research deeply on an ongoing basis, because it’s so closely intertwined with both psychology and creativity.  

What are the negative things you say to yourself? 

How could you reframe those to totally change the game? 

What will the benefits be of those reframes? 

Summary 

Sometimes work can feel like a grind. It can be hard or scary, and that can generate negative thoughts, feelings and a propensity to do busy work. All of that saps energy and affects your professionalism and presence as a coach and business owner. 

But there are five things you can do to make work more enjoyable: 

  • Create clear, specific goals so you have a clear roadmap of steps 
  • Find ways to have more fun at work, to improve the way you show up 
  • Set clear boundaries, so that you get enough time off to recharge 
  • Cultivate hobbies and connections, so you can get into flow, and meet other needs 
  • Reframe the day-to-day, catching and changing unhelpful thoughts so you can be your best every day 

One last thought – don’t expect every day to be perfect, amazing and wonderful. Shit happens. Negatives are a part of life. 

But if your day to day focus is on cultivating good, positive, fun and light-heartedness, you’ll be more resilient and better equipped with the inevitable curveballs in business and life. 

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#227 90-Day Business Planning

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90-Day Business Planning

Are you struggling to get organised and stay focused in business, procrastinating, or simply feeling a bit stale? Developing a 90-day Plan is the secret to staying on track, fired up and productive. In Episode 5 of this podcast I helped you create a foolproof 30-day plan. Today, I’ll reveal how I do one of the bigger picture steps, and how this helps me get more done, more effectively and efficiently.

Why a 90 Day Plan? 

You might be wondering why a 90-day plan matters, and why not just a one month, or one year, or five-year plan? Or do you even need to make all these plans? 

In this episode, we’ll cover:
* Why a 90 Day Plan?
* My 3-step, 90-day Planning Framework
* 30-Day Plan

I consider myself to be a good planner, but for a long time, I planned mostly for other people and less for myself. 

While I was getting some good results in my business and life, I found that by planning, my productivity, efficiency and effectiveness went to a whole other level. 

I went from dithering around checking emails and wondering which task to start, getting scrambled and switching from task to task, to a very focused workday with clarity, clear focus and execution through the use of planning. 

As a result, I was able to 10x my output, smash procrastination, create consistent revenue and achieve my goals more easily. 

Saying this aloud sounds like a sell job – but I’m not selling anything except the benefits of good planning.  

The 90-day plan is a subset of your bigger plans, like your 5-year, 3-year and 1-year plans.  

The reason you create 90-day plans each quarter is so that you are super clear on what you are aiming for in the next little while, and all of the steps required to execute and achieve those outcomes. 

But the REAL value of a 90-day plan is that you get to map out the medium sized steps so that you can schedule enough time for the smaller steps within. 

Think of it this way. You start with your vision, which is the outcomes you want to achieve. That sounds easy at the big picture. But as you drill further down into the individual actions that you need to take to get there, you end up going from a simple vision statement into a long to-do list. 

In other words, if you work backwards from an outcome, the planning tends to become more and more detailed as you get closer to the current date, and the number of tasks tends to balloon out into a huge list. 

That’s why I think it’s good to keep your bigger picture goals and your 90-day planning very simple and focused, so that the weekly to-do list you’ll use to get there is achievable, not overwhelming, and very clear and possible. 

My 3-Step, 90-day Planning Framework 

Step 1 – Map Out One Year 

Every financial year, create a 1-year plan. For each quarter in that year, establish one key outcome that is a milestone towards your longer-term vision.   

These higher-level plans should be simple, less detailed, and focus on one key thing. This is the secret to your success because doing it this way feels less onerous. What I mean is, that it gives you a feeling of flexibility to make changes during the year as needed. 

Also, rather than bogging yourself down with 1000 things to do and feeling overwhelmed, you feel 100% in control and organised if you just add the right amount of detail to the next 90 days ahead. 

What I’ve noticed is that when people write super detailed 1 – 3 year plans with specific actions for every month, they feel like they can’t change it, or it feels to overwhelming, and they give up. I have never seen anyone succeed this way. 

For example, my overall purpose is to bring the impact of coaching – and especially the skills of critical thinking and self-responsibility – to the world. 

As part of my bigger 5-year plan, my one-year goal for this financial year is to establish a certain % of leverage in my business, so that I can work fewer hours, work more effectively, maintain my income and help many more people to become empowered and take charge of their health. 

I have then mapped out one key milestone for each quarter, that will be broken down further in my 90-day plan. 

See how simple that is? 

Here’s what that might look like. 

Your one-year outcome goal might be to secure three corporate clients who buy a package of health and wellness coaching programs or services for their organisation. 

Let’s break that down into a single outcome for each of the four quarters. And let’s assume you are starting from scratch in your business, with a few existing relationships in the corporate space. 

In the first quarter of the year, your outcome goal might be to complete the research required to develop the framework of your offerings and develop the framework.  

In the second quarter of the year, your outcome goal might be to develop your sales strategy, and content for your corporate wellbeing strategy and program, and you’d be getting opinions from people in your target market along the way (co-creating) to make sure it’s what the market wants and sees as valuable. 

In the third quarter of the year, your outcome goal might be to develop a marketing campaign based on core strategies and tactics, then, to start implementing the campaign. 

In the fourth quarter of the year, your outcome goal might be to convert prospects to leads and leads to sales according to the sales strategy and tactics you outlined in your campaign.  

In this example, and assuming you were starting from scratch and had some people in your network, if you were to focus on these four outcomes in this sequence, then you have done what is required to secure three paying clients. 

This is just an example, but hopefully it gives you an idea of how to map out the steps. Best of all, you have only laid out a high-level outcome for each quarter, so you have plenty of flexibility to change things if your circumstances change. 

Step 2 – Map Out the Next 90 Days 

Just before the start of each quarter, create your plan for the next 90 days.  

Start by defining the outcome for that quarter. If you’ve completed the one-year planning step I just mentioned, then your outcome for Q1 could be copied straight across from that 1-year plan. 

Write that outcome at the top of your page. 

Now, break it down into an outcome for each month. 

Let’s use the example we just discussed. Let’s say that your 90-day outcome goal is to complete the research required to develop the framework of your offerings, and then develop the framework based on your research. 

You’ll start by creating an outcome goal for each month. These are high-level outcomes that describe what you need to achieve each month in the quarter to reach the 90-day outcome. 

  • Month 1 might be: Complete 20 hours of research 
  • Month 2 might be: Map out the core components of your corporate well-being strategy, programs and sales process based on your research. 
  • Month 3 might be: Develop the outline of your corporate well-being strategy and programs. 

From there, you break the first month down into a 30-day plan. 

30-Day Plan 

Now that you know the outcome you want to achieve for your first month of the quarter, let’s map it out in smaller steps so you can schedule them. 

We break the first month of the quarter into weeks, then describe actions to be taken in each week. You’ll notice here we are no longer talking about outcomes, but actions. Make sure you allow enough time for each action. 

In our example, we discussed the Month 1 goal of completing 20 hours of research (toward developing your corporate wellbeing strategy and program, and sales cycle).  

You might think this sounds like a no-brainer, but as you unpack this, you’ll find there’s more to the task than meets the eye. 

Ask yourself some questions like – what sort of research will I do? Where do I need to look? Who would I refer to? 

Then you’re clearer on how to allocate those times, and what the tasks are.  Here is an example of how it might play out, based on the example I’ve described already: 

Week 1 of Month 1: Schedule in your diary: 

  • 1 hour to develop a project plan where you will keep track of your research, outcomes and processes, 
  • 1 hour to identify similar competitors and write notes,  
  • 1 hour to review legislation or guidelines, and  
  • 30 minutes to list 3 people you could speak to about their experience with corporate wellbeing strategy and programs – then reach out to them to book a catch-up. 

When it comes to legislation or guidelines, some industries are regulated or work with specific codes of practice, so you’d want your program to be aligned with those. 

Week 2 of Month 2: Schedule in your diary: 

  • 3 x 1-hour meeting times with contacts you reached out to in week 1. 
  • 2 hours to reflect on and document your findings. 

Week 3 of Month 2: Schedule in your diary: 

  • 4 hours to research competitors online and make notes about their processes, promised outcomes, fees, where they promote online, their target audience, types of messages they use, which posts/messages are getting the most engagement 
  • 1 hour to speak to governing bodies on the phone about their codes of practice and any new legislation. 

Week 4 of Month 2: Schedule in your diary: 

  • 1 hour to review your brand guidelines and business position 
  • 2 hours to map out a draft corporate well-being strategy 
  • 2.5 hours to map out your corporate well-being program or programs 
  • 1 hour to map out the sales strategy you will use. 

As you can see, we’ve fleshed out all the tasks within the 1-month goal across 20 hours and created scheduled, bite-sized steps that will lead to the achievement of that goal. 

Now you have an actionable schedule of tasks to work through to achieve the goal. If anything comes up that changes the trajectory, you can easily rework your schedule and the tasks. 

For example, the tasks you complete in week 1 might identify that some of the week 2 tasks are not relevant and need to change, or are redundant. Great! Simply review your outcome goal for the month, and if necessary, change it and/or rework the remaining weeks’ goals. 

Summary 

Today we walked through my simple process of 90-day planning to help you achieve business goals.  

When people make complex, detailed, long term plans, they get attached to following them even if things change. That’s why in my method, I intentionally keep it simple and focused on outcomes except for the first month, where you get specific on actions. Doing it this way saves planning time and allows for adjustments to be made.  

Need help with 90-day planning? Hit me up on my contact page – I can offer a one-off session to help you solve this and get on with your quarter!

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#226 Building Your Coaching Business: Burnout in Health Professionals with Dimitra Mersinia

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Building Your Coaching Business: Burnout in Health Professionals with Dimitra Mersinia

How does someone with an economics degree become a dentist, and then a health and wellness coach for health professionals in midlife who are dealing with stress and burnout? This interview with coach Dimitra Mersinia presents a case study that describes this transition.

In this interview, Demi talks through her professional evolution: a landmark event that forged her direction, the path to getting there, and building her future with a pivot to health and wellness coaching, based in curiosity, compassion and empathy for others in her profession based in lived experience.

In this episode, we’ll cover:
* Dimitria’s Pre-Coaching Background
* From Dentist to Health and Wellness Coach
* How Demi Started a Burnout Coaching Business

Background

As a clinician for over 25 years, Dimitra combines coaching, mentoring and consulting as a personal health and wellbeing strategist and results coach.

Her varied skillset has been built on extensive experience in corporates, in the medical, dental and neuroscience fields. She has worked in the European Union on regional policies of Europe, in US multinationals, as a humble neuroscientist in a lab in London, travelled with the MSF (1) as a junior medic, and worked in public and private sectors as a dental surgeon in the areas of pain management and special care in 3 countries.

This experience gained together with coaching certifications (2), and with the insatiable attitude for continuous learning and developing, has equipped her to work as a personal coach and healthy life strategist for re-igniting a healthy mindset and getting results in any area of life.

As a diagnostician, she helps find the real problem behind a presenting problem, demystify and simplify confusing health information and takes her clients through precise health and lifestyle medicine in her private practice in Sydney.

As the founder and CEO of “M.i.n.d Your Health”, she has set up a safe ‘hub’ for distressed health care professionals, supporting them out of burnout.

As a volunteer in different organisations (3), she is supporting teenagers make sense of the new world, expats with relocation stresses and culture shock and asylum seekers.

She believes Health is your Wealth and having a healthy mind and body, unlocks your potential to optimise performance in any area of your life and business.

 

(1) (medecin sans frontier/doctors without borders)

(2) (with Authentic Education, ICF, Tony Robbins Leadership academy, Mental Health First Aid and Health & Wellness Coaching Australia)

(3) (raise.org, Roses in the Ocean, the Red Cross)

Summary

Demi Mersinia is an inspiring example of how you can build a health coaching business with empathy, curiosity and compassion. She has drawn on her personal and professional strengths to create a business in her own unique way.

If you would like information about the next intake of my Passion to Profit course, or to enrol, follow this link: https://www.wellnesscoachingaustralia.com.au/business-resources/passion-to-profit/ You can connect with Demi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dimitra-mersinia-97104944/

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#224 Celebrating Success; Christmas Boundaries

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Celebrating Success; Christmas Boundaries

Today I’d like to congratulate you on a wonderful year and remind you of how you succeeded. I’ll also talk about how to set Christmas Boundaries in your business so you can get adequate rest and recovery, so you’re ready to charge again in 2023.

Congratulations on Your Success!

I just want to say congratulations on all of the hard work that you’ve put in this year, no matter what sorts of results you have achieved. The reason I say it this way is because that by doing the work and following the process is you get results in your life.

In this episode, we’ll cover
* How to Celebrate Success in Your Business
* Setting Christmas Boundarie

So if you have persisted and followed those processes, it means that you’ve made an effort on behalf of yourself to do something that is important to you – and to me that is worthy of congratulations.

Next I want to say that no matter what results you got this year, I want to applaud you on your successes and failures.

The successes that you achieved show what you’re capable of. Maybe you helped one person make a significant change in their lives that affected not only their own life but the quality of life and the relationships they have with the people around them.

Even if it’s just one person, that is a significant achievement and it will have a ripple effect into the lives of so many other people.

Sometimes that one aha moment can lead to a decision that creates a cascade of events and an upward spiral that become life changing.

For example, one coach I know of made one decision just over a year ago that propelled her business into the stratosphere. If she hadn’t made that decision, she would not be the success that she is today.

Right now, I invite you to explore and recognise those single decisions that made a big difference in your life or someone else’s life this year.

I want to recognise and celebrate the failures you had this year because these are the things that make you stronger, tougher and more determined.

Your failures give you the opportunity to learn about what you’re made of

They give you the chance to show you that you can persist, to see where your blind spots are, and to learn new skills.

Failures show you that you are human.

Failures show you what your potential is. They show you that you have the opportunity to be bigger and better than you are right now. And these are some of the great things that failures can give you – they are lessons in business and life.

Here are some of the things I succeeded at:

  1. Completing the accreditation process with ICF to gain my PCC level accreditation which was a huge undertaking and I feel really great about having achieved that.
  2. Putting around 70 students through my Passion to Profit course which runs three times per year through Wellness Coaching Australia. Some of those were in the planning stage and will launch next year. Some have gone on to start viable businesses which I’m really excited about, and a couple have used what they learned to gain experience as a coach and subsequently get a job as a health and wellness coach.
  3. Attending and speaking at the HCANZA conference earlier this year, which was a significant milestone for our industry.
  4. Collaborating with the HCANZA board to develop an amazing and ambitious business plan for this current financial year, 2022/23 and we are really going to put health Wellness coaching on the map in Australia and NZ which is super exciting.
  5. Increasing my income this year for fewer hours doing more of the work I love.
  6. Finding new ways to bring coaching into other arenas and to innovate new service ideas which will become launched businesses in 2023 in the areas of mental health and menopause.
  7. Supporting individual business coaching clients to stay motivated, to simplify their businesses, to systemize their businesses, and to clear the space for more effective thinking and planning.
  8. Supporting my family when my dad passed in August through those difficult couple of weeks following. I was very thankful to be with my family at that time and to bring my strengths to complement theirs. My sisters had done a lot of heavy lifting during the year so I was grateful to be able to step in and help.
  9. Made some amazing new connections with some really incredible people this year and I’m excited to be collaborating with those people further next year.

Setting Christmas Boundaries

It’s so great to celebrate all that you have achieved and I hope that you have found a lot of things to be celebrating and thankful for. If you want to be able to work at that pace and to produce great work next year, then you’ll need to think about setting some boundaries for time off over Christmas so that you can refuel, recharge, and get enough rest to replenish your own energy and resources.

So how do you do that? Here are my hot tips.

  1. Contact everyone in your list and let them know when your closing dates are, thank them for being your amazing clients and wish them happy holidays.
  2. If you’re on Google Maps or social platforms, then you can set your holiday hours there as well, so people are really clear not to bother you during that period.

3 Set up an out of office auto responder for the time that you will be away from the desk will stop I recommend making a commitment to yourself not to be checking emails everyday but to be clear that you might do that once a week to tidy up but otherwise take a very good rest.

4. You can also email your current client list or any new leads and invite them to work with you next year. Let them know when you’ll be starting again and ask them to let you know what they decide do to. For example I have reached out to my existing clients and some new clients some to offer the spaces that I have available starting on a certain date, from February to June inclusive. This means that before I wrap up for the year I’ll be clear on what the start of my year looks like. I have a 3 – 6 month work horizon at any given time, partly because I’ve prepared in advance.

5. The other boundary you need to set us with yourself. It can be tempting to go to your computer or cheque your emails or do things that he wouldn’t normally do while you’re on holiday. You might like to keep a notebook so you can jot down ideas and not have to turn the computer on, you might like to keep yourself busy with activities, or you might like to schedule a couple of hours each week to do some working on the business activities or special projects.

6. I highly encourage you to go out and have fun find a hobby, or a skill you’d like to learn, either of which you can start during holidays and continue during the year. Why do I suggest this? Simply because all of the tired exhausted and burnt-out entrepreneurs I’ve met have one thing in common- they don’t have a hobby and they don’t do anything for fun. I’m suggesting you invest a bit of time in your holiday to choose that hobby and find fun things that you can keep doing to maintain resilience, work life balance, and a sense of ease and creativity at work

Thank you for being with me during the year, and for listening to my podcast, and for asking the questions that make these episodes possible. I choose to have no advertising on our podcast so that you don’t have the irritation or disruption of being sold to, and this is one way I bring value to the world and visibility to our profession.

This is how I can help you for free to build a business in life that you love, that’s built around sustainable habits that you enjoy doing and that will create the success that you want.

If you want to know more about my February intake of the Passion to Profit course so you can learn to set up your business your way, and in a sustainable way, click the link in the show notes to request a course guide.

If you’d like to inquire about working me with me one to one, you can hit up my contact page and ask about my June client intake because February fully booked – my books for 1:1 clients are closed until June.

Have a very merry and save Christmas, I hope you get a lot of time to reflect on your successes, to enjoy time with loved ones, and two feel excited and refreshed about what 2023 has to offer.

Remember that the world needs your greatness – I hope that you know that – and that you are working to realise your full potential in your business and your life.

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#222 What to Stop and Start Doing in 2023

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What to Stop and Start Doing in 2023

Do you have this nagging sense that there are things you should stop doing and things that you should start doing in your business? Does business feel like a grind at times, sapping your energy and creativity? If so, then it’s time to create your business plan for the next year to work out the kinks and start getting what you want with more ease and flow. That’s what I’m here to help you to do by sharing my 4-step process to developing a 2023 business plan. 

It’s that time of year I start to think about the year ahead and start creating some plans for my business. I figured that you would be doing that too and that you might be wondering what sorts of goals to set.   

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Presence and resonance
* The inspiration for the book: The Connoisseur of Time
* How changing your relationship with time supports better coaching and business growth
* How being present creates more satisfying relationships

Sharing my process will help you get clear on not just how to create a plan, but how to make an exciting plan to get you where you want to be. 

Step 1 – Reflect on the Past 12 months 

A good starting point is reflecting on how this year went for you and what you’d like to do more of and less of. 

When I do this process, I start by thinking about what I really loved doing this year and why I loved it, and which strengths I used. I sit with the feeling of my favourite types of work and the things that I’ve achieved and what I did to get there.  

For example, this year, I loved doing the strategic thinking work behind projects and business ideas, because that taps into my strengths of creativity, innovation, problem-solving and brainstorming. 

Next, I think about the things that drained my energy and dragged me down or that I found awful and difficult. 

For example, this year, I found it really draining to do very detailed intricate work, logistical stuff, and anything that required a lot of very deep research-based work.  

I really sat with that and thought about why I didn’t like doing that work, and it was because it created a lot of anxiety and stress. It dampened my creative thinking. Anything with too many detailed moving parts creates a sense of anxiousness that I might have forgotten something or not done something properly.  I do like some types of detailed work, but not many. 

Thirdly, I look at where I earned money and spent time. I spreadsheet this based on time documented in my calendar. Funnily enough, the work I love to do most takes the least time and earns me the most money. The work I dislike the most takes the most time and earns me the least money – probably because I have to do the grind to complete it. 

Finally, I reflect on my most important achievement of the past year. This is important because it shows you what your toil created that you are most proud of and gets you thinking about the bigger picture. If you don’t look at the bigger picture you might end up just planning another year of doing rather than thinking about your overall direction first. 

 

My greatest achievement this year was fulfilling four important professional roles, and even though the juggle was hard at times, it gave me a bigger picture view and understanding of two important knowledge areas (menopause and mental health), and of three bigger macro trends (psychosocial risk legislation, supporting and recognising women at work, and improving mental health at work). 

With this knowledge, I have a good idea of which business ideas will succeed in 2023, where the focus and money will be in the broader economy, and what my best opportunities are. Those insights allows me to set some tangible and meaningful goals that leverage these opportunities. 

When you reflect on the past year, ask yourself these questions and write some notes; 

  1. What did you love doing in the past year and why? 
  2. What drained your energy in the past year and why? 
  3. For every type of work, you were paid for, which was the best return on investment in terms of time and money? 
  4. What was the most important outcome you achieved this year? 

This should give you a good summary of your past year, what worked and what didn’t, in less than a page. 

Step 2 – What did you learn about yourself? 

When you reflect on what you learned about yourself, you can potentially see the work that you need to do and the obstacles you need to face, and the skills and strengths you can leverage. 

I learned a bunch of things about myself this year. 

Firstly, I am persistent and can work hard to get things done. 

I’ve realised that I am a sore loser – and this costs me emotionally and energetically. 

I’ve noticed I prefer to fly solo so I can create my own ideas, I tend to avoid groups, but I do enjoy collaboration if it is a bit hands off and not too intimate or intense. I’ve always known this at some level but have really experienced and felt it this year. 

My greatest strengths are creative brainstorming at a strategic business level and with clients, and summarizing, simplifying, and creating processes to get things done. When I do these things I am truly in flow. 

Finally, I can do about 10 coaching sessions or meetings a week before I start to get overwhelmed and find it hard to focus and be present. 

Having given you some examples, I now invite you to reflect on your year.  

  • How were you operating when you were at your best? 
  • What are your greatest strengths and moments of flow? 
  • In which situations do you thrive? 

Once you’re clear on steps 1 and 2, we start to consolidate. 

Step 3 – Map out your new business habits for 2023 

It’s one thing to think about what you have done and achieved and loved doing or being drained by in the last year.  

The first two steps in this process allow you to evaluate the past, so you can look ahead with clarity and map out your new business habits for 2023. 

In other words, it’s time to use your reflections define what you want to keep doing, stop doing or start doing next year.  

Some people like to start with their outcome goals first, and you can certainly do that. To me it makes more sense to find my flow in the process – then decide what I will create with that new way of working. 

I’ve learned in my first two steps that what’s important to me is to work more strategically, to simplify things, and to scale, so I can earn comfortably and remain in flow, and be at my best with the clients I work with.  This is how I will work. 

Tangibly, to define the habits I’ll stop, maintain and start, my next stage of planning is to: 

  • Knowing I dislike some types of detailed work, I will evaluate the detailed tasks I do each week and decide which ones I can delegate or stop doing. A really easy one for me is checking email once per day instead of 4 times. 
  • Knowing how I feel about being in groups, I’ll review the group work I have tentatively planned for next year and decide what I’ll commit to and how I’ll show up (this is both professionally and personally). 
  • Based on what I learned in 2022 (knowledge and market trends), I will decide which areas I want to focus on in 2023. 
  • I will rewrite my vision, mission, value proposition and elevator pitch so I’m clear on what my focus is and how I work with people  
  • I will ask my VA to update my online platforms to reflect the updated pitch 
  • To become a better loser, I will start journalling about challenging situations where I lose, or fail, to change my perspective and rewire my beliefs about those things. 
  • To manage my volume of appointments, I will change my booking calendar to allow a maximum of 12 meetings or coaching sessions per week, which should be achievable when I make the other changes I’ve decided on. 
  • To manage my volume of appointments, I will also put out an invitation to my hand-picked 1:1 clients with the terms of engagement for 2023. 

What would your next stage of planning look like? 

  • What would you decide to stop doing, or delegate? 
  • How will you choose to work – for example more networking and groups, or more 1:1, more strategic or more detailed?  
  • How might your weekly schedule change as a result, and how will you maintain those boundaries? 
  • How do these changes affect your vision and value proposition? Do they need review? 

Step 4 – Defining achievable outcomes goals for 2023 

Having completed the previous three steps, you’re ready to think about outcomes you will be able to realistically achieve with this new way of working. 

I personally feel it’s important to keep the goals simple and few, so you can do a few things really well. As Robert Kyosaki says – the word FOCUS stands for Follow One Course Until Successful. 

My outcome goals for 2023 will be achieved if I do the things previously mentioned. Here are mine.  

In my business, I will be: 

  • Working 20 hours per week, Tuesday to Thursday to earn my target income. 
  • Helping my VA to earn a comfortable living doing the tasks that I dislike, that she is good at 
  • Working collaboratively with intelligent, energized people for a common purpose 
  • Supporting 100,000 professional women to thrive at work through appropriate education, coaching, allied health services and resources 

In the area of coach training and advocacy for our industry, I will be:  

  • Teaching 2,000 health and wellness coaches to create sustainable businesses that they love, in their unique way, leveraging the coaching methodology 
  • Advocating (through HCANZA) for appropriate standards, definitions and consistency in our industry, and promoting the benefits and quality of what we do as professionals 

In my personal life, I will be: 

  • Tackling one hard thing each quarter, focusing on a consistent practice in a creative pursuit, and reframing my negative thoughts 
  • Exercising daily in nature to give my brain a break and recharge 
  • Completing 20 hours of personal or professional development (including working with my own coach) each quarter. 

This is my plan, now over to you. 

What are the outcomes you want to achieve next year in your business? 

What are the impacts you want to have in the world? 

What will you do in your personal life to grow and evolve, show up better and function at your best? 

I look forward to seeing what you create, with intention and purpose, in 2023. 

Summary 

If business feels like a grind at times, and you have that nagging sense that things need to change, you now have a four-step process to start getting what you want with more ease and flow. The steps to follow are: 

  1. Reflect on the highlights and lowlights of the past 12 months 
  2. Reflect on what you’ve learned about yourself 
  3. Map out your ‘business habits’ for 2023 – what you’ll stop doing, maintain and start doing 
  4. Define your achievable outcome goals 

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#220 Rebecca Taylor – Coaching Compassion Fatigue

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Rebecca Taylor – Coaching Compassion Fatigue

Are you curious about what compassion fatigue is, the signs of compassion fatigue, and how to coach around compassion fatigue?

We answer these questions in today’s interview with Rebecca Taylor of Exploring Wellness with Coach Bec. Bec is a vet nurse with 13 years’ experience in vet clinics and animal shelters, and a recent graduate of Wellness Coaching Australia.

In this episode, we’ll cover 
* What is compassion fatigue?
* What are the signs of compassion fatigue?
* Compassion fatigue vs burnout – what’s the difference?
* How are you getting traction as a coach?

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#219 Becoming a Confident Coach

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Becoming a Confident Coach

Despite extensive training, a lot of professionals talk about having impostor syndrome and fear of not being good enough. But what do you do about that? How do you flip that on its’ head and tackle impostor syndrome so that you can become a confident coach?

Why you need to be enough

Impostor syndrome is rife in many professions – I know, because I’ve been through it, and I’ve spoken to a lot of people who struggle with it.

Today I want to talk to you about WHY you need to be enough and stop impostor syndroming yourself.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Why you need to be enough
* What a digital legacy strategy is
* Four steps to creating your Digital Legacy Strategy

I think the key reason that you need to feel that you are enough, good enough, worthy, and competent, is that then you can switch your focus off your own shortcomings and onto your clients.

Let’s face it, if you’re worried about your own performance, then you’re not giving all of your attention to the people you are purporting to help and support.

I think this is SO critical. This was a realisation I had when I started coaching. I was so busy worrying about what to do, whether my questions were good enough, whether they got something out of the session, whether they were engaged and so on, that it was taking up a LOT of real estate in my head.

I was feeling anxious and would be nervous going into each session.

THEN one day I reflected on how my feelings and energy would be seen and felt by the people I was coaching. What would they say?

By worrying about my performance, I was creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. I was creating tension where there wasn’t really any.

But most importantly, I realised this behaviour was about me spending too much time thinking about ME and my shortcomings, rather than my client.

This aha moment flicked the switch for me and allowed me to totally change the way I showed up, coached and the impact of my coaching. It was amazing.

Here are some benefits and outcomes of dealing with your impostor syndrome.

Giving your best to clients

Firstly, when you invest in overcoming your impostor syndrome you become more confident as a person and as a coach. You feel good about what you do and your ability to give value. That means that you invest more time thinking about the people that you’re helping, rather than your own

shortcomings. It means that you are flipping the switch from a focus on you into a focus on your clients.

Imagine how that changes their experience of working with you. Imagine how that changes their relationship with you in a coaching sense. And imagine how that therefore impact their results that they get from the coaching relationship.

Secondly, if you deal with impostor syndrome and start believing that you can do this, that you are good enough, you be willing to invest enough in your own personal and professional development – because you know that it is worth it for your clients, and that you are worth it. The ripple effect is more advanced skills that will make you a better coach, giving your clients better outcomes.

I think it’s really important when you’re starting any new career to know that you are not going to get it right all the time – ever. It’s important to manage your own expectations and to know that you will do things wrong and get things messed up along the way. And that’s totally okay.

What’s more important is your commitment to investing in your own self-belief, personal development and professional development so that you can deal with those mistakes more easily, with grace and candour.

So how do you get there? How do you beat it and become the best coach you can be, so that you can help people create their desired outcomes and impact the lives of more people?

How do you beat impostor syndrome?

Personal Development

Start by working with your own coach. That way, you will improve your own thoughts habits, well-being and sense of purpose, so that you can be a role model for your clients. Being a strong role model promotes self-confidence.

A reflective practice is also a must for all graduate coaches. After each coaching session, reflect on what went well, how you used your strengths, the verbal and nonverbal feedback from clients, and any areas for work. Write it down. Then, set specific goals to polish up any areas. One thing I like to do is focus on a particular coaching skill for all clients within a given month, so I can build and hone my craft.

Ask for feedback and testimonials from your clients. Their feedback is really valuable as it tells you what they liked and didn’t like. Make sure to ask how things have changed for them – not just an assessment of your skills (remember, it’s about them, not you).

Start hanging around more experienced coaches and having conversations and unpacking challenges so that you can more easily develop the habits and language of a masterful coach.

Professional Development

You can also do deep-dive training courses into specialty areas and practice those with your clients to become a better coach. For example, mental health first aid training if you are working with clients who have stress, anxiety and so on.

There is a caveat on that. A lot of people see education as a tick box thing and they get really interested and they do more and more and more courses but without actually applying the learnings. And I think impostor syndrome comes from this too.

I know some incredibly smart people who have numerous qualifications, who are full of self-doubt because they haven’t actually used their knowledge and practised with clients and seen the sorts of results that can

If you complete a lot of educational courses but you never apply it, then you become potentially a very good teacher but maybe not good at the practice that you have studied.

I recommend that you invest in practising new skills with clients. Ask permission to try new methods if you know them well, or find practice clients to test new skills and education with.

Always, always, do market research – keep asking your clients what they need and want – keep learning about other people and their lives and how you can help them – that’s where you can overcome your own self-limiting beliefs, shift the value to what your clients want, and find ways to give it to them.

Summary

Today we talked about why you need to beat impostor syndrome and start stepping up to be a more masterful coach.

In short – if you’re focussing on yourself, you can’t focus properly or be present for your clients.

Flip the switch by investing time, energy and money as needed into personal development and professional development.

When you do this, you’ll feel more confident, and be able to truly serve your clients in a more authentic, impactful way – because your work will truly be about them.

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#216 Why and How to do a Coffee Detox

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Why and How to do a Coffee Detox

Are you struggling with energy rollercoasters, anxiety or poor sleep? A coffee detox might be part of the solution. It may be a helpful way to give your nervous system a break and feel calmer. Going cold turkey on caffeine can be hard, so this episode outlines how to do a coffee detox so that you can go through the process with ease.

In my investigation of nervous system health and calming down, I’ve decided to do a coffee detox.

This isn’t one of those fad things – I’ve had a few important realisations and am doing as an experiment to see if it can help me to unwind anxiety, feel calmer, and improve my sleep quality

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Recommended caffeine intakes
* How do you respond to caffeine
* Do you need a coffee break?
* My Coffee Detox Plan

Part of this is working out whether I’m consuming too much caffeine for my body weight, and whether removing coffee all together has a bigger impact on my symptoms.

So today let’s look at recommended caffeine intakes, who may be susceptible to the negative impacts of caffeine, and then, how I’m doing a coffee detox.

Recommended Caffeine Intakes Food Standards ANZ states there is no acceptable daily intake of caffeine but mentions evidence of increased anxiety levels with caffeine consumption at about 3 mg/kg body weight per day.

This equates to:

  • About 120 mg per day in children (about 2 cans of cola)
  • About 240 mg per day in adults (about 3 cups of instant coffee).

These are based on standard body weights, so you’d need to work out your recommended intake based on your own body weight.

For example, I weigh 52kg, so, at 3 mg/kg, I can have 52 x 3 = 156 mg caffeine per day.

The challenge is partly that caffeine can come from different sources and in different amounts, so it may be hard to keep track of what you’ve consumed.

To make it a bit easier for consumers, Food Standards Code restricts caffeine in soft drinks and energy drinks and requires labelling of all sources of caffeine, including guarana, tea, coffee etc.

Soft drinks must not exceed 145 mg/kg of caffeine in the drink, whereas energy drinks must not contain more than 320 mg/L of caffeine. This is the amount in the volume of drink – you then must

convert that to what’s reasonable for your body weight. The label should state the amount of caffeine per serve.

Foods that contain caffeine include chocolate, cola drinks, sports supplements, energy drinks, kola nuts, cocoa beans, coffee beans, tea leaves (and all kinds of tea including green tea), and many weight loss supplements.

Typical amounts of caffeine in different foods are:

  • 145mg caffeine in a 50mL cup of espresso
  • 80mg caffeine in an energy drink or caffeinated beverage
  • 80mg in a cup of instant coffee
  • 58mg in a long black (100mL cup)
  • 50mg in a cup of black tea
  • 36.4mg in a can of caffeinated cola drink
  • 13mg in a cup of green tea
  • 12mg in 20g of dark chocolate with high cocoa solids
  • 10mg in a 50g bar of milk chocolate
  • 6mg in a 200mL cup of hot chocolate

So if my caffeine intake is recommended to be 156 mg per day, I can get that amount from either:

  • One espresso and 20g of dark chocolate
  • Three cups of black tea
  • A cup of instant coffee, a cup of black tea and a chocolate bar

You get the idea – it’s about quantity.

How do you respond to caffeine?

Everyone response differently to caffeine.

Some people get the jitters after one weak coffee, and some can drink 8 coffees a day and still have a solid night’s sleep. Why is that?

Well, your weight sets the scene for your recommended intake as I’ve just described.

On top of that, you might either process and get rid of caffeine quickly or more slowly than other people. On average, it takes between 3 – 12 hours to metabolise and excrete caffeine.

What you eat can affect caffeine metabolism and clearance. For example, large quantities of vitamin C and eating brassica vegetables can speed up your caffeine clearance, whereas alcohol or grapefruit consumption can decrease caffeine clearance.

Depending on your genes, you may be a fast clearer or a slow clearer, and some genotypes are less sensitive to the effects of caffeine.

I had a genetic test years ago that indicated I was a fast metaboliser, but I know that I am sensitive to caffeine because it gives me a noticeable lift and I start talking, thinking and doing fast – sometimes too fast.

More recently, my HealthType test shows I am a Sensor type, and coffee is generally recommended to be avoided, or consumed about once per month.

Do you need a coffee break?

Coffee or caffeine can certainly help you feel pepped up, but caffeine is addictive and withdrawal can have side effects including depression, low energy, shakiness, anxiety, headache, irritability, fatigue, trouble concentrating and/or constipation.

I recently discovered that going from one espresso to none triggered a terrible headache, brain fog, trouble concentrating and irritability

And having gone through burnout, having been regularly experiencing anxiety and insomnia, and more recently going into menopause, I suspect my adrenal glands have been working overtime and my nervous system has been heavily taxed.

This probably explains my night sweats and some of the other symptoms I’ve mentioned.

I decided I didn’t want coffee controlling me, and it might be worth experimenting with detox to see how I feel when I don’t regularly drink coffee or consume caffeine, especially during menopause.

Here’s my protocol for giving up coffee temporarily to see how it affects me. I will update you once I’ve done a few weeks without coffee on what has changed!

My Coffee Detox Plan

There are lots of ways to do this, but I will be starting slowly and tapering gradually down to zero so I minimise any withdrawal symptoms mentioned above.

Also, I will be making sure I reduce caffeine from other food sources at the same time. When I tried quitting coffee last time, I found myself wanting more chocolate – obviously, my body was looking for sugar and caffeine as a source of energy.

Step 1

Taper from 2 – 3 coffees per day down to one espresso daily for at least one week.

At the same time, I’m making sure I’m getting 2L of water into my diet to ensure good that my digestion and elimination is not affected.

I’ve done this step already at the time of writing.

Step 2

I have previously started mixing regular coffee with decaf in my espresso and that has worked, but this time I will swap to black and green tea and taper that way.

So my step 2 will be to have two black teas per day, and I’ll do that for up to a week depending on my symptoms (or maybe longer). I’ll start this tomorrow.

Step 3

Next, I’ll reduce to one black tea per day.

Step 4

Finally, I’ll go down to rooibos tea only.

I will stay caffeine free for 3 or 4 weeks to see what changes for me, knowing that after my body has adapted, it will take up to 3 months to be caffeine free before I see the full physiological effects of reducing caffeine.

Summary

Today we talked about the recommended caffeine intake and how caffeine may affect different people differently, especially in terms of anxiety, insomnia and other symptoms.

We covered why some people might want to reduce caffeine, and how to taper gradually and take time away from coffee and caffeine.

You can develop your own protocol for this, I’ve given mine as an example, and hopefully, this helps you to experiment and discover how coffee and caffeine affect you, and whether it’s something you want to continue using.

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#215 Reducing Anxiety with Vagus Nerve Stimulation

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Reducing Anxiety with Vagus Nerve Stimulation

If you’ve struggled with anxiety or other mental health concerns, you know how debilitating it can be. Today we’ll discuss how vagus nerve stimulation can help you to improve these conditions, and 6 ways you can do this simply and effectively at home.

If you’ve been following me, you know that I talk about anxiety and sleep from time to time as I am dealing with those things myself.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Presence and resonance
* The inspiration for the book: The Connoisseur of Time
* How changing your relationship with time supports better coaching and business growth
* How being present creates more satisfying relationships

One thing I’ve realised lately is that I regularly have a racing heart, racing thoughts, body tension and/or gut issues. A common thread for all these things is the vagus nerve.

As I explore vagus nerve stimulation as a treatment for myself, I wanted to share the idea with you and explain what it is, how it works, and how you can try it for yourself to gain a sense of physical and mental calmness.

What is the Vagus Nerve and How Does it Work?

The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the body and is one of the main components of your parasympathetic nervous system (the ‘rest and digest’ system).

The word vagus means ‘wandering’. It ‘wanders’ from your brain stem through your throat, heart, lungs and digestive tract before descending to your abdomen.

It plays a role in regulating your metabolism and neuroendocrine-immune function, and it does this by monitoring and receiving information from your major internal organs.

The vagus nerve maintains homeostasis (maintaining a stable environment) – it does this by sending and receiving information to and from the brain and vital organs.

If there’s danger, your vagus nerve will respond with a racing heart, but if you are relaxing with some good music, the vagus nerve will regulate your breathing and slow things down.

This nerve contains both sensory and motor fibres, so it deals with both sensation and movement.

It’s also a key connection in the gut-brain superhighway, explaining why diet plays an important role in mental health and immune response. It is influential in inflammation through activation of the immune system in response to stress.

In fact, 20% of the vagus nerve fibres are efferent which means sending information from the brain to the body, whereas 80% of the vagus nerve fibres are afferent, meaning that they send information from the body to the brain.

By now, you can see that the vagus nerve is a big part of our mind-body connection. It can drive calmness and balance from the brain down to cause bodily relaxation, or from the body up to create psychological ease.

The vagus nerve’s sensory and motor functions, afferent and efferent actions and mind-body links are precisely why vagus nerve stimulation can be a powerful tool in reducing anxiety.

Neuroscientist Stephen Porges developed a theory called the polyvagal theory, which argues that the stress response can be managed through the sensory, emotional and motor pathways that are controlled by the vagus nerve.

That’s where vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) comes in.

Applications of Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS)

Studies into VNS state that VNS is an approved therapy for epilepsy (with 40% of patients showing up to 50% reduction in seizures). It has also shown promising results for chronic inflammatory disorders including sepsis, lung injury, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes, to control pain in fibromyalgia and migraines.

VNS has great potential for a wider range of applications including inflammatory bowel disorders including Crohn’s disease, as well as Alzheimer’s disease and cardiovascular disease.

VNS has shown effective as a supplemental treatment for some people with treatment-resistant depression. There is evidence of its’ efficacy for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), PTSD, and panic disorder, and promise as a treatment for anxiety disorders.

Further study is required to overcome research challenges like small sample sizes, variability in study participants, test invasiveness, and the interaction of other factors.

But based on what I’ve just described, it’s clear that VNS can be a powerful tool for a wide variety of health concerns related to the nervous system, major organs, or both.

6 Ways to Use Vagus Nerve Stimulation at Home

Having explored the application and potential power of VNS, let’s just say it won’t work for everyone, but it may help you to feel calmer, more peaceful, and lower inflammation.

The 6 ways to use VNS at home include methods that stimulate organs and muscles which are innervated by the vagus nerve – lungs, heart, vocal cords, gut and so on – so that those signals can be sent back to the brain to let it know that all is ok, you can calm down.

1. Take long, deep breaths

The 4-7-8 breathing pattern is a good example, where exhalations (8-count) are twice as long as inhalations (4-count) (the 7 is a pause in the middle).

This breathing pattern, through the nose 5 – 10 times, can slow your heart rate and send messages back to the brain to calm down.

2. Cold water on your face

Cold water on the face stimulates the vagus nerve and this may be useful for slowing or regulating a racing heart and reducing pain receptor sensitivity.

3. Singing loudly, humming, or laughing

Stimulating the vocal cords can stimulate the vagus nerve to create calmness and well-being.

4. Coughing or gargling

Coughing or gargling can stimulate the vocal cords much like singing, humming or laughing.

5. Dancing

Dancing affects the neural pathways linked to posture and balance and can communicate a sense of calmness and well-being back to the brain.

6. Yoga and/or meditation

Yoga and/or meditation involve breathwork and physical positioning that can create calmness partly due to VNS.

It would also be reasonable to suggest that exercise and healthy food stimulate the VNS through both motor and sensory pathways.

There are a couple of ways to use these techniques to help you calm your nervous system and potentially reduce anxiety.

Firstly, develop a regular practice of one or two of these activities, so that you are doing them a few times per week and habituating the calming response in your body.

Secondly, learn to recognise stress in your body and then respond by using one of these activities in the moment (rather than what you are currently doing).

For example, if I check in with myself and notice my heart is racing, I might use deep breathing for a minute to calm it down.

Or, if I feel anxious about something, I might start humming to myself instead of reaching for a square of chocolate.

To help you experiment with what works and habituate those techniques, you might like to work with a coach, or at least start writing down your plans and intentions so that you remember to take these actions regularly and stay accountable to yourself.

Summary

Today we discussed some of the research into vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), a key part of your nervous system that promotes homeostasis of metabolism, neuroendocrine function and immune function.

VNS shows promise for the treatment of various neurological and mental health concerns. There are six ways you can practice VNS in the privacy of your own home to help you calm down the nervous system and reduce the uncomfortable symptoms of anxiety, panic or stress.

These include long deep breaths (with longer exhales), splashing your face with cold water, singing or humming or laughing, coughing or gargling, dancing, or meditating.

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#214 Six ways to boost your professional credibility

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Six ways to boost your professional credibility

Are you finding it difficult to gain credibility with other health professionals? Are they confused about what you do, or facing lots of questions about your qualifications? Today I’ll outline six ways you can boost your professional credibility so that people understand what you do and have trust and confidence in your qualification, training, skill set and capabilities.

I wanted to create this episode today because I’ve had two conversations recently that really got me fired up.

In one conversation, a recent graduate who is out marketing her services said she’d been constantly questioned by professionals about her qualifications – not by potential clients – but by health professionals.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* What professional credibility mean
* Why people question your qualification
* Six ways to boost your professional credibilit

In the other conversation, a seasoned coach is starting a degree, following what I would call professional bullying – being told by a health professional that she isn’t qualified enough to have enough expertise in wellness, and needs to do higher education.

After I got up from pounding my fists on the floor, I decided to develop this episode to help you to understand why these sorts of things happen, and what you can do about it.

What professional credibility means

To set the scene, let’s define professional credibility.

It can be simply defined as your education, experience, performance and demonstrated professional development in a particular field.

This definition gives some clues about what it takes to be a credible professional that is trusted and respected. Let’s dig a bit deeper.

Why people question your qualifications and professional credibility

According to an article in the Organisational Behaviour in Health Care book series, “…professional credibility is a source of legitimacy.” The chapter says that when professional credibility is combined with leadership, you can create respect and trust by peers, and engagement with followers.

So, when people question your qualifications or professionalism, they are looking for evidence that you’re trustworthy, capable, and skilled.

In a healthcare setting, it’s understandable that people might question anyone’s professional credibility because you may be dealing with people in health critical or life critical situations, complex medical or psychological conditions, and other professionals with significant experience in patient care and medical systems.

Somebody showing up with a coaching qualification may not fit into their paradigm.

In Australia, Health and Wellness Coaching is a relatively young profession and people don’t understand what it is or how it fits with existing medical frameworks, or within health professions.

Part of the challenge is the range of untrained and inexperienced people giving themselves coaching-related titles and offering services that are clearly not coaching-related.

Another part of the challenge is the diversity of coaching professions around – you can be a life coach, a wellness coach, a health and wellness coach, a health coach, an executive coach….and so on. What’s the difference? Which is the appropriate setting for each one?

I’ll address these three issues in a moment.

But to finish up this section of today’s topic, I wanted to say that there is something of a turf war going on in Australia. I have heard of this first-hand from a psychologist a few years ago, who told me that psychologists, psychotherapists and counsellors are fighting about who is credentialled enough for what.

Let me ease your mind a bit by saying that professional skills are important, our profession definitely needs some good promotion and PR, and our scope of practice needs to be clear, but please also know that human ego and professional bullying exist and is potentially always going to be there, no matter how well known, recognised and accepted our profession is.

In fact, the reason I left my previous career as a biological scientist is that I was sick of all the egotism, barrow-pushing and bullying that was going on in my industry back then. I wasn’t personally affected but I was disheartened by the behaviour, generally.

That said, there are things going on that you can do to move past the questions and to gain the credibility and respect you deserve.

Six ways to boost your professional credibility

Let’s look at 6 ways you can start boosting your professional credibility.

HCANZA – Look for the Logo

If you’re a regular listener of this podcast, you might remember an episode I did in May 2022 called How to boost your professional credibility. This episode was about showcasing the health coaching profession at the inaugural conference of our industry association, Health Coaches Australia and New Zealand Association (HCANZA), and how attending could give you ideas on how to communicate what health coaches do, and what our profession is achieving.

As a current board member of HCANZA, I can say that HCANZA is working hard in the advocacy of our profession at the highest levels of government, insurance and medical sector in Australia and New Zealand. HCANZA serves multiple purposes, including building the knowledge, understanding and reputation of health coaching in Australia and New Zealand. We are running a Look for the Logo campaign that educates the public and health professionals on how to choose an appropriately qualified health and wellness coach.

If you are a member of HCANZA, then you have access to resources to help you also advocate for our profession, and to promote yourself in a professional way. Hot off the press, HCANZA members now have access to a 25-page booklet called The Doctors Guide to Health Coaching, authored by Sandra Sheinbaum from the Institute of Functional Medicine and provided to HCANZA members for the purpose of awareness-building, advocacy and promotion of our profession.

If you’re a current member, this would have been sent to you by email and it’s available in the member toolkit. The document has been sent to 2,000 doctors in this past week.

Professional branding

Whether we like it or not, first impressions count.

That means that any imagery, documents, flyers, email footers, social media pages, websites etc that you have need to look professional.

Professional branding can cost as little as $200 or up to $15,000 but before you leap in, you need to work out your target market and ideal customer and get to know them intimately.

Why? Because your branding colours and styles need to appeal to your specific demographic, psychographic and desired feelings.

Before tackling branding formally, when you are getting started, at least develop a professional-looking email signature and a formal LinkedIn profile with a professional headshot and a well-written bio on it.

Mentioning your qualifications, training and HCANZA membership is valuable for your professional standing and to raise awareness of our industry association.

Your main goal initially is to have consistent visuals and messaging across any promotional material. If you start with LinkedIn and an email footer, and any other online presence, they should all look similar, use the same fonts, and have the same feel about them. If you are an HCANZA Professional member, log into your account and look inside your member toolkit for tips on creating a professional bio, getting noticed on LinkedIn, where to use your HCANZA logo, and crafting an elevator pitch (who you work with and the general area – e.g. I help professional women in their 40’s who are struggling with menopause). We also have an HCANZA-badged brochure that talks about the benefits of working with an HCANZA-accredited coach.

A clear value proposition

When you can clearly and confidently describe who you work with (elevator pitch) and how you help your niche (value proposition), it lends credibility and professionalism – and legitimacy.

A value proposition describes the tangible results someone will get from using your products or services. I did an episode unpacking how to do this recently using a tool called a Brand Ladder, which you can listen to, here.

A value proposition might be longer than an elevator pitch and speak more specifically to the tangible results. For example, compared to the elevator pitch I just mentioned, a related value proposition might be something like this:

“I use an evidence-based methodology to help menopausal women to become aware of what impacts their menopausal symptoms, and to develop health-giving routines to help them reduce their symptoms naturally and feel healthy, productive, energized and calm”.

When you can clearly explain how you help people, they see the value in working with you.

It’s clear that you know what you’re talking about, and that you are confident in what you do and how it helps people.

Endorsement

Personal or professional endorsements are great ways to build credibility. If someone else likes and trusts you, and if you have proven success, this builds your legitimacy as a coach.

Endorsement can take on various forms, such as:

  • Being an HCANZA Professional member and listed on their website
  • Client testimonials (on your website or social media platform – or a widget like TrustPilot)
  • Client case studies
  • Professional recommendations (LinkedIn is a great example)
  • Media references
  • Employer references
  • Corporate or business client case studies

Even as a new coach, you can cover at least some of these.

Professional networking

While networking itself isn’t necessarily credibility building, the act of consistently showing up in professional networking spaces creates visibility and recognition and helps you to build relationships with like-minded people who can become your allies and advocates.

For example, when I started my weight loss coaching business, I made an effort to send introductory letters to prominent health professionals in my area and meet several of them for coffee afterwards.

I also attended various events and presentations in my local area such as Medicare presentations, health expos and health practitioner lunches, where I could leverage those initial contacts and become known in the area.

Also, I started my business by running a pilot program that involved my clients seeing their doctors or health professionals for a health clearance before starting. This gave those professionals firsthand experience in the success of my coaching program, and therefore professional endorsement and recognition.

In the end, GPs and podiatrists, chiropractors and diabetes educators were referring people to me for weight loss, having seen improvement in my clients’ weight, BMI, blood pressure, insulin, etc.

You can do this in your local area (four or five surrounding suburbs) or the nearest health hub.

Publishing and speaking

Finally, being published in online articles, interviewed on the radio or podcasts, and published in print newspapers or magazines, all give you visibility and credibility.

After all, nobody will publish you or interview you if you’re not credible.

While this is a marketing activity, it also gives you a chance to be seen, heard and known by different audiences, so they can validly assess (in their own minds) how professional you are.

Summary

Today we talked about the challenges we face in being recognised as credible professionals. The truth is, no matter how experienced and qualified you are, someone will always take a shot at you or doubt your credentials.

That aside, there are six things you can do to boost your professional credibility right now:

  • being an HCANZA member
  • ensure you have professional branding
  • develop a clear value proposition
  • gain endorsements
  • professional networking
  • publishing and speaking

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#211 How to Succeed by Showing Up

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How to Succeed by Showing Up

Are you struggling to find enough clients, do a good enough job, or achieve your goals, and wondering how to make it happen? Let’s look at why showing up is the key to your success.

What is showing up?

Showing up refers to your ability to do things consistently and to be accountable to yourself for that. It’s a simple as that, but it’s also essential for achieving any outcome goals you have

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* What is showing up?
* What does showing up create?
* How do you commit to showing up?

Losing weight.

Launching a successful business.

Attracting clients.

Completing a qualification.

It doesn’t matter what you are trying to achieve – it’s the same principle. Showing up is required for success, and it means that you are committed, disciplined, and consistent with your efforts no matter what, which makes the results possible.

A lot of people I meet come to me for coaching because they are getting half-baked results or no results. A lot of the time it’s about not showing up for yourself consistently.

A lot of things happen if you don’t show up.

For example, in marketing one of the keys to becoming visible and known is that you show up regularly and keep your promises to yourself and your audience. It might take 6 to 12 months before somebody even knows that you exist, so you need to be putting yourself out there consistently and regularly in the same places over a long enough period of time that people can start to see you and get to know you, let alone want to buy something from you.

A lot of coaches I meet try something here and there for a month and then give up saying that nobody is interested. Not long enough! And likely, not consistent enough.

The same goes for eating and exercise for example. If you want to be athletic, lose 5 kg of body fat, gain 3 kg of muscle, run a marathon or consistently follow a Mediterranean diet, then you need to show up for yourself and exercise, eat well or train several times per week and every week consistently for a period of time – usually at least 3 months.

It’s great to start with planning to do something, but that is the easy bit. You feel excited at the prospect of achieving the result. You feel satisfied that you’ve mapped out all of the steps appropriately. You feel like you are ready to go.

But the reality is, as you start to implement your plan life is going to throw you curveballs. That’s a definite – and showing up requires you to figure out how to keep showing up for yourself, for others, or both.

I know for myself, for example, at least two or three nights a week I sleep poorly at the moment. And while it might be tempting for me to take a day off the next day, I have responsibilities and things that are important for me to do so I dig deep, and I show up. I make myself get up on time, shower, get dressed in colourful clothing, eat something nutritious, and prepare myself mentally for the meetings and tasks ahead. Obviously, there are exceptions, like if I am really sick, but otherwise, I just get over the mind games and move forward.

ALL of us have obstacles in life that prevent us from showing up and that is why working with a coach to be so helpful because it’s about learning how to navigate, troubleshoot, and problem-solve those obstacles so that you can be consistent and get the results you want.

Why is it sometimes hard to show up? Simply, because our brains work against us. Our brains are wired to seek pleasure, avoid pain and expend as little effort as possible. This is why we tell ourselves all the lies and excuses that stop us from taking action!

But if we work with our brains, we develop better habits that help us to show up and create results.

What does showing up create?

So, what happens if you do manage your brain better and show up consistently?

Well, let’s look at some real-life examples.

I have been running this podcast every week for over two years. I have committed to consistently publishing episodes every week no matter what. For example, my father just passed away a couple of weeks ago, and knowing that he was unwell I recorded a couple of episodes in advance so that I could keep showing up.

Some days I don’t feel like recording a podcast but I do it anyway because I am committed to this activity.

People ask, where do I get the motivation? Well, I have learned to embrace this process because it builds my audience over time with more and more people listening to this podcast. I don’t want to let them down by not showing up. If I don’t do an episode or two, or if I’m late, people will get the impression that I’m unreliable and untrustworthy – definitely not helpful! Therefore, I have strategies in place to make sure that I show up every week no matter what.

Actually, weight loss is a really good example of what’s required for showing up. In my experience of coaching people around weight loss, it often takes several weeks before they start to see the impact of the habit they have changed. In the meantime, they may get sick, lose motivation, feel overwhelmed with stressors or feel tired as their body changes. But by committing to themselves they can overcome those challenges and still show up for themselves in order to achieve the result that they want.

The interesting thing is that it’s actually not so much about the result because that is a one-off thing. Showing up is actually about embracing the process and developing the habits that will make you a success.

Those habits become who you are, your new identity, and a new way of living.

In the weight loss example, people talk about losing weight and then gaining it again. It just means that they stop showing up for themselves and go back into their old habits which no longer serve them.

In another example, I think about myself as a business owner running my signature weight loss program in my local area for 3 1/2 years.

It didn’t matter how tired I was, or down, or what the weather was like, I showed up consistently for those groups of clients and got myself into a positive mindset to foster an exceptional experience for those clients and hold the space for them so that they could achieve their goals.

Sometimes I definitely didn’t feel like running those group sessions, but I had strategies in place to make sure that my clients got incredible value from those sessions and from working with me. After all, it was the results they got and the way they felt in those sessions that created multiple referrals and sold-out programs every time.

What do you think would’ve happened if I cancelled sessions because I didn’t feel like going, or if I showed up half-hearted and listless?

Showing up – or not – creates your results.

How do you commit to showing up?

So how do you commit to showing up for yourself and for other people?

It’s really all about managing your mindset, your energy, your motivation, and maintaining your level of commitment to yourself and or other people.

If you want to show up for yourself or others consistently, the first thing you must do is to define a really good reason why you want to do a particular thing. In my example of podcasting, this is tied in with my ability to have an impact on the lives of other people and to help people to bring their greatness to the world. This is a huge part of my purpose, so if I don’t do this podcast consistently, I might lose my audience, and that might mean that I don’t get to fulfil my purpose.

The nutshell is that having a big why or lots of whys is really important for committing to something.

The second thing is that you have to be doing something that is truly meaningful and important to you. If you are trying to do something that you think you should be doing but don’t really want to do and then it’s going to be hard to stick to. This ties into your why, but is slightly different.

For example, reaching my audience is important to me, but my actions for getting there must be meaningful and aligned. When I tried to run a Facebook group over about a 14-month period, I struggled because I absolutely hated being on Facebook and so I wasn’t able to make myself be consistent and show up for that and I learnt a really important lesson by failing at that. I realise that I was doing something that I thought I should be doing but didn’t really suit me or feel right and it didn’t suit my audience either.

So, choosing activities and goals with importance and meaning is an essential part of showing up.

The third thing is that if you want to be able to show up for yourself or others consistently, choose habits or activities that play to your strengths, or find ways to use your strengths to complete those activities. It’s much easier to be consistent when you are doing something that you are good at or have the potential to develop skills in.

The fourth thing and this is probably a really important one, is that you just have to stop overthinking things. It’s really easy if you’re tired or stressed to want to give up on yourself and to tell yourself stories about why you can’t do something. That’s just your brain trying not to make the effort.

If you think about it, it’s actually the discomfort of doing something under adversity that helps you to come out stronger and with a greater sense of self-belief. If you give in every time and don’t be consistent, then you are just proving to yourself that you can’t. If you grit your teeth and get

through something challenging, you gain a sense of pride, efficacy and a glimmer of hope that you can do it again. This gives your untrusting brain the proof it needs to believe you can succeed.

It’s way better to find some strategies and cues and just make yourself do something and get across the line to prove to yourself that you can because that will create momentum and an upward spiral.

My best strategy to overcome mental hurdles is talking myself into doing the activity and outlining all the reasons it’s important.

The fifth thing is that planning is really important in terms of being able to show up for yourself. Imagine if I was trying to record a podcast every week but didn’t have any sort of activity put into my calendar. I’d probably forget will be trying to squeeze it in around other appointments or double-booking myself and then it wouldn’t get done. Planning means you are intentionally making space – a dedicated time slot every week – to record an episode, doing the gym workout, or posting on LinkedIn – whatever it is you want to commit to.

Planning offers you more than just the ability to complete the task. By making space for what matters to you, it prompts you to clear out the low return tasks so that you don’t waste time and become more efficient and productive. When your schedule is based around important but not urgent tasks and not too many of them, then it’s much easier to show up for yourself.

The sixth thing I want to talk about today in terms of showing up is that sometimes you’re going to need support from another person or some sort of system to help you show up. It could be a coach. It could be an alarm. It could be a ritual or process you used to get yourself into the right headspace. But whatever it is, if you find it hard to be self motivated and self disciplined at times, think about the things you can do to help you show up for yourself.

Using this podcast as an example once again, if I’m not in the mood or am lacking inspiration, I have a few uplifting podcasts that I listen to that help me to come up with a more positive mindset and create some of my own ideas for content. I also have content that I’ve created in the past and I can always go back to that and re-purpose it for a podcast episode if I need to. I have a system of dictating into my iPad or phone so if I get an idea while I’m on the run I can capture it in a document using the microphone function and that means I am constantly adding to the content when the ideas strike me. These are three of my personal strategies for making sure I show up and do this podcast every week no matter what.

The seventh and final thing that will help you to show up is the 7-minute rule. In the practice of yoga, there is a saying that if you just do 7 minutes then you will likely keep going. I apply the same principle to anything else that I need to show up for. Just seven minutes writing some notes for a podcast. Or just seven minutes getting my mind in order so I can still see my clients today and not cancel any appointments. You get the idea. Doing a tiny amount of something means that you get over the initial hurdle of starting and that you are more likely to keep going

Summary

Today we talked about what showing up is and why it is important.

I also talked about seven ways to help you show up for yourself:

  1. Define a specific why, or many whys
  2. Focus on activities that are meaningful and important to you (linked to the why)
  3. Choose activities that play to your strengths, or find ways to use strengths to complete them
  4. Stop overthinking things and just do them with the help of strategies and cues.
  5. Planning specific activities for specific time slots
  6. Get the support you need from others, systems or tools
  7. Commit to just 7 minutes so you get over the hurdle of starting.

Showing up for yourself means that you can do meaningful things in your own life and succeed at those things and feel like you are living a purposeful and intentional life.

It is about learning to embrace the process and become good at that, rather than just focussing on the result. This not only helps you achieve the result, it also helps you to become committed to the regular actions that create your results!

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#209 How Long Does It Take to Form a Habit?

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How Long Does It Take to Form a Habit?

Are you thinking about making a change but lacking in motivation, and wondering how long it will take to form a new habit that happens automatically and effortlessly?

By knowing how long it takes to form a habit, it can help you to manage your expectations, decide if you are ready to start and hang in there long enough to be successful.

I’m sure you know what it’s like. At some point in your life, you have wanted to lose weight, or tone up, or establish a better sleep routine, but it can be hard to get started when you’re not clear on how long it will take, and whether you have enough time and energy to even start.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* The Architecture of Habits
* What Type of Habit Do You Want to Change?
* What Type of Person Are You?
* What is Your Situation? What is Your Mindset?
* What Does the Research Say?

If you search the internet for “how long does it take to form a habit”, you will find a range of answers. Today I want to share the most recent research to answer this question, with caveats included!

The Architecture of Habits

To set the scene, let’s look at the architecture of habits. I have done a deep dive on this in previous episodes, so for now, let’s recap.

Firstly, any habit has a cue or trigger – something that causes it to happen.

Then there is a routine or process that you go through.

Then, there is a reward you receive by going through the process.

The craving for this reward can motivate you to keep coming back.

What this means for you is that if you want to change a bad habit or form a new habit, you need to work on the elements of this ‘habit loop’ to help you get there faster.

Let’s look at how to do that, with some examples.

What Type of Habit Do You Want to Change?

Firstly, consider the type and complexity of the habit that you want to change. Let me give you two examples from my own life so you can see the difference.

If it’s a simple habit you want to form like flossing your teeth once per day, then you can bet that it will happen a lot sooner and become automatic more easily compared to a more complex habit.

A few years ago, a friend of mine told me he had started flossing his teeth each night. This is something I’ve wanted to do for teeth hygiene reasons, but never quite found the motivation and momentum to be consistent. This is probably because I found it to be a rather fiddly and sometimes painful task, and I had told myself that I hated flossing my teeth, or that I couldn’t be bothered.

But as soon as my friend mentioned he was doing this, I decided that I’d have a go too. I didn’t tell him or anyone else – I just decided one day that I would have a competition with myself to do it every night for 12 weeks, as an experiment to see whether I could turn this into an automatic and effortless habit.

The trigger part of the habit was easy – I would floss before brushing my teeth each night. This is called habit stacking, or as I like to call it, piggybacking. I simply put a package of floss next to my toothbrush and voila, I remembered to even think about doing it each night!

I got off to a good start and in the first few weeks, I realised a few things.

Firstly, I realised that each night I was approaching this habit in the wrong way.

When I got ready to floss, I noticed that I was thinking about how annoying this was, or how I didn’t feel like doing it, or how yukky and gross it was – unhelpful thinking! Instead, I decided to come up with more neutral or positive thoughts as I was flossing. I started thinking things like “I did another night! Yay!” or “This is good for my teeth!”

Secondly, I realised that if I was going to be consistent with this, I would have to be clear on the process. I had recently been to a new dentist, and they’d provided some written instructions on how to brush and floss your teeth. To make it more interesting, I decided to geek it up and deep dive into the technique, trying to bring some fresh energy and interest into the process.

I learned about flossing on angles and how long it should take.

Those two things kept me going in the beginning.

Then I started thinking about the reward in earnest, rather than just having that sense of achievement. Sure, that was a reward, but I also ran my tongue over my teeth and made a smug ‘ah’ sound, really celebrating the clean teeth and how I was maintaining the dentist’s good cleaning work.

Something funny happened about 11 or 12 weeks into the routine. I had had a late night and a few drinks and was getting ready for bed. And even being so tired, I realised that I simply couldn’t go to bed without flossing my teeth before brushing.

It was a huge win! I could celebrate more than just the fact that it had become automatic and effortless – I also wanted to floss my teeth because I had created an attachment to the rewards of achievement and cleaner teeth (as opposed to the old rewards of getting out of a boring task).

Now compare that with something like giving up smoking. Smoking is something you do multiple times per day, and your desire to smoke might be triggered by multiple different things.

I smoked socially in my late teens, and in earnest when I was 21 years old after a stressful series of events. It had become a coping mechanism and a way of fitting in socially (these were the rewards).

After a year, I decided it was ridiculous to smoke and I wanted to give up but it was difficult! This wasn’t just one habit loop – it was many habit loops happening in tandem.

For example, there were various cues or triggers for smoking.

After breakfast. While driving. After lunch. When stressed. While hanging out with certain friends. While drinking alcohol. At a pub or nightclub (a common hangout when I was this age). At the end of the day as a pleasant wind down ritual on the balcony of my unit. Looking cool in front of boys (or so I thought).

Coupled with the perceived rewards of coping better and looking cool (yes, I am groaning about these), I also had a serious nicotine addiction by now so had chemical drivers.

This habit was a lot more complex than teeth flossing!

In the end, I dismantled my smoking habit one piece at a time.

Firstly, I switched from menthol cigarettes (which tasted better) to plain cigarettes and the worst-tasting ones – in other words I made the habit more unpleasant.

Next, I substituted those cigarettes for ones that tasted bad AND had the lowest nicotine.

Then, I started delaying my first cigarette. So instead of around 9am, I would wait until 10am, then 11am, then after lunch.

By now I was smoking fewer per day, so I started buying smaller packets.

I started hanging out with different friends – friends who didn’t smoke. This was a game changer for this habit because it removed temptation and also helped me frame a healthier identity – by hanging around people who placed a higher value on health.

I was going to nightclubs to dance instead of smoking. I was going to the beach in the daytime instead of pubs to play pool.

By the end of about 6 months, I was down to one cigarette per day – the one on the balcony late afternoon. This was the hardest one to give up because I had a positive ritual and feeling of me time. However, I made the decision to stop and do something else at this time.

Voila, the habit was gone.

I had cravings for a while, but it was easier to ride them out once I got this far.

As you can see, more complex habits take longer to break or form and are more involved.

Some people go for substitution for gum or other things, but for me, I wanted to break the habit and rewire all the different areas of my life rather than swap one vice or habit for another.

What Type of Person Are You?

Complexity aside, I think a lot comes down to the type of person you are.

If you are motivated, focused, achievement-oriented and proactive, it’s probably easier for you to form a new habit or break a bad habit.

Some people have more addictive personalities – and I am one of these (as revealed in a genetic test I had done a few years ago to look at disease risk factors).

Some people like putting others first and even at their own expense, which can get in the way of forming new habits.

These are all factors that affect your ability to form new habits and the time that it takes.

What is Your Life Situation?

Your life situation impacts your ability to form a habit and the rate at which it happens.

Why? Because making change is hard. It requires a lot of focus and energy from your brain, and brains like taking the easy, low-cost, low-effort route.

That means if your life situation is busy, overwhelming, stressful, painful, difficult, or involving major shifts or even crises, forming a new habit is going to be pretty difficult. Not just in terms of starting but in persisting.

The best time to form a new habit is when there’s little stress in your life when things are on an even keel, and when there aren’t many other pressures in life.

This is not always possible, but at least you can clear the decks to make time and energy to focus on doing something new, or something different.

The less stress you have, I believe the faster and easier change will be.

This is where working with a coach can be so helpful, because they help you make the time and create the focus, and clear the decks so that you have enough brain power for forming a habit.

And not too many at once!

What is Your Mindset?

Finally, your mindset is a critical piece of the puzzle.

You heard me say earlier in the teeth flossing and quit smoking examples, that I had decided to do it. And after 13 years of coaching, I can say that the majority of my clients use similar words.

They say that they have decided, or they are in the right headspace, or they are really ready. There is determination in those words.

And to be successful and persist for long enough so that you can form and automate a habit, you need to have a good enough reason which is meaningful to you because this is your motivator to keep going.

What Does the Research Say About Time Required to Form Habits?

I’ve just given you a lot of backstory about habit formation that sets the scene for discussing the research.

A 2009 paper by Phillippa Lalley et. al. was published in the European Journal of Social Psychology.

The study involved 96 volunteers over 12 weeks. Those volunteers chose an eating, drinking or activity behaviour to carry out daily in the same context (e.g. after breakfast).

The time it took to form the habit and for it to become largely automatic was 18 – 254 days, with an average of 66 days (9.5 weeks). A huge range!

It is known that behaviour is likely to become habitual when it is frequently and consistently performed in the same context, this study found that a habit could be formed and become automatic even if it was missed a few times.

More recently, a longitudinal field study considered how self-control capacity affected the development of habits over a period of 90 days.

Contrary to expectations, self-control capacity did not seem to affect the habit formation process and opened the opportunity for future research.

The recent research reveals a few keys to easier and potentially faster habit formation and habit automaticity:

  • Habit strength increases steeply at first then levels off
  • The more often the behaviour is completed, the quicker the habit forms
  • The more inherently rewarding the behaviour, the easier it is to form a habit
  • If the environment is comfortable (no threats/obstacles), habit formation is easier

To me, these findings back up my experience with my own habits and with clients.

The recipe for success seems to lie in the goal-setting process and the situation, as described earlier.

If you clear your decks to make time, set specific goals around behaviours that are rewarding, and commit to doing them frequently, you will more likely succeed.

Having the support of a coach will probably help you get there faster!

Summary

Today we talked about how long it takes to form a habit and covered some of the factors that influence the timing and ease of habit formation.

There is a lot of scope for future research in this area, with the most recent studies having shown that your capacity for self-control is not critical to the process!

Rather, the intrinsic reward, frequency of behaviour, commitment, environment and in my experience, situation, mindset and personality, might all play a role in the timing.

References

Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C.H.M., Potts, H.W.W. and Wardle, J. (2010), How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. Eur. J. Soc. Psychol., 40: 998-1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674

van der Weiden Anouk, Benjamins Jeroen, Gillebaart Marleen, Ybema Jan Fekke, de Ridder Denise. (2020). How to Form Good Habits? A Longitudinal Field Study on the Role of Self-Control in Habit Formation. Frontiers in Psychology 11. URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00560

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E#208 How to Interpret Sleep Data

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How to Interpret Sleep Data

Are you trying to get better quality sleep and want to know what your sleep data mean? In this episode, I’m going to explain sleep hypnograms and how to use them to understand your sleep and help you sleep better.

Sleep is becoming recognised as a national health priority because it affects so many areas of life. More specifically, sleep quality and quantity are strongly linked to mental health, cognitive function and physical injury. Sleep is regulated by multiple systems in the body including your circadian control as influenced by light and dark exposure (see previous episode).

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* What is sleep data?
* What is a sleep hypnogram?
* What does your sleep data mean?
* How can sleep data and hypnograms help improve sleep?

So if you want a good night’s sleep, where do you start? Let’s consider sleep data and how you can use it to make positive changes for a better night’s sleep.

What is sleep data?

Sleep data includes any information collected about sleep.

It can range from information that you manually collect or write down, to data you can collect from a wearable device to data that is collected by experienced practitioners in a sleep lab.

Manual sleep data could include a sleep diary, where you write down information such as:

  • the time you went to bed,
  • the time you woke up,
  • a subjective rating of how well you think you slept, and
  • any factors that might have influenced your sleep (e.g. caffeine intake, alcohol intake, medications, use of devices, or any worries or anxiety).

The data is relatively subjective compared to other methods.

A wearable device can be used to capture physiological data while you are asleep. The data captured may include:

  • the time you fell asleep,
  • total duration of sleep
  • sleep phases and how long you spent in each phase,
  • sleep quality,
  • movement during the night,
  • heart rate during sleep,
  • oxygen saturation during sleep,
  • the time you work up.

These data may be available on a wearable itself, or in an app that syncs wearable data. Commonly, these data are combined using artificial intelligence (AI) to provide an overall sleep score that is visible on the device and/or on a related app. Examples include Whoop, Oura Ring, and Apple watch.

Other ways to capture sleep data can include nearables (non-wearable trackers that are placed near the bed which measure motion, temperature, respiratory rate and other data), or mobile sleep apps (that detect motion in the night and/or may wake the person at the right time in their sleep cycle). 

The data collected by devices like the ones mentioned may be more accurate than self-reported data but are likely to be 50 – 60% as accurate as data collected in a formal sleep lab using purpose-built equipment, according to some studies. 

Many consumer wearable devices and apps use AI that is built purely from subjective data such as questionnaires, which may be biased and affect accuracy. 

There is an emerging interest in wearable devices and apps such as PhiliaHealth, whose algorithms are based on actual physiological studies in a lab, and who report other unique and more actionable data.   

In comparison to wearables, clinical sleep studies monitor aspects such as: 

  • limb movement 
  • respiratory flow 
  • electrocardiograms (heart signals) 
  • electroencephalograms (brain activity and eye movements) 
  • electromyograms (muscle movements). 

For most people, it is that manually-collected data or data from a wearable that is most relevant and accessible, empowering you to take action to improve your sleep.

What is a sleep hypnogram?  

There are a few different ways to look at sleep data, and a sleep hypnogram is one of them.  

A hypnogram is a graphical representation of your sleep cycle. It is a graph of polysomnography (PSG) data that is collected during the hours that you sleep. 

The data is captured by a wearable as activity, about every 30 seconds while you sleep. While not very precise, it allows you to capture data for different stages of sleep and graph them.  

These stages and time spent in each are: 

  • Times you are awake and moving 
  • Non-REM 1 sleep (lightest sleep) (10% of sleep time) 
  • Non-REM 2 sleep (slightly deeper sleep) (50% of sleep time) 
  • Non-REM 3 sleep (also called deep sleep or slow wave sleep) (20% of sleep time) 
  • REM sleep (rapid eye movement, dream state, increased brain activity) (20% of sleep time).  

We cycle through these stages of sleep around every 90 minutes (plus or minus 20 minutes), and each person typically has 4 – 6 of these cycles each night. 

Overall, 20% of sleep is spent in the REM, dreaming phase, and about 80% is spent in non-REM (also known as N-REM). 

The hypnogram plot of your sleep cycle data looks something like this: 

In a normal hypnogram, we might see more N-REM (Stages 1 -3) or deep sleep in the first half of the night (early sleep). Our hormonal balance is such that stimulation effects are lower at this time. 

Then, in the later part of sleep, we might notice more REM sleep in the hypnogram. During this time, the hormone acetylcholine increases to help you to process information and memories without disrupting sleep.  

People who have disruptive sleep show variations from the normal graph. They might have multiple awakenings, shorter or irregular sleep cycles, less deep sleep and/or absent sleep stages. These changes can indicate psychiatric disorders, narcolepsy, sleep disorders or medication effects (for example). 

Where can I find my sleep data? 

If you are using the PhiliaHealth app, your hypnogram can be found by clicking on the sleep icon on the daily dashboard, then scrolling down and clicking on your sleep session. 

The sleep icon shows an overall score, with total sleep time and your resting heart rate during sleep. 

Below that, the score is explained in terms of: 

  • contributing factors to good sleep (time spent in each stage and efficiency) which are colour coded in a traffic light system to show good, ok and not so good, and 
  • penalties that lower the score (restlessness, elevated heart rate and number of awakenings).

Scroll down to see your hypnogram including the % time spent in each stage. Remember that 20% of time spent in deep sleep is ‘normal’. 

Below that, the other biometric data collected during sleep, and data on your sleep disturbances (based on arm movement). 

The traffic light colour system used in the sleep score section and the biometric data section make it easy to differentiate the positives (green) from the negatives (red). 

What does my sleep data mean? How can hypnograms help improve sleep? 

Sleep data can empower you with information that can help you make better choices to improve your sleep. According to Villanova University, sleep data can be used to: 

  • Improve knowledge and treatment of sleep conditions 
  • Identify root causes of sleep disorders 
  • Link behaviours to sleep quality 
  • Improve mattress design, and 
  • Personalise recommendations for better sleep. 

Even without going into the detail of the hypnogram and without the accuracy of laboratory-based methods, you can work out whether there are issues with your sleep and when they occur. 

  • Using your hypnogram, biometric data, sleep scores and disturbance data, you can figure out whether you’re getting enough deep sleep, and when there are potential sleep issues. 
  • You might notice that your sleep score, hypnogram and biometrics are abnormal on days that you do certain things like work late, drink alcohol, experience anxiety, use devices before bed or have noise or light nearby.  
  • Your hypnogram can show at a glance whether your sleep cycles are normal or not. 

With this information, you may be able to experiment with modifying your daytime or evening behaviours or situations to improve sleep. The data might reflect positive changes in response to behaviour change. 

By looking at trends over time and whether behaviour changes cause improvements, you can work out whether you are on track or need to get professional help from a doctor or specialist. 

Summary 

This episode was a deep dive into what sleep data is, what hypnograms are, what the data means and how you can use it to improve your sleep or identify a need to get help. 

 

References 

  1. Lavery, Michael & Stull, Carolyn & Kinney, Michael & Yosipovitch, Gil. (2016). Nocturnal Pruritus: The Battle for a Peaceful Night’s Sleep. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 17. 425. 10.3390/ijms17030425.
  2. How to Use Sleep Data to Effectively Improve Rest. Master’s in Data Science.org website https://www.mastersindatascience.org/resources/sleep-data-to-improve-rest/ accessed 23/8/22.
  3. Neubauer, David N. MD. (1999) Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center, Baltimore, MD in American Family Physician, 59(9):2551-2558, May 1, 1999.
  4. 4. Schellenberger Costa, Michael & Born, Jan & Claussen, Jens Christian & Martinetz, Thomas. (2016). Modeling the effect of sleep regulation on a neural mass model. Journal of Computational Neuroscience. 41. 10.1007/s10827-016-0602-z.
  5. 5. Wahaj Anwar A. Khan, Russell Conduit, Gerard A. Kennedy, Melinda L. Jackson, 2020. The relationship between shift-work, sleep, and mental health among paramedics in Australia. Sleep Health, Volume 6, Issue 3, 2020, Pages 330-337, ISSN 2352-7218, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2019.12.002.

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E#207 Sleep Hacks for Insomniacs

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Sleep Hacks for Insomniacs

If you’re like me, sleep can be hit and miss at times and getting enough sleep can become a drain that affects your performance and productivity. In this episode, we’ll cover a few sleep hacks recommended by leading neurobiologists that can help you to improve your chance of falling asleep and staying asleep.

In the last episode of this podcast, we discussed sleep chronobiology and its impact on health and wellbeing, along with a few simple tips to identify your chronobiology and how to align your routines to your personal type.

Now let’s get specific with some hacks!

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Evening sleep hacks for winding down at night
* Sleep hacks for falling asleep and staying asleep
* Tips for setting your sleep clock

Many recent (2022) journal articles have revealed how ocular light exposure – that is, light entering the eyes – affects our circadian rhythms and sleep, endocrine function and cognitive function, which in turn influence human health and wellbeing.

This conversation is partly based around “melanopic light”, which describes the way that blue light frequencies restrict melatonin production in your body until after dusk, after which time melatonin washes through the body to help you sleep.

The recent advances in our understanding of the relationship between light exposure and sleep have led to the development of new standards and practices. By understanding how different light sources and timing of exposure work, neurobiologists have been able to develop recommendations for improving sleep quality and quantity.

Let’s take a look at some of the hacks that you can use, for free, to improve your sleep.

Evening sleep hacks for winding down

An interesting hack is the recommendation for morning sun exposure (outdoors) which can mitigate any undesirable effects of indoor light exposure (during the day and at night), so that you can wind down more easily and sleep better.

We also need to dim the lights in our houses. Recent advances in our understanding of circadian rhythms mean that light manufacturers have been able to produce blue light components so that artificial lighting systems in our homes and offices are very similar to actual daylight.

But while this is great for productivity during the day, it is not so good at night when we want to wind down and fall asleep. In that sense, after sunset, the experts recommend dimming the lights in your home, in the evening at least 3 hours before bedtime. This reduces the amount of light entering your eyes and helps allow the melatonin wash to occur.

This also applies to electronic devices. Televisions, computer screens, tablets or mobile phones all emit blue light and are often close to your eyes, so turning them off the around sunset might help you to fall asleep and stay asleep.

While we’re talking about sunset, one interesting study showed that when you couple daytime outdoor light exposure with early evening light exposure (e.g. sunset), it can help to decrease the sleep disruptive effects of night time light exposure.

And if you have bright lights on late at night, you will suppress melatonin, the hormone that helps you relax and feel sleepy, which obviously affects your quality and duration of sleep.

Aside from light, there are other things that can improve your ability to fall asleep and stay asleep.

Food and exercise can affect your ability to fall asleep.

People who are early risers (see episode 206) might do better with an earlier dinner, exercising earlier in the day and minimising socialising at night so as not to disrupt sleep.

In contrast, people who are night owls (see episode 206) could eat later without disrupting sleep but might need a lighter dinner, and to finish exercise before 7pm so as not to disrupt sleep.

Otherwise, and more generally, alcohol intake at night might help you fall asleep but might wake you up between 1 – 3am.

For some people, a high-carb meal (more specifically, higher in simple carbs) might delay sleep onset – in other words, it takes longer to fall asleep – or cause them to wake up hungry.

Similarly, caffeine or other stimulants after 3pm might disrupt sleep in some people, as it takes 3 – 15 hours to metabolise and excrete caffeine.

A heavy meal at night or overeating at night often disrupts sleep. Either can cause indigestion, heartburn or simple discomfort before bed or during sleep. That’s because, during sleep, our digestive processes slow down but can also create competition for resources in the body if you have an undigested meal in your stomach.

Eating a heavy meal or too much food may cause you to wake up the next day without an appetite or even feeling heavy or sluggish because you’re still working through last night’s meal.

The remedy for this is simple – and twofold:

  1. it takes around 4 hours to digest a meal, so finish eating at least 3 hours before you go to bed, and
  2. eat a lighter meal before bed with lots of vegetables, and the right amount of complex carbs, fats and/or proteins for your HealthType.

Sleep hacks for falling asleep, staying asleep and waking up energized

The science shows that inadequate daytime light exposure is as detrimental as too much electric light exposure at night, with both of these having adverse effects on your sleep, circadian rhythms and health outcomes.

So, in order to set yourself up for a good night’s sleep, the experts recommend that you get outdoors and get daytime light exposure within 30 – 60 minutes of waking up, if possible during the day, and also around sunset.

During the day (before sunset), aim for at least 2.5 hours of bright light exposure including your early morning exposure, and another hour in the late afternoon or evening.

In terms of light exposure, while you’re asleep, the experts recommend that your sleep environment is as dark as possible. If you do need to get up for the bathroom during the night, the recommended

maximum exposure to light is 10 lux (which is a unit of measure of light). You can download an app on your phone that measures light as a rough guide to help you determine exposure.

That aside, anxiety and worry can add to sleep issues. I have discussed this extensively in other episodes but it’s worth mentioning here – get some help, keep a worry diary and/or get on top of your task list to help you sleep easy at night.

Having some light, fun activities that aren’t too stimulating in the early evening can help you switch off!

Shift workers – a special case

Light exposure for shift workers is still an area of study and a challenge that neurobiologists haven’t yet been able to solve.

At this time, there is evidence that increasing melanopic light levels at work (e.g. office lighting) can improve alertness, as measured subjectively (e.g. questionnaire) and/or objectively, but this requires further study in the shift work population.

In any case, I speculate that even shift workers can create some improvements in sleep, and we will look at that in another episode in more detail.

For now, let’s assume that eating and exercise can be modified to improve the chance of a good night’s sleep, and further, blocking out curtains and getting the timing of light exposure right might help to create a rhythm that facilitates sleep.

Setting your circadian rhythm

In the previous episode of this podcast, I talked about determining your sleep chronotype – in other words – the time you wake up and the time you go to bed. Whether you’re an early riser, a night owl or an in-betweener, being consistent with wake and sleep times can help you establish a regular daily light-dark cycle which can further benefit sleep, cognition and health.

And as described earlier in this episode, getting outdoor light exposure soon after waking and again late afternoon can help you to sleep more soundly, and wake refreshed.

Summary

And as described earlier in this episode, getting outdoor light exposure soon after waking and again late afternoon can help you to sleep more soundly, and wake refreshed.

If you want to sleep well, also consider the timing, quantity and quality of food and exercise in the context of your chronotype – nothing within 3 hours of sleep, and reducing or avoiding alcohol, caffeine and high glycemic foods or heavy meals.

Think about switching off devices after sunset and dimming your house lights.

There is so much coming out about sleep right now, and today’s summary of research includes a few tips to help you manage your sleep better.

References

Brown TM, Brainard GC, Cajochen C, Czeisler CA, Hanifin JP, et al. (2022) Recommendations for daytime, evening, and nighttime indoor light exposure to best support physiology, sleep, and wakefulness in healthy adults. PLOS Biology 20(3): e3001571. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001571

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E#206 Understanding Sleep Chronotypes

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Understanding Sleep Chronotypes

Are you intrigued by the concept of chronotypes and want to know how it can help you (or your clients) to optimise sleep, performance, health and wellbeing?

Your sleep chronotype indicates whether you’re a night owl or an early bird, and helps you optimise your sleep patterns for better focus, performance and productivity.

As someone in menopause, I want to get rid of night sweats, insomnia and brain fog as well as anxiety and low mood. For me, the research indicates that aligning with my sleep and other chronotypes will help me to reduce or eliminate these pesky symptoms.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* What Sleep Chronotypes Are
* Are you a night owl or early bird?
* Benefits of knowing your sleep chronotype
* Aligning to your sleep chronotype

I am trained in assessing and understanding chronotypes, so stick around to the end or check the show notes to find out how about a specific test I can help you with, to determine your chronotypes for sleep but also other areas of life like eating, exercise, focused work and so on.

 

What Are Sleep Chronotypes?

Feeling tired all the time has a massive impact on your mood, work performance, motivation to exercise, and willingness to get out and socialise.

We hear a lot about sleep hygiene and pre-bed routines to work out how to sleep better, but nobody is talking about chronotypes.

Chronotypes are what make us unique. Specifically, your chronotype is the behavioural manifestation of your circadian rhythm (also known as your ‘body clock’), such as when you prefer to sleep and when you are most alert and energetic.

Your natural rhythm also affects the timing of other events in your body like hormone release, meal timing, exercise timing and bowel movements.

In the dawning era of personalised healthcare, we are realising that the old, general rules like “you must get 8 hours of sleep per night” or “we should go to bed by 9pm” are not true.

The truth is – sleep is personal. You are unique in terms of your sleep needs. Emerging evidence suggests that there is a strong genetic component to sleep chronotypes and that variations in chronotypes might have evolved in hunter-gatherers who took turns sleeping so there was always someone to keep watch.

And once you know your needs, certain elements of your lifestyle affect your sleep and should be considered as part of the solution.

Are you a night owl or early bird?

While there are several quizzes available that can indicate your sleep chronotype, your own personal experience is the key.

It can be challenging to identify your chronotype if your body is ‘out of whack’ for example if you are a shift worker, if you are carrying a sleep debt, or if you are going through menopause or acute stress that is affecting your sleep.

A simple way to work it out is to keep a diary over a week or two, perhaps when you’re on holiday, without work stress, deadlines, over-exposure to devices or stressful travel to and from work.

During this holiday time, notice when you naturally feel sleepy and record the time.

Complete your usual pre-bed routine and let yourself fall asleep naturally.

Then in the morning, notice what time you naturally wake up, and record the time.

Over a period of days, without the normal external pressures and influences, you will start to see consistent sleep and wake times, and your natural sleep chronotype will be revealed.

Although we often hear the term night owl or an early bird, there are four recognised chronotypes in a quiz by Dr Michael Breus, which are:

  1. Lion – the early bird who likes to wake up early and be productive in the morning
  2. Bear – accounting for about 55% of the population, their sleep and wake times tend to follow the sun
  3. Wolf – the night owl, thought to make up 15% of the population
  4. Dolphin – tend to be insomniacs

This is just one chronotype classification systems.

Benefits of knowing your sleep chronotype

If you know your sleep chronotype, you’ll be better able to manage your daily schedule and be alert, productive and focused at the right time.

Imagine if you knew how to structure your day so that you could get things done, get enough rest, feel motivated to exercise, and feel energized and at peace – and then have a good night’s sleep? That’s the power of knowing your sleep chronotype.

Sleep has a huge impact on your appetite, exercise and core temperature, so it also affects your ability to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight.

Various studies show that your chronotype is also associated with some of the ‘Big 5’ personality traits. Lions or early birds (‘morningness’) tend to be associated with conscientiousness and agreeableness, while neuroticism and openness, impulsivity, anger, anxiety and using substances tend to be more common in Wolves or night owls (‘eveningness’). The same studies show that morning people tend to do better in school, and evening people might be better at creative thinking and musicality.

Evening people also tend to be less physically active and sleep less during the week, and more on weekends which can lead to a higher stress response, elevated cortisol levels and a higher resting HR which are risk factors for a variety of sleep, metabolic and mental health concerns.

These are trends, not set in stone, because each person is subject to various external influences that might affect their sleep patterns and overall well-being.

Having said that, by aligning your schedule with your chronotype, you will more easily reduce adverse outcomes and be more productive, energized and calm.

Aligning your schedule to your sleep chronotype

Once you know your sleep chronotype, how do you align your schedule so that you can optimise focus, sleep, performance, productivity and recuperation?

While I’ll cover some specific hacks and tips in the next episode, these are some general guidelines to start implementing.

A good starting point is to experiment with going to bed at the time that suits you best, for example, 10pm every night.

Once you establish this time, work backwards and start experimenting with pre-bed routines that will help you have a good night’s sleep and allow you to actually get into bed by this time.

When you have a handle on those two things, your wake-up time should naturally set itself, and you’ll start waking up at a set time every day.

From there, you can work with your energy during the day to adjust your schedule if you can.

For example, early risers might have more energy first thing in the morning and so might do better with exercise, detailed thinking work and any sort of focused action-taking early in the day and could try scheduling those things in the morning if possible. You might also find it better to socialise in the daytime or late afternoon rather than at night as you’ll be winding down.

In contrast, night owls who go to bed later e.g. 11pm might have more energy late in the day, and so could need a more relaxed morning, where you ease into the day slowly, leaving exercise, socialising and intense work for the afternoon and early evening.

If you’re an in-betweener, you may find your energy peak is closer to the middle of the day and could prioritise focused work and exercise from late morning to mid-to-late afternoon.

It may be possible to rearrange your work duties to fit with these frameworks.

A key takeaway is that we are all unique, so experimenting is key as is a need to remove the overlay of stressors, overwork and responsibility that often get in the way of us living our best lives.

Summary

Sleep chronotypes are about more than just optimal bedtime, sleep quality and quantity. By understanding and aligning with your sleep chronotype, you can unlock your full potential in terms of productivity, focus, mental health, motivation to exercise, getting your eating right, and maintaining a healthy weight.

Contact me for support with determining your personal chronotype.

References

David A. Kalmbach, PhD, Logan D. Schneider, MD, Joseph Cheung, MD MS, Sarah J. Bertrand, PhD, Thiruchelvam Kariharan, PhD, Allan I. Pack, MBChB PhD, Philip R. Gehrman, PhD, Genetic Basis of Chronotype in Humans: Insights From Three Landmark GWAS, Sleep, Volume 40, Issue 2, 1 February 2017, zsw048, https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsw048

Gjermunds, N., Brechan, I., Johnsen, S.Å.K. and Watten, R.G., 2019. Musicians: Larks, Owls or Hummingbirds?. Journal of Circadian Rhythms, 17(1), p.4. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/jcr.173

Tristan Enright & Roberto Refinetti (2017) Chronotype, class times, and academic achievement of university students, Chronobiology International, 34:4, 445-450, DOI: 10.1080/07420528.2017.1281287

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