Teri Holland (00:06.454)
Welcome back to another episode of Success in Mind, the show where we decode what it really takes to grow into the person your goals demand you to be. Today we're going to talk about productivity hacks that we often ignore. Your energy. Not just your time. This is not about your to-do list, but your energy. Your greatest asset as an entrepreneur.
And I'll tell you right now, the one thing that might sting a little, and that is.
Teri Holland (00:45.932)
And I'll tell you right now, this one might sting a little because we're going to do an energy audit, which means getting brutally honest with what no longer serves you no matter how attached to it you are. So let's dive in.
Teri Holland (01:04.852)
If you have ever said, I don't have enough time, you are not alone. But here's the truth that most people miss. It's not a time problem, it's an energy problem. Time is fixed. Energy is renewable. But only if you know where your energy is going or where the leaks are. So think of your energy like money.
If you're spending it on things that don't give you a return, you're going to be broke. Emotionally, mentally, even physically.
So what do most successful entrepreneurs do? What do they eliminate to protect their energy? That's what we're going to unpack today.
So let's walk through five things that successful entrepreneurs eliminate and why you might need to eliminate them too, or at least consider eliminating. One, energy draining people. Now you know who I'm talking about. In fact, I think that the moment I said energy draining people, you probably had someone come to mind. You know who it is, the chronic complainer, the chaos creator.
The friend who treats your ambitions like a threat.
Teri Holland (02:32.344)
Here's your permission slip. Not that you need it, but you don't have to keep everyone in your life. High performers set boundaries or distance themselves completely. Proximity is power, and the people closest to you either charge your battery or they drain it.
Now I have had to get really real about this at several points in my life where I had to get very clear about who I was allowing in my life, what relationships I was going to invest in and which ones I was going to pull back from because some people can be very draining on your energy. And for those of you who've been with me for a while, you know that I also have a chronic illness, ulcerative colitis. So I don't have a full energy bank
at any given time. My high energy days are probably about 50 % of a normal person. So if someone or something is draining my energy, I have to get really ruthless sometimes and let it go.
Two, decision fatigue. Successful entrepreneurs automate the small stuff so that they have energy for the big stuff. So think about not just all the decisions in your business, but all the decisions in your life. What to eat, what to wear, what to do every day. Every decision costs energy, mental energy. And if you're wasting it on what should I wear, you will have less energy
for strategizing your business, for sales calls, for scaling, for visionary big picture thinking. And that's where you really need your energy to show up and where you need to shine. I have streamlined many of these things in my life. I wear very similar things day to day. It's kind of like a uniform. In the winter, I have a pile of black turtlenecks that I really like. I love a good black turtleneck. And I have a few pairs of jeans that I like and that's...
Teri Holland (04:38.702)
what I wear most days. Sometimes I'll swap in a different sweater or something slightly different, a hoodie, but that's my regular outfit. In the summer, I have a couple simple t-shirts. The one I'm wearing right now, black and white stripes. I have a couple of plain black ones, a couple of white ones, a couple of tank tops, a couple of sleeveless black turtlenecks, and that's kind of it. And then jean shorts, some dressier shorts.
some linen pants. It's basically the same. I could probably streamline my wardrobe even more except for the fact that I show up on camera a lot and I always think that people are probably wondering, does she change her clothes? And if you have wondered that, yes I do, but I just like to keep things very uniform and simple so I don't waste energy thinking about what am I going to wear today because that is not the most important thing for my brain to be doing.
Meal planning? I eat mostly carnivore these days, so my meals are pretty simple. Meat. Fat. Then more meat. And more fat. And meat. And then fat again. Occasionally I deviate. I'm not 100 % carnivore. I don't know that I ever would be. But when I deviate, it's for something special, like a nice meal out with my husband or maybe a nice brunch with friends.
But typically my meals are meat and fat and meat and fat. Daily routines. Have a schedule so you don't have to think about what are you doing every day? I always know what day I'm recording this podcast. I know when I am writing my newsletter. I know exactly what is happening day to day in my business, in my life. I schedule in my dog walks. I schedule in my lunch every day to make sure that it's blocked off.
I schedule workouts, I schedule everything so that I know exactly what's happening and I don't have to think about when am going to walk the dogs or when will I get that workout today. It's on my calendar.
Teri Holland (06:48.236)
Number three, the third thing that's draining your energy is unaligned opportunities. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Every maybe you say yes to is a no to something better. Successful entrepreneurs eliminate what isn't in alignment with their vision, even if it pays well or sounds exciting because they know the real cost is their energy.
There's a quote, I'm paraphrasing it, it is not in front of me, but there's a quote that I read many years ago by Warren Buffett and it was something along the lines of, the difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to more things. Say no. And if you want to know how to say no politely, without damaging the relationship, listen to the episode that I did with Bob Berg and he gives
some great tips for how to say no while maintaining the relationship. I'll link it in the show notes. The fourth thing that's taking your energy is toxic self-talk. You are the first person that you talk to every day. Your inner dialogue sounds like...
Teri Holland (08:04.67)
If your inner dialogue sounds like, who do you think you are? Or you'll never pull this off. Guess what? That mental loop is draining your power faster than any client call or deadline. High performers rewire those thoughts. They speak to themselves the way they would speak to a friend. And if they can't rewire the thought, they eliminate the trigger. This is a lot of the work that I do with my clients in my high performance coaching.
And then five, obligation overload. Say it with me. Repeat this after me. I am allowed to say no without guilt. I am allowed to say no without guilt. Entrepreneurs often fall into the I can do it all trap and it's a straight path to burnout. Successful entrepreneurs audit their calendars.
They remove tasks that aren't moving the needle. They delegate, they decline, they delete, period. Because your calendar is a mirror of your values. In fact, if you want me to tell you who you are, show me your calendar. If you want me to show you what's most important to you, show me your calendar. And I can tell you just by looking at your calendar without knowing anything else, what is most important to you and where you are losing money and energy.
because your calendar is a reflection of you. And even those of you who don't use a calendar and are like, I don't use it, I have everything up here, Teri it's all in my head, an empty calendar tells me a lot about you two.
So now let's talk about how you can audit your own energy. So this is your turn. So here's a quick audit that you can do this week. And if you want to grab a notebook and you want to do this right now, feel free. Otherwise in the show notes, there is a link you can download where I will give you a worksheet to work through this.
Teri Holland (10:13.624)
So the first part is identify your energy links.
So step one, identify what your energy leaks are. What drains your energy? Is it people in your life, tasks, projects, habits, your environment, thoughts, that self-talk we mentioned, commitments and obligations? Make a list of each thing that is draining your energy because the first step is really identifying it, knowing what is it?
because when we identify it, we can change it. You can't change what you're not aware of. Step two, recognize your energy boosters. List the things, the activities, the people, the habits that are energizing you. Where do you draw energy from? List that out too. Step three, what needs to go. Match each of your energy drains with an action to eliminate, automate, delegate,
delete however you're going to deal with it. So list it, action, what are you gonna do about it? And then step four is to redesign your week. So we're not gonna do a massive overhaul all at once, that can be overwhelming, which is just another drain. Let's look at this week by week. So if we look at just this week ahead of you, what's one task you can eliminate this week? What's one boundary you'll set?
What's one habit that you'll commit to that fuels you? And how do you want to feel at the end of your work week?
Teri Holland (11:58.762)
Energy is your greatest asset. Protect it like your business depends on it because it does.
Teri Holland (12:09.218)
So here's the bottom line. You can't build a six, seven, eight figure business or a fulfilling life on the foundation of burnout. Energy is your edge. Protect it, audit it, own it. And if you want to take this even further, then book a call with me and we can talk more specifically about...
where your energy is going, what's feeding you, what's not feeding you, what is taking from you. And we can come up with a plan to help you move forward. So that's all for today's episode. I hope you got some value out of this today and I hope that you think of your energy a little bit differently about where it is going and what you can delete, delegate, automate. What are you going to do about it? And if this hit home for you, make sure you rate and review the show.
and then send it to a friend who you know has been running on empty for far too long because they might thank you for it. So until next time, keep your success in mind. Thank you for joining me today, my friends, and I will see you again next week. Bye for now.
