Today on the podcast, I am excited to introduce you to Claire Hill. Claire is a self-belief and business coach, the founder of the Vivid Business Club and supports female online business owners to get out of their own way and make their dreams happen.

I invited Claire on the podcast to talk about all things mindset. So, procrastination, self doubt, imposter syndrome, all the things that crop up and stop us from doing the things we want to do in our businesses and in our lives. 

Claire is here to help us all get unstuck, work out what is holding us back, and what we can do to move forward. It’s such a great conversation, and so relatable as we have all been there!

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The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks

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Welcome to the Bring Your Product Idea to Life podcast.

This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products or if you'd

like to create your own product to sell. I'm Vicki Weinberg, a product

creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week I share friendly,

practical advice as well as inspirational stories from small businesses.

Let's get started.

Hi. So today on the podcast, I am so excited to introduce you to

Claire Hill. Claire is a self belief and business coach and the founder of

the Vivid Business Club. I invited Claire on the podcast to talk

all things mindset. So, procrastination,

not getting as much done as we should. Self doubt, imposter

syndrome, all of these things that crop up and stop us from doing the things

we want to do in our businesses and in our lives.

This was an amazing conversation. You'll notice this episode is quite

long. Claire had lots and lots to say on the subject. She has, honestly, so

much energy and enthusiasm. I think you're really going to love this

conversation. And don't worry, we didn't touch on half

the things we were going to speak about today. So Claire will be back for

a part two that I hope to be able to share with you really soon.

But for now, I really hope you enjoy this conversation with Claire as much

as I did recording it.

So. Hi, Claire. Thank you so much for being here. More

than welcome, Vicky. I'm really excited. So before I

set up our chat for today, Claire, would you mind just telling everyone who you

are, what your business is, and what you do? Yep. I'm Claire Hill.

I'm a self belief and business coach. I am the founder of the Vivie

business club and I support female online business

owners to get out of their own way and make their dreams happen.

Amazing. Thank you. Oh, and I'm from Kent, same as you,

Gardner. Very close, actually. So I wanted

to bring you on, Clare, because I thought that lots of us

struggle with, you know, for various reasons,

starting a business, you know, it's something we always want to do and we just

don't get around to it or we want to grow our business or we want

to make a change. And sometimes there were just things often in

our heads get in our way. And so I thought this was a wonderful

opportunity to have like a big group coaching session with you, Claire, and you can

help us all get unstuck, stop holding

back, and maybe even yet identify. Help us identify why we're

doing this in the first place, because I'm sure that lots of us listening will

be going, oh, yeah, there is that thing I meant to do? Yeah. I think

hopefully it's really relatable to people. I know very

often there are things that on my to do list just get slid to the

next week, to the next week, you know,

and probably need to look into that. But before we get

into all of this detail and before you start giving us a nice

big kick and really helping us get going, I'd love to know a little bit

if you're okay, to share about your story and how you started doing what

you're doing. So I'll try and keep it abridged

because there are lots of weaves and waves.

And I think without all of those different things that have

happened to me, I wouldn't be able to do what I do today. I'm going

to start at the beginning because I grew up, I didn't have a very good

childhood. There was quite a lot of traumatic

experiences within that. And it led me to being a young carer

for my mum and my younger siblings. And then I went

into the world of health and social care, worked with adults with

learning disabilities for a very long time, managing homes,

and then I went into working in the community with homeless

families. It was made redundant. So I became a

teacher, taught health and social care, but I really wanted to teach maths

because I really love maths. And so I became

a maths teacher, was promoted up into

assistant head teacher, where I had overall responsibility for

safeguarding and attendance and

behavior and sort of the pastoral side of things. And from

there, and looking at my childhood and my other previous experience with

health and social care, I started a. Well, I did

complete a master's degree in leadership of inclusion with

a specific focus on trauma informed

education. From that, from my dissertation and my research,

I discovered warrior energy. And through some

research in my sister's actually a head teacher now in her primary

school, I did some work with some teachers about how to increase

the capacity of your well being in order to give a

more all round sort of support for children that are

experiencing trauma. But while I was doing all of

that, I had a baby. I had two creative businesses. I had.

First one, I had Violet and May. Actually, that was well before Violet and

May. I did lots of accessories and jewelry.

And this was before Instagram, so there was no

Instagram post. It was literally me walking up and down the high street

for Salem and doing lots of fairs and

markets. And then I went into education, so I

stopped that. And then I had my baby, Jackson, and

through maternity leave, discovered wire art. So I started making

wire art, because I'd had Violet and may,

I was really. I didn't have to

learn the failing the first bits, so

I had sort of like a little bit of a. A landing board to come

off it, you know, like, I had a head start. That's what I was looking

for. I had a head start, and that

helped me to grow vivid wire into a really

good place. It was enough for me to leave my role as an assistant head

teacher, and I was able to scale it. I created semi passive income

membership tool, and then I started

coaching because people were like, how do you do this? The pivotal thing

with a. All of that was I didn't

have the same foundations as some of my peers did in terms

of a solid background of people that believed in you.

You know, like, the self worth, the confidence.

I just didn't have it. But I had this real

desire to be

better. And this is a really cheesy moment, but do you know, do

you like Disney Vicky? Yes. Like sent. Right. So,

Cinderella, the song. If your heart. No matter how your heart is

grieving if you keep on believing. I used to sing that to myself all the

time. So I was thinking, no matter how much pain I'm in,

if I just keep believing that something is possible, and I'm

hopeful things will turn out all right. And I read the book Matilda. As

a very young age, I thought, there's hope. I don't have to be.

My whole story doesn't have to be dictated by my childhood.

I can change the narrative of it. But I had to

teach myself to believe in myself, because when you have been through

the level of trauma that I've experienced, your doubt

and is very loud, you're very self critical.

You don't have self worth. How do you believe in

yourself when you have so much against you? So, using my

master's degree, with the warrior energy and

lots of trialing and failing, I was able to

create a framework and, you know, processes in

order to help people to believe themselves and overcome the doubts and

imposter syndrome. I tried to make that abridged, Vicky, but. See what I mean?

I can't do it. Let's talk for England. But, yeah, so

that's. I think it's. What's really important to know is that every

single step that anyone takes is always going to lead

you to somewhere that you should be. And for me, when I look back,

I think, oh, God, I've had a few careers, you know, but if I hadn't

have had all of those things and run those two previous businesses, which at the

time I thought, especially Violet and may I? Such

a failure. Why can't I get the money to. Because I did go self

employed with that one as well. Why can't I do better?

But I had so much against me that I didn't understand. I didn't understand

that 80% of what we do in our businesses and growing

and especially scaling, is all about mindset and

how you see yourself and how you talk to yourself. And

if you don't have a way to master that, you're not going to

be able to do the 20% that actually is the legwork to build the machine

that grows your business. Oh, thank you so much, Claire. I think that is

a great story, and I'm glad you didn't give us an even more abridged version,

because I think if that's the abridged version, I'm still wanting the long version, I

think. Because I think it's absolutely fascinating. And thank you for sharing

all of that. And I think it's great, because what you've shown us is

that everything you're talking about works because

you've done it yourself. So I think you're coming to this from such a great

place where your story ties in so well to what we're going to talk about,

because you have lived examples of all the things you're going to

share with us. Yeah, absolutely. I think it's really important

to know that everybody has doubt, everybody

has some level of imposter syndrome and fear. I,

and you wouldn't be a human being

without that part of it. It's really important to recognize this is a

natural instinct that every single one of us has to

keep us safe. But what we need to sort of

rewire is the fact that that doubt will try and keep us safe.

Sometimes in misery. There's a great book called the Big Leap by

Gay Hendricks. I actually interviewed him for my podcast, and he talks

about upper limit problems. And if you have grown up or

been surrounded by quite a lot of misery and trauma, is your. That's

your baseline. So you, to feel safe, you need to get back

to your baseline, unless you rewire it. So for a lot of my twenties

and, you know, before I, you know, once you're an adult and you can actually

make your own decisions properly, I used to, you know,

really sabotage my health, my mindset, my life, I suppose,

because I only knew misery. So that's the only place I felt

safe if I had chaos going on. And it took a lot for me

to rewire and say no, actually joyous and love

and having a wonderful day is actually okay.

I just didn't know that. And I think it's just becoming aware. So that book,

the upper limit problem, really taught me to appreciate that

it's okay to have a good day. And it sounds so strange as you say

that, but I think anybody's listening that's had that kind

of chaos growing up because you don't know any different. You're actually

wired for it. So one of the really important

things is to become aware of where you're at with

your self worth and how you view the world and what your

baseline is from there. That makes

sense because I guess that it can be scary to.

I don't want to say improve, but to sort of go beyond where you.

What you have seen to be possible or experienced to be possible

is actually really scary. Even if where it's taken you is a good

place and where you want to be, I think there is still a bit of

fear about that. Because, as you say, it's just not what you know.

Yeah, because it's not familiar. We can.

Sometimes you might feel anxious, you know, driving to a new place.

And, you know, we get in our cars. If we drive all the time, it's

exactly the same situation, but it's because of the destination

that it becomes. It's unfamiliar and

therefore we feel anxious. But when you get there, say if you're going on holiday

to somewhere new and it's obviously really great and you have a great

time, everything's all right, but you put that yourself

in that fear state or that

anxious nervousness state, because the evidence around you

shows, well, if I go to a new place on holiday, I've looked at the

hotel, I've looked at the way to get there. I've packed my suitcase,

I feel okay, that I'm going to feel confident, I'm going to have a good

time. The problem with running a business is that usually

our business, although somebody out there might be doing a similar product to

us or service, it's the first time we're doing it. And

there's no evidence to surround us that says that if

we do that thing, it's going to be okay. And

that's why running the business is so different to anything else. Even if

you're. If you're employed, you've got people in that office or in that

workplace that are doing a similar job, or they're going through

a similar, you know, ritual to you every day when

you're running your business, no one else is like, we all start usually on our

own. It's just us. What do you do? Oh, I've no idea what

I do in my day anymore. Like, I went from a really busy

secondary school with, you know, 200 odd staff, 1000

plus students to me in a room and my

mindset, my, the way that things were just crashed. I

mean, what really was a bonus for me is the business was successful

before COVID but the pandemic did

increase my sales. So I didn't really have time to even think. I

had to just make, make, just hand make all of the time.

But then when things start to quiet down again, I was like, oh my goodness.

Every single doubt, fear, physical

word that I'd been pushing away with the amount of work that I had

going on came up and hit me square in the face

and almost derailed me. But luckily, because

I'd had my master's research, I was like, I wonder if that will work

for me. And I started to create this process in

order to believe that my success was actually going to happen. I

was inevitable instead of just possible and make me

enjoy life a bit better as well. That's so

interesting. And the one thing you said that really resonated with me was when you

said about how even if you surround yourself with people,

perhaps they've started a business or, you know, people who've started a business, or you,

maybe you're in networking groups, maybe listen to podcasts or whatever it is to get

advice. I didn't actually think about it. And I know it's really obvious

that even though all that's really, really good, you still

haven't done that. And yes, it will still be unfamiliar because I

think I know when I started my business, my products business, I

spent so much time listening to podcasts, watching YouTube, reading blog posts, thinking

I'll find out everything I need to know. And then. But I still

felt really unsure of myself and I still questioned everything,

even though I felt that I'd really prepared myself.

So it's really, I think that's just really good to know because I think that'd

be really reassuring because I think sometimes we can do so much

preparation, we can do all the groundwork, whatever you want to call it. We can

be doing like really good, positive things. But then it froze

us up a little bit when we're like, I've done all of that, but why

do I still feel really anxious? Or why am I still second guessing everything

or whatever the thing might be? So I think that's just really

good to know that, I guess I don't want to use this word, but good

to know that that's normal. Oh, it is, yeah. I don't like to

use the word normal, but I think it is good to know that that is,

you know, is how you're feeling, is how people feel in that

situation. Because that can be one of the big things. Can't it be like, why

am I feeling like this? I, I should, I don't know if you find this,

Claire, people say things like this to you, but I mean, I give myself quite

a lot of self talk, or I say, you should be feeling like this, you

should be feeling, etc. Etcetera.

Like, I wonder, I guess what I'm saying is, I wonder if there's some power

in going, oh, actually, no, you should be scared and it'll be okay. But actually

that is how you should be feeling. Absolutely. That's exactly what you have to do.

Fear and doubt and imposter syndrome. Don't go anywhere. There's always going to

be. I mean, I find that doubt is always rooted

in either fear, self worth, or imposter syndrome.

Impostor syndrome is obviously, am I good enough? Worthy of I worth

the success? Fear. You know, I'm scared of failure, or

more often than not, scared of success. So when you think

about your doubt, it's so complex and will hit you

from different angles that if you didn't think, oh, this is what everyone

feels, it's just adding another layer, another layer of critical

self talk that's just going to keep you stuck. So by just

saying, hello, doubt, you're being a bit of,

a, bit of a nuisance today, aren't you? You're making me feel pretty

rubbish. Just want to let you know, like, I, we're safe.

I've got this, and thanks for letting me know that

you're there. Trying to keep me safe from this really exciting

dream that I'm trying to chase. But I've got this.

Thank you very much. I think acknowledging it and sort of giving

it a little bit of love helps in a way. I

teach that we should name our doubt that critical voice. So mine's

called Clara. And I always imagine her as somebody

that, you know, she's like a

teenager. She's upset with the world.

She's like the girl from the ring when she climbs out of the tv. She's

like greasy, lanky hair and she just needs a

cuddle. She just needs to know she's safe. And I think sometimes

that critical voice can be formed in some really painful times that everybody

experiences, you know, trauma is diff. You can have

different levels of trauma and everyone will go through some kind of level of trauma,

even if it's like a really micro thing. Somebody might have said something to you

at school or you might have lost your job or something like that. There's

lots of different levels to it. And those form the evidence,

I doubt. Collects them up like a little, puts it in its suitcase

and then unleashes the suitcase as soon as you want to step out of your

comfort zone. And I like to say that, like, comfort zone is

familiar zone. If we want to step out of that, we've got to do unfamiliar

things. But at that point, that suitcase is going to burst right open and tell

you exactly why you should not be doing it again and again and

again. And it's about just becoming aware and saying,

okay, I get that, but I must be doing something right

because you've only piped up now because I'm doing the unfamiliar, and I

know that I will learn because I'm stepping into my

unfamiliar. So the fact that you're showing up right now in such

an extreme way that is causing me a lot of discomfort means I'm

doing it right, means I'm being brave. And I saw a lovely quote a couple

of weeks ago that says that when you're doing brave right, it feels like

fear. So every time you're scared, but you take a deep breath,

you regulate your nervous system. And a way you can regulate

your nervous system. Go for a walk, like, take some deep

breaths. There's a really good breathing exercise called box breathing. I urge everyone

to go and google that, just to just

ground yourself into keeping yourself regulated

as you face the fear, because then

afterwards, you just get used to it. Becomes familiar that I remember

going like, I live on Instagram. I don't obviously

live there, but that's like my favorite platform. And the first time I went

live was so scary. So scary

because it was unfamiliar, not because anything bad was going to happen, that

what was the worst that was going to happen. A few people might think, oh,

who does she think she is? Well, I don't care anymore what those people

think. If they think who just think she is, I'm like, well, you're not my

ideal client, so I'm not that bothered. Thank you very much. Another quote. You're

not going to be everybody's cup of champagne because you're no cup of tea. I

said it wrong. You're not going to be everybody's cup of tea because you're

champagne. Like, I'm not going to be everybody's cup of tea. Thank

goodness. I haven't got enough time to support everybody in the world. I'll support

as many people as I can, but I think it's just allowing yourself

to just push that away. And I think what

happens when you our starting a

business is that your trajectory of self development is very steep. And it

goes, you know, like a rocket. And

our. And it's such a steep curve.

People around you, if they don't run their own business, will not

understand that. They won't understand how

much you've got to put yourself in front of people, be visible,

try new ideas, you know, take risks, invest all of

those things to get to where you are. And it's a sort of a behind

the scenes thing. And like you said before, only I know how

brave I am on a day to day basis. Like, my husband doesn't know. I

can't sit there and say, I've done this, I've done this, I've done this, I've

done this. Like, sometimes you have to be brave just to be disciplined. But

when you're surrounded by people that don't do that, it feels even more

alien. And then as you start talking about different things and

seeing the world differently, it becomes even more alien because it's like

no one else is talking about this. I remember, like, you know, talking about

being positive. I went on a complaint diet a few years

ago. Well, I stopped whinging or

just complaining. And because my dad wanted me to always be

misery. Like, in misery, I would complain a lot,

but nothing. It was literally just toxic behavior.

So I went on a complaint diet. And the feeling of

space in my head and the fact that I had energy

because I wasn't getting dragged down by my negative, like, the way that

I spoke out loud was just so transformational. I was like, oh,

my goodness, this is amazing. Then I started practicing gratitude

on a different level. Like every single, like, literally

every minute I'm thinking about what I'm grateful for, it just becomes part of it.

And it takes a while to get into it. But then you think, oh, my

goodness, I feel really good. Then you have more capacity to get to know

yourself. And when you start learning who you are

as a business owner, compared to the old you that might have been in

employment, you can then have a good foundation and

something to anchor your self belief to so that the doubt

doesn't get any louder or stop you and keep you stuck.

That's brilliant. Thank you, Claire. And something else that you said that I want to

come back to, just to highlight is that all of these things that feel

strange and scary, they. It's funny how quickly

they become normal. Yeah. Like give an

example. When I started this podcast, I was absolutely terrified every time

I had to interview someone. Even when I did a solo episode, just plugging in

my microphone would make me get a bit shaky because I just. I was really

scared. I don't know what of now. Like, looking

back, it seems silly almost, but I just think it's good for

people to know that. That. But the thing that can seem so big and

so scary and so overwhelming, it's funny how quickly it can just

become just part of who you are, what you do.

I don't think twice about it now. It's just, I'm a

podcaster, this is what I do. But it does take a

while for that identity to bed in.

But it does. It's funny how quickly something

can go from being really unfamiliar to just being part of who you are.

Yeah. Isn't it? But it's up with anything. I know,

you know, we all have gone through that, but expecting you

not to feel fear, it's just like expecting a newborn

baby to walk, it's just impossible. You just. It's not going to happen that

way. But it's just getting comfortable. And I know a lot of people

say this, but comfortable with being uncomfortable because you know you're winning.

When I feel really uncomfortable, I know I'm winning. I'm being brave, I'm doing

the unfamiliar, and then I know that I'm growing.

Thank you. I have got some really specific questions I'm going to ask you, Claire.

That's ok. I've been trying to love it. What are the things that lots of

us struggle with that you're going to be able to help us out with? And

I think the first thing I wanted to talk about is procrastination.

Because as I said, this is something that I know I do.

There's things on my to do list that get pushed back and back and back.

I'll do it next week, I'll do it next week. Never do it. And I

think that lots of us can relate. And sometimes it can

be something we want to do. So, for example, starting a business, starting a

podcast, selling on a new platform, whatever it is, it can be something we

genuinely want to do. So why, Clare, do we still

procrastinate, even if it's something positive?

Well, if it's something positive and you really want to do it.

That's usually led by your heart and your gut instinct.

It's because you're probably scared of success a lot

of the time when business owners are growing and scaling up. Like

I was saying, your attitude to life can change if you, you know, you're working

on your mindset, a lot of people around you may

distance themselves from you because especially if,

and unfortunately, you are holding a mirror up to say, look what

I'm doing. What are you not doing? You're not doing that, you

know, specifically. But a lot of people may take that

as a, oh, God, you know, if Claire's getting all this done and I can't

even get me food shopping this week, you know, I must.

I just. You just. People just don't want to be around that all the time,

especially if they're struggling themselves. So a lot of fear of success

comes from what are you going to lose as you become successful?

So that might be getting in the way. Sorry to jump in, but do you

think. I'm just really interested to know what you think on this. Do you think

more people are scared of succeeding than they are of failing? Yeah.

Yeah. Because it's so unfamiliar. We

usually, we failed in some way. And if somebody.

I mean, there were conversations I would have with groups of friends,

and it was always about, like, how's life? How's things going? And it would be

like, oh, work's really tough at the moment, really busy. I'm really

tired. Oh, I've had to row with so and so, you know, like you

would. It's always about what's going wrong. And so I switched it up, and I

just refused to say that because actually, I might be finding things a challenge,

but nothing's wrong in my life at the moment. Touch words. You know,

life is really good because I choose to create a

life. And I think that's, again, a very different level of empowerment,

obviously, like, life happens, and that's okay.

Like, I had some things early in the year, but the way that I

see how those things happen, you can, you

know, and what. What was going on for me in the beginning of the year,

it was horrible, and I felt really sad, and I just allowed myself to feel

the feelings and just move on from it.

But normally, I will say, life is

good. And as I say that, the amount of people that don't

say anything else, nothing. Nothing

is. They don't say, oh, why is that clear? What's going on

now? I'm not criticizing anyone for that because it's just human

nature. Because you want to belong, which means that

you need to follow the patterns of those people around you. And

I was really bucking against that trend with the people I

was hanging around with. And as we become

more successful, obviously we have a lot of wins. We might have some really

big challenges. But I myself don't believe in failure because

in my past, if I have failed, I've learned something really significant,

which has actually opened up another door, which I'm really grateful for. So

how can I say that that challenge was

a failure? It was just a lesson. So I see the world

as I am either winning or I'm learning. There's no

failure. It's impossible. Just pick myself back up and get on with it

to a point. But the fear is success means

that you are having more wins and it might be different to

those people around you. And you are choosing to

alienate yourself because you choose to run your business. And I think that can

make yourself feel really uncomfortable and those around you

feel really uncomfortable. And life can change so much when

you're successful as well as hiring more people. Like

definition of CEO. The identity that we have in our head is

usually something that we actually aren't and in ourselves.

So stepping into that identity can sometimes make us scared

of success because we think, well, if I'm a CEO, that might mean I'm not

going to see my children as much as I want to, or I'm going to

have to hire a massive team. I'm going to have to have a lot of

expenses moving offices or, you know, workspace.

I'm going to have to do this, this, this. I'm going to have to be

more visible. I'm going to. But that's only because you choose that, like,

you can still be successful and have a level of success in scaling the

business that you get to decide for yourself.

And I think it is definitely the unknown, and especially if no one else

around you is running a successful business. It goes back to what I was saying

at the beginning. Where's the evidence to support that it's going to be okay, you

just don't know. That's really interesting. Thank you.

And I definitely related to when you were talking about how

it can feel hard to relate to people if

you, when you reach level of success. So it's the best way of. How can

I explain this best? I know I sometimes find it hard if something good has

happened. I sometimes find it harder to talk about something that's really

good and really great. If someone says, oh, how things are being view, what

have you been up to. It's, it's actually sometimes can feel really awkward to

go, oh, I'm really good, actually. This amazing thing happened. Yeah. And I

don't know why that is. Well, I sort of do know why that is. But

it's a shame, isn't it, that because I feel like everyone

is nodding their head now and relating to this. I feel like

99% of us feel this way.

Yeah. And it does take. I went to

a one networking event a couple of years ago, and I just

had a quite challenging thing with it with an old friend. And it was really,

really horrible and painful. And I'd never been in another room with

as many women that were saying, I've been through something similar to

that. And I thought, this just must be a business owner kind of thing,

that you are choosing to have a

different look on life. You are choosing to create something that doesn't

exist. You. And that is not the norm.

That's why not everybody is an entrepreneur, because of

the grit that you've got to have to say, you

know what? I'm going to create this product or this service, it doesn't

exist currently, or my version of it doesn't

exist, I'm going to go for it. And that's where the self belief

really comes in, because you have got to know your purpose, your why,

like why you're really doing it, in order to move forward

and make that success. And I think that's why we procrastinate. We

procrastinate because we may not have that anchor

in place as much as we want it to be. So that's

why getting to know yourself through, you know,

spending time on your own, silent drives, silent walks,

no podcasts or anything like that. Journaling,

I try and write three, a four pages a day

because I need to talk to myself. I need to sort out

what's going on. And I was actually

talking to a client just earlier, and she struggles to write.

And I told her about this app called dictate. And you just talk into

it as you're walking or whatever. And you can do

like voice journaling. That's another way to sort of get to know yourself

so that you can feel your instincts in order to progress.

But when we procrastinate, we, what we

choose is what we want right now instead of what we

want most. And if we haven't got that sat nav or that

destination set to what we want

most, do we want a business that is scalable?

Do we want a business that's sustainable? Do we want to have

capacity in our lives. We don't burn out. Yes.

So in that moment, don't choose procrastination.

Choose to get it done. But in those moments, you will

feel incredibly uncomfortable because you are, your

doubt is making you procrastinate. And it becomes this horrible

cycle where you procrastinate. Your doubt is

loud, so you procrastinate and try and avoid what you need to get

done. That leaks into a

lack of self trust. So you stop trusting yourself as much

because you haven't got done what you said you wanted to get done.

That impacts self belief. Because if you can't

believe you're going to get that to do list done, how are you going to

believe you're going to get the big dreams, which then makes our doubt louder,

which then makes us procrastinate more. And it just goes round and

round. What we have to do is when we're procrastinating, become aware of it

as soon as possible and change everything up. Now, if you work from

home like me, you do as well. Vicki, don't you go

and change your clothes? This is one of the best things I can.

I love. I loved it. If I'm really stuck, I will literally just go and

change my outfit, stick my hair up, sometimes even just take all my makeup

off, put my glasses on, get in some comfy clothes and go.

Right, done. That phase of the day is finished.

I'm now into the new phase. Then I brain dump. So I

will write down until I don't want to write anymore

a list of everything I'm worrying about that I want to do,

that I feel like I should be doing that. I'm getting stuck

on all of the things in the house as well, family,

everything. And then I just take,

like, make sure I'm nice and regulated. And then I go through that list

and say, but what really needs to get done today?

Now, if we're product based business, you know, like myself

and you used to be, you get orders, those orders come

in and it's like a distraction

of, oh, my goodness, I've got another order. How can I get on

with the stuff that's going to actually grow my business? Do the

CEO stuff. If I've got orders sitting there,

one of the biggest things I would procrastinate over is when I

can't really do my books right now and I can't really do my marketing

strategy work and my content plan because I've got orders.

But if you were not working on the top of that funnel, the visibility

side for example, with marketing strategy content coming in or checking

that you're actually making a profit, you haven't got a sustainable

business. You can't just do orders all the time. And a

lot of I know when I got into doing my wire art, I could

very happily sit and watch Grey's anatomy making wire art all day

long, thank you very much. But that didn't feed

my soul in the same way this kind of stuff does. But when we're

in that zone, we need to really say, like, what is really

important? Highlight it. Love a highlighter. So I'll go

through what's really important. What and important is always

stuff that moves the needle. Urgent is usually based

on someone else's definition of urgent. So it's

important to get that balance. Important is about scaling

growing CEO stuff. Once I've got my list

of pink things, I then order them

in importance. There's a few steps to this, but it really does

help. So I will number them one to three or one to

whatever, and then I, then I say, well, I'm going to choose

three of these now. I'm going to do them all in

the order of worst first. So I

put, I start with the one that I'm putting off the most,

and I put on a timer for 25 minutes, which is

the Pomodoro technique. Actually, I'm going to add in

another element to this, because sometimes 25 minutes

on a job that we hate is too much.

So I introduced the 1% factor. The

1% factor is based on Newton's law of motion. That takes

more energy to get something going than it does to keep it going. So

I put on a timer for two minutes and I get two

minutes of work on that bit done. But because I've got it

started, my brain goes, well, we might as well

finish it now or we might as well carry on. Then I'll put a timer

on for 25 minutes. Have a five minute break. 25 minutes,

five minute break. I only work in bursts of 25 minutes. Unless I'm

doing something like this and recording my podcast, I only work in 25

minutes because I will lose concentration, I will lose

focus. And I used to beat myself up about it, but I don't anymore. I'm

doing hard stuff. It takes a lot of brain power. And usually if I'm

definitely doing CEO stuff, I want to be doing something different. So I'll do the

worst things. And then I reward myself by moving on to a job

that is a little bit easier. So you get a dopamine hit for the fact

that you get a little five minute reward of break.

You get a dopamine hit. When you check something off the list, you get

a dopamine hit because you're rewarding yourself with an easier task. And

that fuels your self belief. Finding

dopamine in your daily work will allow

you to boost and, like, overcome the

procrastination. And I always find if I'm

numbering things one, two, three, I'm just focused on what

is next. I'm not thinking, oh, what shall I do? That's wasting

your energy. You got to think of all of these little, like, energy drains that

can really impact your resistance to procrastination.

So I come in, I'm like, what's number one? Bang? Well, I'm going to do

that. Another thing I do, I have a massive whiteboard over here on

the left of me, and I've got all of my to do list

there. I can't lose a massive,

a zero whiteboard. I can't lose it. So I've

got no excuse not to get things done. I plan my time

on a Monday and I've got my whole week planned out of my jobs, and

I have to do the stuff that I hate first. We all do it, but

it allows me to procrastinate less. Procrastination will get everybody,

especially if you're in a really growth. Like, you've got a lot of energy

behind an area of scalability that you want to go into.

But these are the tips that help. And I know some people are going, gosh,

that's a lot. I understand, but the amount of

productivity you will get out of being that

prepared or paying dividends, you're not going to waste time

procrastinating. You're going to get to the end of the day and feel so

productive. So that boosts your self trust, that boosts your self

belief, that diminishes your voice, that the doubt. Therefore you're going

to procrastinate less the next day. Oh, that's all brilliant. Thank you,

Claire. I find slightly different techniques, but I do find

for the things I don't want to do, I literally put them on the calendar.

So they're there and they're on my calendar, and I'm going to do it at

00 on Wednesday or whatever. And I find that even that for

me really works because I'm like, okay, well, it's on the calendar. It's

00 Wednesday. It's 10:00 Wednesday now. Guess I'm doing it. Oh, you're

better than me. That doesn't work for me. I still go, yeah, I'll

just do it later. And actually, in a moment, I'm going to talk.

I'm going to ask you if there are any sort of signs of procrastination that

we can talk about as well, Claire. But before we do, to get to that,

something else I wanted to ask about is what if someone is procrastinating and they

know why they're doing it? Because I think you're going to have some great advice

on this. I can tell because you're very organized. Let's say someone's procrastinating because

they want to start a business, let's say. But it just feels so

overwhelming. It just feels like such a massive, massive

task. Or maybe it's something else. Maybe they want to, I don't know, renovate the

house or anything at all. That's a big

chunky thing that you're not going to get done in 25 minutes or

even lots of 25 minutes. How would you suggest you

approach that? I would start. I would use the

1% factor and I would start with something

that you really, you think that you're going to enjoy the most and just

spend a little bit of time on that. So in your example

of starting a business, I love the renovation of the house because I did this

with our kitchen. We just done it all up and I didn't want to do

it, but I did want to do it. So we had this horrible

laminate on the front of my kitchen doors. And I thought, right, I can go

and get the hairdryer and pull the laminate off of one door.

And that's all I just said to myself, because all I had to do was

get the hairdryer. Then the hairdryer in the kitchen means I'm going to start. So

by, if you're starting a business, I would google

how to start a business and watch a YouTube video. Or if you haven't already

done that, I would just spend five minutes brain dumping.

What's that idea going to look like? What value do you want to bring to

people? How do you, what do you want to be known for with your business?

And just, just dream? But I think it's important

to say, like, having this idea that, wouldn't it be

fun if. So, it becomes less serious. Wouldn't it be fun if I

started a business? So you have a bit more of a playful sort

of energy about it. And then I micro plan.

So when I've got a big project that I'm working

on, post it notes on my best friend, and I will write

and sit again for just 25 minutes, not a long period of time, and

write on separate post it notes everything that I think that I

might need to do for that project. So if, again, if you're doing the business,

it might be start thinking about a website,

create a logo, create a name, and start an Instagram handle.

Think about the value, et cetera, et cetera. And you just write

all of it down, and then you leave it. You come back to it a

couple of days later, do the same process, look at what you've already got

and see what else you come up with. And then you want to order

those post it notes in some kind of

timeline. I love, I

use big paper and big things, like with my whiteboard, or I've got

this big wall here that I use, and

I love the idea of putting it on a timeline in the shape of a

mountain, because that's what we're doing. We're climbing

a massive mountain that requires us to just take one

step in front of the other. So I draw, I guess I've got, like, flip

chart paper, or I've got my big whiteboard now, and I draw the shape of

a mountain, and I add my post it notes in order along

the timeline so that each day, or each time I do

it, if there's no deadline, I'm like, okay, I just need to

do this. This point. I get very overwhelmed

by seeing lots of to dos in front of me.

So I try and really focus on that one thing that I

need to do that day in order to feel like I'm making

progress. And one post it note a day, one tiny little

movement can really help you to get the.

Because there's that period where it tilts from overwhelm to

excitement, to passion to addiction, really, isn't it? When we start

a business, you just become completely absorbed by it.

So it's just waiting for that energy

to tilt into your favor, and then the ball gets rolling

and it's just being patient with yourself. I don't think anyone that's ever started a

business just one day went, oh, my God, this is it.

I'm there, I'm ready. You know, I'm going to do it all in one go.

It just doesn't happen like that. But if you've got an

idea, when that idea first starts, you've got to protect that

idea and really, like, protect it like it's a tiny little

plant. And it's your duty to protect that idea from your doubt,

because your doubt is going to tell you horrible things because it's

unfamiliar. But all that doubt, all of that fear,

lies, basic lies. It's not telling you any

truth because it's got no evidence to back it up. Or if it's evidence, it's

not back. It's not related to you starting a business because maybe you have never

done it before. So it's about just listening to your instincts. And

if your excitement about that idea is still there

day in, day out, just nurture it and protect it

from your doubt as much as you can. That's so helpful. Thank

you. I really like what you're saying because I think once you get going, it's

amazing, isn't it, how much just spending a tiny amount of time

every day, how much that builds. Because I really think that the

more you do, the more the momentum starts build. It's like that

they say about snowball, don't they, that it starts off really small and then it

gets bigger and bigger. And I do believe that. Yeah. I'm a big fan as

well of doing things in small chunks. I mean, I wrote a book doing like

really small, small chunks. Like some days, ten minutes.

Yeah. You do that for long enough and you do get somewhere.

Yeah. So let's. Before we move on from procrastination,

Claire, we've talked about this a lot, but what I would love is, are there

any, and we can do this super quickly. Are there any

little sort of signs of procrastination? Because I'm

just basically thinking people might not even know they're doing it. I

had an experience a while ago where I realized that I was

procrastinating by working, but working on things

I was meant to be doing. And I didn't really see that I was procrastinating

because I was being busy. Right. I was being really productive. I was just being

productive and all the wrong things. Are there any other little signs you can

say if you're doing this, maybe have a think about, is there something

you're trying to avoid? Yeah. So busy work is

number one. How many times I've got that drawer that's been not

sorted for over a year, and suddenly I have a burning desire to sort

it when I've got a massive thing that I'm supposed to be doing. So

you do that. You can feel quite tired or

yawning is a sign that your nervous system is unregulated. So your

doubt is sort of getting loud, and therefore you're going to procrastinate.

Getting hungry again is a distraction

feeling like you like those. Well, I

mean, Instagram or scrolling, googling

things that don't need to be googled. The other day I was thinking, oh, I

really need to do something. What was that actor in such and such, I wonder

if he's got any kids. And I'm like, going to google whether this

is this actor that I saw on something, whether he's got any kids. Why do

I need to know that in that moment? No idea. But my doubt was trying

to distract me. You will find that your

procrastination starts to evolve. So the basic

sitting on Instagram and scrolling, everyone, I think, is familiar with that.

But there are different ways that you

will procrastinate as you grow because it starts to

get sneaky. So one thing that I will do is, I had

this. Well, I've still got. I'm creating. It's

so funny, actually. I'm creating a lead magnet, a free

resource to help people when they're procrastinating.

But yesterday I procrastinated over it. Isn't that just

ridiculous? Ironic, because I know it

all up here, but it's my doubt going, but do you not know enough? Now

I'm sitting here, I was talking all this time. I know everything. I know so

much about procrastination. I feel really confident in it. I can help lots of

people overcome it. But, and actually, yesterday I

was writing a client story and it was taking me

ages. And I've realized that a limiting belief of mine is that

I don't, even though the evidence and the fact that I've helped hundreds of

people grow their businesses and help them with their self belief and doubt,

that part of my self worth that's, you know, from previous is still

there and I still battle with it. It was saying, oh, maybe

you've got nothing to do with their success. So I procrastinate over

creating something because of that imposter syndrome that's coming

in. But it can come up and get

us in so many different ways. But primarily

is, if you have scheduled something that you are supposed to be doing that

you know is going to grow and scale your business, even

if it's boring and you are avoiding it, you are

procrastinating. That's so helpful.

Thank you. That's really good. Because I think sometimes you just

need someone to sort of say actually, or yourself even just to be like, actually,

you are going to do this thing. And you've sort of, like you said, reorganized

all your drawers or whatever it is, anything but do it.

So let's move on for a little bit, if that's okay, because I'm conscious I'm

taking up a lot of your time. Although this is all brilliant, I feel like

we could just keep going and going, but I'm sure you've got somewhere else you

need to be. I think we've talked quite a lot about self doubt. So what

I would really like to talk about now, if it's okay, is

money. Because I think money is. Can be

such a big barrier. Whether that's fear of

making it, of not making enough of it, of making more of

it. Let's talk money. What kind of things do people come to

you with and what advice do you give them? I always find that

when you're running your own business, whatever you are selling, you find

quite easy to do. So whether that is

making or helping people, because it's your

superpower and because it's your magic that you

use to do that, it's actually quite easy,

and you get a lot of joy from it. That is not how work is

supposed to be for us in the 21st century. It's supposed to be

hard and challenging work, long hours, so

busy. I hate work. You know, no one's supposed to really enjoy

their work, etcetera. And because you find it easy,

you will. Then, because of how society is made up, we will

place more less worth on something that feels easy

to do, because that's just the way it

is. So I feel that a lot of people struggle with

money, especially with charging. Because

of that, there's not enough effort in making the

pound. And I love to think

of money as a type of energy. So I've

spoken about warrior energy, which is like the capacity to

be brave and grow your self belief and

do the brave things and know who you are.

That's warrior energy. Then you have joy, you have love, you

have, like, physical energy, you have gratitude, and you have money. The

only difference with money is there is a physical form in that

transaction. But other than that, it's just energy. So

when I deliver my services or my products, it's

not just a transaction. When I was doing wire art all the time, I wasn't

just handing over a piece of art. I was handing over

somebody's permission to step into a different identity because

they had bespoke wire art on their walls or some really empowering

words that gave them the confidence to show up as who they really are at

work, or it reminded them of a loved one that

passed away and they wanted to keep their memory alive. That's not just a

product like the same, like the products that you used to do, that's

wrapping up your. Your brand new baby in something

gorgeous and wonderful and carefully made and

gentle to their skin. You just want to be the best mom ever. You know?

Like, that is not just the product. The same is when I deliver my

coaching. I don't just support people to grow their business.

I support them to grow their life, their magic, their.

Their dreams. You can't like when you then put a

price on that. It's about a commitment to how they show up. And

definitely, if you don't charge your worth, you get

less. How can I say this nicely?

You don't get the same caliber of customers that

understand the work that goes into a small business.

And because of that, you then become burnt out. And there is magic

lost in what you're creating because of the energy that you have putting it into

it. So if you understand that money is just a

form of that energy, the more money energy that comes in, the more magic

energy you can give out. I know this sounds a little bit woo. I wish

there were better words, but it is that transaction of just

energy. But then the ripple effect of

that is that you can help more people. Nobody out there is

like, I want to work in. I've decided the other day I want to start

up an animal hospital in Kent in a few years because

I keep watching all these wildlife programs with my son, and I just love it.

So I want to do that. And my husband, he's worked with homeless

adults for most of his career, and I would love for

him to grow a homeless charity that's trauma informed from, like

the day dot that they come in, the foundations are there. If I

don't become like, create magic in my business to create that

money, that those things aren't possible, they won't help other people. And I think

we all have to recognize that our businesses help

people. They're not here to be horrible or take

things away from people. They're to give value. And you

should charge your worth so that you can live a life that creates

more magic in you to give away. That's such

brilliant advice, Claire. Thank you. And I think as well, and I. Because I'm

totally with you for all of that, because I think as well, you

have a really bad feel, or I certainly do. You know, when, like, you know,

you're not charging your worth, how you feel resentful, you

do. And then I do believe that whether you mean to or

not, that feeling then kind of,

I don't know best way of saying I think it show. I think it spills

out. It does. Yeah. And everyone is

kind of affected by that. Whereas if you feel that you're being

paid fairly and you feel good about

that, then the person you're working or people you're working with also feel good about

that. And I just think everyone just has a much nicer experience and

I think. It'S really important to stay here. And this might be a bit of

a Marmite comment, but I feel

I get frustrated when I see business owners on their, say,

Instagram or something saying, life is so

difficult for a small business owner. This, this and this. Now there's no getting

away that running a business is difficult. But don't whinge

about it because that is negative energy and you won't get sales by putting

that energy out there. It's just people are attracted to good

vibes, good energy, being grateful. I have had

very challenging times in my business, but I get to do this.

I get to. This is work. Vicki, we have a wonderful conversation on a

podcast. I get to then I've got other podcasts today. I get to

sit and chat to amazing people all day. I get to make.

Well, did you with the wire art do that? I help to help people make

loads more money and have a better life that ripples into their children.

I can't moan about that, and I won't because self doubt is

part of the package. It is tough. And if you need to

have a cry, go and have a cry because that's a really good way to

feel a bit better from it. But don't show up on your

social media saying things are really tough.

Show up with that energy of gratitude that you get to have a

business and then watch the sales come in as a result of that.

Thank you so much, Claire. So let's talk now. We talked

a bit about money and self doubt. Let's talk a little bit about

efficiency and actually getting things done. You touched

on this before with the Pomodoro method. Yeah. Do you have any

other tips and hacks for getting things done? Let's say we've released all

of our mindset blocks. We're ready to go. What are your

top tips? I definitely think timing everything. I think

especially if you're, if you are making time yourself, creating

those products and see how fast you can do them. And I know that's like,

specifically to handmade, but it's the same thing, making sure that

you are disciplined with your time and putting

in as many breaks as you can. Like, breaks are beneficial, you'll be more

productive in half the time. The 1% factor, like

I said, just doing two minutes of something so you can get started.

And first, worst. Yeah, worst first.

Sorry, worst, first. So numbering the list, like, the biggest thing that I

do is numbering things so I don't have to look at the whole thing.

That's brilliant. Thank you. And thank you so much for everything that you share.

I honestly feel, Claire, if you didn't have other things to do, we could just

keep this going. You might have to come back, actually, if you. Yeah, that's

fine. I'm very happy to come back and. Talk some more, but before I

let you go, I've got one final question for you. So what

would be your number one piece of advice for anyone who's struggling with any of

the topics we've covered today? And I know we've covered a lot, they're struggling.

They need a bit of a boost. What would you say to them, Claire? So

I've got this great visualization that I think of when things.

I find things really, really challenging. And I imagine myself at the

beach with my feet in the sand and the waves are coming at me. And,

you know, when you stay in the shallow bit of the sea and you can

feel the movement of the waves coming in, you've got to sort of find your

core muscles and stand up straight. Imagine that's happening and

the waves are coming. And just as I think

that's it, I can't do it, the tide starts to go out

and it's that grit and determination of just keeping

going. You will know if things aren't right. Your intuition will tell

you that. But if your intuition is still saying, but

maybe. But what if. Keep going. Keep

staying there till the tide goes out. Because everything is happening

exactly as it should. You just need to hold your nerve and trust the

process. And in hindsight, when you look back, the lessons

you learned in that period are going to open so many doors for

you. Well, that's brilliant. Thank you so much, Claire. You're

very welcome. Loved it. Thank you

so much for listening. Right to the end of this episode, do remember that you

can get the full back catalogue and lots of free resources on my website,

vickywineberg.com. please do remember to rate and review this

episode if you've enjoyed it and also share it with a friend who you think

might find it useful. Thank you again and see you next week.