Today I had Karima Creative on the podcast and let me tell you, it was a good one! Karima is a brand and web designer from Raleigh, North Carolina. In this episode, we talked about the importance of business coaching, her best tips for productivity, and so much more.
Karima has an inspiring story. She quit her job, broke off her engagement, moved away from her friends and family. Once she realized she wanted to work for herself, she hired a business coach and that was the major turning point in her career.
I really connected with this part of Karima’s story. Something I brought up on the episode that many people might not know this about is that I got fired like 10 times in one year — eek! My self-esteem was so low and that’s when my mom was like maybe you should try working for yourself.
So, what the heck is business coaching? Pardon moi? A business coach can help you take your business from where it is to where you want it to be by helping you clarify the vision of your business and how it fits in with your personal goals.
In the podcast, Karima talks about how investing in a business coach who cost literally more than her rent was the best decision she ever made. I know that a lot of people are wary of online courses and education, but they could help you avoid five years of failure.
She also made a great point in the podcast: Even Michael Jordan had a coach. That’s not because he wasn’t an amazing basketball player, it’s because his coach could see his strengths and weakness and help him get where he needed to be faster.
I’ve invested so much in business coaching and courses off site – I’m never not learning!
If you don’t know already, I’m an Enneagram 3 and so is Karima! Being an enneagram 3 makes it hard for us to know when to stop working and take a break! (I have a whole blog post on all things enneagram, you can check that out here!)
Karima’s business coach told her how four hours of focused work is better than eight hours of frantic busy work where you’re just jumping all over the place — and I couldn’t agree with that more. I’ve definitely struggled with overloading myself with work and not learning when to say no. You need to do things that benefit your business and your business’s bottom line. Have an intention for your day, focus on one task at a time, and then you can work fewer hours, and actually get more done.
Here are Karima’s top 3 tips for staying productive
Burnout happens to everyone and it’s really hard to see it coming until it’s already there.
Tips to avoid burnout:
Learning to rest, not quit fits perfectly with what I always say: align, don’t hustle. Aligning is being stratgeic about how you work and rest so you can be balanced and efficient. Hustling is having a “go go go” attitude that doesn’t tell you when to relax or when you get there — then you never know when you arrive.
Nothing will work if you can’t. When you can’t recognize burnout in yourself you’ll work through it and that’s not healthy. What we don’t realize is that working and working to just get things done makes us dread our work and that doesn’t help us produce good content.
Well guys, I hope this helped you learn more about the importance of business coaching and how to overcome burnout and unproductivity. I’m so excited for you to hear the rest of the amazing guests I have this season!