Embracing Peaceful Productivity and Reinvention for Empathpreneurs with Anne Rajoo

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About the episode:

Something that I really appreciate about thriving and having it all as an empathpreneur, is that we get to create our business around the lifestyle that we’re committed to. For me recently, that has looked like creating more spaciousness and more free time in my schedule to be with my son, while also re-evaluating my business through the lens of what’s enough. This has opened up so much more joy and peacefulness in my everyday life and I am loving every moment of it. So with that, I’m delighted to have Anne Rajoo, a Peaceful Productivity Mentor, on the show today. Anne owns a boutique VA agency and is a two time graduate of our Emerge Mastermind, and she’s someone who I appreciate and find a lot of peace in her presence. I hope you enjoy today’s episode with someone who truly embodies what they stand for in business and is committed to continually reinventing her own experience of peaceful productivity as she supports her clients in doing the same.

 

Topics discussed:

• How Anne maintains peace and balance when she’s in the midst of the harder moments of entrepreneurship and life and how she defines productivity
• Anne’s experience of moving from a very productivity-centered Germany to the slower island life of Mauritius and charting this new course that was never modeled for her
• How holding your own boundaries and expectations can not only open opportunities and communication for yourself, but show others what is possible, too
• Learning to prioritize your greatest commitments and what you enjoy the most in work and then outsourcing the rest to grow a scalable business
• Practices that you can start now to cultivate peaceful productivity in your own business and why Anne believes “making the ask” can be the most impactful

 

Episode Resources:

• Do Nothing by Celeste Headlee

 

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[expand title=”Click here for a raw, unedited transcript of this episode“]

 

Catherine A. Wood

hello, hello. Welcome back to the podcast. Cat, here some context for today’s episode. So we’re recording today’s episode on the eve of Thanksgiving here in the States. And I know it sounds cliche, but I am feeling particularly grateful this Thanksgiving and as we enter the holiday season here in the States, because motherhood has really just shaken up my business in the best way possible. And I know I’ve talked some about this recently on the show, just some of the changes we’ve made in the cadence of the podcast, and in what we’re committing to in business. And you know, I’ve shifted my work schedule so now I’m working only two days a week, and all these changes have resulted in me just being a lot more intentional around how I’m spending my time in the business, and that’s a huge focus of what we’re going to be talking about on the show today. And I think it’s something that I really appreciate about thriving and having it all as an empath preneur, is that we really do get to create the business around the lifestyle that we’re committed to, and for me, that’s looked like creating more spaciousness and more free time in my schedule to be with my son, while also having me re evaluate business through the lens of what’s enough and that conversation, that shift to sufficiency and really looking through the lens of what’s enough has has just opened up so much more joy and peacefulness and and free time. Let’s be honest and and I’m loving every moment of it. So with that, I’m really hoping that you take away some some tips and some practices from our guest today around how you can create more spaciousness and more tools to redefine what having it all looks like for you in business. So with that, I’d love to introduce to you our guest on the show today. I have with me, Ann Rahu. Ann is someone I’ve known for several years now, both professionally and as colleagues. She’s a two time graduate of our emerge mastermind, and she’s a constant attendee at our monthly non networking Power Hour, which is another business decision that we’ve decided to pause the the non networking power hours for now. And she’s someone who I appreciate and find a lot of peace being in her presence. So a little bit about Anne. Anne is a peaceful productivity mentor. She’s the founder of Virtu fully, a boutique V agency she gave She guides female entrepreneurs to cultivate a harmonious approach to work and life through peaceful productivity practices. She helps her clients move beyond the endless cycle of busy work, guiding them to prioritize what truly drives impact. I

i hope you enjoy today’s episode with someone who truly embodies what they stand for in business and is committed to continually reinventing her own experience of peaceful productivity as she supports her clients in doing the same. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Let’s dive in. 

 

Catherine A. Wood  0:02  

Hi and welcome to the podcast.

 

Anne Rajoo  0:04  

Hi, Kat, so excited.

 

Catherine A. Wood  0:08  

You know, it’s interesting. As I was, as we were just recording and chatting for a couple minutes before we started the episode, I was thinking how lovely it is just being with you, being with your energy, with your presence, with your essence, and how apt the name for your company is peaceful productivity, because it truly is the experience of peace just being with you. And I don’t know if I’d ever made that connection before,

 

Anne Rajoo  0:38  

oh, that’s probably one of the most wonderful compliments I could get. Thank you.

 

Catherine A. Wood  0:44  

Well for our listeners, Anne and I have known each other now for for several years. Gosh, I think we first met Anne when you asked me to be part of one of your Oh, how lovely. One of your summits around motherhood, and I wasn’t yet a mother, and so I connected you with one of my colleagues, but we’ve stayed in touch, and it’s been, first of all, I’m so delighted to now get to call myself a mother. Maybe we’ll touch on that in our conversation today, but how lovely. I think that was probably what like three years ago?

 

Anne Rajoo  1:21  

Yeah, three years at least. Yeah, that was very early days of business and entrepreneurship and yeah, but it’s, it’s been one of the longest standing connections I’ve been having. So yeah, I’m super excited to do this and to have met you in different ways, in different capacity.

 

Catherine A. Wood  1:41  

Well, maybe we’ll start there like I would love for you to share a little bit about your entrepreneurship story and how you got to be how you got to be here.

 

Anne Rajoo  1:52  

Oh goodness, yeah. I always say it was an accident. I didn’t actually want to become an entrepreneur. My dad, who just retired, I just told you, was an entrepreneur most of his life, and he worked really, really hard. And so I thought I don’t want to work as hard as he did, so I’m just going to work in a nine to five. But then life did a bit of a few twists and turns, and basically I had my second baby was on maternity leave for a few months. Was supposed to go back to my travel and tourism marketing job, and unfortunately, the company had some financial difficulties, and then told me in december 2019 they wouldn’t be able to continue. Like, yeah, they wouldn’t be able to keep me. And I thought, okay, that’s fine. I sort of like grew bored with the job and thought, let’s have Christmas. I wasn’t quite ready to go back to work. Anyway. I had my little baby, and I thought, I’ll find a new job in the in the new year. But then we all knew know what happened in 2020 by February, we were all locked down. There was no jobs to be found, and I was working in tourism. And I live in Mauritius, which lives off tourism. There was no tourists coming, so I, you know, I just needed to find something that would support my family financially. And I started working online as a virtual assistant. And I did that for a few years, and still do that in the capacity of my virtual assistants agency, but always had, you know, the inspiration and passion for sharing other sides of my life, including motherhood, and this is how we initially connected when I started the business with a focus more on motherhood, and that has, over the years, then changed to productivity, and yeah, and that’s what I do now. I mentor peaceful productivity, and I have a small boutique VA agency, learning how to be an entrepreneur, which I never thought I could be and would be, and I’m trying not to fall into the working really hard trap that I’ve learned from my dad. Basically, that’s also part why I created peaceful productivity. Yeah, we can get into that, probably during the conversation.

 

Catherine A. Wood  4:16  

I mean, I certainly resonate with that. I grew up with parents who were entrepreneurs, who worked really hard, and I also had that modeled for me, and knew I didn’t want that experience of life or entrepreneurship. There was a lot, a lot, a lot to unlearn there and be grateful for, right? Because I always say, like having having role models who created life on their own terms, following their dreams was certainly an inspiration and a modeling for me to do the same, because it’s really challenging, taking that road less traveled and carving out your own path. Yeah, and you know, in your case, when you’re presented a pandemic and you have no other option, like you get to discover who you really are, because you have to, especially when you have children who you’re now responsible for.

 

Anne Rajoo  5:16  

So true. And I think if I didn’t have that model of my heart working dad, I probably would have given up along the way, because there was quite a few hurdles and challenges in the whole entrepreneur’s journey. But I think because he would never give up, give up, no matter what you know work or life would bring, and that’s definitely something that I take away as a positive role model, just as you said. So yeah,

 

Catherine A. Wood  5:41  

I mean, I think that’s such a an important point that maybe we could dig into more. Because I think that, first of all, as entrepreneurs, we all experience hurdles, right? We say in through the coaching lens that the breakdown always leads to the breakthrough, and you have to break down first. And it can be really hard to maintain that peaceful experience, or that, you know, air quotes, balance, sense of balance when you’re in the midst of those hurdles, or those breakdown moments, or those burnout moments. And so, you know, you are all about peaceful peaceful productivity. How do you maintain peaceful productivity, or being at peace when you are in the midst of those hurdles, or there’s those hard moments?

 

Anne Rajoo  6:39  

Yeah, are there so many, so many things that we could talk about? I think the most important ones that I personally experienced and then bring into peaceful productivity is really giving yourself grace. First of all, I used to be really hard on myself when things didn’t quite work the way I wanted them to work. So just allowing that, you know, life sometimes throws those hurdles, and that’s not necessarily saying anything about you as a person, but it’s just part of the journey, and also that rest and looking after yourself is essential to doing great work, to, you know, to being productive and all of that. And I was definitely someone who didn’t know how to rest and to not do anything. That would mean I was very lazy and unproductive, and I had to definitely change that mindset. And I think the other part is to find people to help you and to support you, and to be around people who understand you, but at the same time challenge you a little bit and celebrate you with all the messiness that comes along. I think that would be the three most important parts. And then there’s so many little, little practices that that I can I developed over the time to really make sure that while I, you know, do the work I love, I also find the joy in what I do. I prioritize what brings me joy, what I’m good at, and so many little things, delegation was a big one for myself as well, bringing on people to support me. Yeah, I think that were the key parts that I learned and that I discovered that I don’t productivity doesn’t mean you have to just work incredibly hard and work all the time and fill every minute of your day. It means that there’s different parts of you that can, you know, come into work and life and play and joy and these kind of things.

 

Catherine A. Wood  8:51  

You know, this conversation is reading is reminding me of a book I read a couple years ago. We read it in our unbounded mastermind. I wonder if you’ve ever heard of it, and it’s called do nothing, how to break away from overworking, overdoing and under living. By Celeste heedly. Have you heard of this? Yeah, it’s fantastic. I highly recommend it. And she she’s a researcher a PBS broadcaster, and so, and her background is in research, and so she brings and weaves a lot of research into the book. And there was one statistic that she shared around. It was a study done by the UN and it it shared that more people die every year from workaholism than alcoholism. And I thought that was absolutely fascinating, because when we think about work, all ism, it’s it’s lauded in so many cultures, it’s celebrated. It’s socially acceptable, whereas addictions of other variations. Students aren’t so culturally accepted or celebrated, but, but workaholism often is right, like, especially, yeah, you know, you live in that island culture, so it may feel a little different than than German culture did, being being for you at home, but, and maybe we could explore that, because I’m curious about that. But, you know, here, here in the states, like workaholism is genuinely accepted and and approved of. And, you know, I I lived in DC for a decade, and that’s really the norm. And so I guess I’m curious what your journey has been like, really charting a new course for yourself than what was modeled for you in your home. And also, if you noticed any differences when you were back in Germany, versus versus experiencing that, that way of living and working on in island culture. I

 

Anne Rajoo  11:02  

love that. I never thought about it. But definitely what comes up straight away is that back in Germany, I would get very easily frustrated when things didn’t work smoothly. I mean, like, you know when the train came late, or the queue is too long in the supermarket, or when there’s someone who’s just not really efficient in what they do, it would get me so frustrated, because Germany is so so efficient with everything, and when things don’t work, we tend to get really angry about it, like there’s something wrong. And I definitely took that with me for many years, and I think when I started working in Mauritius, I definitely had to learn to to ease off a little bit. People, do, you know, they work hard, definitely, I’m not saying that they don’t, but it’s definitely a different pace. There is a lot more, you know, you know, let’s have that tea break and have quite an extended tea break that was like, so alien for me, like, as a German you, you just really drown you your coffee, and you go back to your desk and don’t, you know, take long breaks and that kind of thing. And I think it definitely helped in the sense of letting go a little bit of this. You’ve got to just really be incredibly efficient with everything you do, and to bring a little bit more joy and life, and, yeah, slowing down a little bit. I mean, even when I walk, I walk very fast, because that’s what Germans tend to do when I walk about around here, everyone is so slow and, you know, like stopping on the corner having a chat and that kind of thing, which is definitely not something that Germans do so much. So, yeah, I love that. I never thought about it. But yeah, it definitely is a part that helped me to recognize that we can, we can do it differently, we can slow down and still be efficient.

 

Catherine A. Wood  13:01  

I mean, I so appreciate this conversation, because we you and I haven’t really chatted about this, but I lived in an island for four years. I was on the Dominican in the Dominican Republic for four years. And you know, when it rains in the Dominican, like it is actually here right now in Boston, everything stops. School is canceled. Meetings are canceled. Visitors don’t visit. Like, life stops. When it rains,

 

Anne Rajoo  13:31  

it does. We just had our first cyclone here. I’m like, Oh, there you go again. School closed, everything closed. No one goes outside and does anything.

 

Catherine A. Wood  13:41  

Yeah, yeah, but you know, so, so it’s one thing when there are those kind of cultural norms or circumstances, whether it’s a rainstorm or a cyclone, that caused you to slow down, but when you’re slowing down on your own terms or because you want to, and it’s not necessarily socially acceptable, or perhaps what you’re seeing amongst your peers. How do how do you chart that new course when it’s one that’s not being hasn’t been modeled for you and isn’t necessarily the one that every one else follows.

 

Anne Rajoo  14:29  

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, I had to learn to create boundaries and uphold these boundaries and secure like fight for them. So to say, to make sure that other people don’t try to, you know, bring down my boundaries. I think it’s that’s definitely been a big part to just openly share why what I believe that I believe we can, you know, slow. Down, we can work differently. And it doesn’t mean that the task, the client, the call, whatever it is, it’s not important to me. It’s just that there is the there are other things that are important to me and that I I am intentional about when I work and how I work. And a big challenge has been with my husband, who is very much, you know, like who, who obviously appreciates that I balance work and motherhood and I’m there with the children. But for example, when it comes to work or me not answering my phone in the afternoon, he often made comments of like but that’s going to damage your business if you don’t answer these emails, or if you don’t answer the phone, that’s not professional. Or I sometimes I put this sort of he calls them cutesy out of offices, saying that I’m taking a break and that I’m just going to probably sit by the pool and drink an iced coffee for two days and I’m not checking my emails. And it, it’s, it’s sort of outrageous that I put that out there, but for me, it’s, it’s part of what I believe and how I want to work. And most often than not, I actually get positive comments of like, Hey, this is a really cool one. I’m going to copy that. I love that, and enjoy your coffee. So to say so it’s, I think there’s the projection of, oh, this is not how we do business or how it’s supposed to do to work. But then when people experience it, they actually appreciate it most of the times. It’s quite funny. I

 

Catherine A. Wood  16:43  

I really hear that difference between being driven by by fear around what we think we should do as entrepreneurs, or how we think we should respond or be in communication with clients and colleagues, and you know, potential clients, versus, operating by our own values or what just feels good to us. And I totally like, I really appreciate how your eyes are lighting up when you’re talking about these air quote cutesy out of office emails and and the response you get. Because I think that makes total sense. I think that when we’re willing to chart a different course for ourselves in business, it often times creates more permission for ourselves, right when we’re communicating our boundaries and the ways of operating it, it not only holds us accountable to what we say we’re going to do, right? It’s like this, like implicit accountability structure, but it also creates a permission slip for others to take the unchartered route for themselves. You know, I think that as a coach, I often feel that way with clients like when I’m upholding boundaries around when I’m available for client calls, or my cancelation policy, or when I respond to emails or or things like that, like when I’m when I’m operating by my own business policies, right? Like it’s modeling something for others, others to do the same, of how it of how it could be different for them too. And I think that is kind of one of the ways in which we get to operate in integrity with our own values and with our own standards as business owners,

 

Anne Rajoo  18:43  

absolutely. And what came to my mind, and what I learned from you actually, is the whole idea of the energy that we put out is what we attract. And so I think over the time when I shifted away from, you know, busy and stressing and doing 5 million things at the same time. Then I had clients who worked like that, and it felt very chaotic, because there was no there wasn’t a lot of boundaries, and so they didn’t have a lot of boundaries, and it was like just chaos. But once I started shifting the energy and implementing some different ways of working. The people that I attracted were different too. They appreciated and they wanted someone who actually understands. Like, I remember her one client. She was very, very strict. Like, do not contact me outside these hours, because I I’m saying, like, that harsh way. I don’t want to hear from you, basically, but I was like, Oh, I like that, because that is just so clear, and we know exactly what to expect. And that I do think that came from, you know, shifting the energy and being that person, and then attracting people who have similar beliefs and values. Into my world, and that removed a lot of the chaos that I was experiencing, experiencing before.

 

Catherine A. Wood  20:05  

It’s kind of refreshing, right? It’s like, where you when you always know where you stand with your clients, or the people that you hire, like when you know where you stand around, what to expect, and when you can expect to hear from them, then we we can just remove so much of the projecting and the assumptions and the people pleasing that we tend to do as empathpreneurs, because we’re we’re just directly communicating Exactly. It’s freeing, exactly. I always use that as a gage for me to know who I want to work with, right? Because it’s like, for me, direct communication is a skill set that many of us have to learn and practice, and for me, it’s always a sign of someone who’s done their own work.

 

Anne Rajoo  20:59  

Yeah, absolutely I agree. It’s just, it feels that when, when you have these open communication, like conversation, it just removes so much potential, yeah, miscommunication, misalignment and work just flows a lot better. And I think it’s, it’s definitely a skill that needs to be learned, and from a virtual assistant perspective, and working with different clients and a team, it has helped me so much, and I think it’s part of why I eventually decided to bring on a team after the first few years of doing it all by myself, but really understanding that I can communicate and I can, you know, implement boundaries and ways of working, and that I have the control eventually over it. I didn’t believe that at first, because I came from the corporate world where I was an employee and I had to execute the work that my boss gave me, and I had to do it in the way that my boss expected it from me within the deadline that I was given. So I struggled with that initially, and I think the communication has been definitely a big, big part of helping me to change that. I

 

Catherine A. Wood  22:12  

mean, I think that that is that’s a really important mindset shift that those of us who transition from corporate or a nine to five to becoming self employed, we really all have to make like that, that mindset shift of following rules or following a job description to then writing your own job description and also reinventing and changing Your job description over time, and that’s actually where I wanted to bring the conversation next, because when I think about peaceful productivity, you know the experience of what brings us peace in business today might look very different than what brought you Peace last year, or what you are wanting more peace in, you know, in this next chapter. So I’m curious like, what reinvention has looked like for you, as you’ve been in that conversation around what is, what does peaceful productivity mean and look like, even for you, yeah.

 

Anne Rajoo  23:22  

I love that, yeah. I think the reinvention there, that that I felt the strongest, is to really listen to myself, what brings me joy in the work that I do, and what sort of really feels aligned with my skills and with the results it creates, I think I really fell in that busy trap of, you know, oh, I could do this and I could do that, and then I see a new shiny object on the internet. Someone is doing something really cool. And I’m quite a creative person, so I quite quickly get excited about brainstorming about a project or creating a graphic and doing updates on my website and these kind of things. But I think eventually it came down to really looking at what brings results in the business, because at the end of the day, you know, it’s a business, and it needs to make some money and bring certain results, and they can’t just keep me busy and working really hard and then it doesn’t add up, but also really, yeah, just enjoying the work that I do and simplifying. I think I was over complicating it so badly because I wanted to do it all, and was just trying to do too many things at the same time, whereas now it’s more strategic, it’s more planning, and it’s really being more realistic about my capacity, and, yeah, just allowing the fact that I might not be able to do it all at the same time, because. Right now I’m only working certain hours so that I can be still with my children in the afternoon, because they’re still sort of small. It might change over the years, obviously, but right now, in this time, it means that some projects maybe can’t get done, or they have to be stripped back to something more basic. I think this is also something I had to, I had to learn in terms of the perfection of it doesn’t have to be this amazing, great project that has, you know, all the landing pages and everything beautifully designed. It can be something very simple, and it will still do the job. And then with time, it can grow. Yeah, I think this has been a big transformation to just really simplifying, focusing what I’m good at and what I enjoy, and then looking at what you know, what am I doing that is not really necessary, and then other things that someone else can do better or might even enjoy, like admin work, which I don’t enjoy so but there’s people who do like these things, and yeah, bringing on people like that to help me with with these things.

 

Catherine A. Wood  26:17  

Yeah, I’m I really appreciate that, like I hear the lens of prioritizing your greatest commitments and distinguishing the difference between those smaller C commitments and and the capital C commitments. Right? Like I one of the first things that comes to mind to me when I think about you is that you’re a mother, so you’re building your business around being a mom, like, what is the schedule and the work life balance that supports you in having both and having time with your kids and growing a scalable business? And I think that that’s something that I’ve really appreciated, even for me in becoming a mom, is that those commitments have have been I’ve been reevaluating them, and, you know, sharing with you, before we press to record, that, like a lot of I made a lot of changes in my business and how I work to support, kind of, my reinvention of my commitments, and it’s so refreshing and clear. And

 

Anne Rajoo  27:29  

I said to you that I think you’re in this, like, beautiful spot where you already know and you can do these things. I think for me, when I became a mom and got into the entrepreneur world. It wasn’t clear at all. I didn’t know how to to juggle. And it was this crazy time of the pandemic when, you know, when it was just really hard. In any case, there was no schools, there was no support network. But I think it’s like, it’s incredibly important, I think, for a mom to have this clarity, because we already having so much mental load and so many other things that we are taking care of. But then I’ve I always felt like so pulled in two directions, because there was all this mental load about the business and how to do all of this, and the passion for the business, and then the passion for motherhood. And I think it’s beautiful that you already say that. It’s so crystal clear for me, it took a few years to get to that point. So yeah,

 

Catherine A. Wood  28:37  

I mean, I appreciate that. I think that’s like one of the in hindsight, one of the pieces I’m most grateful about in my own mothering journey starting later in life, is that I got to to do a lot of that inner work beforehand. You know, like a decade of coaching will, will will help you set a lot of foundation that can support wherever you choose to reinvent. And certainly it’s made a huge difference in my, my journey to becoming a mom and and of course, there were a lot of hard moments in getting here, but now that I’m here, I mean, hindsight is so valuable. And I guess the thing I really just wanted to highlight, and what you just said, is, like this idea that as moms like I think it can be such a just such a support system in helping re evaluate those priorities. Because, you know, many of our listeners will identify as we do, as being ambitious and prone to perfectionism and wanting to do things the right way and please other people. And you know, when you’re in that kind. Of more, more is better. Kind of default motherhood can really help you reevaluate and and start to ask a different question. So rather than the question of, you know, what else it gets to become like, what’s enough? Yeah, what’s what’s sufficient? And I, I think that question has really helped me remove a lot of the fluff in my business and my business model, you know, like I used to be. I’m sure you can appreciate this Anne, but I used to be so generous with my time. You know, I would get on the phone with almost anyone who booked a call with me who wanted to talk about coaching or becoming a coach. And it was actually, oh, this is funny. You’ll appreciate this. So the beginning of this month was my first month back in the office, and the very first phone call I got on with with someone was someone who had booked a call with me. I didn’t know him. He was overseas, and he wanted to talk about becoming a coach, but as soon as I hopped on this call, I realized that he was actually doing market research for his own video marketing business that he promotes to coaches, right? So I felt like, rather than wanting to talk about the possibility of working together, working with a coach in my team, like he actually wanted to get market research with me for his business. And it was such an illuminating moment for me, because, you know, I often don’t mind helping out people who are newer in business and want to, you know, leverage my knowledge, but not when it doesn’t feel like a values aligned energy exchange, right? Like I felt like I was being used on this phone call and being taken away from my son. How dare you. And so that was such a I mean, honestly, I laugh about it in hindsight, but it was really the kick in the pants that I needed to reinvent my boundaries and really reevaluate how much of my time am I willing to give away now being back from maternity leave, and what do I need to put in place in order to ensure that I’m really only giving my time to people that feel like a values aligned, energetic, fit, and I mean, I’m grateful for that call, because it was Really the kick in the pants I needed to to really create some more boundaries around time, which I really do believe is our most precious asset,

 

Anne Rajoo  32:49  

absolutely. And I really appreciate that. And when you were sharing about the support and this sort of brought back memories of the work that we’ve done together as well, because I really struggled with, you know, like, leaning into getting support. I always had this belief of, like, you know, I’m a strong, independent woman, I have to be able to do it all. And that was definitely really strong in motherhood the first year, I remember, like, I wouldn’t hardly even allow my husband to look to, like, get involved with the kid, the baby, because my precious baby and I can do it all. And I was doing the same thing again at work, like, Yes, I can manage the household. I can manage the children, I can grow a business, I can be successful, and I will do it all by myself. And I think with something that I really learned through the work together. It’s like this opening up and allowing to receive the support and to asking for it, which was really hard sometimes, but I think why peaceful productivity came to life as well was this difference that it made for me when I had support systems in place, and how that really removed again, so much of the stress and overwhelm by something quite simple, really, by, you know, like letting people who care for you support you in some way. And, yeah, I think this just came to my mind. And, like, this was definitely a big part of the change and the transition

 

Catherine A. Wood  34:17  

in my work. Well, that actually feels like a great topic to go out on, like it’s this idea of peaceful productivity. And if our listeners are craving more peaceful productivity in their experience of their business or their life or their motherhood journey, where would you recommend they they look I hear support as an aspect of it, and I’m imagining there are more, yeah,

 

Anne Rajoo  34:46  

I mean, definitely the support and the, sorry, I’m having a bit of a blank mind now,

 

Catherine A. Wood  34:56  

that’s totally fine. Well, we can absolutely edit. This out.

 

Anne Rajoo  35:03  

What does everyone say? Why would they look it’s kind

 

Catherine A. Wood  35:08  

of like, right? Like, if your clients want more peaceful productivity, like, what areas do you support them in evaluating or reinventing?

 

Anne Rajoo  35:21  

Yeah? Yeah. I think the good place where, where we often start is sort of assessing, where do we spend our time? Where do we have time leaks and things that you know that we do? Because we might be thinking, Oh, I should be doing this. We spoke about that earlier, or it’s something that I’ve always been doing. I mean, for example, you just changed the cadence of your podcast. But it could also be you could have also said, No, I’ve always published a weekly episode, so I’m going to continue that, because I was committed to it at some point. But there might be a point in time like for you right now, that you change that commitment, and you change the cadence, and you change the way you you’ve been doing something, and I think it’s always a great starting point to get conscious about how you spend your time, and where do you allow people or things to suck time unnecessarily. And another part, I think planning. I think a lot of entrepreneurs, while it sort of feels a very normal like something that is part of being an entrepreneur, to plan your day and to plan your work and to set goals. I think reality is that actually not that many people do this really well, they might say, Yes, I have a plan, but they I feel like often it’s a struggle to focus or to stick to the plan because of Chinese objects and other things that just, you know, life froze at you, and then get derailed from the plan And the goal and the strategy, and then somehow, because we do that quite unconsciously, month into the year, you wake up and like, how did I even get there? So yeah, that’s definitely something I like to talk to my clients too, in terms of what’s your plan, and where are you, and how is that really looking in reality on a day to day basis.

 

Catherine A. Wood  37:24  

I really appreciate how I feel like that answer was really a summary of some of these themes that we talked about on the episode and and I really, I just want to echo what you said about that first point around being willing to re evaluate what you feel like you need to or should do in business versus what you get to do, because it’s so true what you said around, just because, you know, I was releasing a weekly podcast, just because I have sent out a weekly and I’ve sent out a weekly newsletter every week since 2016 Mm hmm. And so being willing to really take a look at what do I want to recommit to in my business that serves me and all of my commitments based on what I want rather than what I’ve always done. That is such a mindset shift. Because, I mean, I think that that is a an employee to self employed mindset shift, right? Like being, being the difference between someone who follows, follows orders or does what they’ve always done to really taking a step back and reminding yourself, oh, you know, I need to put on my CEO pants, like I need to put on my CEO heels here, and really evaluate, like, what actually serves Me and all of the parts of me and my life and the business I’m excited about, versus really just that default answer, because the default is boring,

 

Anne Rajoo  39:11  

yeah, exactly, and it’s most of the times not Even that productive or efficient or maybe successful in certain measures, but not deep down, like when you speak to those people in terms of fulfillment and joy and that, that that side of things, they don’t really feel that successful. Maybe, yeah, I think it’s and for me, it’s always, probably that’s even more important than the financial success, like me being happy. And you will know that a happy mom is a happy family. And you know it’s it measures so much bigger. I think while the other parts are important, but, yeah. Yeah, we only have, in my opinion, that one life and that one shot, and it’s got to be happy and joyful.

 

Catherine A. Wood  40:09  

I feel like this was medicine for my soul, as I’m in these conversations myself. So thank you. Thank you for today. You know, as we wrap, I’d love to invite you to share, really the a question that feels top of mind for me these days, and and really it’s what is that? That mindset, lesson or or or breakthro That’s made the biggest difference for you.

 

Anne Rajoo  40:36  

I think it’s, again, it’s something that you taught me actually, is the making the ask, asking for the support, asking for, you know, I don’t know, knowledge, input, feedback, a referral, even it’s really just asking for those things without Holding, holding back or creating my stories about how I might not be deserving, or how I like, who am I to ask this person for these things? Or is going to say no anyway? Like, I think that has changed so much, really, just putting the ask out there and see who’s willing to help. And surprisingly, so many people are willing to help. It’s just, it’s beautiful,

 

Catherine A. Wood  41:25  

yeah, I think that that is such a tendency of empathpreneurs, is that we don’t necessarily realize the energy that we give off of being hyper, like, like, oh, what’s the word I always use with clients, needless, like, we, there’s so many of us, myself included, that we walk around with this energy that, like, we don’t have needs, that we’re hyper responsible, and We, we got our handled, and so, you know, we occur as needless to those, often those closest to us and when, and we don’t take responsibility, right for this fact that we sometimes show up that way, where we can have so much ability to support and give and love and care for others, but we don’t realize that we’re unintentionally not allowing this reciprocal dynamic of support and love, which we all crave. So I appreciate that takeaway, like that idea of like, let’s make the direct ask and allow that experience of reciprocity which so many of us crave. Yes, exactly. And thanks so much for today. This was lovely, and it was delightful and super peaceful being with you.

 

Anne Rajoo  42:57  

It was wonderful to be with you. And yeah, I really appreciate having that opportunity to talk to you.

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