Client Case Study:
A few years back, a new client confidently said, “I bet I’m going to be your most difficult client.” I immediately became eager to dive into LuAnn Nigara’s successful business to help her fix what about it made her feel “difficult.” Running a business at LuAnn‘s level no doubt comes with a lot of chaos but I was determined to help her find more calm, create more efficiency, and have more time to live outside of her business, doing things she enjoyed. What that required was a giant mindset shift. Here’s how it all began…
Throughout her many years as a business owner, working out had been a non-negotiable for LuAnn six days a week. It boosted her energy, gave her all those feel-good endorphins, and kept her from getting “chubby and soft” (her words). That all changed once LuAnn started her very successful podcast and it sucked up all her free time. She let it continue like that for four years because she was:
Loving doing the podcast
Making a difference in others’ lives
Seeing higher revenue
LuAnn had willingly replaced recreation, personal time, and working out for something else that was extremely gratifying. The change in her personal life and freedom was dramatic but she accepted it. She had to, right?
I disagreed. I wanted her to have both and I knew she could. My goal was to help LuAnn figure out how she could regain all that she’d lost in her personal life while continuing to produce her amazing podcast and run her business. I was confident LuAnn could transform her mindset from thinking OR to living out AND. We just had to find the right strategy.
I dove into LuAnn’s business, approached it from a different perspective, and asked an insane amount of questions to find out where we could reclaim the most time to achieve the biggest breakthrough. I found the answer in her weekend routine. She was spending 6-12 hours writing the intro/outros to her three weekly podcast episodes every weekend! I recommended she give outsourcing her intro/outros a shot. LuAnn admitted her check engine light had not been working, continuing at the speed she was going was not sustainable, and something needed to change. Still, she firmly resisted outsourcing her intro/outros as she was emotionally attached to them and believed they were her secret sauce that only she could write.
My relentless recommendations to LuAnn eventually paid off. She hired a few writers, loved the intro/outros they wrote, and made final edits if needed before each episode aired. The result? The quality of the intro/outros didn’t suffer because the experienced, professional writers expertly mimicked LuAnn’s voice. LuAnn reclaimed her weekends for spending quality time with her husband, working out, and doing whatever else she wanted to do instead of what she had to do. It felt great and freeing not having the looming intro/outro deadlines hanging over her head every weekend.
Conquering LuAnn’s long-held beliefs that a) she was the only person who could write her intro/outros and b) she had to choose between serving her listeners at the highest level OR having time for herself on the weekends, was just one of the many strategies we worked on together to help LuAnn minimize the chaos, create more balance, increase efficiency, and give her more time to operate in her zone of genius. We also made moves to systemize parts of her business, switch gears less often, reduce the trips down time-consuming rabbit holes, stop bottle-necking projects, get out of her inbox, batch tasks, track her time, be more intentional with it, and achieve other mindset breakthroughs she can build upon. I am happy to say LuAnn’s check engine light is working again and she’s operating at peak performance.
What You'll Discover In This Episode:
In this special episode of Productivity Straight Talk in which I am interviewed by Window Works Co-Owner LuAnn Nigara but she is in the hot seat. We discuss what it is really like to be coached on productivity but not in the way you might think… We don’t talk about the features of coaching but instead, the raw process of confronting different challenges, navigating the breaking of long-held, self-limiting beliefs, and taking strategic action.
Episode Links & Resources:
Hear A Clip From LuAnn Nigara:
About Guest:
LuAnn began her career more than thirty years ago as a co-owner of Window Works, an award-winning window treatment and awning retailer in Livingston, NJ. She’s also host of the top-rated interior design podcast, A Well-Designed Business® Her podcast was recently named in Architectural Digest as one of the top ten podcasts listened to by designers, is the definitive resource for interior design professional interest in operating a profitable business.
LuAnn is a sought-after speaker and Author of several book including Her first book, The Making of A Well-Designed Business®, her second book, A Well-Designed Business®, The Power Talk Friday Experts as well as her upcoming book that I am also a co-author in A Well-Designed Business®, The Power Talk Friday Experts Vol 2 coming out in November.
