Preventing Entrepreneurial Burnout with Cait Donovan

Like many driven women, Cait learned about burnout the hard way, by going through it. She figured out how she ended up there, how to bounce back and now she is on a mission to end burnout culture. If we want to stay in the entrepreneurial game long enough to have a business that it both profitable and sustainable, staying alert to where we feel resentment and setting healthier boundaries is a must. You are going to love this conversation as much as I did!

Is Rejection Sensitivity Hurting Your Business?

If you are an entrepreneur, a creative person or an indie professional who needs to make offers, close sales, market their products or services and have a presence in the world of social media, I don’t have to tell you that dealing with real or perceived rejection is one of the issues you need to gain mastery over in order to stay in business and make a living.  

But, rejection sensitivity is not a disorder, a mental health diagnosis or illness.  It is also not a reason to hide your gifts from the world, work for free or barter yourself into business failure. 

Leveraging ADHD as a Serial Entrepreneur with Angela Proffitt

Today I am joined by Angela Proffitt,  who describes herself as “a southern gal with a potty mouth” (so you know I was taken with her instantly) and is the founder and CEO of Angela Proffitt, LLC a consulting firm out of Nashville, Tennessee.  

Her story is full of twists and turns, good luck, and bad choices, but what is most impressive to me about Angela is her mindset and how she made over her life from being a total workaholic on the verge of burnout to one where she is in control of her time, energy, clients, and money.  

Different, Not Deficient

It makes me angry that acknowledging a mental health diagnosis and receiving help is still a source of stigma and shame.  I am grateful to the brave and clever people who have taken to YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, not to mention those who have started podcasts, to normalize mental health conditions by dropping their masks and sharing their struggles.

In today’s solo episode,  I’d like to share with you my thoughts about being a person with ADHD and what those four little letters mean to me. 

Client Success Story with Tracey Watts- Cirino

Some of my most popular episodes are the Client Success Stories, and I am sure that this one will be no exception.  Today’s guest, Tracey Watts-Cirino, was a successful 20-year beauty industry leader and small business owner when she decided to hire me to help her figure out why she wasn’t reaching her next-level goals and her true potential. 

Enjoy our conversation where we catch up on all the amazing changes she has made,  how she completely transformed her business during a global pandemic, finished and published her business book, and launched her podcast.

Change, Habits & Fear, Oh My!

In this week’s solo episode, we will continue on the theme by discussing how it’s natural to feel that change is hard, how to deal with the fear of change, and the power of habit to make things easier.  

It’s all in understanding how the brain works, so I will help you understand how to put it to work for you. Overcoming your resistance and learning to accept change will ultimately make you feel good about yourself and acknowledging your fear will take you one step closer to your life goals. 

How to Keep Fear from Holding You Back with John Sovec

I am excited to share today’s guest, John Sovec with you. The Driven Woman Podcast is produced with the driven but distracted female entrepreneur in mind, so you might be surprised to see a man joining us as a guest.  

One of the things that John is an expert in is how to move through fear, the subject of today’s podcast interview.  

If you have a goal and find yourself holding back out of fear, whether it’s fear of failure, fear of success, fear of being seen, imposter complex, or all of the above, this episode is for you! 

Too Many Ideas is Worse Than Not Enough

If you heard my last solo episode, the one I called Do the Thing,  you’ll see that I am on a roll. You see, I work with creative female entrepreneurs and while each of them is unique,  many of their struggles are far too common.  

In this week’s solo episode, we are going to talk about endless creativity, difficulty focusing, and struggling to recognize our own brilliance, and most importantly, what to do with all of it.   

Toxic Entrepreneurship with Casey Jourdan

I am excited to share today’s guest, Casey Jourdan with you.  Casey is a business strategist and mentor who works with early-stage, primarily female entrepreneurs. 

Casey rejected the traditional life of the 9-5 so-called secure career path with benefits.  This is not just because of the effects of the impact to her brain from having been blown up in Iraq while she was serving in the military, but also as a result of some residual PTSD, but because of her feelings about how entrepreneurship is being promoted on the internet, in particular, something she calls Toxic Entrepreneurship.

Do the Thing

I know I am not the only one who procrastinates on doing the thing, the one thing, the really important thing that they just can’t seem to get around to. It’s usually the very same thing that we have been circling around for weeks, months, years, even longer. It’s the thing that will make us ever so proud to have done it, and also the thing that will be our biggest regret if we don’t. In this week’s solo episode, I share about my relationship with writing and all the deceptively clever ways I avoided it until I finally realized what the real problem was and how that changed everything.  

Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos with Sarah Mikutel

Sarah is a transformational coach, consultant, and podcaster, I love the way Sarah follows her curiosity, shares what she learns, and makes the world a better place in the process.  Her mission is to help those who are looking for self-exploration and personal transformation who understand that freedom is about more than getting on a plane. This conversation is about how to use the ancient wisdom of Stoicism to create calm when life feels out of control.  

Don't be an Advice ATM

Are you someone who has always been asked for advice? In this week’s solo episode, I tackled the issue of setting boundaries around when to actually give it. Many people will ask for your advice but they do not really need it, they just need someone to listen to them, so you can be empathic and let them know you want to support them, and that’s it.  No need to give advice that you know they will never follow anyway.  

I used to dispense advice like an ATM, but I no longer believe I'm helping anyone by telling them what to do. Instead, I point out their strengths.

Eliminating Content Creation Frustration with Jen Liddy

The pressure to come up with something interesting, entertaining, or informative every single week for your blog, podcast, YouTube, FB Lives, can become overwhelming, but Jen Liddy is a former school teacher so she knows how to break things down for even the most overwhelmed and confused among us.  I am personally following Jen’s Crack the Content Code program and wanted to make sure you got the chance to meet her too. 

Getting Unstuck

Have you ever gotten yourself into such a tangled mess that you have no idea how you got there or how to get out? Of course, you have!  Feeling stuck is a common problem, especially for creatives and those of us who have trouble asking for help.  Sound like anyone you know?   In this solo episode, I break down the various reasons we get ourselves stuck and reveal that they are almost always a mindset issue, instead of a real problem. This is really good news, because mindset habits are learned, and what is learned can be unlearned.

The Fierce, Female & 50-Something Entrepreneur with Rhonda Glynn

My guest for this podcast is Rhonda Glynn who joins me from the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago. Rhonda is the owner of Zoma Business Solutions and is a perfect example of the fast-growing trend of first-time entrepreneurs who are over 50 and female. She started her business as a side hustle toward the end of a long and successful career in the aviation industry and at an age when many women are slowing down,  Rhonda is just getting started. I can’t wait to share her with you. 

If you are a later in life entrepreneur, you’ll want to listen in as Rhonda and I discuss how he stood out in a male-dominated industry

I Like Change

This episode is a solo show, in which Diann talks about how she loves change and shaking things up. She tells the stories of experiences with others who will do anything to avoid changes and being questioned for loving to change up things and as being unnatural or weird, and how being unsatisfied and having the fear of stagnation made her uproot her life from L.A. to Portland.

Whether you love change or resist it, this is the perfect podcast for you as Diann tackles a controversial subject about embracing changes and evolving from them. She likes being an example of how change is part of human nature, and fear is learned.  

ADHD, Disclosure & Gender Bias with Nicole Grey

In this episode I am joined by Nicole Grey, a 27-year-old single mother of two who lives in New Zealand. I saw Nicole’s story online and reached out to see if she’d be willing to share it with the Driven Woman Podcast audience.  Like most of us, Nicole had no idea that she had ADHD until well into adult life.  

• Nicole was homeschooled and raised in a very supportive, religious community so she never received negative feedback about her behavior.
• She always wanted to be a police officer since she was a teenager because she was attracted to the excitement and adrenaline rush.

Client Success Story: Meet Nora

This episode is a great Client Success Story, featuring my client, Dr. Nora Wagner who was a competitive weightlifter, got her Ph.D. in physical therapy, and is now an entrepreneur

In this episode, we talk about:

How Nora went from Olympic weightlifter to a doctor of physical therapy

Once diagnosed with ADHD she discovered she had been self-medicating by lifting weights

Being an alpha female and how that affects relationships with both men & women

Are You Intimidating?

This episode is a solo show, in which Diann shares her history of being told she is intimidating and what she made it mean. She now believes that if you're a female entrepreneur, whether you own a small business, a private practice, a brick and mortar retail store, a coaching empire, or a virtual consultancy, sooner or later, you will be told in one way, shape or form that you are intimidating.

If you have ever been called intimidating, threatening, or told you are too intense, too passionate, too driven, or simply ‘too much’, and want to learn how you can avoid letting these labels hold you back, this episode is for you.

Freedom from Overwhelm with Kate Moryoussef

Most women with ADHD often feel overwhelmed, and this year has been much more overwhelming than usual.  So, I decided to invite my new friend, Kate Moryoussef, who is an EFT Coach,  host of the Ambitious Mum Podcast, and a fellow entrepreneur with ADHD.  Kate is just beginning to speak openly about her own ADHD diagnosis with family, friends, coaching clients, and podcast audience.  

As a woman with unidentified ADHD, Kate was struggling and didn’t understand why, but her life changed completely about ten years ago when her therapist suggested that she might have ADHD and shared EFT / Emotional Freedom Technique with her.

Just Say No

Do you often find yourself trapped in a situation where some recurring requests are thrown at you and you just find it hard to refuse? Admit it or not, people always feel the need to be liked, and accepting those requests is just one way to get the validation that we seek.

These facts and more on the consequences of being an obliger and the strategies on how you can improve your mindset and learning how to say "no" especially to the favors that make you feel uncomfortable, will all be addressed in this latest episode.

Happiness is 50-50

When was the last time you remember being sincerely happy with what’s going on in your life? Most people have something they wanted to have or to be in their life, and also take what they do have for granted. 

Ready to dig deep and open your mind about the things that we need to accept, change, and/or improve in order to view the positive side of life?

Client Success Story: Meet Jen

This episode is our first Client Success Story, featuring my client Jen DiNardi, OTD who has a doctorate in Occupational Therapy, and specializes in pediatrics. 

In this episode, we talk about:

What is occupational therapy and what kinds of things she helps her patients with

Why she pursued such a demanding academic goal (hint, it has something to do with proving something to herself…) 

How Jen always knew she was different but was only diagnosed with ADHD in the last year of her doctoral program.

Not Giving a Fuck

How do you feel and what do you do when someone you care about tells you that your plans and goals won’t work or points out what they least like about you? Is it possible to absolutely not care about other people's opinions or what others are doing? I don’t think so. I don't think it's realistic to expect ourselves to have no amount of reactivity when our behavior triggers a reaction in someone that we perceive as judgment or criticism.

What should we do when we feel rejected or hurt by the opinion of others?

Sleep Your Way to Success with Special Guest Yishan Xu

Many entrepreneurs are not getting enough sleep. This is partly due to the hustle culture of entrepreneurship and partly because they tend to bootstrap their business, even when they can afford to hire or outsource. I work with female entrepreneurs who identify with ADHD traits, very few of them are getting the kind of sleep that they know they should (and wish they could.)

In this interview, we will be talking about how sleep is essential for entrepreneurs, how to get quality sleep, and the do’s and dont’s of sleeping (among others).

Learning and Unlearning 

There are many who would like to become entrepreneurs but do not know where to start. Some might get discouraged because they think that they are not “born” to be one. I’m still not certain I believe that there's such a thing as an entrepreneurial personality type, but there are definitely traits that lend themselves well to self-employment.

If you are currently struggling in running your business, want to start your very first entrepreneurial journey, or simply want to better understand the traits of a successful entrepreneur, this episode is for you.

How to Do Boring Stuff

Do you procrastinate on doing things even though they are important? When we run a business, we need to do the boring yet important stuff, but sometimes we only do them when we “feel” like it or when we are running out of time.

Doing important things at the last minute can give us feelings of guilt, shame, and regret.   

In this episode, I will share 4 techniques that you can use in order to complete those important, but boring tasks.

Getting What You Want

After years of being who everyone else needs them to be, many women feel lost and don’t even know what they really want. Once they reach their 40s or 50s, many women face the question “What am I going to do with the rest of my life?” Most of them have never really felt comfortable putting their own goals first.

What happens when we find ourselves at a point in life when we actually have the opportunity to think about ourselves?

The Way Women Win

You may have witnessed some women trying to bring others down in order to become successful. You may even have experienced this in your business and in your personal life as well. As we see a rise in the number of women starting their own businesses, having competitors is inevitable. How do we deal with the inevitability of competition in a healthy way?

There is no inherent contradiction between wanting to be successful and honoring your competitor. 

Becoming an Entrepreneur

The number of people who have chosen the path of entrepreneurship has been growing for the past few years. Many people are starting their own businesses and it has become a lot easier with the help of technology. Why are people leaving their corporate jobs and starting their own businesses? Entrepreneurs often get asked, “Why did you choose to become an entrepreneur?” There are plenty of reasons why people chose the path to entrepreneurship.

Born This Way?

What fires up a woman’s engine and starts her on the road to becoming a driven woman?
We are surrounded by these women, and sometimes we wonder where they get their drive and how they stay determined to achieve their goals.

We have seen a lot of women who did not have everything they needed to be successful from the start, but they were able to work their way up despite their circumstances, despite what society told them about their potential.

Productivity Doesn't Mean Getting More Done

How do we measure productivity? If you’re like me, you can always be so busy, yet still, be nowhere near your goals. We get busy checking off multiple tasks every day and still feel like we are missing something.

Many, including me, thought that being busy is the same as being productive, but productivity is not about getting more done, it's about getting the right things done. It’s about making decisions on how to spend our time, energy, and attention on where it matters most.

Confidently ADHD

They did not see their child as less than anything or anyone because of his ADHD. They created a lifestyle that supported him in believing it too. They allowed him to develop his interests and follow his curiosity.

We can also use this approach to ADHD in our lives. We see, think, and do things differently from others, and I believe that we should use it to our advantage & seek support for those things that, for us, are a little challenging. Conforming to the norm doesn’t have to be our goal.

How to Handle Being Forgetful

If you feel afraid to offend, hurt, or disappoint people, over the years, this can take a toll on self-esteem. I also know some people who simply start pulling back from others and playing small in their business and life in order to avoid letting others and themselves down because their memory is so unreliable.

How then should we handle being forgetful? In this episode, I share with you some of the steps I took to overcome anxiety & disappointment due to forgetfulness.

The Need for Speed

If we continue to suppress our need for speed and slow down in order to act more like others, we will feel out of touch with ourselves. It would not feel natural and sometimes, it leads to anxiety and depression. We would constantly worry about what other people would think.

As a driven woman, we need to honor our true nature and our need for speed. Forget about receiving approval or asking permission to be yourself. You don’t have to slow down. There are many more skillful ways to handle the problem of being out of sync with the rest of the world.

Tall Poppies and Jealous Crabs

It’s easy to observe the “tall poppy syndrome” and “crab mentality” everywhere we go, once you know what to look for. Crab mentality is a behavior observed in crabs when they are in a bucket. When one crab gets on top and is on its way to freedom, another crab grabs it and pulls it down. The tall poppy syndrome is an Australian expression that refers to the behavior of people who cut down those who are more successful, confident, and achieve more than them.

The Early Bird Gets More Than Worms

One of the changes that many people would love to make is waking up early in the morning to get more things done. For some people, it has become a habit and they find it easy, but for others, it is something that they continue to struggle with. 

Waking up earlier than usual is not going to happen naturally, not without commitment and not without training. In this episode, I share how I did it, and why.

Just in Time vs Just in Case

One thing that we need to be mindful of is if we are actually over-preparing by learning everything right now, even though we don’t need them at this moment or in the near future.

I would like to share with you one of the rules that I adopted that has helped tame my tendency to overprepare. It’s called Just in Time learning. 

Other People's Problems

Many women find themselves involved in situations with other people that they had no intention of being in. Not only are we socialized to care about others, but even our estrogen hormone influences us to be more willing to put the needs of others before our own. If we are not intentional with how we respond to other people’s problems, it will disrupt our routines, our peace of mind, and the time we have available to deal with our own.

Don't Be Afraid to Start Over

Many people put pressure on themselves to figure out their path in life when they barely even know who they are. Those early messages from so-called authority figures can be hard to forget, especially when most people do seem to follow that advice, whether it suits them or not. If you find yourself wanting to do something else, maybe it's time to consider starting something new, whether it's in the same field or a new one.

The Cure for Perfectionism

Perfectionism may seem to be a good trait, but when you procrastinate on your plans because you want everything to be just right, this becomes a hindrance to achieving your goals. The real definition of a perfectionist is not someone whose life is perfect, it's someone who believes that it could be, wishes it were and suffers because it isn't.

In the Middle of a Shit Storm, Life Hands You Free Toilet Paper

Everyone gets to experience the ups and downs of life. There are no exemptions. There are moments when things do not go our way or something unexpected happens, and it is a situation we don’t want to be in. When confronted with difficult circumstances, how you perceive and respond to them will make things better or worse.

Zooming In , Zooming Out

When we are so focused on a goal, we can forget to stop and take in the big picture. Most driven people tend to zoom in or hyper-focus on their goals and on doing whatever is necessary to achieve them. Paying so much attention to those things means everything else going on around them just fades to black.

Late to the ADHD Party

Women with ADHD, depending on their subtype and especially if their hyperactivity is mental instead of physical, may not recognize themselves as someone with ADHD.  

Many women would be considered high-functioning, as well, but they are still falling short of their true potential. In this episode, we talk about why and share an exercise for how to think about your history through a new lens. 

A Woman with a Plan

Most of the time, people take delight or get excited more on the planning part of activities rather than the actual ‘doing’ part. Driven women are particularly not immune to this since they always have places they plan to go to, projects they want to get done, and people they want to meet. If one is not so keen on how to schedule their activities, it may get quite frustrating and counterproductive.

Don't Suppress the Mess

Driven women have their own idea and way of how to get things done. Most of the time it is to an extent where the best must be achieved. Others may perceive it as being too much of a perfectionist or demanding. And because of this, most women who work in the corporate world and decide to venture into independent entrepreneurship often find themselves loading too much work for themselves because of hesitancy to ask for help.

Driving With The Emergency  Brakes On

Most women with ADHD operate with a fast-moving brain that is difficult to stop. However, since women are more relationship-oriented and tend to follow rules more effectively, they tend to be able to suppress their hyperactivity with an effective and more controlled response to certain situations. This is what I call driving with emergency brakes on.

The 6 Attributes of an Entrepreneur

Choosing the self-employment path typically means financial instability and insecurity, social and emotional isolation, added stress and pressure on romantic/intimate relationships, and increased challenges with mental health, but certain personal attributes may contribute to both choosing the entrepreneurial path and being successful as an entrepreneur.