Episode 116: On Productivity, Mindset and Daring to Grow with Sarah Morgan
Joining me in Episode 116 is Sarah Morgan of xosarah.com. Sarah is an Emmy-Award winning digital strategist who’s been blogging and building websites since age 13.
After escaping her corporate design job, she made it her mission to help business owners grow their online presence without overwhelm + indecision slowing them down.
In this episode, Sarah tells her story of how she escaped her corporate job as a graphic designer in a newsroom by doing freelance work and eventually building a thriving business where she now helps other business owners grow their online presence without overwhelm and indecision slowing them down.
You’ll hear Sarah share:
Her route from a corporate job to profitable solopreneur
How she battled burnout and feeling disconnected to her work
What it was like working with a coach then bringing mindfulness into her business and personal life
Her best productivity tips and what her daily routine is like to manage her time and energy
She even shares a bit of what it was like teaching aerial silk and how it helped her find a balance between her mind, body, and work!
LISTEN TO THE EPISODE:
“Most people put way more on their plate than they’ll ever need to do. Prioritize everything that you’re trying to do, and then just get rid of the last three or four things. Whatever’s on the bottom of the list is not going to be as effective as what’s on the top of the list, so don’t even worry about.”
Read the Episode Transcript...
Naomi Nakamura: Hello, my friends, and welcome to the Live Fab Life Podcast. I am your host, Naomi Nakamura, and if you recall, in the last episode, Episode 115, I asked you the question, "What would you do if you weren't afraid?"
And I promised you that I would have some upcoming guests, as well as guest scattered throughout the year, of people who are making things happen for themselves. They've made a decision to face their fears, to face their insecurities or whatever it is that might be holding them back, challenges that they're facing, and decide to work through them. And these people are taking actions towards getting through whatever challenges they're facing and they're going after what it is they want, and creating the life that they dream of for themselves.
And today I'm joined by someone who is doing that on every level. Sarah Morgan is an award winning digital strategist who's been blogging and building websites since the age of 13. My goodness. I had a personal blog since 2007, and although it may seem like that's so much experience to have, when I started blogging for my business, it was a whole different arena that I didn't know how to transition to.
So, I found Sarah back in 2015, while I was still going through nutrition school. And if you recall me mentioning, while I was in school, not yet certified to see clients, I spent a lot of time putting my efforts towards learning different business strategies. Blogging was one of them because they knew that these were skills that I wanted to carry over into my business. So, that's when I phoned Sarah.
And at that time, she offered a program teaching badass women, and I believe that was the name of the collective that we were in. She taught this program teaching women how to blog for business. What are the different strategies to take for that? And then how to grow an online presence. And it was one of the very first online programs I've taken, and to this day remains one of my most favorite because Sarah always showed up for us.
Since then, I've taken a number of her other programs, and have always found them to be of the highest quality and immensely valuable, loaded with so much information and resources. So, in this episode Sarah joins me, and she is sharing her story of how she escaped her corporate job working as a graphic designer in a newsroom, and how she transitioned to now working for herself full time, helping other service-based business owners grow their online presence. And her secret sauce is that she teaches them how to do it without overwhelm and without indecision. That, as we know, those things can really slow things down.
And in fact, Sarah even shares her best productivity tips in this episode on just how to do that, and she even goes as far as to share with us what her daily routine is like, and how she maximizes her time and her productivity.
Sarah will also share with us her experience feeling burnout and feeling disconnected to her work, even though this is the work that she's called to do, that she loves doing, and she shares with us a very personal experience on how working with a coach helped her to move past that burnout and those feelings of disconnectedness by bringing more mindfulness into her business and ultimately into her personal life.
And Sarah even shares a little bit of her background teaching aerial silk classes. I have always watched her Instagram stories about it, been fascinated, so she shares what that's like and even what a great workout it is, both for the mind and the body.
Now, I'll have all of this in the show notes, but you can check out Sarah's business coaching programs, her growth and productivity tips, over on her website at xosarah.com, but you can also connect with her on Instagram at @xosarahmorgan.
This feels a little bit like it's been a full circle journey having Sarah joined me, so with that, let's get to the show.
Hi Sarah, welcome to the show.
Sarah Morgan: Thank you for having me.
Naomi Nakamura: I am really excited to chat with you today. Back in, gosh, I don't even know how long ago it was, but your program that I am not even quite sure if you offer anymore was one of the first programs I took to really teach me about blogging. Sarah Morgan: I love that. Yeah, I feel like it was maybe, gosh, 2015, 2016?
Naomi Nakamura: I think so. Like was that really four or five years ago?
Sarah Morgan: Yeah, it went by so fast.
Naomi Nakamura: It did go by so fast. Yeah, it was such a fun group that I actually made a couple of friends out of there that I still keep in touch with today.
Sarah Morgan: I love that so much. Yeah, that's one of the best things about doing those kinds of group coaching programs is there's so many different people in there that they end up connecting and, whether they stay in the group or not, kind of stick together and keep an eye on each other. So, I love that so much.
Naomi Nakamura: Exactly. So, before we get into that program, why don't you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?
Sarah Morgan: Yeah, so I teach online entrepreneurs how to grow their audience. So, we focus a lot on Instagram and email lists, and then use that audience to turn them into customers and clients as they sell digital products. So, I run a group coaching program that's kind of where the original program that you were in transitioned into. And yeah, I help entrepreneurs who are mostly service-based, spend less time with one-on-one clients and earn a little bit more by creating online courses, eBooks, workshops, kind of any digital asset that they can sell repeatedly.
Naomi Nakamura: And that's exactly what I fell into. I had a personal blog for many years, I think since 2007. Personal blog, personal journal. I really didn't even care if anyone was reading it. It was for myself. And then when I went to nutrition school and started my health coaching practice, again, service-based business, at the time, blogging was the main thing because, yes, there was social media, but Instagram wasn't where it's at now. I didn't have the podcast, so blogging was how I showed up every week, and what I used to really channel into my weekly email that I sent to my email list.
But it's a definite mindset shift to go from just personal blogging for yourself versus blogging for an audience and using that content as a tool in your business. Your program really helped me with that because, yes, everyone thinks, "Oh, well you've been blogging so long." It's the mindset behind it and the approach you take and the strategy you take is very different.
Sarah Morgan: Yeah, I totally agree. I did the same thing. I worked a corporate job for a really long time and blogged for myself since I was a teenager, blogging about whatever. Nobody really cared if I showed up, and I wasn't looking at any results or anything. And then I started a freelance business, left my corporate job, and then I was really focused on results and traffic and making sure that I was creating content that would turn people into web design clients. So, totally feel you. It is definitely very different from personal blogging.
Naomi Nakamura: So, the last episode I did was on what would you do if you weren't afraid? And what you just said there is you took a hobby of something you did since you were very young, and you know you had a corporate job, but then you've made it into your career now, and what it is that you do. So, can you tell us more about that and what the story was behind that and how you made that shift?
Sarah Morgan: Yeah, so I was in a corporate job where I was working in a newsroom, and if you haven't been in a newsroom before, it's very loud. It's nonstop action. There's probably 50 TVs that I could see from my desk. It's very overstimulating and overwhelming, and I am a huge introvert. So, that kind of started to wear on me. Also, corporate design is very boring. And so I started building this freelance design business, taking on clients, first so that I could do something a little more creative, but then I realized I didn't want to be in the newsroom anymore. I wasn't loving my job, I wasn't excited about anything that we were working on.
And so I decided I was going to leave my job. And for me, it was more about not staying in the same job for 10, 20, 40 years, because some people at the news station had been there for 40 years, and that was nightmare for me just because I didn't want to be stuck in a job for 40 years, but also I wasn't loving my job. Even though it was well-paying and I had insurance and it was near my house, and the people that I worked with were great, just the idea of staying there really pushed me to double down on what I was doing, and really focus on generating enough content to bring in enough clients so that I could leave.
Naomi Nakamura: A lot of people that I speak to and that I know myself, it's the fear of leaving that stability, but what you're saying is it was the fear of being stuck in that soul-wrenching position of not having the freedom for the creativity, and to really have your passion suppressed.
Sarah Morgan: Yeah, that's exactly what it was. It was less about the fear of what it would look like when I left or whether I would get enough clients. I knew I could hustle, and I knew that my audience was slowly starting to grow. So, I had a lot of faith in myself, and what I looked five or 10 years ahead, the life I was living, the job I was at, I did not want to stay there. And I also wasn't really interested in going out and interviewing and finding another corporate job because, for me, I think after a few years, I would end up in the exact same position.
Naomi Nakamura: Yeah. And the grass is not always greener. It's like you're going from this one corporate job to another corporate job, but all the things that you felt were stifling are still going to be there.
Sarah Morgan: Yep, exactly.
Naomi Nakamura: So, you started freelancing and then how long did you, I guess side hustle, and then when did you just start to pull the plug and just go full time?
Sarah Morgan: I was maybe freelancing for about six months before I really decided that, within a year, I was going to leave, and then I ended up having a review, like a yearly review with my boss after about nine months of that, and he said, "I can tell you're not really passionate about what you're doing, and we want to move you to be working on Saturdays and writing for the website."
And I was like, "Nope, that is not going to happen." So, that gave me the push I needed, and within a month I was leaving my job, completely freelance. And I had quite a few clients. I was very close to being in a position where I was going to feel okay with the client load. So, I just had to hustle a little bit more to fill in a few more spaces, so that not make up for my corporate salary, but at least pay all my bills.
Naomi Nakamura: And so I love that. It didn't happen overnight. You didn't just one day decide, "I hate this. I'm going to quit tomorrow." You had a plan in place.
Sarah Morgan: Yes. Yeah.
Naomi Nakamura: When I found you, you talked a lot about blogging, and now you've evolved into talking about Instagram and email lists, but you also spent a lot of time talking about productivity. So, how did that come about?
Sarah Morgan: It came about by working with a lot of people, listening to my audience on Instagram or getting emails from people saying I have a really hard time being consistent. I have a really hard time sticking to my task list. I have a hard time hitting my deadlines. So I was finding that, even though people knew the next couple of steps, even though they had planned today or the week, they were still struggling to just get the work done. And I did find that most people had way too much on their daily to do list, which was overwhelming and causing them to procrastinate quite a bit.
And so I, for myself, and also for my audience and my students, read a ton of books on productivity and habits and how our mind functions, so I could figure out how to make that a little bit easier, and then teach that to my students. So, it was both for me and then also because I want to be able to hand off courses to people or have them go through my ebook. And then actually take that information and put it to use, instead of what we all do, read a thousand eBooks, read a thousand blog posts, and then do nothing.
Naomi Nakamura: Right. So, I've taken your productivity programs and I find myself, I've always been a productive person. I'm always looking for the most efficient way to do things, but I found a lot of value in your programs myself in doing the work that I do, now for almost five years, the productivity part and what you were saying, the mindset and all of that best tied so closely to our health and wellness because again, if your to do list is so long every single day, that taxes on your energy and that leads to burnout. And when you talk about habits, when you don't have good habits, that's when you're making maybe not the best choices in your health and your wellness, and if that's not where it needs to be, you're going to have a very hard time showing up consistently in your business.
Sarah Morgan: Yeah, I totally agree. It's a lot easier to pile on the strategies and really focus on that, and then, after a couple of weeks, realize, "I'm so tired. I'm not loving this. I'm resisting everything on my task list." And you're right, it goes back to taking care of yourself and being efficient and prioritizing things, so that you can get through your to do list without being worn out after a couple of days.
Naomi Nakamura: And you've been talking about that for, now, the past one or two years. And you even talked about working with a life coach, and I noticed that you talk about bringing more mindfulness into your business and into your life. How did that come about and what's that been like for you?
Sarah Morgan: So, I actually met my life coach through a mastermind, so a bunch of business owners. We got together, someone else kind of put it together. So, I'd never met her before. We went to Mexico for one mastermind and we were in Florida for another one. So, I got to know her really well, and I knew that she had some openings, and I was like, "You know what? I'm feeling kind of unmotivated and not excited about what I have coming up. So, I'm going to book a call with her and just see what happens."
And she kind of called me out, which was nice, because sometimes you need someone else to say this thing that's somewhere in your brain. And she was like, "It doesn't look like you're enjoying your business anymore. You're not as connected to it as you're trying to be."
And I was like, "Yep, you're totally right." So, I ended up kind of restructuring the way that I was looking at my business, so it wasn't so much changing what I was doing, but changing my mindset around what I was creating and why I was creating it, and how I was showing up. And she actually told me that I needed to be more of a thought leader, which sounded so goofy and weird to me. But I was like, "Okay, I trust her. We're going to see what it looks like."
Which mostly is sharing opinions about things and not just regurgitating facts that everybody else is sharing. So, that was a little bit of a scary jump for me. But the more I've kind of practiced being a thought leader and having opinions about things, the easier it's gotten.
Naomi Nakamura: That's amazing. And I think, again, you went back to your mindset shift and I had the same thing. I am still side hustling. I don't have a timeline of when I want to leave my full-time job because I actually do enjoy it very much and I have a lot of liberties in it. But there was a time where, like you, I felt very stifled and I thought, "Okay, I can either have the Sunday night dread and complain every night and complain every day and all day at work until the point where all my friends and family avoid me because they don't want to hear about it anymore."
And I've gone through the same experiences in my coaching business as well. And then it really comes down to how can I look at this situation differently. Right? And I think you can apply that to any situation that you're in, whether they be professional related or personal related.
Sarah Morgan: Yeah, absolutely. It's funny because I read a lot of mindset books, but then I also read a lot of business books, and even the most boring, salesy business books always have a section in there about mindset. So, you can't get away from it. It's so important that you're able to, not control your thoughts, but pay attention to them, which will allow you to change how you look at things. And even if you are staying at a corporate job, whether you like it or not, I mean a corporate job is a great consistent paycheck, just working on your mindset around your situation can be so helpful.
Naomi Nakamura: I always find it fascinating how, at least this happened for me and I know this happened to a lot of people, it's attempting to become an entrepreneur, whether that comes naturally to you or not, that really is the triggering thing that makes you face your mindset and your fears and these things that you have about yourself and your intentions. It's the biggest experience that I've ever had in personal growth and development.
Sarah Morgan: Oh, yeah. I totally agree. You can't get away with anything when you are in charge, having to do everything yourself, at least for the first couple of years. You can't get away from your own mindset and it will screw up everything unless you take the time to even just journal a little bit, spend 20 minutes every day writing, or just paying attention to the thoughts that come up when you go to do things that you don't want to do.
Like doing video. I know that's hard for a lot of people. Paying attention to the thoughts that come up behind that and that it's not just, "Video is hard. I don't look cute." It often comes down to imposter syndrome or something like that and making it way harder on ourselves than it needs to be. So yeah, you can't get away from dealing with your mindset when it's you having to do everything.
Naomi Nakamura: Yeah. Because unless you have some venture capitalists investing in your organization, most likely it's just you or you and one other person. And if you want your business to be successful, you have to put yourself out there, and you have to evolve to whatever it is that society is into right now, right? That's how you grow your business. And so you really have to put yourself out there. And that really brings about a lot of insecurities and fears, some of them things that you feared about yourself, that turned out to be true, and some other things pleasantly surprised. You're like, "Oh, I always had that trait about myself," but it's not necessarily true. Like you're proven wrong in a lot of cases and it's scary, but it's also very empowering.
Sarah Morgan: Yeah, I totally agree. And every next level, or every next opportunity or accomplishment comes with its own mindset issues. So, you just have to keep going through it, going through it and making it a daily habit of some sort of mindset work is very helpful.
Naomi Nakamura: So, what are your daily habits to help with your mindset, and bringing productivity into it as well?
Sarah Morgan: Well, on the productivity side, I plan my entire month in a project management system. I use Asana, and so I'm planning my whole month in advance. I try really hard to not put more than three tasks on every day. Some are a little bit different depending on how long things take. But for the most part, if I'm writing a podcast episode, recording a podcast episode, if I'm doing work with my group coaching program, I know I only have space in my day for three things. So, planning in advance is a huge time saver, helps with my sanity. I don't have to think about what comes next.
Sarah Morgan: Even on the days, like the other day, I just did not feel like working. I was not focused at all. And I knew all I had to do was open Asana, look at the list and do whatever that was. So, that helps a ton. And then I've also been journaling. Last year I was typing out my journal prompts just in a document on my computer. This year I've tried handwriting, which I'm kind of feeling like is working a little bit better, but I've only been doing it for a month so far.
Naomi Nakamura: I think you feel a little bit more connected to your thoughts and what you're actually writing versus typing.
Sarah Morgan: Yeah, and I think for me, because I type way faster than I write, because I never write anything. I'm so slow now. But it gives my brain a little bit more time to think about what I'm writing about. And then, at the end of the day, I've started doing yoga. So, I just watch a video on YouTube or whatever I find online, and breathing out everything that I've done or thought about during the day, so that, at night, I'm not thinking about my phone, I'm not thinking about tomorrow, I'm just focused on whatever we're doing at night. So, kind of having the journaling at the beginning of the day and yoga at the end of the day, so that I'm paying attention to my mind and giving myself a little bit of a break as well.
Naomi Nakamura: I love that. Now, this is going to be a little bit of a tangent, but I have always wanted to ask you about this, and forgive me, I don't know what it's called. But at one point, you are part of a circus and I know you taught classes. What are those classes called? I can see it in my head.
Sarah Morgan: It's aerial silk.
Naomi Nakamura: Aerial, yes. Can you tell us about that? Because I think it's so cool.
Sarah Morgan: Yeah, so I taught and trained and performed for about nine years. I actually just stopped last year. But that was an amazing break from work, especially, now I have a couple of contractors that I work with, so I'm not doing everything myself, but back then I really was. And so going and teaching or training was so nice because, when you're hanging upside down from fabric hanging from the ceiling, you cannot think of anything else. So, that was such a good disconnector for the end of my day, and not having to take my work with me.
Naomi Nakamura: I've seen your videos. I'm like, "That is what you call strength training."
Sarah Morgan: Oh yeah. I am so much weaker now. It's been almost a year since I stopped training and I'm like, "Oh, my muscles are going away."
Naomi Nakamura: Again, that's one thing I've always wanted to try, but then the fear of, "I don't know if I can do it." I just need to suck it up and just give it a try.
Sarah Morgan: It takes time. My first class, I was terrible. I was not flexible, no muscles. I was really, really bad. But it's such a fun environment and a good mental and physical challenge, and people end up getting better and able to do things and figure out what's happening much faster than they expect. And I know that there are classes up there. Up there because I'm down in San Diego. You should definitely go take a class.
Naomi Nakamura: I will, like you said, it's just the excitement of trying something new. And again, the mental challenge of figuring out how am I going to get my body to do this. Oh, and it's actually good for your body, too.
Sarah Morgan: Yeah, it's like a full body workout. It's a lot of work to get up there to get upside down, but man, you're working every inch of your body and your brain at the same time. So, it's amazing.
Naomi Nakamura: So, if you could give one piece of advice to someone who might be stuck in a situation where they're just really not happy and they want to be doing something else, or they just feel burnt out, the drain. So what would you give to someone in that situation?
Sarah Morgan: So, most people put way more on their plate than they'll ever need to do. So, what I would say is try and prioritize everything that you're trying to do, and then just get rid of the last three or four things. Whatever's on the bottom of the list is not going to be as effective as what's on the top of the list, so don't even worry about, "I'll get to it someday. I'll do this on the weekend."
Just skip it, skip it all together. So, for me, I'm focused on my coaching program, I'm focused on showing up on Instagram and I'm focused on doing my weekly podcast. If I can get those things done, I'm good. If I have time, I can do all the other stuff, but if I am burnt out, tired, working multiple jobs, then just focus on the top three things, and get really good at those and don't worry about all the rest of the stuff.
Naomi Nakamura: That's a great tip for energy management. Which I feel like I spent a lot of last year in burnout, and I came to realize that burnout, yes, it is very much about time management, but it's also very much about energy management and protecting your energy and being able to say, "No, I don't need to do 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 on my to do list." But like you said, if I can just get these three things done, I'm good.
Sarah Morgan: Yeah. Yeah. And people often make extra services or extra products, or they're making 10 images for Pinterest, when one would probably not only totally serve you, but serve you better than doing all of the other stuff. Yeah, so totally agree. Energy management. Like I said, I'm very introverted. Like yesterday, I had two coaching calls. I always put my coaching calls on Thursdays, and then, after I'm done with them, it's unlikely I'm going to get anything done, and I'm already aware of that, so I don't schedule a lot of stuff on Thursdays. And I think you mentioned boundaries. Saying no to a lot of stuff is going to benefit you, so that you can really focus on those top three things that are going to generate the most clients, the most customers, the most income.
Naomi Nakamura: Exactly. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm so glad you finally got to connect. Where can people connect with you? I know you spend time on Instagram, you have your podcast, you have your website. Where can people find these things?
Sarah Morgan: Yeah, so you can find me at xosara.com. My podcast is the Dare To Grow Show. I've just started, so there's, right now, only nine episodes, but I'm going. I'm loving it. And you can find me on social media, @xosarahmorgan.
Naomi Nakamura: Awesome. And I will have links to Sarah in the show notes for this episode. Again, thank you so much for coming on, and I am just so appreciative of everything that you've taught me over the years, and I'm so glad we were able to connect.
Sarah Morgan: Yes, you're so welcome. Thank you for having me.
Naomi Nakamura is a Functional Nutrition Health Coach. She helps passionate, ambitious high-achievers who are being dragged down by fatigue, burnout, sugar cravings, poor sleep, unexplained weight issues, and hormonal challenges optimize health, find balance, and upgrade their energy so they can do big things in this world.
Through her weekly show, The Live FAB Live Podcast, programs, coaching, and services, she teaches women how to optimize their diet, support their gut health, reduce their toxic load, and improve their productivity, bringing work + wellness together.
Naomi resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and can often be found exploring the area with her puppy girl, Coco Pop!
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