5 Tips to Dealing With Overwhelm When Starting A New Business

These tips are how I build a business while working full time and homeschooling

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This episode explores 5 tips for dealing with overwhelm and chaos as Lindsay discusses what it is like starting a podcast, home schooling kids while working a full time job and how she deals with chaos & overwhelm. If you are ready to explore new passive income strategies these 5 tips will surely come in handy!

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Transcription:

(00:12)

Welcome to the passive income examiner podcast, where we dissect passive income systems and strategies as a solution to the silent worries that keep us up at night, like how to pay for our kids' education or how to build up a retirement. We can be proud of. Or heck how about just having a few more family vacations? Hey, I'm Lindsay Sutherland working mama of four, who escaped the big city for a log cabin in the woods who loves country music and rock and roll. And I believe it is possible to make money while we sleep welcome friends. Let's dive into today's episode.

(01:04)

This episode is for all of you sitting out there at home, wondering if not necessarily, if you have the desire to start a passive income strategy, but do you have the energy to do it? Okay, let's get real up in here, right? You're not sitting at home. Are you you're driving or you're hiding in the bathroom from your kids, or maybe you're at the gym getting in your workout. I feel you we've got this multitasking thing down. Don't we, I want to read the review of the week. This week's review. Now mind you I'm just getting started. This is a review from someone who's been watching me as I've gotten started her name's Alison. And she says, when Lindsay shared her podcast idea with me over lunch, I was intrigued with her concept.

(01:55)

I've been her accountability partner for just a few months. So it was really fun to see her tie up dreams of creating passive income into a solid goal. But Lindsay didn't just rest after setting that goal, she literally jumped head first into action and made things happen while watching her pieces fall into place with rapid-fire success. I found her motivation to be highly contagious. I'm now rolling along faster than ever in my own plans for a passive income strategy. And can't wait for Lindsey's podcast to start and keep me motivated. So thanks Alison for sharing that you've definitely given me a little glow. It's like, Oh, where's the, I need those buttons with sound effects right there. Oh, okay. I'll make my own sound effects today. I want to talk about the topic of what it's like being a working homeschooling mom, that starting a podcast.

(02:52)

Okay. Because I think there's a lot of others out there just like me. It was a few short months ago when Alison I first connected. She was a spiritual person that I had met and I wanted a spiritual connection with someone that I could relate to and who could help me stay accountable to the promises that I've made myself. She was literally, God's answer to a prayer that I'd been asking for some time at the time. I really did not want to start a new business. Actually. I mostly wanted to sort out all the crazy that was already going on in my world. And I really wasn't looking to add to it time. And again, though, our conversation kept coming back to money. I'd say, I just need to make a little more, or I just want the freedom to do things I want to do.

(03:39)

For example, we had some friends come visit us in August and it really bothered me that I was stressing out over affording the food to share with them. But really I was telling her this. I said, what's bugging me more. Isn't I don't want to just feed them while they're here. I want to treat them. I want to be able to take about to dinner or go do fun things and pay for their way. I longed to do more generous things for the people I loved. And I just didn't think I was going to have more time to give up in my life to start making money, to do these things like a second job or a side hustle. That wasn't something that I could even fathom adding into my, into my reality. One day I was venting to Alison. I said, I just wish I had a passive income business.

(04:33)

Something that lets me make money while I sleep. But I just didn't know what to do. I remember the conversation ended with like, well, maybe God will give me some sort of direction. I really have no ideas that there's gotta be something out there that I've just not been told about yet. Right. Or that I don't know about. And so she just kinda nodded along in a couple of weeks, we were going to kind of see what inspired me, what came to me the next time we met, I had not gotten any great ideas. I had one idea, but it was kind of like blahzay. Uh, it certainly wasn't pumping me up or making me feel excited. I still had family in town. I think after COVID everybody just kind of decided to come at the same time. So it lasted. I had various people in town for almost a month and I had no time to think it was soon after that.

(05:24)

When I had the idea, once the family left, I got that idea for that passive income examiner. But originally I was going to make it a YouTube channel until one day I was laying in bed. I had finally had some time to just chill out and really do nothing. But instead of doing nothing, what did I do? Well, I was on Pinterest because that's how I absorbed content or reading blogs and what to my wandering eyes did appear. But a pics from Stephanie gas on her podcast, pro university, I started listening to her podcast, the mompreneur mastermind and the next time Alison and I met I erupted with passion for my new project. I mean, ladies, I was lit up like a Christmas tree. It must be the Christmas Carol. I was just referring to. It was glowing from the inside out. I was, I was just so on fire.

(06:20)

I figured it would take me some hard work. I was telling Alison it's kind of like that moment of euphoria. When you first get an idea, everything's going to be fine, honey. It'll all work out. No worries. I just, I mean, I was in this mode. I said, yeah, I can make this work. Steph made it sound really easy too. So I figured it couldn't be that hard. Guess what? It's really not that hard to start a podcast, but it is hard when you have, I have a plate as full as mine. Now, listen, I'm not looking for sympathy here, friends. I realize I have made my own bed and I will lay in it too. But I just want to share with you a glimpse into my life so you can appreciate the reality of my situation. And honestly, I doubt that my life is really that different for most of you listening to me right now, especially since COVID am I right?

(07:13)

I work a 40 hour a week job, thankfully, it's not the 65 hour plus I used to work. I live on a small acreage homestead. And so since spring we have been spending an enormous amount of time in the garden, planting, watering, weeding pest control. It's constant. Thankfully it does bring me joy and peace and tranquility. So it keeps me going. Plus I really find a lot of value in feeding my family food that I grew. And I think that's really cool with four kids who now stay home all day. I sometimes have days where they're calling me every hour while I'm at work. Especially since my five-year-old figured out how to dial my phone number at work. I am the office manager, marketing manager, sales manager. Listen, I know all those titles have manager in them, but it really means that I'm the bookkeeper, the cashier, the receptionist sales trainer, social media poster, blog writer, website manager, content creator.

(08:16)

But thankfully it is a small company. So it is manageable for me. And by the way, so far, this is the easiest part of my day because when I get home, all my kids want is my undivided attention. I have four kids. So doing that is sometimes very difficult. Hubs may need a little help with dinner. I check on the garden again and now I also homeschool three of my kids. So on top of all that, I'm starting a business. Now, are you wondering what in the heck? I'm thinking. So am I, can we be honest? Do you ever get annoyed with people who have this perfect looking life on Instagram or even on Pinterest? Their blogs look super great. Everyone's smiling in their pictures. They're like Suzy homemaker and they're running a business and they're telling you, it's like, Oh yeah, I do all this, but it all looks great.

(09:08)

And God bless them because if that's, if they can pull that off, I say more power to them because who wouldn't right. Moms. We know that behind the scenes, it's chaos there too. There's Legos on the floor and diapers that didn't make it to the trash. And I mean, come on, we can just fill in the blanks. I'm not just gonna paint rainbows and tell you how awesome this is and what a great solution it was to my life problems because you're not listening to me because you want to know how, Oh, it was all hard, but it worked out. You want to know how hard it was and that it did work out. But how did it work out? And more importantly, you want to know is if you can do it and ladies, we can, we can do this. My background was in the car business and I am used to handling overwhelm and chaos all day because of that, I have learned to work through things when it seems like I'm walking through a tornado, honestly, that's how I feel right now.

(10:10)

I feel like I am walking through a tornado. And I just wanted to share that with you. Because as I mentioned earlier, this is episode two. I haven't even launched. So it's the, it's the getting ready to launch part. There is so much backend stuff. This is the work that I knew would be entailed. I knew I would have things to set up and I have solicited help from some digital awesome people that are really good at digital stuff. But at the same time, there's a lot of stuff that I have to do. And that stuff is tedious, right? And especially when you're new at it, everything I'm doing is brand new. That is the hardest part. When your brain is having to learn all new systems, learn new software programs, it can get intense. I listened to Stephanie's podcast pro university in a week and a half.

Speaker 2: (11:01)

If I recall in that course, she says that it takes a month or two to get through it. And I'm launching my podcast in seven days because I promised myself, I would pick a date. Now, mind you, I picked this date two weeks ago. I could see myself getting cold feet. I'm just going to take a moment here. And I just want you to understand what I'm going through. And then I'm going to tell you what I'm doing about it. Because if somebody is going to start something new, this is part of the process. Every extra minute of every day, I'm trying to work on my business. I make lists of things I need to get done. And even if I'm on my lunch break or I have an hour before I have to get ready for work, or right now when my kids are asleep, those are the times that I'm fitting in to work on my business.

(11:59)

As a result of that, it's not a time where I'm getting any leisure in and that's okay because I know that what I'm building is going to be long-term, but that doesn't always make it feel easy, right. Even though it's simple, it's sometimes still feels hard. And that's the honest truth. So today I'm here to tell you this has been a roller coaster month and here are some things that I've learned in the past that have helped me stay sane. Before I jump into that though, I, and I will. I promise I will. I just want you to understand that when I was in the car business, one thing that I learned was that nobody teaches you anything. There's like no training for stuff. For example, when I was going into sales, I had never been in sales before. So they just paired me up with another guy and it's like, follow him along any, if you've ever worked with somebody in sales, the last thing they want to do is train their competition.

(13:01)

So I have found the only way to be successful is to make my way. So I've just made that happen. I'm a, Make-A-Wish find a way kind of woman. And that is pretty much been my motto. And that has happened to me time. And again, I'm not surprised that God would ask me to do something like this, where I'm applying all those skills, which gratefully I have. Okay. So tip number one. I trust God. I believe he's inspired me. And because he inspired me, it's going to work out. I believe God wants this for me as bad as I want this for me. I know that he's blessed my activity and he will continue to bless my activity because I'm taking action that was inspired by him. And that doesn't mean that I necessarily stop and ask God every moment of every day, what I'm doing.

(13:57)

But the fact that I asked and received the message to act on this podcast tells me that as long as I keep going through the motions, right, it's going to work out. He's taking care of the rest. That's tip number one, tip number two is I take one step at a time, especially when I feel overwhelmed. Well, mostly when I feel overwhelmed or I can't think literally, I don't know if this ever happens to you, but sometimes my brain goes numb with information overload. And lately this has been happening a lot. Sometimes I just stare blankly and I say, what was I doing? Like a complete, what do they call that? A brain fart? My brain is like, okay, you know what I picture? I picture these secretaries in the movies who followed their boss around telling her everything she has to do going on for the day while the boss just walks down the hallway and everybody just moves out of her way.

(14:54)

That's like my brain. My brain is like that Secretary. it's constantly processing and organizing my tasks. Quite honestly, as I say that out loud, it sounds depressing, but I'll bet I'm not the only one who has this kind of thing going on. And there comes a time when I can't process any more. I have to say, stop, make a list. And then, then I pray. Then I say, okay, God help me get as much done as I can in the time that I have. And I start marking things off. See, that's the really interesting piece right there is that I, I only have little, little S widgets of time, like 30 minutes or nine or 90 minutes, or sometimes even less than that. Sometimes it's only five minutes or whatever the point is that I don't necessarily have like, Oh, from 11 to two, I get to work on my business because of that.

(15:50)

I have this hyper focus happening where I am jazzed up and I am super intentional about getting things accomplished. And I ask for help because I know that it takes positive energy and push from something bigger than me to work some magic. Okay. Tip number three, I stay pumped up. One reason that I have been absorbing podcast content like mad right now is because a, I am getting an education and B, I listen to people who inspire me today before my husband left for work. He gave me a goodbye hug like he does every morning. And he started to tell me about a bill from a creditor that I thought we had dealt with years ago. It was a complete downer. Like I'm literally waking up and he's like, Oh, and I got a bill from this bank and dah, dah, dah. Well, what is that about?

(16:47)

And I'm like, Whoa, man, I don't want to start my day like this. And so I interrupted him and I was, I said, I don't want to talk about this right now. But unfortunately it, the ball was rolling and I couldn't stop thinking about it. He went to work and I kept thinking about it and all those negative emotions from the, from years ago, when I dealt with the rude people on the other line, they just creeped up. I could have gone to work in that space and I could've let it spoil my day. Instead, I chose to listen to a peaceful podcast. I noticed my energy and the way I was feeling when I got in my car, I had been not only was I given bad news when I woke up, but then I felt rushed and I was forgetful. You ever have those moments where you just keep forgetting everything.

(17:35)

So I was running back into the house and back into the house to get this and get that. And I was frazzled by the time it got in the car, I knew I was going to be late. I was just a wreck. My morning was not doing well, but I wasn't going to let it continue. So that's when I made an intentional decision to listen to something that would lift me up. It just so happens. I was also listening to something that brought me back to my connection with God. And I reminded myself that this situation may seem huge and unbearable to me like this creditor situation, but it's meaningless to God. And by the time I got to work, I put that situation out of my mind. And I was in a cheerful mood. I choose to be happy as often as I can.

(18:24)

I believe that cheerfulness creates energy and momentum for a moment. I want you to think of someone you know, who is happy most of the time, right? They're happy most of the time. How do you feel when you're around them? You feel uplifted. What about when you're around someone who's generally pessimistic or down, you feel down or you avoid having conversation with them because it's not gonna light you up. Right? In fact, if you were cheerful, you might almost feel guilty, being happy in their presence. So you diminish your own joy. People do that. We, we push down our own happiness, so we don't offend other people. I don't do this anymore. I refuse to diminish my happiness to serve the people I'm around. So whenever I can, I choose happy. That's so powerful and so important. And it's such a small minuscule thing too, to be aware of my emotion and then to make an intentional change.

(19:24)

But I believe, and I'm only sharing this with you because I truly feel this deep down in my heart that this topic, this tip is one of the most powerful pieces of the puzzle to help you deal with overwhelm and getting through the tornado. Right? That's what I'm talking about. We're going to be tornado chasers. I absorb, this is my next tip. I absorb this. This may be a little bit hard to explain. I literally imagined chaos passing through me. I see myself as just a calm being and I see chaos literally passing through me like a screen door. I trust that I will recall the information when the time comes. So for example, when I was listening to podcast pro university, which by the way, I have a link down in the comments in the podcast notes that will lead you right to Stephanie gasses podcast, pro university.

(20:26)

And I highly highly recommended if you're interested at all in starting a podcast. So, as I was saying, while I was listening to the podcast pro university, I was painting my pantry. I forgot to mention. I'm also remodeling my pantry, making it a full walk-in pantry. I listened to the courses one after the other, I didn't stop to take notes. I didn't stop to do the tasks at each step. The reason for this for me is because I wanted to absorb the class. I also, I also like to see how the pieces all fit together. I knew I could go back and rewatch tutorials. When I did have the time to do the tasks. I knew I could relisten to the classes. But more importantly, I also knew that I would recall the information when I needed it most. And if I needed to go back and check, my my mind would remind me, my little secretary in the head would say, Oh yeah, that was, we filed that on this page.

(21:26)

I could prioritize what I needed to do first and then backtrack. That's how I process information. And I absorb, I literally just let things pass through me and tip number five. I talked to myself. Okay. Can I just say that this podcasting gig seems more and more appropriate? The more I talk seriously though, I speak encouraging words to myself. I tell myself that things I wish others would say to me when I went to bed two nights ago, after recording my first episode, I was like, Lindsay, I am so proud of you. You did it. I know you didn't want to. I know how hard that was. It would have been so easy to give up on yourself and on your mission, but you did it anyway. Sometimes the conversation I have with myself is a pep talk. Before I get going, my daughter, she just turned five and she frequently doesn't let me help her with things.

(22:24)

She says, I've got it, mom, I can do it. And I'm telling you, she must get that from me because I say that to myself. And today, I'm also saying it to you. You've got this, you can do it. So those are the five tips of how we can get through. We trust. We trust that we're taking inspired action and things are working out for us. We take one step at a time. When we feel overwhelmed, we make a list. We ask God for help to be productive. And then we start checking things off. We stay pumped up, we stay cheerful. We choose happy. We absorb information and trust that we will be able to recall it when we need it. And lastly, we speak the words to ourselves that we wish someone else was saying to us. We are our own cheerleaders ladies. That's what we are.

(23:21)

Hey friends, thanks for tuning into the passive income examiner podcast. I just want to give a big thank you for listening. And in celebration of my launch, I'm giving away a gift pack. That includes a $50 Amazon gift card at tools for wisdom, 18 month planner and a 30 minute strategy session with me. Here's how you can win head over to iTunes and leave me a starred review. Then screenshot that review and tag me on Instagram at the passive income examiner. I'll announce the winner. The first week of November today, friends let's empower others who are also looking to escape the rat race and find a better way because we actually can make money while

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