Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How to Increase Productivity as a CEO with Sarah Ohanesian

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How to Increase Productivity as a CEO with Sarah Ohanesian · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  Three, two, one, zero.
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  Ignition.
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  Lift off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with the number one small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the small biz chat podcast?
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  Well, it's time.
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  Every Wednesday, we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start and grow a successful
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  small business.
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  In just twenty minutes or so a week, you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel
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  your business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the Small Bitch Chat podcast today.
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  Today's guest really understands the pressures that leaders have from inside out.
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  Sarah O'Hanneson, she used to wear that busy badge, with pride until she realized that
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  constant motion was leading her straight to burnout.
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  After serving as a chief marketing officer in a high stakes corporate environment, she saw
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  firsthand how busyness can masquerade as productivity while quietly, you know, clarity
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  disappears.
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  So now she is a productivity keynote speaker and founder of SoProductive, and Sarah is on a
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  mission to help professionals and leadership teams break free from overwhelm and focus on
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  how to work in a way that truly moves the needle.
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  And I am so excited to welcome her to the Small Biz Chat podcast.
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  Sarah, welcome.
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  Thanks, thanks for having me.
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  Listen, tell us how did you become so productive?
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  How did you It sounds like you are a corporate person that said, wait a minute, there is
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  another way to do this.
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  And if I'm working for myself, I will now teach others.
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  So tell us how did you become so productive?
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  Yeah.
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  That's it.
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  Well, to start, I married someone whose last name starts with o, so it's also my initials.
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  So that's the technical side of it.
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  Practically what happened was I was a chief marketing officer.
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  And during my career, I was productive.
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  I had no choice but to be productive.
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  We had so much going on.
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  I had a small team and a small budget, overworked and stretched thin.
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  And so productivity wasn't really an option.
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  Like we had to do it.
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  And what I realized as I was talking to people was almost everyone I talked to, I said, you
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  know, how are you?
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  Melinda, how are you?
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  I'm busy.
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  I'm stressed out.
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  I'm overwhelmed.
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  And I thought, oh my gosh, is, is this all there is?
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  Like we work, we work, we work, and then we die.
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  And like, that stinks.
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  So I wanted to be able to help people.
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  So I've always been a student of productivity and I thought, think there's something I can do
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  here to help people.
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  And so I started my business so productive using my initials.
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  And I I created a a simple operating system to help people make decisions, work on the most
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  important things.
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  My mission behind this is so that you can do the most impactful, most powerful work during
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  the workday, leave work on time, and get home to be with the people you love doing the things
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  that you love.
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  So that's what really drives me every day.
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  Alright.
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  Well, let's jump into it.
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  So let's talk about what is the clarity gap, and how can, as a leader, they tell that
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  they're living in this gap?
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  Yeah.
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  Well, Melinda, what I was seeing and you referenced it when I when you first started the
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  show here was tips and tricks and hacks.
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  And we have more gurus and apps to help us than ever before, but we are still in this burnout
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  crisis.
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  So as I'm teaching all of these things, I thought this we're not solving the problem
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  here.
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  What is the real problem?
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  And I realized it is the clarity gap because what that is is that gap between strategy and
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  execution, what the leaders say, what we decide in the boardroom, and what people actually do
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  when they sit down to do their work.
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  And so there's a real gap.
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  And that's the root cause of the productivity problem and the burnout crisis is that we're
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  working on things that don't matter.
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  We are working hard all day, but not seeing us get to our goals.
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  We're reactive instead of proactive, and we're we're we're busy doing all of these activities,
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  but we're getting to the end of the day and going, I didn't I don't feel like I actually
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  got anything done today.
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  Feel like I didn't get anywhere.
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  And so I my my my mission right now is to help organizations solve this clarity gap so that we
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  can work on the right things, the most impactful things, get good quality work done
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  during the day, and then we can go home at night and and and relax.
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  So how has
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  AI jumped into this?
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  Because I feel like since AI came on the scene, I have improved my personal productivity 200%.
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  Like, I get a whole lot of stuff done, and I've been able to eliminate things that I used to
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  pay people to do that I now could go on AI, especially because I am an AI prompt engineer
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  expert.
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  So I actually teach that and I know that.
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  So I know how to make this AI thing really spin.
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  But is that making us more productive?
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  Because I'm wondering, people think productivity is about doing more faster.
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  I'm wondering how is compounding productivity different and why is it more powerful than what
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  I'm talking about being able to go into AI and do all this stuff?
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  You know what mean?
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  Like, when you were talking, I was thinking to myself, oh, I'm fooling myself with that AI.
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  Well,
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  a lot of things there to unpack.
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  First, I think it's really important to consider the definition of being busy versus
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  being productive.
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  Okay?
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  So busy is, and for those of you that are only on audio, Melinda's there like moving her hands
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  around and going super fast.
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  It's relatively easy to be busy.
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  It's relatively easy to do work and get all of the things, that may or may not be important
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  finished.
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  But the shift that I really encourage people doing the work and leaders to think about is
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  what does it mean to be productive?
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  So busy is all of those things that keep us so locked up all day doing those things.
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  Productivity is really progress towards our priorities, meaningful movement.
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  So AI can do a ton of cool stuff, but my question is, is it making you productive?
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  Is it helping you getting those most important, most impactful things done?
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  Now, of the phrases I like to use is compounding productivity, and it's really a
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  similar concept to compounding interest.
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  How can we get something started?
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  One small action that's productive that puts us on that path to getting real productivity in
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  motion, that's compounding our actions and making us so much stronger.
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  So it's really about creating momentum in the direction of what really, really matters to
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  you.
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  So let's talk about the three traps
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  that you see consistently that people fall into and how leaders can recognize that they are
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  stuck?
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  Because a lot of entrepreneurs in particular struggle with this sort of concept of working
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  in your business as opposed to on your business.
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  And so how can people recognize that this busyness thing is like kinda what's going on
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  with them, you know, and why they're not getting anywhere fast?
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  Right.
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  And I call these the productivity pitfalls because there are things that we feel like, oh,
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  yeah, I'm being productive, but they actually can cause us to to have some setbacks, and they
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  can actually be a trap for us.
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  So here's here's the three.
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  The first is the productivity parade.
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  So this is when it looks like we're being productive.
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  We are doing things so people can see us.
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  We're going to the meetings that we shouldn't be going to.
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  We're replying all.
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  We're doing it late at night so people can see us.
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  We're doing it to perform, essentially.
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  So that's the first one.
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  The second one is the quicksand conundrum.
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  And if you think about cartoon characters that were falling into quicksand, that's where the
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  idea comes from.
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  We're working on the wrong tasks disguised as the right task, And as we're working hard doing
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  these wrong tasks, we're actually sinking deeper and deeper and deeper into the
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  quicksand, and the harder we work, the deeper we sink and it's harder to get out.
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  And then the third one is the push it protocol.
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  So that's when you see that task on your to do list and you think, Nope, I'm gonna push it.
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  I'm gonna push it to tomorrow.
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  I'm gonna push it to the next day.
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  I'm gonna push it to next week, but you don't actually do it.
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  So my my concept in naming these for people is one, so we can more easily recognize when we're
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  stuck in those traps ourselves, and two, being able to share this language with our teams so
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  we can say, oh my gosh, Melinda, you're looks like you're in the quicksand conundrum.
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  Let me help you get out of there.
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  And when we have that shared language and we can actually poke a little bit of fun at it, it
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  actually makes it really, really powerful for teams and we can help each other see those
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  traps and help get each other out of those traps as quickly as possible.
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  So why do you feel like so many high achievers are pushing important work to next week?
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  Well, the push it protocol really comes into play when we don't know where to start.
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  So we see a task that is either huge, and we're like, well, like you know, think about, writing
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  a book.
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  You know, we hear that all the time.
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  I wanna write a book.
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  I wanna start a business.
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  I wanna grow my business.
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  Well, like, what does that mean?
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  So oftentimes we push tasks off because the task is way too big, so the answer to that is
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  break it down into smaller bite sized pieces, and the other thing is we just, we don't even
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  know, like, what the end goal is, we don't know where to get started.
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  So a lot of times we are in that push it protocol because we've got a real lack of
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  clarity on where are we actually going with this concept and what is one small step that we
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  could take to actually start getting there.
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  All right, so you've created a framework called COAT.
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  What is Yes,
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  so it's like a COAT that you put on, C O A T, and here's what it stands for.
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  The first is the clarity, get clarity, and this is what I was just talking about in that push
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  it protocol.
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  Get clear on what is it?
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  What is the task?
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  What is the project?
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  When someone asks you to do something, get real clear on what it is, and then why does it
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  matter?
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  And and that's not to be bad or nasty or be a little sassy with that question.
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  It's really to tie it back to the purpose, the larger goal.
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  Like, if your boss or someone that you are working with asks you to do something, why does
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  that work impact everything else?
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  Why is it so powerful?
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  Why is that work important?
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  Because that helps to give us some purpose.
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  So that's the c, get that clarity.
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  The o is to organize, organize it into, and everybody has their tool that they like.
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  Some people have a notebook or a fancy task management system, but organizing that work
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  into one location.
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  And the purpose of that, Melinda, is so that we can actually see everything that's on our
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  plate.
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  A lot of times we've got to do lists all over the place and we really need to get that into
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  one location so that we can holistically see what's on my plate.
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  And when we can see everything that's on our plate, we can decide, well, what am I gonna
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  work on now and what am I gonna work on later?
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  So that's this clarify, organize.
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  And then the a is to act.
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  We gotta do the thing.
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  I mean, you're an entrepreneur.
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  We're talking to the small biz lady today.
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  Like, how did we get there?
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  Well, you took action.
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  You did the work.
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  And I think that's like the hard truth moment for people is that this isn't easy, but we
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  gotta do it.
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  And so take action.
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  And the best way to do that is to put time on your calendar to actually do the thing.
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  Like do it.
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  Do the thing.
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  Do that action.
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  And then the t is to take time.
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  And now people think, oh, that's kinda cute.
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  Like, that's an optional step.
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  And I would say, no.
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  It's one of the most important steps because we have to rest to relax, to recharge, to
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  celebrate those wins.
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  We gotta take time to do that because actually that's what makes us more productive the next
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  day.
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  So we've got clarify, organize, act, and take time.
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  All right, so what does choosing the next right thing, what does that look like in practice?
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  Yeah, so I would think about that smallest thing.
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  So I do an activity when I'm doing a keynote and I have people think about what is that next
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  right action for them.
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  And most often people come up and they say, oh, my next action is to we'll stick with write the
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  book.
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  I'm like, too big.
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  Break it down.
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  Make it smaller.
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  Make it smaller.
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  So my encouragement is the next right thing is this tiny, mini, micro bite sized piece that
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  you yourself can actually do because that little one next right action, that's the thing
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  that's gonna set that that, momentum on course for you.
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  So one small thing.
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  I love that, Sarah.
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  So tell us what is the best business advice you've ever received?
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  I had a business coach, one time tell me, I it's it was really how this business got
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  started.
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  And I had a night with her and I said, well, like, what if I started a productivity company?
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  Like, it's that's silly, though.
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  Like, that's a dumb idea.
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  Right?
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  And she said to me, what if you did?
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  And that piece of business advice, what if you did, has carried me so far.
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  And I just continue to ask myself that question.
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  And now I actually share that from the stage, and I encourage my audience members to do that
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  as well.
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  Like, what if you did?
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  Like, what if you did take that small action?
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  What if you did make a big impact?
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  Like, what would happen?
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  Thank you so much, Sarah, for being here.
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  You have given us so many nuggets in such a short period of time, and I thoroughly feel
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  like, oh my gosh, you've, like, made me think about a bunch of stuff differently as well.
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  So thank you.
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  Thanks for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next Wednesday for
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  more fantastic information and interviews.
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  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
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  website, succeedasyourownboss.com.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.