Gabs Hayes & Growing Your Business with the Productivity Quickie

Transform your productivity by focusing on what matters most—without burning out. Discover how to prioritize the tasks that actually move your business forward, break free from endless to-do lists, and leverage time-saving methods like the 80/20 principle and content batching. Whether you’re overwhelmed or just ready to work smarter, you’ll find actionable strategies for balancing business, personal life, and your own well-being.

After losing her son seven years ago, Gabs’ priorities fundamentally shifted: time over money, doing over dreaming, and memories over material things. Today, this entrepreneurial mom is building the Overwhelmed & Over It village parents desperately need.

https://gabshayes.com/prodquickie
https://gabshayes.com/village
https://gabshayes.com/podcast

Time Stamps:
01:24 Gabs Hayes' Journey and Priorities
02:09 The Overwhelmed and Over It Village
03:10 Balancing Business and Personal Life
04:02 The Problem with To-Do Lists
05:20 Prioritizing Over Completing
08:39 The Productivity Quickie Method
11:02 Implementing the 80/20 Principle
12:48 Breaking Up with the To-Do List
16:16 Managing Business Priorities
21:18 Content Batching and Sales Strategies
28:32 The Power of Personal Branding

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Transcript

Episode 099: Gabs Hayes

Gabs Hayes: [00:00:00] And so it's not worth it to be expending our most precious resource, which is time I. We spend money like it comes and goes because that's how it kind of always has been in our life.

But we spend time like it's ever filling, and that's the one thing that literally doesn't refill. And so we need to own and treat our time like the most important resource we have. then when you see that as the most important resource, you're willing to spend it a little differently, right? It's kind of like going on a budget with your money.

You spend it a little differently when you're paying more attention to it. 

Joanna Newton: Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Her First Podcast. If you're new here, welcome. Um, we talk to High Achieving Women and help them grow their personal brands and their businesses in real sustainable ways. Today we're talking all about productivity and why some of the ways that you're told to be productive and ways to run your business and run your life aren't working for you and what [00:01:00] you can do instead.

Hi, my name is Joanna Newton. I'm the co-founder of Millennial Marketer, a course creation agency that helps people build their own digital online businesses. I. And I'm Michelle Houston, founder of To Be Honest Beverage Company. We're a non-alcoholic functional spirit brand, as well as creator of digital products to help personal brands meet personal development and personal branding.

Michelle Pualani: Today we have very special guest, Gabs Hayes. losing her son seven years ago, G'S priorities fundamentally shifted. So time over money, doing over dreaming and memories over material things.

Today, this entrepreneurial mom is building the overwhelmed and over it village parents desperately need. So Gabs, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm excited to dive into your story and learn more about what you do.

Gabs Hayes: Yes, absolutely. Thank you ladies both for having me. I'm really excited for this conversation. 

Joanna Newton: Why don't we get started by you sharing with our listeners just a little bit more about you and your business? 

Gabs Hayes: Yeah, absolutely. So I'm a mom of three. I am married to [00:02:00] my absolute favorite human being in the entire world. but it's been a long journey of finding myself in motherhood and as an entrepreneur and in my career. I. so I launched the overwhelmed and Overate village so that parents had a safe place to go.

When we said, this business stuff is hard and I don't wanna have to fake like it isn't, or this parenting stuff is hard, and I don't want to always put a smile on my face and talk about how much I love these kids every day, because sometimes it's the hardest job that we have. ourselves up for. And so I've just created this space that ultimately I needed.

My oldest child just turned 14 years old. And so for the very like 10 plus years in the beginning of parenting, I felt very alone and isolated. And how do I navigate that journey? Um, and of course as my story, you know, shares is that I've come with losing a child along that process too. And so Many parts of parenting, uh, really felt alone and isolating.

And then when I added entrepreneurship on top of that, it just became my reality. [00:03:00] And so I had to figure out how do I find my people that I actually can do life with because they're people who actually understand what my life is.

Michelle Pualani: We struggle with so many of those things all the time. I think that Joanna and I actually, that's where her first started, is prioritizing you in business and life. We've shifted more to the business marketing, personal branding side of things, but I think especially as women, we enter business ownership, we enter entrepreneurship, and nothing from our personal lives is cut off from that.

It all seems to integrate and we have so much that we're caring for when it comes to the home, when it comes to family members, when it comes to children, when it comes to the world, there's just a lot of pressure, a lot of things that we have to take care of, and it can feel really isolating. And Joanna and I talk a lot about the ways in which we can connect with others to ensure that.

Yes, we're going through that too. Yes, we feel these emotions and I think it's so important to have these kinds of discussions I think when we look at business, when we look at our lives, you know, what we're talking about today [00:04:00] is productivity and getting things done. And so often that comes down to to-do lists.

So, in doing what you do, what do you see is kind of wrong with the traditional way that people approach. Their lives, their tasks, their activities, and those to-do lists that always feel like they're looming ahead of us.

Gabs Hayes: Yeah, I mean, when you think of the concept of a to-do list, right? Naturally the concept here is I'm supposed to check everything off, right? That's the whole reason we have that functionality of a to-do list. But if you look at the intersection of parenting and running a business. When does that to-do list ever actually end?

It doesn't, right? It's always growing. It's always adding more things to it, and there's more things on that list than there are hours in the day. So when we're setting up our ability to be, quote unquote successful by this list that we're never gonna get to the bottom of, subconsciously we're setting ourselves up to feel like we are failing.

Like we are not good enough, that we are not getting it all done. I definitely struggled with that myself, and it got to a point where my husband was the one who had to say. You are [00:05:00] just raising these kids by like what we see over the top of the laptop, right? Which is like just your forehead.

Because I was always like, I never got enough done. I just have to keep going. I have to keep going. And I missed out on a lot of things, in some of the years of my, my kids growing up because I was so worried about getting everything done in the to-do list and in the And so it forced me to take a step back and say, okay. What do I actually know to be true about situations where you have more things that need to be done than you have time or capacity to do it. it took me back to my software development days where there's always more things we wanna build in the software. There's always more bugs that need to be fixed.

And we had to plan by priority instead of by just sheer volume of things. so that forced me to take a look back and say, okay. not about the to-do list and getting it all done, but it's about getting the priorities done and giving yourself permission in that same vein, that there are going to be things that just happen to fall off the to-do list.

Maybe that birthday party just passed and we didn't get to it, or maybe that ho school holiday is over and we didn't do dress up day or whatever. But you start to [00:06:00] realize some of those things are not as critical and they are not a part of your priorities for this phase of your life, so this is a way that you kind of give yourself some permission to say.

I'm gonna let a few balls drop, as does everyone else, and that is perfectly normal because I'm choosing which balls to keep in the air because they are supporting my priorities at this chapter of my life. 

Joanna Newton: being able to prioritize like that as a business owner is so important because it's one thing when you, I've worked corporate, I've worked a business owner. When you're working in corporate, there's always a lot to do, but there's. Often multiple people to do it. The stakes for not getting it done are like kind of minimal.

You're gonna be like, what am I gonna do? When you're like a lower level employee, you're kind of like, what am I gonna do to just not get yelled at? If you are at the executive level, you can kind of say, okay, what are the big projects that the company really wants to move forward? I'm really gonna focus on those.

The other balls might get dropped, but when you're a business owner. It can feel like, well, if I don't do this, I'm not gonna hit my [00:07:00] sales goal this month. Or if I don't do this, I'm not moving that this thing forward. And it can get really hard to be able to turn right. It can be hard to quiet that mind.

And then you think, what am I doing this for? quit my nine to five to have more freedom in life, but now I'm working 24 7. Not spending time with my family, not spending time with my friends, not. Working out, eating well, doing all of the things that are part of a life. it can be so challenging to figure out how to prioritize.

That's something I've definitely had to learn as I've like shifted. I've, you know, been a full-time entrepreneur for, I don't know, two years now, really kind of have to learn to say, you know what? I'm gonna shut my laptop closed. I'm going to go do this thing with my family, and. It's okay that that thing's not done.

I will get to it tomorrow or the next day. Or the next day. And learning how to really focus in that way. And I think one of the things that as entrepreneurs or even just like high level executives at [00:08:00] companies, if you don't learn this lesson, I think you're in real danger. Of burnout. So if you're just focused on that to-do list and like running the rat race and getting everything done, you're really at risk of that burnout experience and you're probably actually going to be less productive and less successful.

So how do those things, you know, work together in your mind, like being stuck in that like to-do list mindset leading to burnout, and even potentially being less productive in your work? 

Gabs Hayes: Yeah, I mean, I think this is such a great tie in Joanna, because the truth is, is whether you intend to or not, you are always mentally running through that to-do list. This is something one of my therapists taught me years and years ago, and I've held onto this brain dump, and it's actually the beginning of how we start this productivity quickie that we're gonna talk about today is. Doing a brain dump to get it all out of your brain, because if you are just cycling through it in your mind. You're constantly checking in, did I order that thing? Did I move the laundry over? Have I sent that email? Did I do the [00:09:00] social post? Right. You kind of just are naturally going through that checklist, whether it's written or in your mind, and so you're always distracted. You know? I think distractions are worse now than they've ever been in our lifetime. Right. Everywhere you turn, there's a ping, there's a notification, like we were just talking about that, Joanna, before we hit record, like making sure we're on do not disturb, it's on us to be clear. We have to separate ourselves from some of these distractions and our to-do list is the number one thing that is distracting because we feel so discombobulated and feel like we are stretched in so many places, which we are.

I do not wanna discredit that at all, but are we being real with what moves the needle the most? Our business is never gonna be at a hundred percent. Our parenting is never gonna be at a hundred percent our partnerships, our home, our whatever. There's always gonna be parts that we want to fix, but where is your space to mentally and physically enjoy this life that you're working so hard in?

If all you can ever do is think about, well, what I didn't get done or what's is still out there that needs to get done? And so this is where those priorities come [00:10:00] into play. You know, I tell people all the time, let's say it is sales in your business right now, when you go into the productivity quickly and do your brain dump, it's gonna ask you what is your number one priority for this week?

Is it I need to make more sales in my business? Then anything in that brain dump that ties to that, those get moved to the high priority items. Or maybe it's, I just wanna be present with my kids this week. Maybe it's not time, but actual presence, like, can I close the laptop and feel like I'm truly with them? Then those are the things that get moved high priority, and it allows you to flex what you need for yourself to be best. There are times when I need a break from the kids, not more time with them, and so I can prioritize that or other way around. There's times where my business is really dragging me down for a minute and I need to just let it run. Trust the systems that I've built and take a, a step back for a couple of days and use that time and that energy somewhere else in my life. so I think it's just understanding that, you know, you don't get to disconnect who you are as a person from the business anymore, right? It's, it's you. It's all of you.

And so how do you make space for all of [00:11:00] you in the reality of the life that you're living?

Michelle Pualani: This year has been a big transformation for me as well when it comes to these areas of time management. Productivity, the activities that we're doing in our businesses, how we're focusing our time and energy, I've really been leaning into the 80 20 principle of focusing on the 20% of tasks that actually move the needle and that.

you focus the intention, the energy, the activities, the daily tasks, and everything that you're doing to accomplish your goals, as opposed to the 80% of usual distractions or things that don't have like a large lift. so I've had to really scrutinize my schedule, my time investment, where my focus is going, the attention that I have, so much of that has included.

Deleting. Joanna and I have talked about it on the show before and we have like a decluttering process of like getting rid of, but I have just been like slashing, slashing, slashing. Like if it's not a priority, if it's not a good investment in my time, my energy, my focus, It's going away. There's just like so much deleting that's happening and I'm not even at a point where I'm actually [00:12:00] using to-do lists anymore, which I think is really funny.

'cause I used to be super big into like every single day writing out that to-do list, but then I wouldn't get it done. And then I just moved to the next day then and then I was like, it's a point at certain point where I was like, just moving things that I haven't done, like weeks out, months out. I'm like, what is even the purpose?

Delete, eliminate, get rid of. So in terms of this productivity quickie and kind of the solution that we're looking for, if we're struggling with to-do lists, we're always focusing on what we haven't gotten done. We're not able to actually leverage our time, our attention, our energy in the way that we want to.

What is the solution gaps? What? What do we do?

Gabs Hayes: Yeah, so I think one, acknowledging where you're at is step number one. I'm with you. I used to joke, like, bury me with my planner 'cause I was gonna have a paper planner with. Me till the day I died and like, don't you dare rip it from my hands. Right? but what I realized is like using the productivity quickie, the limit here is three things a day.

So back to this 80 20 rule, right? And are we doing 20% of the tasks that move the needle the most? What are [00:13:00] your top three priorities each and every day? Based upon what you said your overall goal for the week was. And if you get those three things done at 11:00 AM on a Tuesday, guess what? You can guilt free, close your laptop and walk away because you got done what you had to get done to support what your goal and your priority is right now.

so what I actually found was breaking up with my to-do list gave me so much more time. I never thought, as an entrepreneur and a mom of three, I would tell people I have lot of free time, but I do. And it's because I'm focusing on what matters and I'm not stressing about what doesn't. And part of that was. When 2025 rolled around, I made a decision, kind of do that word of the year thing, right? My word of the year was focus, and I was gonna be present where my feet were and every day, that's my goal. And so I check in with myself if I find myself distracted about decisions I can't make right now, or something that I might wanna change in the business in the future, but it's not a right now thing. And just put that away. I don't need to deal with it right now because it's occupying my brain space, my decision making [00:14:00] capabilities and my energy for something I'm not actually invested in at the moment. And so it's not worth it to be expending our most precious resource, which is time I. We spend money like it comes and goes because that's how it kind of always has been in our life.

But we spend time like it's ever filling, and that's the one thing that literally doesn't refill. And so we need to own and treat our time like the most important resource we have. then when you see that as the most important resource, you're willing to spend it a little differently, right? It's kind of like going on a budget with your money.

You spend it a little differently when you're paying more attention to it. so I spend it a little bit differently now when I realize. I actually have time to craft with the kids during the summer because oftentimes I am closing my laptop halfway through the day. 'cause I got my three things done. I feel really accomplished, and I know that I'm planting seeds that will become fruitful later on, instead of like hovering over them, waiting for them to grow, waiting for something to happen, I trust that I did the work that needed to happen right now, and now it's my time to go do other things in my life that also bring me joy. 

Joanna Newton: Yeah. And then you get to be a whole person, right? Like not just the [00:15:00] eyes above the laptop, right? Like peeking out through that and. And I think So much. You know, when you think about your like early days, in a career, especially when you're in like an entry level role and your manager, if you took like two seconds to like not do something, your manager's like, what are you working on?

What are you working on? I remember in my waitressing days, if it was not busy and you were like sitting and chatting with someone. They were like, clean something. And you're like, but everything's clean. And they're like, but you gotta be cleaning something. Right? And so I think like at a very early age, we get trained to think we have to constantly be doing to be a value, to be productive.

I. And that doesn't always translate into entrepreneurship or high level career roles because our strategic thinking, our ability to be present, our ability to create content or move the needle is so important. And having good head space and having a good mindset is key to being able to do that.

you know, if someone listening to this, this podcast is like, okay. [00:16:00] Realizing they have a problem, right? They're stuck in a to-do list cycle. They're working 24 7. Even when they're not working, they're thinking about their work. They're not able to be, you know, and then when they're working, they're thinking about the things they need to do out of work.

Like there's just no balance and, and no focus. If someone's listening to this and thinking, okay, this sounds great, how would they get started in trying to implement this strategy of Picking those three things a day, figuring out how to focus and figuring out how to prioritize.

Gabs Hayes: So that's actually the magic of the productivity quickie, is that you don't have to decide. Um, I think leaving it up to us to decide, we're always gonna be like, oh, but I could just squeeze a fourth and a fifth. Thing in there, or I really need to do all these things. And so it takes that decision point out of you.

So you start with a brain dump, and my running joke is like, you can plan your entire week in five minutes, but it's because I mean it. so you start with a brain dump. And I tell people all the time, don't separate personal life and work life. Like keep all of it together. Get all of it out of your brain, dump it in there, then [00:17:00] decide what is my number one priority over the next seven days.

So is it spend more time with my kids? Is it get that house project done? Is it plan that vacation, do more sales in my business, get my content done, whatever those things are. Be real with yourself around what you need right now to be your number one priority and be honest. And so once you put that in there. It's then gonna take your to-do list and it's gonna prioritize it for you. So it'll have a high, medium, low priorities. It will pick one of each for you to do each day to support your priority for the week. then it creates a backlog so that if you say by Tuesday at 11:00 AM you get stuff done, but your energy's there and you're still ready to go, you could go pick up some things from the backlog and knock them out if you have that ca capacity and that energy.

But if you don't, you can still close the laptop. Being really proud and being like, I got done what had to get done and now I can keep going and it will take a few weeks. Like I think we have to be honest that this is part of that deconditioning and deciding what is mine versus what was I taught and what do I wanna own.

So give yourself some realization that like it's gonna take you a couple weeks to feel comfortable [00:18:00] breaking up with that to-do list, but use this as a tool that helps. To you that supports you in that transition so that you are not the one having to decide what you should focus on and what you shouldn't, and you're having those built-in permission slips to say, I got done what I was told, needed to get done this week so I can be proud of what happened.

Michelle Pualani: Having someone take away the decision making process, I think is really important for business owners, and I think we discount how much energy we spend on making those decisions, right? If you're into any of that personal development and habit formation, ultimately we only have. So much ability to make decisions.

We only have so much energy. We only have so much capacity. so when we start out the day saying, okay, well I have a list of a hundred things that I need to accomplish, what should I do today? Maybe this. And you go through and you start thinking, then you think about what should I have to eat and when am I gonna work out what am I gonna wear today?

And what am I gonna do with the kids? And am I gonna go outside? And you start asking yourself these questions. It's like when you can put your life on quote unquote default mode, obviously not mentally default like you wanna be present, but the [00:19:00] default mode in as much as you're not having to make those decisions in the moment, it can be incredibly powerful.

And so your ability to map out, to strategize. To plan in advance gives you that edge to be able to stay present, to stay focused, and not worried about what's coming next. So I think that's an incredible tool to be able to have and a way to start kind of mapping out those things. Now, if someone wasn't even sure, like where their focus needs to go.

'cause I think some of the times, especially let's say with an online business with a digital business. There are so many places there that we sh we can be, right? We could be on this platform, we could be doing this thing, we could be doing this interview here. We could be reaching out for this public relations thing.

We could be creating content in this space. Should we create this digital product? Should we create this course? So how do we kind of manage, you know, you mentioned like it's okay to let certain balls drop, it's okay not to do certain things. How do we the process of figuring out. what do we even put in [00:20:00] to prioritize when we have all of these things kind of going on that it feels like that's where our attention needs to go.

Gabs Hayes: Mm. That's such a good question. I think one thing I would recommend is start with like what's keeping you up at night? I. Or what's really cycling over and over in your head, even when you have walked away, or even when you think you are done working for the day. Is it content and where I should be posting or what I should be posting? Is it need to be talking to more customers? 'cause I don't have a full enough pipeline? Is it that my business finances are a mess and I'm scared to even open up the bank account and look at it or to have to answer any questions about it? Like you inherently. know, by the thing that's stressing you out the most, whether we're willing to admit it or not, or to face that feeling, um, that's another conversation.

But that's part of doing that development that helps us feel more whole as human beings. And so I say lean into the thing that's. Bugging you the most, that's stressing you out the most, or that's kind of keeping you up at night. And even again, if you can make 20% improvement on it, it's probably more [00:21:00] improvement than you made when you were just spiraling about it in your head. But if you focus on the high priority items that really move the needle. One week of focusing on that is going to give you so much relief where it doesn't feel like it's this heavy thing weighing you down every day, that you'll be reinvigorated enough to come back and try something the next week and try something the next week.

And so like my biggest example of that is I discovered content batching by complete and total accident. I have always laughed and called myself like a wing it windy who just kind of flies by the seat of her pants. And so batching never was something I thought was this trick that I was gonna figure out. eventually I was so stressed about finding time to do content every day that I was like, this is not sustainable for me. And back to what you were saying earlier around, like I need to look at what's actually helping here. I. Almost every single client I closed in 2025 has come directly from content. And so I was like, okay, I could spend time doing all these networking calls and going to in-person events or doing all these things, or I can look at the thing that actually is a direct tie to my revenue double down on that. So [00:22:00] that's what I did this year is I figure it out, how do I batch all of my content?

How do I make it so I spend. You know, 24 to four eight hours and I get all of it done for a month. So that, that is a thing I no longer have to stress about. But that week that I'm gonna be doing my batching, that's my priority for the week. So anything else on the to-do list that doesn't really support me prepping for that or executing on that moves to the backlog or gets dropped to the back of burner for now until it's it's week to come up and be my priority. 

Joanna Newton: And it's so important to, to do that work, right? Figure out what's moving the needle, figure out what is working, and then figure out a way to do that in the most like efficient, productive way that helps you. One of the things that I did this year that felt so scary to me was limit.

My available times for taking sales calls. So I found myself, like I had every day, every time open, and then I would be like in and out of meetings all of the time. And it was super stressful. Like I, it was really stressful [00:23:00] and I was like, I can't do this anymore. This is too much. and I'll say. Having too many sales calls is a great problem to have, but still a problem, right?

And so I sort of limited the time that I had available instead of people want to meet with me, like they're gonna have to pick in these time slots for those sales calls. And it scared me. I was like, am I still gonna be able to like hit my numbers, hit my goals, bring in new clients? While doing this. And the truth is my sales went up.

and I think it's because, honestly, I think it's 'cause I had more time to make content. You know, I, I, I did it so I had more time to make content and be more forward facing and doing those things. But my sales went up. But I was really tested this month because like end of May, early June, my inbound request had slowed down and I was like, oh no.

is it because my availability is too small? Like what have I done? This was a mistake and I was like, let me just hold on it. I also went and I looked back at previous year's numbers and I was like, you know what? May, June [00:24:00] are actually typically a little slower. people are focused end of, if parents are focused, end of school year, beginning of summer transitions, like if they're business owners, they have less time.

I was like, you know what, let me just hold. I'm not gonna change anything. And this week things have turned around like I'm getting the same number and I'm like, okay. It was, it was not me. It's not because of my time, it, it was just what happened. I think sometimes we think we have to do things to have that success and we think.

We have to be available all the time. We think we have to respond to emails within three hours, but we don't. And if we start to kind of schedule ourselves based on our priorities, we will likely. Even if it feels weird, be more successful with less time for sales calls, we might be more successful with less time for client meetings because we're really structuring our lives in a way that are gonna bring out the priorities and make those things the top.

I'd love to know from you, you, obviously you've created this method, you've [00:25:00] implemented it into your life. How has that transformed your business? Like how, in either in terms of like your client totals, your numbers, or even just like your state of mind, how has using this productivity method, um, supported your business growth? 

Gabs Hayes: Yeah, so I mean, I think one, it's. Just similar to what you're saying, it's increased my inbound because people want to come try it. They're curious about it. And it's really funny because I taught it live last week and I had one lady, she was like, Kind of, sort of still don't believe you. Like I used it, I see it, but I'm really hesitant to believe that this is real.

But then she emailed me this week and she was like, okay, wait. Like I sat and did it alone and this thing is actually like magic. Like what's going on here? and so I think one, it's opened the door for me to have some conversations that I wouldn't have had otherwise. Because, you know, if I were looking at a more unique target audience, I wouldn't have necessarily said, oh, well productivity is their sole problem that I need to address.

But what happened is it came on the backside of working with all of [00:26:00] my clients where I realized that's the number one thing they're struggling with is what permission of balls can I drop and which things can I actually focus on. So in that way it's been really helpful for my business. But also what I will say is it's transformed how I am, how I parent. Which was a really big thing for me. I really thought for the rest of my parenting years I was gonna struggle to enjoy motherhood because I wanted to be in my business. I wanted to be building and actively behind this computer doing stuff that I absolutely love, and for so long, parenting felt like a clash with that because I felt like any minute I wasn't behind this computer building my business. Was minutes that my business was gonna fail because I wasn't giving it everything I've got. And now I've realized I use this Tuesday at 11:00 AM am example because one of my kids. If she is in the water, she is so happy. She's so peaceful. It makes our parenting journey much easier. And now we prioritize getting her to the pool almost every day if I can, because I know that that sets the tone for [00:27:00] nighttime when the witching hour comes and the meltdowns are happening.

But she got out the energy she needed to get out, and she was in this space that made her feel better. And so. It has literally just given me the space and the energy to still show up in these other parts of my life that are just as important to me, but they're not natural to me, so I have to work harder at them. and it's allowed me to figure out how I want to work harder at it, or how I want to show up differently and not just accept my defeat of, oh, it's hard. I'm just not gonna ever figure this out.

Michelle Pualani: I love the simplicity. I love the approach. I love it. Looking at productivity. Differently, right? Because I think we come from the mindset and the lens of productivity is hustle, which means getting as many things done as you possibly can, which includes things on the list that actually don't matter or aren't important to you.

That's what I found, especially when I was doing behavioral coaching, is that a lot of people had things on their list or in their priorities that didn't actually matter to them, but they had been [00:28:00] absorbed from the environment, from the culture, from their parents, from their spouse, from. Um, whatever they had been exposed to that they had just taken on without really assessing whether it was valuable or important to them.

So I love the shift that we're making to productivity is actually prioritization and being able to simplify and plan out your week with such ease is magic. I am all about it. So as you've. Developed this as you've created this. One thing that I would love to know is kind of the personal brand that you've been able to establish around this.

What platforms are you on? Where do you share yourself and how have you had that be successful for you in establishing this business without doing all the things and being everywhere, wear.

Gabs Hayes: Yeah, so LinkedIn is my main home, from a social platform. So that's where I spend most of my time. Um, and I also have a podcast called Overwhelmed and Over It where we kind of talk about these same things where being a parent, being a business owner at the same time feels very overwhelming because of the sheer volume of [00:29:00] things and how do we just find ourselves in that process.

and really what has come of it is. I used my personal brand to find my voice again and to help identify what was mine versus what was picked up as other parts of my life, or from my former career, or from my childhood, whatever it may be, and how do I figure out who I truly am? And so it was this real. Safe space, honestly, to use my words again, and to just keep practicing, keep practicing, keep practicing. but it also taught me the power of consistency. I'm not as much of a wing at windy as I used to be because I saw that happen with my content and in my personal brand if I was sitting down and having some structure and the way I created it, when I created it, how I created it. reflected in the engagement, it reflected in the conversations that I had. And you know, one thing I think that people are always asking themselves is, is my brand and building a brand directly tied to revenue in my business? Or am I just doing it 'cause everyone else says I should be doing it? Well, my podcast is called [00:30:00] Overwhelms and Over It and I signed an $8,000 contract this year from someone who dmd me on LinkedIn.

And her response or her question literally was, how do I make this less overwhelming? we didn't have to have this massive, big conversation because she already knew who I was. She already knew what I stood for. She knew I was gonna come in and tell her, we are not doing all the things. I don't believe in that.

We're gonna simplify this. We're gonna get done what we have to get done, and then we're gonna tweak and grow from there. but she was working with someone else who was delivering. You know, 180 page booklets of how she should be changing her business and transforming it. And as a solopreneur with a small team, she didn't have capacity to even consume that or do something with it.

And so she was looking for someone who was vocal about, you can still run a business without running yourself in the ground. And we, that was the opening to our conversation. And so I just say that to say. Use it as something powerful, but also know it's yours and it only can be done successfully in the way that you and your energy want to invest in building that brand so that you [00:31:00] can maintain it, so that you can keep it up, and so that it can truly feel like you coming out and building those relationships with the world. 

Joanna Newton: Thank you for sharing that. I think that's such a powerful story of like how our personal brands being aligned with our businesses can just really help move the needle for our business. One of the things we talk about on this podcast a lot is the importance of building your personal brand presence.

And I think one of the challenges can be, you know, for you, you've been able to really directly tie that like sales revenue and new client acquisition to your content, but sometimes it's less obvious. I know for me, sometimes I don't actually know that my content played a role in closing the sale until after I've closed.

Close the sale. we'll be talking and working on something and they'll be like, Yeah, I saw you said this on your LinkedIn. And like, I'll have not known because they came through like a marketplace or something like that because that DM didn't come from LinkedIn, I might not actually know that's where they came from.

So having that genuine, consistent [00:32:00] brand presence plays such a huge role in like how people get to know you, how people, um. You know, interact with you and can make those sales conversations so easy, right? Because they show up, they're like, I know you do this. I know you do that. I know you do this, and that is what I want.

Sign me up you fit. But then on the opposite side of things, there might be someone who wants a 50 page guide with multiple implementation systems in this complex system. They might not also be the right person for you. So you've qualified them out. They'll come see your content and be like, you know what?

I need something different. And I think that's one of the beauties that we, the beauty of being able to create authentic, true personal brands, in that space. As we wrap up, one thing for our listeners, we will add her, Gabs podcast list, her LinkedIn, her, product quickie so you can try it out.

I'd love to know from you what is the best way people can connect with you if they wanna learn more.

Gabs Hayes: Yeah, so probably easiest, just my website. It's gaps hayes.com. That way you can again, get up to date what's there. [00:33:00] and then, yeah, the podcast I would love. I do quick 10, 15 minute episodes. So if you are a podcaster and you enjoy just like listening. Um, would love to connect with you in that way also, uh, because I'm, I'm with you Joan.

I think, you know, we use our, our brands to not only shorten the sales cycle and tell our story, but like, I love that you called out. It helps qualify people. And so I think about that as everything that I'm putting out there is. I never want someone to question am I the right fit for them? You, we should automatically feel that.

And so using your content and your brand is a way to do that. But also, the other thing I tell people all the time is it is the absolute fastest way to experiment in your business. So like you can have an idea today, you can put it out today, you can get feedback today, and there's nowhere else in your business you're gonna get that quick of feedback and be able to experiment.

And so when you look at it through that lens. It really simplifies that pressure we put on ourself of like, I have to post content versus I'm getting to experiment with my content, and that just makes it more fun.

Michelle Pualani: I love it. More fun, more simplicity. Everything that [00:34:00] you're doing is such a great representation of where I feel like our shift should be moving. When it comes to business and solopreneurs and entrepreneurship is, is it's not how hard can you work and how much can you accomplish, but what way can you align your business to your life, the things that you want to accomplish, the things that you wanna see.

See, and how it can format to fit your family, your lifestyle, the things that you wanna do, because ultimately, yes, we created businesses to have an impact, but we also created them for time freedom and for the ability to move about the world, or to just make decisions based on what it is that we want our lives to become.

So if you enjoyed this episode, go ahead and hit subscribe. And if you think that you have someone in your life who should be doing less and using this productivity quickie, go ahead and send this episode to them. We'll see you in the next one. I.

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