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>> Carlee: Are you struggling to stay productive at work? You'll find out how to stay focused in this episode of The Stress Less Show. Hi I'm Carlee Meyers, a stress management expert. One thing I hear day in and day out is that we feel like we've tried everything when it comes to stress management. We may have tried the mainstream approaches to managing our stress, but have we really tried to get to the root of the issue. Each episode, I bring on experts and leaders to not just put a Band-Aid on your stress but to actually get to that root. This month we're focusing on one of the top stress triggers in the United States and that's job security and job pressure. So specifically, I've brought on a guest Emily Cassel to talk about productivity and success at work. Welcome, Emily.
>> Emily: Hi. Thanks for having me.
>> Carlee: Absolutely. So Emily is a leadership and business coach for ambitious and high achieving women entrepreneurs across the globe which doesn't sound anything like me. So through private and group coaching, a high level mastermind, and gorgeous retreat, Emily helps women leaders to shift out of hustle mode and into a state of freedom, flow, and fulfillment so that they can launch scale and grow the soul led businesses that make a powerful impact and profitable income. Emily is also the host of the podcast, Sexy Soulful Success, where she facilitates visionary conversations with women entrepreneurs and leaders that redefine success and womanhood for modern day change-making women. You can learn more at Emily Cassel dot com. But Emily, I'm really curious. I mean, this conversation isn't happening a lot about about this hustle versus soul driven and how do we realistically do it. I'm curious, how did you get into this line of work?
>> Emily: I got into this line of work because I was always a super ambitious high achieving woman myself and I always had an eye and a heart for entrepreneurship and I really wanted to support women entrepreneurs on their journey because I felt like there was so much that... in that... In the journey of entrepreneurship, a lot of what we hear is more strategic business wisdom, but actually I find that as much as we think we're growing a business the business is also growing us and that entrepreneurship is very much a personal development and discovery self discovery journey. And I was really curious about positive psychology and I had gone to an all women's college and so sisterhood was something that was really on my radar and I started to... I was just really curious all the time about spirituality and also psychology and how those two things interwove together. And then also a really holistic approach to business. So these were all sort of like spinning in my mind and coming together and merging in different ways. And yeah I always personally felt like I had to be doing more and that if I wasn't doing more, I wasn't good enough. And I think that that's something that most of the women I speak to on a daily basis go through again and again and again. And it's sort of a cycle that I'm on a mission to break for women because it is so... it's something that can cause so much stress and so much just feeling like we are stuck in the in the hamster wheel of our life right? In the hustle of things instead of really making progress forward.
>> Carlee: It feels to me like just being and I do a lot of networking especially in women's women's networking groups and organizations. It feels to me like it's actually an epidemic. That our self-worth is really tied very much to our prod... productivity, our accomplishments. So this is I mean I think this is one of the main reasons why I wanted to have you on the show because something needs to change. I think I mean especially from a stress management perspective. We can't. If we tie our self-worth with our work, we're never gonna stop and we're going to burn ourselves out. So what do you recommend for the Type A woman achiever? You know the hustler who's trying to step out of this cycle, but not trying to lose income or lose the productivity that they're looking for.
>> Emily: Absolutely yeah. So I think the first thing is for women specifically since that's who I work with, I'll speak directly to that today. The first thing, the thing that's been most revolutionary for me personally in my life and in my business and then also for all the women that I support this is like an aha moment for them when they realize that this is a tool that they've had for forever that's integrated into their body every single day every single moment and it can sort of act as a guide which is to start tracking your menstrual cycle because there are so many clues and so many pieces of that that you can leverage for optimal productivity in business, life, work. And when we work with that natural rhythm and flow - with it instead of against it - we can accomplish so much more. And it doesn't feel like an uphill battle anymore. It actually feels really effortless to do the things that we're primed to do at a certain time of the month hormonally, physically, mentally, emotionally. It just when we plan and when we schedule ourselves on a monthly basis and a 28 day cycle instead of a 24 hour cycle, we're then working with our hormones and with our natural cycles instead of against them. Which I think is just so cool and so awesome and there's so much more that I can share about that, but I know we're trying to keep it keep it on a timeline today. So someone really great to check out if you're interested in learning more about that is Elisa Beattie who wrote the book, Women Code, and has a new book coming out soon and I also have a free gift that includes those four phases of your cycle and how to plan in your business around them so...
>> Carlee: That was going to be my next question. So you can check out Emily Cassel dot com and we'll share the link to get that free gift I'm assuming.
>> Emily: Yeah
>> Carlee: Perfect. OK. So what else do you recommend?
>> Emily: I also think comparison is such... You know, they say comparison is the thief of joy and I think, in this case, it's definitely a thief of productivity and success because when we're constantly comparing ourselves to everyone else on social media which is so easy to do now, we start to second guess ourselves and we start to feel like, "Wait should I want this thing or should I be pursuing that thing? Or oh my gosh, I'm not there yet or I should be at this point in my journey, but I'm not. And so now I feel bad about myself." Instead of just staying in our own lane and focusing on what makes us feel truly joyful and what makes what what matters most to us and then being in hot pursuit of that instead of everyone else's goals and objectives that we're constantly seeing bombarding our social media feeds. So I think that's really important as well.
>> Carlee: I get this image of someone like the runner right. If you're focused on your own finish line, your own personal record you're in flow, but if you're turning your head, you're literally fighting yourself to get to the finish line and I think that sounds like what comparison is actually doing in our day to day.
>> Emily: Yeah. That's such a beautiful metaphor. That's perfect. Exactly that. We can siphon off so much energy when we're giving it away to everybody else instead of just staying focused and clear on what matters most to us and then pursuing that.
>> Carlee: Mm hmm. Absolutely. So when we're talking about success and goals of like with this new lens on, What... What else do you recommend in terms of that mental shift?
>> Emily: Mm hmm. Well I think we definitely really need to reset our metrics for success and really look at what are we using to measure. For example, if you run a business or even if you're working in a career of some kind, traditionally the success is based on you know how much money you're making at the end of the day is what we tend to go to or what we tend to think of in our culture as being successful. When really there are so... That's only one of the ways in which we measure success the other ways might look like. How many times do I smile each day? Or how joyful do I feel or how great are my weekends? Am I moving my body am I nourishing myself? Do I have amazing quality of friendships? Do I get more vacation days? Do I have location freedom? All of those things you know are also such important ways that we can measure our success, but we tend to get stuck on only one or two. And so I recommend not to lower your standards or lower your metrics for success, but maybe just to change your perspective and your perception of them and make them more realistic to set yourself up to win and really manage those expectations of what's possible in a given amount of time. And being grateful for what is going really well and what parts of your life you are feeling really successful and productive in even if other areas don't feel that way as much.
>> Carlee: It reminds me of an event I went to where the speaker was talking about how he was like how many of you want to be millionaires and everyone raised their hand. And then he he asked then later was like how many of you would just be OK if you had time freedom and could do whatever it whatever you wanted whenever you wanted and everyone's like and then he basically scolded everyone who's like you don't actually care about being a millionaire. This is what you care about.
>> Emily: Yeah.
>> Carlee: And that was a huge mindset shift for a lot of the folks in the room. So for the women that are listening who feel like, "OK I want to have more balance between my spiritual life, my my soulful life and my business and productivity and all of this, where can we find you on social?
>> Emily: Yeah you can definitely find me on Instagram, that's where I prefer to hang out and where I am most often. So you can send me a DM and get in touch with me, let me know that you listened to this episode and you can do that at my handle is at Emily Cassel official.
>> Carlee: Perfect. This concludes this episode of The Stress Less Show. Thank you so much, Emily, for coming on.
>> Emily: Thank you for having me. It's been so fun to chat with you.
>> Carlee: Absolutely. So we'll see you guys next week on the next episode of The Stress Less Show. Take care.