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I recently listened to a podcast episode that blew my mind because it connected dots and made points that resonated so deeply for me – in business and on the time management front. Let’s discuss. And here’s the episode from Eleanor Beaton. Enjoy!
Below is a transcript of the episode. Enjoy!
Other links you might enjoy:
✨ The full Bright Method™️ program If you’re ready for a full time management system that’s realistic, sustainable, and dare I say… fun, check out the Bright Method program. It’s helped hundreds of professional women take back control of their time—and their peace of mind.
🌿 Free 5-Day Time Management Program Get five short, practical video lessons packed with realistic strategies to help you manage your personal and professional life with more clarity and calm.
📱 Follow me on Instagram Get bite-sized, real-life time management tips for working women—like reminders to set mail holds before travel, anonymous day-in-the-life calendars from other professional women, and behind-the-scenes looks at how I manage my own time.
Full transcript:
Kelly Nolan: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Bright Method Podcast, where we’ll discuss practical time management strategies designed for the professional working woman. I’m Kelly Nolan, a former patent litigator who now works with women to set up the bright method in their lives. The Bright Method is a realistic time management system that helps you manage it all personally and professionally. Let’s get you falling asleep, proud of what you got done today, and calm about what’s on tap tomorrow. All right, let’s dig in.
Hey, hey. Alright. Today we are gonna talk about something that I’m really excited to talk about. I hope I can do it justice because sometimes when I get really excited, it has the opposite effect on my clarity. So I’m gonna try here, but I listened to a podcast yesterday that really blew my mind and I wanna share it with you, and then I wanna share why I loved it.
Now it’s an episode more in the business context, like it’s an episode I listened to. More of like entrepreneurs and to support the [00:01:00] running of my business. And there’s a woman who’s in a consultant in this space named Eleanor Beaton, and I’m gonna link the episode in the show notes because it’s really good, especially if you’re an entrepreneur.
I think it’s really worth listening to, but. Why I wanted to share it today is because I think it goes beyond this context, and I think it’s fascinating. So in the episode, Beaton explains how she’s moving away from business coaching, which you know is more about mindset and like overcoming limited beliefs and stepping into your role as a CEO and all this kind of stuff, and into helping women entrepreneurs in particular with setting up operations systems.
I’m gonna go into some of her points of why she’s making the transition, because it truly articulated something that it put into words and it went beyond that. It was like it was connecting dots that I’ve thought about, but she said it in a way that I was like, yes, this makes so much sense. And it applies to time management as well, because I think, well, you’ll [00:02:00] get it as I go into it.
So I’m gonna give you an overview of the episode. Just know that she explains it far more eloquently, and again, you can listen to it in the show notes. But basically she explains how she truly respects business coaching and that in the last 20 years, coaching around mindset was incredibly important for women entrepreneurs.
She said it was essentially, quote unquote, a liberation tool and was quote unquote, really about helping women founders. Find voice, courage, and vision in spaces that traditionally and historically had excluded them. So she acknowledged the role of it and that there is a continued role for it, and that it is still important, but a lot has changed.
And the tricky part is the problem that she sees is that coaching has become the default answer to every problem, even problems that really require systems. The [00:03:00] disconnect here, like where a problem that requires a system is treated with coaching. The, the problems that flow out of that are that, and again, these are all her points.
This is all her brilliance, not mine, is that it creates endless reflection loops without operating traction. And it also leads to insight overload in that like people know what to do in a sense, know what needs to be done from a conceptual standpoint, but lack infrastructure to execute or execute repeatedly.
So you kind of like find out something you should do, you execute it, it’s great, and you try another approach, but then you leave the. The first approach because you’re now distracted by the other one, and because you haven’t built these different approaches into a repeatable system. And so she was pointing out there’s not a lack of knowledge or awareness, it’s just a lack of structure to bring these things to life.
And instead, she’s saying, instead of just coaching and mindset and encouragement. We [00:04:00] need operating systems, and she defines operating systems as a set of frameworks, rhythms, metrics, and decision principles that create predictability. They change intention into execution. Now, she did explain that below like a certain revenue level, you might not need a full operating system in the way that she focuses on, but once you pass like a certain revenue threshold, that’s when you really do.
This. She’s saying that when the system is needed and not there, but the coaching is there, we basically fall into what she calls this Go girl trap, where you have empowerment, but without systems and empowerment, without systems, breeds, exhaustion and overloading. She says, and this again is a quote from her, operating systems are the feminist infrastructure for calm, sustainable growth.
And in the end she reiterates many times, coaching is important. Reflection, inquiry, discovery, [00:05:00] all of that. All of that is important. But within the confines and scaffolding of a system and listening to it, I was like, this is why. One, I agree with her on the business side of things and I’m really excited and I’m probably gonna work with her, but also it blew my mind in the time management context because.
She basically was articulating something I believe, but had never connected the dots in my head to realize I believed it in this articulate and clear of a way, because similar to what Beaton describes, I believe the last decades, you know, beyond the last 20 years, let’s say the last 40 years, 50 years, have been very heavy on the, you can do it all or you can go for more mentality among women.
We encouraged as a society, women to work outside the home, to speak up in boardrooms, to go for the opportunities before they felt ready. And that was very much needed, and it [00:06:00] still is needed and it’s still very important. But I also think all of us are very aware, and I think it’s become part of the conversation in, I don’t know, the last 10 years, 15 years, that it has also very much led to over commitment.
It’s also led to things that we know in concept and in theory, but we don’t know how to implement, which from someone with experience and feeling that overwhelmed and hearing things and not knowing how to implement only exacerbates the pain of it. You know, we hear these things like, you can work, you can speak up, you can go for the high powered career, and I still believe all of that, but without more that encouragement and that confidence and that empowerment has just led to exhaustion and overcommitment.
I think we’ve just seen over time that having it all means doing it all and doing it all outstrips what we can actually do. Like it outstrips our realistic capacity. And what I find tricky here is even when that [00:07:00] conversation has, you know, like I’m not blowing your mind by saying that people have been talking about this in at least the last 10 years that I’ve been listening to it probably longer, but having it all means doing it all thing.
The advice. Is somewhat coachy without practical, like it’s draw boundaries. Just push back, say no. All these things that are pretty high level concepts that are equally hard to implement. Like how do I know when to push back? How do I know when to say no, what my capacity is, how full I am, how to defend those nos, like all of that.
When we get those kind of wishy-washy, high concept advice, without a system, we have nothing to like grip onto to actually bring it to life. I just wanna point out, just like Beaton said, that you don’t need a full operating system if you’re below a particular revenue level. I also think that for many, [00:08:00] we don’t need a system to help us in the like life management, time management, logistics, management of life for a very long time.
Or we have a very, like a simpler one, and I’ve talked about this a lot, that I had a pretty simple system with a paper planner. And when my life was more simple, that was wonderful and that system got me really far. But at some point you hit that threshold and you need more. And instead of that, we keep relying on our old simple system with just a heavy dose of you can do it.
You can go for that position before you’re ready or before you feel ready or speak up in the boardroom or do all these things that it’s just kind of, we have the old system with just a lot more demand on us in a sense. Like good demand, but demand nonetheless, uh, more responsibilities. Again, all wonderful responsibilities, but more than we’ve ever had.
[00:09:00] And I just have realized over time when you hit that threshold, you just need that new. Operating system to help that can actually keep up with your life. And that threshold, I don’t think is as simple as like a revenue goal in business. I think that we’re all very different on what the tipping point was like for me, it was just becoming a lawyer.
I was single, I had no kids, and I was still very overwhelmed by being an attorney. And that was my tipping point. And for some people, that’s the, A new role is. It could be a new job. It could be a new baby. It could be a second baby. It could be a third baby. It could be going through IVF. It could be managing aging parents and being part of the sandwich generation.
It could be your own health issues. There are a lot of different tipping points, but there is a threshold where suddenly more of a system is needed that can keep up and not just high level concepts being thrown at you. Even in an encouraging and empowering way. [00:10:00] You need a system to give traction and like allow you to bring to life the concepts that you’re hearing that you want to implement on an ongoing basis going forward.
And just to highlight this, like this is what I mean is where you, you hear things like you can have it all. You can have it all, but not at the same time. But how do I know how much I can do at the same time? How do I know what makes the cut? What do I do with the things I want to do but can’t do right now?
You might hear things like, which I love. Your capacity and your capability are different things. That is awesome and I love that point, but also, what is my capacity? How do I know when someone swings by the office and says, do you have the capacity to take this on? How do I know what questions to ask? How do I know to see it?
Among the other things I have on my plate to figure out if I have that capacity. Same thing is like draw boundaries like, but when, like I talk about this a [00:11:00] lot, but when I was an attorney before I had this system, I knew I was drowning in my head. I knew it, but I didn’t feel confident within myself. And also then to draw the boundary with others to say no, to articulate, you know, why I was so full.
When I got the inevitable pushback, other things that people say are, you know, like keep your workload reasonable. Okay. But like again, how I feel like I’m a little bit of a broken record, but I’m just kind of articulating the disconnect between what people will throw out at you and how to know practically.
When the time is right to do that, like keep your workload reasonable, okay, but how do I know what my capacity is for reasonable workload? How do I know when I’m approaching it? How do I know when I’ve passed it? How do I get back to a reasonable workload? These are all things that I struggled with a lot, even when I had all of the high concept things being thrown at me.
The quote unquote, somewhat [00:12:00] coaching type things thrown at me. Without more to grip onto to understand it in a practical way and bring it to life. And when Beaton said, operating systems are the feminist infrastructure for calm, sustainable growth, that really clicked for me. And you know, because systems are how I create a calm, sustainable life for myself with still growth in the mix, like with still going for.
I have big plans for this business. I love ambition, but I also want my life to feel the way I want it to feel, and I have to balance those things along with all the logistics of all the other wonderful parts of my life that I’ve brought into existence in a way that practically works isn’t just high level concept, but in a way that I can see, play out and tinker with and adjust as life changes.
Something else Beaton said in it, which I loved and I’m just gonna like play on it, is [00:13:00] she said, systems might not sound sexy to you. And then she goes into explaining how they are very sexy. I just love that because I think the same thing, like I think systems from a marketing standpoint do not sound very sexy.
They do not sound very like, oh, I need that. But I will tell you that they are, they are for me and for many clients now, how you get peace of mind, how you get that clarity, how you get that feeling of I’m the boss of my time now, and to me that’s all of what I’m going after. And in beat’s words, that’s very sexy.
I also wanna note that. What’s fascinating to me and what I love about what I get to do is that, yes, I talk a lot about calendars. There’s a lot, particularly all the lessons in the Bright Method are all about calendars and how to set them up, what to put in there, what order to put them in there, where to put them in there, [00:14:00] all this kind of stuff.
But at the end of the day, a lot of the conversations that come out of it go far beyond calendars. It’s a lot of, you know. I see now I can’t see yes to everything. Who am I? If I can’t say yes to everything? How do I know what to say yes to? Do I wanna spend my time this way? Is this industry only going to allow me to spend my time this way, or should I try and work within it, or should I switch industries or should I go part-time?
On the flip, I see now that I need to advocate for that promotion and raise, given that I’m doing three jobs and now I have the real concrete evidence to make that case for why I deserve that promotion and that raise. There’s so much more that goes into this. I mean, I have conversations about having another child or all these types of things that go far beyond a calendar, but also make so much sense when you’re looking at a calendar and where your time is going and where your life is going.
And some would say that’s [00:15:00] coaching. I think of it more as just discussing decisions that become clear by virtue of the system and just by virtue of making time more concrete and limited and visual. And that can sound constraining ’cause it is. But it’s also then very empowering to embrace the reality and make decisions about where you want your time to go instead of just reacting to whatever’s kind of flying at you.
And so to me. What’s really fun about using a time management system is that you get that empowerment with a system so that you can accomplish what you wanna accomplish and build the life you want in a way that feels good in a more practical like Grippy Tractiony way going forward. It’s a conversation that goes beyond the calendar, but is rooted in the calendar.
You know, it arises from clarity that the calendar provides. It can be acted on in the calendar in a [00:16:00] concrete way going forward. And so I hope that you found this as interesting as I did because it really articulated how the empowerment language out there, which is so important. Can lead to such overcommitment without a system to help you manage it in a more concrete way.
And that to me, for me at least, is why I have just fallen in love with the Bright method because I think it is the system that provides that for me and for so many other working women. So if you’ve listened to me for a while and you get the concepts and they resonate and they’re fun and they’re energizing and all of this.
You can’t implement or you haven’t implemented, or they don’t, it doesn’t last for very long. That really might be why you really need the full system and scaffolding to bring it to life. You know, if you feel like you’ve been having these conversations in your head, but not executing for the long haul, I really do encourage you [00:17:00] to dig into the Bright Method in full.
If that’s you, go to kelly nolan.com/bright and I wanna leave you with words from one client. This client shared. I was a bit nervous when I joined Kelly’s program, since I’ve done other programs and bought numerous books and watch untold number of YouTube videos on time management and made no real improvement, at least not any lasting changes.
Now, I think I couldn’t afford not to take this program. It has changed the way I look at time and the way my mind processes it. It was a game changer for me. I’m now much more hopeful and a lot calmer. I don’t feel like I’m juggling all these balls in the air and possibly forgetting something anymore. I feel much more confident because I have a definite structure to keep track of things, and I can see where I before set myself up to fail.
This was not just a platitude seminar, and then in parentheses she wrote, make time for you, prioritize, et cetera. I loved the practical real world suggestions and tools. If you’re [00:18:00] ready for that, I hope you’ll join me. Kelly nolan.com/bright. Thank you for being here, and I’ll catch you in the next episode and hopefully sooner inside the program so we can get the system up and running in your life.
Talk to you soon.
Links you might enjoy:
✨ The full Bright Method™️ program If you’re ready for a full time management system that’s realistic, sustainable, and dare I say… fun, check out the Bright Method program. It’s helped hundreds of professional women take back control of their time—and their peace of mind.
🌿 Free 5-Day Time Management Program Get five short, practical video lessons packed with realistic strategies to help you manage your personal and professional life with more clarity and calm.
📱 Follow me on Instagram Get bite-sized, real-life time management tips for working women—like reminders to set mail holds before travel, anonymous day-in-the-life calendars from other professional women, and behind-the-scenes looks at how I manage my own time.
