How To Stop Getting In Your Own Way - With Kim Witten

Tom Bailey, founder of Succeed Through Speaking, interviews Kim Witten.

In this episode we get to know our guest. They will share who they help and what they can help them with. You will also get access to additional support and resources from our guests as well as advice and guidance to help you in business and in life.

Kim Witten is a transformational coach and research consultant who helps overwhelmed creatives turn their over thinking into expert thinking.

Kim has 20+ years of human-centred design experience, a PhD in linguistics and an accredited diploma in Transformational Coaching. She’s worn many hats over her career and helps people all over the world to master their mindset, build their resilience and feel more confident, so that they can create the life they really want and reach their high-impact potential.

Resources / Links

https://www.witten.kim/planning

https://www.witten.kim/holdthatthought

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Transcript

Tom Bailey  00:07

Hello and welcome to succeed through speaking the place for experts and entrepreneurs who want high value ideas to boost business results Hello, I'm Tom Bailey and in today's episode, I'll be getting to know Kim Witten, who's a transformational coach and research consultant who helps overwhelmed creatives turn that overthinking into expert thinking. So, Kim, hello, and a very warm welcome to today's episode.

Kim Witten  00:41

Hi, Tom. It's so nice to be here.

Tom Bailey  00:43

Thank you so much for coming and just out of interest whereabouts are you in the world right now?

Kim Witten  00:47

I am in sunny Manchester, England. Although I realize I my accent doesn't sound like it.

Tom Bailey  00:52

Not quite, but I love that you're in Manchester incredible part of the UK. Thank you so much for that. And I thought I'd just share a little bit more about you before we do get started. So Kim has 20 years of human centered design experience, a PhD in linguistics, and an accredited diploma in transformational coaching. She has worn many hats over her career and helps people all over the world to master their mindset, build their resilience, and feel more confident so that they can create the life they really want and reach their high impact potential. The title for today's episode is how to stop getting in your own way. And Kim's gonna show us how to do that in just seven minutes. The question, one for you today. Kim is who are your ideal clients?

Kim Witten  01:38

Yes. So these are typically overwhelmed creatives, people who are tired of getting in their own way. Maybe they're playing small. Maybe they lack focus, you know, things that they're trying to do in their life, and they're probably feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, tired at present?

Tom Bailey  01:54

Absolutely. And I guess this feeling of being overwhelmed. What challenges well, how does that show up as challenges for them in their life?

Kim Witten  02:00

Yeah, so maybe they're spending a lot of time working on things and what they're doing isn't really effective. They might feel like they're struggling to get ahead. So yeah, they're feeling that overwhelm. Along with that comes frustration. tiredness, they're probably not sleeping. Well. They might be stuck in these perfectionism, procrastination, impostor loops, and experiencing burnout, that sort of thing.

Tom Bailey  02:24

Yeah, yeah. Great. And I guess that impostor loops, burnout, all those things you just mentioned there that can have a significant impact for people. So can you think about what kind of an impact that might have for them, particularly in their business?

Kim Witten  02:36

Yeah, so they're the big one is that they're wasting time what they're doing isn't as effective as it could be. And that also means that they're probably leaving money on the table, they might be missing opportunities. And most importantly, because they're doing all of this in their work, they're missing out on quality time with their families. They're working late, they're trying to catch up. And then as a result of that they might do you know, staying up late doing revenge, bedtime, procrastination scrolling on their phone, no further robbing themselves of sleep, and then the cycle repeats again. And so that has a short term impact, but then also, you know, long term impact.

Tom Bailey  03:13

How did that revenge bedtime? Procrastination, but now, I've definitely done that before. Yeah, we all relate. Yeah, absolutely. And he talked about, obviously, the pain points are leaving money on the table, the impact of the business, but actually, like he said, spills over into family life as well, which is really important to note. And obviously, it means that they should focus on fixing that. So given that, what is one valuable piece of advice that you might give to somebody to really help them start to solve this problem in their life?

Kim Witten  03:39

Yeah, so one of the first things that I think is really helpful for people to do is to stop and take inventory of all of the things to make a list of list all of the projects, tasks, activities, either in progress, or that they're planning on doing, if it's taking up space in your head, put it on the list. And you can see once you do that, how much is going on, and all of these things because they're sitting in your head. They're, they're fighting for your time and your attention. But once you get them out on a list and make them visible, then you can triage them. And you can say, okay, am I going to do dump delegate or delay this? And when you make a decision about that, that's a total game changer for people. Yeah, I

Tom Bailey  04:23

love that. Especially the point about dump or delegate, because you don't necessarily have to do all these things that you feel so pressured to have to do. So yeah. I love that. Put them on paper in front of you, you're on a platform, and then you can choose what to do with them. So given that, what valuable free resource might you share with somebody to help them to solve this and to get started in that way?

Kim Witten  04:45

Yeah, so as a former creative myself, I create a lot of templates, tools, worksheets, and so I've made a template for this project list to help you easily get all these projects out of your head, triage them It walks you through it step by step, you can get that at Witten dot k, I am slash planning. And along with that the it's it's one step as part of the three step process. So you'll get lots of other goodies as well. And that's going to help you save time, it's going to help you be more productive and free up some headspace.

Tom Bailey  05:18

Amazing Whitson doc Kim Ford's as planning, I'll put that link into the show notes as well. Just click on that and download and then I'll go and get download that myself after this recording is finished. Great. So one question I've got for you now, which may feel a little bit off topic is What would you say is one of the greatest mistakes or failures you've ever made, either in life or in business? And what did you learn from it?

Kim Witten  05:41

Yeah, so I didn't go to college. Right away, I waited several years. And then I decided I really wanted to go to UC Berkeley. And I was lucky enough to get in. But I kind of stopped once I got in, and I didn't really apply myself. And I was essentially sitting on a winning ticket. And I didn't realize it. So I didn't make the connections. I didn't even get really great grades. And that was a top school that I got into. At the time, I just thought, oh, this was the end of the road. And I wasn't going to go on and do more after I got that degree. Little did I know I would end up kind of staying in academia, and going on all the way to the Masters and PhD level. And but it was a really hard road. Because at the time, I just thought oh, this is one one step I'm done. And it also reminds me to because similar to that, I also bought 20 shares of Apple stock in 1999. Yeah. And I sold them in the early 2000s. Oh, no. What I was thinking about this question, I had both of those two answers. And I think the thing that is the common element there is that it's really important to imagine the best possible scenarios for any thing that you're doing, and operate from there. Because otherwise, so you want to work towards those. And if you don't, you may just end up settling for what's known and comfortable and either selling early or kind of giving up because you don't really have the dream or the foresight that you're going to actually go on and do these other things.

Tom Bailey  07:16

Yeah, I love that. I think I've seen the image of the guy who stops just before hitting gold in the digging image. I don't know if you've seen that. But it's very similar to that. And also reflected on that sitting on a on a winning ticket. And a lot of us don't realize that until it's too late, and we've maybe let that ticket go by. Yeah, it's real hard work to catch up. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, really important reflections. And I'm sure lots of people listening will reflect on that as well. So the last question from each day is what is the one question that I should have asked you, that will also bring some great value to our audience

Kim Witten  07:48

today? Yeah, good question. And I think it would be how, and I get this one a lot. How can I get some clarity and focus right now? For free? Yeah. Okay. How can we do that? Yeah. So I would recommend that they go sign up to my newsletter, it's called hold that thought is that witten.com/hold That thought you get weekly Insights, where it's sharing, plus all the resources that I create a whole backlog of back catalogue of stuff. But that's going to help you on the weekly, small, digestible, digestible, really quick bursts of insight. And it's really focused around helping people get unstuck, make decisions, focus, get clear, save time, not miss those opportunities.

Tom Bailey  08:34

Yeah. Yeah, amazing. Hold that thought I love the sound of the name as well. And I'll go and check that out. And what I'll do as well as I'll post a link to that in the show notes. So people can click on that, and then go and find out more about Hold that thought. So, Kim, thank you so much again, for your time today. I really appreciate you coming along and sharing such great value with our audience. Thanks, Tom. It's been a pleasure.