I am currently sitting on my office floor, which means it’s time for a Podcarpet episode of the Heart-Centred Business Podcast! This is one of the chilled, relaxed, behind-the-scenes episodes, in which I’ll share five surprising things that contribute significantly to my business results.
Some people might see these five things as minuscule, weird or even challenges as a business owner, but they are major contributors.
As we go through this episode, I want you to start thinking about what would be the equivalent for you. What are the things that have a surprisingly strong impact on your business results?
Let’s dive in!
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Grab my FREE Quarterly Planning Template – tashcorbin.com/qplan
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EPISODE 424: Listen using the player below, or click the links to your fave platform to subscribe and listen over there:
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I’m going to dive straight into this one…
1. My neurodivergence
You might be surprised to know that my business results are majorly supported by the fact that I have ADHD. I am neurodivergent. I have a brain that runs on a different operating system to other people. There are some big gaps in my executive function.
But my ADHD is one of the reasons why I am a business owner. It’s one of the reasons why I’m an entrepreneur.
My brain has mega processing power. I am able to distil lots and lots of different disparate pieces of information and craft something really meaningful, clear and precise. I see patterns in things where other people might not notice them.
Seeing as my brain seems to work quickly, I work really well at pace.
That might be because if I don’t stay focused on something and get it done really quickly, I end up not being able to finish it.
It might be a coping mechanism from being ADHD, but it means, as a business owner, I can get things done in 20 minutes that other people take a whole day to get done.
I also have object permanence: if I can’t see something, it doesn’t exist. That means that it can be challenging for me to remember things that I need to remember.
You might think that sounds like a disadvantage, but it also means that I’m able to get rid of distractions by moving things out of my viewpoint. If I put the things that are important to me right in front of my face, I am indistractible. If I have my business plan on my desk and I have my priority tasks in front of me, I can get myself into a state where I’m indistractible.
Because my registration renewal isn’t in front of my face right now, it’s not going to be bouncing around in my brain. I don’t get distracted by the washing that isn’t done because the washing is closed off in the cupboard and I can’t see it.
In some ways, this can be challenging. But it also means that I can design my office and my workday in a way that means I am super quick at getting stuff done.
I am really effective. I get into hyper-focus mode, and I get things done in batches.
Today, I’ve recorded six podcast episodes already. I am in the zone. I’ll probably record a few more before I’m done.
A few days ago, I sat down to make some slide decks for a course update that I’m doing, and I thought that I would sit down and just make the slide deck for one module. I ended up making the slide decks for five modules in three hours.
I was hyper-focused, I was totally in the zone, and I was totally indistractible.
That is a really big driver of the results in my business. When I decide to do something, if I can get myself in the zone, I can do things at pace. I can do them much faster than other people. My brain just works that way. It absolutely loves sprinting and then taking lots of long, nice stretches off.
My body’s the exact opposite. My body doesn’t like to sprint. It likes to wander for long, long periods of time. My brain likes to sprint for short, sharp bursts, and then have long periods of rest.
I think my ADHD has been a major contributor to my business results…
But I also want to say that I’m not someone who walks around saying ADHD is a superpower and there’s no downside, because I do want to 100% state for the record that we live in a world that was built by neurotypical people for neurotypical people.
Yes, as a business owner, I can create my business and the structure of my business, planning processes and how I operate in a way that works for me. I can really tap into some of those amazing superpowers that I have access to.
But I do not want to discount the impact that it has on me that I have that executive dysfunction. I struggle with being a functioning member of society sometimes, and I also really struggle with some of the responsibilities and other things that I need to do as a business owner.
I get very frustrated when I see people sharing things on the internet about how neurodivergence is a superpower, and they talk about it without actually acknowledging both the benefits AND struggles. There are some really amazing benefits, but it should always be acknowledged that the lived experience of neurodivergent people is that this world was not built for us and that to thrive and survive in the world, we often need to access a lot of extra support, workarounds and accommodations to be able to operate in a way that neurotypical people just naturally thrive at.
I wanted to share that I do think my neurodivergence has been majorly contributing to the results of my business, but always through that lens of understanding that it is not the typical way, and it is not the way that the world is built. It does come with a cost.
2. My health issues
Again, you might be surprised to hear me say my health issues have majorly contributed to my business results – especially given that my business income has not been on the same growth trajectory in the last three years that it was on previously.
I know that I have had to majorly restrict what I commit to, what I do in my business, and the time that I give to my business because of the health issues that I’ve faced.
But because I have been forced to significantly reduce the time that I give to my business, it means that I have to be more strategic.
In fact, this calendar year, I will have turned over the same amount as I did in 2019… whilst working a third of the hours.
Again, I’m not saying that I would wish these health issues on anyone.
I wouldn’t want anyone to feel what I’ve been feeling in my body for the last three years, and the frustrations that I’ve had with my own health over the last three years. But I can see that experiencing those health issues has allowed me to dial into a whole nother level of being strategic, efficient and productive.
I’ve been talking about my ELF way of working (Easy, Lazy, Fun) since well before I experienced the significant health issues that I have been facing since late 2020 and onwards.
I was already very fixated on doing things in the shortest amount of time, and finding that really beautiful sweet spot of effort-less (not effort-none), and doing 20% of the work to get 80% of the results.
I’m growing and scaling by cutting stuff out of my to-do list, by being more focused on what is the most efficient and effective way for me to achieve my goals.
I’ve loved all of that stuff for a very long time. But the big health stuff that I’ve faced, particularly since 2021, has contributed a lot to my business results by forcing my hand on being far leaner with my time, far more strategic with my energy, and far more focused on what I really want to do in the world.
3. My pottery
I’m not saying that pottery has contributed majorly to my financial results thruogh the sales of my pottery (although I did sell out my first exhibition at the Heart-Centred Business Conference in 2024! I shared about that in this episode of the podcast).
I took up pottery in 2023. My friend Claire and I went to a wheel-spinning pottery class over the course of four weeks, and I fell in love with doing pottery on the wheel. Claire never wants to do it again. That’s fine. But I really fell in love with it!
I became a member of the pottery studio, and I started going very consistently. Pottery has been a brilliant, exploratory, fun, creative process for me.
One of the big things that pottery gives me is thinking time. When you are trying to lift the edge of a bowl on a pottery wheel that’s spinning around, you can’t be distracted. You have to be focused, and you have to be present and in the moment.
It really has given me this powerful feeling of presence and groundedness.
In pottery though, there’s lots of time around the time on the wheel, where you can let your mind wander, and you can get into that thinking time.
For example, when I’m preparing the clay, painting my pieces, or tidying up after all my mistakes. That’s all really good thinking time for me.
Often, when I leave the studio to drive home, I spend the whole 20-minute drive creating a voice note of dozens of ideas, content that I want to create, and revelations, insights and things that I want to share. I then pop those into a transcription, and they go into my little toy box, or into my content/idea bank.
Pottery has been amazing for my business.
I did sell ten pieces at the Heart-Centred Business Conference, which brought in a bit under $300. It hasn’t been a major financial contribution that way, but it’s contributed to my business results because I’ve had a lot more time to re-centre, ground and get present. It gives me a lot more thinking time. I feel like I have been really in the zone with new ideas for content, reorganising some of the concepts and principles around my content, and re-recording some of my free trainings with improvements. And they were first ideated when I was cleaning up my pottery wheel.
Pottery has been absolutely brilliant.
If you don’t have hobbies and fun things to do outside your business, please prioritise that. Please give some time to it. It has made such a difference for me.
4. My stationery obsession
This is not really going to surprise a lot of people, but I think you’ll be surprised how much it’s contributed to my business.
I am obsessed with new journals, post-its, stickers, pens, coloured felt tip pens, crayons, and desk organisers. I’m so obsessed with stationery.
I got a new glue tape that’s a high adhesive glue, but you use it like a white-out tape, and it’s really up-leveled my art journaling game.
I love finding new little stationery things!
How on earth could an obsession with stationery contribute to business results? Isn’t it just a distraction?
Let me tell you a little story…
When I lived on Kawana Island on the Sunshine Coast, we were very big into long walks and bike rides. I have an electric assist tricycle (because #lazy #easy) that I used to ride everywhere. It had a basket on the back that Munchkin could sit in.
Davey and I would go on lots of biking adventures, as well as lots of long walks. And we were about a 15-minute bike ride away from an Officeworks. Officeworks is a large chain stationery supply store.
Officeworks wasn’t too far away from home. I could ride my bike there and go browse the stationery, sniff the fresh pages of the journals and the planners, and look at all the coloured pans. It’s my favourite place in the world to just browse.
My niece, Charlotte, is the same. Even from when she was very little, whenever we’d have a fun weekend together and I’d ask what she wanted to do, she would always choose to go to Officeworks. We are kindred spirits in that way.
One day, I was on a bike ride with Davey, and I said to him that I wanted to do a quick detour to Officeworks to buy some post-it notes. He replied by asking me how many post-it notes I could possibly need.
So I told him that the last time I bought post-it notes was before my last solo retreat, and on those post-it notes, I mapped out my tasks and plan for my last launch… which brought in $75,000 in sales.
I turned $20 worth of post-it notes into $75,000 in sales.
And I did that because I mapped everything out on all of those post-its on the wall on that solo retreat.
Ever since that day, whenever Davey and I go anywhere near a stationery store, he checks with me if I need any new post-its. He actually got to see the stationery through my eyes.
This obsession with stationery kind of circles back to my ADHD. It’s part of the adjustments and the way that I need to work in order to be effective with ADHD.
If it is not in front of my face, it doesn’t exist.
Stationery, journals, having coloured things on the wall, printing off my quarterly plan each quarter, having it right in front of me, putting my yearly plan up on an A1 giant laminated board on the office wall so that I can see my entire year at a glance… it all contributes to the results of my business.
It is stationary that allows me to create that interest.
It’s putting the stickers in my planner that makes me open my planner consistently.
It’s the same reason why Progress Art was so powerful in helping me to track my income every day. I knew I was avoiding my daily income tracking because I had money blocks. But I didn’t know what they were.
All I knew was that I could track my income for a couple of weeks, and then it would fall away.
It was putting it into something crafty, colourful, and in front of my face every day, that actually helped me to keep that habit up daily and notice where my resistance lay.
Stationery has contributed to my business results in a major way.
5. My dogs!
Dogs have contributed so much to the results of my business.
We have two dogs now. We have Munchkin (who is a rescue from Bali and took us six years to get to Australia) and Betty (who is our new rescue that we got just recently in August of 2024). So we have our beautiful two rescue dogs, Munchkin and Betty.
Every day, we start our day with a walk. We start our day with a walk because the dogs need it, want it, and ask for it.
If we don’t give them a walk, they’re real rap scallions during the day (Betty especially because at the moment, she’s only nine months old, and she has a lot of energy).
Ever since living with Munchkin when we moved in together in New Zealand (we moved to New Zealand for our dog if you haven’t heard that story in 2019), the dogs are responsible for so much of my business results.
This is because I start my day with a walk, and that’s exactly the perfect way for me to start my day.
It helps me to:
- Have a clear mind
- Connect in with Davey
- Think about what’s ahead for the day
- Process my feelings
- Talk about what I dreamt about the night before
- Get into my body in a way that nothing else really does the way that walking the dogs does
- Be so present and mindful
There’s just something really powerful about starting the day with walking the dogs.
The dogs also make me take a break.
If I’ve been sitting at my desk for hours and I haven’t got up, they get restless, because both of the dogs sleep in my office as I work, so they’ll get restless after a couple of hours.
If I am not up and playing with them, letting them out, or moving my body, they will come and nudge me. They will come and remind me that it’s time to get that body moving.
That is so good for my brain, and it is so good for my business.
Munchkin in particular does not like it when I’m working at my desk and it’s dark outside.
She also enforces knockoff time, because if I’m sitting at my desk and it’s dark outside, she will be sitting beside me and she’ll press her wet little nose against my thigh every 10 seconds until I do my end-of-day routine, close down my laptop and put my planner on top of it, and get up and actually get on with living my life outside of the business.
Additionally, Munchkin is the reason why we started our auctions.
We ran the first-ever auction in 2016 when we realised that we were going to need to bring Munchkin to Australia from Bali.
A quick summary: Munchkin was a street dog in Bali who adopted us. She basically harassed us, and we had to take her in just for a short period of time while our neighbour was going to help us find a home for her (which they never did).
We rehomed Munchkin eight times in Bali. The final time that we rehomed her was with an Australian woman who was from Perth. We moved to New Zealand thinking we had left Munchkin behind to live with that person forever…
That woman got hit by a truck whilst on her scooter, broke both of her hips and had to get airlifted back to Perth.
That was the eighth failed rehoming of Munchkin.
We decided that clearly she was just meant to be our dog, so we were going to bring her back to Australia.
At the time, we estimated it would be about $10,000 for us to do that (it ended up being more than seven times that amount, and it took us six years, but that’s a whole nother story).
We didn’t have $10,000 in the bank, because we had just upped and moved our lives over to New Zealand, set up a house, bought all the furniture that we needed, and set up my office.
We didn’t have $10,000 to pay the agent to move her so I decided that I would raise the money to do it by running an auction. I decided I would auction off packages to work with me and spots on some of my courses and programs to try and raise some of this money towards the $10,000.
People ended up reaching out to me offering to donate their package to be auctioned and I could keep the money.
We ended up with 74 people donating items, and the first-ever auction was the Bring Munchkin Home auction. It was two days of me auctioning stuff on a Facebook live because people had donated all these things.
We ended up raising $12,000, so we donated $2,000 to Bali Animal Rescue Center.
That is how the auctions began.
The beautiful thing that happened was that people who donated items to be auctioned actually ended up making sales to people who missed out on the item in the auction.
There was a person who donated a website package that she normally charged $1,000 for, and after that auction, she made several other sales of that package.
People heard about her services through the auction, and so she ended up making over $10,000 in sales to people who had gone to the auction, and they’d heard about her through the auction.
All of these stories started coming in from people who donated things in auctions, and then made all these other sales.
About three or four months later, I decided to run another auction.
This time, we didn’t need to raise money for Munchkin, so anyone who put stuff into the auction could just keep the money themself.
Part of the reason why the auctions worked so well was because I was doing the selling for the person who donated the auction item. I’m very good at selling. I’m very good at explaining the value proposition of people’s work. I am very good at articulating why people need to buy that six-session healing package with that amazing healer, or why people should be doing that money blocks course.
I’m very good at expressing the value of people’s work and why it’s so amazing.
That is where the auctions actually came from. It was from a dog. From me rescuing a dog from Bali and wanting to raise the money for it.
Since 2016, I have now run at least two auctions every year, and those auctions have not only been responsible for huge cash injections for my business (the most recent one was a $35,000 cash injection for my own business from the items that I sold in the auction).
But those auctions have been responsible for people starting their businesses and making their first $5,000 in sales.
Those auctions have been responsible for people getting 10-15 new customers in the six months following the auction.
Those auctions have been responsible for people being able to listen to me explain what it is that they do, and then update and improve their messaging to be more effective, because they’ve got a new perspective on why their work is so valuable.
My dogs are responsible for so much growth in my business and so much money – not just for me, but also for my clients and the people who’ve participated in the auctions.
Those are five surprising things that contribute majorly to my business results:
1. ADHD
2. My significant health issues, particularly since 2021
3. Pottery
4. My obsession with stationery
5. My two beautiful dogs, Munchkin and Betty
I’d love to hear from you! What are yours?
What’s something surprising that has contributed majorly to your business results?
You can share that in any of the posts that you see sharing this podcast episode, or slide into my DMs on Facebook or Instagram.
Let me know that you’ve been reading episode 424 of the Heart-Centred Business Podcast, and share something that’s really surprising that has majorly contributed to your business results.
I also want to give a little shout-out to the Heart-Centred Business Planner.
The ADHD stuff, the health stuff, prioritising my pottery, and my obsession with stationery massively shifts the way that I use it to plan.
I want to share that with those of you who need a new way of working, planning and being more productive.
If you struggle with knowing what to focus on in your business, with implementing the big ideas and grand plans that you come up with, or with creating a plan that you want to engage with, then I recommend two things:
1. My free Quarterly Planning Template and process walk-through – tashcorbin.com/qplan
2. The Heart-Centred Business Planning System – tashcorbin.com/planner
I know that for a lot of people reading this, if you are struggling with implementing, focusing, prioritising, and getting everything ticked off your to-do list, the Heart-Centred Business Planning System is so magical. You get a whole year to make it work for you and adjust and adapt the system to what’s going to work for you.
But you also get a whole year of mentorship, support, accountability, revisiting and fresh starts (if you’re someone who falls off, forgets about it, and needs to start over).
The Heart-Centred Business Planning System has all of that built-in, and you get access to that for the whole year.
Thank you so much for joining me for this episode.
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
