If you need to get things done, Katrina Busselle is your go-to. She is the author of A Million Reasons Why You Can’t, an interactive workbook and guide for people at an inflection point in their lives. In this episode, we discuss how independent consultants can apply these practical tips to both their personal and business lives.
Notes from the Show
Take Time to Reflect:
It’s important to step back and think about the big picture. Use this time to shape your business the way you truly envision it. What do you want it to look like? Consider things like structure, values, ideal clients, and even work-life balance. Make space to slow down, build confidence, and create with intention.
Focus on Your Zone of Genius:
Many independent consultants assume most of their time will be spent coaching or consulting. In reality, that’s only about 30% to 50% of your time. The rest involves running the business. Get clear on your Zone of Genius—what you love and excel at—and delegate the rest.
Know Your Operating System:
What do you need to stay productive and get meaningful work done? Think of your personal operating system as the habits, boundaries, and expectations that keep you on track. It’s all about applying your own system to keep yourself focused and efficient.
Reframe and Let Go:
Leaving the corporate world can be a shock, especially if you didn’t plan for it. Shift your mindset from past experiences and focus on what you can control now. Embrace where you are, and know that you’re building something new and exciting!
What’s Inside:
Mentioned in this Episode:
Transcribed by AI Susan Tatum 0:37
Hello everybody. Welcome back to stop the noise, and today, I'm very pleased to that my guest is Katrina Busselle, who is an author, a consultant, a coach. She helps people make important shit happen, which is true Katrina by thinking, ideation, planning, action steps, being sure they have the right support, being sure that you stick with your commitments that you make, which I'm throwing in there, because that is something that I turn to Katrina for over and over and over again. Katrina, you and I are also friends, and I can't count the number of times that I have come to you when I was falling apart or just completely done
Katrina Busselle 1:22
Yes
Susan Tatum 1:23
and you help delight and you don't take my bullshit and you but you do it in a very kind and loving way. And the most exciting thing to talk about today, though, is that you have a new book out, definitely titled, million reasons why you can't. No one can see this because it's a podcast a copy of it. So and everybody should get their copy on Amazon, but tell us alright, I'm gonna stop battling on what is the Book about?
Katrina Busselle 1:50
It's an interactive so it's a workbook, right Susan, so the interactive piece is at the end of every short chapter, there's an opportunity for the reader to reflect. So it's interactive, it's direct, it's personal and sometimes funny, for people who are at a inflection point in their lives, and when change is they're seeking it come towards them, and they're wanting to be proactive about that, or else it's happening. It's already happening, and they want to be coping and thinking about it differently. So that's essentially what it is. And it's mostly stories from my personal stories, and yeah, I invite people to engage with it if one my goal in the book is, if one concept or idea speaks to you, the potential reader, my job is done is to inspire and give you some things to chew on. So I know you've had a chance to read it, Susan, and I'd appreciate that, and I know that we have an opportunity now to talk about some of the concepts and relate them to the work that you do and the work that I do together. So I'm really happy to be here. Thank you.
Susan Tatum 2:59
So let's just get down to it. So our listeners, as you know, are mostly former corporate, big company executives and experts that have built these fabulous careers and now they are independent consultants, or they're building an independent consulting practice. And one of the things that in your book, I saw that you and in your life, you're continuously emphasizing the importance of priorities and figuring out what matters most. And I know that done a lot of this in your work with Max Traylor, who is also all about I remember you guys having weekly calendars, and it's a put the personal stuff down first, and then you fill it in with the other stuff. And that is something that has has really stuck with me. So a lot of times what I see and what I hear is that consultants get really overwhelmed by all the things they need to do. So not only do they get to support their clients, which is why they got are doing this work anyway, but then there's all this other crap that comes along with it, and they get overwhelmed, so talk to us. What's the best way to handle that?
Katrina Busselle 4:08
So I'd be interested to hear Susan, whether or not, in your experience, people do what I'm about to describe. But as an independent consultant, I'm going to encourage you to think about the big picture. What do you want your life to be like? Your personal life, your business life? The fabulous thing about being an independent consultant is you don't have to do it the way you did it back in corporate right? You, and I'm speaking to you as the independent consultant through this microphone, can reinvent how you think about your work day, how you think about vacation, how you think about the kind of clients you focus on. So perhaps it's different for you, Susan, but in my world, consultants haven't really thought about that. Here I have an opportunity to create in the way that I want to the business that I want. So I want to just pause on that for a second and get you to respond if you have one before I move on. Because that's pretty deep.
Susan Tatum 5:07
I would say that three out of every 10 that I talked to did take the time, some of them, as much as six months, to really think through to first of all, just settle down, because a lot of them are leaving the corporate world because they got burnt out. They're not necessarily leaving it because they loved it, except for the group that is part of the mass layoffs that have happened. And the ones that do think about it, I would say, tend to be the ones that had the luxury of time and a financial runway, which you would hope that everyone would have before they would leave the corporate world. It just doesn't always work that way.
Katrina Busselle 5:50
So examples that I've heard are people who want to take the summer off or months off. So they're one of the factors is like, how much time do you want off from working. I want to work with women owned businesses. I want to work with only renewable energy companies. So that's the big picture. Okay, take the time to figure out how you want to structure your business, what's important to you, what's important in your personal life, how you want to structure your work day, etc. We'll be talking more about workdays in a little bit.
Susan Tatum 6:19
Katrina, let me butt in here, because I think the point that she made was take the time. Take some time, even if you feel like you don't have it. Yes, and you listed some very good reasons why that was important. And I would say, in my experience, it is also important to inhale and get your palm of that, otherwise you're going to sound desperate. You're we're on the risk of sounding desperate. Let me say, when you start talking to people and you do not want to do that,
Katrina Busselle 6:48
that's subtle. Fabulous, Susan, you're absolutely right. And they can feel it just like if you're desperately single and you're looking for a partner, you basically have like, DS on your head, and nobody is interested, and you wonder, why, right? So absolutely, take a breath, self care. Do the things that you know are going to calm you down and give you confidence. So we know the big picture, the why, the what, and now we're going to map to that. Okay, so here's some practical pieces to make this happen. One of the biggest misconceptions is that, for example, as a coach or a consultant, that my time is going to be spent coaching and consulting as an independent consultant. And what we know to be true, Susan, is that it isn't going to be spent coaching and consulting that will be a fraction of your time. That might be 30, maybe 50% of your time. But in order for your business to work, you also have to be doing a hell of a lot of other things. Right? You need to be doing business development and setting up your accounting system and responding to emails and doing all of these things. So first of all, would you agree with that? Do you hear that? Do you hear people thinking it's going to be one thing and then realizing that it's a whole lot more than just serving
Susan Tatum 8:03
Absolutely. And again, I would say that there is a subset of folks who, and this tends to be the operational oriented people who did think about it, that realized there was going to be other things that they were going to need to do, and they started learning they some of them read books. Some of them took courses. Some of them got business coaches right away. But still, the majority are, I had no idea it was going to be so hard to get business. I had no idea it was going to take so much time to to do all these other things. I had a team, and now I don't. And you know, how do I I could spend my whole day doing things that are not what I wanted to do?
Katrina Busselle 8:45
Yes, thank you absolutely. And thank you for saying that. So Susan, the path through that when solo practitioners begin, they are solo, almost by definition, even if that just lasts for a little bit like, you know, a week or three months or a year, and they are doing everything themselves, but once they realize all of the different components that it takes to run their business, the second important part of building their business is to focus on the things that are mostly sales and building relationships, but that are things that only uniquely they can do. So it's their zone of genius, and with a special focus on innovation that is their product is, or how to, you know, stay fresh, and how to keep developing and sales and marketing. So the things that aren't in their zone of genius, or that other people can do, or that they shouldn't be spending their time doing. The next step is to get people in there who can take care of those tasks, so that they can focus on what matters, or else they let it go. So to tie it together in terms of tips and this idea of. How to focus on what matters in your business is first be clear about where you're going and what you want and how you're going to get there, then start moving in that direction, recognizing that you will need to be hiring that are not your superpower, or that, oh, don't involve building the business, so that from there, you can continue to build and grow and serve clients at the same time.
Susan Tatum 10:26
So let's move on, then to one. One of the things that I see over and over and over again is that you have a corporate background. I have a corporate background. We both experienced what it feels like that you have you've spent, most of these people have spent decades in the corporate world, in a highly structured environment, knowing what is expected of them all the time and having accountability from every single direction. Yeah. And now suddenly, hello, there is no structure. And I think that can be some people again, we'll go back. The minority of people will jump in and create their own structure, with a vast majority worry about it. What can we do?
Katrina Busselle 11:10
Well, I will refer, I will refer to a chapter in my book called, What do you need to get shit done? Because this question is really an important one, and I want to start off with an example from my life and an example of my son. So what do I know about him? I know that if I tell him, Susan that he needs to clean up his room, there is a 0% chance that he will do that. Okay, if I tell listeners,
Susan Tatum 11:45
how old is your son?
Katrina Busselle 11:47
he's 18, this works. If I tell him you need to clean up your room by Sunday, because the house cleaner is coming on Monday, then there is a 75% chance. So give him a deadline, and there's a much higher degree of certainty that that will happen. And then if I say you need to clean it up by Sunday at five o'clock, and if you don't, I'm gonna fine you $50 or $5 he's very money driven. There's 100% chance that the task will get done. Okay, that is just that is the math of what it takes William to do something. So take the same example and apply it to yourself and to your the people who you're speaking to. The question first is, what do I know about myself and what it takes for me to get things done. Like, what do I need to do? Because no one else is going to my admin isn't going to tell me, right? Like you just said, my direct supervisor isn't going to do this. I need to do it to myself, right? So, what do I need? I believe you're a very deadline driven person. You need a deadline, you're not going to start something. I mean, it could be wrong. Susan, but three months out, if you all need to, you're going to wait until it's there, then you're going to jam. That's self awareness. The people that you're talking about, they know that too. They know their own operating system. We have a client who has ADD she sets a timer. She has to set three timers in order to be able to enter calls on time. Yeah, pomodoros, I've got a wonderful timer, and I set it for 20 minutes, which is but I actually usually do it for 30 and so there's that, right? But the point is, first, Susan, know yourself, know what circumstances you need to put yourself in in order to get the work done?
Susan Tatum 13:43
I want to add a comment,
Katrina Busselle 13:46
yes, please.
Susan Tatum 13:47
What you when you were describing how you get William to do what you need him to do? There were two things that came up there that have psychological support to them. One of them is that in the second step, you said, because the cleaning ladies coming on Monday, and I've seen studies that show that if you that, just adding that because, like, there was something that had to do with people waiting in line to use a copy machine, and then people would let them break in line. So that's happening. And then the other thing was that you told him he was going to lose money, so you brought the risk of loss into there, which, again, psychology tells us is more powerful than the than the rewards, the pleasure of getting a reward. But maybe that works better for some people as well, is because you hear about, you know, sorry, I'm going to finish this and then I'm gonna go walk on the beach or whatever. So that is another example of how people could put structure.
Katrina Busselle 14:47
That's absolutely right. And the bad news is that you have to, when you're a solopreneur, you have to do this all to yourself. You have to set it up. You have to give yourself the reward. You have to set your timer for. It gets a lot of work to figure out how to make this, you know, this system run. So that is the big picture in terms of of the structure, you and I have both been fans of time tracking, yeah, toggle here a couple more specific things. Be really clear about how you're spending the time, your time, calendar blocking and working in chunks of time and making sure that the important things are accounted for, you know, on your calendar, knowing when you have the most energy, and associating that with deep work, or times when you could just put aside the phone, think, read, so you need to implement your system on yourself. Then it's a matter of figuring out what that what's going to work and then trying it and sticking to it. So with the scenario of the person who's come from corporate who doesn't have a clue really how to operate, because they've been told by a million people how to do things, you're going to figure out what your own system is, what you need, the way you need to start it right at the deadline. I need to start at 3 months out. Like, you know that about me, right? I started way out there, because the closer it gets, the more uncomfortable I get, like, I don't like the deadline. The whole point is, figure out what your operating system is, and then work to that. And then there are a whole bunch of tricks in terms of block, calendar blocking, time tracking, accountability partners are fabulous. You and I had been that for each other. Our writing club was Susan and I would put it on the calendar for an hour. We would say hello to each other for about five minutes, right? We really were pretty good. And then we would leave it. We would leave our sound and our video on, and we would just write and hold each other accountable for writing. So it didn't matter what we wrote if we wanted to read each other. I don't particularly remember sharing what we wrote, but the point was that we were making the time we were accountable to each other. And so that's creative. And those kind of things really, really work
Susan Tatum 16:53
well, you know? So that accountability is something that I hear over and over and over again, and what my clients, when we're talking about what kind of help do you need? It comes up all the time, because without it, it's so easy to lose focus if it's just by yourself. And I think, you know, an accountability partner can be like you and I how we did it can be very informal. It doesn't have to be something that's that's highly structured, but I think it's really, really important. There are people out there that have enough self control, or what effort to manage
Katrina Busselle 17:26
I like the way you said the word self control?
Susan Tatum 17:29
I have none of them. Okay, so this is all good.
Katrina Busselle 17:33
We'll go on to our third and final question.
Susan Tatum 17:36
This is an interesting question here that we're talking about the transitioning from a corporate world into consulting, just being jarring and needing to face the new realities that kind of ties into I mean being the unstructured, the unstructuredness of it is one of those jarring things. Yeah, I think the reality of where we are now is that there are also a large number of people who truly do want to build an independent consulting practice, but they weren't planning on doing it right now, and so there's a lot of they were surprised by this opportunity that came along to have an independent consulting business. They're very hurt by it. It affects their self confidence in many ways. And this certainly isn't everybody that we're talking to, but I think it's important enough to when you talk about mindset, Katrina, and I think that that's that's something that's really important. So I just do I need to ask you a question, or can you just let go on it?
Katrina Busselle 18:37
I think a really important piece of what you're saying is how newly minted independent consultants are bringing a lot of past, a lot of feels, past, hurt, you know, challenges, how they got there. And so they're, like, fragile because of that. And so I'm going to ask you and the people to kind of go a little bit deep here, because I think it's really important, and it has to do with kind of resiliency and where we find ourselves and how, on some level, we didn't think we'd be here, right? So one of the things that is happening to us all right now is that we are aging and that we are going to die. And kind of, as an aside, I am a hospice volunteer, and in fact, I'm gonna go see my lady today. Some people are closer to that than others, and I am honored to walk with people at the end of their lives. So let's take my father, for example. You met my father. It was a Yale, a swimmer, a competitive swimmer, a strapping, you know, gorgeous, smart man who could build houses and do anything with his hands. I mean, that was his. He hasn't died, by the way. I'm talking about it like he is. But this is like his past persona. This is like the person who was in that corporate job, sitting pretty, going on trip to the Bahamas, okay? And now today, he is physically frail. He has some issues with his knees. He's kind of bent over. He kind of shuffles around. It takes him a long time to get from point A to point B. And he has some dementia issues that he has very much the spark which you experienced, and the energy of of who he was, he brings that into who he is today. But my point is, he's a he's physically and mentally, a very different person. And so the question is, Susan, how useful is it to us to kind of dwell on our past selves, our past bodies, our past minds, our past experiences, and not shrink from where we are today and the opportunities that we have in front of us. And he has a ton of opportunities. He can move. He can talk on the phone. He's built things. He just built me a railing, you know, for cold spring, like there are a whole bunch of things that he can do. And so how do we reframe our pain and our injustice and our past with the what we can control and what we can do now and a future that takes that into consideration? So I would say to that person, you are here right now. You are doing this. And so in terms of mindset, take the time do what you need to do to work through that, because now you're here. Now you're doing this. Now you're an independent consultant. Let's go like let's move ahead and make a new future without being weighed in from the past. Now I know I just that was philosophical. Perhaps that was not clear. You tell me, but what I'm trying to say is, okay, here you are now what essentially and how are you gonna make the best of this with a mindset around curiosity, around the future, around learning, around going for it.
Susan Tatum 22:04
So the story about your dad is really, is really good. And I wish people could see what he's done with those houses and Martha's Vineyard that he built with stuff he found it's just incredible. I think what I heard you say was, you're here now. I mean, we're here. We're and there's you. We cannot change that no matter how angry we want to get, you know, whatever, or a defensive about a layoff or ageism or anything else is keeping us from doing what we think we ought to be doing, you know, spend five minutes on it and then get over it. That might be a little harsh, but, you know? And then there's also that whole thing about gratitude and being thankful for the things that you do have, yeah. And in the case of these consultants, you've got the kind of experience that that people need and people pay for as grand scheme of things, although it seems like there's a lot of competition out there, and there is very few people really have this kind of expertise to offer. Be thankful for that and surround yourself with the people that can help you. You know, move forward.
Katrina Busselle 23:11
The name of the chapter in my book is called, or not to that chapter is a section. It's called reckon and let go. So it's really that like the reckoning process is the process where you need to think and grieve and feel and then you got to let go in order to be able to move forward and create this new reality. And Susan, it continues all the way on through death. Another anecdote I was telling you, I'm going to go see my my hospice gal, and she was telling me she loved water aerobics. She would like splash around and see her friends, and it was a whole thing. I can picture her in beautifully doing watererobics, but now she has congestive heart failure and COPD so she's like, well, I can't do that anymore. And so she was saying, so now I lie on my bed and I do these Pilates move. She said to me, she was like, these Pilates I think they call it, and she said, and you know what? It's pretty good. You know, I'm staying strong like I feel good. And I thought to myself, That's it, right there. So you're not going to be able to go back to water aerobics with your friends. But now, what can you do on your bed? And how can you stay strong? What are your goals? And how are you going to meet that? That's the call to action, and that's what it's all about.
Susan Tatum 24:26
So this has been really good, and I could, we could talk about it all day, but I think we should wrap it up. so now in your work that you're doing now, you help people through some of these things, right? tell us a bit about that.
Katrina Busselle 24:41
let me give you an example. I have a client right now who is a stager, and so she's had her own staging business for five years, but just in the scenario where I was talking about, where she does everything herself, well, five years later, she still does everything herself, and so she's working with me, and she's knocking it out of the park to separate herself from the doing. Of the staging by hiring another stager, by hiring someone to do marketing, by hiring someone to coordinate stages. And so we're working on getting that team in place and making it a reality that she can now, instead of working five days a week, eight hours, eight or nine hours a day on staging, she'll be able to work four days a week for four hours a day in order to be able to have her life and grow her business and be with her family and that type of thing. So that is what I love to do. I love to help people figure out where they want to go in their business and their personal life and then make it happen. In essence, that's what I'm all about.
Susan Tatum 25:37
Well, Fair to say, you help them get unstuck. Yeah, and move forward and have a plan to do that. Cool. All right, how can people follow up with you? Plus they can buy your book.
Katrina Busselle 25:47
Yes, buy my book. A million reasons why you can't check me out at katrinabusselle.com K, A, T, R, I, N, A, B as in bravo. U, S, S, E, L, L, E.com, and, yeah, you can reach out and contact me through email as well, katrina@katrinabuselle.com so I would love to hear anybody's thoughts on this conversation, comments, reflections. I'm always interested, so please send them my way.
Susan Tatum 26:16
We'll put all that stuff in the links in the show notes. And thank you. You so much for being here. And I might be a little bit jealous that you got this book out, but it's a very good one, and I highly recommend that everyone get a copy of it. So thank you for being here.
Katrina Busselle 26:31
Thank you Susan. I appreciate you.
Susan Tatum 26:32
Take care.
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