Episode 59: It’s Time to Work Differently: The Productivity Reset

Welcome back to the newly rebranded Productivity for Profit Podcast (formerly Elevate Your Small Business). In this heartfelt and grounding reintroduction episode, host Libby Knight—business mentor and mindset coach—shares the personal and professional reset that inspired a redefining new direction for the show.

After a life-altering season of stepping back to care for her father, Libby returns with a powerful mission: to redefine productivity for modern entrepreneurs, owners ad leaders who are tired of the hustle, the guilt, and the pressure to "do more" at the expense of their balance and quality of life.

This episode invites you to pause, reflect, and reframe what productivity truly means—not just in business, but in life.

You’ll discover:

• Why the old model of productivity is no longer serving us
• What it really means to be productive (hint: it’s a state, not a checklist)
• The mindset shift that helps you operate with purpose, not pressure
• How to begin your own Productivity Reset—on your terms

This is your permission to stop proving and start operating with intention, and design a business that aligns with your values and energy.

🎁 Free Download:

✨ Grab your Productivity Reset Journal Sheet – a simple but powerful reflection tool to help you assess how you’ve been working and set a new intention for this chapter.
Download it here 

🔄 Listen Now If You...

• Feel behind or disconnected from your business
• Are tired of overworking with little payoff
• Want a more sustainable, energising way to grow your business
• Are ready to redefine success on your own terms

🗣️ What’s Coming This Season:

• Solo episodes on shifting your mindset and energy
• Honest conversations with guests about what really works
• Practical tools to help you build a business that supports you

🎙 Subscribe, share, and leave a review if this resonated—you’ll be helping more business owners find a better way forward.

About Your Host Libby Knight:

Hi, it's lovely to meet you.
I'm Libby, business strategy mentor and mindset coach.
I help ambitious and creative entrepreneurs to grow their service based businesses with confidence, in an environment where they can be seen and heard and feel safe.  My goal is to empower you to create a business on your terms so that you have the tools, skills and knowledge you need to build and grow your business in a way that makes you truly happy.
I teach effective mindset techniques that, together with the right business strategy, will empower you to overcome the limiting beliefs that hold you back.

This is feel-good business development!

Join my mailing list : HERE

How you can work with me:

1:1 mentoring  to dive deep into your beautiful business.  Together we will clear your blocks and create your growth plan so that you can take the next big leap in your business   https://www.libby-knight.com

The POP Business Boutique is a small mentoring membership with bi-monthly live coaching and a library of workshops that cover all areas of sales, marketing, growth and mindset.  Want a virtual tour to see if it's for you?  No problem.
For more information visit : https://libby-knight.com/online-group-mentoring/

Follow on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/lib

Transcript

Season 3 Episode 1 - It’s Time to Work Differently: The Productivity Reset

[00:00:00] Hi, and welcome back to the Elevate Your Small Business Podcast, season three, which is actually returning to its original name, ‘Productivity for Profit’, because these are the things that we really want, right, to be effective business owners and to make money. So, if we haven't met before, I'm Libby Knight, business mentor and mindset coach for purpose-driven entrepreneurs and business owners who are ready to  stop with the old unhelpful ways and habits and who want to do things differently. So, whether you are a seasoned listener, or this is your first episode with me and you run a service-based business helping others to solve a problem, and you want to do so in a better way, then this is definitely for you.

This isn't just a new season of the podcast, it's a whole new perspective on productivity for life and for [00:01:00] business. And today I want to introduce a new way of defining what it really means to be productive. Because I dunno about you. But I get really tired of never feeling that I'm caught up. I get fed up with the belief that you have to overwork to succeed, that there just aren't enough hours in the day.

And what I've realized is that these kind of thoughts and beliefs, and I'm sure you have your own version of these, they're really unhelpful and ironically completely counterproductive. And yet we keep on thinking them. For various reasons, I now understand that, and it makes good sense to you, I'm sure.

But understanding and really knowing are two different things. To really know is to practice regularly and embody. So, what are [00:02:00] you practicing and embodying? Because that will make you an expert at whatever that is. So would you rather be an expert in distraction, procrastination, anxiety, guilt, or. Is there another state or belief that you could become an expert in, one that actually feels good and gets you results, one that you live by by default, because you practice it all the time and it becomes a habit that you've reprogrammed. To replace the limiting beliefs and thoughts that have been repeating in your life that haven't been helpful, that leave you feeling like you are constantly on catch up or feeling guilty. 

You may have noticed that I haven't been around for a while on the podcast. I think it's about 11 months since the last episode, and that was not by accident, it, wasn't intentional.

It wasn't by [00:03:00] accident. Life happened as it does, and instead of pushing through it, I stepped back a little bit from certain things like the podcast, I just deferred it for a while, and some other elements of life and business while I cared for my dad. So my dad had a fall. He was terminally ill, had several illnesses, and he wanted to stay in his own home.

And that meant that I needed to, to live with him and care for him. So certain things took a back seat. And it was this that actually, caused me to begin really embodying, and living my own definition of productivity. It was a definition I already had, but I really began to embody it during that time.

So, I not only understood it, but I began to know it at my very core. And what's that definition of productivity? It's to do the right thing. At the right [00:04:00] time with the right energy. And this applies to the whole of life, not just when something big comes up or a big life event causes change. Because to be the very best version of myself, for me and my dad at the time, and my clients and my daughter, 'cause the business was still happening, I had to reframe what was truly important at any given time, and to do that thing with gratitude and fulfillment rather than obligation and expectation, which often don't lead to very good feeling thoughts. So, during this almost two year period, things have really changed about how I think about the business, my energy and about what we call productivity.

I had this definition, which I still hold true, but it was this that helped me to truly embody it, and that's what I'm going to be [00:05:00] focusing on in this series of the podcast. This was a big shift. 

For so long, the definition of productivity has been getting more done in less time. Being efficient, hustling through the day, ticking every box on your to-do list.

And that's all well and good. Nothing wrong with, well, not the hustling through the day. 'cause hustling isn't a good feeling, is it.  But the rest of it, it's all well and good. But let me ask you, has this version of what productivity means really been working for you? 

Like I said, you can understand something, but to really know it, is this what you believed productivity needs to be? And when you live by these different things, the getting more done in less time, the being efficient, the [00:06:00] hustling, the ticking every box on your to-do list. When you are focused solely on those things, those doings, does that make you consistent? Do you feel excited to tackle the every day, every day? Do you say yes to the things that you want to and no to the things you want to? 

Are you living a life that you've actually designed for yourself and isn't being dictated to you?

Do you choose how you react to any given situation? Can you flex to the real life changes and interruptions that. Inevitably are gonna come up without feeling like that is somehow a failure because you've had to change what you're doing? And can you do all of that feeling purposeful, motivated, and fulfilled?

Does change that is perhaps happening to you - Do you think of it [00:07:00] to you, or for you? You know that phrase. But does that change, light you up or does it actually stress you out? Because for many people, productivity actually in reality means soldiering on, pushing through and often feeling inadequate or not enough, or not good enough. Faking that everything is under control, wearing busyness is a badge of honour. And what does that eventually lead to? Stress, burnout, guilt, confusion. A constant feeling of not doing enough, even when you're doing everything. 

And what I've realized and what Season three is all about, is that productivity isn't something you just do.

It's actually a state that you create. 

It's who you are when you are doing the right things at the right time, with the right energy. [00:08:00] 

So, this isn't about pushing harder, soldiering on alone, packing in as much as possible, and complexity, making everything really complicated. It's actually about operating from a really simple place, operating with purpose in a place of alignment where actually things feel good, where your nervous system is nicely balanced.

So, are you ready for a reset?

If you've lost momentum? If you are feeling behind or off track or a bit disconnected from your work? Then this episode and the following episodes in this series, these are your permission to take a pause and to reset. To redefine, because what's the alternative? 

Please listen when I say that you are not broken, you are evolving, [00:09:00] and in this season we're going to explore what it means to let go of outdated ways of thinking and working.

All those beliefs that have been instilled in us that are really not helping us, we're gonna redefine. Your success on your terms and how to get there through productivity. And what can productivity really mean for you? How can productivity be something that you are excited about, not something that makes you eye roll? 

And you're gonna lead your business without losing yourself. Or even rediscovering yourself. Many of us at certain times in life do find that we lose ourselves. So how can we rediscover ourselves and really enjoy running our business and be productive without being constantly on the go? [00:10:00] 

It doesn't mean sitting back and doing nothing and waiting and just visioning. That's not what this is about at all. But it doesn't have to be highly stressful. You do not need to burn out. So how can you be productive more purposefully, so that you are not constantly on high alert and on the go. What I've done to get us started in this season of episodes is I've created you a nice, simple downloadable journaling sheet.

You'll find the link in the notes and it's gonna give you some really great prompts for you to think about and write down, record whatever comes up for you. There's no right or wrong, this is just for you, but go deep. Give yourself some deeper insights into what you need to change, 'cause we're all different. We all have different needs at [00:11:00] different seasons of our lives. So, what do you need and want to change and how's that gonna happen? But first we need to, you know, have a little bit of a reflection to see where we are right now. Because how will we know how far we've come, if we don’t know where we started?

How do we know where we want to go if we don’t know where we are right now? So, we're going to be checking in on how you've been operating up till now and in the most recent times, what's been going on for you. We're going to clarify what productivity actually means to you and has been meaning to you and why you are where you are.

And then we're gonna start fresh. We're going to reframe, we're going to start thinking differently. So we're going to have some new intentions for this next chapter in your business. So you can download that for free. Just use the link in the notes, or you can send me a DM and ask for that download, just either write the word reset [00:12:00] or say which episode it is and I'll send it to you. Just drop me your email and I'll send it to your inbox. 

So what's coming up this season? You know that we're going to be focusing on reframing and redefining productivity in a way that's so much more helpful and sustainable. I’m going to be doing some solo episodes on shifting that mindset and that energy and some practical, obviously some practical tools and tips as well. We need both, don't we? We need the mindset. We need the action. 

We're going to be having some really honest conversations with people about productivity. Some experts and some people who are challenged, and have a look at what works, what really works, and what doesn't.

And I'm going to be giving you some tools to help you [00:13:00] to become the kind of business owner who not only provides a fantastic service, but can also equally enjoy business ownership. And we're going to make sure that that works with your values and your identity, or the identity that you want to have. 

So, are you excited for this new direction?

If so, and if you're up for this and you're going to be joining me on this journey, then subscribe so that you don't miss any episodes. I really appreciate that. I’d be very grateful if you would subscribe, because I want you to get all the perspectives if you are excited for this new direction we're going in with our productivity. A new definition, a new state, a new way of being. 

If you think that this is going to be helpful for somebody you know, because you chat about your challenges with owning your business or about productivity, getting stuff done, busyness, any of that, then do share it with them. I'm sure that they would be very grateful if you gave them something that could be equally helpful for them. And if this has resonated and you've enjoyed this and other episodes, either go and listen to some more episodes. And if you do enjoy it, please do leave a review. I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts and that will also push it out to more people so that other people can benefit as well.

So finally, I would like to welcome you back to the Productivity for Profit Podcast. You may know it as the Elevate Your Small Business podcast, but we are back to our original title of Productivity for Profit. I have missed doing the podcast and I'm [00:15:00] really excited to be back and to share. I have so many ideas to share with you, and I can't wait to help you in your own journey as a business owner.

Thank you very much for being here. Let's redefine productivity together. I'll see you very soon.