Empowering Your Life: A Journey to Balance and Transformation with Life Coach Elizabeth Burrows

Transcript

Welcome to the You World Order Showcase podcast.

Today we're speaking with Elizabeth Burrows.

Elizabeth is the founder of the Life Edit project.

She's a life coach who helps busy women create life balance between work and home.

So Elizabeth, welcome to the show.

And we're so happy to have you.

Here, tell us all about.

What it is you do and how you guys start?

Hi, Jill.

Thank you so much for having me.

I am so excited for this conversation.

Actually anytime I think I get a chance to talk about what it is that I do and how I got started, it gives me kind of a case of the feels because remembering how I got into this world of coaching is.

An adventure and I live it all over again.

Every time I retell the story.

So yeah, so I like to say that I.

Kind of fell into coaching.

That it wasn't actually my plan.

So I was working my job at a public agency, so I'm actually a recovering bureaucrat among many other things and.

I was enjoying my job and I was doing great things and working in the community where I was born and raised and having great fun giving back and all.

That and then as.

As grown folks do as.

They grow up.

I got married and then I started a family.

My husband and I had a daughter.

A couple of years after getting married and all.

Of a sudden.

My life wasn't really working as well as I thought it.

Was and I felt like I was drowning.

Under the weight and the pressure of all of the expectations that were coming at me from all different directions.

And I felt one day like I was failing at motherhood, failing at wifehood, failing at my job and letting down so many people in my, you know, social circles and in my community.

And I just decided that, like, something had to change something had.

To give and me being the nerd at heart that I am, I took to the Internet and started researching because I believe there's an answer for everything and I felt kind of down the self help and personal development.

You know, black hole that is there on the interwebs and I discovered lots of different coaches who were, you know.

Teaching lots of different things, but in general it was the world of coaching and concepts of self coaching that ended up being the game changer for me.

And so after kind of struggling with this undercurrent of in inadequacy and frustration in my own life for so many years.

I found coaching and after I started applying the principles within a few months my I felt drastically different in my life and so I was like, whoa, this is super powerful.

Got to tell the world.

And so I decided to start a blog to kind of document my journey.

And as I did that, I eventually realized that I actually had a knack for coaching.

Itself, and I realized that I could make a bigger and deeper impact on the folks that I wanted to help, not just by sharing my story, but actually by coaching them through their own transformations and the life Edit project.

That is so cool.

It's really, really fun when.

You get to.

See life transformations happen and and on your own heroes journey story cause you know you are definitely a hero in your story rather than a victim which is.

It's so easy to.

Fall into that trap when you're so down.

It's like, please, somebody's throw me a lifeline. You didn't do that. You just stepped out and stepped into your power and found the solutions. And now you. You can help other people be a guide rather than a.

Than a rescuer.

Yeah, well, you know, it wasn't instant.

It wasn't an overnight shift.

And I I definitely wallowed in the pool of self pity for a while.

And I was definitely, you know, for a while, waiting for someone to come along and make life easier.

For me.

But I actually I.

Love that you said.

I'm kind of the hero of my own story.

I've never actually thought about it this way.

But I think one of the things that makes coaching such a fabulous modality, a fabulous way to make change in your life is that.

You get to be the source of your own change, right?

So I I didn't need someone else to rescue me.

I got to rescue myself, so I was my own hero and.

Yeah, and.

I think anyone can do it.

Yeah, anybody can be the.

Hero of their own story, the first parts recognizing it's just a story.

Yes, there.

Can always be a plot twist.

It doesn't have to be like you don't have to stay in that chapter any longer than you want to, and there are tools, and there are coaches out there that can help.

Shorten the learning.

Curve down and take you know what takes some people a long time to figure out through trial and error and.

A lot of.

Us have gone through the trial and error.

And we're like.

Hey, you know.

I found the path.

Let me show you cause it's more direct, exactly and it's.

Gonna save you time and money in.

The long run.

So what is?

What is working with you look?

Like, how do you?

What kind of things do you help people with?

That's such a I feel like it's such a loaded question, so I have come to terms with the fact that I'm what people would refer to as a general life coach, which means they can bring me any kind of challenge from any area of their life that they want help with.

And I say bring it on and we work through it.

So I have helped my clients with.

Anything from?

Changing the dynamic of their household when it comes to parents and kids, I've helped adult clients kind of have better relationships with their siblings, so they're there might be some estrangement or there might be just some tension or even just downright hostility.

And I've helped them navigate.

Some of those situations and improve those relationships.

I have helped clients have improved their romantic relationships, so relationships of all kinds.

I've helped clients navigate career transitions.

Oftentimes I get folks who are at the precipice of needing to make some kind of decision, so maybe they feel like.

Almost how I was feeling when I came into coaching, so something's gotta change and I don't know what it is.

So either this job changes or this boss changes or something.

And I help them navigate those decisions and then I help them take action based on the decisions that they have made.

I help I help lots of clients feel better about their productivity levels.

So we do a lot of work together on.

Overcoming procrastination, hacking their productivity.

Because I work with a lot of high achievers, so they really expect themselves to do a lot and produce a lot.

And to achieve a lot of goals, we work on goal setting.

So all kinds of things.

I've had lots of clients who are working in one career and starting a side hustle in another.

We're trying to transition full time from to make their side hustle their main job and just supporting them through that journey.

So there's really nothing that I'm not afraid to touch.

Oh, wait, there's nothing that I'm afraid to touch.

Yeah, yeah, something like that.

Yeah, you know what I mean.

Who's your ideal client?

Ohh fun question.

I would say my.

Ideal Client is a.

Professional woman, that is.

In the management or executive level?

At her job, she's been in her career for.

I would say 5 to 10 years and she's not done yet.

She's got lots of growing to do, lots of potential, but she's already got some achievements under her belt career wise.

And she is.

Interested in?

Creating a really solid family structure for herself, whether that and that may or may not include kids, but definitely it includes a romantic, a long term romantic relationship.

And she's trying to figure out.

How to make space for all of her personal goals when she's so dedicated to her professional goals?

Pretty specific.

Yeah, I like it.

I like it a lot.

It's easier to be a generalist if you know.

Who your client is.

Then if you're just trying to like I.

Can help everybody with everything, right?

Then it usually.

Ends up with.

You're not helping anybody with anything.

Yeah, and.

Did that, that group of people has a specific set of problems that they need solved and there.

Yeah, you are.

Could be kind of a.

Wide range of them in terms of getting balance between work and life and those kinds of things, they.

And it's usually like a handful of problems.

Yep, it may sound like from you.

Know as a life coach, a generalist life coach, as you termed yourself.

Yeah, that you were trying to like, help them with a bunch of stuff.

But if you really know who your client is.

And you can say I help you with everything, but really it's just going to be these five things, yeah.

That's the same.

Problems you all have.

The other thing that I find is there's something that I like to call the spillover effect.

So a client will bring me kind of the things that I like to say are loud.

And hot with.

Them so the things that really are crying out for their attention and as we work to improve that.

Of life there end up being all of these benefits that spill over into other areas.

And so because a lot of the problems that my clients have are created by, you know, the same underlying beliefs or the same underlying set of habits or being in the same kind of environment.

In a similar situation, and so once they have this skill set to solve and then eventually avoid the big loud hot problem that we're working on together.

They start taking that same skill set that they've built and applying it everywhere.

That problem shows up, and then all of a sudden, you know, not only have they figured out the job situation, but they're the happiest they've ever been in their romantic relationship.

And not only are they getting along better with their coworkers, but now they've got time for their best friend that they.

You know, usually go three months without speaking to.

And a lot of times it's simple tweaks.

In in your.

Thought process and cause everything starts in your head.

And how you address things and what you spend your time.

Thinking about because that we can spend an inordinate amount of time if we're really busy or we're really stressed about trying to perform at a certain level.

There's an inordinate amount of thinking.

That goes on, and not all of it.

OK, so very little of it is generally positive.

And just getting a handle.

On that piece.

Most people don't realize how much time.

They gain back.

Yeah, I like to call those thoughts that aren't helping.

I like to call them head.

So yeah, there's and there's lots of head trash.

I like it.

I like it a lot.

And just like, you know, the trash in your home, you've got to learn how to take out the trash or else it starts getting stinky and it starts contaminating everything around.

And it's not a problem that head trash gets created.

You just have to learn to dispose of it properly.

And so yeah, that's a big part of what I work on with my clients.

And so as we work together and I help them build that skill and help them recognize trash, right, so they can sort the trash from the treasure.

They learn once they know it's trash.

I don't have to tell them to dispose of it.

They automatically know.

Ohh it's trash.

I get to release that.

I get to.

I get to toss it right.

I get to recycle.

Or etc.

And so they end up picking that up very quickly.

But you know.

You said something that's really interesting that you know, everything starts in our heads.

Something else though, that I find when I'm working with these high achievers is that because they are so prone to living in their heads and to, you know, problem solving, there's often work that needs to be done to reconnect their heads to their bodies.

And there is often this reflex to reach for a logical or, you know an analytical solution, when sometimes it's just you have feelings that you're ignoring.

You have feelings that you're resisting and learning the skill set of processing your feelings.

Actually helps you feel better, and it's not actually anything that you need to think differently.

Yeah, the mind body connection is.

Huge, hugely important.

The whole vaga nerve thing and your.

Heart your heart is actually.

A thinking.

Organ in your.

Body and most people don't even realize.

That but it.

It sends messages to your.

Brain, your brain is just like the computer thing.

It doesn't.

It doesn't didn't have like.

A lot of control over.

What it's doing and the thoughts that it's.

Delivering up to you.

And I can see.

That a lot of people do.

Spend time an inordinate amount of time in their heads and.

And then they start.

Because they don't really have a way of processing that information because your brain is not designed to process it.

It sends out signals to release chemicals which.

Cause different things to happen in your body like you know you can get anxiety.

In your stomach, Royals or you can.

You got.

A panic attack and then you're breaking out in a sweat and you're shaking and you're having trouble breathing.

I mean, these are these are.

Real physiological reactions to stuff that's that your brain is saying.

OK, this is the.

Response to whatever this thought is that's going on or this emotion.

A lot of it's emotions.

You you have a thought and.

That triggers an emotion.

Or you have.

An emotion and that triggers a thought.

Yes, but however that work.

Your your body is having a chemical reaction and a chemical response, yes, and it's doing something and being able to recognize the signs when it's coming on.

Yes, great tool.

Yes, it's so important.

To let yeah, the connection of the two is.

Super important and just.

Being able to to recognize that.

You don't have to have.

All of these.

Thoughts. And sometimes when we.

Glom on to negative thoughts, or we're trying to process something that either happen to us, or we allowed to get in ourselves to get involved in and work.

Such situations for high-powered people, it happens.

All the time they just get.

Embroiled in things that they.

Are they really?

They end up like spending a lot of time thinking about it and talking about it, and they just like they're trying to process it when there's really some easy steps that you can go through, which I'm sure that you help your clients with.

That yes, absolutely.

So we address.

I will address when it comes up.

In my.

I'll say this the my style of working with clients is that I've got a whole variety of tools.

And frameworks and techniques that I am ready to teach them, but I don't deliver it in like this standard order.

I deliver the tools that helps them deal with the situation at hand so that they're getting what they need as they need it instead of feeling like I'm taking them through.

You know something that feels less relevant.

And I start with the easiest path of resistance, right?

The path of least resistance, so that they're really open to whatever it is that the work is.

And if something is hard, we don't have to start there.

We can start with the easy stuff and because of the spillover effect, we'll still make progress on the hard stuff.

Yeah, and sometimes just getting.

Started and you get a.

Little win.

It's like ohh that worked.

So I.

Tackle something else and maybe it's just like incrementally.

Making changes and incrementally more difficult tools to employ.

You start to see bigger and bigger wins.

Because it just like.

The whole 1% changes your direction and trajectory for how things are going to go.

In your life.

Exactly, so well said.

And it can happen really quickly.

Surprisingly quickly.

Yeah, I saw that with my own story.

Just, you know, kind of struggling for, let's say, two years with kind of this, this long standing feeling of inadequacy and overwhelm and frustration.

And then in a period of six months, feeling the polar opposite and just feeling super optimistic, having lots of energy and feeling like I was on top of my game.

Six months turned that around.

I'm with you on this same boat I for the longest time had.

Qualms about the new world order.

And what they were doing in my opinion.

To the rest of us.

And it really I was finding myself kind of being stuck down into this dark place of like, no hope and.

It just hit.

Me one day you.

Ohh you could just turn that all around EU World order is all about empowering people, people taking back their responsibility and stepping up to be the change they want to see in the world. But it's just individuals meeting other individuals one-on-one and the ripple effect.

That that has in communities and it's changing the world, it is actively making the world a much better place.

And I don't know about you, but I feel it every day when I talk to people like you that are are doing stuff about the situation and it and it was pretty quick turn around for my whole outlook on life in general.

Where I was like.

In the pits of despair like.

What's the point to?

Yeah, I'm gonna today.

I'm going to talk to some other people that are just doing stuff and and making a difference.

And I'm going to make a difference because I'm going.

To help them a little bit.

It's just.

Much, much better way to live.

It is and sometimes because the impact can be so huge and that turn around can be so quick.

Sometimes it doesn't feel real, right.

But it is real and it's and it's so powerful and.

I think it's just more fun to live it from that place of I'm empowered to make change in my life and in the lives of others.

Instead of feeling like life is always happening to you, so I choose the fun way.

And with your sister, it's much easier to just enjoy life and do what you can to help the next human being that you run into.

And I I.

Know a lot of things are transactional in the world.

We all.

Have to put bread on the table.

But you know you can do it.

In a fun way and.

You can do it.

With what you're passionate about.

And you can you can actually.

A really big impact.

Just by being the the kind of person you want to to run into the next time you meet somebody.

Beautifully said.

So what is the one thing?

You want to.

Leave this audience with today.

Oh, I think the one thing that I want to leave everyone with is that the most powerful thing you can do in any situation is make a choice.

And it doesn't matter what the choice is when you forfeit your choice, you're giving up your power and living from that disempowered place.

It feels crappy, so if you want to quickly start turning things around, start by recognizing when there are choices in front of you.

And make choices as quickly as you can and run with them.

Take action that that is kind of the.

Key you can have lots of information.

But if you never act on it.

No good speaking.

It'll never make any changes.

So how do people get in?

Touch with you.

Fabulous. So you can visit my website which is life edit project.com and I'm all over social media.

I'm on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter.

I think my favorite place to hang out is Instagram, but my handle in all of those places is at Life Edit project, no spaces.

And I have also launched a podcast that I'm really excited about surprise.

It's called the Life Edit Project podcast, and that's in all the places where you get your.

So what do you talk about on?

Your podcast.

Fun stuff I share a lot of my coaching concepts, so I talk about a lot of the issues that my ideal client comes to me with, so I'm positioning the podcast for recovering overachievers and recovering perfectionists.

So that's kind of where we.

Start, but I introduce overtime practical tips to help them deal with those kinds of challenges.

So we talk about everything from analysis paralysis to what to do when you know better, but you don't do better and all kinds of other fun stuff.

Oh, that sounds so.

We'll put the link for.

That in the description.

Too fabulous.

So thank you so much for joining us today, Elizabeth.

This was such.

A great conversation, Jill.

It's been my honor.