Maggie Perotin
Appearances
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
Yeah. So my name is Maggie Perotin, business and leadership coach. I really am very passionate and believe in high performance. And that comes from my backstory. I was a corporate leader for many years and at some point I burned out. And that burnout led me, A, to start my business, but B, to look inside and say, OK, what can I do now? to avoid that, but also manage my time better.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
Phone, news, all those things, because there are not only attention stealers by energy stealers and they can induce a lot of stress and anxiety that then you bring to your business and that reduces your productivity and effectiveness.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
I would say if you haven't done it at all and you feel like your days are running into you on, the first thing is track your time. Awareness is the first step for any change. So Whether it's the phone, Excel spreadsheet, doesn't matter. Starting today for a week, just track what you're doing from when you wake up to when you go to bed.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
And that realization can be very profound and transformative just in itself.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
Biggest win in business is definitely my clients' results, like seeing them succeed and also not only get to like the next level that they wanted to get, but once they get to that level, they're like, oh my God, there's so much opportunity because now that I'm here, I'm seeing so much. So for me, those are the biggest wins. And then the second part was the biggest, what did you, I messed that up.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
And I ended up going through some high performance cabot coaching and really understanding my relationship with time, the focus and so on. And that changed my life. That allowed me to, A, start my business on the side while running a very, you know, being fully employed in my corporate career and having quite demanding role.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
The biggest setback in my business. Let me think. I think last year, this... Part of the second half of the year, it kind of like things stopped working and, you know, and I was like, what the hell is going on, you know? And so, and by stopped working, I mean the marketing strategies that I had and so on didn't result in the amount of clients and the income that I wanted, right?
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
But the good thing about it is it forced me to really look at my brand and my marketing strategy and what I offer and so on and make some changes which are paying off now.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
I would tell myself to start a business sooner. I came to that realization in my 40s or very early in the 40s that this is what I wanted to do. And that was a great way to grow. I would have told myself start sooner.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
So my website is StairwayToLeadership.com. So one word, StairwayToLeadership.com. I'm also present on Instagram under my name, Maggie Perrotin, or LinkedIn, the same Maggie Perrotin. So I'm very active on those platforms.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
Thank you so much for having me. Thank you everybody for listening.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
doing mba on the side having my business kids at school during covet and i still was able to do all that while having time for me because of it so i'm very passionate about it i include it in my coaching when i you know when i coach business owners because i think that and of course having regular clients those are two top challenges for majority of business owners
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
So I think there is a couple of things. One thing is definitely we're culturally sort of programmed to like busy means important. Busy means productive, right? And as you say, like it's not true. You can be busy doing things that don't move your business forward at all.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
I think it's Richard Covey who said like, you know, you can be – there's nothing worse than being busy doing things that are not effective, right? It's like – So that's when the culture sort of programming, oh, I'm busy, therefore I'm doing important things. And we don't really pause and stop saying, like, is that really important?
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
And then the second thing, what I find with entrepreneurs, we are very creative, right? So we have a lot of ideas and ideas. With that, it's easy to get distracted. If you're not clear on what's important and you don't create systems and habits to support that focus, it's so easy to get distracted. There's so many opportunities out there. And that's a natural thing for even for us humans, right?
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
Our brain likes novelty. It gets attracted to it. Yeah.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
Yeah, thank you so much, Rudy, for having me. Happy to be here.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
So the first thing I would say, you need to be clear what is it that you are doing and what is it that you need to be doing. Right. So one very eye opening exercise is actually tracking your time for a week from like when you start.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
wake up to when you go to bed, tracking your time, because that there's so many things that we do that we don't even realize, like scrolling on the phone here and there or watching TV for that matter without realizing that. And that, you know, that exercise can be eye opening. I remember when I did it back in the day when I, you know, burned out, I realized that
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
I was spending so much time in the evening, just vegging on the couch, watching TV and sometimes shoes that I hated that I was getting like, you know, at the end, I was like, what the hell am I doing? Getting retired, going to bed. And when I realized that I was like, that has to stop. Right. So that's one, like, just know how you're spending your time.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
Then the second thing, what you want to do is know, okay, why, What's my best utilization of the time if I am the owner? And I was coaching one of my clients on that just on Tuesday saying, OK, if you had to pay yourself $10,000 for an hour of your time, just think about is what you're doing worth it? And if it's not, then maybe you need to stop.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
Or, you know, if you have a team, you can delegate if it still needs to be done.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
Yeah, it becomes a habit, right? And at first, it's sort of you need to be intentional about it. And what also helps, especially in business, is having strategy and plan. Because when you created a strategy and plan in an environment, when you thought really clearly through, okay, what is it that needs to happen in my business to grow?
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
And if you break it down into some actions and you start planning them, then you know, okay, if I'm not doing that and I'm going to something else, you know already, okay, well, I'm getting distracted, right? But if you do it over and over and over, it does become a habit. And then you just, you don't need to think about it. You just automatically have that.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
So I would say there's a couple of things. One, and you mentioned too that you're your biggest asset, right? Without you as a CEO or a business owner, there's no business. And you're alive, right? So you need to sort of take care of yourself. So... Then comes high performance. For me, what high performance means is things you think at your best, you feel at your best, and you act at your best.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
And you cannot definitely do that if you're working 24-7. You will overwork, right? So... So relaxation, but in a way, good relaxation, right, is important for high performance.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
Very often, the best ideas you get about your business is when you're relaxed on the beach or on vacation and so on, because your brain is not going into, okay, I have to do this, this is happening, this fire is happening, that fire is happening, right? So I think of high performance in a human, in a holistic way, right? As a human, I have different parts to me.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
And if I fill them up intentionally and focus on them, then I will operate at my best. And that's, you know, for me, I'm in the... period of my life where, yeah, I have family, I have young kids, it's very important to me. And I wouldn't be able to even operate in my business properly if I didn't have quality time with them. It doesn't mean I spend equal amount of time during the week with them.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
You know, my kids are at school and so on. For me, balance or harmony doesn't mean the equal amount of time, but there's intentional things that I do that to spend time with my husband, to have a great relationship, to spend time with my kids, to have a great relationship, because if that's not working well, it will affect your performance in the business, right?
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
If your personal life is tumultuous, then you're coming into business and you're thinking about it. You're wasting time and energy. Same with nutrition, being active, all those things.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
Yeah, yeah, right. So that's what I was going to say. Even a pro athlete needs to have rest periods, right? They can't train 24-7 because that will overwork their body. And then when they have to be very productive at the, you know, Olympic Games or whatever, that might backfire, right? So it's the same.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
I believe that, you know, in business, yes, there is maybe periods of time and periods of your life because, you know, it's the same. When I didn't have kids and so on, all I want it to do is work and do things, right? But there is periods of time and so on when you might be hyper-focused on work because there's a project, you're launching something, whatever.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
But then after that intensity, you also need to have some downtime, right? But you want to be intentional how you spend it, right?
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
Definitely establishing certain good habits. So as you said, OK, if I wake up, let's say it's 6 a.m., I actually wake up at 4.30 because that's I get tips. Right. And I set up myself well for the day and that I can be very effective. Right. So be intentional in how you start your day, because very often people wake up and the first thing they do, they look on the phone.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
And not only they get distracted, but they check the emails, they check the news, their stress level goes up, and they already have a bad day, right? So starting the day in a way that can ground you, that you know the plan, very often you can accomplish a lot.
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
That's, you know, I was doing when I was still working and MBA in business, early morning before my kids got up, that was my time to do the school and do the business. Because then I was going to work, right? So I could accomplish so much because I got undivided time, right? So you want to kind of master your morning. And if you master your morning, then whatever comes at you later on
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
it doesn't matter so that's one another second habit that's changed my life is very important and planning weekly so don't go off check checklist every day kind of wasting your energy to decide what to do in the moment because our brain does get tired and towards the end of the day you're gonna do things that are easy and not necessarily the important ones that move your business forward
Living The Red Life
High Performance Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
If you actually decide a week ahead and you plan it out with some room for flexibility, of course, you're conserving brain energy. Then it's just, okay, I'm doing. Okay, this is what I plan. Boom, boom, boom. Then move on to the next time, right? So planning weekly that's sort of aligned with your strategies one was key to me. And then, you know, definitely limiting your exposure to
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
When I started my business, I didn't believe it 100%. I didn't know, can I really make it successful? People like us don't get there. Gotta be able to say like, hey, if there is a person who did what I want to accomplish, I'm not that different than them. I can do it too.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
So you will definitely dive deeper into my personal story, dream plan, the model, and more tips on how to achieve both plans for them, but also how to manage your time and energy as you go through it. It's just, you know, can be challenging.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
Sure. My name is Maggie Ferratin. I'm a business and leadership coach. I live in Toronto, Canada. Business name is Terry to Leadership. And most of the time who I work with is business owners, small business owners, and I help them grow, scale their businesses and leave their legacy.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
Thank you.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
Thank you. Dream plan do, it's a simple way to really set and achieve goals. And it came from really how I operate and how I, in my life, set and achieve goal. I'm definitely an achiever. My first strength is, And so when I started my business and I wanted to help people grow and achieve what their dreams are, I thought about, OK, how do I do it?
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
And then I pulled it out of my brain and it came down to really. setting big goals, having a dream and believing you can do it. And then planning to actually, okay, how am I going to do it? And what do I need to do to get there? And then taking action and doing it, learning from it.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
And the big thing for me is also, I'm always like, how can I make it simple and the easiest possible for me to achieve the goals? Because, you know, it can be a hard journey anyways.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
And big part of it is setting good habits and how can I systemize and automate and through habits or in business through systems to make things repeatable, good quality, good, you know, excellent and easy at the same time.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
So three things. One, keep it as simple as possible. Don't try to climb Mount Everest in an hour. That's not going to happen. You need to bring down whatever you're doing into the simplest steps that when you think about, oh, can I do it? Even if you're a bit scared, you're like, well, I'm scared, but I can't. It's not as overwhelming. So that's one. Two, keep focused. Don't get distracted.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
And especially I think in entrepreneurship, once you start a business, there's so many opportunities out there and everybody's telling you, yeah, make a million dollars in a week. What are this? Buy this, buy this. And it's so easy to get distracted. That's why I always say when you have a plan that is really aligned with your goal and vision, you can get back to it.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
Say, is this opportunity fits with that plan? Does it help me or not?
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
Like, for example, me, legacy makers, right? I, one of my goals was I want to grow my brand because I want to reach more people. And legacy makers opportunity came out. Ooh, yes. Did I plan for it three months ago? No.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
But it was the right opportunity. But then there's something else that was saying, no, no, no.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
So don't get distracted. And three, you know, you have to keep going and you have to understand that challenges are just part of the journey. But if you learn the skill sets that you need and you get better and better and better, you will overcome any challenge.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
Three things. One.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
Yeah.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
OK, so I think that all you need is. It's a belief that you're capable to figure out and learn what you need to achieve it. You don't even need to believe that, oh, I can a hundred percent do it. When I started my business, I didn't believe it a hundred percent. I didn't know, can I really make it successful? But what I believed in, I can figure it out. I can learn whatever skills that I need.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
And through that, most likely I'll be successful.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
Yeah, and I see that sometimes people hold themselves back. And either because they don't believe they could get there or they don't believe in them. Like, oh, is this for me? Like, am I, you know, I'm this little person in a small town. I think we're both in a small town, right? People like us don't get there.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
Like, you've got to be able to say like, hey, if there is a person who did what I want to accomplish, I'm not that different than them. I can do it too.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
You need to really have a strong why. Like, why do I want to do it? Yeah. Right? Sometimes people set goals because they think they should or because, okay, my neighborhood and so on.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
January the 1st, whatever, right? But you want it for you. Yeah. You want to want it for you and have a strong why. Because then that will fool you and you won't be able to go through, even if you have an answer, you're like, no, no, no, because I know why I want to do it. Yeah. When I was quitting my corporate job, I had a cushy job, you know, career six fingers and benefits, all those things.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
And I was on a trajectory to continue and nobody was, you know, letting me go or anything like that. So when I decided to leave, my husband is super supportive. I have a great supportive husband, but everybody else around me is crazy. Even my dad, like my parents are in Europe, but my dad called and he's been on different.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
Are you sure you're making the right decision?
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
He understands how hard it is, but he's doing well for himself. He knows the hard, but he also knows the reward. And yet still, he was like, well, you're my daughter.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
That's a big story. That's my legacy.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
But teasers. I come from Poland.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
small town. I was born and raised under communist regime, so not much freedom out there. But as communist regime collapsed, I finished university. And at that time, Poland was going through a lot of reforms, 20% unemployment, really hard on the society. I had a job and sales, but it was like $300 a month. And my big dreams, like, okay, that doesn't match to the dreams.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
So I found through a friend, an immigration program from Canada, and I speak French and English. It helps. So I applied. We immigrated with my first husband at the time.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
Found a job in corporate, great career there, burned out, got really angry because of it and decided to start a business that way.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
Long-term goal is really to make as big of an impact to this business as possible. The business idea really came, I was about 40 at a time. So it's like a midlife crisis. It's saying, okay, well, if I'm going to start this thing, I really want it to be something I'm passionate about, something where I can make a big impact. So that's what I want to do.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
I want to grow and scale it to help as many people as possible.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
To me, it means leaving this world better than you found it through the skillset and experience that you've been gifted and acquired.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
One of the biggest, there was a few, but I think one of the most challenging ones to overcome was actually my divorce. Yeah. It's because it was my idea. You know, I had a good husband. He was, he's a good man. It wasn't like, you know, there was abuse or anything. Yeah. And as women, we're sometimes conditioned, like, what do you mean? You have this good person. Yeah, sure. And I leave it.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
And even breaking somebody's heart, it's not. Yeah. So making that decision in a country where I don't have support and my social network and friends network at that time was connected to his family and his friends. So with the decision, losing that.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
And having family across the ocean support it, but not there, was pretty hard. A lot of shame, a lot of guilt. You know, I had an amazing boss. I was calling her Canadian mom always, but she was my boss. At least so much, you got to show up and do the work. So it was the toughest year of my life, but it was the right decision.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
I always say now I have an amazing love of my life and kids and, you know, really...
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
I want to be remembered for helping people realize that they're leaders and leading their life and businesses like leaders.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
Because I really believe everybody's a leader and most people don't see themselves like because they think a leader and they're like, oh, I have to be a politician or this big... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or have a big business and team. And I'm like, no, it starts with you.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
It starts with your life and you. And we almost like... By default, sometimes we give away our freedom to choose and be intentional and fall into like bad habits and things. And they're just like almost unintentionally living our life. But when you lead it with intention, that's how you create life and achieve goals. So I want to be remembered for that.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
Thank you, Rudy. Thank you for having me.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
Maggie Perotin on Beating Doubt, Silencing Naysayers & Leading with Purpose
Get clear on what it is and start to the first action. No matter how scared you are, no matter how hard you will think you'll be, just break it down to the action where you're like, you know what? I can do it. Anybody can go and register a business. In Canada, it's like five minutes, 60 bucks for the business. You can do that and then take the next step and the next step.