87: The Perfectionist's Guide To Delegating with Kierra Asnauskas

How do you go from rock bottom broke and feeling totally lost to becoming a purpose driven entrepreneur? Today on The Bold Life I’m joined by Kierra Asnauskas, Amazon best selling author and founder of Miss Unconventional, to learn how you can get out of the hustle and become a productivity boss without sacrificing your health, happiness, or sanity.

Kierra helps coaches, course creators, and corporate escapists conquer their chaotic schedules, set strong boundaries, and do the right things at the right time for the right reasons. Author of Permission to Pivot Granted and host of The Productive Boss Podcast. She empowers women to make profitable and productive pivots, and design a life in perfect alignment with their personality, passions, and purpose.

Trading a Car for a Cruise Ship

Where was rock bottom? Right out of college when Kierra realized she had gone into a degree that was too broad. She was lost and didn’t know what she was going to do.

It was a phone call from a friend in Maryland (Kierra was living in Pittsburgh at the time) that brought her to a new city. She got there and everything was going wrong.

She had a job lined up that didn’t work out, her car kept getting towed, and she was living on a friend’s couch.

Looking in the mirror, Kierra did not like who she saw. No direction, no goals, no hope.

She attended a hiring fair for a cruise ship that would be sailing around Hawaii. As she watched her car get towed away, she found out she got the job.

That was the opportunity that put Kierra back on track. It refilled her with hope.

This opportunity then led her to teaching English abroad in Korea, to teaching English in Afghanistan, then she studied for her MBA in Croatia.

Between then and now, through the highs and lows of life, Kierra has made a plethora of pivots.

How To Pivot In Your Life With Confidence

Kierra says the key to pivoting successfully is don’t just pivot because life got hard. Or you could find yourself in a new job but with the same problems.

Instead, ask yourself: is this situation out of alignment with my personality, passion, and purpose?

Self-awareness is a necessity to making a profitable and productive pivot.

Oh, and one more thing. Look before you leap. You need to think about what you’re pivoting in to. If you don’t pay close attention to where you’re going, you’ll be right back where you started. Unhappy and unaligned.

Look at Your Life Like an Experiment

Kierra has done plenty of experimenting in her life, and it was only through those experiences that she found her purpose and passion. Had she not taken the risk, she may have never stumbled upon the right answer.

If you’re struggling to find your passion or purpose, Kierra suggests two strategies:

Ask yourself “what do I hate to see other people struggling with, and I hate it so much that I want to be a part of the solution for them?”. Finding your why can be so much more motivating when it’s connected to something outside of yourself.
Stay in motion. When you want to feel motivated, start moving. Do anything towards your goals and the pathway will reveal itself, even if that step seems small.

Productivity for Perfectionists and Overachievers

Kierra’s moto is doing the right things, at the right time, for the right reasons, in the right way.

Applying the minimum effective dose into your lifestyle doesn’t mean doing the bare minimum. It’s more like finding the thing you can do that’s going to maximize your results.

Perfectionists like to do all of the things and be everything to everyone, and they may get some results, but that output is usually not aligned with all the effort of the input.

Using your minimum effective dose to drive your performance and keeping the main thing constantly in your field of view will yield so much more tangible results than trying to do all of the things and burning yourself out for nothing.

Here’s Kierra’s challenge for your busy-just-to-be-busy habits:

Think about the activities you do in your business and your life that actually make a difference
Start the day doing just those things
Challenge yourself to do nothing else
See if you don’t get the same results (or even better results since you’ve chose to focus in on your minimum effective dose!)

Spending all of your time on tasks that don’t move you towards your goals is a waste of time! Although it may feel good to check 20 easy tasks off your list, if the 2-3 important tasks aren’t getting checked off then you’re feeling productive for the wrong reasons.

Kierra calls this Productive procrastination. When you feel productive without actually doing the heavy work.

And also – ask for help! Delegating at home and at a work can save your mental energy for the important things.

The Three Types of Systems We All Need

A self-care system - Like planning non-negotiable self-care days throughout the week or planning vacations to give yourself something to look forward to
A business/professional system - What kind of software is the best to keep your business running smoothly? Do you need to hire some help?
A lifestyle system - Don’t like to cook throughout the week? Find a different way to meal prep or utilize grocery companies to help you out.

These systems also have systems within them to keep everything moving smoothly.

It’s a lot of work on the front end to set up, Kierra says, but it will set up a perfect system on the back end.

When you don’t have to worry about the little thigs because you’re confident in your systems, you can give your best self to your business.

What’s Your Productivity Avatar?

Kierra has a productivity problem quiz on her website. When I took the quiz, I found out I was a No-Help Halle which means I like to do everything myself and delegating is an issue for me.

Especially when I’m stressed! My go-to when I’m stressed is to try to take control of everything. Having systems and routines in place so that when I’m overwhelmed I can rely on my systems to take care of me like what to make for dinner or if I’ll have time to do laundry.

Head over to Kierra’s website to take the quiz to find your avatar:

No Boundaries Barbara
No Clarity Cara
No Systems Sandra
No Help Halle
No Focus Fiona

Once you know your profile and the mistakes you make, Kierra’s Conquer Your Chaos crash course offers specific help for all five of the avatar types.

Kierra’s Book Recommendation & How to Learn More

Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill.

It’s a bit of an old one as it’s from the 1930s. It was under lock and key for 70 years! They would not publish this book because it would have been extremely problematic back then. A powerful conversation that is a must-read according to Kierra!

You can find Kierra at @missunconventional_ on Instagram.

Also make sure to check out her website to learn more about the Conquer Your Chaos crash course at conqueryourchaosblueprint.com

Show Highlights

[03:12] Kierra shares her story and what got her to this point.

[07:46] How she’s impacting the world now.

[08:55] What it means to give yourself Permission to Pivot.

[12:21] Don’t worry about being in a constant state of experimentation.

[15:16] Your “why” needs to be strong enough to weather the struggles of the “how.”

[16:48] How Kierra views productivity as a perfectionist.

[21:41] The 20% that moves the needle is usually made up of the scariest tasks.

[25:30] Learn the 3 systems Kierra believes everyone needs in their lives.

[26:23] Check out the quiz to find out your delegation avatar.