PP 288: Kicking Fear to the Curb with Jessica Honegger

“Awareness is the first step to figuring out how to move forward.”

Jessica has had quite the career journey! In 2008, she and her husband had two children and were flipping houses with the intention of adding another child to their family through adoption. When the housing market crashed, they were forced to use their savings on living expenses rather than on adoption. The opportunity which presented itself next is now helping thousands of families worldwide!

Listen as Jessica and I chat about the opportunities which present themselves when you kick fear to the curb, the power of living selflessly, the quirks and compassion of our kids, and more!

 

Highlights:

01:06 Women Are Amazing!
10:28 Compassion Fatigue
17:40 Sleep 
27:10 Prioritizing Ideas
31:28 The Truth About Multitasking
39:14 Productivity Tools
45:45 Take People by the Hand

@thekimsutton and @jessicahonegger chat about the opportunities which present themselves when you kick fear to the curb, the power of living selflessly, the quirks and compassion of our kids, and more! Listen at: https://www.thekimsutton.com/pp288 #positiveproductivity #podcast #productivitytools #fear #women #parentpreneurs #sleep #empathy #awaremess Click To Tweet

Resources Mentioned

The Going Scared Podcast
Imperfect Courage (Jessica’s Book)

Jay Rooke – Know Pain, Know Gain
Todd Herman
Can I Have Your Attention? by Curt Steinhorst
Focuster App

 

Inspirational Quotes:

05:20 “When we show up for our lives, we go up. And when we go up, we bring other women along with us.” -Jessica Honegger

11:44 “If we don’t empathize, we live selfish lives. Ultimately, that’s not good for anybody.” -Jessica Honegger

18:28 “If I’m not experiencing fear in some area of my life, it means I’m living life too comfortably, and that is just not how I want to live.” -Jessica Honegger

29:46 “We can only focus on one thing well. Good leadership is being able to choose to prioritize and to limit chunks of time where you’re on your technology.” 

31:57 “Remove some of those things that require energy and simplify so that you can put your energy to where you want to have the highest impact.” -Jessica Honegger

36:10 “If we’re able to stay positive and figure out what we’re supposed to be working on, then we can be most productive.” -Kim Sutton

36:52 “Productivity isn’t just about staying focused all the time, but seeing what we can get set up behind the scenes so that we can take time away from our work to be with our families.”  -Kim Sutton 

46:03 “Awareness is the first step to understanding how to move forward.” -Jessica Honegger

 

Connect with Jessica

 

Jessica Honegger is the Founder and co-CEO of Noonday Collection, author of Imperfect Courage, host of the podcast Going Scared, and mom to three littles. She is passionate about encouraging others to leave comfort, go scared, and step into a life of impact. Oh, and queso, Topo Chico, and a good pair of heels! Jessica is a woman of many interests!

Episode Transcription

Kim Sutton: Welcome back to another episode of Positive Productivity. This is your host, Kim Sutton, and I’m so happy that you’re here to join us today. I’m also thrilled to introduce our guest, Jessica Honegger. Jessica is the founder and co-CEO of Noonday Collection, and also the host of the Going Scared Podcast. Welcome, Jessica. It’s so great to have you.

Jessica Honegger: It’s fun to be here.

Kim Sutton: Listeners, in our pre-chat, we were just going over everything that we’re both working on, and I had such a great time. I can’t wait to see where this conversation goes. Jessica, I would love for you, though, to share what your journey has been up to now because I know a bit about it, and I know the listeners are gonna love to hear your journey as well.

Jessica Honegger: Sure, thanks for asking. Noonday Collection is a socially conscious fashion brand, and we are creating meaningful opportunities for people around the world, predominantly women. We create opportunities for families living in vulnerable communities and other countries by coming alongside artisan made goods and creating a marketplace for those goods here in America. And then we create opportunities for women here in America who become social entrepreneurs. So they launched their own Noonday Collection businesses, and created a marketplace for those artists and partners. So we’ve been going hard for about seven years now. It’s been such a blast, and it started really unexpectedly. It started as an adoption fundraiser. So about eight years ago, my husband and I had to buy kids, biologically the old fashioned way, but we decided to grow our family through adoption for our third child. And at the time, we were flipping houses and the real estate market finally caught up to Austin where it just kind of tanked. So this is around 2008, 2009. And suddenly, our little nest egg that we thought we could use to find international adoption we were seeing living off of that. And so it became evidently clear that I needed to find some sort of side hustle. Up until that point, I had gotten my Master’s in education. So I tried out teaching a little bit. I had worked at a jewelry store for about a year or so. I’d done a little bit of a retail stint. I had gotten my real estate license, and then I had begun flipping homes. So I had a hodgepodge of experience. 

And I have to say, I never really understood where I was going in life until the Noonday Collection was sort of given to me. I had some friends living in Africa who asked if I would help them create a marketplace for their Ugandan friends. And they asked me right about the time where it was clear that I needed to do something in order to raise money to bring our son Jack home from Rwanda. And so I think, because I was in such a moment of desperation in need, it made me a lot more open to this sort of opportunity. Because otherwise, it could have felt a little bit left field to start selling artisan goods. But because of the timing of it, I said yes to them that I would do that for them. And I opened my home to women in my community. I asked them to bring friends. I was so afraid no one was going to come. But in fact, so many women came. We sold several $1,000 through that night. Let’s be honest, it wasn’t just artisan goods, like anything’s for sale. I take my closet, take my jewelry, take whatever. Every now and then, maybe I would have the, yeah. It was such a vulnerable night for so many reasons. First of all, I’m from Texas. We do everything big in Texas, including our parties. So you don’t just open your house for a party and have like 10 people come. No way. I was like, I gotta get a hundred people here. So there was this expectation of like anything less than that means I am a failure, and I am going to feel rejected. So there is the vulnerability that comes with feeling rejected. There’s a vulnerability that comes from like, how I would be perceived? 

Literally, I was selling my grandma’s plates. So there is that also that like, okay, this looks a little desperate, and here I am adopting a third child and you’d like can’t even provide for that. And then there was just the vulnerability of not knowing what the outcome was going to be. Who knew if people were going to like this stuff, if people were going to actually comment, they were actually going to buy it once they did come. But women amaze me. I am such a believer in sisterhood. I’m such a believer that when we show up for our lives, we go up. And when we go up, we bring other women along with us. And that has been my story. If it was not for a woman who came and showed up for me that night, Noonday would not exist. And women have been showing up for me for the past seven years. And now, that couple that I created a marketplace for that first night in my home, they were extremely poor living in Uganda, they did not have an opportunity for a marketplace. I mean, I literally didn’t have food to put on the table. And now, they have a hundred employees. And it all began that first night when I said yes and decided to kick fear to the curb. And now, we partner with over 13 countries with over 30 different artisan businesses and impact 4000 artisans. We have almost 2000 women around the country that are opening, that are asking women just like I did to open their homes for Noonday Collection in order to create a marketplace and create opportunity for the communities where we work. So it’s a little crazy.

Kim Sutton: I have goosebumps. Wow. Wow, it’s pretty crazy. A hundred employees.

Jessica Honegger: Yes, and 300 contract workers. Just the impact is huge. What I love about, I mean, I’ve learned so much from working with the communities that I get to partner with. I’m leaving for Haiti on Sunday, and I’ve learned tenacity, I learned grit. I’ve just learned the power of community of collaboration in these artisans. Once they’re earning a regular dignified income, the first thing they’re doing is sharing it. So every artisan I ask, how they’re using their income. They’re sending a cousin to school in the village, they’re paying for their mom’s diabetes medicine, they’re helping to sponsor a child in another community. And they’ve just taught me the power of man living selflessly for sure. It’s always a shot in the arm. I’m so excited to get to Haiti on Sunday because it’s just going to be, I just learned, I just get to go and be a learner.

Kim Sutton: What’s your kids think of this?

Jessica Honegger: They don’t know anything differently, because I started it when they were all five and under. And they’ve gotten to go with me to Africa, and to East Asia, and to South America. So I think they just kind of think this is life. And I think, I will say now that they’re getting a little older and are being exposed to kind of maybe all different kinds of people here in Austin, [inaudible] did the other day say to me, she had sprained her ankle and we immediately went to the doctor, and the doctor immediately gave us a referral to go get it x-rayed, and she got it x-rayed and everything’s fine. We went and picked up the bandages to compress it or whatever at the pharmacy, and I took her out to dinner that night. It’s like a conciliatory, she has to be on crutches for a couple days. We’re driving home from dinner that night and she said to me: “Mommy, sometimes, I feel guilty.” And I said: “Well, tell me about that.” She said: “I hurt myself today and I immediately go to the doctor, and then I got this x-ray. And now right, we’re driving home and I’m going to my warm, cozy bed. I know most people don’t have that experience around the world. And sometimes, that makes me feel really bad.” And I said: “That’s really normal. I think that’s really normal. For most of us, when we come up against suffering, we feel badly. But we can use that feeling of guilt to do one of two things to paralyze us, or to lead us to action.” So I just encouraged her, what do you think you’re here for? And she’s like, okay, so I’m supposed to use everything I’ve been given to help other people. And I’m like, yeah, that’s what you do without feeling. So I just think that because she’s been to Africa, she’s been to these other places, she does definitely have a perspective that probably most 11 year olds might not have.

Kim Sutton: I was just about to ask how old she is because she sounds very much actually like my 12 year old. We’ll be driving around just in our own area of Ohio, and we’ll see people like in the Walmart parking lot, for example, standing there holding their sign that they need help, and it’s amazing how many people can just drive by. But the generosity of children is amazing. I wish more adults were like that.

Jessica Honegger: Yes, it’s true. It’s true. I think adults, there’s something called compassion fatigue. I think there’s also, especially in this political climate right now, it feels so intense to even step into engagement, that I think people are retreating right now. I think that kids aren’t as exposed to sort of that, it’s just a little more innocent, it’s a little bit more like, oh, gosh, that person is in need, aren’t we going to help? That’s so great. I feel like my kids are my teachers, and keeping me soft, keeping me not jaded. And because, yes, obviously, this is what I do for a living, and it’s easy to go, oh, my gosh, you’re doing so much. But I still want to keep suffering at bay. I mean, it took me several days before I read about the shootings in Florida. There was that feeling of like, oh, gosh, this is gonna be hard, it’s gonna be hard to enter into this. And yet, in our end, we don’t get to empathize. And if we don’t get to empathize, we are hard hearted, and we live kind of selfish, self focus lives. And ultimately, that’s not good for anybody.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely not. I think also adults, a lot of adults, and I don’t want to generalize all adults, may fear scarcity. They’re in scarcity mode. If I give this $5 to this person who really does need it, that I’m not going to have it. Unfortunately, a lot of the people, that $5 may have been going to Starbucks, but that $5 could easily go into a store and buy dinner for my family. And we’ve struggled great, we know how to feed 7 on 10 bucks. And with me, and my kids, and my husband, when I see it, and I’m not trying to boost my ego, listeners, you know I’m never trying to blow up my head or anything. They could have come out wrong, but I’m not trying to over inflate my ego is what I’m trying to say. But we’ve been, they’re not standing on the corner so we want to do what we can do to help. I applaud you for doing what you can do, because it is totally a ripple effect. And the ripples just keep on getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger.

Jessica Honegger: It’s true. It’s true.

Kim Sutton: But then I have to ask, how do you manage it? Because you have, what did you say? A couple thousand people who are representing Noonday, or have their own Noonday–

Jessica Honegger: Around 2000 women that are social entrepreneurs, and that are rockin it as business leaders. They are selling in their communities, in their growing teams, in their communities. I just couldn’t be more proud than to just launch other women into what they’re meant to do. It’s a blast.

Kim Sutton: What does your immediate team look like? Because I know there’s, I can’t imagine that you would have time to be packing boxes and sending all these women what their network has projected. So yeah, what does your team look like?

Jessica Honegger: We have about 60 employees here at the Austin office, and about five of us are on the executive leadership team. They are definitely the ones that are making it all happen, and making sure customers are happy, and ambassadors are happy, and artisans are working well and growing. I’m just so blessed when I think about the team I get to go work with every single day. They’re amazing.

Kim Sutton: Talk about Going Scared, I would have to imagine that growing up. Even just your local team has been a bit scary. I only have contractors, I can’t imagine having official staff.

Jessica Honegger: I would say I’m a little bit of your typical prototype of an entrepreneur where I have a lot of ideas and then I’m a doer. So I get an idea and just start executing, and don’t have a ton of patience to teach other people and help other people grow coz I just need you to get with me and run fast. And so the first couple years, I just god bless those people that worked for me. We still have actually a couple of them, people learn how to be really patient and understanding. But yeah, I think the key thing is I’ve scaled the business and have definitely been finding managers where that is their thing where they do want to develop others, and lead others, and invest. I feel like I’m so invested in the vision and just being so far out there so that I can pull everyone else along with me, that my pace is a little bit quicker. But I want people to feel cared for, I want people to be cared for. And that’s really been scaling the organization, finding the right managers that are gonna care for the people and be in the right lane. I mean, I’ve definitely not been the best. I mean, I just had to learn all this. I don’t have a corporate background, I don’t think I’ve ever worked before this work where I’ve had reviews, or written job descriptions, or interviewed people, hired people. It’s just been a lot of learning as the planes have been flying, you know?

Kim Sutton: Oh, yeah. I love how you brought up the manager. I’m so happy to hear that you have them because that was a big mistake that I made in 2015. I grew way too big, way too fast, and I didn’t have managers to support me. So now, hopefully, yeah, I have my own client work. I had team members with client work. I had an insane number of clients. I came back from having twins and put out way too many proposals at once and got like 30 new clients in a period of a month. So I had to grow, it was really dicky lessly scary. I hired way too fast. And the saying goes, hire slow, fire fast. Well, I did not do that. That’s hard.

Jessica Honegger: Really hard.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. But suddenly faced, I mean, it’s hard enough adding one new mouse to the house. But all of a sudden, they having two more. I was sleep deprived. So that actually takes me to my next question, how much sleep do you get every day?

Jessica Honegger: I’m a high needs sleep person. When it comes to sleep, I need sleep. I definitely still go through bouts, especially, I was telling that I just launched a podcast last week. So when you’re launching anything new, I was definitely like, I was falling asleep, but then waking up at like 4:00 in the morning. But in general, again, I just feel like I’m at that place in my business where I’m not at the hair on fire solopreneur phase. So hiring the team that is able to come alongside and support me, use their gifts and their strengths means I definitely get a lot more sleep. But I go through times. I go through times, for sure, because I always want to be growing. If I’m not experiencing fear in some area of my life, it means I’m living life too comfortably, and that is just not how I want to live. I always want to choose courage over comfort. But sleep? I need sleep. Give me all the sleep.

Kim Sutton: Amen to that. My birthday is on Friday, and my husband asked me what I want. And I told him, I want to sleep. Take the kids to daycare, I just went to sleep. But it’s like, I never imagined as a teenager asking for sleep for my birthday.

Jessica Honegger: Yeah. So I have some friends and their kids are like 9, 10, 11, and they’re already hitting the teenage sleep situation where their kids are literally sleeping in till 9:45. My kids are no longer getting invited to their house for sleepovers because my kids are still on the 6:37 AM wake up train. And my friends are like, yeah, let’s just maybe hang out during the day, but we’re not doing sleepovers with your kids. I’m like, my kids have got to learn how to sleep in.

Kim Sutton: Oh, yeah. My problem is I have a 12 and a 15 year old. They’ll sleep as late as they possibly can. But then I also have the three year old twins, and a four year old.

Jessica Honegger: Girlfriend.

Kim Sutton: Yeah.

Jessica Honegger: That is why you’re not sleeping. See? I don’t have any kids under five anymore. And once your kids are no longer five and under, it’s a whole new world. You kind of get your life back a little bit.

Kim Sutton: Yes. And we are very much looking forward to that.

Jessica Honegger: I bet you are. No more. No more. You’re done.

Kim Sutton: Oh, no. What we were trying to make it done, listeners, if you haven’t heard this before, you’ll get a kick out of this. We’re trying to make it done after a four year old. But the doctor said, sit down. I have something to tell you. You’re gonna have to wait nine months because you have twins in there.

Jessica Honegger: Lord have mercy.

Kim Sutton: He has a sense of humor. And we decided to take it out of his hands. And that’s he hasn’t even used your sense of humor, but we’re done.

Jessica Honegger: Congratulations on being done.

Kim Sutton: Thank you. My kitchen is closed. I mean, I already couldn’t cook. But now, it’s really close. We have one and a half left in diapers, so that feels good.

Jessica Honegger: I wish I could reach across the microphone and just have your neck right now. That’s how I feel for you.

Kim Sutton: The diapers aren’t as much of a challenge though as sharpie’s. They find the sharpie’s that you think are hidden.

Jessica Honegger: Mm hmm.

Kim Sutton: So you have experienced with that too?

Jessica Honegger: Okay, this is so gross. I can’t believe I’m sharing this. Sharpies one out the issue. Two of my kids, we had to duct tape their diapers before nap, because they would poop in their diapers and proceed to wipe it on the walls. It was so disgusting. So literally, before their naps, I would wrangle them down and wrap duct tape on their diapers. It was insane.

Kim Sutton: Oh, my gosh, that is so hilarious. Okay, I need to give a shout out to another podcaster right now, this is not an ad, but Jay Rooke has Know Pain, Know Gain. It’s K-N-O-W not N-O, Know Pain, Know Gain. It’s launching just about the same time that this episode goes out. He also has three year old twins, and we met at an event last year. He put on social media about a month ago that his twins took advantage of nap time, took their diapers off, finger painted all over their walls with their poop, and then figured out how to take the cover off a heating duct and stuffed poo in there too. So there’s two houses of twins who are [inaudible], I think for a couple hours at a time. Between Jay’s house and mine. Yeah.

Jessica Honegger: Oh, my gosh.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. I’ve never had the duct tape diapers on though. One of my twins had a sharpie marker on her face with a green marker.

Jessica Honegger: Oh, my god. That probably stayed on for at least a week.

Kim Sutton: A nail polish remover. It’s probably not FDA approved for the face. But hey, sometimes, you just gotta do what you got to do.

Jessica Honegger: Exactly. Exactly.

Kim Sutton: But yeah, we were talking, and I know this has gotten off topic of yours, but I love chats like this. With him that we need to start a tales of the twin side podcast.

Jessica Honegger: Is there a podcast out there that’s just for twins?

Kim Sutton: I don’t know. After his launches, we are definitely going to be re approaching the subject. I mean, you just went through your launch so you know what it’s like. But after Know Pain, Know Gain launches, then we’ll definitely be talking about it. Because there definitely needs to be a twin support network podcast.

Jessica Honegger: Yeah, you gotta follow that nudge.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. Yeah. So what are you most excited about for the next 90 days? I want to go any bigger than that right now, but I know you’re going to Haiti.

Jessica Honegger: I’ll go to Haiti and Vietnam in the next 90 days, and Guatemala. I have to admit, traveling internationally is my most favorite part of my job because I get to take ambassadors or social entrepreneurs. I take them to go meet artisans. It’s so fulfilling to create that connection across cultures, and that realization that we’re more alike than we are different is just beautiful. So I’m very excited about that. I have to say, I grew up on Oprah, and I’m so sorry for all of you listeners that did not. So Oprah was like our collective therapist, and I always have been a question asker I’ve always kind of in a scary way. Friends are kind of like, oh, gosh, Jessica, you don’t want to hang with her unless you’re ready to kind of get the real meal deal. 

So doing podcasts is really fun because I love interviewing people. I truly love getting to create a space for someone to share their story, and then to platform that story, and catalyze courage in other people. I am having so much fun. I wish I could release more than one podcast a week because it’s just my big excuse to get out of the office. I’m like, oh, I gotta go. I gotta go interview someone. Because our office is too loud, I come home to do my podcast interviews. And I just enjoyed it so much, I was like getting to chat like this. I’m having so much fun. I love meeting new people. I love hearing, oh, my word, you’ve got twins, and you’ve got a teenager. I’m really having fun with the whole podcast thing. And I got into it. I felt like a little late so I was kind of worried, like, oh, I kind of missed that train, kind of blogging like back in 2008. It’s like, it’s really hard to start a blog these days because that’s not really where people are hanging out. People are hanging out more on podcasts. I was having a scarcity mentality, and I realized that that was not accurate because it’s been super fun. And people have been really receptive, and I’ve really enjoyed it.

Kim Sutton: I have to tell you that my favorite part of my podcast or one of my favorite parts is telling the twin and the teen. I’m in iHeartRadio now, and they just look at me like, wait, you are? My mom’s on iHeartRadio? It took me up a little bit on the mom letter.

Jessica Honegger: Yeah, totally.

Kim Sutton: And I know it. Like for podcasters, it’s just sort of standard. We know what platforms we need to put ourselves out on. I love having the mom coolness meter go up just a little bit.

Jessica Honegger: Yeah, totally. Totally.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. They don’t necessarily want to be seen with me in public, at least a 15 year old. But the fact that I am out there in public so they can tell people I am. Yeah, that feels pretty good. So when did you initially think of the idea for your podcast?

Jessica Honegger: Well, I think for me, it was less about the idea and more that I’m still very much running our company. I have a co-CEO, and he’s definitely running the company together, but we’re both in the business. And so to me, it was like justifying the time that it was gonna take for me to pull out of the business to start something new. And then the support of the team, it was a team to be able to support me in that. I mean, I think the idea came just a few months ago, but I think it was kind of creating the space for it and doing it in the right timing for me and for others. That was probably the hold up a little bit. Because otherwise, I could have done a podcast a couple years ago, but it was the meaning to prioritize where I needed to add value to the business. But right now, it was the right time, it was the right time. So it’s been fun.

Kim Sutton: It took me six months after I initially thought of the idea to get by now. So the fact that I only set a couple months, a few months ago, good for you. You really do get an idea, and you act, don’t you?

Jessica Honegger: Yes, I am.

Kim Sutton: Can I have some of that magic juice? My problem is I get too many ideas. I have to really be careful about what I’m going to act on today, and what I’m going to throw into the bucket for maybe never, but just not now.

Jessica Honegger: Yeah, just not now. Got it.

Kim Sutton: What are your favorite productivity tools?

Jessica Honegger: My favorite productivity tools, I would say limiting my technology. I think that technology is such a gift. I would never be where I am today without Facebook. When I started my company years ago, and it was free for businesses. I mean, that’s just how word got out. But I would say clustering my time. I always like to say Einstein didn’t have an iPhone, so I think it’s really essential for us to not multitask all the time. If any of my team members are listening to this right now, they would be rolling their eyes because I’m such a multitasker. I almost find it hard to only do one thing. I mean, research more and more research is showing truly to be productive. We truly can only focus on one thing well, and I think that good leadership is being able to choose to prioritize and to limit chunks of time where you’re on your technology. I mean, I would say that’s a huge productivity hack. For me, something that I did, we were not doing it right now, but that I love to share with others is we did a dinner coop. We cooked dinner one day a week, and then two friends that live near me cooked dinner on two other nights of the week, and then we would just drop off dinners. So really, we were only cooking one out of the week, and then there was usually enough leftover for the Thursday night. And that was huge to help with productivity around the home and productivity at the grocery store. Instead of shopping for every night of the week dinners, you’re really just shopping for one meal. So I think that really helped with productivity.

Kim Sutton: That’s amazing. I actually live right next door to one single mom across the street from another. And between the two of them, if I see their Instagram or their Facebook, they are running all over Kingdom Come all week long. I have to talk to them about that.

Jessica Honegger: I did it for five years.

Kim Sutton: It’s amazing. I don’t know if they’d actually want to do it with me though. I might have to volunteer my husband because I can burn mac and cheese out of a box.

Jessica Honegger: Might have to get the husband involved. Even then, it was really creative because it takes a lot of creative energy. The other thing like decision making requires energy. So when you’re deciding every day what you’re gonna wear and what you’re gonna make for dinner, and we’re gonna meet for lunch, it’s kind of like, take some of that energy away, and I want my energy to go towards the business. So getting to kind of remove some of those things that require energy and kind of simplifying so that you can put your energy to where you want to have the highest impact, I would say cooking for sure. Absolutely.

Kim Sutton: Oh, yeah. On any given night, if we don’t have stuff in the house, it takes way too long to figure out what we’re actually picking up at the store for dinner. There can be 20 minutes of debating, healthy debating about what we’re going to eat. And not only what we’re gonna eat, but what the littles going to eat. Oh, my gosh, they’re the pickiest things I’ve ever met. I want to go back to multitasking though, for a second. I am embarrassed to admit that when I started my business in 2012, I was putting on my proposals that I was a multitasker. I just laugh at myself now because I know, I’ve gone through enough training that I realized just how bad it is. And one of the most pivotal moments in my business was when I heard Todd Herman’s 90 Day Year say, just adding one extra task to what you’re trying to do right now takes away 20% of your efficiency. So you instantly drop to 80% efficiency by trying to work on two tasks at the same time.

Jessica Honegger: I know, I know. I don’t know, man, this is something that I need to, it is a goal for the year. It’s a goal to really block out time. And honestly, that’s what I think, okay, just to bring up podcasting again because you can’t multitask and interview someone on a podcast. I really enjoy the focus. Because even in meetings at work, I’m like, I just came out of a two hour meeting before this podcast, and I purposely left my computer and phone in my office before going into the boardroom because I was like, I will multitask. I’m the one getting called out in meetings for being on my computer. So anyway, it’s definitely, I’m on the learning growth curve here, and this is good. It’s calling me out and calling myself out. This is an area where I want to grow. And really, because I have recently read, one of my friends just wrote this book called Can I Have Your Attention by Curt Steinhorst. He works in Corporate America all over the country, and he goes speaks and trains. And it’s where he really started out on how to kind of create a more productive millennial workforce, because I think Millennials are sort of known for this multitasking. Because we’re constantly, I say, I’m not a millennial, but constantly scrolling and we’ve got a million social media apps open at once. And anyway, his book specifically is giving me kind of that like research. So I think we all do like research. Okay, you’ve got my attention.

Kim Sutton: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Jessica Honegger: What have you learned about this? Productivity? How did you decide to do a podcast based on this? I’m like switching tables here. I need to have you on my podcast so I can learn. But how did you decide to do podcasts on productivity?

Kim Sutton: Well, it actually started with more positivity because we had been through so many struggles in our life. Before we had our daughter who’s four, we had actually had four miscarriages, and we had given up even trying to have a child of our own. We have two children from previous marriages. So in total, we have seven kids, five of them in the house. So my husband had gone back to school, and we realized we needed more money so I started the business. 

And literally, the week that I gave my notice to my job that I was leaving to do the business full time, we found out we are pregnant with our daughter. So it’s not just productivity to me, but also the fact that we need to stay positive. I cannot deny that there are times when I struggle with it myself. But if we’re able, number one, to stay positive and really figure out what we’re supposed to be working on, then we can be most productive. And that’s really where the next growth came in. I was following income, I was chasing income rather than trying to make an impact. And when I really started pursuing my passion, productivity boosted so much. So all of that above, when I’m not podcasting, I am an Infusionsoft certified partner so I’m constantly helping clients get systems. Not just Infusionsoft, but other business systems working for them. I really tried to see productivity isn’t just about staying focused all the time, but really about seeing what we can get set up behind the scenes so that we can take time away from our work with our families. I’m not perfect about that either. I look at me stumbling over my words, to be totally honest, I’m far from perfect there. I am also not a millennial, so I am not as glued to my cell or to my smartphone as a lot of other people are. I can read books to my kids, and not be distracted by the constant pop up notifications or the push notifications, but I actually have turned off most. I don’t really care. I’ll see it when I see it.

Jessica Honegger: I’m not like that. I have a bit of an addiction going. Not gonna lie.

Kim Sutton: Yeah, if people get so impatient that they can’t wait for me to respond, then they can move on to somebody else because there are so many other priorities. I think it’s funny though. I’m gonna date myself here, but I graduated from school in 1997, high school. So back then, the internet was slowly coming around. Call waiting was still relatively new, and we would call our friends to talk to them. Now, I find myself texting people before I call just to make sure that they’re available. Or if I want to have a Skype conversation with somebody, voice Skype conversation, I’ll just send them a message first to make sure they’re available. So when people just call me without seeing if I’m okay, if it’s okay, if they can, if I can talk right now, I sort of expect it now which I laugh about, because it’s still not how it was when we were growing up, when I was growing up.

Jessica Honegger: No, it’s definitely not. I’m right there with ya. I was like, call waiting was the most disruptive thing that we had back at that day.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. I remember the first of my friends who got it, but it was because there were three girls, all teenagers within a year of each other and the phone line would be constantly busy. And look at our children now, they’re never going to know really what a busy signal sounds like.

Jessica Honegger: So crazy, isn’t it?

Kim Sutton: Very. And they get mad when the download speed is anything less than, and I don’t even know what the ridiculously high download speed is now, but I remember 56.K modems. I have to throw it out there though, and this is a total plug. I will put a link in the show notes which you can find listeners at thekimsutton.com/pp288. Just in the last week and a half, I found this great new app called Focuster, F-O-C-U-S-T-E-R. I have removed all my other productivity apps from Chrome now. I had a couple others that I would use to stay focused, but they never worked. Focuster, I put my tasks in there, and then it syncs with my Google Calendar, and it will schedule the tasks in because I tell how long each task should take. And that’s often the hardest part. We know how long it should take, but we’re multitasking. So it takes four times as long by scheduling it in my calendar. It goes around whatever you have marked as busy. So like right now, it shows our conversation, but then there’s a task immediately after. It completely wiped out everything else I have working with.

Jessica Honegger: I need help. This is helping.

Kim Sutton: I have one question going back to your travel, and this is embarrassing to admit, I have not had an active passport since I was 21. I think that’s when my passport expired because I got it when I was in high school.

Jessica Honegger: You know what? Only 40% of Americans do–

Kim Sutton: Which blows my mind. I mean, I’ve had it on my list for years. Maybe that’s what I should do on my birthday. After I sleep in, I’ll go get a passport.

Jessica Honegger: You should totally do that. I went and got my daughter a passport when she was six months old. I had no money and no plans, but I was like, I’m just gotta do this just in case. We never use that passport, but there was something about the act of going and getting it. You should definitely do that for your birthday.

Kim Sutton: Do you have any blank pages in your passport?

Jessica Honegger: Oh, I do. Yeah, you have to in order to travel.

Kim Sutton: You have three different international trips that you’ve just talked about, so what happens when all your pages are full? Do you just go and get more pages?

Jessica Honegger: You have to send it in, and it’s the whole thing.

Kim Sutton: Oh, my god.

Jessica Honegger: It’s a thing. It’s real.

Kim Sutton: But it’s an amazing inconvenience to have all those stamps that have filled up your passport.

Jessica Honegger: That’s a lot of fun. I enjoy it.

Kim Sutton: Where has been your favorite place to go so far?

Jessica Honegger: It is so hard for me to say favorite because every place is really so unique. There’s certain places that I love because it breeds a certain level of familiarity and nostalgia for me like Guatemala. I used to live there. So when I go there, it feels very much like home. But then Africa, I feel so endeared because my son’s from Africa, and I have dear friends there now and then. I love India because it’s just so unique. And yet, I feel kindred because it’s so colorful and the people are so fun. Vietnam, the food is just incredible. I don’t know, it’s like asking who my favorite kid is. I just can’t do it.

Kim Sutton: Right. Well, I was about to follow it up then with, okay, which place do you love the food the most?

Jessica Honegger: Probably Vietnam and Peru. I love seafood. So Vietnam, you’ve got seafood. And then Peru, they have just the most amazing [inaudible] and just their seafood culture. I love Peruvian food.

Kim Sutton: You’re making me hungry.

Jessica Honegger: I’m hungry right now. Actually, I haven’t eaten lunch yet.

Kim Sutton: Listeners, I shared with Jessica right when I hopped into our recording room that my oven clock is 10 minutes off. So I was out there just sort of leisurely making my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and got back to my desk, and realized it was a minute to podcast time. So I need to go fix that as soon as we’re off here. But peanut butter and jelly totally then do it for me today. I’m sorry, I should let you go so that you can go eat.

Jessica Honegger: Peanut butter and jelly is not so fulfilling. I have to say no.

Kim Sutton: I almost feel bad for sending it with my kids for lunch. But I don’t want the one who’s sitting here to get any ideas that he’s about to get anything more. He looked over at me and raised an eyebrow. This has been an amazing chat, I would love to do it many more times in the future. Thanks.

Jessica Honegger: So fun. I would love to.

Kim Sutton: Yes, let’s definitely do it. And congratulations on launching your podcast. Listeners, again, it’s the Going Scared Podcast and there will be a link in the show notes, which again, you can find at kimsutton.com/pp288. Jessica, where can listeners connect with you online and find out more about you and what you do?

Jessica Honegger: I’m definitely engaged on Instagram. So it’s Jessica Honegger, H-O-N-E-G-G-E-R. I have a lot of fun with my Insta stories, and I have a website that I’d love for you to go visit. And if you’re curious about what your courage radar is, go take a quiz that I created with a courage professor, and I’d love to walk with you, and you can subscribe to my email list. And all that’s on my website, which is jessicahonegger.com.

Kim Sutton: Awesome. Jessica, what is your last piece of parting advice or a golden nugget that you can offer to listeners?

Jessica Honegger: I would say what I love to do is take people by the hand when they’re feeling afraid and help them to just simply go scared. I would encourage listeners right now that if there’s an area that is paralyzing you, explore that. I think awareness is the first step to understanding how to move forward. Maybe you’re being paralyzed, perfectionism, or comparison, or a fear of success, or a fear of failure, I just think you need to become aware of that and not let that hold you back from living a life of impact.