1952 – Practical Application of Performance Science in Business with THAXA’s Carla Fowler, MD PhD

0:05Hey there, thoughtful listener. Are you looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, influencers, influencers, and clients? Well, I've had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I've got a free video you can watch with no opt-in required where I'll share the exact steps necessary to be 100 % inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for over 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments.

0:51Also, don't forget, the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for great guests. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. I'd love to have you.

1:05With us right now, Carla Fowler. Dr. Carla, you are the Managing Director of Thaxa Executive Coaching. You're found on the web at thaxa.com. That's T-H-A-X-A.com. Well, Dr. Carla, thank you very much for joining us. Thanks, Josh. I am glad to be here. Yeah. Well, give us an overview of the work you do, who you serve, and kind of your impact in the world. Absolutely. Well, the short story on this is I'm an executive coach and I connect business leaders with the best ideas from performance science so that as they are pursuing ambitious goals for themselves, they can really use that science, access it in really practical ways because they're doing ambitious things.

1:49And often there is not time to work harder. There isn't more time in the day. And so I love taking what I think is kind of a noisy field that often has either overly academic ideas that aren't very practical or usable, or they have a bunch of sort of hack ideas that maybe aren't actually that effective and really turn it instead into something that's applicable with real tools and ways to think about it, really taking it out of that academic environment and like into a place where people can use it. So that is what I'm doing. Yeah. So where does performance, so where does performance science fit in as opposed to, I mean, we're not talking about necessarily productivity or more effective living or time management, right?

2:37It's all in there. So when I think about performance science, I think of like three big contributions to it, right? So you definitely have contributions around like strategy, like from the business schools, those kinds of thinkers. You also have contributions from the psychologists and the sociologists, you know, all of the mindset components of it. And then absolutely productivity is in that umbrella. And I put that under like the execution piece. So that third bucket to say, well, how do you actually do things once you've decided what you're going to do more effectively, more efficiently. And also, how do you do that at scale?

3:17Like how do you get other people, your team to do that with you? So that's how I think about performance science and also how I break it down so it's approachable. Yeah. So I would imagine in your world as you're out and you're producing and sharing content, you're working with clients, that you likely hear misconceptions or you read about misconceptions or you see like some TikTok or whatever, and you're like, oh no, no, no, that's bad advice. What are some of those things that are out there that maybe sound good, but in reality, there's better ways? Great question. Well, one of the big ones is actually what happens when we go on social media in general, which is one of the biggest mistakes is when we're busy trying to do it all.

4:07So we see such a small slice of what other businesses or people are doing when we are online or on social media. And because we are very socially influenced, like that's how we're built and how our brains work. And so we often are like, I have to do everything. But if we actually look at the science and we think about strategy in general, what we know is, okay, we only have 24 hours in the day. We also know that not all of the inputs or the things we're going to do are going to be equally effective for our businesses and what we're trying to do. And so what my principle around this actually is, is to say, we have to be brutally focused.

4:47We need to not make the mistake of trying to do it all and getting burned out or simply diluting our efforts so that we feel like we're working all the time, but not really feeling like we're getting the results we want to see. And so my principle, the first of like my three big performance principles is brutal focus. And it's this idea of it is worth it to spend some time trying to identify like the answers to three big questions and just work on them over time. So again, the tool for this is really saying, can you block a little bit of time that is your time for focus? And what I mean by that is thinking about, number one, what is it that I want to have happen?

5:32Or what is my goal, either for this area of my business or my business as a whole? Number two, what is actually going to best drive that? So of all the things, and I can give an example of this. Uh, so for example, um, as I was building my coaching practice, I got all sorts of advice from everyone about you need a blog. You needed this. Oh, are you on social media? Um, and I, it was difficult, but I had to say, what are the things I think are going to fundamentally be most important? And I decided on two. The first was I had to figure out how to sell and I needed to get out and build visibility for myself and coaching is a relationship-based business.

6:11And so I said, all right, I need to meet a lot of people. And I did no blogging. I did no social. And I said, I need to get out and build relationships and create that visibility. And then number two, I have to be a phenomenal coach. So if someone decides to work with me, they need to have the best experience possible. So they tell other people about it. It was brutally focused. And a lot of people I think might've said like, you're not doing enough, but I just devoted a lot of time to those things. So again, we want to think about what do we want to have happen? what is most important? And then the second thing is what is a distraction?

6:48Something you see other people doing that you could pour a lot of time down, but that isn't actually, it might be a good idea, but isn't going to get you like that, um, the impact you need for that time that is invested. So those are the three questions I always recommend even just 20 minutes with a pad of paper on a piece of your business or the, or the whole thing to just run through those and do it periodically. See if the answers change. So, brutal focus, principle number one, to combat the mistake of trying to do it all. Yeah. So, Carla, what types of folks do you work with? What's going on in their lives?

7:27And what are they typically coming to you and saying, here's where it hurts, or here's where the gap is, or here's what's really frustrating for me? How do they describe it? That's a great question. So I am often working with different kinds of business leaders. This can be either in the corporate setting, right? So where they have autonomy and responsibility for a piece of the business or the company. But I also work with people who are starting businesses, either startups, but also like, you know, firms that aren't meant to be, you know, a rocket ship, but like a solid business. So I do work across the stack of leaders.

8:05And, um, they come with a couple of different pain points. So, um, sometimes the pain point is around, um, visibility. And, um, again, this is actually related to sort of another mistake that we can sometimes make as we're trying to, um, achieve our goals or build our businesses is that, um, sometimes we think if we are doing a great work and, you know, like, and, and, and producing great results, that that will be enough. And the truth is, we do have to have that, but we also have to be visible to the network. A great book about this people can check out called The Formula, and the author's last name is Barabasi.

8:45But he was a social scientist who said, you know, like, when it's hard to distinguish objectively between different offerings or different performances, that often, then what comes into play is who is the most visible. And so I just thought that was an interesting piece of science. And so like, sometimes people are saying, Hey, I'm working really hard. I think I'm producing great work, but I'm not getting noticed. Sometimes they're dealing with uncertainty. So they're like, I am leading, I am beyond my comfort zone and I'm trying to figure out what to do and also how to move forward, how to take a risk or make decisions about things.

9:28And they're wanting a thought partner, someone to talk to about that. Um, and, and just kind of work through that. So, um, that is sometimes what happens. Um, and then I think a third one is often people feeling burned out. They are like working really hard, doing a lot of stuff and just feeling like it's not sustainable. And they're trying to think about how to keep their great results, but do it in a way where they're not, um, feeling like every day is like one day closer to just wanting to quit because they don't enjoy it anymore. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and, and I really feel strongly about this, you know, this, this subject that, um, a lot of times, like, let's say someone is a, uh, let's say someone is a coach or someone is a consultant and they are, they're good at what they do.

10:13Um, given the opportunity when people learn about, like, if they just have the time with somebody, um, generally they have an okay conversion rate. So their product is good or their offer is good. they generally have an okay conversion rate but then they say well i don't have enough business or it's inconsistent and so then therefore what they say is well there must be something wrong with me or there's something wrong with the offer or i'm no good at sales maybe but probably it's just like what you were talking about you just need more at bats i like you just like you just need more visibility scale.

10:50Yes. Like doing, getting that scaled up. I love that you brought this up because I think one of the secret, it is not a hack because it takes time, right? Like it's not going to be a silver bullet for anyone, but I think there is this superpower about learning how to do like these heart, these things that can feel hard, right? Like that selling conversation at scale. And one of the things that I love about encouraging people and helping them figure out how they get themselves to say, how do I 10X that sales conversation? Meaning do 10X more of them, get more at bats. And one of the things that I tell people is it's always uncertain when you go into that conversation, you'll probably hear more no's than yeses.

11:34But when you do it at scale like that, you win, even if you lose at the particular thing you're trying to do right now, because here's what happens. Number one, you build a ton of network. Like a lot of people just know you. And even if they weren't a customer, they know who you are. Number two, you build reputation as a person who is unafraid out trying to build value, be helpful to people. Number three, you build your muscle for that discomfort, that ability to say, I know how to make myself not just do a few of these, but actually say, nope, I'm walking back out there. I'm knocking on another door.

12:11I'm dialing another number. I'm having another coffee. Um, and then, um, the last piece is, uh, just that you will be way more visible. And so even if this offering or this thing doesn't end up being the thing you win at, you have built all these assets and resources for what comes next. So it's this way of like, you win, even if you weren't totally successful at this particular service or product, like it didn't quite hit for your business. So that's the superpower 10 X, what you're trying to do. Yeah. Carla, so talk about how you work and like when you're working with someone, what does that typically look like?

12:51So the way I work is to try and build some of these principles that I used into the process, right? So that it just happens as we're doing it. So the first thing we actually do is we start with a longer form session. So it's a few hours in length, actually, rather than just starting kind of 45 minutes at a time. And then we follow that longer session with, um, 45 minute coaching sessions over time. And the reason I front load the process is because I figured out if we can help people build some of that clarity and that brutal focus right at the start, it sets them up for success. Then like we've identified what is most important to spend their time on.

13:31Then when we're trying to help them execute or working on some of the mindset parts that like thinking about the uncertainty, they are much better positioned to have success at those other things. And so that's why we spend time, we give ourselves time to build that momentum up front. And then of course, support them along the way as they are trying to like practice skills, try some tools, build that muscle and have lots of ongoing support for them as they're doing that and moving towards their goals. Yeah. Carla, your website is Thaxa.com. What does Thaxa mean? And just real quick after that, share with someone's going to your website, what you would recommend they do if they're enjoying this conversation and they want to explore.

14:17I don't know if you have any, you know, epic content or anything that you'd recommend that they take a look at. Awesome. So yes, Thaxa.com. And Thaxa means a task in Latin. And the reason I picked that was because when I was young, I think I learned either from my parents or something that big things, big tasks, ambitious goals were actually just a series of the right smaller tasks. And so I think one of the things we do in coaching is try and make really ambitious goals approachable by breaking them down in the right ways. And then on my website, one of the pages that I think is the most fun is I have a media page and it has links to all my guest appearances on podcasts.

15:01And so we only talked about one of the principles of performance science, which is brutal focus. But if you want to learn about Cultivate Power, if you want to learn about how to relish uncertainty, which are the next two, I talk about these a lot on different podcasts. And it's a wonderful place to go. And just if you're interested in the conversation to learn some more. Excellent. Dr. Carla, aka Carla Fowler, your website, again, faxa.com. Carla, it's been great having you. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Josh. This was fun.

15:39Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day. Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful leaders. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this program, if you're looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients, I have had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from.

16:21I've got a free video that you can watch right now with no opt-in or email required where I'm going to share the exact steps necessary to be 100 % inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments. Make sure to hit subscribe so that tomorrow morning, that's right, seven days a week, you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed.

17:02I promise to bring positivity and inspiration to you for around 15 minutes every single day. Thanks for listening. And thank you for being a part of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Movement.