CTC Ep. 47 | The Productivity Breakthrough: Buffer Time & AI That Works with Kelly Fifield

Kris: [00:00:00] Welcome to from Click to Client, where we transform a confusing message into a clear, compelling story that sells. I'm your host, Chris Jones, StoryBrand marketing expert. I'm here to help you attract more dream clients with the power of story.

Kelly, welcome to from Click to Client podcast. I am so delighted to have you here. Kelly Fifield is a productivity coach who helps overwhelmed entrepreneurs finally finish the projects that are keeping them from getting clients.

And the best part is that she helps you use leverage aI to build systems that really create calm in your business and help you have more focused productivity. So Kelly, I'm thrilled to have you here today.

Kelly: I am so excited to be here with you. We've known each other for a bit, so it's always so fun to connect with you again.

So good. So tell us a little bit about [00:01:00] yourself. So I am now a productivity coach, but that all came from the disaster of productivity that I was in my early life, well full into my adult life. So that was. One of my biggest struggles was procrastination, getting things done, constantly working, uh, pulling all-nighters from the youngest age.

I can remember my mom used to steal, take my books from me when I was little, so I couldn't study. I would have flashlights under my covers and would pull all-nighters all through. College was still doing it into my adult life, so I was a hot mess when it came to getting things done. Was. In some ways successful.

Like I graduated first in my major from Villanova, so I was doing sort of well, but killing myself in the process. So at some point I was like, this is, I've gotta figure this out. I'm smart enough. There's no way I can't figure this out. And that's when I decided, okay. This is, it's time. I've gotta figure this [00:02:00] out.

I can't die. Never figuring this out in just a hot mess.

Kris: Right,

Kelly: right. Well, how

Kris: did you do that? What was the, the first thing that you did that started to shift this for you?

Kelly: The thing that started the whole ball rolling was back a little bit before 2017. My husband got me hooked on audible books and I started down the self-development book.

Um. Down that road and started consuming all of those books, and that's where I started learning more about neuroplasticity and mindset and all of these things. So in 2017, I said, that's it. I'm dedicating a full year to figuring out how to get good with time management, productivity and all of those things that wound up taking me slightly longer.

Took me about six years, I would say, to figure all of that out. But at the end of 20, or in the middle of 2023, I was finally certified as a life coach and, and kind of in the middle there figured out that it was. Really changing the way I thought about everything. That was going to be the key to being highly [00:03:00] productive and really organized.

I have this beautiful calendar now that's all colors and pretty, and, and I get things done and I'm relaxed in the evening, and I, it's just a complete 180. So, yeah, that's kind of the short version of, of the whole process.

Kris: And give us some tangibles, like what, what began to shift for you when you started implementing?

Fill in the blank.

Kelly: Yeah, so the first thi the first time I felt amazing in the whole process was, I remember one day my daughter was in like middle school and she came home and she had had a bad day, and I had space in my calendar already dedicated to like time with fa like just like buffer time in my calendar.

So I, I didn't, I wasn't like, oh my gosh, this now has blown up the whole rest of the evening. It was like I could sit with her and I was like, this is amazing. I feel like such a great mom. I feel like I'm on top of things. Uh, yeah, so it was that having [00:04:00] a plan going into the day, and then the most amazing experience was then ending my workday and closing my computer.

Being able to shut off my brain to all work thoughts knowing that whatever needs to be done tomorrow is on my calendar, it's captured and I don't need to think about it at night. That was like the night and day experience that I eventually was able to create.

Kris: I bet. I bet. Um, so you went through the life coach school, is that right?

Yes, and I took a course way back when called Monday Hour one. I don't know if you've, if you've done that. Um, yes, but that was my first introduction into calendaring, you know, like writing everything down, mapping out the week around the things that you need to do, and that, that was also my beginning of like, ooh, how can I be intentional and how can I [00:05:00] now, like I used to live.

Buy paper lists and the list would grow. I never, I, I never finished my list. It was just like this growing thing and I would kind of circle the priorities, but I never ever thought I'd get to a point where I didn't keep track of everything on paper, and I don't even know when it ended, how it ended. But eventually my calendar really became the place where if I, if I know I wanna get it done.

I put it in my calendar and I just know it's, it's booked for that day at that time. And it, it, it's fascinating to kind of think back on that now of like, wow, that was a way of being that I was from as long as I can remember. Even a child, even in college. Even in, even in traveling in Europe, I had a freaking list of things that I wanted to do and, um, [00:06:00] and so.

I will say one of the things in that, that, what would you call it? Like that way of managing my time, um, and I'm still not very good at this, and you just touched on it, which is. I plan out my days, but I don't plan for buffer time. Like if I don't get that thing done at that time, there's really no wiggle room.

And, and so I love that you shared that example of like, oh, family time. Like there's all kinds of, of wiggle room within there. Whatever needs to happen, you gotta, you know, take your kid to. The doctor or whatever, it's, it's in there. And I think that's one of the things that doesn't get talked about a lot is when you're mapping out your schedule, I.

To ma to plan for an hour or more each day just for like thing when shit hits the fan [00:07:00] or you get a call from the school or whatever it is, right. That's like, that's life and we can't plan for that, but we can give ourselves the buffer time for it.

Kelly: Yeah. It is very hard to put in because most of us are probably thinking if I had a day that was.

52 hours long. I still wouldn't get everything done on this list, so it's really hard to put a block in there that. Is just open because you have a long list of things you'd love to put in there and get done. Yeah. But the truth is, almost every day, I'm sure for all of us, things do come up that weren't pre-planned and that we still wanna do.

Like you said, your kid gets sick at school. It's like you're gonna say, well, it's on, on the calendar, you're gonna have to, you know, suck it up.

Yeah. You're

gonna go get them. That is just how our lives are. We probably wouldn't want to live in such a vacuum that no one was ever contacting us and and requesting things of us.

So if you can like start to track, well, [00:08:00] how often do those things come up? How much time do I normally have kind of come into my calendar sort of unexpectedly, but eventually you see. Pretty much every day, like if you work for someone, your boss might ask you to do things that take you maybe an hour, two hour, three hours a day.

It's, it's kind of attempting to, to schedule the day without any time for that. But then when we do that. Those things come in and then it's more evidence for ourselves that we are constantly interrupted and scheduling doesn't work for us or something like that. We just perpetuate that story, whereas if we put the time on the calendar that we know is probably gonna show up anyway.

Then you feel so cool when someone says, you know, your boss says, can you do this thing? You're like, yeah, I have a time block. Right. You know, prepared for that. And you're like, I'm someone who's amazing at calendaring, and you really can start creating that for you. Yeah. So you know, maybe as you start out with it, [00:09:00] prioritize your things through the day, have the lower priority things at the end of the day, and then just take those last couple things and put them on tomorrow for now.

Create that spa, that block as, okay, this is now a buffer that I have for the day. And then if, if some miracle happens and nothing does actually come up for the day, you could always move those in, but, right. I'd rather see it on the next day and you feel like, oh my gosh, I'm ahead of schedule. Right.

Rather than continuing to schedule in a way that you're always behind.

Kris: Right. Right. Totally. What a good feeling to like move something like that you had planned for tomorrow to today and to get that done, like that's an extra little dopamine hit of like, I'm, I'm on fire, right. Schedule. Yes. Yeah. What are, what are some of the biggest mistakes that you see coaches make around productivity and getting stuff done?

Kelly: I [00:10:00] think it is all, it's all gonna come from the way we think about things. So for me, uh, one of the biggest mistakes I personally kind of almost fight with every day is the first. Thought. Usually that comes into my mind when I get to my desk in the morning is something in the lines of line, something along the lines of, there's too much to do.

I should just get started. So my brain does not want to take that extra moment, review what I have on the calendar, maybe move some things around if things came up, whatever. It does not want to plan in the beginning of the day. And that's probably the biggest. Hurdle that a lot of us have to overcome is that chatter our brain is gonna offer us at the beginning of the day that we should just dive in and get going.

Because at the end of the day, we, we feel like we've worked all day and probably didn't take a whole lot of breaks and we weren't sitting around eating bombon, but we can't remember. It's like the [00:11:00] day just. Flew by and we, we feel like there was nothing to show for it. Now if we went back and actually thought hard about what we did, we'd probably feel better about the day and be like, oh, I actually did do a bunch of things.

But if we don't plan them intentionally, it's, it's usually ends in a way that we're not really happy with at the end.

Kris: Yeah, that, that makes so much sense. I love what you said before too, about getting the harder things or the most important things done earlier in the day. 'cause if you leave them till the end, inevitably you're gonna be like, oh, I don't have time.

I have to shift it. Um, one of the things I remember when I first started being intentional with my calendar was this feeling that I had. Had like failed at it if I had to shift things around or move things around. And I don't give that a second thought anymore, but I remember it took me time to like really get out of that [00:12:00] sense of like, oh, I'm not following my calendar.

I'm doing it wrong and. Then I learned that like, oh, my calendar is here to serve me like I, I am. It's here to help me, and that's all it's trying to do. And if I need to shuffle a few things around based on whatever. Do it. It's my calendar. I am in control of it. So that was a big shift for me.

Kelly: Yeah, that's amazing.

So much self-compassion there. And that's so much better than beating ourselves up. 'cause if we do that every day, who's gonna keep doing that? Right? You're, you're like, that would be ridiculous if you kept having this horrible experience with your calendar every day. And then put yourself through it over and over again.

And that's what a lot of us have. We maybe invest the time to schedule and then. Something like that. Like something comes up or you decide to move something and our brain says to us, oh, you're not good at this or, or you did something you hadn't planned, or some [00:13:00] crappy story, and then we give up on it because it's a really bad experience.

But really you're, those decisions that you made about what you were going to do the next day we're just decisions. And you can totally decide something else in the moment. And you know, ideally. You wanna like your reason for doing it, but even if you don't like your reason, maybe you know you went down a rabbit hole that you hadn't planned it, it's much better to say, okay, let's see, what did I do at that time instead?

Okay, I see why I did that. That makes sense. Our decisions always make sense. We're not doing anything, um, like crazy. We're not insane. If we did something that wasn't planned, we were thinking something that made us believe at that moment that that would be a better thing to do.

Kris: Mm-hmm. Totally. Um, how do you help somebody who feels just completely overwhelmed with a project and doesn't, doesn't know where to start?

Kelly: Yeah. If someone's feeling really overwhelmed, it's usually what I will have them [00:14:00] do is kind of just give me an overview of the project and then usually it's just talking through it a bit. Um. We, when we're thinking about a project, a lot of times if we don't, haven't put it out in paper and we haven't really planned it out, it's just swirling in our heads as this amorphous blob of confusion and, and anxiety, and it feels really heavy and big and awful.

But usually once someone asks you questions about it. You start to get more clarity on it. So if someone's feeling really overwhelmed by a project, I'll just ask them some questions about it. And then as they talk it through, we can usually get down to, okay, so this is what the end result's supposed to look like.

This is kind of what the, the middle's gonna look like. So where do you think we might start? And then, you know, we can get, get those initial baby steps. And then for most of us, once we get rolling, that's the hardest part, is just that initial momentum to get [00:15:00] the thing started.

Kris: So let's talk about how you work with your clients.

'cause I want people to really understand like the nuts and bolts of what you do. And then I also wanna ask you like, what have you witnessed in some of your clients' lives as far as what they've accomplished and time that they've saved money that they've earned? Fill me in on that, but first break it down how you work with your clients.

Kelly: Yeah, so I have, uh, kind of two ways that I work with my clients and it really depends on what they think would be most supportive for them. So I either work with them daily in little pieces where I check in with them every day and we review what they were able to accomplish the day before, what maybe got in the way.

Maybe do a little bit of coaching on that. We talk about today's plan, try to overcome any obstacles in advance, and then once they feel good about their plan, they go off into their day and I hear from them the next day. So there's that daily accountability if someone wants someone to [00:16:00] kind of help them with that each day.

That's one way that I work with clients. Uh, and then the other way is if that sounds terrible, I mean, some people are like, heck no. I don't wanna meet with anyone every single day. I'll meet with them once a week. And when we do that, it's usually more, um, project based. They're, uh, maybe wanting to, to work through some larger projects or maybe things that are involving tech.

So I've worked with a lot of. Tech that online business owners work with. So I'm very comfortable with it and it's really nice for those clients maybe who aren't as comfortable with the tech to have someone write with them troubleshooting and getting things set up. So that's often what I do with them.

And in both cases, inevitably AI becomes part of the process because I, I work so much, um, in the AI field that I can't help but suggest shortcuts using ai.

Kris: Okay. Well, you led me right into my next question, which is what AI tools should somebody use if [00:17:00] they're just getting started with ai?

Kelly: I would probably say if you're just getting started.

Use chat, GBT. It's the one that everyone talks about. Um, there isn't anything wrong with doing some of the other big ones. If, if you've already started using Gemini or Claude, just stick with it. I wouldn't switch to another tool. Um, what often happens is people will start with one tool. And then they get like, so-so results.

And then someone mentions another tool and they're like, I wonder if it would be better if I switch tools. And a lot of tools switching will happen. It's not the end of the world. Um, they're all pretty much the same. But the way that you'll get better is just by continuing to use it, test it, refine it, that sort of thing.

So I would say just if, if you haven't tried any of them yet, just use chat GBT, just 'cause it's the most popular one. Got it.

Kris: And tell us, like what have you, what are things that you can share with us that you've learned about [00:18:00] AI in the last six months that might be new to us, or, Hmm. Oh my gosh, that's fun.

Yeah. Wow.

Kelly: Okay. So if you, um. Some of the cool use cases. So right now, all of the tools are getting better and better at integrating with the tools that you're already using. So like for example, if you have, uh, the paid version of chat GPT, you can connect that to Google Drive. One of the coolest things you can now do with that is use deep research within your own Google Drive.

So if you have maybe. Hundreds of hours of podcast transcripts or lots of documents and PDFs that you've created in the past. You know, you have this gold mine of content, but it's kind of strewn haphazardly all over your drive. You can. Prompt AI and say, I want you to do deep research in my Google Drive and find any [00:19:00] files pertaining to whatever, and it will find all of them for you.

And you could even say something like, and I want you to give me, you know, 10 blog posts, ideas that I could do from this or, you know, 20 podcast episode topics or whatever you're wanting. To use that information to create, you can kind of ask the deep research tool to do that. So that's one of my favorite, favorite things.

That's relatively new. It just came out for plus users, it was in enterprise and teams, but now your average $20 a month person can use that.

Kris: Cool. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I did not know that, that, that's pretty incredible. I've, I've noticed the, the, the image creation. Part of chat, GPT and some other tools is getting a lot better too.

Kelly: Yes. Uh, chat, GPT recently got much better with that. What I'll sometimes do with chat GPT if I'm creating an image is I'll have it first, write the prompt to generate the image, and then I'll take that. I'll let [00:20:00] chat. GPT. Create the image. I usually don't get the best results from that. But then I'll go into other tools, like I love Ideogram.

That usually, um, generates great images. I have, uh, gamma, I have a paid, um, account with Gamma, which does like. PowerPoint like presentations and if you have that, it comes with AI image generation. So I'll take the prompt that chat GPT wrote for me and put it over in Gamma just 'cause I'm already paying for it.

And it, it integrates with Idio and Flux and a bunch of different, um, image generating tools. So I'll, I'll generate the images over there usually just 'cause it, it already has all of those tools in there. Got

Kris: it. And as far as like. Are we at the, the phase right now where somebody could make a website with a click of a button?

Kelly: Hmm. Yes and no. It's possible. Um, but I don't think it's advisable. [00:21:00] I think, I think you could do it and, but it's, it's, it's going to be hard to, uh. To create a good website, right? Like you could do it, you could, you could literally write a prompt and in less than five minutes have a functioning website.

Functioning in that someone could go to the URL and see something, but is it going to convert? No. Right. I mean, that wouldn't make any sense. It, it's, it's, um, so yes, the, the technology is there to have AI generate a site, but I wouldn't trust the copy or anything like that to something that was generated in five minutes.

Yeah, totally.

Kris: Yeah.

Kelly: Someday,

Kris: yes. Yeah. So tell us, um, I, I wanna hear a story about a client. Uh, give, give us an example of a client that came to you. [00:22:00] Uh. Needed your help. And what changed for them once they were able to integrate these tools? Were they able to make more money or save time or achieve a goal that they'd been really working toward?

Give us, give us a fun example of that.

Kelly: Yeah. So the first example that comes to mind is my client Chris. So he, we met, uh, a while back, uh, through Rick's program and he was talking about, um, his struggles with. Productivity working very, very hard, but just didn't feel like he was. Working at the pace that, like his hard work justified, it seemed like for the amount he was working.

It just, he couldn't get caught up, couldn't get ahead, always felt behind. Um, so we've been working together and he, he's doing the daily accountability. Just the other day I was asking him like, how, you know, how, how's it going? Like how are your evenings looking? He has this spectacular calendar. He shows it to me every day where [00:23:00] everything is planned out and he's like, it's amazing.

I, when I leave my desk, I don't think of work once, um, I, on the weekends when I'm with my family, I'm just with my family. So those are the types. Of results that make me so happy because I, I know what it's like to just never turn that hamster wheel that's going.

Kris: Um, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and really, like what could be more important, you know, when someone's on their deathbed, we hear it time and time again.

I, I, I wish I had spent less time at work. I wish I had spent more time with the people that mattered, and partners and spouses and children, and this work that you're doing is really giving that to people. I think most entrepreneurs step into entrepreneurship because they want that kind of freedom and they want that control over over their

Schedule and [00:24:00] come to find out, once you get into it, like, oh my gosh, the to-do list grows and the amount that's on your plate is more than you ever imagined. Because not only are you doing your job, but you're also marketing your business and you're also generating leads and, courting potential clients, like, it's very overwhelming.

so what a gift, what a gift that you're getting to do this work, and it couldn't be more important.

Kelly: Yeah. But it is, uh, it's just such a great feeling. And, and I have a, a client, Debbie, who is now getting clients. When we first started working together, she was very new to, uh, having her own business, but now she, it's amazing.

She, um, helps, uh, grandmothers, uh, who are highly ambitious. Who are wanna be like that fun, energetic, high achieving grandmother. And she now is an absolute AI whiz. So we started kind of [00:25:00] working together. I introduced her to different things and custom GBTs, and now she designs programs with ai. She

designs challenges with ai. She's writing weekly newsletters. She's using it to, uh, help produce her podcast content. Like she is just taken off with all of the tools and yeah, she, she was just telling me last week I got another client. So, uh, she's using it a ton to generate a lot of content, get that content out there.

So that is so fun. That is so cool.

Kris: back to, uh, the images. So I have been recommending insta headshots.com to my clients, and it's like, um, a lot of my clients, they need an updated photo shoot, but they don't have time or they, they're on a tighter budget. And so I always recommend Insta headshots. I think it's dot com it might be.

Mm-hmm. Ai. Um, and you get about 30 or 40 headshots and [00:26:00] there are lots of those out there. Curious if you like any different ones. I think your headshots on your website are ai, is that right?

Kelly: And they are getting so much. Better. Yes. Like the, the speed at which they're getting better is, is pretty amazing. Like originally, in fact, if you look at the ones on my website, my face probably looks a little plastically. It's almost like, um, Play-Doh, if you, you'll look when you see AI had the chats.

Yeah. The face looks a little bit Play-Doh like, um, or like silly putty, like, um, but they're, they're getting, I mean, it's amazing how much. How much those are improving to a point where you, you, it's really hard to tell if, if it's AI or if it's real. I had

Kris: a client, uh, come to me and she had just spent $5,000 on business photography headshot, and the, the photos were great, like her outfits were fantastic and they were very professional, but she also did.

Insta [00:27:00] headshots, ai, and I liked them even better. Wow. It was like kind of, kind of wild. Oh my gosh. One thing I haven't done yet is, AI video, like creating a video avatar. Have you gone down that rabbit hole yet?

Kelly: I have not. I've, I don't think that I, I know the technology is there to do it, um, and I've seen.

Examples of it, but like I just saw an ad that was Russell Brunson, uh, using an AI avatar of himself and you gotta figure if Russell Brunson's doing it, it's probably not a janky one. Right. It's probably a decent version of it. And you could tell it was AI and, and I. Imagine he wasn't intending for us to not think.

It wasn't ai if I've used too many negatives there, but, uh, I've lost myself in the negatives. But, um, it was, it. It was [00:28:00] interesting because it, you know, it looked like him. It sounded like him, but it was just a little off.

Mm-hmm.

Um, so I think, I think it's possible right now, I think it will be a little bit off.

Mm-hmm. But in some ways that's kind of interesting too.

I love, love the ads that are babies or dogs. Do you ever get those? Oh my God, I love those. Oh

Kris: yeah. They're so good. so if you could give just one piece of advice to help somebody break through overwhelm, overcome ai, you know, fear, what would that be?

Kelly: If I went for ai. I would say to keep it simple and not worry about a tool and just pick whatever is next on your list for the day. And think for a moment, could AI help me with this? And just see, keep asking yourself, do I think it's possible that AI could help me with this? And [00:29:00] then just go to whatever tool and say, this is what I'm doing.

Mm-hmm. Could AI help me with this? Can you help me with this? Mm-hmm. Um. It's getting over that. Overwhelm hurdle. I think with ai, I know for me when I, before I got into it, I was like, it's moving too fast. Uh, even if I work 24 hours a day, I could never catch up to it. Um, but it's just getting over that, that initial hump and, and jumping into it, um, and just try it on some things.

Of course, people can reach out to me. I can help you overcome that little hurdle like you really. If you have a question like, could I use this or what should I use, or, which tool don't and do not pay for any tool, start out free. You do not need any of the paid tools. Definitely go on the free ones.

Kris: You know what I'm finding? Claude Claude's always been very friendly, conversational, very affirming. Chat. GPT not so much, but now chat, GPT is becoming that way. Funny. Like very [00:30:00] conversational, a lot of fun, um, kinda sassy and I think that that's something that humans enjoy and like, and I think knowing that like, oh, you can think of this as a helping friend who's actually gonna have a little bit of personality and help you feel good when you're frustrated.

That can kind of lower the barrier to entry too. I think that's kind of like one of those delightful surprises that can happen. Like, oh, this thing is actually chatty a little bit with me and kind of funny and affirming. Yeah, that might be a

Kelly: really fun way to, to dive into it too. Don't use it for work.

Use it for, uh, you're frustrated, you are driving to the soccer field again, 'cause your child left their cleats in the back of your car or something. You know, and just say, yeah. Listen, I just need you to be here, uh, as a friend and I just wanna vent about this and, and it, it'll chat with you. And I know that sounds a [00:31:00] little bit weird, but by the time you get to the soccer field, maybe you're, you're a little kinder, so they really can work well for that.

And if you do, try that. Use the app on your phone and use the voice mode. It's really fun to have a back and forth conversation.

Kris: That's so cool. Alright, so where can people find you and do you have any. Freebies that you wanna share with us today? Yeah,

Kelly: I have if you're, if you're looking to connect, uh, I'm on Instagram at Productivity Genius coach.

Um, if you're a life coach, I have a free community where I help with AI and, and some accountability on school. Uh, it's the life coach community and I have, uh, a free resource. It's 90 days of, uh, content in 20 minutes, so that'll get you started. Creating social content and emails and things like that, so I'm sure that'll be linked in the show notes.

Kris: Wonderful. Kelly, thank you so much for being here. This is such a joy. Thank you, Chris. This was great.

Is your website turning away Potential clients? I can help you turn that around. Book a moneymaking messaging call with me today and we'll transform [00:32:00] your story into your most powerful sales tool. That's all for this episode of From Click to Client. Don't forget to subscribe and follow. I'm Chris Jones and I'll see you next.