How to Break Free from Overwhelm – In Just 7 Minutes with Sharyn and Hank Yuloff

Resources/Links:

• Asking about what do I do first and how do I get there faster? Find the answer here: http://howtogettherefaster.com

Summary

Are you feeling overwhelmed as a small business owner, constantly juggling tasks and struggling to make meaningful progress? This sense of being stuck—where productivity doesn’t translate into impactful results—can paralyze growth and leave you feeling lost in a sea of to-dos.

Sharyn and Hank Yuloff are small business coaches, authors of 8 best-selling business books, hold small business breakthrough boot camps several times a year and have hosted almost 400 episodes of their podcast, The Marketing Checklist View Cast. They focus on Marketing, Sales, Public Speaking and Human Resources: the four areas where most business owners say they struggle.

Listen now as they share practical strategies to break free from this cycle of overwhelm. By focusing on high-impact tasks, time-blocking, and aligning business efforts with personal life goals, they help business owners regain clarity, scale efficiently, and create a path toward sustainable success.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 02:56 – Hank and Sharyn’s ideal client: People that are attracted to us are really good at what they do, but they do suffer from overwhelm and overthinking.
• 03:28 – The problem that they help solve: Our areas of expertise are marketing, sales, human resources, public speaking, office systems, what are the things that get in their way of being able to make the sales and make the income that they want to make.
• 05:11 – Symptom of their client’s problem: It really very much is, ‘I’m not sure.’
• 06:46 – Mistakes clients commit before reaching out to them: They’re not focused on who their ideal client is.
• 07:16 – Hank’s Valuable Free Action [VFA]: You can’t multitask folks, either time block or make a list and don’t try and get two or three things done at once.
• 07:49 – Their Valuable Free Resource [VFR]: Asking about what do I do first and how do I get there faster? Find the answer here: http://howtogettherefaster.com
• 08:15 – Q: Why us? A: We came into this partnership, married, but we each had a background. Sharyn came from the corporate office, I came from sales and sales management and marketing and now we team up together. Quite often one of us can answer the question even if the other, even if I can’t, Sharyn can.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“Begin with the end in mind, and then you can work backwards.” -Hank Yuloff Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:10
Welcome everyone to another edition of Marketing The Invisible. I’m Tom Poland, beaming out to you from the Sunshine Coast here in Australia. Joined today by Sharyn and Hank Yuloff. Sharyn and Hank, or as some people call you Shankyn. Very warm welcome.

Hank Yuloff 00:21
Yeah, Shankyn. Yeah, we’re kind of used to it.

Tom Poland 00:24
As long as you’re not called late for dinner, we’re okay. Where are you hanging out folks?

Hank Yuloff 00:28
We’re on the eastern shore of Maryland. When you look at the United States, there’s that little thing that hangs down…

Tom Poland 00:35
I can’t figure that out.

Hank Yuloff 00:37
Right below Delaware.

Tom Poland 00:39
In the east. So you’re exposed to the Atlantic, is that right?

Sharyn Yuloff 00:43
That’s correct, yeah.

Tom Poland 00:44
Oh, like a nice place. How far from New York?

Hank Yuloff 00:47
Far enough.

Sharyn Yuloff 00:48
About a 12-hour drive.

Tom Poland 00:50
And how many hours?

Hank Yuloff 00:51
We’ve worked our way across the US. We grew up in Los Angeles, our business there for a decade. We spent eight years in Sedona, Arizona. And then we realized we could live anywhere we want and family, Sharon’s mom is in DC so we decided…

Sharyn Yuloff 01:08
Three-hour drive.

Hank Yuloff 01:09
Yeah. One of these days we’re going to get that call that we need to be there.

Tom Poland 01:14
Right. But again, far enough, but close enough.

Hank Yuloff 01:18
Exactly.

Tom Poland 01:19
Okay. And folks, today the subject is How to Break Free from Overwhelm. The reason I’m introducing that now is that when you break free of overwhelm and you focus on the stuff that’s really, really going to drive your business growth, all sorts of opportunities can open up, including moving to the other side of the country, supporting elderly, loved ones and so on and so on and so on. So it is a bit of a domino effect. You get that if you’re overwhelmed, you can be paralyzing or you can be really, really busy, but just ticking off a long list of stuff that’s not actually consequential. So this is actually critical stuff. Now, having given you the title, How to Break Free of Overwhelm, we’re going to go back and give you the bios.

So Sharyn and Hank, or Shankyn as they’re fictionally known, are small business coaches. They’re authors of, they’re not an author of a bestselling book. They’re authors of eight bestselling books. They hold small business breakthrough boot camps several times a year, hosting over 400 episodes on their podcast, The Marketing Checklist View Cast. They focus on marketing, sales, public speaking, and human resources. The four areas where most business owners really, really truly struggle, which they do.

So let me do that one again. Marketing, sales, two wings of the same bird, public speaking, and also terrific lead source and human resources so you can scale and have more efficiency and more revenue with less time. So again, the title is How to Break Free from Overwhelm. Our seven minutes starts now. Question number one, and I’m just looking forward to this tag team who’s going to jump in on this one? Who’s your ideal client?

Hank Yuloff 02:56
People that are attracted to us are really good at what they do, but they do suffer from overwhelm and overthinking. We have about six different demographic silos and that’s the one demographic that almost covers almost all of them. So it’s a small business owner and they need a second set of eyes. They’re looking for an easy button to press, and that’s us.

Tom Poland 03:22
Alright, so let’s flesh that out a bit. What’s the problem that that button solves?

Sharyn Yuloff 03:28
So as you mentioned, our areas of expertise are marketing, sales, human resources, public speaking, office systems, what are the things that get in their way of being able to make the sales and make the income that they want to make?

Hank Yuloff 03:43
It’s the, ‘Oh my God, Hank and Sharyn, I just was given an opportunity to speak. Can you look at my slide?’ ‘Sure. Let’s go through them.’ ‘Oh my God, I have this opportunity to run this ad. Should I run this or not?’ ‘Okay, let’s break it down.’

Tom Poland 03:56
So you’re already there and available in those four areas to say, can you look at this? Or I need help with this. Can we optimize this? Yeah. Okay. So that’s kind of cool because you’re really meeting people at their point of need.

Sharyn Yuloff 04:09
Exactly.

Tom Poland 04:09
It’s not, no, we are not getting to sales pages until six months. Sorry. It’s, you need it now. We’ll help you now.

Hank Yuloff 04:16
We’re not a lot of theories. We’re a lot of getting stuff done.

Tom Poland 04:20
Get stuff done. And once you’ve got something up and running, like a slide deck for, you can rinse and repeat that for the next opportunity or a sales page or a landing page or whatever it happens to be. So you’re helping folks build the structure that they need to be able to scale pressing the easy button. That’s what facilitates that. So how does someone know they need what you’ve got? And folks, I’m just plugging Hank and Sharyn because chances are, you need them. We’re not on any sort of commission or affiliate arrangement. I’m not getting any remuneration for promoting them. It’s just there is a need in the marketplace for what you guys do and that’s why I’m happy to draw out the benefits. So first of all, before we get to some top tips, what’s going on in the lives of your ideal client before they reach out to you, what are the symptoms of giving them a heads up that they need to talk with you.

Hank Yuloff 05:11
It really very much is, ‘I’m not sure.’

Tom Poland 05:13
The feeling on a treadmill.

Hank Yuloff 05:16
We were at a speaking gig and she stuck around afterwards and said, ‘Look, here’s my real problem. I don’t need to hear about the social media that you guys were talking about. I’ve worked for this guy for 30 years. Everyone thinks I own his print shop. I want to start my own.’ And for an hour we brainstormed, ‘Okay, what are the steps you need to take? Where do you want to go in your life?’ Our first question with a new client is, what do you want your life to look like?

Sharyn Yuloff 05:41
If we want to give them the business to guess for them the life they want, not craft what they think is the perfect business. And then they’re like, ‘Oh man, but now life sucks.’

Tom Poland 05:50
Right.

Hank Yuloff 05:51
And sometimes during the year we work with clients, that does change. We change the path.

Tom Poland 05:57
But you’re starting with the end in mind.

Hank Yuloff 05:59
Yeah. Look, here’s a tip. If you’re going to run an ad, begin with the end in mind before you put the ad together. What do you want to happen from this ad? Alright, let’s make it craft the offer that’s going to go in there. By the way, don’t put your logo at the top of the ad. Doesn’t tell somebody what’s in it for them. Put your logo at the bottom of the ad. Or if it’s audio, put your headline first.

Tom Poland 06:22
Good stuff.

Hank Yuloff 06:22
Begin with the end in mind and then you can work backwards.

Tom Poland 06:25
Good stuff. So you are working with people that are growth orientated. Clearly, they’ve got growing pains, they’re feeling overwhelmed. Perhaps they don’t even have the skill levels and those four areas, technically very good at what they do and their clients love them, but they need to be able to scale to be able to get more clients. What I’m saying is they’re going to be trying stuff. What would you say are a couple of the big common mistakes you see people making before they reach out to you?

Sharyn Yuloff 06:46
They’re not focused on who their ideal client is. In Hank’s example, if they want to run an ad, well, that publication or radio spot is not even going to your target audience. Because if it’s not, don’t bother investing or they’re busy multitasking, right? That’s why they’re overwhelmed. They’re trying to do everything all at once instead of taking time to focus on the one thing right now and do the next thing next.

Tom Poland 07:09
Right and probably they’re very productive people, it’s just that they might be juggling a whole lot of balls and they may not be all staying in the air.

Hank Yuloff 07:17
Look, you can’t multitask folks, either time block or make a list and don’t try and get two or three things done at once. It just doesn’t happen.

Tom Poland 07:25
So there, I mean there’s a top tip right there. Another one is the time block. If you just don’t do a to-do list, if you’re going to do a to-do list, you’ve got to find space on your calendar for each task. And that’s I think what you’re alluding to with the time blocking because if you can’t fit them in your calendar, you don’t have time to do it and you have to prioritize the list. So lots of top tips there. Let’s go to question six, a valuable free resource. Where can people go to get more of this good stuff?

Sharyn Yuloff 07:49
Go to howtogettherefaster.com. You get 30 minutes free with us. Really our only question is how can we best help you today?

Hank Yuloff 07:57
That will be the first question you hear.

Tom Poland 08:00
So what’s the URL again?

Hank Yuloff 08:02
Howtogettherefaster.com. Because people always ask us what do I do first and how do I get there faster? So, it’s howtogettherefaster.com.

Tom Poland 08:10
Thanks for that folks. It’s howtogettherefaster.com. Question seven, what’s the one question I should’ve asked you but didn’t?

Hank Yuloff 08:15
Yeah, this is kind of a simple one. Why us? And the answer really is kind of simple. When you talked about business coaches, you’ve got one person who has spent their whole life doing one thing. We came into this partnership, married, but we each had a background. Sharyn came from the corporate office, I came from sales and sales management and marketing and now we team up together. Quite often one of us can answer the question even if the other, even if I can’t, Sharyn can.

Tom Poland 08:48
Vice versa. Perfect. Great balance. Hey folks, thanks so much for your time and your wisdom and your insights and hopefully we can drive a little bit of traffic to howtogettherefaster.com.

Sharyn Yuloff 08:57
Thanks Tom.

Hank Yuloff 08:57
Thank you.

Tom Poland 08:59
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.