It’s Christmas and we are talking about one of our favorite topics: removing your worth from your work. After freelancing and building our own brands for years, we’ve seen the effects of letting our self-worth be wrapped up in our work. We want better for you.
In this episode Tiff and Christine share their personal insights into what happened for each of them once they disentangled their personal worth from their work. This is important to hear during the holidays (while taking a break!) but also anytime you need this reminder.
“The best kind of content comes from people who are really owning their worth, totally separate from their work.”
Christine Baird
Topics covered:
- (1:30) Christine’s story of taking the work out of her worth
- (10:00) Tiff’s story of taking the work out of her worth
- (17:26) How to take your work out of your worth
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Links mentioned:
- Tiff Tyler
- Christine Baird
- DIY Podcasters – check out the Worthfull Media Podcast Course
- Aspiring Podcast Hosts – check out the Think Like a Producer Membership Group
Subscribe to the Podcast!
Many thanks to our production team
- Worthfull Media for audio editing
- Mosaico Productions for video editing
- Amela Subašić for artwork
Transcription of this episode:
(auto-generated, please forgive typos)
Christine (00:03):
Welcome to Think like a Producer podcast, I’m your co-host Christine Baird.
Tiff (00:09):
And I’m your co-host Tiff Tyler. Being in the podcast industry, being in the content creation industry. This is what we learned, and this is how you can get out of your own way and get started.
Christine (00:20):
You name it. We’ve probably done it. This podcast is about bringing all the wisdom to you. Tune in weekly to learn how to think like a producer.
Tiff (00:32):
Go. Right. Okay.
Christine (00:36):
We should leave this in.
Tiff (00:37):
Right. Just leave all of this in as I’m introducing.
Tiff (00:42):
This is great. Uh, welcome to think like a producer. Today’s one of my favorite topics, but obviously one of Christine’s favorite topics we’re talking about taking the work out of your worthiness. Christine. and I have worked with a lot of entrepreneurs at all different levels, whether they’re just starting out, they’ve already started or they’re actually wanting to expand their business because they have a lot of followers and a lot of people, but they still are struggling with a bit of a balance. And I personally, I don’t like the idea of a 50 50 balance between what I do for myself and what I do for my work, but I do understand, and we understand that there is just this need that we seem to be missing a bit of a block when it comes to expanding and growing. And I wanted to talk about that today with Christine.
Tiff (01:27):
We just wanted to talk about what, where we relate, because we both, to me, we’re both, I wouldn’t call us hustlers, cause I’m not sure if I liked that word anymore, but we definitely, we work very, very hard and we’ve, I think hit such a big sort of success in our own ways, just by working so hard and putting the work first. And we had a moment, I think each in our, in each of our lives where we were like, this is time. It’s actually time for us to stop and evaluate and take care of ourselves more than the paycheck. Oh, Christine. I think it’d be awesome to start with your story because we’re celebrating a special, special day for you right now.
Christine (02:07):
We are. And we just noticed we matched it’s festive. It’s the day before Halloween, we’re both wearing orange and blue. Uh, this is literally today. This weekend is my two year anniversary of leaving LA moving to Salt Lake city, Utah, stepping away as producer of the school of greatness, which is how Tiff and I met. We worked on that show for years. And so it’s pretty awesome. Honestly, I didn’t think about it until we, we started talking about today’s episode and I was like, Oh my gosh, Tiff it’s two years since I took that leap and made that change. So we thought it was a good story to illustrate what the concept we’re discussing today, this idea of your worth in your work being separate and not intertwined, which is probably something you’ve struggled with. If you’re listening to the show. So a brief story about the last chapter of my career, I had been living in LA for almost four years.
Christine (03:10):
I had just had an incredible experience, you know, could have risen from graphic design, novice intern to full producer of this awesome show. And it had been incredible, but I had probably for about a year, started to feel the onset of burnout and kind of the inklings that I was ready to evolve into a new chapter for myself professionally. And I had taken a lot of time to think through it and to kind of quietly meditate on what that meant, because I wasn’t sure I was like, I’m in a great position. I’m in an awesome city. I have wonderful friends, great professional connections. You know, why would I leave? And it was a process, but over time I had some really clear downloads and a lot of sort of, you know, soul pings that were very clear for me. It’s time to evolve and leave this brand that you’ve gotten so much value out of and learn so much and really create your own thing.
Christine (04:09):
Whether I didn’t know yet if I was just going to be a freelancer or if I was going to create a company, I didn’t know if I was going to just stay focused on podcasts or if I kind of wanted to explore other parts of the industry, I really didn’t know, but I had taken the time and I kind of had those key moments with myself of honesty. And so in April, 2018, I told our client Lewis. I was like, Hey, I’m going to move on. And he was super cool about it. And honestly, it was like, I gave six months notice cause still around six months slowly sort of transitioning a lot of my job to Tiff honestly really ended up taking that job. And so it was a really incredible experience because I felt so strongly. It was time to move on. And I honestly didn’t know what was next, but I was trusting the process.
Christine (05:00):
So by the time, my kind of last day in the studio wrapped, I had one gig that I was doing an event. I was helping with programming and talent management for this, um, event in LA. And that was going to keep me in the city for a couple more months. But then I had decided it was time to leave LA and I was going to move to Salt Lake City. I had always had family and friends here. So it was kind of just an easy pick and you know, it’s really beautiful mountain town. There’s really great nature and skiing. It’s a really affordable cost of living. There’s a lot of reasons why it was just kind of a no brainer, not like you didn’t like LA. No, exactly. And this was pre pandemic. And so it was, you know, there wasn’t an obvious reason why it would be leaving LA, but I felt really clearly about it.
Christine (05:48):
I just knew. And so Halloween weekend, 2018, my sweet dad flew in, helped me pack up a Uhaul. We drove from to Salt Lake and I got here and it was an incredible moment for me because it, LA had been such a powerful, significant chapter. Literally life-changing on every level I had done a ton of self-development work. I’d had this complete professional transformation I was, you know, in a totally different industry. And so I realized when I got here, like, I’m not sure completely why I’m here, but I know this is where I need to be. And I knew it was important that I step away from this lifestyle. That was to be honest, very demanding, like LA has a special kind of energy. If you’ve ever lived there, you know, the traffic, the beat of the city, the rent that’s due, you got to work day in, day out all the time.
Christine (06:43):
And it’s really cool, but it can also be really a recipe for burnout. And I was also in tandem without working on this brand. That was pretty intense. I mean, as they say, it’s a brand about greatness, so nothing less than the best is accepted. And so the first couple of months I was in salt Lake, I remember I was the first time in 10 years. I really didn’t work. I really didn’t work for about two months. And it was so amazing. It was the holidays. I just completely let myself take a break and little did I know that I was actually going to meet my husband the second week I lived in Salt Lake. Crazy. Should I have imagined, like I was consciously shifting my lifestyle to make more time for things like dating. I knew I wanted to find my partner and I wanted to start a family.
Christine (07:35):
So that was a goal I had. And I was like, you know, I’m really, at the time in LA, I was like, I have, I’m making zero time for dating. Like I would go on like two dates a year. And so that was a big, you know, it was a goal I had, but it was not something I thought was going to happen overnight. I didn’t realize like this was, you know, going to be so quick. So within a couple of weeks of moving here, I met my now husband. I, within three months of moving here, had been referred my first freelance, you know, podcast client. I really just started creating things and talking to people and meeting people. I didn’t know yet what was going to happen. But over time, over the last two years, what’s ended up happening is I work less than I ever have as Tiff knows.
Christine (08:22):
My goal is to only work one hour a day, which is crazy, but cool. It works for me because mostly what I do now is consulting and, you know, check a few emails and hop on a couple of calls. So I’ve, I work less than I ever have, which is a really good fit for me, personality and makeup wise. Like it’s a, it’s a really good fit for me. Um, I get, like I said, met dated, got engaged and married my now husband, which is an incredible experience. I have also ended up being referred just in the last two years, over a dozen really awesome influencer clients who have been able to launch and grow their shows. I’ve worked with a ton of really cool female entrepreneurs, which is something I’d never done before. I ended up creating my own boutique media agency. So I’m now a business owner.
Christine (09:11):
Like these incredible things came from making that change. And the point I want to make and not just like another cool story, is it all was grounded in me realizing that my worth is a human. My worth is a creator. My worth is a contributor to the world was not tied up in my work. And certainly, obviously not in my work at the time, but on a bigger scale, I realized, you know, if I want the life of my dreams, if I want a family, if I want a business that fits the lifestyle, I envision, I got to, I got to create it from a place of worth where it doesn’t have to do is like the accolades of whatever I’m doing. Like my worth. Can’t be based on that. I’ve got to kind of step back and create it from a different place. And for me, that looked like taking a big jump and leaving LA and trusting the process, letting good, great, you know, clients be referred to me building a agency over time. It’s evolving constantly. I’m always like, Oh, wow. New chapter. Okay, cool. And making time for the things that mattered the most to me, which, you know, for the last couple of years was investing in a relationship and building a building a business that I really want to be a part of. So that’s my own little story. And Tiff, I know you happen to have a pretty great one yourself.
Tiff (10:34):
You know, it’s crazy. First of all, your story is amazing. And I can’t, I mean, I just, there’s so many pieces in it that make me so happy, but I, for some reason, not till this point, didn’t realize that had you not left. I wouldn’t have had my moment because the reason why I was able to start my worthiness journey was because I was now being offered to take over your job and become the lead producer for the podcast. I don’t know why when you were talking, I was like, we didn’t even put this together when we were talking about this early here. So I just want to thank you first off, because had you not stepped up for yourself and made that change, it wouldn’t have sparked at least in that moment for me to step up and make my change in a totally different way. But because you took care of yourself, it sparked a moment for me to take care of myself,
Christine (11:23):
That’s the best ever!
Tiff (11:26):
So in that, just, I just I’m living here just like I had to like, hold back tears and like, Oh my gosh, you were a ripple effect for me. So thank you Christine.
Christine (11:37):
More than welcome.
Tiff (11:39):
And so, so as Christine said, you know, she gave her six months notice she was, she was ready to leave. I about a year before this time, this is late 2018. Yeah. Cause beat the sun is August, 2018. This is exact time. So yeah. So a year before that I had burnt out to the max and I was slowly through that entire year, sort of the end of 2017 to the beginning of 2018. I was sort of recouping a little bit and had a lot less responsibility in every contract that I was working in just because I had over promised over promise over promised and wasn’t sleeping, wasn’t eating right. Gain a lot of weight. Um, just for, I know from being an athlete in high school, I just know how it feels to at least have energy. And I just was completely not there. So I was slowly building my sort of trust back with myself, trust back with everyone who had hired me on to be completely honest.
Tiff (12:33):
Like I, because I just, I needed to. So I was starting to make better progress at work. Wasn’t really taking care of myself, but it was just starting to, to stop the over-committing piece of it. And when I was offered the position to take over for Christine and become the lead producer, I was nervous because I had a whole year of less responsibility. And now this was going to be the entire podcast, a top 100 podcasts. This is not just, um, doing some of the video stuff and I’m helping with some of the editors, but now I need to know the overall story and the just pieces that I hadn’t touched on, that Christine was doing before. Me and I had this moment, luckily we were close to the summit of greatness, um, which has meant that Lewis puts on every year in Ohio. And we were getting to our greatness, fitness challenge.
Tiff (13:19):
And this is what year three or year four of summit of greatness. And I just never hit the challenge. I just, the last two years we would set it. It would be 30 days before. And I just would always, always stop after day one, day two, whatever. And I had this moment of thinking, you know, this is going to be a really big opportunity. I can’t be the same person. I don’t want to repeat the same mistakes I made a year before that. And over commit to this and not be able to step up to the plate. And then also like I’m going to have to figure out a way that I’m not so sensitive to every little mistake, because there’s no way I could take on this big job and not make mistakes. And because I was so wrapped up in my worth, being in my work, like every little thing felt like a reflection of me.
Tiff (14:04):
Every mistake felt like I was a mistake. I was a failure. Like these are the conversations that I was having in my head. So as we were getting close to the summit of greatness, challenging this physical challenge, I was like, I need to figure this out. I really want to figure out how, at least for 30 days I can do something great for myself, every entrepreneur. I mean, I’m sure I’m a couple hundred episodes in now. I’m filming. They have these non-negotiables these routines, they do these things for themselves. And so, uh, I think maybe a week or so before I decided to start trying, um, I saw that Lewis posted on his Instagram that he had beat the sun one day. Like he just woke up. I think he posted the, the Instagram story maybe at like five 40 or 6:00 AM. And it was right before the sunrise.
Tiff (14:49):
And I was just like that really cool to just see that you beat the sun today, how powerful of a statement is that and how powerful he must have felt having that feeling. And, you know, we’re getting closer to summit. We’re about 50 days out from the event. And I was like, because I had failed every year before, let me not start on the 30 date. Like, let me start a couple of weeks before. So I ended up starting 50 days before summit of greatness, 20 days before the 30 day challenge. And I just tried, I think the first day I was able to do it at 6:00 AM. The sun was kind of already up, so I really didn’t hit it. But every day I was waking up and I gave myself a challenge of three miles because three was enough knowing that I used to be a bit of an athlete.
Tiff (15:34):
It was a challenge enough, uh, for me to feel like I was doing something right. And one mile just felt like I would, it wouldn’t be enough that my heart rate would get up, but I felt like I was making a difference or anything. So three was like the magic number for me. And I just started doing it, posting it on Instagram every day, waking up right before the sun three miles, three miles, three miles, whether I had to run it or walk it because I wasn’t an in shape. So some days I had to walk, but I just needed to make sure that those three miles were done before the sun came up and it turned into this crazy thing on social cause now like most people know me because they see me wake up. It’s two years later and I have not run every day.
Tiff (16:13):
Um, let me just say that, but I have run more days than I have, and I’ve seen more sunrises in the last two years and I had probably my entire life. Um, and that beauty in that moment of like giving myself that time. Uh, it’s one of the most important things to me now. And I even told you all, you know, I left the school of greatness, um, very recently and I kind of put a message out to my family. Like if you don’t see me run for 48 hours, send me a message because this is so tied right now to knowing that I feel good when I’m running, when I’m putting myself first. And I know that if I get a little off emotionally, then I won’t run. So this has really become my sort of worthiness outside of work. Just to kind of wrap it up here.
Tiff (16:57):
It’s, it’s not about the running because I know a lot of people might say like, Oh, I’m at an athlete. You know, I don’t work out those different things. But when I was going to accept this producer job, and then I became the, the producer for the school of greatness for 18 months, it wasn’t about running and beating the sun. It was about a win every day that I could feel like I was enough. And so if everything failed at work that day, I still had my wind in the morning. If everything went well, I also still had my win and I didn’t need to tie my emotions. They weren’t going up and down based on whether or not I had a good day at work or if everything worked out. So that’s just what kind of became my, my sort of way of separating my worthiness from work. But I’m so happy. Christine is really so meant to be that two years later, we both technically made that decision really close to each other because you were the first one, you were kind of like what they call it, the catalyst for us to get this going by making that decision for yourself.
Christine (17:59):
Oh my gosh, this is the most awesome story. I’m smiling the entire time you were talking. And I love that even referenced like our symbiotic relationship, like he just sort of, but it’s true. And I there’s no surprised anyone listening, like why we decided to co-host a show. We’ve had so many similar experiences as professionals and as human beings that have looked very different on the surface, but totally have the same heartbeat. And that’s a big reason why we wanted to record this episode early in the show is to bring up this idea that of course we’ll reference multiple times going forward, but it’s a really important piece. We talked about this before we started recording that we want you to think about as you’re thinking like a producer, as you’re thinking about the long-term legacy value of your show, your brand, your content, while you’re here, what message you’re sharing, these kinds of big picture ideas that producers think about.
Christine (18:59):
That’s what we do. It really is important to translate that into your whole life. Like we talked about this before, we’ll say it again. You’ve got to think like a producer in your life. Your life is a production of you. And so the reason we wanted to cover this and we’ll wrap up with just sharing a couple things. You can ask yourself, if this is really resonating, like how to start thinking this way for your own life, maybe some ideas of changes you want to make in how you’re living or working is because the best kind of content we’ve seen this with our own eyes, the best kind of content that makes the biggest impact that serves people at the highest level comes from people who are really owning their worth, totally separate from their work. They’re there to serve. They’re there to show up and give the best they can give, but they’re truly not basing their worth on how many views, how many downloads, how many likes, how many shares it’s totally separate.
Christine (19:53):
And that’s like a key part of being an excellent producer and thinking like a strategic mind, would you got to have that separation? And you’ve got to come from a place of, I am building a life and building a brand and whatever you’re building, right? A family, a nonprofit, you fill in the blank that is actually worth things, totally unrelated to status and accolades and even money coming in. Not that those things don’t matter. So that’s, that’s the framework we wanted to kind of set the stage for us. If somebody is listening and they’re like, Oh my gosh, you are totally mirroring back to me my own situation right now. How do I separate my work from my work? What would you say to them?
Tiff (20:43):
Yeah, I think just that self-awareness in the morning when you wake up, how can I separate my work from my worthiness? That could literally be, I’m not going to answer an email when I first wake up. That could be, I’m not going to answer the texts until we hit 9:00 AM. There’s so many different ways, but I think if we start the day, maybe asking ourselves that question, and maybe before we go to bed at night, did it work today? Or did I feel like everything was wrapped up in so working, what can I do differently tomorrow? Um, I think another thing would have been challenging. Some friends and new friends that I’ve been meeting. Like what’s one small thing you can do, even if you were like, I’m going to start next week. You’re listening to this on a Thursday. So maybe, you know, you need the weekend to ponder a little bit.
Tiff (21:25):
And Monday is day one of you starting just one small thing in your life. That’s just going to be for you your time. It can be in the morning. It could be at night, whatever that feels like for you. But what’s one small thing, very, very small and specific that you can try to do every day next week to get yourself going on this time for you, this separating the work from your worthiness. And I think for some people that can be a really hard question, which is interesting. I’ve noticed. So, uh, one thing I really like to tell all of my, kind of my clients is that I consult them, that I coach the, one of the first things I ask them is where do you see yourself? In 10 years? I even asked Christine that when we were talking about, uh, starting this podcast and what we wanted to do and how we want to serve people, we both were kind of answering that question.
Tiff (22:11):
Where do we see ourselves in 10 years? And one of my favorite people in the entire planet, Dr. Nicole LePera has this really cool future self journal, very simple prompts, but it’s a way that every day that that’s your small thing to journal a little bit and talk about for yourself, where do I see myself? Where do I see myself? Where do I see myself and start to create a lifestyle around that I told Christine before we started? I’m like, you know, I don’t know if I can be running at 50 or 60. I don’t know. We’ll see, you know, but hopefully like I believe it, but I also think, you know, that when for the day of journaling is what it turns. What if journaling is what it turns out to be, or if it’s just reading a book or just anything that there’s time for me.
Tiff (22:55):
I really think that there’s something about starting here, starting with yourself, starting with your own time. And then when you start to make that show, or if you continue to make that show wherever you’re at right now in your business, giving yourself that opportunity to have time for yourself. I think you’re going to have that good contemplation time too, of how can I serve the most people? How can I help the most people now that I’m helping myself now that I given myself that time and worthiness, how can I do this for someone else? How can I create space for them? Yeah. So those are a couple of things to ask yourself. And I say the one thing I don’t want to like end this episode without saying, give yourself some grace, I think, and this is another, I know I keep giving your flowers, Christine, but you and grace like you, and that, I know you have a word, a connection to worthiness, right?
Tiff (23:47):
And you’ve got the Worthfull Project, your own podcast. But I think you were the first person that I remember hearing say that word grace a lot. Um, I don’t know if we were in the studio, outside the studio, but when I think of grace, I think of you because I think you use that in your language a lot when we first met her, maybe closer to before you left, um, LA. But I think about being able to have grace with myself that if like yesterday I planned on running four miles yesterday, but I ran one because my body was tired and I was mentally a little bit exhausted. And so I couldn’t beat myself up about the fours. Like you still got something done, you still try and thinking about what worked and what didn’t work. So as you pick the small thing, as you get your future self journal from Dr.
Tiff (24:34):
Nicole appear, which we’ll have in the show notes, just giving yourself that grace to that, because next week is week one doesn’t mean everything is going to be solved. You’ll be completely like in your worthiness a hundred percent because you tried, you’re giving yourself that grace by just trying and coming up with what’s working and what’s not working for you. Um, and I, I just want to make sure we say that because we’re talking Christine to a lot of people who are hard workers and perfectionists and all those different things. So I don’t want to give us homework. And then we felt like we have to be perfect in week one. That’s just, that’s just not what we do. That’s not where we’re coming from with this.
Christine (25:13):
Oh, man. That was so beautiful. Tiff. Thank you so much. Yeah, grace, I mean, that’s where it’s at. And thank you for listening today. Thank you for tuning in and caring about this topic. It’s actually very strategic. We’ll get into more later, but yeah, take it seriously. It’s really important in this way. We addressed it at the top of the show, of course, as always, please, if you found value in today’s episode, leave us a rating or review on Apple podcasts. It makes a huge difference in how people can find the show, see that it’s legit, that it’s worth listening to. And more than anything, we want to know your questions after listening to this episode. So if things could come up for you and you feel like we only scratched the surface and you want more ask us, send us a DM, find us on Instagram at think like a producer. You can tweet at us. You can find Tiff or I on Instagram, just get us a message and let us know what resonated and what questions you have. If you want us to dive deeper on this topic and we’ll see you next time. Um, think like a producer.
Christine (26:23):
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of think like a producer. This has been a Worthfull Media production, massive thanks to our team who makes the show possible. Worthfull Media for audio editing, Jorge and Veronica from Mosaico Productions for video editing and effects and Amela Subasic for our amazing artwork and graphics.
Tiff (26:46):
If you are ready to launch your podcast. You can check out the Worthfull Media podcast course at worthfullmedia.com and as a special gift to our listeners, we are giving you $50 off the podcast course. All you have to do is use promo code T L A P. If you have launched your podcast or YouTube channel and show, and you are looking for the community to support you as you continue to grow, as well as some Q and A directly from Christina and myself, then please check out our think like a producer channel. The link is in the show notes.
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