Why Listening to Yourself is the Ultimate Productivity Strategy

• How generational trauma creates default energies: Pixii shares how her upbringing in a hostile environment shaped her default energy and how she overcame those challenges.
• “Opening every door” and following what feels aligned: Embracing experimentation in her entrepreneurial journey and learning to shut doors that didn’t serve her.
• Redefining Success: We discuss how chasing external success led to burnout and how she redefined success to match her values and morals.
• Shifting from thinking to feeling: Transforming overthinking every decision to trusting your feelings, and tapping into your emotions can lead to more aligned and intentional actions.
• The role of gratitude in unlocking abundance: Learn how gratitude can shift your mindset toward peace and productivity.

“Tomorrow is not promised, and whatever you want to do in your life, do it and do not do things because of gratification and money.”

“The more I kept lying to myself, the more I suppressed who I was, and that led me to complete burnout.”

“Gratitude is key—if you’re in a place where you feel you’re not enough or want more, by law, you won’t receive any more. But if you are genuinely grateful for what you have, you will receive more.”

“You are in control of your mindset, and we all have a choice at the end of the day.”

“There is no wrong or right way to journal—it’s about having a conversation with yourself and expressing gratitude for the things you already have.”

ANNE RAJOO

Have you ever found yourself chasing success only to realize that it doesn’t feel as fulfilling as you thought it would? Maybe you feel something that looks amazing on the outside, steady income, growing business-all the external markers of achievement are ticked. But deep down, something feels off. You’re exhausted, demotivated and wondering if you’re on the right path at all. That’s exactly what today’s guest Pixii experienced. After years of building multiple businesses in the beauty and esthetics industry, she found herself completely burned out. She had the financial success, she once dreamt of, but it came at the cost of authenticity, her energy and ultimately her well-being. The more she ignored that inner misalignment, the more I took a toll until a sudden loss forced her to stop and reevaluate everything.

In this episode, Pixii shares her powerful journey of rediscovering herself, shutting down businesses that no longer aligned with her values, and rebuilding her life and career from the place of authenticity. We dive into why so many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of chasing external definitions of success, how suppressing your true self can lead to burnout, and most importantly, how you can reconnect with your purpose and create the business actually feels good to run. 

If you’ve ever felt like you’re forcing yourself into a version of success that doesn’t truly fit, this conversation will help you to step back, realign and move forward in a way that feels right for you.

Welcome to the Peaceful Productivity Pod. I’m your host, Anne Rajoo, and together we redefine productivity and find your sleep site where peak performance meets happiness.

Pixie, welcome to the Peaceful Productivity Pod. 

PIXII WILLIAMS

Hey, Anne, thank you so much for having me on. 

ANNE RAJOO

It’s such a pleasure, and I’m excited to learn a little bit more about your story. So let’s start there. How did you go from a place of struggle to becoming a limitless entrepreneur. And I’m especially curious about your process and how it all started, that you rediscovered your authentic self after you had a burnout. 

PIXII WILLIAMS

God, where do we begin? It’s such a long story, but I’m going to try and make it as short as I possibly can. I went from being extremely depressed, extremely angry, extremely low, I was brought up in a very hostile household, even though I was loved very much. A lot of my family had what we call generational trauma, and that led me and myself to have a default energy of being very low, being very confused. Because that’s what happens when we’re brought up in a very sad, angry household, is that it creates a default energy in the child. But I always knew that I wanted to own my own business, and I always knew that I wanted to make money. I just didn’t know what I wanted to do. And I tried so many different things when I was younger, tie dye and socks, trying to make clothes, like all sorts of things. And my mum has always said, like, just open every single door, and if it doesn’t work, sell it. And I just absolutely love that. So that’s exactly what I’ve done. And it wasn’t until I my brother’s ex-fiance told me about the beauty industry, and I’m not in I’m not a beauty girl like that, but I saw the potential and how much money I could make, so I thought, okay, let’s do this. And it went from a small little business to me, just lashing, to me, actually growing up and growing it into me selling lash extensions for other last technicians. So that’s where I started. 

My entrepreneurial journey was in the beauty industry, and it got to the point where I knew deep, deep, deep down, that I was making amazing money, but it didn’t matter, because something didn’t feel right deep down. And the more I resisted and the more I kept in lying to myself “this is what I want to be doing”, “his is what I want to be doing.” The more I actually suppressed my voice. And what happened is I turned into this very open, very spiritual person, into someone that I did not recognize anymore. Because what I call it is, I was selling my soul for money. Not, you know, it’s, it’s that concept of, I wanted to be an entrepreneur, and I want, I thought going into an industry that was really popular was the best thing to do. But actually, when I look back, it never matched up with my values or my morals. Yeah, I’m all about animal rights. Yet I was in an industry that tested on animals because I ended up going into the esthetic industry. After that, I had two esthetic businesses, and it was just against my morals. I’m all about natural beauty and animal rights. And the more I kept lying to myself, the more I was suppressing who I was deep down, and the more that I was suppressing who I was deep down, the more that led me to complete burnout. Because what happens is you’re in this pull and pull of resistance, and it gets to the point where the resistance snaps to the bandwidth, and you realize that this, that that was not the journey that I needed to be taking.

It wasn’t until my auntie passed away. Very, very suddenly. She got into her car and she just, she just died. It was just the most craziest thing. It wasn’t until then I realized that tomorrow’s not promised, and whatever you want to do in your life, do it and do not do things because of gratification and money. We all like money as entrepreneurs, I can promise you now going down an industry just for money does not work. And that’s when I realized what I have done is during those 10 years, I built myself up for what was it? During those 10 years, I worked for my self-development to the point where I wasn’t angry anymore, I wasn’t hurting, I wasn’t complaining. I allowed myself to let go, and I taught myself all sorts of methods to actually find myself again. And it wasn’t until then I realized, wow, this is what I need to be doing. I need to be helping other people as soon as I start. It was the day after my aunt passed away, I shut down all three of my businesses, all three of them, it just didn’t bother me anymore. That’s when I did my certification for your life coach. I was trying to start through my mental health course, and now I own an online coaching platform called Thrive Beyond Limit. In a couple of weeks, I’m publishing my first selfhelp book. It does talk a lot about entrepreneurship, but it really is about the mindset that you choose and that we all do have a choice in the end of the day. 

ANNE RAJOO

Wow, thank you. First of all, sorry about your aunt passing away. It’s yeah, I had a few conversations, and I had a similar personal experience that these events are these huge catalysts of, you know, questioning what we’re actually doing. But like you said, there is this notion that success looks a certain way. A lot of money is involved in it, especially when you’re an entrepreneur, you know, like, it’s the big money, it’s in entrepreneurship, and you know, you work really hard and you want to make the money. And I love what you said, that you were selling your soul for the money, and my clients don’t necessarily do that so much, but there’s still always this notion that success has to look a certain way, or the way we work in our business. Because I talk about productivity, the way we do business has to look a certain way, and that often means that we sort of bend ourselves to comply with these norms and expectations, and it’s not true to ourselves, and that’s for me, one of the main causes of burnout. Because we do the things that don’t feel good to us, we do the things that we don’t actually love just because we think this should be doing, and this is what would bring the success and so on and so on. So this really resonated with me, and thanks for sharing. 

I’m really curious to talk a little bit more about the authentic part of it, and we already spoke a little bit about the social expectations that I see and have experienced myself included in my clients. But let’s bring it back to the work that you do now with your clients and the whole importance of authenticity. And I’m not using this as a buzzword. A lot of people have used it on the internet as a buzzword, but I truly believe we want to connect with real people who are their real selves. So what’s your thought there? Why is it important? And what can entrepreneurs do to show up authentically?

PIXII WILLIAMS

There is no right or wrong, and that’s something that I love preaching. Every single one of us, we’re all different human beings. We’re all different individuals. We all work differently. I’m severely dyslexic, so it means that the way I do things, I have to do things differently, and that’s okay. It’s easy to see, and you hit the nail on the head before, and you said, you know about success and people trying to do the same thing. There is no one road to success. I learned that the hard way. And I do tell my clients, this is just because someone else is doing it one way does not mean you have to do it that way. And I think what happens in this day and age. There are so many courses out there. And I think people have shiny object syndrome. And I write this in my book, people have shiny object syndrome more now than ever. You can go on social media, look on your phone and see, oh, someone’s doing this business. Oh, maybe that’s how I make money, or Oh, someone’s doing that. Is your friend doing that. Maybe I should do that. I tell my clients, don’t get sucked into it. Okay? It’s all about learning what your values are and what your morals are. If you don’t understand what your values and your morals are, you’re not actually going to be able to create something that’s going to make you happy. Yeah, it might make you money, yeah, but money’s not happiness. Money’s good. Money gives us freedom. But I tell them that it’s you have to sit with yourself. 

A big, big thing is journaling. A massive thing is any loads of tools and tips that I’ll get into. But journaling is, know your values. It’s like chucking a dart at no dart board. You don’t know what’s going to make you happy. So the one thing that I say is do not get shiny object syndrome. Don’t try and be someone that you’re not, because it will catch up on you. It happens with me, and it’s actually quite emotional when I get very emotional when I speak about this sort of stuff, because losing yourself is a very, very mind-blowing sad thing. But losing yourself because you wanted something so badly with the type of money or whatever it is, that’s even harder, because it isn’t even like you’ve lost yourself through a good enough reason, you know. So yeah, being, being authentic is, is. It’s the key to success, yeah, because, and the reason I say that success isn’t just one thing, because I have clients, but their success is just being a good brother, being able to clean a house and do this and do that, and that’s why I run a mindset coaching platform. I don’t just run a coaching platform for entrepreneurs because success is different to every single person. Have many people in my community writing books, writing children’s books, not in business, but I have other people that just trust themselves, listen to themselves.

And I will just live. Just live by journaling. Becoming your own best friend is the best thing that you’ll ever do, and if you do not communicate with yourself with all kinds of communication is the key. Yeah, that’s communication is the key with yourself as well, not just your family members, not just your your partner or a loved one. Like it’s you have to communicate with yourself, and it’s very easy this day and age to

Get lost. He says, if you talk too much in your head, you’re never listening. And we need to listen to what we’re feeling, thinking, what we’re thinking, you know, a mindset, work that I do with entrepreneurs or without entrepreneurs. You know, the main key of burnout is usually living unauthentically to your true purpose in life, and of that, well, journaling. 

ANNE RAJOO

So this is something that I have, a very tiny journaling practice, something that is that comes to me naturally. I tried a few things. What is your practice, and maybe you’ve got specific prompts? Or, let’s say I’m someone who hasn’t got a clue about her values. What would you tell me to journal about? How could I even start? 

PIXII WILLIAMS 

Yeah, I love this question, because I was the exact same for many years. Journal, journal, journal about your intentions. What does that even mean? Like, I never got it. It’s becoming your own best friend. So I will literally sit there in the morning go, “Hey Pix, how are you? Hey, Pix, how are you feeling?” Or yesterday something happened, okay, that made me feel a certain way. Why did that make me feel a certain way? You know? So that’s kind of the basic journaling that I do and that I teach my clients to do. 

We do something called a magic morning. So I get people to do a magic morning every single morning. Build that routine, journaling, exercise, walking, meditation, whatever it is. But your exact question was, how do you figure out the values you keep on writing and writing and writing and to realize who you are, and there is no I can’t tell you how to do it. I can’t because we’re completely different. So the way I do things can be completely people. Always, how do I get to where I want to be faster? How do I get to want to be faster? And I’m like, consistency. It’s time get to know yourself. 

There is no wrong or right way to go on, but I go back to what I said before, no wrong or right. The general point I give people is actually have a conversation with yourself, yeah? So there’s, there’s, there’s journaling prompts like gratitude. Gratitude is key, yeah, if you’re in a place you don’t want to be, please remember, if you are in a place where you feel like you’re not enough, you’re not good enough, you want more, by law, you won’t receive any more. And it’s vice versa. And if you’re in a place where you’re actually genuinely grateful for things that you have, the people that you have, the wins that you created, you will receive more. And this is what I tell people to do in their journaling, make sure you’re showing and expressing gratitude. And I actually did a coaching session with someone the other day, and I was speaking about, how about being grateful for, like, your heart that beats you every day. How about being grateful for your lungs and people? Well, you know, like, we take these things for granted. And the reason that I say this, the reason that I’m going back to this, is if you are not grateful for the things that you already have, you’re never going to get to the place that you want to be that’s especially anything so definitely gratitude, having that conversation with yourself. Me, personally, I write down every morning where I want to go, who, why? Why am I doing this? What’s my why? To help people, what’s my why? Okay, what’s my goals? But it’s not like, Oh, I’m grateful for what I already have. It’s reminding myself I’m here for a reason. So it’s really about that intention of why you’re here, and then that connection I’m my best friend, and gratitude being here and being just grateful for it. You know, there’s no wrong or right, and it’s whatever feels right to you. But I would say consistency. This is the key. People think they can journal for a week and know themselves like, Nah, you can’t just go to the gym for a week and build that stuff like you have it go consistently. And a lot of people think that it’s like a task. I have to do this task. I coach people to be like, this is the way of life. This isn’t the task you and yeah, in our community, we just, we’re a family. More than just a coaching kind of community. We are a family. So yeah, so that’s how I get to your core values. Get to know yourself and be consistent. 

ANNE RAJOO

I agree. The more you listen to yourself and the more you actually allow yourself the space to, you know, to be aware of, like, what are your thoughts and what are you telling yourself? The easier you catch yourself as well. And I want to tie it back into productivity. I mean, definitely, my belief is that if we are working in a way that is not authentic to us, or if we’re doing tasks and jobs and things like that that are not authentic, it’s harder, because obviously there is resistance. Maybe there is no talent for it. Maybe there is the pressure of, like, doing it a certain way and maybe not being able to do it a certain way. But I’m wondering if you have any personal experience, or when you work with clients, when we really made it like, draw it down onto productivity and the way of working. What are your thoughts there around doing it authentically? 

PIXII WILLIAMS 

So first of all, what the whole thing that was just said that’s what you need to start with. It is mindset work and self-development work that you must start with when you then finally found something that you love to do. And you know, this is how I want to do it. I have a system called C C I I A: Consistent, Committed, Imperfect, Immediate, Action. 

Okay, what happens? Our authentic self comes through instantly. We know what to do. But what happens when you start thinking about it? Maybe, let’s do it another way. Oh, I saw this person do it this way. So when you have a system in place, so committed, be committed in what you’re doing. Be consistent. Be imperfect. Do it even if it’s not perfect. Just do it immediately. That’s the most important one. If you sit too long on a project or something that you’re doing, you’ll start to think about how other people do it, and you’re not listening to what’s right for you, take action. Okay? So a lot of people will start to overthink, and overthinking is actually thinking about what other people have done, because when you’re in alined with your true purpose and your authentic self, you don’t need to think it comes to you immediate. Do it immediately. So that’s the practice I teach people, is you must be immediate with it. You can’t wait, because they shiny object syndrome happens, then you’re, you know, you think, you think you need to do it. You ask other people do it. It’s not about thinking. It’s about feeling keeping it mixed up. People think they need to think their way out of situations. They need to feel it. And when you start to think you’re unauthentic, yeah, that there’s different than brainstorming. That’s different, but when you know what you’re doing and you want to stay in aligned with what you’re doing, and when you’re following someone else’s path in someone else’s journey. Yeah, take advice from books and stuff like that, and hear what we’re saying now, and take away bits that work for you, but never follow what someone else is doing. It’s just going to lead you to burnout. So if I could teach it anything, it’s consistent, committed, imperfect, immediate action. That’s how you stay aligned with yourself.

ANNE RAJOO

I really loved. What you just said about We think too much and we feel too little. It’s actually a conversation I had yesterday, not the day before yesterday, in the community that I’m part of. I gave a workshop there, and really the consensus of the whole conversation was that we believe that productivity happens in your mind. We have to think productively and efficiently. But everybody in the conversation said that we need to listen more to our bodies. We need to take rest, we need to listen to our energy. And the body can’t lie. The mind can lie. And I love that conversation so much, and you’re just really reaffirming that, and what you just said about, you know, when we do things authentically, we don’t need to think about it. It’s natural. It’s pretty much automatic to us. And I think it’s the most efficient way, because we didn’t necessarily suppress something or, you know, again, bend our mind, bend our bodies to do certain things a certain way. So, yeah, I just wanted to really pull that out and say that we are thinking too much. We need to feel more and listen more to ourselves, and then obviously talk to us, to ourselves in a positive way. I think also a lot of women, I’m assuming you have a lot of women in your community who’ve just really learned to speak to ourselves in this terrible, harsh way, and that is just not helpful. 

PIXII WILLIAMS 

Definitely, I do have men and I have women in my community, and it’s, it’s, maybe it’s just majority of women, I don’t know the stats, but the men that I’ve had in my community struggle with positive talk as well. It’s something that I go I write very deeply in the book that I’m publishing on the first of February. It’s you have to understand that we all have a choice. If you don’t understand, and you don’t believe that you have a choice, you’re never going to change. And it’s about hearing, becoming aware of the limited self-talk, catching yourself and switching it. And a lot of people think, is there an easier way to do this? Can I? Can I do it overnight? No, it’s taken me 10 years to do it, but it really is about you have to believe in yourself and you have to trust yourself. The only way that you’re going to do that is building a connection with yourself and making sure you your your own cheerleader, yeah, like in the back of your head, you can do this. Well done, celebrating your wins. That’s a massive one. You’re an entrepreneur, if you’re just just in general life. You know, I do this with people who are stay at home moms, celebrate the wins every day. The reason that we do it so psychologically is because it helps us keep and create momentum. Momentum and motivation is cultivated. It’s cultivated. It doesn’t just happen. It rarely just happens, we have to cultivate it. So yeah, I Yeah, it’s, it’s the limited self talk, but it’s, there is a way to undo it. It takes consistency and hard work, but comes easy, huh? 

ANNE RAJOO

No exactly. Good things in live are earned or something like that. Yeah. And celebrating makes it more fun and easier. So I totally I am someone who celebrates even tiny little things. I love that book a couple of times, so let me know the title. And then if you want to share with the audience, the listeners you know, where can they find you and learn more about you, your community and the book.

PIXII WILLIAMS 

Of course, so you’re the first to learn aobut the book title. So the book is called Young, Dumb and Depressed. The title funny, and I’m really hoping everyone takes it as a funny way life is. Life is just too serious sometimes to be serious all the time. But basically, it started off as a journal about directing business and creating a business with dyslexia, and through the years, it’s actually turned into a self-help book. So I do speak about being neurodivergent. I do speak about losing myself in a business, but really it’s a step-by-step guide about how to get yourself out of being depressed. And the reason it’s “Young” is because I was depressed for many, many years. Young, Dumb… Dumb, because it’s not like we can’t do it, we just don’t know how to do it. So when we get taught how to actually get ourselves out of these depressions or these anxiety states or the messes that we’re in. So yeah, it’s about, yeah, just in general self-help book. But it’s a bit different. And the reason it’s different is because I don’t sugarcoat things. If you know me, which you’ll probably get to know me, Anne, over the years, I say it how it is, and people need it to be said how it is. And I think a lot of self-help books don’t actually, they’re not very raw. This, this book is born, and I speak about death, and I know for some people that, like, no, no, no, like, you know, that’s too depressive, that’s too morbid. No, it isn’t. It’s a part of life. And when we start to wake up that tomorrow is simply not promised, life gets a whole lot better, because you stop wasting your time, moaning, being sad, being depressed, you know? Yeah, yeah. We have, we have childhood trauma that we have to go through. And the book is about conditioning. We all being conditioned by by certain aspects of our lives, about our childhood, but even though it can be woven into our DNA, pure fact that tomorrow is a promise, and this is the point of the book, it’s not there to be fluffy and to be like a big cuddle. It’s actually there to shake you and wake you up. I’m still lovely in it, and I still do fluffy and joking. You know, I am myself. I’m raw. But that’s what I think a lot of people are missing reading, that they keep on reading about the positives, but not about the real stuff. That really gets you thinking. So that in a nutshell, is what the book is about. It’s, it’s taken me years to write. I’m so emotional about it. I’ve worked so hard on it. So yeah, that’s definitely something. So yeah, it’s called Young, Dumb and Depressed by Pixii Williams. And like I said, I have an online coaching platform called Thrive Beyond Limits. So you can even find that on my Tiktok, which is Pixii Williams, my Instagram, which is Pixii Williams, or my Facebook, which is Pixii Williams. So it’s all under the same name. It’s about p, i, x, i, i, there is no other Pixii but me. 

ANNE RAJOO

At the heart of productivity isn’t just strategy and structure. It’s alignment. When you listen to yourself, trust your own rhythms and work in a way that feels natural to you, everything flows with more ease. Peaceful Productivity isn’t about forcing, it’s about allowing. And if you’re ready to bring more clarity and ease into your days, I invite you to download my Wheel of Peaceful Productivity. You will find it on my website www.annerajoo.com and I will link to it in your show notes; it’s a simple but powerful tool to help you identify where you’re thriving and where you need a little bit of tweaking and adjusting. 

And be sure to come back next week. We will dive into intuition, how tapping into that deep inner knowing creates a kind of clarity that moves through us and expands this connected way of seeing the world that transforms how we work and how we make decisions. You really don’t want to miss that one.

All this is coming next week, and I can’t wait to be back here with you. Until then, Stay peacefully productive. Catch you next time!