How to Say Goodbye to Hustle and Hello to Passive Income and Peace

• The hidden realities of success and how they can lead to burnout.
• Why setting boundaries is a non-negotiable for long-term sustainability.
• Practical strategies for finding balance in the chaos of entrepreneurship.
• How to redefine success on your own terms.

Book Recommendation: The 12 Week Year

If you’re looking for a way to increase productivity and stay focused on your goals, I highly recommend The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. This book has completely transformed the way I approach my goals and planning. By breaking down the year into 12-week periods, I’ve been able to minimize distractions and focus on what truly matters. The system creates a sense of urgency without feeling overwhelming, leading to tangible achievements that keep me motivated. I’ll link the book in the show notes for you to check out.

Curious about working with me? I’m offering a mini productivity audit to help you look at what truly matters and what’s the gap. Click this link to schedule your mini audit today!

“What you see on the outside isn’t always the reality; there were times I felt like I was holding it all together with duct tape.”

“Burnout doesn’t happen overnight—it’s the small, consistent ways we neglect ourselves in pursuit of the next goal.”

“I had to learn that success doesn’t mean sacrificing your health or happiness along the way.”

“You can build a thriving business without running yourself into the ground—it starts with setting boundaries and honoring them.”

“The biggest shift for me was realizing that slowing down isn’t a setback; it’s a strategy for sustainable success.”

ANNE RAJOO

If you ever looked at someone wildly successful and thought they must have it all together, and if you don’t, well, you’re not alone. But what we see and the reality behind the scenes can be very different. So today’s guest is Lisa Johnson, a powerhouse entrepreneur known for her mega successful business ventures. While on the outside she seemed unstoppable, but behind the scenes, there were times when she was overworked, burned out and struggling to keep up with the pace that simply wasn’t sustainable. And in this episode, we dive into a big issue that many entrepreneurs face the gap between external success and internal well-being. And why is this happening? Well, I think it’s the old way of thinking about productivity, the idea that productivity means constantly hustling, wearing exhaustion as a batch of honor and pushing our limits until something breaks.

Welcome to the peaceful productivity pod. I’m your host, Anne Rajoo, and together we redefine productivity and find your sweet spot where performance meets happiness.

I started my business when my kids were little, and I totally bought into this dangling carrot of time, freedom as an entrepreneur. Reality, however, was that I was working extremely hard, late nights, always feeling like I never had enough time, constantly working on my phone in between and while they were playing, and while I wanted to be with them my boys, I still was constantly on either in my head or on my phone, trying to finish off something that I just couldn’t finish earlier, and on the outside at the same time, it really looked like I had this beautiful, balanced life. I mean, you know, beautiful pictures of this beautiful island where I live and my children and playing and having lots of time together, but that was not reality. That was highlight reel, and I was really just deep in the middle of that conflict between striving for success and maintaining sustainable pace. And I know I’m not the only one.

Today’s guest Lisa Johnson is a self-made multi-millionaire business strategist specializing in helping entrepreneurs scale their businesses using passive income from memberships and courses. She’s also a mom of twins, and she loves to travel. And in full transparency, I totally love the idea of passive income, but I also burned myself out in trying to create it. And that’s not because anything is wrong with coaches like Lisa or passive income per se, but my own way of trying to make it happen, I was taking on too many things, jumping around, trying to launch something else, because the first thing didn’t work out or not focusing on building the foundation of my business. Now that I’m in a bit of a different stage of my business, I’m again looking at creative, passive income streams, but even more so, nurturing my audience, and this is why I created the podcast. And in today’s recording, Lisa speaks about both things, shares her inspiring story, and she shares her tips on how to create passive income and to nurture your audience so that you can create the freedom that you’re here for. All right, so let’s hear it.

LISA JOHNSON

I come from a background where people don’t generally get really good jobs like that. They come from a counselor state in England, and so people generally, you know, they stay local. They don’t really branch out very much. And it’s quite hard to climb a ladder, you know. I didn’t go to university or do a levels or anything like that. And so I’d managed to kind of call my way up to this really great corporate position. But then I unexpectedly had twins, and it wasn’t on the plan. I went back to work when they were five months old, thinking, Well, you know, I have to financially, went back to work and I never saw them. Six o’clock in the morning, when I’d leave for work, they’d be in bed. I’d come back like eight, nine o’clock at night, and they’d be in bed, and so I would just never see them and pop them on weekends, and realize that that’s not really the kind of life that I wanted to lead. But financially, I was going through a divorce, so I was a single parent, so it was going to be difficult. So I then left that job and decided to just get a nine-to-five, really easy PA job near my house so that I could see them. It wouldn’t take too much of my time, and I could still bring money in, but it was a third of what I was earning before. So I did this job, and it was great. I got to see the kids. But two things happened. I got into debt very quickly, because I was still.

Having to pay for two kids on this, on how much I was earning, there was 30,000 pounds in debt within a year, I wasn’t into self-development at all. So I didn’t understand things like money mindset and how that can really affect you, especially because of where I had come from, and had quite a big effect on me. So within about four months, I got my first perfect, ideal client for the wedding business, really high budget, about 60,000 wanted a really cool wedding, just the kind of wedding I wanted, because we’d really changed our ideal client because of the things that I’d learned. And then three months later, I was fully booked for a year and a half, brilliant clients, making money again. And it turned everything around for me. 

People then over the next year or two, started coming to me and say, how have you done this? Like we saw that you were studying and now you’re making quite a lot of money, and how, because we’re struggling. And by this point, I was doing all the courses I liked, loved self-development, and reading all the books. And so I was able to say, Well, I tried this thing that I read in this book, and this really worked for me. Why don’t you try it? And I have a bit of a knack for explaining things in a much more basic way. Because I think business sometimes you read a business book and it’s complicated. You don’t even really know, like, there’s all this jargon out there, and I didn’t understand any of that jargon. So when I started teaching others, I wanted it to be simple, just like step by step. Do this, try this and try this. 

People started getting really good results and coming to me and saying, I’ve just made, like, doubled my income because of that thing you told me. And so after a couple of years of this, I was like, You know what? I think I should be a bit like, rather than a wedding planner who wasn’t enjoying the weddings. I had wanted a kind of life where I spent more time with my kids. I wanted to travel so badly. I’d never really traveled, and I really wanted to, and yet I’d given myself a job where every weekend during the summer, I was working at a wedding. So I was never going to be able to travel. I was never going to be able to spend time again. So I changed my business and started coaching. 

However, you might think that’s great end of the story, and she lived happily ever after, but it was I had to completely rewrite my story again because a year in, it was doing so well. I was traveling the world. I was doing all these amazing stages and things, and I was absolutely shattered. I got burned out three times where just in bed for two weeks, couldn’t move because I was doing too much work. I was working from six o’clock in the morning till 11 o’clock at night. 

So I’d given up this nine to five for six to 11, but I still didn’t see the kids. And it was like, How have I managed to do this? Like, yes, I’m making really good money, but now I’m really not living the life that I wanted to lead. I knew something had to change, but I didn’t really know what, so I started looking into different types of business models and models that could work for me. And that’s when I stumbled across passive income, all that that entire entails. And started like, you know, learning everything I could about passive income, adding passive income streams like courses and memberships and a jewelry line, all these different things, affiliates into my business. 

But it’s not just about growing the audience. You have to nurture that audience as well, once you’ve done that, and that’s the bit where most people get bored and give in, because that takes some time. It took me six months from my first audience to be nurturing enough to buy. You can go on to the next steps. Not easy, but it isn’t the hardest bit that people struggle with is, is the a the growing the audience, because it can be lonely. Growing an audience. You’re doing it a lot of the time. You know, it’s like Tumbleweed sometimes, and growing an audience. 

I remember that at the beginning all I did was have, I didn’t have a, you know, website or anything like that. Didn’t need that. In the first year, all I had was a Facebook group. I just went live in this Facebook group every day for six months. 

ANNE RAJOO

Are there like signs when your audience is kind of getting ready? 

LISA JOHNSON

I believe that there are four steps to growing an audience. Like, the first side is when you’re like, you’re literally just like, on your own. You feel like there might be people in your Facebook group, but you’re just or your email list, but you’re just talking, and no one’s really listening. And your mum might give you a tick on it, like give you a live. Your friend might say, “Oh, great, live” or whatever. But you know, really, that no one’s listening. And that’s the first side of people. That’s the bit that takes the time. After two or three months of that, people will start listening, because you’re being consistent, and consistency is the biggest thing in business, then they’ll start listening. 

So the second kind of stage of growing an audience is where they are listening. And you might get quite a few comments, like, every time you go live, people like ask, you know, like saying, Great, live and thanks for this. And you can see that people are actually on live watching you.

The third step is when people come in and ask a question and you are answering it. So someone puts in there. Oh, can anyone help me with this? And you go in there and you answer it. 

The fourth, and this is where you want to get to, is where someone comes in and asks questions, and other people in the group answer it. That’s when it gets really busy. And then you can take a step back, because you don’t need to be in there all the time when they’re you know. That’s when you have built a community, and remember, that’s what growing an audience is. It’s not about growing audience to listen to you. It’s about growing a community that they help each other, and then when you come in, they’re more likely to listen because you won’t be coming in as often.

ANNE RAJOO

Okay? Taking a step back, yeah, taking a step back and let the other people talk, but then come in with whatever, whatever proposition you have. 

LISA JOHNSON

And it’s hard to do that, because when people are growing an audience, they feel like they need to be there all the time, and they need to be talking to them. They need to be answering every question. But if you keep answering every question, no one else is going to because you are the hierarchy is that you are the leader of Facebook, therefore, if you go in and answer someone’s question, no one else is going to put a different opinion on there, whereas if you just leave it for a few hours, let give the opportunity for people to come on and help that person rather than you. And then if no one does at the beginning, then fine, go and answer it, but give it some time. It’s hard to do that because you’re like, I want to show them everything I know the expert. Yeah, exactly that. But you don’t need to be the expert all the time. 

ANNE RAJOO

I always love an inspirational story combined with some tangible business tips. And I hope you enjoyed this episode with Lisa Johnson today. And before we wrap up, I want to share one practice in particular that really has changed the way I work. So overwhelm and exhaustion often come from working on too many moving parts. 

I’m a multi-passionate, creative person. I love starting things. I love mulling over new ideas and working on a few things here and there to make it come to life, and so I often have multiple projects on the go. Which has an element of power and is definitely great for business development and is something that I’m really proud of. But at the same time, it can often lead to this point of doing too many things, having too many pots on the fire cooking up too many more dishes. And I think it comes often from this idea or experience that we want to chase that next goal to be successful. We want to work on the next launch, because the internet just talks about massive launches and huge successes. And so we want to create that next offer that’s going to bring the business to the next level, or that’s really going to make that financial goal that we’ve set out. And we need to find new clients all the time. And so we ‘re always creating something, and we’re always working on new projects. 

And so when I work with my clients in my peaceful productivity audit, the number one stressor that they all bring up is the struggle to focus and to know where to start. So when we work together, we look at identifying, finding what truly matters, and then we create a plan. And it’s the plan that has changed things for me. 

So I love the book, the “12 Week Year” by Brian P Morin and Michael Lenington, and I’m going to link that in the show notes, but I have implemented the 12-week year and the planning that they outline in the book. And I have been loving it. It really has helped me to create the system and processes to minimize destruction, and it really promotes laser-focused execution. I feel it creates a really well-balanced sense of urgency because it’s only 12 weeks, but also at the same time, tangible achievements. Which, for me, are really motivating because often when we look at the whole 12 months a whole year ahead of us, we can lose focus, or it feels like, Oh, this is taking so long, and we might lose motivation along the way. 

And with the 12 week year, it just really helps to define your goals and break them down into smaller quarterly milestones, and then break them down into weekly milestones, and then daily priorities. And with these shorter sort of sprints or focus periods, I have really found it easier to achieve my goals. 

So if you’re curious about a Productivity Audit, I want to invite you to book a complimentary mini audit with me. You find the link on my website and in the show notes, and we can come together and look at what truly matters and what’s the gap. What are you working on? And maybe where are some shifts that can help you to focus better? 

Also, I want to say thank you for listening, and please help me spread the word productivity doesn’t have to be hustle and grind. It can be peaceful and joyful. And share this episode with a friend who needs that in her business and in her life. 

And next week, it’s going to be a solo episode, my first solo episode on the podcast, and I will talk about productivity during the festive season. Because once Christmas is over, and Christmas is over fast, we’ll start seeing lots of content about the new year and goals and resolutions and catching up with, you know, after the holidays. But what I want for you, really, is to stay on track and feel calm and in control even during this busy season of the year so that you don’t have to come back in 2025 scrambling to get back into your groove, stick around and come back next week for the next episode. 

Until then, stay peacefully productive and catch you soon.