128: Pursue Your Passion (and Get Work Done)

Welcome to Season 10 of Productivity Paradox with Tanya Dalton, a podcast 

focused on helping you achieve your best life. Join Tanya this season as she explores the concept of bending time, so you could stay focused on what matters 

most. 

To get her free checklist, Five Minutes to Peak Productivity, simply go to 

inkWELLpress.com/podcast. 

Now here’s your host, Tanya Dalton. 

Tanya: 

Hello, hello everyone. Welcome to Productivity Paradox. I’m your host, Tanya Dalton, and this is episode 128, pursue your passion and still get work done. You see, a lot of what we’re going to talk about today is bending time, so it works for you, even if you don’t have a traditional schedule. Today, I’m chatting with Tiffany Sorya who shows families how to make education work for them. Now, a lot of what Tiffany talks about is education, but it applies so nicely even if you don’t have kids. Tiffany’s approach is all about creating a life that works for you. Think about how this applies even if you don’t have children or if you don’t have an unconventional lifestyle. What I love about her message is that it really is about having the life you really want. 

Let me introduce you to Tiffany. Tiffany is the founder of Novel Education Group, and elite homeschooling and academic agency specializing in customizing curriculum and academic advising for students and families with unconventional lifestyles, so celebrities, social media stars, athletes, families who travel frequently, even families 

enrolled in regular school but maybe the kid’s interests lie outside the traditional curriculum. She’s the private tutor for many high-profile clients, including Kendall and Kylie Jenner and the family of Dr Dre. Tiffany’s ethos is rooted in the fundamental lifelong value of education, especially in our digital media driven era of young entrepreneurs and social media stars. Her innovative educational philosophies include open and flexible teaching methods that underscore students’ hobbies and interests while allowing them to discover their purpose and passions while still providing an effective and comprehensive education. Tiffany’s mission is to provide something unique and rewarding by making smart 

stylish again. Let’s get started. 

Tiffany, I’m so excited to have you on the show today. 

Tiffany: 

Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited, too. I’m excited to talk about these things. 

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Tanya: 

Absolutely. Well this season of the podcast, we are talking about bending time, so really changing our relationship with time, and how we feel, how we’re spending it. I know that you work with a lot of people with very unconventional lifestyles, people that are like celebrities or athletes, maybe they travel the world, right? 

Tiffany: 

Yes. 

Tanya: 

So, people who are spending their time in ways that are very fulfilling to them. In thinking of this idea of living the life that you really want, which is what we’re all trying to do, how do you think it’s possible to fit in some of the more routine tasks like education and things like that? 

Tiffany: 

Right. I think it’s really important to schedule everything into your life. I’m really big on this and when I work with students as well, I always tell them to also schedule in your free time and schedule in the things that are not related to work in your planner. I just think it’s really important to fit these things in because if you don’t schedule them, then they don’t take priority in your life, and then that’s when like the self-care and things like education fall through the cracks and then you get burnt out, so I think it’s really important. I mean, balance is very, very important to me and I always try and promote that with my students as well. 

Tanya: 

I love that, too, the scheduling in the task set don’t feel routine, right? 

The things that are routine, but also the things that are a little bit extra, the self-care. I like to actually schedule in downtime in my calendar. I write it in there because then I feel like I don’t feel guilty when I take that downtime. 

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Tiffany: 

Totally. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, I schedule everything in from nails to all of that stuff that stuff, just the random little things that you want to get done. Because yeah, just like you’re saying, you don’t feel guilty about it, and I think you feel like deserving of it because it’s just part of your schedule. 

Tanya: 

Absolutely. Well, it’s one of those things where if you don’t schedule it somewhere, it ends up getting scheduled nowhere. 

Tiffany: 

Right. 

Tanya 

I think that’s really one of the things that happens is we cram our day full of these quote-unquote important things that have to happen, but we’re forgetting the truly important things, the things that really make life richer and more exciting. 

Tiffany: 

Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think exercise is huge with that scheduling in exercise. I mean, constantly you hear from people, “Oh, I just don’t have time. I just don’t have time to exercise. I don’t, I can’t, could not find the 

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time to go get a massage or have lunch with an old friend.” But the reality is, is that if we all looked at our schedules, there’s always something, quote-unquote productive for work that we could be doing at any moment in time or something that it doesn’t necessarily focus on self-care. I mean, I think anyone listening right now can, if you’re sitting on the couch and you’re watching a show or something, your mind is kind of going crazy with all the things that you could be doing. I think we could always be filling our day with things that involve work. But if you find the time and in the other things, then it just becomes a part of your day. 

Tanya: 

Absolutely. I love what you said there. I really think that it is important to really put in the time for the things that we are passionate about. I know that you say that passion and purpose are the cornerstones to longevity, educationally and in your career trajectory, and I couldn’t agree more. I feel like, well as you said, there’s always productive quote unquote, right? I put that in quotes because what is truly productive? 

Tiffany: 

Yeah, right. 

Tanya: 

There’s always things that you could do for work, but we don’t always have to fill our time with those things. Really that passion and purpose is what makes life fulfilling. 

Tiffany: 

Yes, absolutely. And it’s so true, you know? When I say this to my students or really anyone that I’m speaking to in terms of passion. It’s just before you really commit to any type of work, or if you’re an entrepreneur and you’re starting a business, or something like that, you have to have the purpose and the passion behind what you’re doing because at some point it just becomes like a mindless cycle. Then you don’t really feel like you’re achieving that long-term goal. And in order to have the longevity in your career or in whatever you’re trying to pursue, it’s so important to what the passion is behind that. 

Tanya: 

Right. I think that’s one of the ways that we can avoid burnout. Right? Do you think that’s one of the things that happens that causes us to burn out and finally just feel like exhausted and like we don’t really want to do the jobs? 

Tiffany: 

Absolutely. Absolutely. I think focusing, honing in on your passion and really, it’s not even like honing in on it, it’s really understanding what it is. Because if you don’t have a clear vision of what you’re doing sort of at the end of this, you know, as you’re going through everything, then sometimes what ends up happening is you’re doing work that’s pointless or you’re just thinking, “Oh, well this is productive and this is working towards something,” but like is it really? Then suddenly you’ve filled up your day with doing little tasks that don’t necessarily need to be done in terms of the long-term goal. 

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Tanya: 

Yeah. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the busy work instead of, really, the important work. But sometimes the busy work we think, “Oh, this is so important, I have to do this, but it’s really just filling our time. When! say important work, it’s what’s driving you towards that vision you really want to have in your life, right? 

Tiffany: 

Yes. I mean, it was a really, really big moment for me. You know, when I started Novel Education Group, I mean, Novel Education Group was me. That was my whole, the whole business was me. I think for a lot of people, that’s something that needs to be made clear to future 

entrepreneurs is I think it’s really easy to sort of look at these businesses and you kind of forget that at the beginning of every business it was just one person and one idea. 

And because you do that, your business sort of becomes your baby so you become, I mean I did anyways, a bit of a control freak and I wanted to do everything. I wanted to have a hand in every tiny little thing that needed to be done. Then what I found was that I was being counterproductive in terms of the long-term goal. I wasn’t progressing as a company because I was so busy do the tiny little things. Then I realized I had to step back, and I had to let go somewhere because you can’t work in the business and on the business at the same time. You can’t run a company and grow a company at the same time. It’s just impossible. You have to pick and choose where your strengths lie and what you’re going to focus on, because that’s how you’re going to become the most productive. 

Tanya: 

I think that’s so true. I think as a fellow small business owner, right, at the beginning, you are wearing every single hat. You know, when people ask you like, “Who does this?” You’re like, “I do it.” “Who does that?” “I do it.” “Who cleans the toilets?” “That’s me also,” right? “I do everything.” 

Tiffany: 

Exactly. 

Tanya: 

It is, it’s so hard when you’re wading through all of that to really, how do you prioritize when everything feels like a priority, right? 

Tiffany: 

Yeah. 

Tanya: 

But I like what you said there about you really have to pick and choose which hat you’re going to wear, right? 

Tiffany: 

Yeah. 

Tanya: 

You can work on the business, not in the business, and that’s a challenge. How do you think people can really understand which tasks to focus in on and which ones to let go? You know? Because I think you touched 

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there too, on that idea of perfectionism that no one else can do it as well as I do, right? 

Tiffany: 

Oh yeah, absolutely. No one else could write this email as well as me or no one else can be my books as well as I can. I want to know everything that’s going on. It’s just, you know. I mean I’ve been there, I totally get it. But I think you just have to ask yourself why did you do this, and the all this all goes back to the purpose and the passion. Did you start this company to do books? Did you start this company to write, to respond to inquiry emails all the time? Did you? So why did you really start this company and usually it’s because you have a void you want to fill, or you have a message that you would like to spread. 

Keep that in mind as you’re prioritizing your day and you’re prioritizing your tasks. It’s okay to get outside help and it’s worth the money. I really want to tell people that too, you know, spending the extra money to have someone help you with your books, or have someone help you with some organizational things, or whatever just like little tasks that you have here and there. It’s worth it to spend the extra and get the help because it’s an investment and it will only bring you further along. 

Tanya; 

I think that’s so true. People get really caught up in that they do have to do everything, or they want to know what are the things that you let go of first, and I’m like, “Well, what I let go of first is different than maybe you want to let go of because our missions might be different.” 

Or really what we enjoy, right? Because maybe you really like writing the emails, so that’s okay to hold onto that a little bit longer if that’s truly what you get a lot of fulfillment out of. If not, then let that go. 

Tiffany: 

Right. Yeah. If at some point you’re going through your day, or you’re going through your tasks in your business and whatnot, and you’re sitting down and you’re like, “Ohlhate this part,” then maybe that’s something that you can be delegating to someone else, because imagine how much you could be getting done if that energy is being put 

elsewhere. 

Tanya: 

Right? Yeah, that’s where we get to that idea you spoke about, about working on your business rather than in your business, getting out of the 

trenches and really looking at it. We’re talking about in terms of business, but this is true of life in general, being an active part of your life rather than just digging yourself out of the tasks and errands every single day. 

Tiffany: 

Yeah. Understanding how you want to live your life, what kind of person do I want to be, what kind of lifestyle do I want to have? And then building your tasks around that vision I think is really important. Because then, you know, you go to bed everyday lay in bed and you’re just like, 

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“Okay, today I didn’t spend the time that I wanted to living the life that I want to live.” Then why? And it’s because you’re busy doing tasks, so it’s okay. It’s just okay to ask for help and it’s okay. I mean, I feel like we’re still in a space as women where we actually feel like we have to do everything. 

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Tanya: 

Amen. 

Tiffany: 

Oh my god. I’m like, how am I supposed to exercise, eat healthy, run a business, be a good partner to my life partner, walk my dog, take care of my kids, take my vitamins. Like it’s just absolutely impossible. And like, “Oh, and I need to keep the house clean and I have to look cute.” I’m like, “What?” It’s impossible. It’s just we can’t do it all and it’s totally okay to not be able to do at all. 

Tanya: 

Yes. I cannot preach that enough. I think that’s the thing is it’s what do you want to let go of, because you cannot do it all. You have to be willing not to do it all. Right? 

Tiffany: 

Yeah. Oh, yeah, I think really though, the sooner you’re able to be self aware about the things that you can and cannot do, the sooner you will become more productive in your life. 

Tanya: 

It’s so true, because what happens too is when you have to have your hands on everything, when you feel like everything has to go through you, whether it’s running your house, or running a business, or doing your job for a corporation, if everything has to run through you, you the bottleneck, and everything is slowing down. It’s not more productive. It’s the opposite. It’s slower because you’re stopping work from happening. 

Tiffany: 

Yes. That’s such a good way to put it with the bottleneck thing. I mean, it’s like all these things you have to do come flooding towards you and rather than opening several gates, if you’re the single gate that everything can flow through, I mean, imagine how much it’s slowing it down. That’s such a good way to put it. 

Tanya 

Yeah. Well, I’m kind of going through that right now with my business with the book coming out in October and I know that when the launch of the book happens, it’s going to take a lot of my time, and so I keep telling my team, “I need to stop being the bottleneck. Stop putting things through me. Like, even if I think it needs to go through me, tell me it doesn’t.” You know? 

Tiffany: 

Right. 

Tanya: 

Because sometimes we need that outside force to be like, “Listen, let it 

go.” Right? 

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Tiffany: 

Yes. Just like, no. It’s fine. 

Tanya: 

Let it go. 

Tiffany: 

Or just be like, “Hey, I already took care of it.” Then I just don’t have the control anymore because the email has already been sent and it’s already been taken care of, so it’s like, “Okay, great. Even if I don’t like it, I just have to accept it and move on.” So, then that’s totally fine. 

That’s also the thing too, is I think accepting and just realizing that everything’s fine. Everything’s going to be fine. Even if something was done a little bit differently than how you would have done it, it’s okay, and it’s okay to let these things slide because, oh man, you could just fill your list and your day with things that you want to change, and edit, and then go back and redo constantly. I mean, I’m sure with a book, you know? At what point in that book writing process and editing process are you like, “No, I’m not done editing. No, this still needs to be changed. I don’t like.” I mean, I’m sure you could spend years, and years, and years doing that 

Tanya: 

Yeah, oh, decades. I think you could. I mean, so I don’t remember who said this, but someone said … Because each time you have a round of edits, you go through and you’re like, “Oh, I want to change this, I want to change this,” and so some authors said, “Books are never completed, they’re abandoned.” At some point you have to abandon it and you have to say, “This is good enough. I’m ready just to put it out to the world,” because you can’t. We can nitpick anything. A book, you can nitpick an 

email that you’re sending out, you can nitpick anything forever if you allowed yourself to. You have to abandon things from time to time and move on, as you said. 

Tiffany: 

Yeah, move onto the next thing, because you could have one book in your whole life that you just love every single little crossed T and dotted 1, or you could have five or maybe there’s a couple crossed T’s and dotted I’s that you don’t like. So, it’s just sort of like which one do you prefer? I think most people would want would want more books and more of their ideas to be out. 

Tanya: 

Yeah. More of that fulfilling idea of what is fulfilling. We want more of that fulfilling idea, that fulfilling a feeling. We want to let some of these things go so we really enjoy life more, right? 

Tiffany: 

Yes. Yes. Absolutely. 

Tanya: 

Well, I want to talk a little bit more, but first, let’s have a quick word from today’s sponsor. 

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Okay so Tiffany, I really want to talk to you about your mission behind what you do because obviously you’re very passionate about living a mission-driven life and having a mission-driven business, right? 

Tiffany: 

Mm-hmm. Yes. 

Tanya 

Tell me a little bit about, because I know that you’re on a mission to make smart stylish again. 

Tiffany: 

Yes. 

Tanya 

I’m a former teacher, so I love that. Tell me what that means to you. 

Tiffany: 

Well, I feel like we are living in this age. I mean, it’s so interesting to see how things have evolved from when I was a teenager. We’re living in this age now where we’re seeing younger and younger crowds becoming entrepreneurs, we have influencers now at a very young age, we have YouTube stars. We have people that are like fighting against this age-old system that we’ve had with education. 

I’m trying to bridge the gap between education and entrepreneurship, unconventional living, influencer, that whole lifestyle. So yeah. The mission is to bridge the gap and they’re not mutually exclusive. You know, an unconventional lifestyle and an effective education do not have to be mutually exclusive, they can be in the same and they can affect 

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each other. Trying to bring education back to the table and really give it like this facelift, this new wave of sort of, I mean for lack of a better word right now, coolness, that I feel like it’s really lacking in a lot of kids don’t see that in school. I think if we were to make it a bit more hip and a bit more modern, I think that this younger generation that exists now would really be responding to it a lot more. 

Tanya: 

I love that. You know, it’s funny, I was actually taking Kate to school the other day and I said to her, “Well, are you excited about school today?” And she said, “Well, it’s school.” She’s in sixth grade, so she’s like, “Well, it’s school.” And I go, “What does that mean?” She goes, “Well, at school, mom.” I’m like, “Okay, but you get to go spend all day with your friends, 

and you get to hang out, and yeah there’s schoolwork to be done, but at the same time you guys get to go and do some pretty cool things.” So, this idea of school is uncool, right, or school is this place. 

Tiffany: 

Yeah. 

Tanya: 

She’s a good student. She’s smart. She does her work. I was telling her, “| don’t understand why you feel like, well, it’s school,” but it’s true. There’s this whole different lifestyle that’s happening for a lot of people in school and education needs to catch up with this idea. We don’t all work nine to five. Some of us are in 24-hour industries like tech or healthcare. Some of us are entrepreneurs. Some of us are doing these other things that don’t fit those constraints. 

Tiffany: 

Yes. And you know, I mean we have kids like scrolling through Instagram and looking at all the things that are available to them now that were just not available to us when I was younger anyways. It was not available to me. So, because they have access to so many things now in the world, you can’t expect them to go to school and be inspired by this setting that is so much older than this age that we’re living in now. You know, we have to be changing education to sort of catch up with this new wave of technology and new wave of thinking that we’re really seeing. 

Tanya 

Yeah. What are the ways you think that education could do that in a better way? What do you teach the families you tutor to make it so that 

school is a little more interesting, a little more, you know. Maybe less antiquated, we’ll say? 

Tiffany: 

Yes. Well I mean firstly, this goes back to the whole picking and choosing what you want to do. Novel does not believe in spending the same amount of time on every single subject. Traditionally, a lot of schools would be like, “Okay, you’re really good at math but you’re really bad at English, so we‘re only going to spend a little bit of time on math and we’re going to spend a lot of time on English.” 

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While I understand the mentality of wanting to, putting, “Oh well, you’ve already got the math, so then we just won’t worry about that. Let’s just spend a lot of time on the thing that you’re bad at.” But to me, it’s sort of counterproductive. I’m like, ‘Well, why wouldn’t you take the strength that the student has and work on the strength so that it becomes this major strength in their life versus spending the same amount of time on every subject when it’s just completely unnecessary?” It’s really like this whole new efficient way of doing school, but building on a student’s strengths. 

Also, I believe on some level of standardized education, of course. It’s like I believe that we should all know certain things about science, and history, and English, and things like that. However, I don’t think we need to be spending as much time as we do on these things. What we try to incorporate into the curriculum is just real-life applicable skills, which I think are also really important. You know, they should leave school with a concept. A foundation that we build off is teaching students to learn how to learn. 

We want them to finish school with the skills that they’ll need in order to problem solve, and write effectively, and communicate effectively, because those are the things that you use in your life, so focusing on 

those skills through the subjects that we teach is really what we try and do. 

Tanya 

Yeah, I think that’s great. It’s this idea of almost customizing education for the kids? 

Tiffany 

Yeah. 

Tanya: 

So really centering in on what their strengths are, what they‘re interested in, and then creating this curriculum around them? 

Tiffany: 

Yes, absolutely. For example, we have a student who wanted to go to fashion school and she spent the same amount of time working on her fashion portfolio as she did in her history class. I think that is amazing because normally if you go to regular school, it’s like your elective 

course is so secondary. I mean, it’s even less than secondary to all of your core classes. That’s how it would have been treated for her if she were to have attended a more traditional school setting. 

With Novel Education, they’re able to, for them … First of all, they have more control over what they’re learning. I think we absolutely need to give students a little bit more control. I think that’s part of the reason why they feel so trapped and they’re like, “Well, it’s school. I go to this Class, I go to this class, I go to this class, and then that’s like my da 

Tanya: 

True. 

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Tiffany: 

But if they had a little bit more control over what they’re doing in those classes and spending time on the things that they’re really passionate about, I think that they would feel so much more inspired to go to school every day. 

Tanya 

Yeah. It’s funny, because all of this that you’re saying is exactly how I talk about productivity for adults. 

Tiffany: 

Yes, right? 

Tanya; 

Let’s center in on what’s important to you, let’s customize your day and customize your systems so they really work to your strengths, and let’s create a life for you that’s made for you, not made for Pinterest or Instagram, not made for your next-door neighbor, but that really centered in on you. That’s when you avoid that burnout. That’s when you feel more excitement. I think that’s such an interesting concept with education and I love the idea of giving kids choices. Because on the podcast in the past, we’ve talked about the internal locus of control. Giving choices allows us to feel more in control of our destiny. That makes us feel more powerful and excited about what we’re choosing. 

Tiffany: 

Yes. These things aren’t really conveyed to kids, to students. I feel like this is a very adult conversation and it shouldn’t be. These should be things that we talk to our students about. We should be asking them what they love and what they want to do. We should be talking to them about the things that they love and how they can manifest these things into becoming a part of their actual life and not just something they talk about, versus just being like, “Okay, let’s stop talking about this now so we can do this thing that you absolutely hate.” 

I mean of course, we all have to do things we don’t want to do, right? | mean, this is just sort of the business. 

Tanya: 

Yeah. That’s life. 

Tiffany: 

It’s life. And as you get older, it’s like the things you don’t want to do to kind of get more and more. There’s that level of like in that we also need all need to learn. But aside from that, it’s really important that we’re talking to our kids about, you know, we‘re having the quote-unquote adult conversations with our kids and with students about what they want to do, how they would like to see their life, and what they can do now in order to make that a reality for them when they get older. 

Tanya: 

I love that. 

Tiffany: 

Yeah. It’s like if they’re going through the motions, then they will just go through the motions as an adult because they’ll actually believe that that’s the only way to live. 

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Tanya: 

I think that’s very true. Let’s start them on that path of living the life they really want now. Why wait until you’re 30, or 40, or or beyond? Let’s start this whento the kids are young and give them that autonomy. I absolutely love your philosophy and I’ve really enjoyed chatting with you on today’s episode because I feel that a lot of what you talk about with education ties in so beautifully with how we talk about productivity as adults. It really is a matter of creating a life that’s meaningful to you. 

Tiffany: 

Yes. 

Tanya: 

Neat. Thank you so much for being on the show today. 

Tiffany: 

Thank you so much for having me. It was great chatting. 

Tanya: 

I found this conversation with Tiffany to be really fascinating, how she’s applying these ideas of pursuing your passion and your goals to kids, and I think a lot of what she talks about applies to us as adults as well. I hope you really enjoyed today‘s episode, because I really enjoyed having her on the show. I’ll be sure to include links, so you can connect with 

Tiffany in my show notes. Just go to inKWELLPress.com/podcast and then head to episode 128. 

Now next week, we are going to be continuing talking about bending time by talking about vacation, how to go on vacation and come back feeling refreshed, no longer coming back tired and needing a vacation from your vacation, but feeling really good, so I hope to see you here. Now in the meantime, if you need any academic year planners, be sure to head to inkWELLPress.com. We have a full selection of our academic year planners that run July through June for anyone who works or lives by the school calendar year. All right. Until next time, have a beautiful 

and productive week. 

Thanks for listening to Productivity Paradox. To get free access to Tanya‘s 

valuable checklist, Five Minutes to Peak Productivity, simply go to 

inkWELLpress.com/podcast.