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Prospecting on Purpose is Forbes meets Saturday Night Live - it’s *the* show for everything prospecting, sales, business, and mindset.
As business grows more complex, the biggest opportunities emerge when we learn beyond our own industries. From hospitality and design to technology and travel, this is where professionals come together to exchange ideas, uncover new perspectives, and prospect for business with creativity, authenticity, and intention.
Hosted by Sara Murray, a heart-centric sales champion, each episode helps you raise both your vibes and your game. Sara's playbook is simple - ABAV: Always Be Adding Value. Embrace your authentic self, lean into your unique strengths, and sell the outcome instead of the product or service.
Join Sara each week as she sits down with world-class thought leaders to unpack today's business strategies, mindset shifts, and relationship-driven approaches to growth, giving you practical ideas you can put into action right away.
Connect with Sara: www.saramurray.com IG: @saramurraysales LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/saramurraysales/
Sara Murray - Prospecting on Purpose®:
You're listening to Prospecting on
Purpose, where we discuss all things
prospecting, sales, business, and mindset.
I'm your host, Sara Murray, a sales
champion who's here to show you that you
can be a shark in business and still lead
with intentionality and authenticity.
Tune in each week as we dive into methods
to connect with clients, communicate
with confidence, and close the deal
Sara Murray Prospecting On Purpose®:
Hello, and welcome back
to Prospecting on Purpose.
If you have been listening to this
show for a while, you may have
noticed that we took a unintentional
hiatus, for about a year.
I went quiet, like really quiet, and
The reason behind this, and the short
answer, is because I was overwhelmed.
business has been awesome.
I can't wait to share some updates with
you, but, really something had to give,
and unfortunately, my sweet baby angel
podcast was what had to take a pause.
But in the meantime, I have learned a lot
about how to handle overwhelm, so in this
episode, we're going to go through eight
tips, eight strategies to handle seasons
of business and seasons of overwhelm.
And by the end of the episode, you're
going to understand what kind of overwhelm
you're actually in, if you have to
drop a ball, if something's gotta give,
which ball to drop, and then how to
come back from a season like this one
without burning the whole thing down.
So if you have ever found yourself staring
at a calendar that doesn't have a single
open block on it, if your phone ringing
all the time is driving you nuts, if
you're wondering what's happened to your
free time and your sanity, please stick
with me, because this one is for you.
So just to give you a little bit of
quick context here, I've been building
my business, Mermaid International, for
almost four years, and time is flying.
Without getting into the weeds too
much, the last 12 months were really
the busiest of my career and my
business, and this is in the best way.
I have amazing clients.
My travel schedule was and is very
busy, which can make, scheduling
guests really challenging.
Recording high-quality content
and audio on the road is not easy.
And then when you finally startâ¦
When you finally start being able to pay
yourself, there's all sorts of things I've
had to learn with my business, you know?
Government agencies, payroll,
workers' comp, insurance, employer
tax, payer portals, business
insurance, data privacy insurance.
Just so many things that I'm navigating
for the first time, and if you were to
ask me or throw those problems on me
four years ago, I would've said, "Yes,
please sign me up, i'll take all of it."
And now when, when you're getting to
that point, it's "Ah, what has to drop?
What has to drop?"
And so just to be clear,
I'm not complaining.
Everything that's happened is a blessing.
It's been what I envisioned.
It's what I've been working
towards, but I was juggling a lot.
And, you know, alongside personal
life, health, relationships, all the
regular stuff that was already on
the plate, something had to give,
and the podcast is what had to give.
But what I'm excited about is that
inspired this episode, and this is
gonna be actually our first tip.
So that's the context.
I didn't fall off the face of the Earth.
I didn't lose interest.
I just got busy, and in that process,
I learned a lot of things about
handling overwhelm that I wish I
had known a year and a half ago.
So that's what we're getting
into today, eight tips.
This first tip that we're going to
get into, I did not come up with it.
I read about it in an article, and the
original credit goes to Brian Dyson,
who was the former CEO of Coca-Cola, and
in 1991, he gave a commencement speech
sh- at Georgia Tech, and he closed with
this concept of the five balls of life.
So imagine your life is just this
juggling act, and you have all these
balls in the air at any given moment.
You have work, family, health,
friends, your spirituality or faith,
and the trick is, as you're juggling
all these balls, not all of these
balls are made of the same material.
Some of them are made of rubber,
and some of them are made of glass.
And the rubber ones, if you
have to drop them, they bounce.
They come back.
The glass balls, if you drop
one of those, they crack.
Sometimes they shatter.
Even if you can pick them up
and glue them back together,
they're never quite the same.
So when you're juggling all of these
different things, and this, this impacts
every single one of us, we're gonna, we're
going to drop the ball at some point.
And the question is not if, it's
usually when I'm gonna drop the ball.
So when you're gonna drop
something, the question is which
one are you willing to drop?
And if you must drop a ball, you need
to make sure that it's a rubber one.
In my case, when I was looking at the work
I had on my plate, the client work, the
workshops, the speaking, the teams I'm
working with, my family, health stuff,
prepping for some of my personal goals,
the podcast ended up being a rubber ball.
And
I knew that if I set it down for
a season, I could pick it back
up again and it would bounce.
And so here we are, it bounced, and I'm
so grateful that you're here with me.
So tip one is to just figure out
which things are glass balls and
which things are rubber balls, and
make sure you protect the glass.
Tip two.
So this is more of a diagnostic step,
but before you can do anything about
overwhelm, you have to figure out what
type of overwhelm you're actually in.
So there's two buckets here.
The first bucket, is
situational overwhelm.
So this is a heavy season.
Your launch is in three weeks.
Your project's wrapping in a month.
Your in-laws are visiting soon.
You have, three weeks
of back-to-back travel.
Whatever's going on, there's a light at
the end of the tunnel that you can see.
So you know if I just make it through
this period of busyness, it's gonna
be uncomfortable, but it's temporary.
So the strategy here is hunker
down, ask for grace, set boundaries,
get to the finish line, and make
sure you build in time to recover.
The second bucket is a little bit
more, delicate, and this is this co-
concept of like constant overwhelm.
This is when you cannot
see the finish line.
Every week looks like last week.
The to-do list never feels empty.
You're not heading towards
anything, you're just running.
This one is very different because no
amount of hunkering down is gonna fix it.
So constant overwhelm is a signal that
something structural needs to change.
Maybe you need to hire help,
personally or professionally.
Maybe you need to drop something.
Maybe you need professional support
in some factor or medical support.
Maybe, your business is growing and the
way that you operated it has outgrown.
Maybe you're trying to find a new job
or you need to find a new job and you're
in this constant state of burnout.
So the first question I wanna ask is, is
there a light at the end of the tunnel
or am I just living in the tunnel?
In my case, it was a little bit of both,
so the rest of the tips will support both.
But sometimes just identifying
which type of overwhelm it is and
giving a name to it is gonna help
you navigate the path through it.
This next tip, tip three, we've
talked about it on the show before.
It's this concept of a brain dump.
So this is more of a tactical
tip out of this bunch.
You can do it whenever, but we have
to get the things out of our brain.
Because if we don't, then this is
where we're waking up in the middle
of the night thinking, "Oh my gosh,
I forgot to email that person.
Oh my gosh, I forgot to do this.
Oh my gosh, I have to
do this by tomorrow."
I mean, we've all been
there, and it's heavy, right?
And so we wanna get these things out of
our brain so that we can use our brain
for other stuff like recovering and
prepping for the next season of busyness.
So just sit down for 20 minutes
with a notebook or a document.
Write down every single thing
you're trying to keep in the air.
Personal, professional, health,
relational, the dentist appointment
you keep meaning to make, anything.
And, you can do this pen to
paper of course, but there
are also all sorts of tools.
You can use an app like
Todoist is very popular.
That's Todoist.
My company started using
Notion to keep track of tasks.
there's all sorts of project
management softwares.
It can be old school pen and
paper, which sometimes helps
me to physically write it out.
One tool I've been using that is
really helpful is an app called
Whisperflow for your desktop or
your phone, and it's pretty amazing.
Basically, download it on your computer.
It allows you to double-click the function
key on your computer or press and hold,
and you just ramble your thoughts, ramble
what you have to do, ramble what you
need to type out, and it's gonna clean
that up and make it in a voice-to-text,
but in a really clean, formatted way.
It's not jumbled and concise.
So sometimes I just open a Google Doc,
rattle everything off, sort it as a
list, use AI to help me prioritize, and
then once you see it, you can sort it.
So this is where, as you're looking
at this list, you're identifying
what's a glass ball, what's a rubber
ball, and then you're also identifying
what's just a season of life,
situational, versus, constant overwhelm.
And so, we're not gonna go into too many
more productivity tips in this episode.
We can save that for another day, but
we wanna focus on calming the immediate
overwhelm in front of us, and getting
things out of your brain is a huge,
huge release valve, so that's why,
it made the cut for this episode.
Tip number four is to
protect your non-negotiables.
And by non-negotiables, I mean
the things that refill you,
the things that you cannot cut.
You must make time for it.
And when overwhelm hits us, the very
first things to come off our calendar
are the things that keep us well.
The workout, the walk, the eight hours of
sleep, the dinner with your best friend,
sitting with your kids and listening to
their day, the Sunday morning journal
and coffee ritual, even the vacation.
We treat those as rubber balls.
The bouncy stuff, the
I'll-get-back-to-it-later stuff, and
then we sacrifice them first because they
don't have a deadline attached to them.
They're the easiest things to sacrifice.
I am very guilty of this.
I'm still guilty of this.
"Oh, I have so much to do.
I'm not gonna go on my 6:00 AM walk.
I'm just gonna start working."
Well, then that walk never happens
because I didn't protect it.
So we need to remind ourselves
that these are glass balls.
Your health is a glass ball.
Your spirit is a glass ball.
The closest relationships
are a glass ball.
They just don't shove themselves in
your face the way a work deadline does,
so that's why they're easy to cut.
So the move here is to really identify
those non-negotiables, show up for them,
put them on the calendar, and treat
them as something that you cannot miss.
And this is how you actually figure
out what your non-negotiables are.
You wanna pay attention to
two things: what is energizing
you and what is draining you.
I'll tell you a quick story
that happened earlier this year,
and, it was a good reminder.
So earlier this year, February
2026, I had planned and organized
a big trip to New York and New
Jersey, and there were 19 people
flying in for this trip on a Sunday.
And the day that everyone was supposed
to have traveled to New York, the
city was hit with the biggest blizzard
that they had in the past decade.
So every flight got canceled, the whole
logistics of the trip went sideways.
the six people who did make it to
New York, we were all stranded in
a hotel together for three days.
The hotel staff just had to stay at the
hotel too, because they couldn't get home.
The whole thing was a
really intense three days.
And later that week, I was
supposed to rent a car and go
visit some friends in Pennsylvania.
A couple of my friends had babies, some
old coworkers I hadn't seen in forever.
And by that part of the week, when that
part of the trip rolled around, I was
exhausted, and I just wanted to cancel.
But I don't love canceling on people.
The plans are ready, my
reservations are ready.
So I just told myself, "Just go.
You'll have more when you get there."
And I have to tell you, I was so,
so energized after seeing my friends
I hadn't caught up with in a while.
I was able to meet their babies.
I was able to sit on their
couch and laugh for hours.
I didn't think about work.
I didn't talk about work.
I know it meant a lot to them that
I took the effort to get to them and
see them, when they have young, young
children and they couldn't do the same.
So one of the things that was
really interesting is I noticed
afterwards I did not come home from
that part of the trip more tired.
I actually came back recharged and
really, really energized despite
having lived through one of the
more chaotic weeks of the year.
And it really clicked for me then
that time with my friends is something
that's a non-negotiable for me.
It fills up my cup.
It's something that is important
because it energizes me.
So that's something I have to actively
protect because that becomes fuel to
get through the season of overwhelm.
So this is part of your work.
you need to start paying attention.
Notice what's energizing you
and notice what's draining you.
And so the things that energize
you are the non-negotiables.
We protect that time.
The things that drain you, those
are the things that we wanna talk
about in our next tip, tip five.
You have heard this before.
You've heard it from me.
You hear it ad nauseam, but you
cannot pour from an empty cup.
It's true.
You're gonna show up as a softer,
healthier, more fulfilled person
in your life and your work if you
protect those non-negotiables.
So for the things that drain
us, we're gonna go to step five,
which is find out what you can
eliminate, outsource, or delay.
Look at your week ahead.
Look at your brain dump.
Identify what things are draining you,
what things do you avoid doing 'cause
you don't want to, what things do you
just feel like you're bad at, what
are the things you could outsource to
someone, what are the things you could
just take off your plate entirely?
One question I ask myself is,
"What can I do to eliminate
stress in this immediate moment?"
And this could look all sorts of ways.
It could be a walk.
It could be, hanging with a friend.
I'll share some of the things that
really helped me in particular,
like one thing I wasn't expecting, I
signed up for a meal delivery service.
I was really resistant to do
this 'cause I like cooking.
I've never been attracted
to those prepped meal kits.
But for this season of life, traveling,
not spending mental energy planning
my groceries, finding time to go
to the store and buy them, or even
shopping them online, it justâ¦
it was a little too much for me.
So I got a meal delivery service.
I'm using Factor.
I'm really impressed with it.
It's super easy.
It's given me a lot of time back.
The second small example is
I'm changing the way I travel.
I know this might cause controversy
with people, but I love checking a bag.
I like my big bag.
I pack what I actually need.
I don't have to stress about squeezing
everything into a teeny-tiny carry-on.
I can bring my protein shaker
and my sandals for my plantar
fasciitis walking around the hotel,
and my steamer and my hairdryer.
I like my stuff, and I don't have
to stress about the weight limits
or getting it in the overhead bin
space or if I need to buy a sweater
when I'm there or bring home swag
or, or product from the work trip.
I have room in my bag.
So I know this is silly, but this tiny
little shift has resulted in a huge
return, and I don't really care if I
look like a diva when I show up with
a big suitcase because that helps me.
It eliminates stress.
Another thing I did, this might
not be for everyone, but I
did give up drinking alcohol.
That happened December 2024.
I had three major
clients at the same time.
I had a Fortune 500 client, my
first large enterprise client with
a billion-dollar firm, and my first
international client, and I was so
overwhelmed that I wouldn't be able
to deliver, and I was having anxiety.
What if I get sick when I'm traveling
and I'm gonna be there for a training?
What if I'm sick?
I need to stay healthy.
So alcohol was just the easiest
sacrifice at that time to get my
time back and protect my immunity
system, and it's been a great
resource for helping me manage stress.
I can do another episode about that later.
But for me, It was one of the
bigger things that have helped me
continue to grow and show up in
the highest caliber for my clients.
And the last thing I did, this is a
big one, I brought on a new team member.
His name is Ermin.
Hi, Ermin.
I got so lucky with finding Ermin.
He has a background in operations and
marketing, and those are two areas
I really needed support in, so he's
really been able to serve as a Swiss
Army knife for me, and it's been
interesting because we can identify
the things that I am just not good at.
And nobody's good at everything, we
all know this, but Ermin helps me with
the things that I'm not good at, and
he and I are laying the foundations
for what's next for the next level
of my business, because there's a lot
of goals, a lot of clients to serve.
We're just getting started, but I
needed Ermin to help me outsource that.
And I outsource a lot of things.
I have an awesome
business coach named Raul.
I have a branding,
person and web developer.
Her name's Karima.
My dad helps me with my QuickBooks and my
taxes and invoices and filing expenses.
So, I'm grateful for my dad, Tim.
And I know that outsourcing costs money.
I get it.
But when you think about the things that
you can eliminate if they drain you, and
you put that reclaimed energy into parts
of your life or work or business that
only you can do, then I can go out , and
make more money, or I can stay in my
zone of genius and best serve my clients.
And that money and that income and
that, that shift in energy helps pay for
support, helps pay for a meal service.
And it's just a good reminder
that you're not supposed to be
doing all of this all on your own.
So think about what can you delegate, what
can you eliminate, what can you drop, what
can you outsource, and take it from there.
Our tip six is if you do have to
drop a ball, it's going to happen.
It's totally okay.
This is something people
miss, myself included.
We wanna make sure that we
communicate before you drop the ball.
So here's what I mean.
Let's say you've identified
that this task is a rubber ball.
Project, friend's birthday, trip.
Something's a rubber ball.
Whatever you know what it
is, you may have to drop it.
You've made the peace with it.
However, the thing that prevents a
rubber ball from turning into a glass
ball is how you handle the drop.
So if you accidentally ghost a client
or a customer, if you don't return
an email, or if you forgot, if you
just disappeared without a heads-up,
now you've damaged the relationship.
And so it's really important to be mindful
of that, and I think that's something
that I have learned in this experience is
I had a lot of anxiety because I didn't
tell the podcast listeners where I went.
And so if I could go back in time and do
it different, I might have said, "Hey,
listeners, I'm taking a season of the
show off because the business is in a
season that needs my full attention.
I'll be back."
But I didn't do that, and so
for my longtime listeners and
my supportive fans, I apologize.
I truly apologize for that, and I hope
it doesn't happen again, but it might
if we may have to take another hiatus.
But the next time it does, I know I
need to communicate that ahead of time.
So dropping a ball doesn't
always damage the relationship.
Silence damages the relationship.
Not, not being aware or fixing it
can damage the relationship, but
sometimes it's just gotta, you
just have to drop a ball and give
yourself grace when it happens.
So this is really where the heart
centerpiece of my show and my business
and how I teach sales is coming in.
Relationships are everything.
We do our best to nurture them
and maintain them, and apologize
if you unintentionally do wrong.
But really, the integrity of how you
drop the ball is what determines if it
stays rubber or whether it shatters.
So our tip six is just communicate
before you have to drop something.
Ask for the extra time.
Ask for the extension.
Say no if you have to say no.
Tip seven is to build your roster.
Ask for help.
Build the bench of people
that are there to help you.
it's a little bit related to the
outsourcing tasks, but this one's
about your people or the humans that
you call in when things are hard.
Overwhelm thrives in isolation, and when
you're spinning, the very last thing
you wanna do or that you feel like you
have time for is to call a friend, or
schedule a session with your coach or
therapist, or take up a mentor for coffee.
It feels like one more ball you're
trying to add in the rotation, but this
is one of the things that actually gets
you out of this season of overwhelm
the fastest is calling on the people
that you need to lean on to support
when you're having a hard time.
This could be a mentor who's been there
for you, a peer who's running a business
at a similar stage, coach, therapist,
a friend who lets you vent without
trying to fix it, maybe your faith
community, your parents, your partner.
The names on that roster are gonna
look different for everybody, but
you need to build the bench before
you need to call in the favors.
So do not wait until you're
drowning to find your people.
Find them on a normal Tuesday
when nothing's on fire.
Show up for them.
Fill their bank account, and
then when the fire does start for
you, you have someone to call.
So this really ties into the lessons
we talk about on the show and the
concept of ABAV, always be adding value.
If you are constantly adding value
to the people in your life, when
you do need to call in for help or
a favor, then you have deposits in
the bank that you can withdraw from.
No one is supposed to go
through this life alone.
Supporting one another during good times
and bad times is really the epitome of
the human experience, and people want
to help you when you're struggling.
So remember that and ask for help
when you need it, and if people offer
you help, take them up on the offer.
If you want more of this, episode 79,
Why Mentorship Matters, 10 Tips to
Finding the Right Mentor, might be a good
additional, episode for you to listen to.
And then to wrap us up, our final tip,
tip eight, is to just hold both things
at once, because I think this might be
one of the most important things is to
really just understand that if you're
in a season of overwhelm because good
things are happening, make sure you're
holding that gratitude for the good
along with the hard at the same time.
If you find yourself in a season
of overwhelm because bad things
are happening, try to look for the
lessons you can pull from this.
What are you gonna learn that's gonna make
you stronger coming out of the other side?
What areâ¦
How is this situation serving
you right now, good or bad?
And it's okay to recognize that things can
be exhausting, things can be overwhelming.
It might require you to step away
from something you love or something
that's important, and trust that when
you pick it back up, the other side
is gonna be okay coming through it.
I have to trust that my audience,
my podcast audience, would forgive
me if I took a break and be happy
that the show is back on the air.
So both can be true at the same time.
We don't have to pick one.
We can perform gratitude and
still not pretend that it's hard.
So we don't have to wallow in the
hard and forget what's happening.
In many cases, oftentimes the thing
that's making us overwhelmed is
something that we prayed for years
ago or that we asked for years ago.
So it's just good sometimes to zoom
out and reflect on that because the
most powerful tool we have in our
personal lives and our professional
lives is to hold gratitude
and reality at the same time.
They do not cancel each other out.
They make us stronger.
episode 48 goes into more details on
embodying gratitude and how it shapes
your personal professional life.
It's been a really huge tool for me.
Other tools outside of gratitude
could be taking deep breaths,
going on a walk, repeating mantras.
One mantra that works really well
for me during seasons of busyness
is, "I always get everything done."
So give yourself grace, understand and
recognize that all of this is temporary.
You're gonna come through the
other side stronger and more
well-rounded and more fulfilled.
That's part of the human experience.
so just to wrap it up, we have
tip one, identify if they're
glass balls or rubber balls.
Then tip two, we wanna understand
if the situation we're in is
situational overwhelm or seasonal
overwhelm, and adjust accordingly.
we wanna make sure that we are brain
dumping things and getting it out of
our head because that's just gonna
help you spiral if you don't do that.
We need to protect our non-negotiables.
We all know this.
Put your oxygen mask on
first before helping others.
We want to outsource the things that
drain us, find creative ways to eliminate
stress in that moment, and in some cases,
it might just be saying no to things.
We wanna communicate
before the ball drops.
We wanna build our support roster,
and then we wanna hold that overwhelm
and those lessons in gratitude that
come with the overwhelm, even if it
doesn't feel like it in that moment.
Find reasons to understand,
where is the good in the
situation that I'm going through?
That wraps up our episode,
Eight Tips To Handle Overwhelm.
If this was useful to you, please share
it with a friend or colleague who you
know may be in this season of overwhelm.
Feel free to send me a note, too.
I am actively in it with you all the
time, so I'd be happy to get back to you.
I am so, so, so thrilled to be back
on the air for Prospecting On Purpose.
Thank you so much for tuning
in, and we'll see you next week.
Sara Murray - Prospecting on Purpose®:
Thank you so much for listening to
the Prospecting on Purpose podcast.
If you loved what you heard today,
subscribe to the podcast and
please rate and leave a review.
For more info on me or if you'd
like to work together, feel free to
go to my website, sarahmurray.com.
On social media, I'm usually
hanging out @sarahmurraysales.
Thanks again for joining me,
and I'll see you next time.