Founder Productivity: Thinking vs. Hands-On Work - Jade McDonald
In this episode of the Be Helpful Podcast, host Gboyega Adebayo wraps up his 3-part conversation with Jade McDonald, Chief Product Officer at Navigate Maternity, to discuss the challenges of time management as a startup founder. Our conversation explores the balance between thinking and hands-on work, common struggles and guilt associated with not always producing something tangible, and practical tips for managing time effectively in the early stages of entrepreneurship.
As we wrap up the episode, we bring in some lighthearted fun with our quick hitter questions before sharing more about Navigate Maternity and their proactive care approach. Tune in for a valuable discussion with Jade McDonald and useful takeaways on managing time as a startup founder.
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FULL VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
INTERVIEW WITH JASON CAMPBELL
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supposed to be helpful podcast where
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conversations with budding entrepreneurs
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prepare you for the wild journey of
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building a business or side Hustle
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this will be my last question before we
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get into some of the quick hitters
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um and it's a question I haven't asked
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maybe I've asked one guest before but I
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think it might be a new standard
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question because I struggle with it
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um so I assume a lot of people struggle
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with this
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of your time
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how much of it is thinking and
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strategizing versus doing stuff with
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your hands
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oh that's a really good question
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and I would say uh we're gonna do like
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70 30. I think 70 of it is thinking
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uh and
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[Music]
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30 of it is doing so all of that time
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management
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portion
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and I'm just now realizing like this is
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just becoming apparent to me the time
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management is really going to the 30
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because I'm constantly thinking like
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what am I going to do how am I going to
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do this and you know just thinking
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through whatever hurdle might have come
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up this week but 70 30. yeah do would
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you say that that percentage
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distribution is the same across the team
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or do you think each person has likely a
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different split
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I would be curious to know uh
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I think so our CEO is full-time so she's
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definitely doing more more doing I would
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okay
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I would assume
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um
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but
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the rest of us work
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you know full-time as well and so yeah I
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know with me it's like okay thinking
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about the solution or thinking about you
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know how I can come to the solution
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thinking about getting the task done
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thinking about how I can get it done
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efficiently uh yeah so I don't know it's
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a lot of thinking on my end this is this
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has just been a blast and just kind of
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diving and picking your brain and
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sharing War Stories
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um I want to kind of dive into two
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concluding questions or quick hitters
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but feel free to elaborate as much as
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you want
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um my first question would be what books
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would you recommend to other
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entrepreneurs
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uh and I don't know who the author of
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that book is Simon cynic thank you Simon
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Phoenix are one of my mentors is big on
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Simon sinek and he's been like oh you
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know your team needs to read this
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together I've started picking through it
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and it's a really powerful read I love
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it and I I do want us as a team to go
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through it soon
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um
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let's see
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another book
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I don't know I may not that may be my
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one my one book no it's a good it's a
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good recommendation I haven't read the
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whole thing I read kind of excerpts from
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it
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um ironically I have it on the bookshelf
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um but it is I think it is an important
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question
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to start
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just constantly asking why and when you
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get to like the fifth why you really get
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to the root cause of anything so
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um I think it's a just a great principle
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to to live buying business
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um
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okay my other question
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what question should we ask the next
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guest
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my question for the next entrepreneur is
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what has surprised you about yourself
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the most in this entrepreneurial Journey
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okay all right now you got to answer it
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um I think what a surprise
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myself in
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just like
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the amount of things I'm actually able
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to do
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in a week
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you know
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in a week and
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and that seems really basic but when I
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thought about starting a business
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um for me
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my image of an entrepreneur is just like
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someone who's really
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heavily educated and driven and you know
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they're on the board for someone else's
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company already and they know this and
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they know that and you know I don't know
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they're they listen to they listen to
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like audio books while they're working
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just basically not me right
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basically not me and every week I meet a
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new challenge and it doesn't stop me
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and it doesn't kill me
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so you know and it you don't realize it
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until you look back and you're like wow
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okay I'm still here but uh it's it's
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really good to know that I'm shocked
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with myself at that
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no that is uh that is an awesome
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question and I'm going to steal it and
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I'm going to use it in in the future
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because
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I think it's a better version of my
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misconception question I think it makes
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it very personal and when I think about
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myself
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yeah I am amazed at how much I actually
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can do
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in a day or a week or a month
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um even and and still feel like I didn't
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do enough yeah just maybe my own
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internal feeling but I look back to when
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I was working full time
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and
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running around and kind of doing all
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kinds of stuff and then I'm like okay
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cool I've got eight hours back now I can
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just solve the world and then you sit
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there and you realize like oh crap I've
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got to be really judicious with my time
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and when I'm getting done
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and then you go laser focus and then you
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look up and just like
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holy crap I did all that in two weeks
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it is insane it is insane but it's
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incredibly rewarding too it's like this
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very weird feeling but but it's
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time is an interesting Beast
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um okay here's my official last question
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okay how do people get in contact with
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you and learn more about navigating the
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best way to learn more about navigate
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maternity is to follow us on Instagram
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we're just at navigate maternity I can
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spell it out it's
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n-a-v-i-g-a-t maternity
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m-a-t-e-r-n-i-t-y and
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um there you'll find a link to our
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website navigatematernity.com and now is
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actually a great time to start following
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us we have a long form video that talks
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about the maternal mortality crisis in
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the U.S and talks in detail about the
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solution that we are building so we'd
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love to see you all there engage with us
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there
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um all of our email addresses are also
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on our Instagram so we would love to
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hear from you
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as awesome Jay thank you so much this
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has just been uh filling conversation
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I've learned a ton and I just love the
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problem that you guys are solving
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um so keep it up and however I can
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support please let me know
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thank you and likewise we'll have to
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tackle
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entrepreneur thing together I appreciate
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appreciate you