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I met Kierra Asnauskas backstage at an event just as the world was opening back up, and wow, was I lucky that one of my first interactions with humans outside of my family was this woman. She shared how she’s been a Goal Digger listener for years, but more importantly than that, Kierra talked about her mission to help women pivot with purpose. I immediately texted Kylie and said, “We need to get Miss Unconventional on the show!”
Kierra AKA Miss Unconventional teaches women entrepreneurs how to make PROFITABLE pivots and establish productive habits without sacrificing self-care. Her motto? You can be a boss and have a life, too — that’s something I can get behind. In our conversation, I’m asking Kierra about navigating towards your true purpose, the power of productivity and how to actually achieve it, goal setting strategies, and more. Here she is, Miss Unconventional herself.
Where Her Story Begins
From feeling directionless and struggling with debt, to working on international cruise ships, to teaching English in South Korea and Afghanistan, to leaving her MBA program when she was almost done to pursue her business vision and dreams — Nothing about Kierra Asnauskas journey has been conventional… But that’s what led her to embrace the title Miss Unconventional, and design a life that she’d always dreamed of.
I love what Kierra said about leaving her MBA program, and I think it’ll resonate with you, too. She said, “I knew that I could always go back to getting that degree, but I didn’t know if I would ever have that drive, have that motivation, have that desire to do this very scary thing, which is to step out on faith and go full-time with my business. And I was like, I don’t know if this feeling will ever come around again. So I’m going to seize it now. If I fall flat on my butt, then that’s just what happens. You know, it will eventually heal, but I will never know unless I go for it. And so that’s what I did. I went for it.”
Kierra pivoted at the start of COVID to take her luxury vision board workshops into a space that was more conducive to social distancing and working from home. Kierra learned that her clients loved the time management and productivity elements of what she taught, so she niched down to focus her energy on teaching and coaching on that topic.
Kierra’s teachings are built on this concept: “When you tell your time where to go, instead of wondering where it went, you actually create freedom within your life.”
The Way She Sees Productivity
The word productivity can hold a lot of weight and pressure for some people. Kierra encourages her students to think of productivity as doing the right things, at the right time, for the right reasons. “It’s synonymous with time management and discipline,” Kierra explained. “Productivity is the pathway to designing my ideal life.”
“Many people feel like routines are restrictive, but I believe they are empowering. I tell my time where to go, instead of wondering where it went, because I know time is precious. It’s a precious commodity that can’t be replenished. So I don’t play with it. I don’t take advantage of it,” Kierra shared.
Productivity and Overwhelm
Kierra explained that woven into the fabric of productivity are boundaries. For example, “Boundaries with colleagues, clients, your spouse, friends, family, social media, et cetera,” Kierra continued, “I’ve learned that when you begin to establish healthy boundaries in these areas of your life, the overwhelm begins to dissipate.”
Have you considered that you might feel overwhelmed because your boundaries are not firm enough? Or that you don’t have any boundaries in place to begin with? Kierra got real, saying, “Sometimes it’s just self-inflicted. I know that sounds kind of harsh, but it’s true. If we’re not setting those boundaries, then it’s self-inflicted overwhelm.”
3 Productivity Hacks
Let’s start with how to get back on the productivity wagon when you feel like you’ve fallen off. Your first reaction might be to write everything down on a list, but Kierra loves using an alarm for tasks when she’s feeling distracted and unproductive. Here’s how it works for Kierra:
“I will instead figure out what time I have during that day to do [the task] and how much time that task would take me. I put it in as an alarm clock reminder from, say, 8 to 9 I’m supposed to be doing this and I’ll put it as the title. And that time is blocked off and when my phone rings, that alarm goes off, I stop what I’m doing and I do that thing. I do whatever my alarm clock is showing me to do.”
Next, Kierra recommends themed days. Mondays might be for meetings, Tuesdays for teaching (when she creates her content), Wednesdays are for writing, and so on. Whatever those themes are for you, structure your weekly schedule to include themed days so you know what you need to accomplish when another Tuesday rolls around.
Finally, as part of Kierra’s evening routine, she determines the needle moving tasks for the next day, which often includes her income and trust generating tasks. She explained, “Every single day for five days a week, at the very least, I will always do a trust generating and an income generating task, no matter what happens in my day. That really helps me stay productive.”
More from Kierra
Kierra walks through her goal setting approach that she swears by, why she loves vision boards and how to approach them, and the concept of finding your true purpose and how productivity protects you in that pursuit. Listen to the full conversation on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and wherever you get your shows + via the player above.
Follow Kierra AKA Miss Unconventional on Instagram @missunconventional_ and at missunconventional.com.
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