Emma-Louise Parkes

Emma-Louise Parkes is an executive coach, award winning podcaster and founder of personal development and growth platform The Ambitious Introvert®.

A former air traffic controller turned coach, Emma-Louise knows what it’s like to regulate emotions and bounce back in an immensely stressful position. She self-identifies as an introvert, while simultaneously breaking the mould of what an introvert ‘looks like.’

Bringing energy, empathy, focused questions, and an unwavering belief in the power of quiet, Emma-Louise has worked with over 500+ clients and touched the lives of over 80,000 people through her podcast.

In her world, introversion is not a mark of shyness or fear. It’s a clue into how someone recharges their energy. And by showing Ambitious Introverts how to manage theirs, she’s able to consistently and drastically transform how much they’re able to achieve in their business or careers.

What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?

My typical day is a mix of client meetings, podcast recordings and working behind the scenes in the business. I make it productive in a number of ways – batching tasks together where possible so I can get into a flow, and by being intentional at the start of the day as to what the main priority is that needs to be done.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I have many, many ideas – the challenge is choosing which to ignore, which to put a pin in for later and which to move forwards with now. For the latter it starts with a big flip chart, some markers and no distractions. This helps me create connections that set the foundations for the action. Next it’s seeing whose support I might need in various areas, before getting granular with the first steps of the plan.

What’s one trend that excites you?

Wearable tech and products that help us to utilize technology whilst protecting ourselves from the negative effects. I love the idea that we can boost our productivity without impacting our health. I have blue light blocking filters on all of my screens, and my Oura Ring helps me make sure I balance desk time with getting my steps for the day.

What is one habit that helps you be productive?

Batching tasks. I have 2 days of client meetings per week, a day for podcast record and connection calls, and the other days are behind the scenes so I can implement ideas, and have the space to come up with them, without being pulled in a dozen directions.

I’m a former air traffic controller and many studies have been done in that industry about the negative effects of multitasking and switching tasks on our focus and productivity. When I started The Ambitious Introvert® I was mindful of structuring my calendar to allow for this.

What advice would you give your younger self?

That you learn by doing, not by trying to create the perfect plan in private. Get out there, take action, try things, assess, adapt if necessary, keep going.

Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you.

That pineapple on or in savory food should be illegal.

What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?

Track my energy. 99/100 if I’m in a funk and negative thoughts creep in, they’re caused by something – not enough sleep, I’m dehydrated, I didn’t move enough, I’ve done too much ‘peopling’, it’s a full moon, my hormones are impacting it… the list goes on. When I’m aware of these factors it’s much easier to say ‘oh, those thoughts are just because I’m tired/I ate junk yesterday/I’m luteal’. Doing this has saved me from making many drastic ‘emotional’ decisions I would have regretted a few days later.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?

Something that will instantly change my physiology and shift my energy, helping me connect back with my body. I love a quick, cold shower, 5 minutes on the rebounder, a brisk, outdoor walk or some energizing breathing exercises.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?

By recognizing the business as a separate entity and not an extension of myself. This makes it easier to delineate between where I stop and it begins, meaning I don’t take things that happen in or to the business as personally. It also prevents me from making emotional decisions, and it’s meant I’ve been able to give us both the attention we need, separately, to thrive.

What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?

In the early days I spent far too much time observing and comparing rather than taking action. I wasted precious time, I would say a year or so, by doing this. I was constantly focusing on what I hadn’t achieved versus what my own actions needed to be. Once I blocked out the noise and honed in on my immediate next steps, the growth happened very, very quickly.

What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?

I’d love to see an app that connected with our wearable tech that could predict dips in energy and warn us in advance. This would not only help with time management and productivity but also the aforementioned negative thoughts that can creep up on us at certain times. Forewarned is forearmed as they say.

What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

I use ClickUp for managing business tasks – it’s got a clean, user friendly interface but has amazing capabilities for automation. I pop my tasks in then it allows me to assign them a priority. I view this list at the start of the week and can select the most important things to work on, then schedule them into my diary.

What is the best $100 you recently spent?

I purchased a small, high quality Bluetooth speaker. I had been playing music and podcasts through the devices and had forgotten how great it should sound! This is compact enough to move around the house with me so I get stunning audio all day.

Do you have a favorite book or podcast from which you’ve received much value?

These are tied in. The Tim Ferriss Show was one of the first podcasts I ever listened to a decade ago. He has such a broad spectrum of guests, many of whom I’ve gone on to follow and listen to/read their valuable content too. So it’s a ripple effect.
One of those guests is Naval Ravikant, and I highly recommend The Almanac of Naval Ravikant to anyone. He’s incredibly successful but breaks down his mental models and thought processes into very simple algorithms that can be used by anyone.

What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?

I loved Money Heist on Netflix. I’m fascinated with storytelling than can present characters doing terrible things yet somehow have you rooting for them to succeed. Very clever. I enjoyed Breaking Bad for the same reason.

Key learnings:

• Your time is precious but your energy is too. Monitor it and use it wisely
• Your thoughts and ideas and just that, thoughts and ideas. You don’t have to act on every one you have
• You’ll never know until you try – everything is a lesson. You can only truly regret what you didn’t do, because what you did do will have taught you something important