🎙️ S2 E12: Everyone's Winging It – And Nobody's Admitting It

We walk into the studio doing what we do best: trying something new with zero guarantees it will go smoothly. Two dogs under the desk, a new bit of kit rolling, and a very real reminder that life rarely waits for a perfect plan. From there, we get honest about why “winging it” has become a put-down, and why we think it should be a badge of competence rather than a confession of failure.

We pull apart the myth that professionalism equals scripting everything. Whether you’re speaking on stage, running a workshop, pitching a client, or building a business, you can’t control the third-party variables. What you can control is your message, your expertise, and your ability to respond. We talk about how over-rehearsed talks can feel soulless, why the best speakers keep their key points but never repeat a story the same way twice, and how authenticity often lives in the unscripted moments.

Then we take it into the practical stuff: planning versus plans, and why rigid structure can be actively counterproductive, especially with ADHD and the need for autonomy. We share how we plan together in a responsive way, what we do with our overflowing notebooks of ideas, and how to avoid the “great ideas graveyard”. We also go on a small social media rant: scheduling can help, but broadcasting the same post everywhere kills trust and connection. Finally, we tackle comparison spirals and the simplest energy-protection move you can make: temporarily unfollow the accounts that drain you.

If you’re ready to stop waiting for perfect conditions, hit play, then subscribe, share it with a fellow overthinker, and leave us a review so more people find Awesomely Off Topic.

Transcript

Dogs, New Kit, Real Chaos

Speaker 0:00

You're listening to Awesomely -Off Topic. Books, brands, business, and everything else we're not supposed to say out loud. I'm Taz and Asha. Now let's get into it. Welcome to Awesomely Off -Topic. Here we are sitting in the podcast studio. We are experimenting today, which is just a little bit. Which is perfect, given that this episode is all about winging it. Everybody's winging it, nobody's admitting to it. We're really winging it today, Taz. We really, really are. So if you listen to us regularly, you'll know that not too long back we lost our gorgeous girl, Tilly the Labradoodle, which means the two other dogs in the pack are struggling to adjust a little bit. So we're trying today for the first time to bring Gladys and Bailey to the podcast studio with us. So anything could happen. Probably will. We probably will. We could have barks, we could have wines, we could have the set collapsing. Not that this is a set, it's all real.

Speaker 1 0:56

It could well be. It could well be. Oh, here comes a Bailey. Hello.

Speaker 0:59

We're also testing our new bit of exciting kit, the DJI Osmo Pocket 4. So you're setting. You might get a bit of video with us today. And if I glance at the screen now as recording, you can just see Bailey's tail wagging under the desk. Hello, I've got the other end, luckily.

Speaker 1 1:16

I've got the bit with a head on it. So that's good. Hello.

Speaker 1:19

Hello, good boy. Gladys. Meanwhile, is chilling out on a couple of cushions that we found in the other part of the studio. Next time we must bring them. We must get them a new bed,

Why Winging It Sounds Unprofessional

Speaker 1:28

aren't we? I think. Good for you. So winging it. Yeah. What's the whole thing with winging it and why has it become such a dirty word? Because I think winging it is brilliant. But how often do we hear people this discussing someone and saying, well, they're they're just winging it? And it's almost become a dirty phrase as if they don't really know what they're doing.

Speaker 1 1:45

Yeah, I agree with that. Because when you when we said that, when we first came up with this idea, this topic, I said exactly that. It makes me really uncomfortable because winging to me so even speak, I'm so nervous. Um says unprofessional, you know, uh slapdash, all of those negative connotations for me, initially, that's what it that's what it does. But why? Because surely you can't actually wing anything unless you know what you're doing. I'd never thought about it like that until we had this discussion before we came on this show. Because it's it's always been, I haven't realised how kind of deeply embedded that kind of um self-limiting belief is, but actually it's a really negative thing. On why would you want to say that you wing it, you know, and be proud of it? It's almost like now I want to wear a badge that says winging it, winging it, winging it, life, we wing it through everything, don't we? We never quite know what we're doing. How often do we script these podcasts? Never.

Speaker 2:37

So therefore we're winging it every time. Yeah. And if you are going into a meeting with someone, you've no idea what they're gonna say, if everybody who said they're gonna turn up is gonna turn up, if there's gonna be extra people, if there's gonna be, I don't know, a bomb scare in the building. How can you possibly plan for that? You can plan for the the bits that you want to deliver in that time, and you can know the kind of points that you want to get across. But how can you possibly not wing it? Because you can't plan for third-party involvement.

Speaker 1 3:11

Yeah, unforeseen things, circumstances, things are always gonna be like coming here today. I know, you know, I suffer from quite a bit of anxiety, but I was saying to you, what dogs should know now what they're gonna be like. I know, they probably have now we've got a camera, we've got a video camera on as well. Now I'm really anxious, which is really pushing my comfort zone a bit. But one of the things that came up, wasn't it, was even bringing the dogs here today because we we arrived at about quarter past five, so towards the end of the working day for a lot of people, there's an office below us, so who we rent the office from. Yeah. And I was really concerned about it. And the dogs have barked perhaps three or four times because we've had the window open, so they've heard different sounds to normal. And I get myself really anxious. But that's all I'm um we're winging it with to see how they react to things, how they're going to respond to being in the studio with us. But yeah, more importantly, how do I react to it? And it's actually brought up loads of stuff for me. So it's made me realise that whole thing around what a stupid thing of thinking that winging it is such a negative thing, because we in that case, then we're we're all winging it with everything, aren't we? When you look at even the the top speakers, the top, you know, business people, they will say they've winged it or they are winging it at various points in their life.

Speaker 4:20

That's when the magic happens, isn't it? Shouldn't it should be wung it?

Speaker 1 4:23

I mean it's not, but it should be. I winged it. Why isn't it a wung it? Sounds a bit like a won it, but you know. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, that so it's but why somebody well hung and not well hanged? I don't know. Anyway, back on top of it. But it's so it's we've got such a negative thing, well I have around that. I haven't realised just how deeply embedded it was. And actually, we should be proud of that because we're all winging it through life. Well, you know how to brush your teeth, don't you? I think so, yeah.

Speaker 4:52

So what happens if you're brushing your teeth and one of the brittles comes out of the toothbrush and sticks between your teeth?

Speaker 1 4:57

You think, oh crumbs, that's annoying. And you do what? You get rid of it.

Speaker 5:01

You deal with it. Yeah. But you wouldn't have pre-planned that happening. No. So you're winging brushing your teeth. Yeah.

Speaker 1 5:06

You're winging it. It's like, for instance, you know, we've had a bit of an issue with my car, haven't we? Nothing major, but just where the engine light keeps coming on, we've had it checked, so it's just a sensor that's getting if it gets a bit muddy on the sensor, for whatever reason, it's it's doing that, and we've had it checked loads of times. I started worrying about that, but we I was winging it to kind of find out what that was. You know, script life.

Speaker 5:27

Yeah. So yeah, you get halfway through cooking a let's pretend we're having a full English because we haven't had bacon in years now. But you get halfway through cooking a full English and realise you're out of bacon. What are you gonna do? Panic and throw it all in the bin and go, or just go, oh, I've got no bacon. Or have to make do with extra sausage.

Speaker 1 5:43

Yeah, yeah.

unknown 5:45

Yeah.

Speaker 1 5:45

When you put it like that, it's just or fakin'.

Speaker 5:48

Facin for us, of course. In a good old Linda McCartney sausage.

Speaker 1 5:51

I was gonna say the Linda McCartney ones are quite good. But are they actually made from Linda McCartney? Oh, she's that's a lot of Linda McCartney, and I remember it's quite a small one, no. Sorry, Paul, with all due respect and love, obviously. But you know, anyway, go ahead. Yeah, let's let's not go wrong. Okay, stop and never

When Scripts Drain The Soul

Speaker 1 6:10

Yeah, winging it.

Speaker 6:13

I think we are winging it through life, and it's it's a bit like when I'm training people to speak, one of the things that freaks them out most is what I'm not gonna have a script. No, because if you're only talking about a subject that you know inside and out, it needs to come from here, from your heart, from your gut, and from your mind in your experience. But I don't know about any of any of you people listening, maybe watching if the video clips are any good. Yeah. Have you ever heard a speaker where it's very obviously been scripted and it's been said so many times before that it's kind of rote, and where there's supposed to be a little bit of an uplifting voice or a bit of extra tonality, or yeah, maybe a bit of surprise, and oh insert joke here. It's all so OTT and faux. Yeah.

Speaker 1 7:05

That for me is a real turn-off when I hear that is so, you know, perfect, but it's over over practised over, and it just feels really there's something missing that is that kind of element of And what's missing realistically is winging it. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 7:20

You know, if you've got a somebody there who's climbed Everest, I always pick on speakers who've climbed Everest, maybe because I've seen so many speakers who've done something like climbed Everest. Once you've told that story of you climbing Everest time and time again, you're just gonna repeat it parrot fashion.

Speaker 1 7:37

And how's that gonna lose loses the soul of it, doesn't it? Loses your soul and it loses the energy. Yeah, I agree. And it there's something about that, and it's I've seen some the best speakers in my view are those that are able to bring that. And every time you see them, even if you've seen that keynote speech, you know, talk several times, they'll always bring something new into it because they're speaking from here rather than trying to remember it word for word. Exactly. It doesn't matter if I'm delivering it at me then. You thought I'm gonna knock the mic, didn't you? No.

Speaker 8:04

You did. I was looking at your boobs. Oh, I got the thought. It doesn't matter if somebody I I've delivered talks that have the same title time and time again, but the content is never exactly the same because they're not scripted. So I'll be touching on the same topics, but I'm gonna tell it differently. Like, you know, having real conversations in real everyday life. When we might be winging it a bit. Winging it. We're winging it when we drive to and from work or to an appointment, we're winging it when we take a phone call, we're winging it when we're sending a a a text-based message on WhatsApp. Not if it's pre-planned. All winging it means is that it hasn't been pre-planned. Which means that number one, we are winging it every day. Number two, when you think about professional instances of where we know people are winging it, they can only wing it if they're really bloody good at what they do. Because you have to know your subject, your area of expertise inside and out to be able to wing it effectively, or essentially to be able to speak, respond, react off the cuff. Yeah. And wouldn't life be boring if everything was rehearsed? Wouldn't it?

Speaker 1 9:25

It'd be incredibly boring, wouldn't it? You'd never you'd never have any surprises, anything that would light you up you weren't expecting, and think, oh, that's amazing, I need to write that down, or I need to remember this this point, yeah, this moment.

Speaker 9:37

So, what are those instances where we hear people describing someone as winging it and it sounds like a negative? When does that come in?

Speaker 1 9:48

Oh, there's so many. Go on, you start and I'll add in because I've got to do that. I don't know.

Speaker 9:53

I'm trying to work out how that became a negative in the first place, because it never should have been a negative, should it?

Speaker 1 9:59

No, not at all. So how you can imagine, so is there somebody somewhere out there in the universe that did something or did something where people thought, oh, that's so they should have so prepared for that? It's quite obviously they've been winging it in their career, for instance. Maybe it's it starts, doesn't it? If you get, I don't know, you get some people in that you work, you work with, I know over the years where I've seen it, and people have naturally got natural talents that will just take to something like a duck to water, yeah, and they'll be brilliant, and everybody else will be a I know I've been in that space where, you know, particularly with writers, where I've gone, I wish I had that beautiful tone of voice or or written knowledge or you know, ability to be able to turn that into an incredible piece of prose. And then I get, I can get, you know, there's a part of me going really quite jealous about that and thinking, and so it's very easy to turn that, isn't it? If somebody's just able to work with their natural instincts, if you wanted to be really bitchy or a bit spiky, you could say, Oh, they were winging it, weren't they? You obviously they did it, they didn't have any. Well, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 11:00

But that comes back to that again, though. It's almost becomes seen as the anti-professionalism, isn't it? Yeah. And it's not, I think it is the institutionalism.

Speaker 1 11:08

It's a cheap shot to say it, isn't it? Yeah. It's a cheap shot to say it when actually that person, just because they may not present or write or, you know, run a business in the same way as other business people, they've got a way of connecting with their audience or with their customer that isn't traditional. So in other words, you know, it's not what we're used to. It doesn't mean that they're winging it, it just means that they're able to respond to their own ideas, work with something on in the spur of the moment, and make it work. And it might not be 100% polished, but I but we've been I've been in situations like that when I've seen people talking about things like that, and I've gone, I really want to work with you.

Speaker 11:47

It's real and it's got heart and it's got soul, and you can feel it rather than just hear the words.

Speaker 1 11:52

It's impossible to put that, I think, into words what that is. Yeah. But certain people have that and they have it in bucket loads.

Speaker 11:59

Uh charisma that I don't know what it is, but it's like if we could if we do recognise by the argument we're making here that everybody is winging it, surely the people who use that as a negative are the ones who wish they could do it more. Yeah. Wish they didn't have it. Well, that's what I was kind of alluding to. I was like, so the so if everybody's winging it, the only difference is those who have found peace with it and are happy with it, and those who get up every day, every morning covered in starch who just said, and it's so brittle I don't move and give a break, I did something wrong. It's winged, it's bloody brilliant. It

Planning Helps But Plans Can Block

Speaker 12:40

it ties in with that, it's it's the same kind of mindset. What's that thing that was drilled into both of us whenever we went to one of these how to start your business courses when we first started? And if you've heard this as well, if you've if you've ever had this levered at you, please tell us. This whole oh, fail to plan, plan to fail. Yeah, oh that was one of the first things I heard of time and time again. Hey, hey, hey, you know, mate, my take on this is that planning is brilliant. Planning is where all the ideas come out and the creativity flows, but the second you then try to start to stick rigidly to a plan. Right, right. So planning is brilliant, but plans absolutely suck.

Speaker 1 13:20

Is that an element of the ADHD coming out? It could well be because we're both like that. I think you must you more so than me, actually. Yeah. But it works, and you've got to find a way for it to work for you, haven't you? Other people would be an absolute horror. If you're one of those people that is an absolute horror just hearing Taz say that, let us know. Tell us about your you know your view on that. Because we're all different and we all respond differently to different ways of working. Oh, so that for me, for many years would have made me go, Taz, you've got to plan, you've got to plan.

Speaker 13:48

But think of the way that we work together. So if we're running a workshop and we're both involved in it, for instance, or any kind of uh event, I'll have it all in here. Yeah, but you will be.

Speaker 1 13:58

I'm not in there, I'm not in there. I can be in there a little bit, but I'm well.

Speaker 14:02

Yeah, I do. But the difficulty for me, I will resist that because I then go into panic about, but how do I pull that out of my head? Because it's not ordered. I know when it happens, this thing will be brilliant and I'll be on it, but I don't know how to pull that information out of my head and put it onto paper in a way that you'll be able to grasp it and it won't be full of holes.

Speaker 2 14:22

Yeah.

Speaker 14:23

So in the end, we've we've kind of found this system now, haven't we, where we go, right, what are all the things that we definitely want to cover? Get those down. Doesn't matter how we're covering, but these are the things that we want to make sure we deliver. And then what is a rough time frame?

Speaker 1 14:37

So then we'll work out very rough time frame. We're on Taz time here.

Speaker 14:41

Asha will work out the rough time frame. This is where you're slightly more AuD HD to my ADHD. And then build ... We had that at the heart of speaking, didn't we? Then build in where the tea breaks are and going T T T and then we'll look at all the elements we need to build in and go, right, which segments are they going to fit into? Yeah. And then we'll do it, but I'll still wing it, but I'll have that plan to work too. And what it might mean is that I'll look and go, oh, bloody hell, I'm supposed to have covered that there.

Speaker 2 15:09

Yeah.

Speaker 15:09

And that but then scan further down the list and go, ah, yeah, but that was another 10 minutes, and I've already covered that earlier on. And so long as we make sure we deliver the right things. And interestingly, I was doing well, I think it's interesting, I was I was facilitating a full-day deep dive coaching session with a couple of my clients the other day. Shout out to the to the awesome team at NTP Services if you're listening. And they're very similar. So these are two women who've completely shaken up the training industry in haulage, so a male-dominated sector really. Amazing. Yeah. They've come in, they've completely shaken it up with you know broad Yorkshire accents, called a spade a shovel, and they are bloody brilliant. And they make things happen. And one of the things I love about coaching them, we've coached them on and off for years. In our old turquoise tiger phase, we coached them as well. We've kept in touch with just, well, I've just started coaching them again. But we had exactly that conversation because Daryl is way more like me. With it's all in here, it's going to be fine. Kelly is a bit more like you. She trusts that it's all going to be brilliant from Daryl, and she knows it will be. But because Kelly has more of the mechanism of timings and organisation and actually making it happen. So maybe there's a new thing they come up with. Daryl has the idea. Kelly has great ideas too, but let's say Daryl's had the idea. Kelly will not be like, well, if we need to put the literature together on this, I'll need at least some outline for it. Detail. And Daryl will go, just say this. And Kelly's like, that's not enough. And I swear the reason I was able to help them so much with that the other day is that it's the same way we operate.

Speaker 1 16:50

Yeah, I mean, the really basic stuff, I like it, written down. Classic example, just before we recorded this podcast, I won't go into detail what it was about, but something came up, it's an opportunity for us, which meant me going online. It's exciting. It is exciting. Uh meant I have to go online, have a look through all the stuff online, get some key information that I needed. Whereas Taz was like, yeah, that, that, and that. And I'm going, yeah, but now we need to include this, we need to include this, and we need to include that. And I've made I've made the dreaded list, but I've made a list of the key things that I need to include. So that's again where we're different. It's like we do it, don't we, all the time? It works because we're at opposite ends of the spectrum. Yeah. And sometimes I can be like that and it'll be all in here, but I don't trust myself to remember it and retain it. So I like to have a good old trusty notebook.

Speaker 17:37

There it is. It's going to be different for all of us, though, isn't it? So you you mentioned earlier this being part of my ADHD. Yeah, absolutely. Because for me, a rigid plan is such a massive turn-off. It will tip me into PDA. I'm going to pathological demand avoidance or per se pervasive drive for autonomy is what you've been teaching me. That's the alternative. Yeah. That's pathological demand avoidance, wouldn't they? But something that thinks something's got to be rigid, it's not that it's not that it's just a turn-off. It's it's actively counterproductive to what I'm trying to do. It just I can't get past it. My dopamine crashes and I lose all interest and then get frustrated with myself for losing all interest and then get angry, and then I don't want to be putting that kind of energy into something. So yeah. Oh my god, which one of you two have just farted? It wasn't me, it's one of the dogs.

Speaker 1 18:33

They maybe need to go out for a look. If you watch it on video and you see us playing horrible faces, it's because somebody's left a lovely little lunch. You really are playing blaming it on the dogs. Thanks, guys. Thanks, guys. Thank goodness it's not smelling. They might need to go out and I think they might. Yeah, I think so. I did say about that. Cracky if you could bottle, that would be rich. I know. We'll take them for a little wander in a bit. But anyway, Taz, back to the Taz is just knocked out now. Sorry about that, guys. Keep it real. They're sitting right underneath me. I know. Well, they're that way, Red.

Speaker 19:05

It's either I think that's the I think that's a Bailey one, maybe. It could be, but I've got the Gladys Bum facing me, and at least you've got Bailey's head facing you. Well they seem quite calm at the moment.

Speaker 1 19:16

That's good. Okay, cool. Carry on, pals. What are we talking about?

Speaker 19:20

ADHD and winging it. It's it's not how do I how can I say? Hyper focus, idea explosions. People looking into my brain from the outside in might might say it was really chaotic. But for me it's like this amazing fun factory of ideas and potential and possibility. Yeah, I get that. And that can't be planned. No. My creativity and inspiration comes from wow! And that might go there, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping. And if I try and force that into some kind of mould, it stops working.

Speaker 1 20:00

Yeah, I get that. And that's pretty much where we were with this podcast. That's how it happened, wasn't it? Having those ping ping-ping moments. Yeah. Yeah. That was able, you know, enabled us to do what we do we're doing now. Yeah.

Speaker 20:10

So so how do we do it differently? If we know that this whole thing about planning being brilliant, at least for my brain, I think for yours too, but plans being, oh God, just just know. How does that work for us? Should we explain to people how we actually manage to do that? Go on then. What's my little back to me?

Speaker 1 20:29

You take the lead just for a change. I'm just I'm being lazy, aren't I? You are, and I'm just so we're bracing myself.

Speaker 20:35

We'll kind of we'll we'll sometimes do look start with like a loose SWAT or something, or things that are coming up that we want to be dealing with. We'll look at where our businesses are going, where the crossovers are, where we can do more work together. We'll look at some of the ideas we've had, which of those ideas are likely to have the most impact, which ones are going to be easy to take to market, which ones would take a lot more planning, a lot more effort.

Speaker 1 21:00

Yeah.

Speaker 21:00

Which ones we can just do on the fly and make it happen while the energy is.

Speaker 1 21:04

You're on, like as you're saying that. Anybody watching this on video after Taddy's eyes have just lit up because we said that. There you go. Yeah. Spontaneously like, yeah, let's do that. Oh, let's just do it.

Speaker 21:12

Let's let's start tweeting about it. Tweeting about it, that's me. Let's start talking about it online right now, and you'll be like, but we don't have a full planet. Doesn't matter, we've got the outline, we can sell the concept. Yeah, we can sell the sizzle, we'll work out what's in the sausage later. Yeah. That gets me really, really exciting, excited. And I suppose we'll write all this stuff down, excuse me. And then we'll come back to it a little while later and look at it again and look at what is still lighting us up. Some stuff, honestly, we will have actioned on the spot because Yeah. Because hello, have you met me? Have you already have you already talked about that? We haven't Yeah. But we haven't planned it yet, I know.

Speaker 1 21:56

And hang on a minute, Taz, I haven't proofread it.

unknown 21:59

Yeah.

Speaker 22:00

I am not the best proofreader in the world. That's why you help people with books, and I help people with the ideas that are going to be brilliant, and then send them to you to write a book about it. Well there you go. It works, doesn't it? It does.

Speaker 1 22:10

But you know, it's it's different horses for courses. Yeah. And it works, it works really well with us together because we've realised that. And don't get me wrong, I like that spontaneity. I absolutely love it. I can go there too and get really excited about something. But it's just I like a little bit more underpinning it, I think, for reassurance.

Speaker 22:27

I think we've still managed to land in that space though. We had this discussion a while back and came up with the there are two kinds of types of planning. There's responsive, more fluid planning. Yeah. Which works with my kind of lava lamp of ideas and creativity. And then there's rigid planning. One works really well for me, for us. Yeah. And the other one just makes me think that I'm not a real grown-up and I should be doing better. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's that's how it works. Today, and you're right, you keep saying

Notebooks, Missed Chances, Courage

Speaker 23:00

it's today absolutely is a live example. But from those planning sessions, we then end up with, and if again, if this rings a bell with any of you listening or watching, please tell us, we end up with these notebooks full of ideas.

Speaker 1 23:12

Yeah. Many notebooks, many, many notebooks, which, you know, obviously we keep them for so long. Yeah. But I've done that quite recently where I've gone through and gone, look at this idea and this idea. And what about this idea? Yeah, lots of them.

Speaker 23:25

And that, how do we then make sure that the ones that are worth actioning get actioned? Well, there are so many ideas that go to that great idea's graveyard in the sky because they just sit in the notebook. And I'll get hyper excited and hyper-focused on one in particular.

Speaker 1 23:41

But does it also depends where you are, doesn't it? Because if we go back to this whole concept or this thing around winging it, if you, for instance, find an old notebook that you've got some ideas in there, you think, oh yeah, and you're in a really good space, you've had a great day, you're having a great week, you've got customers coming out of your ears, it's really good, everything's flying, and you're gonna go, oh, I'd forgotten about that. Right, we need to action that. But you also equally can other days where you might pick it, you might find an old notebook and go, cool, we missed the opportunity there then, didn't we?

Speaker 24:09

And it's it's we might open one and go, Well, we dodged a bullet there, didn't we?

Speaker 1 24:13

Yeah, yeah. But what I'm saying is, it how does that impact your ability to wing it? Because it depends on where you are personally or collectively as a team, when you when you find those little gems again, are you actually going to pick those up and run with them? Maybe in a different way to the original idea. But are you gonna pick them up or are you just gonna go actually no, we've missed our chance now?

Speaker 24:34

I think one of the low points for us with this is that realistically, if we were both still in kind of corporate land, we'd both be creatives in terms of ideas. We are both far more right brain than left brain, but you've got a bit more left brain than me. You're slightly to the slightly to the right of centre. Um I think in an ideal world, I'd have a team of people where if a brilliant idea pinged in and we had a quick talk about it and got excited, we'd go, do that!

Speaker 2 25:08

Yeah.

Speaker 25:08

And send them scuttly enough to do it, because then another idea would come up before we'd have the time to get into the the intricacies of the other one. So in an ideal world, if we were just sitting at the top of an ideas factory, we'd be just farming them out, or at least farming the other research on them and then making them happen. So are you then passing it on to somebody else to wing it? Yes, you are.

Speaker 1 25:28

Of course they are. It's the wing it, it's the wing it team, isn't it? Winging it, absolutely. I think the down having the courage and encouraging that in your your staff. Yeah. In your team, to to wing it. It's a bit like not forward. That in itself feels really weird saying that. I've just said that and gone, I've said that on a podcast. Is that right? I know, it's really freaking me

Social Media Needs More Real Time

Speaker 1 25:50

out. I know, but it is because of that, it's so ingrained in here about okay.

Speaker 25:54

So let's look at this another way then. So one of the things in the old turquoise tiger when it first started, and it was the social media and PR and training and and full-done full service agency. We were constantly telling people to not just schedule everything back in the days through Hootsuite and the like, wasn't it? Yeah. Don't do that now. Don't schedule everything through a through a third-party platform unless you want to really be algorithm slapped. But it's the difference between people scheduling, pre-writing and scheduling every post that goes out on social media. Yeah. And because when I know life is busy, so you're gonna do some scheduling, I get it. I do occasionally, not very often. But also scheduling the ones that aren't necessarily time-sensitive, yeah. But still being able to get on their live and still wingsome and be in the moment.

Speaker 2 26:52

Yeah.

Speaker 26:53

Because there's nothing worse, and you know, we used to bang on about this till we were blue in the face in the day, didn't we? Don't don't write one post and put the same post across all your social media platforms. Yeah. Oh my god. Good. Every now and then, if I'm up against it or I can't see any genuine reason to flex, then then I'll do one.

Speaker 1 27:12

Yeah, but you wouldn't want to form a habit for that.

Speaker 27:14

No.

Speaker 1 27:14

No.

Speaker 27:15

Because they're not always going to be absolutely different audiences on every platform.

Speaker 2 27:20

Yeah.

Speaker 27:21

They are not going to be how else can I put it? Some let's say somebody is following you on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, wherever. And you put a post out and it hits every platform at the same time. And I'm, you know, deliberately letting this flex a bit because they all have different formats and lengths and stuff, but I say you could. Yeah. Somebody following you on LinkedIn who then sees exactly the same post at exactly the same time on Facebook, might think, well, if they're just farming the same information out, I don't need to follow them everywhere, so I'll unfollow them here and here and here. Or worst case, right, so they're not really wanting to engage with us on this platform properly. They are just wanting to broadcast, they're broadcasting messages at us. So, hello, disingenuous, unfollow everywhere.

Speaker 2 28:14

Yeah.

Speaker 28:15

And there's your credibility goal.

Speaker 2 28:16

Yeah.

Speaker 28:17

And honestly, no social media advisor worth us all today would be telling you to put the same post everywhere. Just don't do it. And if you insist on do it, at least mix it up a little bit. Do a bit of content DJing and put them out on different days. Yeah, exactly. It's slack. And that's the thing. And it's hanging it.

Speaker 1 28:34

Yeah, you're right. That's when it goes too far the other way. That all I was going to say was I always go on about the top and tail thing. I talk about that a lot with content. Yeah. But it's very easy to top and tail it. So what I mean by that is just changing your first couple of paragraphs and your last couple of paragraphs. Leave the bit in the middle the same, pretty much. Just change it, just refresh it a little bit. It doesn't take long to change.

Speaker 28:52

Make sure it doesn't look like you're constantly posting exactly the same stuff on all the same channels all at once. Cheating. Good rant. Don't do it. But that's the whole winging it thing, isn't it? That's what what brought that brought me back to it. Just reminded me. You can't be rigid in life and expect people to stay engaged. No. You just can't. You can't you cannot just be static and industry standard magnolia in everything that you do. I like that industry standard magnolia. You can't. What do I try and say all the time? Do not blend, you are not a nutrient bullet. Yeah, it's nice too. You should get some more of these on t-shirts, Taz. Yeah. Bit.ly forward slash Tazmuch, capital T capital N. A nice opportunity.

unknown 29:36

Yeah.

Speaker 29:37

But back to that point we were talking about the the notebooks and how how that feels. I think the downside of us both being solo business owners and sometimes doing stuff as a team as well, and not having a team of people to throw stuff out to, yeah, is that you're in danger of spinning too many plates at once. And yet sometimes you'll have an idea to run something, and you'll kick them, yeah, I'll get round to that, I'll get round to that, I'll get round to that, I'll get round to that. And then some bugger beats you beats you to it.

Speaker 1 30:12

Oh, it's done it. Ouch! And you know, don't if you'd have the courage to wing it.

Speaker 30:19

Yeah, if I or just it's not that's not just about winging it, is it? It's about making it happen then when you have the idea and yeah, the things you can do.

Speaker 1 30:25

Yeah, but I mean, but in order for you to do that, I think you've got there's got to be an element of that wing it right at the start. Because even if you're thinking, okay, I've got this skill set, I can know I can, for instance, put on this event, I know I've got contacts in this area, I can help with all the you know, the videography, the photography, everything else. I've got that element of it, I've got that element of it, I've got that element. Hang on a minute, I haven't got that. Okay. And often that's the way if there's just a tiny chink, if you like, not a chink in the armour, but in your, you know, your opportun your opportunity to do this, it's gonna stop you, and you're gonna go, that's the point of winging it. You're thinking, okay, I'll work that out later. But I've got some of the key ingredients, so it means I can make a start and I can do it. I can get that, I can get on the phone to somebody, I can find out about that element of what I need for this particular project. And yet, how many times do we sometimes not not do that? I know I've sat on things and not gone ahead with stuff when I've got to do that.

Speaker 31:20

There's several things I've sat on, and there's there's another kind of person in the coachy sphere who I'm actually really good mates with, but it's a very similar ethos to me and delivery to me. And there are, I can count three ideas I had that I I wanted to do. Really desperately wanted to do them, but again, it was so safe because it was so out there. I'll get around to them one day.

unknown 31:44

Every bloody

Stop Comparing And Protect Energy

unknown 31:45

time.

Speaker 31:45

I haven't mentioned them, I haven't discoursed them three times. The bugger went and did them before me. Which then put me into a spin because I was like, well I can't do them now because they'll think I'm copying now. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And that's actually. I was talking on on, I think it was Facebook only this morning, about there there are some people that we follow on social media, maybe they're pit their peers, maybe they're people a few steps ahead of us, and we start to follow them because we think we should be following them.

Speaker 2 32:16

Yeah.

Speaker 32:16

And they are doing nothing but going about their business, being their brilliant awesome selves. But sometimes, depending on the mindset we're in, we can look at their content and trip into that. Bloody hell, I was gonna do that, and now I can't do that because people will think I'm copying XYZ, or oh, look at what they've just done. I've been saying I was gonna do that for ages and I haven't done it. Now I just feel really shit. Or excuse me, look at what they're doing. I know I should be doing that, and I haven't got the energy to do that at the minute. So they're it's very, very easy to for other people who are doing nothing wrong to unwittingly turn into drains for us rather than radiators, i.e., someone who drains our energy rather than lifting us up. And these might be pe hey, I might do this for some people as well. These might be people who are all about lifting people up, but because for whatever reason you are not operating at your full level of energy, maybe you're a bit burned out, maybe you're grieving, we've been talking that about that a lot lately, maybe you're just coming back from illness, maybe you're just knackered, and for whatever reason, you don't have the resilience that you need at that moment, and when you look at somebody else doing what you know you are capable of doing, it can actually deplete you more. That's a mindset thing. And I was talking about this as well this morning that if there are people like that on your social feeds, you don't have to do anything horrible like go and block them or never speak to them again or all that shiz. But if you are consuming content that is not filling you up and for whatever reason, it's giving you little triggers that you don't have the energy to deal with right now, just temporarily on temporarily unfollow people. If they're as brilliant as you think they are, number one, they ain't gonna notice, and if they're two, it's not gonna make any difference.

Speaker 1 34:08

That's a really self-embarring thing to do. I've done that quite recently. Yeah. Because I just thought, for goodness sake, stop i.e. comparing or worrying about things you're not doing, rather than doing that and just scrolling and then going, oh, they've done this. I was stuck into that. I said to you, and depleted it all over there. Yeah, it's not good. So it's like instead of that, what we're saying is what, go out there and wing it a bit. Wing it, wing it.

Speaker 34:33

You are if you if you're someone who works on your own initiative and you've got the kind of ideas that run all over the place like ours do, every now and then one will come out and so that's so brilliant, and you know in here and in here, and in your gut, that it's ready to flow, you'll be able to just net it and run with it. But there's going to be a gazillion other ideas that are still kind of running free like gazelle on the planes of your mind that you've not been able to catch because you're too busy working on this one. And so instead of getting caught up over the people that have done it first, just don't follow them for a bit. If you stop if you stop engaging and and consuming the content of people who are doing the things you know you're not, guess what? Maybe your energy will come up a little bit. And maybe then you'll run with your stuff anyway, and you'll do it in your way. Yeah. And you won't have to worry about somebody thinking you're copying X, Y, Z because you haven't seen it in the first place.

Speaker 1 35:28

Yeah, exactly. I like it.

Speaker 35:30

Yeah, I like it. Wing away, people, wing away. A wing away, a wing away, a wing away, a wing away, a wingway. A wing away.

Speaker 2 35:43

Be glad. I know.

Speaker 35:44

Tell me again while recording all somebody off topic.

Speaker 2 35:47

I know exactly that.

Speaker 1 35:49

We've given enough tips and advice to you. I think so. I mean it's quite it's quite a short one for us. I think it's less than 40 minutes.

Old Ideas, Wins, And Listener Questions

Speaker 1 35:55

That's pretty much.

Speaker 35:58

I think for the the the notebook graveyard thing, every now and then, do go and grab some of your old notebooks and flick through them because there may well be some ideas in there that still excite you, that light you up, and maybe you need to just look at them from a different angle. But there may well be. But the other brilliant thing about going and pulling out old notebooks, and we've had times like this where we've said, right, we want to do this, this, this, this, and this, and we'll look at them and go, Wow, look at how many of these we've actually already achieved.

Speaker 1 36:26

Yeah, I know, it's lovely. That's a lovely feeling, isn't it? And maybe, you know, in amongst there will be things where we've winged it a bit, wung it a bit. Wung it, we've wung it a bit. We've wung.

Speaker 36:36

Yeah. Anyway, on that note, please do get in touch with us. Yeah, before I get another nasty stink bubble.

Speaker 1 36:44

I think this is, yeah, I think it's already happened possibly.

Speaker 36:46

Oh no.

Speaker 1 36:47

So if it wasn't me, blame the dog. If in doubt.

Speaker 36:50

If you have enjoyed listening to this or watching it, and again, thank goodness it's not smelly vision yet. Give us a few years, that'll be happening. Oh, I don't scratch her, because I think that could be the final yeah. Um let us know if you search awesomely off topic and BuzzFeed. Our little BuzzFeed website will pop up and you can send us messages directly through that. You can send voicemails too.

Speaker 1 37:11

Can you? Oh, that's good, isn't it?

Speaker 37:12

And we might even feature some of them.

Speaker 1 37:14

Yeah, we might send us your messages in.

Speaker 37:16

Get in touch, tell us how you feel about winging it. Tell us how you feel about life, the universe, and everything. And who knows, maybe we'll go next.

Speaker 1 37:22

If you've got any questions for us, do let us know because we'd like that as well.

Speaker 37:25

We would send us your questions. We should be doing another Ask Us Anything episode. So that's due for this month. We're due for an Ask Me Anything. So send those questions in to us for us to tackle and we will not practice any of them or look at them, we'll just pull them out of a hat. Live is it live on air if we're pre-recording it?

Speaker 1 37:41

Well, kind of it is, but it is.

Speaker 37:44

Anyway, on that note, we will see you next Tuesday.

Speaker 1 37:50

You've been listening to Awesomely Off -Topic. Make sure you're following so you don't miss the next one. And if you'd like more, come and find Awesomely Off-Topic on social media. You'll find behind the scenes footage, floopers, and more. See you next time.