SPEAKER_01 0:04

More than Fridays. Hello, everybody. Welcome to More Than Fridays. My podcast that is released every Friday, and I talk about life: what's good, what's not so great, my line of work, and loads of other things that you might find helpful and useful. Um, so yes, this podcast, real life, real lessons, real moves. Um, got a bit of an update, mindset business. I keep all of my I like to keep my notes here on my phone so I refer to them and I don't like missing anything out. Um, so yeah, I'm gonna kick off this podcast with talking about yesterday. Yesterday was one of my best days ever. I had the most amazing day yesterday. Um, it was not planned, it was a version of events that just couldn't be topped, and it was very simple. So I started the day, I had to go in. There was a lot of not great things that happened, uh, but the good stuff overrode those. So I had to get up early to go into town and get my car MOT'd. So, those of you that don't know, I have a car that I don't like anymore. I want to get rid of it because it's not very cost effective, and I'm enjoying it while I've still got it. Anyway, I've had a lot of problems with this car. So yesterday I was like, Oh, it's such a new car, it's gonna be absolutely fine with the MOT. It failed, it failed the MOT. So, those of you that don't know, my daughter had a little accident in her car, and she hasn't had a car for a little while, but we have had our eye on a car, and we have a garage not that far from us of guys who we really trust. I've got to pause this because it's a CNR. Hello. Hi, how are you? I'm good, can you hear me?

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Yeah, you're okay, where are you at?

SPEAKER_01 2:14

I'm just oh, I'm just doing my podcast.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Oh, you're doing well, okay.

unknown 2:18

But I'm just setting off now.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Yeah. Um I think I think about five hours.

unknown 2:22

I should be with you for about four.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

And everybody's got stuck at the train. Oh no, I haven't. Shuts are gonna have to do what she did at Christmas time.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Yeah, I think she's um noise. Oh no, do you know what? This is exactly why I'm driving so much longer, but it's just so unreliable.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Oh, hold on, where oh, here we go. Right, there she is. Oh no, my train cancelled. All trains to Cambridge have been cancelled today. I'm gonna have to take a different train. One with three changed again. Oh bless her. Oh my god. Oh no. Okay, I've just seen that. No idea. I have to put it up as well.

unknown 3:04

It keeps flashing this thing. It can't guess, it can't see the um tire pressure.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Like electronically, I have to check it manually, but I checked them the other day, they were fire. Oh god, not today.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Oh no. And um also if you want to see there's a garage around the corner who are really good. They can check over your c car before you leave. I think it's um I think it's an uh software fault, not a car fault.

unknown 3:27

Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Yeah, those are bloody just playing up. Yeah, that happened to mine as well. I it's so frickin' annoying. Really is. Oh, bless it.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

I'm just gonna call off at M and S get some snacks for the journey then. Oh, it's almost forty, but I'll probably need a stop or maybe two, depending on uh how it gets on.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Yeah, all right.

unknown 3:48

I can go get Emily from the station if she gets in later. She said it's gonna take forever.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Oh bit to get her, we'll we'll figure it out. Yeah, well, I'll get her. I'll um oh poor girl. Alright then, I will reach out to her. I'm just gonna finish off this podcast and then um I will give her a call. Oh bless her. Alright, my darling. Speak to you soon. Alright, love. Bye. Let's get the notes back up. Okie dokie. Alrighty. Well, as you can see there, we've got Emily and Sienna on their way, you know. They're already hitting some. Let's hope they make it. They're hitting some problems. Let's hope that they make it. Okay. So back to yesterday, my best day ever. Um, honestly, it was just one of those days. Um, so my MOT failed. My MOT failed, and I was like, okay, we need to get a car. I checked my bank and I'd just been refunded my VAT, which was really amazing, and that put another twist on the day. So things, some bad luck happened, and then everything from there on ricocheted into good luck. So I contacted Anna and I said, I'm going to get a taxi home. Let's go and have a look at that car, let's go and test drive it because we had an eye on a car. My daughter is super practical, she's not flash, she's not into any of that sort of thing. Um, she's got no ego, she wants practical, she's into living life and having experiences. So she really wanted like a van, something big that she could go away in, put all the dogs in, all that kind of thing. So the last car that she had was quite small. So we'd been looking at this car, and I was like, Don't you want like something a little bit more flash? She was like, No, I quite like this, and it and don't get me wrong, it's not that good looking of a car, but I saw the beauty in this car too. So I head home. We we've already let the gardeners in because Sophie's lawn's getting all relayed, so that's everything's really working. I'm buzzing because I'm thinking, okay, shit is gonna go well today. So we go well, we managed to get the taxi driver who dropped me off to give us another lift to this garage that's literally like 10 minutes away, 10 minutes away from us in the car. It's quite a long walk, it's probably about a 45-minute walk because it doesn't feel that far away, but it actually is. We're in the countryside, so you can be a bit delusional about how long things take. I thought walking to the town would take not that long at all. It actually takes to walk to the town from here takes takes four hours. It took four hours, didn't it? No, it really did because it's it's yeah, it's quite a long way. Or was it three hours? I can't remember, it was either three hours or four hours. It's it's it's long, it's ridiculous, but it doesn't feel like that. Anyway, I digress. So we go to this garage, and as we stop at the garage, the taxi man tries to put us off. He says to us, I don't know why you're buying from there, is far too overpriced. Now bear in mind this is a garage that Anna bought her last car off, and it's really safe. They have been brilliant, there's never been a problem with her last car, and until they treat us badly, we'll go into this garage. So we went to this garage, um, they've always been amazing. They'll they even offer to recover her from when she was in the lake district, and people buy from people at the end of the day. I am not experienced in cars, I don't really want to just save a few hundred quid for then the car to have a problem somewhere along the line. So we've got this local garage, which I think is absolutely fantastic. They sell nothing flash, everything is kind of like a little bit old. So we went there and they had lots of cars available. Anyway, now they know us, they're very jokey and funny. They're like, Oh, here you are. Like he said, I heard you know about Anna's last car. Anyway, we go in and he said that we start eyeing up the car that we want, and he went, not that one, and we're like, our hearts drop. We're thinking, why? We've like we have our hearts set on this car, we've already bought it, you know. And he said, It is ugly like that, and he's just here's he could obviously see me and Anna and something a bit more flash, but we were just like, I said, Listen, we're gonna sell it to you, we're gonna sell it back to you. This is why we think this car. So he went, Do you know what? I trust you two. Here's the keys. Go and have a little test drive in it. So we go off, and there's no petrol in it, he has to put petrol in it. It's diesel. So we go off for a little drive, and honestly, it drives absolutely fine. It's it is what it is, it's got a few nicks and dents, but it's Anna's second car, and I'm a firm believer of not buying something too flash. Um, I do think at that raw age of 20s as well, you really do need to learn the value of money. Um, and I think she's doing really well in that sense. Learning the value of money, working for something, and it being your own. Whereas if you get kind of handed something really flash car, you're not gonna value it. So she has saved this car and um we we're driving it around, then I swap, she has a go, and we just sold. We absolutely love it, and we she's kind of like I said it I don't know how long a car like this is gonna last, but he's like, This car will last you five years if you look after it. The chances are probably not gonna keep it for five years. I I you know the most I've had a car is probably like four years, I think that and that felt like an eternity. Um, and it that with cars you do tend to just swap them unless something goes wrong. I don't know, but I I haven't really kept a car over four years. Anyway, she's got this car, so we go back and I said to her, okay, over to you, you're gonna do the negotiating because I think as a woman you do need to learn some negotiation skills um and learn to walk away if you're not getting what you want. So we went back and we did the classic. I just left it to Anna. She negotiated a new price, a new lower price, and the guy went, yeah, straight away. No negotiating back. She was like, damn, I should have asked for more. Nonetheless, we're super happy with this car, so we took this car away. It is one of those people carriers, it is brilliant, it is one of those people carriers with a sliding door, a huge boot, and I was so happy for her that I kind of got caught up in the excitement of this car. Like, I can imagine that a lot of people be like, wouldn't be that excited by this car. We're so excited by this car. It's quite an old car. There is dents in it. He goes, I've got to point out there's dents. We're like, we don't care, you know. We we we love it, we love it. We are just seeing the dogs in this car. I've always wanted to get a scrappy car, not a scrappy car, but a car that you don't mind where you park it, the dogs are gonna get in there, there's gonna be hair everywhere. So we come home, Anna's over the moon, we faff around with the car, we you know, they're gonna service it and MAT. It's already got plenty of MIT. We're gonna service it again, we're gonna go back and see them, and they're just up the road and they really take care of us. When Anna goes on a long trip, she they check over the car and she is learning how to look after the car herself. So um we decide to take advantage of this new mobile and book a we um you can book fields for dogs. So because some of my dogs are reactive, um, you can book these fields. So it's about £15 an hour. There's lots of them around here. It's £15 an hour, you get this massive field, and it's just you. You get a pin code, it's a bit like Airbnb for dogs, but for a field, you put your code in, you all go in, and it's amazing. So it's my first time we heard about these fields for dogs through our dog walker because she said it was a bit too dangerous to just sort of walk them out here. Anyway, we booked this dog field, we put all the dogs in a car, and I'm not joking, my heart is full. Ethel's in the back, they all get in like it's a it's a school bus. Ethel's in the back, Roman's in the back, and then all the little ones are in the boot. So Roy comes as well. So we've got seven of them. So Roy is the little chihuahua, he's in this little pink cage because he doesn't like anyone being in space, and the two dash owns, um, the Jackwa and the Norfolk Terrier, they're all in the back, all being really well behaved. And I just I just think this is I am so rich right now. This is my life. I'm so happy. I have my beautiful home. I've just had Sophie's garden nearly finished, and we're in this dream car. Like, this car brought so much joy. It brought so much joy. We drive to this field and we find the field. All the dogs come running out, and in this field, you go in this field, it's got all sensory things, it's got like tires and all this kind of thing, and it's got dog treats there, and you just put the code and go in, and it's honestly it's fantastic. The the the level of stress that's removed by being able to just leave your dogs to have no leads on, they can't get out of this. It's like it's about two acres, so it's big enough to kind of like run around. And the dogs, they're just having the time of their lives. This hour went so fast, and we rounded them all up, got them by the gate, and Anna's like, right, how are we gonna do this? She would take two by two, and they're just waiting at the gate, excuse me, they're just waiting at the gate like little kids waiting to get into the car. And as I'm walking around, as I'm doing that, I'm just thinking, I'm so present. I haven't looked at my phone, I haven't looked at my phone through all of this process going on. I have a real problem with phone addiction and scrolling, and I really want to address that because it just robs you of your mind and your life, and I don't think it helps mental health. So, yesterday was definitely one of the best days of my life because it was just amazing. Got back and I felt so buzzing. I had so much work to do in the evening, but I was so pumped because I can get really overwhelmed with work. I was so pumped that I got ready, felt great, went and did a load of work, and just went to bed, just thinking that this is my life. The dogs are so so important to me. And having a car that's not the car that failed the MIT, that's quite flash, and I can't put the car the dogs in it. For me, I've learned about the car thing. I do like a nice car, I need a nice car for work, obviously. Um, but I do like chucking the dogs all in a in a car and just going away with it. So my daughter is over the moon, she loves her new purchase, and it's so nice to have a grateful child, to have a child who has gratitude. Gratitude's massive for us having a child that is grateful for the simple things in life. I think that is a real gift in itself. Um, yeah, gratitude was big time yesterday. So the best day ever was yesterday, and may many more come. Um, yeah, I so I put wrote here um a little line. Sometimes we're so focused on the next thing, we don't even clock when we're actually living the life we've been working towards. And yesterday I was really in the present saying, This is it, I've made it, I've absolutely made it, I'm in it, I'm in my dream life, I'm living it. I've got my dogs, I've got my home, I've got my happiness, it's great, and yeah, the journey isn't perfect or easy. Each day there's something, there's a struggle, but it's all great. It's it it's great. I always handle it really well. So this weekend news segment accountability with Sienna Day. We had a long conversation over the weekend. I really love I've got two amazing friends in Emily Balfour. I've got many really great friends who I talk to about business, and Sienna is a really good friend of mine, and she is so funny, we've got a lot in common, but we do have so many similarities when it comes to work, the struggles with work, and things like that. We both decided to check in with each other, like this accountability. Look, we've all heard of like accountability buddies, and I feel what how I feel lately is being what a single mum, whatever, um, with uh a busy life, lots of things to do, and work. It's it's easy to put everything in a bowl and go, I work really hard, but what are the hours that I'm actually physically putting into work? I've and I I thought who who are we comfortable being being self-employed, it's really difficult to listen to people to tell us what to do. I think that's why a lot of people are self-employed because they don't like people telling them what to do. I'm not crazy at people telling me what to do, but to a certain degree, I know that's for my best interest. I have people around me who I have to be accountable to for my work because sometimes I'm my own worst enemy. I won't I won't be very productive, I will, you know, be like, oh well, I'll take today off. And I'm even naught to a hundred, and that's not great, I think. I think it's best to be steady and consistent. So we were just discussing how can we help each other to help ourselves, and we decided that on a Sunday, so I sent her mine on Sunday, and she sent me hers. We were gonna set something that was really achievable, and I went through what I was gonna do on my Monday, and I do find that writing it down, I don't forget anything because there's always so many things going on, and then at the end of this week on Friday, we're gonna go over what went well, what we didn't do, how we can do better next week, and I think it's gonna work. I really like it. Um, she's on her way over today, and Emily's on their way over, so it's gonna be really nice catching up with them. Um, because I think we're all trying to improve all the time, trying to improve workload, trying to improve where we can change things, um, rather than staying stale, stuck, and yeah, not growing. Yeah, that was it. I've written here there are days that I don't want to show up, but I know that if someone else is watching me, I do. So that's kind of where me and Sienna have gone along. Here is this accountability thing, is and we don't, and it's not like we're telling each other what to do, it's just like we're both on the same path, and it's like two friends just like, should we do this now? Should we do that? You know, kind of so it's not someone nagging us, and I think that's a psychology into it. So, yes, moving on to segment three, where I'm gonna talk about uh what's coming up. I've got the three peaks challenge coming up this coming week, and then what's next after that? This has been the biggest thing that I've been training for. Obviously, last not last weekend, but the weekend before that. That was the um X2X, which was really hard. Since then, it's kind of been a bit of a taper. I've been swimming yesterday. We did a walk um today. I've got swimming tonight, and then I've got a short run tomorrow. So, Anna, I've got to focus on work this week because if I'm taking time off, I need to have work covered for next week. Um, so Anna is doing all the stuff. We've got to register the walk, we've got to make sure we've got all our kit, we've pretty much got everything. Um, we've hired a van, we're doing really well with sponsorship. We've had so many amazing people sponsor us. I must say thank you, thank you so much to everybody that's sponsored. Um, for those of you who are only just like tuning in and listening to this, uh, in the sense of you're not sure what I'm talking about, the three pigs. My daughter's idea was to do the three pigs because her dad went blind in 2023, early 2023. He's a veteran. We split up years ago when she was a baby, and you know, he's absolutely fine, but he um went blind and really out of nowhere. Um his sister uh contacted blind veterans and they've been really helpful and very supportive. And I think when you go through something traumatic like that, I think Anna was like, it's very natural to sort of do some endurance sport. I I do think that trauma and endurance kind of go hand in hand, and I and Anna was like, I really want to do something um meaningful and to raise awareness and to raise money for blind veterans as a thank you as well. And I was like, that's a great idea. And she said the three pigs, and I was just like, Wow, amazing. She went in 24 hours. I was like, Great, I don't know anything about this, I'm not a hiker or anything. So we are um I I said I'd help her, and and at the point at that time, you would think people have busy lives, and I was just like, Look, Anna, I don't want to be asking people to kind of take up their time for free and stuff like that. I'll be your support driver. And we told we said to the My coach, we said, Look, we want to do this. Can you train us for it? She was like, Absolutely. Anyway, my coach, our coach, is our support driver. Um, her and her partner, they are both coming along. We're so grateful, like, truly, it's my coach is a proper coach. Um, she has supported me. She came to um, she means a lot to me. She's um a woman that I really look up to. Uh, she has I go in her house, and I've never seen so many medals on the walls of things that she's done, and she's just very humble, but she's really funny. She's a Scorpio, you'll be uh glad to know. Um, I get on really well with her, and it's just so nice to have people around you that are passionate about endurance and winning things and doing things properly. So we're so happy with who's coming and supporting us. We're so happy with how much support we've had for such a great cause, and we're just really excited to be doing this. And the truth is, we're excited to be doing this together. Once you kind of do all the planning and all that, I've taken a moment to go, oh my god, I get to, I get to do the three peaks with my daughter. What an amazing experience in my life that I get to do that, and it's so weird because I was always the young mum, I'm not that anymore. I am the middle-aged mum with the young daughter who's in her 20s, and it's just so weird to I get what people say now, so you your body gets older, but your brain never really changes, and it's just so bizarre to go, oh my gosh, what is my life? I am a mum to a really smart girl, like girl, woman, she's got such fire in her belly, and I I do think um gosh, what's the word? Problems, I suppose that's anyway. Problems make you find solutions, and she's just really, really mature for her age. So I'm we're gonna have a great time. I'm so excited about it. Um, and I'll let you know. I think by the time so we'll probably you won't get a podcast next week because I will be recovering. Maybe uh Rick can come and do it for my bed, or who knows? I might get one in some next week. I think I come back on like the Thursday, or I could record it on the Friday, and it'll just be uh released later on the Friday. I might be able to do I might be able to do that. Let's see. But you will have one, I will talk about it. I think it's I'm really excited, it's it's quite big, it's very big. We're gonna try and do it in 24 hours. Uh the we're trying to raise five grand, we've raised over half of that already, and we're so so pleased. Um, so all of you know that I'm very goal-driven, and I need these goals to keep me out of trouble. So this was really great to have this uh three peaks to focus on and the X to X to focus on to keep me to. I think the more stuff you have, the more disciplined you are. I need discipline because if I don't, then I can I can be a little bit mischievous. So I need discipline, I need structure, structure. So I I'm actually gonna have to think about doing something else, whether it's just um because I go great, I'm gonna have nothing, I can just focus on making money, I can just start doing some weight training. I really don't think that's actually a good idea for me. I actually think that I I should continue with a plan, um, continue with my running. Um, and I do need to I have actually put down my weight training. That's not good. Yeah, I've put down my weight training and I really want to incorporate my weight training just for the sculpting side of things for my body, but I think I'm not doing a triathlon, okay? I'm not that's not I'm not ready for that yet because I want to do the full Iron Man, but I'm I've just got too much on, and they say don't do it if you can't commit to the train. I can't commit to the training, I could just about commit to the training for the half one, so I cannot and will not commit to the training just yet. I'm not ready. So I feel I like hiking, I like trail running. I might have to do another little trail run. I think that might be it. I think I might look into a few bits. I'm gonna focus on my swimming, massively fast focus. I've I'm doing um there's one in some oh I can't remember. There's I'm doing one in Henley, the PubTube or whatever it's called, but I'm gonna be doing more wild swimming, I think will be really good for me. Anyway, moving on. Those of you who don't know, I have a really funny financial advisor. He's really cool. I met him through a friend of mine, and he has taught me so much, he's taught me so much. I wish I'd met him. I don't know why I didn't ever get a financial advisor. I've just got lucky, I've got very lucky. I didn't get a financial advisor because I thought you had some money to have a financial advisor. Well, you know, obviously you do, but you can have a financial advisor for like any amount of money, and they'll help you because you've got to set up your future and things like that. It's very interesting. I would recommend getting a financial advisor and a good one. If you don't, if you're not gelling with them, move on, get another one. Anyway, he's really funny, and he has taught me so much, he's taught me so much about what I was doing wrong, um, how I was spending wrong, um, all sorts of things. Because as we know, I wasn't born knowing all this stuff, it didn't come to me naturally, and I've had to learn as as I go along. And I'm like, I really think that you should have your own podcast and just focus on giving financial advice to all the people in my industry. And we laughed about it, and I was like, no, really, I think you should. Um, so I'm trying to persuade him to set up his own podcast or something, or just let me pick his brains and dish it, dish it all out. But anyway, he was really great because I had a few problems, and it turns out that my sick code was wrong. So that would have been the accountant doing that. I can hear my dog barking, don't know why. Um, so anyway, he solved that for me. We were just laughing about the stupidity of some of the stuff that goes on. So, yeah, that's something that I'm working on trying to get him on here, um, or whatever. We'll see, we'll see if we can twist his arm. He stands on his own, so he doesn't really care about um he understands what I do for a living and what everyone does for a living, and you know, he just finds it all a bit ridiculous how some people get treated. So that leads me on to talk about I have so many old sayings that my my dad was like one-liner king, and I have loads of one-liners, and one of my favourite one-liners that has been very valuable lately is it's not what you know, it's who you know. Um, I do think being a likable person and having good character is super important because you do when you're in a little bit of trouble, you do find out who your friends are, but also it's good to have friends I wouldn't say in high places, but that can help you help you navigate this world, such as finance and law and all that kind of thing. And lately I have found that I actually know some really great people. Um I think sometimes when we fall out with people or something goes wrong, you can test you can be like, I definitely find this with myself. I'm like, gosh, am I an awful person? I think when you find you know, you fall out with somebody or something, you I definitely question myself, I question my actions, I question what I've done, and it's sometimes nice. I think you can sort of tell by the circle that you keep, um, somebody's character, somebody's the circle that they keep, their their character. Um, and you know, you know, you can't get on with everyone, but I have some people that really show up for me, and I'm really grateful for that. But yeah, it's you gotta have really smart, good people around you. I keep banging on about this, about your circle, but also not just your direct circle, just in general. Um, have a good set of friends that have got knowledge in all sorts of areas. It's good to get out there and network, but yeah, it's not it's not what you know, it's who you know. So that's been my line this week. Okay, okay, so of course, mental health check-in, right. This last week, for whatever reason, I had some challenges, as you do. It is life, it is what it is. Um it just happens. I had a really bad dream, a nightmare. It was absolutely awful. I woke up and it was so like real life, it wasn't one of these freaky ones, it was so like real life that I woke up and my you know, when you feel like the blanket of your nervous system is just going off, it's it's really in fear, and it really took it out of me. The next day, I I felt really low. I had a really bad week last week, in the sense of my hormones and things like that, and all sorts was going on. I was just like, This is really hard, this is a really, really hard week, and I had to have a few days off work, off kind of like being online and what have you, and I just couldn't for about two days couldn't get out of it. It was very, very difficult, and I think when the dopamine or whatever you get low, you start scrolling, you start being up late, you can't sleep. And the week before I was sleeping so well, I was oh, I was just killing it. Life was good. Um but being a woman, it did turn out that it was uh the wrong time for me, time of the month. I'm not superhuman, I'm not void of these things, and it was so bizarre that all these things were happening, like annoying things, and I was hormonal, it is what it is, and then this week I'm just feel absolutely buzzing. So I before the weekend I wrote on the board because I know how to get myself into a good mental state, and I knew I was really heading somewhere, not great. I was feeling really low. I felt I felt actually a bit depressed last week, if I'm really honest. I felt really depressed, and I do think that had something to do with my female hormones and what was going on for me that month, but that said, I just I've got to deal with it, and my daughter's great, she's like, just accept where you're at, you know, and do what you need to do and relax, and you should she's like you shouldn't work at the weekend, she take the weekends off. But sometimes that's not the option for me, you know. So, anyway, I wrote I I went enough's enough, I can't feel like this anymore. And it was coming up for Saturday, and I decided I'm gonna water my garden. I love my garden so much, it makes me so happy. I was in the garden all weekend, and I was watering it, I was moving bits around, and I was just having the time of my life, and it really made me so happy. And I I think that's a reminder of why I work hard and why I do what I do. Is I buy my own peace, I purchase it, I purchase peace, I purchase my freedom, I've purchased it. Um, and I I know um people like to say that uh money can't buy you happiness. It's bought my freedom, I would say. It's bought my peace of mind. Um, not always, I don't always have peace of mind, but when I'm in my garden and being able to create a space of peace, I it it kind of is a little bit yin-yang. I I do I'm happy to go out and work hard in order to have those moments of just sheer peace and safety where I'm with my dogs in my garden planting, it's just amazing. I just thought this is this is everything I've ever wanted. I had no idea I was going to become a gardener. I'm still not that great. I'm learning as I go along, but I love it. It's it's just so beautiful seeing everything grow, seeing the leaves, seeing the seasons change. Never I never used to look at that. So when I'm out now, I look at the side of the road. So I'm in the countryside, and then uh there's blossom comes out at the moment. I see all these different blossom trees. I'm like, oh, I like that one, I like that one. And I'm like, what's that? There's this particular bush with a purple like bud on it. And I'm like, I really want one of those. I want one of those in Sophie's garden because it's like a uh hardy shrub. And me and my daughter are trying to work out how we could get cuttings from these trees that are on the side of the road, and I was like, Well, digging one up would be theft, I'm not gonna do that, but we got these lovely, lovely bushes around here, and I just really want one, and I've become a bit of a I nose in people's gardens, I'm obsessed. You know, you used to walk past people's houses and you look in the window and be like, Oh, that's nice. I do it to gardens, and I look, I don't judge people that don't are not into gardening because, quite frankly, when I was younger and I didn't have any money, going and buying a pot and a plant was like mind-blowing. I would not do that because it's just so much money to buy a pot and a plant is like whoa, that's a whole week's worth of shopping. It just wasn't possible. So I don't judge anyone's garden at all. I just think, yep, no, not a gardener, or they haven't got the funds because it can be expensive, but it doesn't have to be. Um, but that's my hobby, that's my thing. So rather than I don't know, I I choose to make the money to make the garden. That's my that's my vice. Um, I do need to get a lawnmower though. I do need a lawnmower. Yep, so I think talking about mental health, my sleep's really off at the moment, um, whether it's hormones, you know, I'm at that age. Um, I'm looking into just being a little bit more mindful. I've got some really bad habits of being up late because my job is late into the evening, but I just give myself a little bit of not to I give myself a bit of grace to not try and push myself to be up so early in the morning. It's okay. My coach is the same. She's like, Why do you have to be up so early? Because I was taught to get up at stupid o'clock, and that's how you win, that's how you succeed. Not if you're going to bed really late, it's not. Um but anyway. Um, the goal is to eventually go to bed at 10, but at the moment that's not it's not going to work for me. Okay, I have a little bit here talk. This is really for people in my industry. Um, so lately I've been looking at lots of other platforms, I've been looking at other apps, I've been looking at how I store my files, how I store my content, where I'm sharing my content, how I'm taking the money from that, and that's been very interesting. I think this is a side of the internet that I want to be more knowledgeable about because I feel that I've relied on other people to set those things up for me. I am looking at things from more of their position as well. Um, how to store my content, how to be hands-on. I usually use we transfer, I'm gonna look into Dropbox. Um, I was chatting to Kieran Lee this morning. We were talking about um how to save files and things like that. He's so organised. Oh my gosh, so organised. Um, Rick's really organised. I know a lot of organised people, as you know, this being organized on a computer isn't my thing, but you can teach an old dog new tricks, I do believe. So there's a lot of things that I'm gonna be learning how to organise my content a lot better. I'm looking at things like that at the moment. So Dropbox is one that I want to get to. I know a lot of people do use Dropbox. I I have used Dropbox, I really couldn't get into it, but I am going to try now. Um, so some of the new platforms I have been looking at. So there's a new one called Subs, and I think it's by the guy who originally set up OnlyFans, and I think it might be around for a year. I'm gonna look into that, I haven't set up yet. Fansly, um, and fansly and only fans they're very, very similar, but OnlyFans is you know, still is a fabulous platform. Um, but I do think looking at others is a really great idea. Um, there's Sheer, Fat Pause, uh, all these other ones. There's AW. Um, there is what is there? There's all many, many vids, clips for sale, all that kind of thing. Um, and diversifying income, not relying on one platform. I've never relied on just the one platform. I've always believed in just be careful uh what you invest in the most. Um, and just yeah, having a strategy that like it is a lot of work to have all of these platforms, etc. But it's about going back to accountability with Sienna, where are we set spending our time? So, for example, if I don't have um a plan for my day, I could end up lying in, walking the dogs for ages, having some breakfast, you know, and my day can run away with me. Whereas if I go, right, from this time to this time, I'm putting my makeup on, I'm gonna work from this time, I'm gonna have a break here, I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna spend that time on that platform, I'm gonna do this. Um, I think it's been that more productivity is really important. So, yeah, so I was having a look, quite interestingly, at some of the other ways that these platforms, I was looking at some of the um availability of other than banks, because Revolute was pretty good. There are several here. Uh, Cosmo Payment um was one that came up on OF, Starling, Tide, Skrill, Paxum, Revolute, Wise, Throne is like a wish list account, and a new one is called Zempler. Um, so those are all ones that I've actually downloaded here. Um, I don't use PayPal, don't use that anymore. Not really a fan, but you know, if you have problems with anything, there's always other options out there, always are other options out there. So um that's where I'm at right now. Pretty happy. Uh, I'm loving the sunshine changing, better weather coming in. Really, I've been to the garden centre as well. I went to the garden centre this week. I've bought I've been focusing on shrubs to fill out a section of Sophie's garden so as um you know it grows up nice and colourful and bushy throughout all the seasons, and I'm learning about different plants that thrive and what have you. So my garden knowledge is gradually growing. So I'm a baby gardener, I've been doing it for about a year now, and I've got lots to learn, lots and lots to learn. Um, but there are pressures, there are pressures for me um doing doing this property. I've I have a dream and I have a plan with this place, and I've just got to be patient, be patient doing it. I don't do debt, um, so it's doing it without going into debt. I'm not interested in that at all. Um, but I am excited about life, I'm excited about the future. There's so many things that I want to do, and I've just got to keep learning, got to keep learning. I've got to keep learning, and I'm just figuring everything out as I go. I always have done, it will always work out, it always does. I've got a really fun day planned today. I've got Emily and well, they're already having problems getting here, um, because I live in the middle of nowhere. But Emily and Sienna are coming over today. I'm really excited to see them. It's true. We do. I'm gonna leave you with this. Get around the right people, stay consistent, and don't ignore the parts of your life that actually need structure. This is so important to me, and I think what I've found is I'll never be perfect, I'll I'll do really, really well, and then I'll have to go back to the drawing board every time. We get a new day every day, we get a new 24 hours. I do believe that, I do believe that we get a gift given to us every day. So once I've sometimes I'm just really tired one day, and I go, right, I'm gonna have a good night's sleep, I'm gonna start fresh tomorrow. That new day, new 24 hours. Just do what you can for that first 24 hours. Don't think of the week as a whole week, just 24 hours, 24 hours. Um so yeah, that's pretty much it for this episode. Thanks for listening. I will catch you on the next one. Wish me luck for my um hello, hello wish me luck for my three peaks challenge. Hello, Roman. Romans come sale. Wish me luck for my three-peach challenge. Um, please, if you um would like to support or donate, I will leave the link um to support us. I am gonna be doing my best to do updates of how well we're doing as we go along. Oh my god, come up here, come up here, come say this is my baby, come up here, meet Roman. Roman, this is my absolute baby. He's a bit shy. Roman, how about here? Come on, come here, come here, come on, give him to mummy. Okay, no, he's not having any of it. Roman is my German shepherd who is like my sole dog. He came into my life, I think, at the time that I really needed him, and he's just like my best friend, he's just such a protector, he's with me all the time, um, and he's just the nicest dog. He's about eight, they're not sure how old he is, but we'll soon find out. But he has just he's thriving. I just love him so much. I never knew I would have a German shepherd, I really didn't, and here I am. I honestly love German Shepherds. I I yes, they do malt, and they're big and they eat a lot, but one of my favourite breeds, one of my favourite breeds now. Love him so much. Right, let's call it a day. Thank you so much for listening. I'm looking forward to our next episode where I'm gonna tell you all about three peaks and how well I did. I'm gonna be sort of focusing on some more fitness stuff during this year, gardening, Sophie's garden being finished. I've got some more vlogs coming up. Um, until then, thank you for listening and speak to you soon. Bye. Like and subscribe.