Get your business together, get yourself into what you do and see it through.
Emily Thompson:Being bosses hard. Lending work in life is messy. Making a dream job of your own isn't easy, but getting
Kathleen Shannon:paid for it, becoming known for it. And finding purpose in it is so doable if you do the work. being bossed is a podcast for creative entrepreneurs. Brought to you by Emily Thompson and Kathleen Shannon.
Emily Thompson:Hi, I'm Emily. And I own indie typography, where I help passionate entrepreneurs establish and grow their business online. By helping them build brands that attract and websites that sell. I help my clients launch their business so they can do more of what they love, and make money doing it.
Kathleen Shannon:And I'm Kathleen, I'm the CO owner of braid creative where I specialize in branding and business visioning for creative entrepreneurs who want to blend who they are with what they do narrow in on their core genius and shape their content so they can position themselves as experts to attract more dream clients.
Emily Thompson:And being boss as a podcast where we're talking shop, giving you a peek behind the scenes of what it takes to build a business, interviewing other working creatives and figuring it out as we go right there with you.
Kathleen Shannon:Check out our archives at loving boss calm. Welcome to episode number 31. This episode is brought to you by fresh books cloud accounting, and today's episode we're going to be talking about how to make the daily grind a little more dreamy, productive and happy.
Emily Thompson:Are you trying to build a business but Phil you can do a better job managing your money. Trust me, you're not alone. Whether you're a service based creator professional trying to hunt down your client payments, or a maker trying to invoice your retailers and track your expenses. freshbooks is there to help you run your business and make you look like a pro while doing it. There's no reason you should be waiting weeks for payments, collecting receipts in a shoe box or pulling your hair out over software not built for us independent business owners. freshbooks is a solution for managing your business's finances. And today's world grew a business that's competitive, modern and profitable. With a cloud accounting solution that's easy to use and pretty to look at, sign up for freshbooks and manage your money like a boss with no accounting degree required. Keep your hair and get paid faster. Try fresh books today. for free. Go to freshbooks comm slash been boss and so I've been boss in that. How did you hear about us section?
Kathleen Shannon:All right. Where are we talking about this weekend, Lee?
Emily Thompson:Well, well today we're talking about, about getting or making the daily grind a little more dreamy. And I I started this agenda the other day because I just got back from my big trip. And I am feeling like the daily grind is anything but training. And crabbing. I've been crying for a couple of days, I was just telling Kathleen that i think i think i'm going through like post vacation depression, where and it's a thing I've looked this up before. A couple of years ago, I went to and went to Paris on a trip by myself, which was amazing. And I came back and didn't get out of bed for three days. It was kind of an issue and I remember looking it up thinking, why am I so like mad and angry and post vacation depression is a thing. And I was actually talking to a friend a friend of mine last night about it and she was agreeing with me. And so I'm kind of feeling just crabby and not feeling like the daily grind to Super dreamy. So I want to talk about Kathleen, how we can make it a little dreamier
Kathleen Shannon:Yeah, you know, I just got back from that road trip and not not 40 days but seven days and it was a good vacation and whenever I got back I felt a little allergic to work. Like having a hard time you know, kind of getting back into it.
Emily Thompson:Yeah. And so if anybody like summer, summer is always a time where I like pull back from work a little bit. I try to spend a lot of time outside in the pool. I love summer. A ton is my favorite time of year. I love the heat, like I'm in Alabama and I love absolutely love it. I sit outside and it feels really cool. My skin loves it. So like my skin is super glowy because it's like humid and oily. And my hair loves the humidity here does a good right now. Well, I don't have to I haven't brushed it in days
Kathleen Shannon:here in years.
Emily Thompson:True that. So I really really love summer and I'm having a hard time getting back to loving work even though I love what I do. And that's so I want to talk about this. We all love what we do, which is why we're doing it.
Kathleen Shannon:But sometimes we don't. Right.
Emily Thompson:Sometimes we don't and that's okay but The goal is to get back to loving it when you find yourself not loving it. Um, so that's what I want to talk about today how to make the daily grind, a little more draining.
Kathleen Shannon:Alright, first off, you have to get in your right mind. So I actually just had a coaching session with my executive coach, his name is Jay prior yesterday, and we were kind of talking and I was going through what sucks, but what I really want. And some of what I want is just more I talked about it a few episodes ago, like just some evenness and some clarity and grounding. I want to be able to do the work but not have any of this like anxiety around it. I just want to be cool. And he was like, okay, gotcha. And we're talking through and he was okay, so But are you meditating? Because like, we both knew that, that's what it is. For me. If I can meditate, everything else is falling in line a little bit better. And even if things do suck, I kind of let it roll off my back, like water on a duck. You know, it's just not a big deal. So meditation, I think that we all know the, the benefits of meditation, I think it's mainstream enough that it's not weird or woowoo. But just sitting quietly with yourself for 20 minutes a day, can do wonders. So Emily, are you meditating?
Emily Thompson:No, of course not. No, I know I need to I was actually thinking about that yesterday. And it's a practice we try. Like, it's funny that you even bring up that idea of like, just sitting alone quietly. Since being back, it's not only hard for me, you know, getting back to work, it's hard for David and Lily to, and Lily's just sort of, sort of lost a little bit coming back and sort of getting back into a routine of like, of reading and doing things that she should be doing. I'm not watching TV constantly and screw the iPad, I'm done with the iPad today. But um, yesterday, I told her I was like, you know, 45 minutes you were gonna go you know, just go sit in your room, color read, do something quiet with your with yourself. And it was a struggle. It was such a struggle for her to do that for 45 minutes. So you know, after after 45 minutes of her in her room, and David and I were out there talking and she'd laugh as if she was like part of the conversation and things I'm like, really, you're not understanding what you're supposed to be doing. We're going to be doing that like every day, like, if 45 minutes is really impossible for you to sit quietly, then we're going to practice it. And we are going to practice every day. 45 minutes, just sit in there. Color read, do something fun. Quietly with yourself. So we're doing it with Lily, and I guess I need to do with myself as well. Because alone time is important. How do you how do you like to meditate? meditate.
Kathleen Shannon:I'm so I used to feel like I can slip into it really well. And then after I had the baby and went through the whole sleep deprivation thing, I had a really hard time finding that place kind of like where you just drop in and feel connected, kind of like that. That buzzing. And so I had a really hard time dropping into it. And so, guided meditations. Today, I downloaded this musical track called the Moses code. I don't know it's like pretty cheesy spa. And even while I was listening, okay, so it's funny, because I'm actually this afternoon, which we'll talk about a little bit later. But this afternoon, I'm going on a movie date with my sister who's also my partner. Yeah. And so we're going to go see Amy Schumer's new movie. So I'm sitting here this morning meditating to this cheesy ass track. And it's like all you know, flutes and guitars and like the wall wall in the background. And I just imagined like Amy Schumer making fun of someone like me meditating this whole time. So anyway, um, but it works. And before I knew it, 20 minutes were up. And sure I had thoughts, but I think is just forgiving the thoughts in the moment, letting them kind of float away and just focusing on your breath. But for me, I have to now have kind of a guided meditation to give my brain something a little something to focus on. And then I've also talked before about yoga nidra. And it's more of a relaxation technique where you're just laying there and this voice is guiding you through basically all of your body parts one at a time, and you relax everything and it feels amazing. 20 minutes of yoga. nidra is like an hour's worth of sleep. So it's a really great middle of the day. Way to relax. So yeah, that's how I meditate. I like that we
Emily Thompson:um, we've downloaded the headspace app. And we've actually done It was only a couple of times two, which has been really fun, she usually passes out, which is not a bad thing, go for it. But the headspace app is really good. I love yoga nature too. And just downloading like, weird music like that meditate too. And Spotify is where I get off my stuff. I just, you can get yoga, nidra and all all kinds of stuff, all kinds of crazy stuff, but some good stuff, too. I'm on Spotify for meditating. So I'm gonna have to get into my Spotify account. Thank you, Kathleen, I will meditate.
Kathleen Shannon:I think that's the next. The next thing that I really wanted to note is that dream jobs take work. Like it's work. And I think that we all imagine this dream life and it's super dreamy, and your house is all sunlit. And everything is beautiful and clean. And you're sitting at your beautiful, uncluttered iMac, just designing away for three hours at a time or, you know, whatever it looks like. Um, but it's not always that. So even yesterday, I had a designer send me a resume and kind of a proposal and she's like, I want to work with braid. We're gonna have so much fun, we'll be brainstorming. And she painted a really cool picture of what it might look like. But the reality of my work day, I emailed her back, and I was like, Here, it is so sweet. I love this proposal. This is amazing. It might be a fit, but I have to let you know, it is not a party over here. Like, we kind of look like we're just like, angry typing away at our computer. You know what I mean? Like, right, like, it's kind of that resting bitchface kind of right comes Yeah, what my day in the life of works like looks like and it's that all day long. It is not even I live across the street from my sister, who's my business partner, and even as living so close together, it's not a perpetual party. So, um, but you know, the picture that you painted, I was like, Oh, yeah, that would be nice. But I think that just kind of accepting the reality that dream jobs take work, and that it's not always super glamorous. That helps me sometimes get in the right mind of like this. This shouldn't be fun. Like, I'm not entitled to a perpetual party.
Emily Thompson:Now, no, it's it's hard work. I mean, I will. We've talked about this before I started using timeline to track to track like my work. So I can see where I'm working, or what I'm working on most and just sort of track like where I'm putting my time and things. And I told David, whenever we came back, this week has been my full first full week in the studio. And told I was like, I'm going to have to put in 40 hours this week. Like I just I know, I'm gonna have to get in there by inboxes. Insane. I have some deadlines to catch up on. I have some new projects starting like 40 hours. And today is Friday of this week. And I have clocked in a little over 20. And this is not like in the difference being like the people who work, you know, a nine to five, we're working 40 hours a week, like, what are you really doing for 40 hours a week? Like, are you? Are you actually working for 40 hours a week? Or are you really only working for 20 or 30? Because what I found is that, that my work time is very different. When I'm sitting you're working, I'm not on Facebook, I do not look at my phone, I will turn off email and hustle things out for a while. And so my work looks like about 30 hours a week of like the most focused and sane work on the planet. And it's not pretty. Like I'm sitting at my desk working, I'll get up every every hour to like bend over and stretch my back and my legs and my hips. But otherwise, I'm sitting here like with the most intense focus for about 30 hours a week on average. And there's about 10 hours of like away from the computer, like dreaming and planning and writing like blog topics in my Evernote and hanging out on Pinterest and doing those things. But for a good three quarters of my workweek. I am hustling my ass off.
Kathleen Shannon:What else do you do to get in the right mindset whenever it comes to the daily grind?
Unknown:Oh,
Emily Thompson:I love the episode we did with Lisa Congdon, where her and clay said we chose this oh Matt, so good. Their little mantra. They save themselves and each other when things start getting hard and that I've gotten to where I remind myself of that a lot too, especially this week, is that I chose this and I chose this because I Love this I love what I do. And I love helping the people that I help. And you know, if you're in a in a place where your daily grinds a little less dreamy, like, think about that you chose this and if you didn't choose this, choose something different because you have the freedom to choose.
Kathleen Shannon:We are all in the driver's seat of our lives and of our careers.
Emily Thompson:A man it's so true. So um, so for me repeating the Lisa conditon clay Walsh mantra of we chose this has really helped me get through some shit in the past couple of weeks, it's been really nice. Another another one of the things that I like to do is just simply put things into perspective. Um, you know, I've had, I've had bad jobs I've had, I worked in retail management for years and had bosses that I hated. And I worked at a as a bank teller for a while that was the worst. No, actually, the worst job I've ever had was at a sports store me sports, think about that. Not a great fit. I was like on the management team. And it was the worst experience of my life. So I think about those things, I think about where I could be like putting things into perspective, like my job, I get to sit here 20 to 30 hours a week on a computer, talking to people who do cool things with their lives, and I get to help them do it. And all the while, like I'm learning new skills and writing things I want to write and making an impact and recording a podcast, and doing really fun things. So even though it is hard, you have to put things into perspective and think how is it really and dreamy? Because if you're just working hard, that's not not dreamy that just working hard?
Kathleen Shannon:Yeah, it's not so much about shifting your circumstances, but shifting your perspective to realize that it's actually dreaming and getting some gratitude in that attitude.
Emily Thompson:Definitely, definitely.
Kathleen Shannon:All right, so let's talk about some habits and routines for hammering out the daily grind. And so I find that part of the daily grind is really chipping away at all the things and it feels like you're almost like chipping away with your little hammer and chisel at this huge mountain of things to do. And so I found that if I can just complete one thing every day, and especially something creative, it really helps me embrace the other daily grind that follows. So I always like to do the creative stuff first. It just really helps set the tone and it gives my day momentum. So for me, this might be writing a blog post or newsletter, recording a podcast, for example. And on Sundays, it's as little as getting a good Instagram photo up. So it doesn't have to be something huge, but just a task that you can really complete from start to finish that is creative. And that feeds your soul and fulfills your purpose.
Emily Thompson:Yeah, I agree. I think taking some time, that was something I read somewhere in here. taking some time to to focus on something that you want to do, too, I think is a huge one. For for, I don't know appreciating your daily grind. I think whenever you were constantly pushing bash, I can't talk anymore. Whenever you're constantly pushing buttons for someone else, or, you know, becoming a slave to your inbox, or whatever it is that you end up doing it taking a moment to do something creative or something for yourself like and usually that's a passion project. For us creative entrepreneurs, it's usually something creative. can really great a huge shift in your day. Doing that first is a big one. I need to get better at that.
Kathleen Shannon:Yeah, and you know, you write awesome newsletters.
Unknown:I love doing
Kathleen Shannon:bust out a letter or something. One of the things so for our new project for being boss, like I want to start kind of working on that every day. One of our upcoming guests will in September, this is how far our booked is Jason zuke. And so he's on invisible office hours with our, with our being boss boyfriend. Anyway, Jason's Duke is Paul's co host on the invisible office hours. And I was looking at his website because he's going to be a guest on the show. And he talks about writing every day and writing every day for I think two years and just becoming really prolific and just making a habit out of it. And so that's something I really want to start doing for this project coming up for us, which we will let you all know about sooner or later.
Emily Thompson:Definitely, um, yeah, one of the things just go even going back to like the creative stuff. One of the ways that I like to, to appreciate my daily grind a little more is What I literally call in life shakes it up this idea of you know you can we talk about routines okay? I'm literally imagine you shitting in a can and well, if that's how you want to shake your shit up, you are more than welcome to I like to do a little more metaphorically what has become a shit show apparently. No. So um, we talk a lot about routines and how routines are very important for for creating success for yourself. And for me your routine is just is creating a system for doing something that you do constantly, like every day. So you can get the same outcomes, you can move on to bigger and better things. But what I've found in in creating a business where you know, every day you're coming in, you're writing your blog post, you're reading your newsletter, you're checking your email, you're doing your projects, it's easy to routine yourself into a rut, where you begin, like appreciating the daily grind in a huge way. And I posted about this on my Instagram, while we were doing our trip out west, this idea of Shaykh shut up and just occasionally doing something so out of the ordinary. For us that was taking that big trip. And literally when we packed up our house and took this big trip, we had the picture that because we were rooting ourselves into a rut, we weren't progressing with anything in a way further than what we were currently accomplishing. And we wanted to do more things. So for me, I love the idea of shaking up your metaphorical shit, and, and getting out of your routines for a moment to do something completely different. And then get back in those routines and get to work.
Kathleen Shannon:Yeah, I even read a scientific study once. I couldn't I can't quote it, I don't even have a source. I read ones that even taking a different driving a different route than you're used to, to get to a familiar place will trigger things in your brain to make you a little bit happier. So yeah, even little things like that, like taking a new path. can be can can be good for your soul. But even starting a new project like us starting this podcast, I thought was shaking things up a little bit. And it's been huge monumental for our for our creative fulfillment, and then also for our careers.
Emily Thompson:Yeah, so shake some shit up.
Kathleen Shannon:But on the flip side of that, like you talked about routine yourself into a rut, I do think that if you can establish a morning routine that helps you set the tone for your day. So like my ideal and we should do an entire podcast on this on morning routines. But mine would include going for a walk, meditating, really, by the time we do all this stuff on my morning routine, like my day is over. Well, I'm hungry for lunch. And then if it's lunchtime, my minds will take a long lunch and then it's end of the day. And then it's nap time. Yeah, I know. Anyway, so yeah, morning routines like trying to do maybe a one thing in the morning that will help set the tone for your day. I agree. I mean,
Emily Thompson:morning routines are huge. You should definitely do a whole one. I'd like to hear about yours. someday.
Unknown:Are we ready to move on to the next one?
Kathleen Shannon:Yeah, let's talk about tapping your creative tribe, leveraging your creative pack to make the daily grind a little more dreamy. So while you were here, Emily, I remember one afternoon, we were kind of both just hammering out emails or something. But we're both at the table and it just felt kind of dreamy. Yeah, kind of maybe what like that design applicant that was like I want to work for braid, it would be so dreamy, like maybe that's kind of what it feels like is working at the kitchen table with you. So um, you know, meeting up with a friend at the coffee shop, even if you guys aren't working on a project together to simply be emailing side by side with someone that you like can be kind of dreamy that's happened to me also my friend Greer, who is a photographer. I ran into her the other day at a local coffee shop that we both visit often. And I was like I didn't know you would be here and we ended up sitting at the same table and just hammering out some work and it was just really sweet being able to sit there and work side by side with her. So try it.
Emily Thompson:Yeah, I love that idea. That was this. One of the things that I miss most about the studio is having my team there and it's all just sort of working quietly sometimes. Working quietly and just sort of getting stuff done and like there's like there's a buzz that happens around you. Whenever other people are being productive. That makes you want to be productive to whenever we were in Chattanooga last week. house hunting. I spent a day working from a coffee shop there and we have coffee shops here in town and I've worked at coffee shops before but this one Which in Chattanooga is known as, like the place that all the freelancers and like independent people go and, and work and have business meetings, we David and I walk in there and the place is literally buzzing with with meetings and people talking shop and like things that you don't get in small town Alabama, sadly, but there it was, it was amazing I sat there that day I got so much done working by myself, I think working from a coffee shop can give you so much more energy around what we're around what you're doing. And doing it with someone is also meeting new people there is really cool too. I also think that there's so much value to and finding, finding a person to sort of share your, your daily grind with whether they're sitting next to you, or if it's an occasional Skype date, I have a couple of online buddies and we hold, we hold I don't know a meeting together once a month, once every other month and just kind of talk shop a little bit kind of like how you and I have done for years. And it has turned into this.
Kathleen Shannon:I mean, now we're just hitting record.
Emily Thompson:I know I know. Now we just share it with everyone. But being able to sit down and and talk about what your daily grind is looking like if it's not feeling dreamy or celebrating if it's feeling totally dreaming. Um, you know, being able to talk about how hard it is to be you know, a work from home mom, or talk to people who don't have kids and remember what that was like and dream about it.
Kathleen Shannon:I mean, even before we got on the call, you're like, Oh man, I need this episode, because the daily grind is getting me down right now. And I was like, yeah, that's cuz you're a web developer.
Emily Thompson:Why now
Kathleen Shannon:is because that is to my grind.
Emily Thompson:It is it is some sincere grind. I mean, managing files and writing code is is something that will make your eyes go across in a heartbeat. But But being able to talk to other people who are doing the same thing and sharing those experiences, for me creating a tribe around you have people that you can share openly with about about how not dreamy or how dreamy it is, is huge for just getting through it.
Kathleen Shannon:Yeah, just knowing that you're not alone in it is so huge
Emily Thompson:it is and one of the places that I didn't expect this to be so, so huge is our Facebook group. And that Facebook group are using that. I mean, it's become almost like a massive mastermind group totally of people who are in there saying, Listen, this shit that happened to me today or listen this amazing stuff that happened to me today. We're asking questions and stuff and those sorts of creative drives that you build around yourself are just they've been monumental in me getting through five years of the daily grind.
Kathleen Shannon:I know that even for some of my clients or even just I'm just emails that I get from people, they might say stuff like I'm having a really hard time and I'll reply and say I don't have the answers. I don't know how to make it better for you but just know that the problem that you're experiencing, you are not alone. And that goes so so far.
Emily Thompson:Hey bosses. I'm going to take a second to interrupt this episode to tell you that if you're liking being boss and you're ready to level up your game, we've got something just for you. Check out the being boss bundle. It's Kathleen's DIY coaching for creatives and my Get your shit together series bundled together at one low price just for you bosses. You can find that at love being boss comm slash bundle. Okay, back to the episode.
Kathleen Shannon:All right, what else? Mmm hmm. Like setting some boundaries around the daily grind. Right now I was actually I ran into a friend of mine who owns a local retail store here in Oklahoma said that Oklahoma City. It's my friend Caleb, he owns a boutique called Blue seven. And I was I was just kind of talking to him about the grind and being a business owner and also being a parent, and how much space it takes up in your head. And he's like, Yeah, because even if you leave work at work, like I leave my store and I come home, but my wife can tell whenever I'm not being present, she can tell when my mind is elsewhere. And it was a big wake up call for me because I realized my mind lately is probably 90% at work all the time. And so that that was really a wake up call just realizing even if you're not physically at work, and it gets tricky if you work from home, which we talked about in our last episode, but I'm fine Kind of like mental energetic boundaries around leaving work at work. And so I don't know the answer to this, I'm hoping that the meditation thing works for me to help me create a little bit of separation between keeping my mind at work, you know, or keeping my keeping it separated. Keeping my mind present with whatever I'm with whether that's work, whether it's recording this podcast with you, I'm not thinking about my client deadlines. If I'm with my baby, I'm not thinking about the podcast, just leaving work with work energetically and mentally.
Emily Thompson:Yeah, that's a really hard one. I've I've noticed myself even getting worse and worse with that I was having dinner last night with a friend. And I could feel myself almost zoning out a couple of times. And that's also like, I'm feeling you with the sleep deprivation a little bit. I'm like, coming back from the trip, I'm a little sleep deprived and trying to catch up and just doing all doing all the things. But, but I'm definitely finding myself a lot recently, like, talking about something and forgetting what I'm saying, which is just redonkulous. Or, or my threshold is about an hour for a meeting, if a meeting starts running over an hour, you lose me, you completely just start losing me. So that's one of the things that I've been working on too. And yeah, I think I'm with you. We just, we started like holding each other accountable for meditating and start texting you every day. Find your sand, Kathleen. Yeah.
Kathleen Shannon:Because I do think that's part of it. Like, I really don't know what the other solution might be to kind of mentally keeping work at work. And so even you being at dinner with your friend, I kind of thought that you're going to say and then I found myself on my iPhone, checking my email, but not even, you know, it's not even it doesn't even have to be your phone or your it's not physical. Its mental. Yeah, it's like mental distraction.
Emily Thompson:Yes. Yeah, it is. It's difficult, um, but totally, totally fixable. Just, we have to set some boundaries around around where our brain is that when which
Kathleen Shannon:is really important, how do you set boundaries around the daily grind? Like what are your tips or tricks or focus for doing that?
Emily Thompson:Sure. One of one of the things I really strive for, is to not get bogged down by like the mundane stuff that has to be done. As a creative entrepreneur, you are both a creative with like freedom to do and create and share and do all the fun things, but you're an entrepreneur, and that means doing business. That means answering your emails in a timely manner. That means doing your bookkeeping, or delegating or doing things that are just kind of mundane. For a lot of people. The business side of business is the mundane stuff that you don't want to do. But you have to be we're always setting up systems
Kathleen Shannon:so you can delegate it out.
Emily Thompson:Absolutely. So in that sense, actually even something that we've done, I think finding finding your boundaries of what you can do and what you can't do is super important. You know, a couple episodes we had Val Geisler on whose systems betta is awesome, this. I we hired her this week to help us turn some things in our business into super systemized processes that will make things go on without a hitch. And that came from me realizing where my boundary was for what I'm able to do in terms of the mundane business stuff. And we've attempted to do systems in the studio before a couple of times, and they usually go okay. But I needed someone else just do it for me, I needed someone to sit me down and say, Emily write systems for this, this and this.
Kathleen Shannon:Because the left how Val said your systems are only as good as how much you use them, or anything along those lines.
Emily Thompson:Yeah, well important that you almost need systems in place to use systems. Yeah. Like, do you have to have like a checks and balances for you know, if you completed something, did you use the systems to do it? And did you check off all the things so I really look forward to having her help. Help make us a little more help make us a shit ton more efficient in what it is that we do. And so for me, that was that was setting the boundary of not getting bogged down by the mundane, finding my boundary and where my dealing with the mundane ends, and then delegating everything beyond that to someone who can help me a ton. Um, so for me, not getting bogged down by all the little things, hustling it out, like you have to do customer service, you have to do your bookkeeping, you have to do things like package your orders and you know, help your clients. But then I think the flip side of that is also making room to do the stuff that you want to do. That's just as much setting a balance. Some people forget to set the boundary of I will focus on things that I want to do, I will focus on passion projects, whatever that is. And if you're a creative entrepreneur, you're here because you want to do things that you want to do. So making time to do things that you want to do is super important. Yeah, huge. What have you been working on Catherine that you want to do? there when you under the bus?
Kathleen Shannon:As far as like boundaries go? No, like, have you been working on any fun things just to work on fun things? No. No?
Emily Thompson:Well, then we need to talk about that later.
Kathleen Shannon:Okay, so this is like the this is the double edged sword of making your dream job, your dream job, right is that I'm living what I love 100% of the time. I'm completely who I am at work in your life. And so with that, it's not like, I'm going to start my workday doing what I love to then go, like, do some painting in the afternoon, you know,
Emily Thompson:because you don't love painting.
Kathleen Shannon:I mean. So, I mean, Okay, so here's like, the landscape of what I do is that I have great creative something branding and business visioning, I've got the E Corps, the breathing ecourse, which I have a lot of energy around that I work out every day or almost every day. So that's kind of like my hobby. I have the podcast. So this is definitely creative, leave fulfilling. And then I just watched, I think I've hinted at this project before, but I just launched a new project called non doc. And you can find more at non doc.com. We'll be going live at some point in maybe the beginning of September. But that's a new project that I'm launching with my friend Andrew rice, who is a former state senator here in Oklahoma City. And so yeah, like I'm doing a lot. And then whenever I'm not doing those things, I have a baby and my family and my Netflix to watch. So I just, you know, there's not a whole whole lot. And then whenever there is something, it's like an extra project within the context of all of those things that really excites me and fuels me. But I'm in an entrepreneur entrepreneurial space right now where everything I'm doing leads toward growing my business and making some money. That's just where I'm at five,
Emily Thompson:we'll see. Okay, then. I think there's such a important differentiation there. Because what you are not doing and what you have effectively handed off is all of the mundane stuff that most people struggle with the most.
Kathleen Shannon:That's true. I mean, our team. Okay, the one thing is, I will say you mentioned at the beginning of this conversation about the mundane is the emails are just a lot. So I actually mentioned Bella Geisler, I signed up she's doing a gmail because I use Gmail isn't specifically a gmail systems email course. And I think it starts on August 3, so I this episode may be airing after that's launching, but um, I'm really excited to take her course in that into better clean out my Gmail, I do have a assistant who's helping me with some of that stuff, but not not a whole whole lot. Like there's there's still some things like I need to be in my inbox and kind of filtering through things. So I'm so yeah, I'm excited to take her email course. And I'm because I know that I have stuff to learn there. And, and maybe that's part of it is just just learning and evolving. And,
Emily Thompson:yeah, yeah, it is. It's an evolution. And so if it's, if you're in a place in your business, where you find yourself only doing mundane stuff, evolve out of it. Basically, you start delegating, and you systemize and you can delegate, whether that to your bookkeeping or packaging orders, or doing whatever that may be, you hand it off, so you can do more of the good stuff. And
Kathleen Shannon:I think as a creative entrepreneur, sometimes we get in a in a cycle of like a hamster wheel of doing mundane stuff, because it feels busy, productive and easy and useful. And so you feel like you're doing stuff. But really, what are you really accomplishing. And so then that goes back full circle to really scheduling out or doing the creative thing first, and it's something that you can like fully complete, because I think that it not only gives you momentum, it gives you confidence, it gives you confidence that like hey, I can do things and I can finish them and I can do the next thing and finish it and eventually your projects get bigger and bigger and eventually, you're not going from just launching a blog post every day, but you're opening You're starting new businesses, or you're launching projects that will make you a huge amount of passive income. So, yeah, that's what it comes down to you.
Emily Thompson:It does so evolve out of the mundane until you're just as happy as Kathleen, working all of her passion projects all day long, and then working out in between,
Kathleen Shannon:and then anyone that happy to start meditating. There you go, or go sing, or go see movie in the afternoon with your sister. You know, that is something that like that actually has really inspired me lately. I talked on a couple podcasts ago about listening to that Pete Holmes podcast where he's interviewing a bunch of comedians and just like the I desire, a certain amount of just levity, and I sort of keep joking around with my friends and family all day. Like, I don't know, there's a comedian. practice that. There's a being boss. listener, her name is Jillian. And she is a hand letter and designer out in Los Angeles. And she gave me this postcard a designer vaycay a couple years ago, and it said, The shitting that heavy, and I keep that postcard as a reminder to myself that like this, it just isn't that bad. You know, like, this is pretty damn good. So um, yeah, I guess I'm working on more attitudes and actual passion projects, or hobbies or anything like that.
Emily Thompson:Good. Yeah, I think that's definitely where I am too. I love again, I love what I do. Um, it's just, it's easy to get bogged down. So going to take my own advice, and not to get bogged down
Unknown:after I finish all my emails.
Kathleen Shannon:Okay, so let's like, bring this into actual tactics and to do's an action. Oh, what? What can you like, literally do?
Emily Thompson:I think that if it's bad enough, I mean, if your daily grind has you waking up pissed and go into bed pissed, then I think one of the best things that you can do is take a break, I there is nothing, nothing's going to fix really being down in your daily grind, more than walking away from it. So you know whether that's a weekend away, or a night away, or just a day off, or you take yourself and go get a Mani pedi, or whatever that may be, I think that there is nothing wrong. And I actually hugely encourage the act of walking away and taking a bit of a break so that you can do some of the other things we've talked about and talk about how it is that you can set some boundaries, find someone to go talk to, or for me, Kathleen Ashley, to talk to you today. That's really all it was. I'm gonna leave this feeling so much better. You might do you keep going, Oh, no, just taking a break. Taking a break is so important for getting out of the headspace of whatever is going on in your workspace and walking away.
Kathleen Shannon:So I like to take a break a little bit, but in a different kind of way where I'm not physically walking away from my work. And I think if I can do that stuff, I go to the gym, I get Manny Petty's yesterday, I went to the spa in the afternoon and took a steam and sauna like I'm, I'm pretty pampered I'm pretty good at pampering myself. But um, for me Actually, what has really worked as far as taking a break is kind of taking a break from my to do list. So I will clear everything, but I'll still be working and then it's really the stuff that rises to the top that I'm working on. And so it's the stuff that that I want to focus on that I want to bring my attention to that gets done. So that's one of the ways I kind of take a break is I take a break from my to do list, but I'm still sitting down. I'm still doing the work. Yeah,
Emily Thompson:I like that. Another thing that I like to do in terms of like works face to and doing work is rearrange your workspace. I feel like whenever I'm cuz I do this, whenever I get like really just in my head and I'm feeling really grumpy about going to work and doing what I need to do, which is dumb. And I know it's done because I love what I do. It usually can be as simple as like rearranging my desk, or doing some things that the space that I'm in is a little bit different because I'll get to the point. It's just like this yesterday, I really just had to leave the computer yesterday. like sitting down in front of this screen makes me feel like hot and bothered and I'm like annoyed
Kathleen Shannon:not hi mothered in a good way.
Emily Thompson:No, not in a good way in a bad way. So so for me Doing some workspace rearranging can be a really easy way for me to get out of whatever headspace I've created for myself in that like configuration and, and just get back to doing the dreamy stuff that I like to do.
Kathleen Shannon:And my biggest one right now, and the one that comes Top of Mind, okay, so one of my favorite self help books is the Four Agreements. And we'll include a link and we'll include a link in our show notes at love being boss calm. So a lot of the things that we're talking about today, but I'm in the Four Agreements, one of the agreements is to be impeccable with your word. So basically, what that means is to watch what you say, and don't feel dreamy, and you are speaking it out loud, you're giving it that much more power and that much more attention. And what you focus on expands. So focus on the stuff that you like, and not the stuff that you hate. So if you're hating the daily grind, I mean, just stop talking about it, you know, and so, or start speaking out loud about the things that you love. So again, this is a mindset thing, but it's a very practical thing that you can do as well. So another way that you can watch what you say there's this book called, I think it's like complaint free for 30 days, or at least that's the concept behind it. And you wear a bracelet on your wrist. And if you find yourself complaining out loud, you switch it over to the other wrist. And so as you're complaining, and you're switching this bracelet back and forth, you can kind of see over 30 days, if you're really being intentional about complaining less, how much less you switch the bracelet over. And then the whole thing is, once you're complaining less your attention and focus is more on the good stuff. And what you're physically saying is on the good stuff. So and that's a huge one, I think. And I just find that whenever I'm getting really bogged down. Like even Okay, the sleep deprivation thing was like I was like I don't want to talk about anymore. Like maybe if I stop talking about it, it will go away. That didn't work there. Let me that's like a special case. But I have found that like whenever things aren't necessarily going, well, the more I speak out loud about it, the worse it seems to get. Oh, so this is when one of one of my mantras is wildly productive and living the dream. So I used to always like whenever I would, you know, get on the call with you like How's it going, Emily? And you'd be like, Oh, it's good, crazy busy. And I'm like, Yeah, me too crazy busy. I find that every creative entrepreneur I talked to and work with every person,
Emily Thompson:every person that you talk
Kathleen Shannon:to you. And all they're doing and the standard response isn't like, Oh, good, how are you? The standard response is crazy busy. And so the more I was saying crazy busy out loud, the more I was actually feeling crazy busy. And so I started actually saying and whenever someone is asking me how things are going, I started saying wildly productive and living the dream. So it means that I'm still doing a lot of stuff, but that I chose this and that I'm living the dream. And things started to feel a bit more dreamy. And nothing changed, like my schedule is still packed. And I still had clients to manage and expectations to deal with. And his work was still hard, but simply shifting what was coming out of my mouth, made things a little bit more dreamy.
Emily Thompson:I agree. I remember whenever you release that capitalism, is what it is. And I like I even adopted that. Like because it's one of those things that I've always been like, I hate it when people tell me that they're busy, like even if they are or if they really get into something really negative. Like if I asked you how you are and you just go off into like, Oh, my back hurts. And my you know, I'm sorry. Like, that's hard. But because you're being so negative about it, things are going to feel worse. And that's something that I've always been super aware of too, and the wildly productive and living the dream is such like a powerful mindset shift around what your life is like is the exact same thing. It means the exact same thing. It's just the connotation around it has been shifted 100 Navy, and it's so much more powerful. But not only that you make an impact on people that you say it to come off as the buttface who is like being a little holier than thou if you're wildly productive and living the dream, or maybe they'll walk away like realizing that busy isn't the solution for getting things done. It's being productive and enjoying what you're doing that makes life worth
Kathleen Shannon:living. Well and I think that we're just I mean it's clear that we are starting to celebrate workaholics, you know or the like a workaholic, work ethic, and we're celebrating busy whenever it's it's not something that we should be celebrating and I think that having those examples People who are getting things done without getting their panties in a wad is so, so important. I want to be that person. Don't get me wrong, I get my drawers and awadh lots. Plenty, but I think I was even typing a few episodes back about hanging out with Sarah Vaughn bargain. And she was just like, you could tell that she has a normal amount of the male man's here every time recording a podcast that we think someone's about to like back in the house. Um, anyway. And she was just so she was getting stuff done. She had like a certain amount of work ethic, of course, because she's getting things done, but she wasn't stressing about it. And I love that. I love that. So she's been kind of my role model whenever it comes to getting stuff done. I also Beyonce every time. I mean, I know Beyonce has 24 hours in her day to know like, what we can do one thing I was going to say another tactic and to do that I really like doing is actually scheduling in a dream date. And so I mentioned that this afternoon, going to the movies with my sister to go see Amy Schumer's new movie train wreck. And it wouldn't happen unless we had scheduled it in here because she wouldn't be able to find a babysitter. her kids are off for the summer, so she won't be able to find a babysitter, I would have scheduled a meeting on top of it. So sometimes you have to literally put the dream is doesn't feel spontaneous and it doesn't feel cool. But schedule it in and not just like, Okay, this afternoon, I'm going to take time off. What are you going to be doing like go see a movie or go bowling, but that make plans to actually do something fun?
Emily Thompson:Yeah, I did the same thing this week. So the dinner I had last night with a friend we scheduled it earlier this week. And I did it. I miss her. That was definitely like the reason and I haven't seen her since we've been on the trip and stuff. But another part of it was I knew that I would be coming in for a full week of work. And I knew that by Thursday evening, I would need a moment to just walk out of all the head spaces that I'm normally in and just do something fun. And so we did we scheduled it we knew what we were doing we like had a date and a time and we showed up and doing things like that putting them on your schedule like making making fun things a part of your quote unquote daily grind is is so important for for again, that mindset shift of like perspective like is this really and dreamy and if a couple of the things on your calendars are like dates with girlfriends or going and getting many patties and you actually look at that calendar and see why it's so full, the dream job really does become a dream job. So for anyone out there who is having a hard time finding the dreamy quality and the daily grind of their dream job. I hope that Kathleen and I have helped you it's definitely helped me a lot I'm feeling much better about working out my Friday and getting some things done so I can enjoy the most vege out weekend of my entire life. And I'm definitely feeling a little more dreamy today now thank you
Kathleen Shannon:treat yourself.
Emily Thompson:I will oh I am Monday actually you know part of my dream job Monday I'm going Manny Patty it's on the schedule and going to treat myself a little bit camping. I need a Petey
Kathleen Shannon:you can know my house looking like a dirty hippie.
Emily Thompson:Dude, I felt like a dirty hippie. I still kind of feel like a dirty hippie.
Kathleen Shannon:And this is saying some you know i don't i don't brush my hair.
Emily Thompson:You have dreads and I'm the dirty hippie
Kathleen Shannon:armpits things right now. But yeah, I mean, you were like full hippie.
Emily Thompson:I was I don't think I had showered in four days whenever I am like that's probably the longest I've been it since I was a kid like I've been here it gets oily fast. So thank you for putting up with stinky me.
Kathleen Shannon:I love you no matter what. Alright, you guys live the boss life. Make sure you're not becoming a workaholic, but do the work. We'll see you next week. If you like being boss, be sure to sign up for our newsletter at loving boss calm, where you'll get episode worksheets, secret content, and other goodies delivered straight to your inbox every week. Again, that's love being boss calm. Do the work. Be boss and we'll see you next week. And note to Corey edit out the shooting in a jar and shaking it up because that's just gross.
Unknown:Gross. That was
Emily Thompson:gross if that is easily edited. No, definitely remove that. Why would you say that?
Kathleen Shannon:Because like it was just the kingdom my mind and I have no filter and I just said it. Oh, wow. I'm not like I shouldn't have a pod. No, I shouldn't. I shouldn't say that. I should have a podcast. I love our podcast but I should not say disgusting shit on our podcast
Emily Thompson:that did push the envelope because just you never know what Kathleen's gonna say on air. And I'm never giving you a live show. Ever