Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: When people do this program.
[00:00:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:01] Speaker A: They.
A lot of them don't know their word yet.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Or they. Or they don't think they do.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:08] Speaker A: I often come back and say, like, you do.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:00:11] Speaker A: And we all know we do, but.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: You just have to discover it.
[00:00:14] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Maybe. Maybe you need to dust it off in the attic or something like that. But yours. And I don't know if this was really. I think it was really your word. Right.
So. Because it just came out so clearly, and I was just like, whoa, whoa. She knows her word.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: I do.
And it's been the last few months. It's been what I've lived by, so it is sort of easy to decide that that's my word. But it's also, as we've talked through some of these elements, just like anecdotally, it's refined it and kind of really locked it in for me.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
Okay. So for the full teaser effect and because I study YouTube and they say.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: It'S the Bradley Show, I'm just your special guest star.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: Because they say, you know, keep them hanging, just like in Hollywood. Right. Or it's a teaser. It's a spoiler.
So you've got to keep watching to find out what her word is. So I'm gonna make the decision that we are not going to say your word just yet. We'll get there.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: There's a chance I might excitedly utter it.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: That's fine. And then you might catch it.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: And then you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's an Easter egg coming. I bet.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: Clothes.
[00:01:20] Speaker B: I can't keep secrets.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: I know. Okay. All right.
So on that note, we have no prep.
That's the way we roll on that topic before we even start here.
But we've actually started is. Shel, you were saying yesterday or the day before. I'm already losing track.
You said something like, I could. I could wing it. I could improvise, and it'd be pretty good.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: What's the number?
[00:01:53] Speaker B: 30%.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: 30%. Wing it. 30%.
[00:01:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:57] Speaker A: But then if you sort of tried or gave it some effort or gave it some prep.
[00:02:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: Then you get up to 80.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: 80. Yeah.
Yeah. It's kind of going along the lines of what my mom used to say. Imagine if you tried. Ciao. Imagine you just put a little effort behind that. You would have.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: You would have nailed it.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: Wow.
So on that note, we're winging it.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: On that generational traumatic note.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: On that note, we're winging it. We're going for 32%.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: Well, we've talked about so many things the last few days because this is our little.
What is it? We said we have a micro retreat.
Just us knocking stuff out.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Hey, there's the invitation. Sorry, there's no invitation. Nobody else invited.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: Nobody's here. Just us. Just us.
[00:02:48] Speaker A: I saw a squirrel.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: Just us widelings making the widelings thing happen and everything else.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: So without getting into detail, and we won't go into detail of any form or sort, but it's been a hefty couple days here with some activities and so it's.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: I was about to say it's November. It's not November, it's December.
It's December.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: And that means it's almost the end of this calendar year.
And lots of action, lots of stuff going on.
Not all good.
And how are we going to turn that around and how are you going to react to that?
[00:03:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: And then we were talking about how can we just keep winging it and go for the 30 and we're probably fine because like you and I, that's one of our many sort of parallels is that we like improv and we can just wing in and we get up on stage and this will figure it out and we'll be fine. Be fine.
And so with some curve balls that have been thrown in recent days, how, you know, we could, we react, we could react and just do the 30% or you know, we can sit down like right now. And that's, that's why I like sitting down like this too and having a chat and talking about how we get it and how we go above 30% and how do we prepare. And especially I am a card carrying pantser. I just wing it all the time. But I used to joke that I'm a, I'm just a pantser in my writing, but I'm like a pantser in everything.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: They call it plot gardener now. Oh.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: Plot garden.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: No, just. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: Well, I actually like gardener.
Cool.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: I do too. But. But I. But I think you're right. I think part of what we've talked about is we're both activators, right. We go and we just sort of figure it out as we go along. But I think one of the things that we've both talked about the last few days is how do we be more intentional? How do we plan and maybe be a plantser? Right. We are a plotter and a pantser. Some hybrid of that that is, you know, less stressed, more effective, more consistent, more all the things. Yeah, we've got the Texas sound effects going on in the background.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: That's a. It's a two stroke motor.
So along the same lines, this is so fun because the past few days I've been very improvy. I've been like, yeah, all right, I'll come on down, Shell. Great. What are we gonna do?
[00:05:17] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: You know, and we're just gonna conquer the world. What's we're. We're doing?
[00:05:22] Speaker B: Kind of doing.
[00:05:22] Speaker A: I know somebody's got to do it.
[00:05:24] Speaker B: Kind of killing it.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: We're kind of killing it.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: There's.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: So much going on and so many, so many good things too. And also from the depths, we are gonna rock it out. Like my visual of Mighty Mouse and. Except Mighty Mouse had this rope on his ankle. Yeah. Holding him back. But that rope is like fraying.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: Here I come to see Save the day.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: So along those lines and with Shel's word, which I know and you don't yet. You will know if you keep watching. Is my whole. I've had multiple iterations of this program called the One Word Book. And one word for one year and one weekend and all that stuff. And the current favorite is the Year of you. And as we talked about this, for me, it really came from your word because you mentioned. Without talking about anything, you mentioned a word that was very clear for you.
And that really made me think because I wanted to have a chat today and I didn't know what we're going to talk about. But now it really came clear that your word is so powerful. And by the way, I am absolutely. You're allowed to borrow. Borrow people's word. Oh, yeah.
[00:06:32] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Because it's a great one.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: It's a pretty good word.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: Yeah. And although the female.
You're a female. We'll get to that.
But just think about the female interpretations of this word because I didn't get to those ideas.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: No, you didn't.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: Shel's like, that's the first thing I thought of.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: First thing I thought of. Well, second thing I thought of. Yeah, second thing.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: So the Year of youf. It's a program that I put together and a while back and like I said, many iterations. And it's really about. We mentioned the other day, focus and finish.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: Focus and finish.
[00:07:08] Speaker A: Focus and finish. And it's very much aligned with that.
[00:07:11] Speaker B: Two other favorite F words, focus and finish.
[00:07:15] Speaker A: I just realized, Shell, that I haven't introduced you. Oh, we're just having a chat. We know each other pretty well.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: We do.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: But we've been friends for a long time.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: Shell Honaker. Yeah.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: Do you want. You want to do a little spiel? What do you got? You know, actually based on our last hour as well. What do you got? Oh, yeah.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: So I'm Shell Honaker. I am an educator, an author, myself, a storyteller, and I wear a few within the publishing industry. I'm the publisher of Indie Author magazine. I'm the co founder of Indie Author Training, and I write a best selling substack newsletter called Author Automations. So those are my. Those are my hats.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: Yeah, a lot of hats. Should have brought some hats.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Should have brought some. But they had to be Texas hats or.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I do have the full. You're representing allowed in the state.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: Represent.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: You wouldn't be allowed in the state if you didn't have at least one.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:08] Speaker B: They said they check your luggage.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So of those many hats, it also goes along well with your word. I was thinking.
So this, this idea, this here element number eight is chapter one, brilliantly spelled, may I add W O n.
Who thought of that?
But this is the one word which is the same as number one. And I'm wondering, just for a little teaser effect, what if we. I wonder if we.
What do you think? What if. I was thinking maybe we don't give away your word right away.
By the way, in the process, when people do this program, a lot of them don't know their word yet.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: Or they don't think they do.
I often come back and say like, you do.
[00:08:56] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: And we all know we do, but.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: You just have to discover it.
[00:09:00] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Maybe you need to dust it off in the attic or something like that, but yours. And I don't know if this was really. I think it was really your work. Right.
Because it just came out so clearly and I was just like, whoa, she knows her word.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: I do. And it's. And it's been the last few months, it's been what I've lived by, so it's. It is sort of easy to decide that that's my word. But it's also, as we've talked through some of these elements, just like anecdotally, it's refined it and kind of.
[00:09:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:32] Speaker B: Really locked it in for me.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
Okay. So for the full teaser effect and because I study YouTube and they say.
[00:09:40] Speaker B: It'S the Bradley Show, I'm just your special guest star.
[00:09:44] Speaker A: Because they say, you know, keep them hanging just like in Hollywood. Right. Or it's a teaser, it's a spoiler. It's gonna. So you gotta keep Watching to find out what her word is. So I'm gonna make the decision that we are not going to say your word just yet.
[00:09:59] Speaker B: There's a chance I might excitedly utter.
[00:10:01] Speaker A: It and then you might catch it.
[00:10:03] Speaker B: And then, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's an Easter egg coming, I bet.
[00:10:06] Speaker A: Close.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: I can't keep secrets. I know.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: Okay. All right.
So this, this came about. A lot of it came about me as a nonfiction writing coach and people just not finishing their damn books.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: And I kept making it shorter, shorter, shorter. And so the joke was that this was a one word book and it kind of is. But then there's 13 elements here that are not written chapters necessarily.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: Yeah, but.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: And you know, I talked about this briefly how in my humble opinion, I think these elements can be sometimes at least as important, if not sometimes more important.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: I think they're more important, if I'm being honest.
Yeah, we've talked about that. I think they're more important in a lot of sense because they are your roadmap. Right. They are your map. And if you don't have those nailed, you could be one degree off and going in the exact wrong direction and write something that isn't in line with exactly what you have to say here.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: Okay.
So I'm putting Shell on the spot here because she didn't know these like official 13 things here. And normally this would be. We'd be working through it and you have your own piece and your laptop and your whatever tools. But we're just going to go through this live and you can feel free to answer or you can even bring up the pass card if you want.
[00:11:22] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: Just sort of talk through some of them and let's see how far we can go without mentioning your word.
[00:11:28] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: So there's levels of difficulty here in a lot of these. And just for kicks, I think subtitle and blurb, if you can see blurb down there, are some of the toughest.
But, and, but if you want to take a stab at a subtitle and subtitle, ideally not using the title in the subtitle.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: Yeah. So I was thinking about my subtitle. My subtitle is Extraction as possible or something along those lines because it is sort of adjacent to my word, but it really, you know, when you think about my word, it means a certain thing, but sometimes people think of it as an all or nothing, but I don't think it is.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: Okay, so I think you know this, but I worked in the naming industry for many years.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: Right, yeah, you mentioned that.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: Yeah. And so, for example, with a title and a subtitle, it would often be the brand and the tagline. Right. And the brand.
It's okay if it doesn't mean much.
It takes more, frankly. It takes more money because you have to explain it. Like if your brand name is Joe's Leather Boots.
[00:12:34] Speaker B: Yeah, pretty simple.
[00:12:36] Speaker A: I don't even need a subtitle. It's Joe Sells Leather Boots.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: Right.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: But if your title is a little bit.
Any notion of ambiguous or confusing, then the subtitle can come in and explain it.
[00:12:47] Speaker B: Oh, that's good.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: So you've got your. You got your title, which may or may not come across clearly. And as you said, as we know, your title could mean different things to different people.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Is my title my word or is. Okay, so that's it.
[00:12:59] Speaker A: It's just one word that's same as that.
[00:13:02] Speaker B: Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: And so subtitle then, in the, in the naming sense, anyway. The title is like the big bold thing.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:13:09] Speaker A: And the subtitle, if necessary, explains. Or is that a word? Expound.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: Yeah, expounds.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: Really. Yeah. Ex. Expands. Expounds on the title.
So what I like here is extraction.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: Yeah, extraction is possible. I mean, it's sort of the.
It elaborates on my word because my word can mean something very definitive. And this sort of tweaks it a little bit to say. Yeah, it's not that strictly. It's more. It's extraction. So.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: Sounds like I've been kidnapped.
[00:13:47] Speaker A: I know.
[00:13:48] Speaker B: Sounds like. Sounds like a hostage situation.
[00:13:52] Speaker A: Well, weirdly. Weirdly, it is a little.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: A little bit.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: I mean, if you think about our businesses, and we're both entrepreneurs and busy, busy, and lots of projects and lots of hats and in a way, hostages. Pretty rough, but.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Well, I mean, we've taken ourselves captive. We've, you know, become a slave to our business in a sense. And that kind of goes along with what my word is. And that is to refine and think about and kind of noodle around and figure out, just like we all do in, in the entrepreneurial world, what makes sense for you and what does that look like?
[00:14:26] Speaker A: Okay, awesome.
Because that's one of the hard ones and the blurb is super hard.
We will come back to it because as we work through stuff, then we'll come back like, oh, I've got another idea for the subtitle cover. We're. We're not going to do here. Although based on what we were just doing. Oh, my gosh, we'll get that done.
[00:14:45] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
[00:14:45] Speaker A: All right. How about this for a teaser.
All right, I'm going to challenge us right here.
It's. It's. It's evening, shall we say, and I wonder if you can get a cover done and we could plop it into the end of this video.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: 100%.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: All right. All right. There's our challenge, and there's your tease.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: So just the. The tease is we've been playing with brand boards and mood boards and different things for refreshes and just, you know, end of year things, like one does when they're thinking of directions and what to do.
And one of the mood boards that has come back that I'm particularly. Oops. Microphone. Particularly in love with is like a steampunk kind of look.
So cool.
It's so cool. And there's a little element of an owl, which my brand is Athenia, which is an owl. Yeah, it's pretty funny. And it looks like that old alge. Remember the old movie with Harry Hamlin? The.
What was it that.
The Greek gods.
[00:15:44] Speaker A: A real owl.
[00:15:45] Speaker B: No, they had a mechanical owl that went around. Do you remember that?
[00:15:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. I think.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Yeah, we're gonna have to put something like that in the show notes so everybody sees it. But, yeah, it was. I was like, oh, that's what that looks like. It looks so cute. Yeah.
[00:15:56] Speaker A: All right, so speaking of the teasing and the links and stuff, maybe we can have some of those mood boards. We can share some of them.
[00:16:01] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: If they're okay.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: All right.
[00:16:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: Okay. So that's the COVID Well, we'll. We'll get that done then.
All right. Epigraph. Epigraph. I don't think we can do that one actually right now because the epigraph is traditionally a quote, unless you can think of something. But I just Google famous quote, and I want it to be a famous thing, not something like you said. So it's, you know, Mark, but I am famous.
Hello.
But some famous person. Oprah said this or whatever, and it's relevant to your thing.
[00:16:30] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:16:30] Speaker A: So I like it to be famous because I like you to have to find it.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: Yeah. I couldn't do one off the top of my head for a famous person.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: All right, so that one is gonna. That takes a little.
[00:16:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:39] Speaker A: I mean, it can. Well, you know, it's one of. It's like many of these elements. It can be a one minute or one hour. Right. So I. I really think this one is fun. And often you can find something that's really. Really hits home that somebody Finds. Because if you think about it, when you're googling it or I used to use brainy quotes. It was a quote.
[00:16:58] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: You gotta type in some keywords.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: Fine stuff. Yeah, yeah. Mine would probably be a Dorothy Parker quote.
[00:17:05] Speaker A: Okay. All right.
[00:17:06] Speaker B: Little sarcastic. Sarcastic. Sardonic.
[00:17:08] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: Caustic.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:10] Speaker B: Love her.
[00:17:10] Speaker A: All right. That's that one.
Okay. Just for clarity also, as well, up to here, we're in the present.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: And down here, it's the future.
And. And by the way, this year of you. And we're talking about you, it's all about you. And this is your year. And so we're just talking about one year. And so this, when we say the future, it's a year from now. It's not 10 years or 5 years or 20 years or whatever. Just one year. And then.
Spoiler alert. Like, my goal is to do this every single year. It's not just, oh, you do this once and you're done. So I'd like it to be a yearly occurrence where you come back and do this for the next year.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:47] Speaker A: So the reason I say that is because dedication is who you sort of dedicate it to from now. Who would you like to dedicate this to? You know, to my dog or whatever. Whereas acknowledgements later is going to be thank you to the people who helped me get to here into the future. So any ideas on dedication?
[00:18:07] Speaker B: I think. I mean, obviously it's going to be grandbabies.
Obvs. It's going to be Winnie and Kieran. Just because they are my little. They're my pearl personality. Honestly.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: That's great. Yeah.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: But I think they. They anchor me to my. Why.
As I've thought about, you know, whether I'm going to stay close or travel or become a digital nomad, they have really kind of shaped where I want to be and how I want to show up for them.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: So.
[00:18:37] Speaker B: So that's. That's probably it. Also, you know, of course, my daughters, my mom.
[00:18:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:44] Speaker B: You know, my first husband.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:47] Speaker B: Because they've all been part of getting me where I am so very much. Family first, but then also my. My chosen family. Right. You and women I write with every single morning.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: And. Yeah.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: Which you've got a taste of that to listen to the.
[00:19:07] Speaker A: That's the real deal.
[00:19:09] Speaker B: Cacklin hilarity. That happens.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: That's really special relationship.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: It is really. It is. I mean, it was. It's forged in fire and started in the middle of a pandemic. And we sort of joked that it was trauma bonding, but now there's no trauma, so we're still bonded. We still write together every day and hang out and do life and travel and see each other. So very, very, very much strong friends and sisterhoods, which is pretty cool. So obviously. Obviously them.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: Okay, so we'll keep those in mind as we get later to acknowledgements, because you'll kind of feel the difference later.
[00:19:43] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: This one is really. It's often like, you know, to my mom, which is great because it's somebody. It's like you're giving this to them, whereas here you're thanking for their help to get you where you got.
[00:19:54] Speaker B: Right. Okay.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: Okay. There's another one. No, I've never done this live like this. And this is kind of hard because there's many here that we kind of just can't do. The forward, I'm very sort of strict and formal with my list here. For example, like the epigraph, I wanted to be a famous person. And the forward is traditionally written by someone else, and I'm sticking with that. And sensitive sestas and.
Well, I guess, for example, I could write it. And so the forward is written by, ideally, either they know you or they know your idea, your content, your topic, and ideally, they have both, and they're very inspired or positive about your thing. Okay.
[00:20:31] Speaker B: So I would say it would be you. I would ask you.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: Yeah, great. And so what my role as the forward writer would be then. To introduce you from a third angle, from my angle and introduce you, and then your word and why it's right for you, and then try to forecast a little bit about where this might take you to next year.
[00:20:53] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:20:53] Speaker A: It's so much about the future we're really forecasting. Can you.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: Can you do that? Do you think you could do that?
[00:20:59] Speaker A: Okay, so as the forward writer, somebody. Okay, yeah, this is totally me. You're right. Somebody who needs to ideally knows you.
In my live sessions I've done, I literally said, okay, here's my stuff. Hand it to your neighbor. And so then you kind of got to do a sales pitch to your neighbor who you met an hour ago or a day ago.
[00:21:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:20] Speaker A: And they can, you know, they kind of.
[00:21:21] Speaker B: They can probably knock it out a little bit.
[00:21:23] Speaker A: They knock it out and they do their best, but better is if they. Someone who knows you, believes in you, is cheering for you. Which, you know, as I keep saying all this, I'm like, okay, I'm perfect for this. Right? I should really do this. I don't know what I'm Talking about.
All right, let's get that done in a little bit there.
[00:21:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Can you have that done 20 minutes?
[00:21:43] Speaker A: Yes.
All right.
By the way, all these. I'm going by, like, the strict definitions of what these are in real books.
So preface is also.
Remember here we're present time. So preface is very like a journal.
It's today, and it's just the present moment. It's really the reality of right now. It's the real deal. It could be very journal. Like, today I woke up and.
And you can forecast a little bit. You can talk a little bit about the future, but it's more. Here's the situation.
Hoping for maybe this and this. But you'll see later that you don't want to get too much into future casting. But it's sort of. Here's the current situation.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: For better or worse, and maybe a little bit of plans for the future.
So I don't know how much you want to talk about this right now or do based on.
Let's talk a little bit about.
[00:22:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm happy. Yeah, I'm happy.
Yeah. Present situation is that I have several very busy, thriving companies that I'm very, very excited about. So I have an entire ecosystem. They're all interconnected businesses. In the past, I have had outside clients outside of publishing, outside, that have really been sort of the sustaining feature in my career, in my business.
And in the last couple of days, this client's going through a really tough divorce and has extracted himself from. He's filed for bankruptcy. So. So I'm sort of the comforts that I have enjoyed previously, not having to worry about certain things and being able to expand the businesses without having to have to think about them. That security blanket is gone. That security blanket has been completely removed. And so I'm pivoting faster to going all in on the businesses. So instead of slowly, they've. They're four years old now. The magazine's four years old. Indie author Trading is two years old. Like, I wanted to have more time to grow them and to really give them a strong start and to not worry about, you know, the fiscal realities of a startup. But now I've got to pivot, and now they've got to. I've got to get products to market faster. I've got Storyteller os, which is an app, software app, and I've got, you know, consulting that I do on the author automation side. So those things have to be brought forward.
The good thing is, as we're chatting about it, not having what in ESSENCE is a full time job for consulting is now forcing me to pay attention and work harder to get them done.
So that's not a bad thing, right? It's not a bad thing. It's a good thing. It just was an unexpected thing. At the end of December, looking forward to a long winter's nap and a cozy little Christmas. It's like, oh, wow, okay, that's not gonna happen.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:50] Speaker B: So, but I think, you know, just in terms of anecdotally thinking about things, I think the universe has been pushing me in this direction for a while and the universe just got tired of me limping along, just said, all right, here it is, do it.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: You know, your word. I didn't think about this until right now, but your word fits perfectly with what happened. It does.
Because I, until this moment, I thought of it as, oh, this is like voluntarily doing your word.
And this is also third party unexpected.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: So I think, let's just say what my word is because I think it's probably time. So my word is contraction.
My word is contraction. And as I was thinking of it previous to the last couple of days, the word contraction for me has meant tightening up the things so that I'm not involved in certain day to day operations of things. For example, on the magazine side, letting Nicole take that. So I'm contracting out of the day to day responsibilities of the magazine's decisions, who to interview, what to interview. I set the decisions, but let Nicole do that. So it was contracting out of that. On the training side, it was contracting away from interviews and, and interviewing instructors and letting Karen do that and you know, letting people do their jobs and not being so involved. And it wasn't, it was just a transition between startup and operations. Right. Getting to the point where we're not in startup mode and I don't have to do all things. So that was the contraction. But I think the universe had another plan, another contraction. That is right. And along with that word, which is so funny, contraction is what moves a pregnancy along and you go from pregnant to birth.
[00:26:47] Speaker A: You're right for the complete visual.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: Right?
[00:26:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
And contractions are painful. Not that I would know from experience, but they are, I've heard.
[00:26:57] Speaker B: But the end result is something astonishing and amazing. And yeah, so it's. The word has just come to mean so much more as we've pondered it. Because before and again, going back to the title and subtitle, I wanted to use contraction and not extraction. Because, for example, my role has changed at Author Nation. I've been helping on that side as the programming director for the last two years. And after this year I kind of went to Joe and Suze and said, you know, hey, this is a lot. And I really feel like I need to focus over here. So I want to stay involved, I want to stay part of the team, but I can't do a full time job. Right. I can't do that. So. And of course. Right. And of course they were like, of course, of course. So, you know, I'm helping with automations and I'm helping with technology and I'm helping with speaker selection. I'm still helping with a lot of those things. So I'm not extracting myself from Author Nation, but I am contracting in the sense of focusing and finishing things that matter to me that really move the business along.
[00:28:07] Speaker A: Maybe that could go in your subtitle, some kind of focus and finish or something.
[00:28:10] Speaker B: Focus and effing. Focus and finish.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: Two of your other favorite F words.
[00:28:17] Speaker B: Keeping it PG for you. Keeping it pg.
Wow.
[00:28:23] Speaker A: All right. You know, I also, this is probably obvious, but this whole, this whole, this whole program and a lot of people call it an experiment, which I like because a friend of mine ran a thing called experiments in the past and he says, oh, but the best thing about experiments is that, you know, you just see the, you see what happens. It's not fail or success.
[00:28:42] Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely.
[00:28:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And here like the, the present day, the preface, it's not all just like, happy, go lucky and everything's great.
[00:28:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: And in the, in the future, everything's gonna be better. Yay. That's it.
[00:28:56] Speaker B: Bye.
You know, I don't think there's any lesson in that.
[00:29:01] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true.
[00:29:03] Speaker B: I don't think there's any, I don't think there's any humanity or human spirit or overcoming anything with that. I think. Yeah, that's.
[00:29:11] Speaker A: No, my early days, I, I was in travel writing. I wrote a lot about travel writing stuff and I would joke that there's no book that says we got on the flight, which was on time and we stayed on the hotel, which was great. And we took a bus to the tourist site and it was fun. We had dinner and it was yummy and everything went great.
No travel book said ever.
[00:29:34] Speaker B: No. We do it for the plot.
[00:29:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:37] Speaker B: We do everything for the plot. Yeah.
And those of us that travel so much, it's.
[00:29:41] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:29:42] Speaker B: It's all plot.
[00:29:42] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah.
All right, so now we know our number eight here. Chapter one.
[00:29:47] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:29:47] Speaker A: And so again, I'm very strict on these rules. It's one Word. That's it. So for you, it's just contraction. That's it.
[00:29:55] Speaker B: Next.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: Yeah, that's it. All right. Number nine. This is the, this is the heart of this idea, is the heart of this experiment, the epilogue. And again, I'm going with typical stuff. If you see in a movie or in a book, it says, you know, one year later. And that's. And it's what happens. So this one we are. When you write it, it'll write in the past tense.
[00:30:17] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:30:18] Speaker A: So. And I like you to start out, what a year, what a year, what a year, what a year. And then you go and you describe. And again, you're for future casting yourself to December 2026 or whatever. And you are then describing how this past year, which was the full year of 2026, how it went.
And so I've done this, like, I've done this with my kids and they're like, oh, well, I won a Ferrari and, you know, I won the lottery and I bought a Ferrari. And yeah, yeah, that's fun, but a little. I want it to be lofty and fun and exciting, but also attainable with a little bit of risk in there and gambling and fun and potential for who knows what.
So the fun part of this is what happens here. And like, the psychology behind this is there's a lot of. It is the you with more. The more detail you can use to describe your. Because we're sort of talking about your future self. Yeah, the more detail you can use to describe it. You know, people say, oh, well, I'm in Italy and I'm by the coast and I have a consulting job and I have a red car and whatever. The more detailed and the more your mind and spirit, frankly, work together, they know where to go.
[00:31:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:39] Speaker A: So that's epilogue. Any thoughts on what is your. Looking back, it's hard to talk in past tense, but if you want to give it a shot.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: Yeah. So looking back, I'm astonished at how many people we were able to help this year with the software and the service, in the information and the education. It's just been so gratifying to see 250 authors really hit their sales goals.
As I sit here on an AMA Waterways cruise with my family and we're traveling up and down the European rivers and visiting the Christmas markets. I'm happy to reflect on what we've been able to accomplish this year for folks. Yeah.
[00:32:18] Speaker A: Just got the chills.
[00:32:19] Speaker B: I loved it.
[00:32:20] Speaker A: I just got the chills. Yeah, I love it.
[00:32:23] Speaker B: I. Yeah, that is. That is My vision, anchored, manifested.
[00:32:27] Speaker A: You know, I'm giving you outs like left and right and you're like, I don't need them.
[00:32:30] Speaker B: I'm not.
[00:32:30] Speaker A: Hold on.
[00:32:31] Speaker B: I'm not.
[00:32:31] Speaker A: I can do it. Hold on. Ready? Right here. Run a cruise.
[00:32:33] Speaker B: I, I just, I'm a firm believer. I mean, I'm kind of big in the woo, right? I am kind of big in the woo.
I, I sort of see pattern recognition as part of my tism. Right, right.
Just lean into my tism, the pattern recognition. But I just see the universe is constantly conspiring for my good. So even though this feels terrifying and scary, this is what I asked for, right? I asked for the ability to have more time to help people. I asked for the ability to launch the software. I asked for the ability to be able to do that and knowing how time and space work. Right. The universe just went, yeah, you don't have time to do all of those things. So you're struggling and limping along and you're stressed and you're sleep deprived and you're over caffeinated and you don't feel well.
You need, you need to focus.
So here's how you're going to focus.
So the universe gave me what I asked for. Even though it doesn't look like.
Yeah, I thought it would, I thought it would be lottery winnings and the Ferrari.
Yeah, I thought it would be, you know, a nice easy path. But it's. But it's not. But also again, sitting on the balcony of the cruise ship next year sailing by the Christmas markets, I can't help but be even more grateful.
[00:34:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:00] Speaker B: For what's about to happen.
It's just going to be astonishing.
[00:34:06] Speaker A: There's a little town in northern Germany near Netherlands and they are uber famous for their Christmas market.
And you have to. It's quite a drive. It's the middle of nowhere. It's like in the woods.
And I remember driving there a few years ago and I thought we were lost.
And sure enough, you look over one last hill and then there's like guys waving, you know, lights to help you park.
[00:34:31] Speaker B: As long as it's not Krampus, I'm.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: Fine in this massive sort of field.
It was just a winter wonderland like you dream about.
[00:34:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I just, I think I'm really excited about that. I mean, I can kind of see, you know, me and the grandbabies and my daughters who, you know, I can travel with or without them, but the grandbabies are not optional and we're just buying Christmas presents and drinking wassail and yeah, I just. This time next year now I will say this.
[00:35:04] Speaker A: This is.
[00:35:05] Speaker B: This is a slightly left turn. I did this exercise once before.
[00:35:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:10] Speaker B: In 2019.
Okay. At the end of 2019, I said at the end of 2020, I will be.
The end of 2020, we were all in our house when nobody went anywhere, did anything fun. So, yeah.
[00:35:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:26] Speaker B: Just quick reality check. I do acknowledge that there are forces beyond my control.
[00:35:31] Speaker A: A couple.
[00:35:33] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:35:34] Speaker A: I love it. I love it.
Okay.
Sorry. You, like, threw me off a little because I'm just. I just see your whole German cruise thing, and you got Your numbers, your 250 authors, and we help so many people.
[00:35:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:49] Speaker A: Okay. We got a few more here.
This one. So now that you. You like. You feel you're already there. Right. Remember? So now we're in the future. So the acknowledgments.
So who would you like to thank? Who helped you get there?
[00:36:02] Speaker B: Well, obviously you. I mean, duh.
Duh.
I think first and foremost, I would thank the people that anchor me and push me to be 1% better every single day. Right. That's going to be my friends that I write with, people that, you know, when I'm starting to have a meltdown, pull me back to the surface and say, all right, reframe this. You know better than this. This isn't what's happening. And so, yeah, it's going to be my.
My girls.
[00:36:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:34] Speaker B: Right.
And, yeah, those are the. Those are the first ones. And then I would also say I want to definitely thank the partners that I've been able to work with in this industry that are software developers and vendors and those. Because I get to learn from them every single day, and I get to tell authors about their products every single day. So I don't. I think those need to be acknowledged as much as my personal ones, because I feel like this is a very generous industry, and I feel like this is an industry unlike any other, where we're not strictly in competition with one another as storytellers especially, as authors especially. But really, we're all working towards collaborative means, to be a.
An emotionally driven, wonderful storytelling machine, if you will.
[00:37:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:29] Speaker B: And. And have delighted satisfied readers and consumers of our. Of our stories in whatever form they take.
[00:37:35] Speaker A: This industry. I don't think I believed it at first that it's so collaborative and cooperative and not 100%, of course, within.
[00:37:42] Speaker B: Oh, it's not perfect.
[00:37:43] Speaker A: No. But it's just people.
When I tell people, they just don't even believe me. They just think, oh, come on, it's very different.
[00:37:51] Speaker B: I mean, it is very, very different. Because strictly speaking, we're not as. As authors who sell books. Right. Let's just take that for an example. We're not competing to sell a single book right there.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: Right.
[00:38:05] Speaker B: Readers cannot.
They're not happy with just the one book. Right.
And each of our products can be still in the same genre, strictly speaking, but not.
I mean, we build worlds and we create characters and we create emotional scenarios, and every one of them is always going to be different. I mean, that's also why I'm not worried about AI taking over, because there's a heart and a humanity of people connecting with other people.
That's what we are in this industry more than anything else. That's what we are. We're connected to our readers as storytellers. We're connected to our readers. So, yeah, it's just. It's one of those where you.
If you. If you really think about what we sell, we sell dreams. I mean, it's not snake oil salesman speak, but that is what we sell. We sell dreams.
[00:38:58] Speaker A: Wow.
That's kind of cool.
[00:39:00] Speaker B: And you can have more than one.
[00:39:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
Wow.
All right.
[00:39:07] Speaker B: It's pretty wild how the sun is setting now and beautiful. We're by the fire glow.
[00:39:12] Speaker A: I know.
And it's December. And we're outside.
[00:39:16] Speaker B: It's December.
[00:39:16] Speaker A: I'm already thrilled about that part.
[00:39:18] Speaker B: Listen, it's not hot.
[00:39:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. Almost there.
About the author. Yeah. So this is also traditionally written in the third person. You don't have to give me a whole third person spiel here. But the. It's. It's similar to the future casting, forecasting. Because I want it to be the. About the authority of Shell in. In next year.
[00:39:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:39] Speaker A: So it's. And.
Well, I'll get to the next part next. But the.
Yeah, this one is just sort of. It's a bio. Yeah, it's a bio that. You know, I didn't really mention this so much, but this book, this whole experiment is from you, for you. So this is not a book we're selling to other people.
And in a way, when you get to the blurb, it's selling it to your present self, and it's your future self selling it to your present self.
[00:40:14] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:40:15] Speaker A: And. And we're not looking at. We're not selling books on bookstores.
[00:40:19] Speaker B: Right, Right.
[00:40:19] Speaker A: It's just for you.
[00:40:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:20] Speaker A: So the. About the author is also sort of just for you. It's your bio. We're not looking to get a job or get hired or Whatever. It's.
It's about the author and that's you now. So whereas the epilogue was the scene of the future, this is like the you of the future. So you know Schell Honecker and in a typical third person speak.
[00:40:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:42] Speaker A: Schell Honecker.
[00:40:44] Speaker B: Schell Honecker is the author of an eight book series which are written but not yet out. So that's truism.
She's a world traveler and a nomad. She's visited.
See, how many have I visited? I'm going to add six more.
[00:41:00] Speaker A: Yeah, right, Right.
[00:41:02] Speaker B: That many countries.
[00:41:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:41:03] Speaker B: However many that is. That many plus six. Yeah, yeah.
You know, it's sort of funny. If I were thinking about anything that I would want to improve in my life, there's not much.
[00:41:16] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:41:16] Speaker B: I get to wake up every day and play with my best friends as a job.
Yeah. I don't. I don't really see. I am living my dream and I'm. And I don't take that for granted. I'm very, very fortunate and I have a lot of people that have helped me get here, and I'm excited to see what the next thing is, so.
[00:41:39] Speaker A: And you help a lot of people forward.
[00:41:41] Speaker B: I have been poured into. And I really feel like it's my job to pour into others. I've been helped so much that it would be hubris and just obscene if I didn't help people as much as I've been helped.
[00:41:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:41:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:56] Speaker A: And I write a lot about. Very Quoting Donald Miller, my hero and story brand and villains and heroes and guides. The villains, they struggle with their challenges. Procrastination, perfectionism, imposter syndrome. And the heroes are then successful. They're succeeding, but it's for them, it's the ego. And then the guide is sort of the true goal, because the guide serves and the guide gives and the guide teaches. Because you get to hero, you're like, yay, I'm great. Yay, success for me. Yeah. Isn't that wonderful? Yep, it is. And that's the goal. Just like the year of you. Yeah, the year of you. The idea is you go from villain to hero. You get over your fears and your limitations and your problems, and you get to hero status, which is you being in a better position. And then from. From. And only from that position can you then be. Become a guide, where you then guide and help and teach and have your hand out for others, helping people out.
[00:42:54] Speaker B: Which I think is more fulfilling. I think it's far more fulfilling.
[00:42:57] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely.
[00:42:58] Speaker B: Like any measure of success doesn't matter unless you are looking to see how you can help. Right. It's the, it's the Mr. Rogers. Always look for the helpers. But I want to be one of the helpers. And I think anybody that wants to have fulfillment in any true sense. Right. I mean I have a lot of luxurious things, but none of them really matter unless there is a measure of how am I serving and what can I do and how. And how can I help others get to this as well.
[00:43:32] Speaker A: Okay, but see your art. I didn't say but. And you're speaking from such a guide level because I've been writing a lot about villains and heroes and guides and to even see and feel what you just said, you don't say that as a villain. As a villain, you're down in the going for going way. Woo. Here Abraham Hicks and Esther Hicks. You're on a lower flying disc or the lower vibration and you're just in survival mode and you're not thinking about helping others. You're like, I need to help myself. I need to get pull up my bootstraps and I need to succeed myself before I can help others. So from that villain lower level, and it's not bad, you don't want to be there, you want to get out of there. But we get in these cycles and we get stuck there. So then you're the hero. And then if you're a person like you are, then ideally you hope and you strive towards being at the guide level where you're then your goal and your dream. And as you say, fulfillment, real fulfillment and joy and happiness. For me it is. There's nothing better than helping others. There's no deeper fulfillment than helping others. Just as you said, your life is already great in so many ways.
[00:44:42] Speaker B: It's great.
[00:44:43] Speaker A: So how can I help my granddaughters and my daughters?
[00:44:46] Speaker B: Right. How can I help other storytellers be free and have jobs that they are excited to get up in the morning and live? And there's just a lot of stress and strife in the world. So, you know, this is one small measure of being able. I can't, I cannot fix a lot of things in the world. I cannot, I cannot fix anything that's going on on a global political scale. I cannot fix any of that. But I can look around and see what I've got at my disposal and use what I have to do what I can.
[00:45:15] Speaker A: Yeah, because if you're, if you've succeeded and you reach hero status, then you can reach guide status, then you can help the others and That's. Yeah.
What I strive for. I think. What we all strive for.
[00:45:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:28] Speaker A: Okay. All right, this one's. This second to last one. I think this is really fun, and I'm sure you'll get a kick out of this.
Again, I'm going by typical author stuff in books and authors who have more than one book, they will also list also by the author. Also by the author, and they'll have other books. So. But this one's a little twist on this, is that these are book. And we're not talking that you have to write these books.
[00:45:50] Speaker B: Right, right, right.
[00:45:50] Speaker A: It could just be a. It could be a witty. It could be funny. It could be tongue in cheek, could be silly. But three, you don't even need to list all three right now. But also by Shell Honaker.
[00:46:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:00] Speaker A: That you created in 2026.
[00:46:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:03] Speaker A: Any thoughts?
[00:46:04] Speaker B: So I would say one is Packing for Luxury. How to take your luxury sheets everywhere you go.
[00:46:18] Speaker A: Are those the furry fluffy ones?
[00:46:20] Speaker B: That's great.
[00:46:22] Speaker A: Okay, I'll get that book.
[00:46:23] Speaker B: Packing for Luxury.
[00:46:24] Speaker A: That is.
[00:46:25] Speaker B: That is my packing.
[00:46:27] Speaker A: Okay. Love it. Love it.
[00:46:29] Speaker B: Let's see, what would another one be?
How to Go Monk Mode and Come back. Yeah. How to Go Monk Mode and Come Back with a fully formed software company in 12 days with a pixel Perfect product.
[00:46:48] Speaker A: Great title. How to Go Monk Mode.
[00:46:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Monk Mode.
[00:46:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:53] Speaker B: I think I would also maybe draft on Mel Robbins. We've talked about the let them. You know, the let them theory in practice or something. It would be, you know, how. How to.
One of the things that we talk about in my morning group is stop running into burning buildings for people that are comfortable in fire, which goes along with the let them. And in the. And in the spirit of contraction, it's recognizing where my talents best lie and who not deserves them, but who will best be served by them, who will appreciate and want to take advantage of them. So, yeah, I think that's kind of a.
That's kind of one that I've been noodling around.
[00:47:37] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:47:37] Speaker B: Because I.
Especially in this whole, you know, moment of reflection on this, I'm like, oh, yeah, I have been doing so much for so long, gratefully. And it wasn't. It was. It was not.
I wasn't taken advantage of or ungrateful. But.
But I could have been doing so much good somewhere else. Right. So I need to really think about where to spend my time. So the Let them is kind of part of that.
[00:48:07] Speaker A: Okay. All right. I love it.
I'm the first book I'm going to Buy, though, is the how to luxury, how to pack.
[00:48:14] Speaker B: How to how to pack.
[00:48:15] Speaker A: I love it. And okay, if you want extra brownie points, if you want extra brownie points, you can do covers. Oh, for the three books.
[00:48:22] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:48:22] Speaker A: I mean, most people, that's going to be way too much work, but for you, you can handle it.
[00:48:26] Speaker B: For me, it's another five.
[00:48:27] Speaker A: That'll be super fun.
[00:48:28] Speaker B: Another five minutes.
[00:48:29] Speaker A: Luxury sheets packing. I can just like, see. I can see the graphic right now, like, fall flowing out of this.
[00:48:36] Speaker B: You sort of have to explain this because it does sound kind of odd. You're going to have to explain. Explain where this joke comes from.
[00:48:43] Speaker A: That'll be in the follow up.
[00:48:44] Speaker B: Yeah, it'll be in the follow up chat.
[00:48:45] Speaker A: Yes. Okay, last one.
And again, this one. So this. All right, so you and I are both authors, and you and I are both entrepreneurs and authorpreneurs and whatever you want to call them. And so a, A real, A very experienced author knows that this last one, you can't even read it anymore because it's so dark. Number 13 is blurb or the sales page or the book sales page or whatever you call it.
And like, real writers will say, like, oh, I can't do that. That's, you know, advertising, or that's sales copy, and they can't do it. And you know what? Frankly, they're often right. They can't do it. Yeah, it's super hard.
And so this is one where I'm totally fine with templates and, you know, first addressing the plot with a problem and you get into marketing stuff because this is a marketing piece.
[00:49:31] Speaker B: It is.
[00:49:32] Speaker A: And so again, I'm giving you an out because this is super tough one. But again with the idea of the sales page. And yet it's the future show, selling it to the present show.
And with this, it's contraction. And how am I going to sell this to you so that you fulfill your. You live your word for the coming year?
[00:49:54] Speaker B: I think I can't craft the exact blurb, but I would say the things that have driven me to this word were flirting with, burnout, flirting with, overwhelm, flirting with. So if I were crafting a blurb, I would say if you're flirting with burnout, flirting with, overwhelm, flirting with. Trying to be all things to all people and not taking care of yourself and not.
Not living the healthiest life that you can completely chained to your desk 25 hours a day. Right? Here's. Here's the word for you. Contraction. Here's the solution for you. And without.
And, you know, obviously addressing the immediate objection, which is in sales copy, the first thing you should do is address whatever objection. You don't have to extract yourself because contraction for a lot of people. And for me at the beginning I was thinking, well, that just means I'm just, you know, taking my toys and going home and not doing all of these things. And that was. It was very important for me to stay connected to the things and the people and the projects and the processes that I really did love. And I didn't want to give up on things.
I just. I need. I needed to protect my energy and I needed to protect my companies and my team. Right. Because I'm over here doing all this other stuff and over here my team's picking up the slack. So.
[00:51:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:51:14] Speaker B: So, yeah. So just in terms of how I would sell it is I.
I need to. I need to figure out how to live a healthier, more fulfilled life for longevity, for, you know, sustainability and for scale. Because I have built so many things that I know are going to help so many people, but I don't have the time to tell people about them because I'm constantly putting out fires for other people.
[00:51:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:51:42] Speaker B: So, yeah. Contraction. Wow.
[00:51:46] Speaker A: I just had a thought that it's December and with our plans of. Of which you are involved.
I hope I'm here in a year.
[00:51:59] Speaker B: Or on the cruise.
[00:52:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:00] Speaker B: Or sitting on the deck or on.
[00:52:03] Speaker A: The cruise in Germany or one or.
[00:52:04] Speaker B: The other sail by.
[00:52:08] Speaker A: I look forward to having this conversation again and seeing how your year went.
And then this sounds so.
[00:52:17] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:52:18] Speaker A: It's even hard to say, but.
[00:52:21] Speaker B: It.
[00:52:21] Speaker A: Shouldn'T be a chore, but I'm thinking. And then doing this again for their next year.
[00:52:25] Speaker B: No, I think that's great.
[00:52:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:27] Speaker B: Because my word will be different next year. I very much. Number one activator.
[00:52:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:32] Speaker B: I.
I don't activate on myself. And that's the one thing that I think I need to do better in terms of contraction and sticking with it is. Is creating plans, creating processes and things that help me stick to what I need to stick to.
[00:52:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:51] Speaker B: Focus and finish.
[00:52:52] Speaker A: Focus and finish.
That could be. Okay. I'm biased because I really like it, but it could be part of the subtitle. It could be fun.
[00:52:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:00] Speaker A: Focus. It could be really cool.
[00:53:02] Speaker B: Focus, focus, finish. And. Yeah.
[00:53:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
Okay. I'm pretty sure it's midnight.
[00:53:10] Speaker B: It's pretty close. It isn't. It is in Europe.
[00:53:15] Speaker A: It is in Germany. On that cruise.
[00:53:19] Speaker B: Those twinkle lights are going by.
[00:53:22] Speaker A: If I can dig up that site of that cute little town. I'll share it, too.
[00:53:28] Speaker B: Wow, Michelle, thanks for having me.
[00:53:30] Speaker A: Bradley, this is just a.
It's been amazing.
[00:53:33] Speaker B: It's been a cool. It's been a cool couple of days.
[00:53:36] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And I'm really glad we're doing this because it really.
You know, I was talking to you about meditation practice and also the fact that we've been sitting here for, I don't know, it's probably close to an hour.
And, you know. You know, there's this great quote that says something like, go to Want to meditate or. What's the goal of meditation? To become a good meditator. No, right. It's. The goal is to calm or achieve something or whatever. It's not.
I don't run so I can become a better runner. I run to whatever. But here, like this, you know, we've been on the computers a lot past couple days. We've got phone calls, we've got zoom calls, we've got people, we've got stuff. And here. This is a form of meditation. We are out here. We have no electronics, we have no screens, and we're just. We're super focused, and we are focused on finishing.
[00:54:26] Speaker B: Yeah, it feels like it. It feels very meditative.
[00:54:29] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it's.
[00:54:30] Speaker B: I mean, I think it's helpful, especially for those of us that work alone, to have somebody that you trust and you care about that can kind of. You can bounce stuff off of, and they have the ability to say, oh, that's a terrible idea.
[00:54:43] Speaker A: Right?
[00:54:44] Speaker B: You don't like cruise ships, Shell, don't.
[00:54:46] Speaker A: You remember those furry cotton sheets are never going to fit in that suitcase.
[00:54:53] Speaker B: Yeah, they will. I have a whole book about it. How to fold them in an origami swan and take them with you.
[00:55:01] Speaker A: Out in spring.
[00:55:03] Speaker B: Wide, wide. Wherever retailers have them.
[00:55:09] Speaker A: All right, Shel, it has been a pleasure.
[00:55:12] Speaker B: Thanks, Bradley.
[00:55:13] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks, Shel. All right. Bye for now. Bye, everybody.
[00:55:16] Speaker B: Bye, everybody.
That was fun.
Okay, cut out all the personal stuff, Ellen.
