SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Welcome to the Cut the Tide Podcast. Hello. I'm your host, Thomas Helfrick, and I'm on a mission to help you cut the tide of whatever it is holding you back from success. Now, you got to own your own success. If you don't, you're chasing someone else's dream, and that's no boy on. Today I am joined by Rebecca Shattox. Rebecca, how are you?

SPEAKER_00: 0:16

Great. This is my first podcast since my baby was born. So it'll be fun to jump back in.

SPEAKER_01: 0:21

That's amazing. Congratulations, by the way. Um, it's it is a miracle. People don't realize we just take it for granted that this little baby is here. Um, if men had to do it, we would have died earned one. So I think we all could agree on that. I think that that we get a sick, like we get a little cold, a head cold, we're down for a week, right?

SPEAKER_00: 0:39

It's so funny. I had the opposite issue. My husband's like, he pulled his back and didn't tell me for a week, and he's like hobbling around now. I'm like, should we do something about this? He's like, probably. I'll just wear baby wear her. But uh yeah, it's so funny.

SPEAKER_01: 0:52

Tell your uh tell your husband, this is something that the babies love, and to keep avoid him from also gaining, you know, maybe some baby weight is to work out with a baby. They love it when you kind of lift it, move it, run around with a beautiful, just use it as a weight.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06

I like it. Yeah, he's been walking with her on the treadmill, baby wearing her while he's just typing on his laptop, but I like it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:12

It's high risk. We have to evaluate that one. Um anyway. Rebecca, congratulations to the baby. Uh, tell us tell me a little about who you are and what it is you do.

SPEAKER_00: 1:22

Yeah, I'm a tech marketing leader at Forbes contributor and podcast host.

SPEAKER_01: 1:27

What's a tech marketing? What tell me, peel that up.

SPEAKER_00: 1:30

So I yeah, led marketing teams for tech companies, mostly software. But now I'm focusing on writing and podcasting.

SPEAKER_01: 1:37

So you've got you you've moved from um like corporate world basically to your own brand figuring, doing this. Okay. Um, what's your podcast call call and what's it all about?

SPEAKER_00: 1:46

It's called time billionaires. Uh the idea is that a billion seconds is 31 years. So if you expect to live another 31 years, you're a time billionaire. But we waste time in ways we wouldn't waste money, which is ironic because time is the resource we can't get back. And it's about how to spend the time that you do have better, really just the 90 second to 15 minute gaps between the structured parts of your day, how to spend it in ways that feel fulfilling and align with your values. So, like uh every episode offers tips on that. But so before I hopped on, I had seven minutes between when I joined and when you joined, and just used some of those exercises. I did 10 push-ups, I wrote a quick note to a friend, and I did a couple paragraphs of journaling. And so instead of just scrolling with more digital noise, it's ways that I feel more energized and then better ready to dive in.

SPEAKER_01: 2:31

I've mastered the seven minute now. Just nice.

SPEAKER_00: 2:34

It's a good one.

SPEAKER_01: 2:36

It's truly like plugging a battery back in. I'm like, those who don't take naps criticize those who do, but they don't know. They don't, they just don't know what seven minutes can do. Just like right before you fall asleep, sleep, and then you wake back up. You're like your ear.

SPEAKER_00: 2:49

It can be restorative for sure. Rest even if you're not sleeping. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 2:52

Amazing. Uh on your podcast, you how long you've been doing this for now?

SPEAKER_00: 2:56

Just since July, so three-ish months.

SPEAKER_01: 3:00

And so uh, you know, okay, as a podcaster, I have pivoted my podcast to some degree. Every and we'll I look at it formally every 90 days, just to be clear. Oh, and um in right now, here we are in late 2020, or about start Q4 of 2025. Uh, I'm doing a massive overhaul. You're actually one of the last shows of the year because I'm paused all shows. I was I was booked out till March, and I paused all shows because we're gonna get this thing to be you know, 45-minute full interview and a seven-minute audio because I have two masters. I have downloads that are going well, and I also have top of funnel that I have to that I have to address for your podcast. I I say that because I started off as one thing and mine became another. How has yours evolved? And you've had a baby in between now, but how's it evolved since July?

SPEAKER_00: 3:44

It's a good question. Yeah, I'd say figuring out, I mean, the very first thing that comes to mind was figuring out that the name. I was back and forth between time billionaires and hidden minutes. The idea is that there's hidden gaps in your day. And eventually just felt like time billionaires was more of a call to action. If you are a time billionaire, you can spend your time like that. But the balance of solo episodes, pre-scripted episodes, guest episodes, that's an evolution.

SPEAKER_01: 4:10

Yeah. The I I uh you're just solo show right now.

SPEAKER_00: 4:15

I'm the only host, but have mostly guest episodes.

SPEAKER_01: 4:18

You have mostly guests. Okay, so it's a guest-based one. Um I will tell you, the one thing I've found in podcasting, it's been in most of the data I think will support this, is is and we messed this up a bit, but you say don't make the title tricky. I actually think hidden seconds, unless that's already taken, would be perfect because it's specifically because you're talking about, you know, be you know. So what we did with ours to be specific, and and I'll tell you why we did this, it's it's cut the tie, which is the action. Um, and but right behind it, you know, in the in the in this when you're in podcast, and if you have a podcast, listen up, okay, or you're trying to find podcasts, this is how you find them. It's by the title. And so we have cut the tie, we use the little pipe thing, and we write, own your success, because I want people to find people who are looking for things around success. Um, not so much just entrepreneurship, because we're our our conversations are broader than just sometimes entrepreneurship. We have entrepreneurs on, but it's a different issue. For yours, hidden seconds is uh become a time billionaire, or you know, where billionaires, something like that, where it kind of gives the subtitle of money and value. So I hear time billionaires, and I'm thinking, oh, it's a money, it's a money podcast. But this seems to be more of an efficiency or life's uh as you described it, uh, the space between its wellness and it's happiness and its joy. It's like the currency of life. You know, you trade your time, you're trading true truly the time life that you have. Um, anyway, something to consider. Um, and by the way, my original podcast, if you guys are watching, and there's a little plaque two actually on the wall from YouTube, they both say never been promoted. It's the same podcast. After a million, we got a million fifty-four thousand subscribers. I changed the name of the entire thing overnight. Everything. It didn't afford it.

SPEAKER_00: 5:55

Why don't you do that again?

SPEAKER_01: 5:56

Yeah, oh I would I wouldn't have I would have done it. I wish I would have done it beginning, but it didn't hurt us. My point is changing the name of your podcast isn't a big deal. Um if if you have a URL and other things like that, you you know, you you just deal with it.

SPEAKER_00: 6:08

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01: 6:08

So don't be afraid of that, bro. Don't overthink it. We'll we'll get into that overthink it. Don't be tricky with your podcasting, just be very clear of what you get.

SPEAKER_00: 6:17

That's great. Good tips, thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 6:19

It's hey, listen, if we can stop a show right now. You can just, you know, I know right now you're like, damn, I got all this work to do. Um the reason is because you're you're trying to help people write you know, we're talking about the show, you know. If you've listened to our shows before, this one's a little different because we're we're pivoting to a different kind of show. So you're doing it already with me. But you know, you're you have a podcast and you and we'll I actually want to before I go back to that, you have a podcast. How are you using that with your writing? And then how does all that come together to make money?

SPEAKER_00: 6:44

Yeah, the uh podcast actually spun out of a book I'm writing. It I started with the concept of a book and just realized that a lot of these chapter ideas that are going into the book make really good episodes. And it's been a pretty interesting symbiotic loop then of writing a chapter, having an idea for an episode, hearing something from a guest, putting it into the book. And that's been really rewarding.

SPEAKER_01: 7:09

You know, when I work with clients on them growing their business and kind of getting them set up so they can use AI, use tech, and like what are they need to grow a business, right? Uh, the first question I ask them was what's the critical problem you solve? And how would you answer that? What is the critical problem your business solves or your book or your podcast?

SPEAKER_00: 7:28

Yeah, busy people really feel like we don't have enough time to do the things that we want to do because we're just chasing the things that we have to do. But really, if you work 50 hours a week and you sleep 50 hours a week, you have 68 hours a week to do whatever you want with. But the problem is they're sprinkled throughout the day. You don't have 68 open hours. And so it's about reclaiming that you can get a hundred push-ups in in 10 seconds at a time. You don't have to set big goals of spending two hours at the gym, for example. And so it's really about that. If you want more time to connect with people, you want more exercise, you want more nature, there is time for it in your day. But how do you reclaim that? And that's the problem that we're solving.

SPEAKER_01: 8:10

Is your is your business model then gonna be, you know, let's get some money from this podcast, sell a book, go speaking? What's your uh what's your money play?

SPEAKER_00: 8:18

Nailed it.

SPEAKER_01: 8:20

All that podcasts have one or two masters. They have downloads, which is entertainment, value, people sponsor eventually, you know, it it takes a while. Um, or you have a top of funnel, right? Where you're bringing guests on because you help them. There's a probably a third play, I think that it's a top of funnel, but yours is more credentialing to go speak, right? I think you want a TEDx talk or it would be a probably path, things like that. Is that fair?

SPEAKER_00: 8:45

That's right. Yep.

SPEAKER_01: 8:46

But you're still ti you're writing on tech too.

SPEAKER_00: 8:49

I am. I'm a big data forbes contributor and just writing about AI business strategy. Yep.

SPEAKER_01: 8:54

Are you gonna bring those two together at some point?

SPEAKER_00: 8:56

I have no immediate plans too, but they definitely inform each other. So my thoughts on time management came from being a tech leader. My thoughts on, or basically the way I use AI and think about business strategy definitely helps inform my book and podcast planning.

SPEAKER_01: 9:14

Now, if you fast forward like let's say uh two years from now, and it's very well, I'm actually I'm gonna make no assumptions. What pays the most right now? The writing, the podcast, or what what's uh where's revenue come from right now?

SPEAKER_00: 9:28

Two years from now or right now?

SPEAKER_01: 9:29

Right now, right now, sorry. I don't want to make an assumption there.

SPEAKER_00: 9:32

Uh can we cut this part? I've done this for two months with a baby. I have no revenue from it.

SPEAKER_01: 9:38

No, that's okay. Listen, you there's no right, and that's okay. I mean, I actually I would leave it in. My being, and that was my assumption that you're just you just started and I was gonna be blown away. Like, no, I got like 10,000 a month from an end sponsored. I'd be like, please tell me now. This show is gonna be reversed. We're gonna learn from her. Um, I would assume nothing, like I would assume that, because we've been doing ours for almost two years and we still don't we don't look for a sponsor, but I don't think we're really sponsorable. We're it's still a top of fall. The reason I say that is, but if you fast forward two years and the podcast exceeds any revenue that you could ever do writing, do you drop one?

SPEAKER_00: 10:10

I don't think so. I think that there's a lot of I love writing. Writing was, I mean, the idea of starting a podcast didn't come up until I was writing. I like the flow of ideas in writing go into podcast episodes, ideas from podcast episodes go into writing. It is a pretty fun repackaging exercise right now of things that come up in both. I think they each tend to make each other stronger, at least for now.

unknown: 10:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 10:37

And the reason I say it is uh what happens to a lot of entrepreneurs, at least I've I've like that I've worked with or met, is they have tie back to what they did and they hold on to it as long as possible as a safety net. Hmm, interesting. I need to get back, I gotta have that just in case so I can have credit, something so I don't get too outdated. And I was just wondering is that is that in the back of your mind? Is we were talking about off-camera, like, hey, what's the current tire cutting? Is that something that's in your mind that I need to kind of keep a safety net if this doesn't work?

SPEAKER_00: 11:05

Definitely an interesting question. Yeah, I think so much of my life, so much of my career was all planning five years. And now it's a lot more door opening opportunities, things that I couldn't have envisioned being possible five years ago, or very much are. So yeah, I would say I'm definitely a cautious person by nature. I like contingency plans. And I never envisioned not going back to a corporate job after this. This was going to be a fun creative year. But I so I don't know. Um, I I think we'll see.

SPEAKER_01: 11:37

It's a I mean, it's a it's a loaded question. And I'm trust me, I'm I like that. It's what I'm supposed to be doing or something. So it's a very loaded question. Uh and as I see what you're doing, right? I can see the bridge of AI, data, uh, and where that applies to business life, which has got the you know, those, you know, family, all the things that you you do, because it's just time. How do you use technology then to accelerate? Uh, you know, that becomes a huge speaking book consulting opportunity for you because you like I talk about time in this other sense, this thing way deeper, different, you know, has some things to do with tech, sometimes it just has to do with philosophical, whatever it is, right? And and then you apply it differently like to business. That is a consultancy of of making you know a company's way more effective with AI leveraging data to make the decision. Like I see that consulting bridge instantly. So I don't know if you saw it, I'm hoping you, but that's it. I mean, that's easy. That's uh they are completely related, I'm looking at, because one's a tool to get more life, if you let it be. Or it could be a tool to ruin yours, which is death scrolling.

SPEAKER_00: 12:42

Yeah, yeah. And I'd say that even in those gaps, right, if you use them for reflection to ask really important questions for thinking and learning, to read a page at a time of a book, you're actually going to be asking better questions and using all the time that you have more effectively and more productively. So even the questions you ask AI to solve for you become better if you're using these hidden seconds better.

SPEAKER_01: 13:06

I I and what I love about AI in particular, if you if you know how to use it correctly, uh specifically, is it runs stuff in parallel where I may ask it a series of questions, and I'll go off and answer those questions and say, How did I answer relative to my complete ignorance of the subject and learn from my answers relative to what the experts or whatever else say and have a conversation with it? Because then your learning just goes multiplied. You you've shared your original thought and your thinking, your logic, and then it says, Well, here's what the experts say, and here's why that's that kind of thinking, if you can do that effectively on a topic, allows you to get really insight in depth and also helps you from not stepping under um your feet when you go talk to people who know what they're talking about, so you don't say something that's clearly not gonna work because of the you you're you're nascent, you know, if you're you know so you could scale your spaces between by having technology do stuff for you.

SPEAKER_00: 13:55

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: 13:57

So you have a baby and do you catch yourself looking, going, how is that time? All right, let me say it. You're gonna go forward and you're under a parent for teacher conferences at some point, and you're gonna see those as complete wastes of time. Have you thought started thinking through like, you know, as you you evolve the parenting angle and children and how they suck up that other 68 hours a week?

SPEAKER_00: 14:22

Yeah, I would say most of my time feels much more fragmented now. No idea how long she'll be napping, anyone's guess roughly when she'll need to eat again. So just knowing that puts a lot more urgency on how I choose to spend that time. I'm much more intentional now about if someone else could do something, they should. I think I was a lot more casual about, sure, it's fine. I'll do the dishes now, I'll do the load of laundry now, et cetera. And now it's like, well, no, nanny's coming later. Nobody else can write this chapter of the book. I have these 20 minutes, maybe more, maybe not. I'm only going to use this time for things that I can uniquely do. And I think it's made me much more intentional about what is a bad use of time. I think the little productivity things of, yeah, it feels nice to vacuum, but does it actually have to get done? I'm much more mindful now of the real opportunity cost because sure, before the energy cost was there. If I used that time, I couldn't use it for writing. But I still felt like I had enough control over my time to do the things that I had set out to do. Now I really see that if I choose to unload the dishwasher instead of working on a podcast episode, I may not get to that podcast episode this week. And so I'm much more mindful.

SPEAKER_01: 15:34

There's a mindset with that because uh like at our house, you know, for sure. My my wife is definitely one that's gonna we're gonna clean everything, run everything done before we go do anything fun. Like I'm oversimplifying it, but like the idea that we're gonna load, sweat, then we'll leave to go. I'm like, that shit will be here tonight. Let's go. Um, you know, the that crumb on the floor will if I sweep up tomorrow morning or to this afternoon.

SPEAKER_00: 15:54

Or never. It probably doesn't really matter, right?

SPEAKER_01: 15:56

Probably doesn't matter. It does matter because it gets around the house. I I get that. I like to wake up to a clean kitchen too, but but I I tend to favor fun and other things before work versus let's get some stuff done. And that that mind shift for some people is very difficult. So we're also different people. For you, um, what do you think your number one passion is?

SPEAKER_00: 16:13

I want to click on that really quickly before we come back to it. Uh, this concept of scruffy hospitality I learned in Oliver Berkman's Meditations for Mortals. And he's really the first person who challenged my I have O C D, so cleanliness, et cetera, just didn't feel like a negotiable. I felt like I had to. If something was dirty, I had to go clean it because there was some big crisis. Um, but he introduced me to this concept of scruffy hospitality. And he has this line in his book, a perfectly kept house is a sign of a poorly lived life. Because yeah, deep cleaning your house feels very productive until you ask, did it actually have to get done? Is it just that you had to be more tolerant of laundry mess, et cetera? And so it's it, those are a quick little dopamine hit check boxes, but they're not moving the needle of your life forward necessarily. So changing your standards of what's non-negotiable, more fun in your day for you, maybe, uh, is really worthwhile. And so that's sort of where some of that challenging came from.

SPEAKER_01: 17:08

Really interesting. I I will ask you if you can send me that.

SPEAKER_00: 17:11

Um Yeah, yeah, I will. Uh, and and the definition of scruffy hospitality, he talked about how he likes to host and entertain, but oftentimes getting the house perfect, making it perfectly clean, cooking something that felt worthwhile was an impediment to seeing friends more often. And seeing his friends more often was the goal. And so he started just embracing loads of laundry will not be done. Maybe my kid wants to flush the toilet. Oh, wouldn't that be mortifying? No, it's whatever. It's scruffy hospitality. And it actually makes our friends feel more connected to us more authentically. And yeah, I loved applying that to other aspects.

SPEAKER_01: 17:42

I mean, I hosting's a big thing. I get having a clean house because you want to present well and do that. Um, you know, but any given hour you can come to our house and wait. It's not not museum level, but it's close. Um, I but I I would think you don't want to trade life for that. But but his this thing though, doesn't that other person potentially have happiness from that? They find happiness in the order. It's it's uh anyway, we get that's a debate. What okay, your top passion is it writing, thinking?

SPEAKER_00: 18:08

What would you call your kind of my single top passion is just time with my family, mostly outside. And everything else adds to my fulfillment of life, my feeling of contribution, connection. But ultimately, it's just nothing better than being outside and being with my family.

SPEAKER_01: 18:26

And to get to do that, if you can make a living, make money in the minimal amount of time, you have more time left over on the other side.

SPEAKER_00: 18:36

Yeah, it's all about the output. 100%. Yeah, yeah. I think that was a really big mental shift for me. I love corporate life structure. I very much have had to cut the tie with workaholism. It is very fulfilling day to day to feel important and needed and high urgency, high pressure. There so much has to get done. So cutting that, I didn't, I genuinely did not see any problem with having my life revolve around work. The very first vacation I've ever taken, probably since I was 14, that I didn't work at all. So, like when I was 14, I'd study for the SAT, et cetera, was my baby moon with my husband this summer. And he asked if we could make it completely work-free. And I truly did not understand the point. I agree, just say fine, whatever if that's important to you. But I literally went into that three-week vacation thinking, what is the big deal? If we're just going to be sitting here watching TV, why can't I be answering emails? Fine, okay, if it matters to you, I won't answer any emails. Stress me out. And I actually found that so transformative. So just the habits of, oh, a meeting popped up. I have to jump into it. I have to respond. I have to be responsive. I have to look reliable. That was addicting. And so cutting that from these like signals of being productive or busy or efficient or important to what is my actual output has just let me be a lot more efficient.

SPEAKER_01: 19:55

You know, it's a I'm about having that much insight into it. Mine was more of uh I'll give you an example of, you know, I from the start, our teams have worked uh four-day work weeks because I said, hey, I want you to about you know, relative to market, you have a full day off, go do what you want, go get another job, just don't be competitive in what you do and get your shit done. Then we're, you know, just period. I do the same thing where I take one day a week to learn, maybe just get some stuff done in the business. I just know expectations for returning emails, right? Um that that is such a reveal. I tell people, and the other piece was I I never found time to work out forever. And I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna start going to the gym every day at eight, seven days a week because I can't break a routine or I'm done. Um, and that routine, some days I just don't want to be there. And it's like, oh, if 100% is the best you can do, I might be at 4%, but I'm there. I'm gonna do something, do enough reps. But the point being is that that use of time when you create space, I was worried about letting off the gas. Like, oh, I gotta work. I've been way more productive because I guess got rid of all the shit I don't need to do. Um and I still look at and and I look at my time, I go, man, I can still be way more productive. And some of the stuff you just touched on become outside of around uh scruffy house, I can't read your, I'm gonna read that scruffy hospitality, and and it's okay. And you know, and like those mind shifts are major. And you know, don't worry about returning to corporate, by the way. Uh you have a little child, they'll be all the intensity, focus, or you'll have it all right there. So did that's that you can apply 100% to that. You're like, it's good.

SPEAKER_00: 21:22

Um yeah, it surprised me though that you've been more productive, right? Because you've made space to think about what actually matters. I think I think that's the biggest difference that you don't see the opportunity cost until you have it. When the doing constant output, like I really thought of myself as a doer. I got things done. There was some clear measure of output. When that's your measure, you spend a lot of mental energy signaling that you're doing it. I'm so look how reliable I am. I'm responding at 9 p.m. last Saturday. But that takes the mental space to actually ask is this project that I'm pushing so hard on with this really tight deadline, even when we should actually be doing. And if you have the space to ask that, everything gets better. The output gets better, the results, the quality get better. And you don't realize there is that opportunity cost until you have that space, at least I didn't, because I did not see anything wrong with 12-hour days, six days a week.

SPEAKER_01: 22:16

Well, you can either you do, but you're a doer, you get it done.

SPEAKER_00: 22:19

You get it done. And it feels right because you can say, look, check us off. And I think that shift that was really hard for me to go from corporate output, where meetings and projects and stakeholders were a big part of my day, to writing, which is solo and by myself. And it takes months or years for anything external to come to be. What a good use of a day was totally rocked my brain because suddenly I I could be spending months on something that wasn't promising. And I could never do that with a corporate job because no one's gonna let me spend months on something that doesn't have any business value. And so suddenly just having to have more confidence in myself, in the space that it took to decide if it was worthwhile, in the ability to revise, that really took space.

SPEAKER_01: 23:01

I think if you uh if you extrapolate, it's like a coaching session. Here we go. If you take what you do, I see such an opportunity because you have a passion for writing and an uh you're doing passion right now is writing, right? So like writing thinking and applying it. If you apply it just in the moments of a daily journal of with child, parents, hey, the parents about to go from the shift of corporate to here and because you're gonna go write it five years ago, you'll forgotten too much. Interesting. And you write it now of like, hey, this is what it's like to have a kid, but this is how you can maximize it without feeling like you've completely lost yourself, like idea of how to get your time right to to balance it. Or if you've you're now a stay-home mom and you you figure out the audience who wants to do it. Like I went from a corporate job to this, that's a pretty good audience that has money that you would be writing to. And from a from a business standpoint, um, you know, then how do you make the return back? And like like you could write short books on this of like little 10,000, 12,000 word books on here's here's what I did, and this is this is how you can get your time, and you become a time expert. Um, and get in the nerdiness of it. It's time even exists. Start talking about that stuff. Like it because how can I be here, my team's in the Philippines, and yet it's 12 p.m. and it's 12 a.m. We're not the same time, but we are.

SPEAKER_00: 24:17

Anyway, I love that. Yeah, it's so funny. I've been thinking of this as like a single big debut book and then spin-offs, but you're right, there's nothing stopping it from being smaller series.

SPEAKER_01: 24:26

Oh, I so every year I I live this cut the tie principle. What first year was like, hey, stop drinking, I started working out, got men's hormones right, and then this year is ADHD for adults. Had them a whole lot. Medicational therapy, you know, what I have gone to learn from kind of that whole thing is um I had a book. I was literally literally about to click publisher's copy from KDP. Uh, and I was but I was like, all right, my wife gave me some feedback and I started editing it again. And I was like halfway through, I was like, God, this is too effing long. No one's gonna, I don't want to read this shit. Who and then and then I was like, 75,000 words and there's no action. And I'm like, what is this? A complain session or rant? Like, this is like a memoir that people talk about after someone's like, you know, climbed up in a tower and shot a bunch of. No, I'm like, we're not doing this. That's okay, that's too much. But I was like, I'm gonna get this down at 12.5. I did I you started focusing down AI. Like, I'm like, hey, look at all these episodes. What's really, what are people really cutting ties around? Um you had to classify yours, right? Yours comes down to kind of this relationships, leaving the relationship of a job to focus on the relationship with the with yourself and baby.

unknown: 25:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 25:37

And I say even the relationship of self-validation changes. Very external when it's a company willing to pay you for what you're doing. You know there's some value in it. The relationship of my own confidence and what was worth working on had to change because I had to be confident. It's funny, I was talking to a friend of mine about how did I know this was good, and she just didn't get it. I could tell, like, my brain and her brain didn't work. She's like, well, there's just value in producing something that you know is good. And I was like, but how do you know it's good if no one tells you? And she's just had such internal confidence that if she thought it was good, if she thought it was art, it was. And I had such a stakeholder external feedback, hey boss, what do you want from me mentality. That I was like, well, I don't know if it's good, if I'm the only one who likes it. And so just even that mentality of this external validation had permeated into just my ability to trust my own decisions. I didn't realize was a tie for sure.

SPEAKER_01: 26:34

I'm not you're not a therapist by any stretch of imagination. The the need for validation is, you know, it's it's love language, but it's also ties sometimes back to childhood, other things. But uh, that comes in this relationship idea that I don't need anyone else but myself to validate this. You're a data person. You can say, how many women are like me that are smart, successful, could have made the millions of years, and be like, there's a lot of those, and I don't need that many to make money. What can I give them that I have?

SPEAKER_00: 27:03

You know what's shocking about what you just said? That I never made this connection until right now. Being a data person, being a marketer, I actually think has has impacted how I judge this creative process. So as a marketer, there have been so many times where I said, this is a better version, this is better copy, this is better creative, this is better objectively, it's better in my mind. Ship it. And it performed worse than something I thought was worse. So I think for the last 12 years, I've had examples of my opinion being disproven by data by the measures that matter. And now this is a whole different workflow that I'd never really connected. That doing that process of shipping, getting really quick data and feedback and iterating and letting that guide. This writing feels creative in a similar way, but it's it's a completely different motion.

SPEAKER_01: 27:49

Yeah. Well, and if you learn like I'm speaking out of turn because I haven't published my book, but that is what December is all about. So I'm also pausing the podcast just to finish it and do it. But I will tell you that I I did send it to like 40 people and they read it and they gave me the feedback that I discovered myself, they did it nicely. It's pretty long. I got through eight chapters, which is like 12. And like they said it nicely, and they're like, but I really like the storytelling. So I did really good storytelling. And they're like, and it really was impactful, but they didn't share like it, but so what now? And they gave me the feedback, but kindly. And and I think where you, you know, you struggle, like I struggle with similar things. Every time I think it's a good thing to do for social media, that the the it's terribly, it's like the worst. Every time one of my Gen Zero goes, No, do it this way, I could you just do it. It does freaking amazing. I'm like, it looks so shitty. The Gen X, or I hate that, but okay, whatever. Um, anyway, the point being is if you write enough and you know there's value, throw throw the turd on the table and let's see if it gets cleaned up.

SPEAKER_00: 28:50

No, I think you're saying you're like know your principles of how you want to get things done, which I would agree with.

SPEAKER_01: 28:56

If you focus your personal brand, I think around time. And I think around how do you use it to get the most out of your life. Even writing that sentence in the book, right? And you say I'm gonna apply it to my life and share it with you the whole way, like kids as a woman, this and you have a market that's successful, women that's your age now, that's the next age, whatever, you always have an audience, they'll follow you, they'll listen to your podcast, they'll probably pay you to come speak, and you have everything you need to make, be outside of your doors, and just you're almost a comedian, just taking everyday life and putting it into thought. Hmm as a creator, orchestre process with it. And like every six months I'm gonna write one about what's going on.

SPEAKER_00: 29:33

And yeah, kind of look at that. Did you say as a comedian? Sorry, I think I had a delay on my end.

SPEAKER_01: 29:38

Yeah, as the comedian, like you're like you know, the Nate Bargazi just kind of like I was getting Starbucks, and now it's like you know, he's made a few million from the jokes, right? Like the point is just take everyday life and how does that apply with time, or you're watching people order something, and you're like, that's not really the same that works. Yeah, go ahead. Good.

SPEAKER_00: 29:54

I'll give you a Okay, I probably do improv comedy, and I couldn't remember if I told you that or not, if that was what you were. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 30:00

It's on my bucket list of uh the two one open mic night. Yes, I I've written the I've written it now. I I don't know why I I just won't go do it. I don't I know we'll take that offline.

SPEAKER_00: 30:11

Resistance, yeah, creative resistance. Have you read The Artist Way by Julia Cameron?

SPEAKER_01: 30:16

No, you're gonna have to send me that one then too.

SPEAKER_00: 30:18

Yep, yep, yep. It's good. Uh the first thing that come to mind is morning pages. So every morning writing three pages by hand free form if you can to really talk about the resistance and what's holding you back from it. But I think again, in 15 minutes a day, if you were to spend 15 minutes a day just memorizing it or tweaking it, you would be done the bit.

SPEAKER_01: 30:37

I've done the, I mean, I I go through what, you know, I do know the brand sexy voice guy. But the funny thing is I leave that, but then I get into this different thing with the if if who picks what kind of LLM is the kind of this short, because only you're like two minutes. It's like perplexity. It's you know, it's it's oh fun.

SPEAKER_00: 30:53

I want to see this. Okay, this is awesome. See, I want to see this. This needs to exist in the world. It sounds awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 30:59

I mean, it's like you know, rock. That's like a dirty gay nightclub, and I love that one. Oh my god, it's so good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 31:04

I mean, so the reason I improv was literally for work. My entire life has revolved around work. I just noticed I was overthinking things. And then my husband and I went to an improv show just for fun. And I thought, you know, who doesn't overthink things is improv actors because they literally it's not so improvy, as you know.

SPEAKER_01: 31:22

Improvs are there's they've set it up.

SPEAKER_00: 31:25

Well, there's different principles. Well, I'm gonna do improv, but but improv itself, there's principles, but but yeah, improv itself is not exactly the same as open mic. You wouldn't script it. We would go in and get a suggestion from the audience and just riff on it, and you create the scene and the world there. There are different approaches, but but really, no, uh it's completely free forum. We don't necessarily even remember what happened afterwards.

SPEAKER_01: 31:46

But I would like to do blackout. Yeah, I could do blackout improv.

SPEAKER_00: 31:50

Yeah, I didn't remember the first, I mean, I threw up before the first five shows. I didn't remember the first four. That's the point though. Like it's so low stakes, and that's really, I think, something that helped me is it's really low stakes. Getting myself even just out of the car was just asking what's the worst that could happen.

SPEAKER_01: 32:04

I think I'm I think you you turn around. So I think from a new podcast idea, blackout improv would be a good one where you're like, hey, we're gonna go rip on a subject and not remember anything. Or fire it and forget it. Unedited. Here we go. I think it'd be fun. Um open mic, love it. Let me give you an example in real world, though I think also people that I think this is like a business example, I'd say, from time, right? Okay, and from a marketer. Every concert I've ever been to, I never get merch because there's a line forever, and I won't I don't do lines, and nor will I get to a show super early to get a t-shirt that costs too much. And by the time I've ever gotten there, I've I've been disappointed they never have my size. So I just I just don't do it. I said, however, if you had a QR code and I can only scan it here and I can be G lo geolocated to use it, and I could then order a shirt that that's on that wall that will be delivered in a few days, and I'll probably add a sticker and some other shit. But I can only get it right now in this time window because this is when the concert is, they would have sold thousands of dollars of stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 33:06

Yeah, it's a few shipping, right? To not say it in line.

SPEAKER_01: 33:09

They would have probably on-demand print shred ship, they would have no inventory, and you could say, hey, you buy it here, you scan it, it shows up your house in a few days. I mean, it would be the biggest time savings and moneymaker. It's an example though. My point is there's stuff I see that stuff all the time, and I'm like, why? So anyway. We're way over time. I love this flow of the show, by the way, because you're a real entrepreneur that's really just starting it and you're figuring it out. And I hope I think you got some wheels turning now where you're gonna go make some money with it.

SPEAKER_00: 33:42

Yeah. I hope so.

SPEAKER_01: 33:44

I know you've already I know you already had some. I hope I've helped you in anyway. All right. I always ask this question no matter what the show is. If there's a question I should have asked you today, though.

SPEAKER_00: 33:52

Yeah. Uh what are the principles you live by or what are the principles you make your decisions through? I think it's super important. And I wish I had defined them earlier. Uh, I found that every time I run a decision that feels sticky or hard through my principles, it's immediately obvious. And I've never regretted a decision I made through the principles, even if the results weren't what I wanted. Um and I assume you want me to answer that. Yeah. 100%. Oh, cool, cool, cool. Yeah. Uh so the first one is make decisions from a place of empowerment, not fear. Playing small, trying not to trying to minimize a downside was a really big goal for much of my life. And trying to maximize the upside is now a focus I have, even if it's just skewing what I think about to the upside. So uh that's one, make decisions from a place of empowerment, not fear. Uh, take up space. So keeping myself small, trying to just like please everybody else was a big driving force in my life. Um, my mom talks about how I was such an obedient, compliant child. I was so sweet, I did anything she asked without even asking why. And that was great for my parents, but it didn't necessarily serve me in figuring out who I was and my goals. So taking up space is another. Uh, don't sit on the bench. This is one my husband talks about from when he was in high school and was sitting on the bench in basketball. He just quit with no other ideas. Pardon?

SPEAKER_01: 35:17

What's the point?

SPEAKER_00: 35:18

Exactly. Yeah, but it's kind of scary because saying that he was on the basketball team felt good. It was a good identity. He got to wear his jersey to school. He could put it on his college application. So just quitting the basketball team with no idea how we'd spend that time was scary. And he had no idea how to spend that time. But then he started making movies, which is what got him into coding, which is what he does now. And if he hadn't, we wouldn't have met. And so just he had no idea why he was getting off the bench. Like he just quit, but he filled it eventually with something good. And so now it's don't sit on the bench. If you're in a job that isn't using your skills well, if you're sitting on the bench in a friendship, just get out of it. You don't have to know what else you're doing with that time. But it's scary because sometimes sitting on the bench in a safe, cushy job has its appeal. And so if you're actually going to get yourself off the bench with no idea what you're jumping to, it can be scary. But again, I haven't regretted it. And uh the last one is make decisions from a place of internal fulfillment, not external validation. So I used to think a lot, how does this look on a resume, et cetera? But now I just ask, how does it feel to me to be in this job, to be in this role? And those are the four.

SPEAKER_01: 36:22

That I mean, that's a I mean, I think there's some hard decisions that can filter through there, sure as life hits you. Uh, but that I think that's great.

SPEAKER_00: 36:30

And I think that's the pieces, right?

SPEAKER_01: 36:32

Like that's a that's a that's a 10,000 word book right there.

SPEAKER_00: 36:35

Yeah, there you go. Well, thanks.

SPEAKER_01: 36:37

And you gave a few AI prompts on how to figure out what your four principles should be, provide that as kind of the download. I think you got it. Um that could actually be a free download for you just to give to people. We'll think that all this is what I do. You didn't ask for it, but you got it anyway.

SPEAKER_00: 36:51

Well, thank you. It's been great.

SPEAKER_01: 36:53

All right. I you know, I I usually start with a stalker session early and I missed it because I'm I'm out of my own rhythm a little bit here. Uh how should someone's properly stalking and who would you like to stalk you?

SPEAKER_00: 37:02

Yeah, let's just connect on LinkedIn, Rebecca Shaddocks.

SPEAKER_01: 37:05

It's S H A D D I S. Thank you, Rebecca. You rock. Thank you so much for coming today.

SPEAKER_00: 37:11

Thank you. It's been great.

SPEAKER_01: 37:13

And listen, everyone who's still here, thank you for being here. You get a minute, go check out uh Rebecca's LinkedIn and then uh one day we're gonna get her to get a better call to action, but we'll talk to her offline about that. But uh get out there, go cut a tie. Let nothing stop you from achieving your success. Thanks for listening.