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Momentum call

Jessica Mehring55min

Unknown Speaker

00:00

Prove that. Okay,

Speaker 1

00:06

all right, I'm just gonna hit record and get started here.

Speaker 1

00:16

Hey everyone. This is momentum system group coaching for January 7, welcome everybody. Got a bit of a cold, as you can probably tell, getting over it, but it's hanging on with its fingernails. So brie, I'm inspired by your tea, and I will have my tea.

Jessica Mehring

00:40

I'm all about the coffee this morning.

Speaker 1

00:44

Not a coffee drinker in the morning. Do not like it,

Unknown Speaker

00:52

yeah,

Unknown Speaker

00:54

one or the other. I think.

Unknown Speaker

00:57

Okay, so

Speaker 1

00:59

welcome back, everybody. Great to see you all. How were the holidays? How did it go? This is an open session. We don't have a specific agenda. So what I'm going to do is, you know, our usual, something good and something that's been a challenge as a way of sort of organizing things, unless you have something specific and checking in on, you know, where we were at right before everybody signed off for the break. So checking in on on your goals and your thoughts about what you want to be doing in the first month of the new year. So we start with Jennifer today.

Jennifer Catalano

01:50

Hi everyone. I'm just finishing up some breakfast here, um, I am going at the the slow pace that I knew I would need to go when I signed up for this. I'm okay with that, but I'm really enjoying it, and I'm feeling good about things. I've been using the tracker, and I've been iterating the tracker, so I continue to change it, and that's kind of fun to see how it evolves. It's been a nice way of both just having something to check in on, to remind myself and anchor myself to this intention. Days where I'm like, it's the end of the day. I could just, you know, zone out, or something like that, but I'm like, oh, but if I, if I do something, then I get to check it off in the tracker, and so it'll kind of prompt me that happened last night. So that's been really lovely. There's something else I was going to say, oh. The other thing that I found really interesting is that it's helping me kind of see the things I didn't realize I was doing, like I'm in this place where I'm not working on big writing projects very intentionally, but I do different writing in like, different ways. And so I've started putting that in the tracker, and I'm like, oh, like, I am doing this stuff, or like, I'll just spend 20 minutes doing a little drawing, and then that'll go in, I'll be like, Oh no, it's not. It's not, I don't know. It just gives me a sense, a connection to what I'm actually doing, and that's

Unknown Speaker

03:24

what's that makes it visible Exactly,

Jennifer Catalano

03:26

yeah, and I can kind of see what I've been working on or where my thoughts have been. So all of that's been really and another side effect is that I'm starting to want to do this to all the areas of my life. Like, I'm actually really excited to start to apply some of this to my work world and my business world, and I haven't fully started to think that through, but I feel like there's a lot that I can bring like, just for example. One example is thinking about developing criteria for the kinds of clients that I work with. That seems like such a simple thing, but I've never done it right. And even, like having, I actually haven't even really worked with the matrix yet, but knowing it's there, so it's one of the next places I'm going is just kind of, now that I've got the tracker down I'm using that is kind of starting to explore some of the other tools. And, yeah, just see where they where they fit in.

Speaker 1

04:21

Yeah, that sounds great. I think the one of the things I've found is I started working more fully with the decision matrix, prioritization matrix, over the last 18 months, or something, with with clients, is that it's in the course, in a certain place, it's like, you do this, you do this, you do this, right? But in some cases, people kind of know what they're working on already. They don't really need it for the creative project. You kind of know which some people don't. They really need to sort out which creative project to focus on. But there's a sense of, like, I have to use this because it's here in the course, and you kind of don't necessarily, but I guarantee you there's some place in your life where you are scrambling and trying to figure out what's most important, and, you know, getting distracted and, you know, not moving forward on stuff, because the decision hasn't been made, really. And so, and this is one of the things that I've found over many years, actually, working with clients and creative focus workshop, is that very frequently, the thing that needs fixing, the thing that needs attention, is not the creative work, it's the other stuff. And we're focusing on how to streamline the other stuff makes it easy to make creative work because we want to, you know, like the motivation is already there. It's just a matter of, like, clearing out the space and making it feel like it's permission, you know, to a certain extent, like I'm supposed to be working on this. Now, this is not like breaking the rules, or like goofing off or being lazy. It's like, this is the thing that's one issue, but also just like, literally making time and space for it by addressing, you know, chaos and decisions in other areas. So if that's what you're seeing being revealed, what I'm doing is basically confirming like that is probably correct. You're probably right. Like that is the thing to do with it, and like, just keep going with the writing as it is, you know,

Jennifer Catalano

06:25

yeah, definitely all of that makes a lot of sense to me. Um, yeah. It also somehow is making me more patient, too, with the things that I'm not getting to because I know that I'm engaging in a way that feels satisfying. So anyway, yes, yes, all of that, I realized I didn't follow the format of the check in. That's fine. Yeah, I will say there is anything that's particularly challenging right now, except for, you know, just life being life, and all of its challenges. So yeah, that's where I am.

Speaker 1

06:58

I mean, I think you kind of did actually follow the format in that you said writing is going well, and I'm seeing challenges in the business side that I can now address. So actually, Yes, true. I'm very so there's that. Okay, great. Oh, and I should say, hopefully we filtered you guys out of these emails, but we're sending out a bunch of emails about workshop I'm doing on Thursday. So if there's anybody in your life who you're like, I really wish they would do this. I'm doing the creative engine workshop on Thursday. And so if you want to set share it with anybody, now would be the time to do that? Going to be doing an enrollment for the creative focus workshop, you know, in the week following that. So you should be filtered out of those emails. If you're not, we might have you on the list twice, or something else is going on. So let me know if you're getting bombarded with sales emails. That's not intentional. Okay, that was a little side note. Okay, Ri, how are things going with you? You weren't here the last time we got together, right? So you were with your kids. Yeah,

Speaker 2

08:08

that's that, that is, that's makes a lot

Speaker 3

08:13

of sense. Um, I'm okay. Um, my kids. I love them. They're quasi adults in college, but they manned. They interrupt my flow, and they always have, and it's, it's still shocking to me, like it's actually so easy to be around them. I like, like them so much, but, um, on Friday, like I thought they were out of the picture. I thought they were, like, done with me, but, and I was like, there was this kind of creative welling up, coming up. Finally, it was like, it's like, this spiral, like, I'm I'm always waiting for that sensation. And then my younger son showed up. Yeah, it's, um, I mean, it actually, it's so confusing. It's like, Is this my karma? Like, I'm just not going to get to the thing, because every time I'm ready, there's a kid around. It's very confusing. So what's going well is I'm still writing like I write a little every day. Sometimes I write for a longer chunk, although my concentration, I don't ever write for like, two hours. I barely write for more than 40 minutes at a time. And what's not going well is like, I cannot remember how I like, there's this sensation of, like, Oh, I'm starting a business. These are the steps I take. And I like, I lost that I'm like, I'm doing what I don't know how to do that business, that business feels scary, and how am I ever going to get a client? And I don't actually know what people in that business do. So that's, that's a challenge. It might just aid with, like, connection and support, but that's sort of what's,

Speaker 1

09:59

yeah, I heard. I mean, I have some of the same feeling myself with the stuff I'm working on developing for after this launch, because, like, I was in in it, you know, like I was immersed in it before break. And then I took two weeks off completely and didn't look at it at all. And and also, I was doing all the stuff to prepare for this launch. And so that was other time that I took off. And now I'm like, Wait, what was I doing? What's it all about? Do I have anything to say? Is there anything there? Yeah, so I totally get it.

Jessica Mehring

10:34

I can fix it. Fix it, yes. Can you fix Can you fix it for me?

Speaker 1

10:39

Maybe, I don't know I can help, I think anyway, which is, I mean, basically what I'm going to say is, like the you need to just open up all your stuff and reread it, like, just go back to your notes, read through what you were doing, you know, go to your calendar and figure out what was like. The last thing you did because you were doing interviews, you were talking to

Speaker 3

11:03

people. So one thing that's also happened is I was using myself as a like, test client, and doing my own reorganizing. And I've noticed that there are certain places where I'm like, there's just a pile of things there that I cannot yet get out of my house. It's been accounted for, but there's this like barrier, like little crunchy, and again, some of it has to do with relationships with other people. Like other people's things are in my house because I'm in relationship with them, and it's still anyway. So like that too is like part of the thing, like the things, I mean, it's so it's so useful, but it's also so painful,

Speaker 1

11:47

yeah, but I think that's why your service is potentially so valuable, because you're able to understand that and hold space for that, and have sort of non Container Store ideas for how to deal with those kinds of things, yeah, you know. And I think that's where your your unique offer comes into play. You're not going to be sort of transactional and brutal about that stuff. You're going to be much more like, what do we need to do about this? You know? And sometimes things get kept that you kind of were like, why am I even bothering? Right? But then maybe there you have an array of choices, like different ways people can deal with it, and they get to choose, and maybe they can choose something different later. But it's like, you can make documentation and then get rid of it. You can, you know, like, I have a bunch of correspondence with old friends, which I value, but I'm like, you know, I just have the box of stuff and, like, what's this for? Really? And I was inspired by my sister. Actually, a few years ago, my sister sent me back all my letters to her, but she's like, they're really about you. They're not about me, yeah. And so it's like, I'm documenting my life for her, especially, she was living in Africa for a while. She was in the Peace Corps, and I was like, writing long letters about stuff that was going on. You know, I don't have any other documentation of that. This is pre internet, right? Oh, that's awesome. So I started going through my letters, and then I'm making scans of stuff that I want to be able to have in the future for whatever reason, just because I want them. And then I'm returning letters to friends, and in some case, that cases that means, and I haven't quite decided if I'm going to do this or not. Like getting in touch with people. I haven't been in touch with them for a people, I haven't been in touch with it for a long time and asking them if they want these things.

Speaker 3

13:46

I mean, it's, it's funny you're talking about that. I mean, one of the I have gone through my letters, and I actually threw a bunch out, like I didn't want to return them to people. And I know what an ex boyfriend threw out my letters, and it still stings. I'm sorry. I'm taking up a lot of time today anyway. But I did find a letter that I've written to a friend in grad school that I never sent her, and I actually put it on my sub stack,

Jessica Mehring

14:10

because it's, it's it's good writing. It's funny, yeah, no,

Speaker 1

14:13

I think that's fine too, like, and I would definitely go back to my old letters and mine them for stuff that I want to do creatively. Yeah, I, you know, getting the letters back. I'm like, now, what do I do with my letters? I don't know. But like, still, you know, it's different. It's a different relationship. And it's not just this kind of, like, inert box of like, I'm just reading them

Speaker 3

14:33

on substack Jessica, just scan them and post them.

Speaker 1

14:38

Probably not, but it's an option anyway, but the Yeah, so I mean, what I'm saying is that there's different ways of looking at these things. Like they can be active artifacts, they can be parts of a relationship, they can be all kinds of different things. And so this, and again, this is to get back to get back to your original question, which is, like, what am I doing here? And, like, why is this valuable? And what do I know how to do? Like, you know a lot about those kinds of things, you know. And you're, you're putting thought into it, and you can help and support people who are struggling with this, which, because it's a hard thing, it's quite difficult.

Speaker 3

15:21

Yeah, okay, thank you. Thanks for that. Thanks for that, yeah,

Speaker 1

15:25

yeah, not a problem, but yeah, keep, keep, keep us posted about how that's going and if we can help you in more tactical, specific ways as well. Yeah. Okay, Elizabeth, how about you?

Unknown Speaker

15:42

Hi, everyone.

Speaker 3

15:44

Well, it's good to be back. You

Lisbeth Frølunde

15:47

know, in Europe, we really value our vacations, and so this thing of rebooting is considered, I think, a little bit differently than in the US. It's like, it's very important to get unplugged at least three or four times a year for extended periods of time. That's something I really value about Europe. But I've had a cold, and, yeah, holidays and all that, but lots of good things too. So I can start with that. I mean, I sent an application, and I'm working on another one. I'll see if I make make it. And I'm trying to really work with these quota tasks and not feel like it's steering me that I have these deadlines, which, of course, I completely self imposed, because there's nothing really saying that I should apply or not apply. But I think it has to do with realizing that I need to feel my identity as an artist like to dare to be an artist, or the daughter dare to say that I'm an artist. That's really the hurdle the other stuff, basically, I can figure it out. And some of the challenges are ongoing, kind of emotional stuff. But I think in part of my getting back to doing art in December, I ended up neglecting some other things because I get I was, like, so thrilled to have the energy that I kind of there's other things that I'm now avoiding doing so I'm dealing with a little of that kind of procrastination, and also more on a social level, there, particularly one friend who's really felt like I've neglected her, and so we've had this conflict, I guess, where she said to me, Look, you know, you just don't You Don't like return my calls. You don't seem interested. Yeah, so I have to be aware of that balance always that then I don't sleep well. Or, you know, it's like, I have it's I have trouble adjusting. I'm having trouble regulating and scheduling and and because I'm sort of a night owl, it means that then I actually, I sort of like just working in the evening, and it's not that great. The other thing that's I have to be careful about is kind of the barriers I set up for doing things like posting on Instagram. I've talked about it before. It really is a big deal, and part of it that makes it a big deal is that I'm a perfectionist. I don't want to put things up there that look unprofessional, so then I don't post. And there are some technical barriers, like I, you know, should I scan? Should I buy a scanner? Should I have someone else show me exactly how to do it? So I'm starting to research whether to go in the scanning direction or to go in the I'll photograph it. And when I sent this other application off, they wanted a video, or they recommended a video. So I set up this whole thing with, like, kitchen shelves and God knows what all to like, make it face downward, and then I had to figure out how to flip it. I was in and out so many programs trying to figure it out. I mean, worst, and I know I just need some help. I realized, God, I just need somebody who's, like, more competent, who's done this, and it's not a big deal. I mean, I actually have pretty good skills, or I used to, and if somebody just shows me and helps me decide and helps me the first time, then I'm off and running. Can you hire somebody? Yeah, that's what I'm thinking right now. So I'm gonna, I've asked a few friends, two of them are photographers, if they know or if they could help me, if I could buy their expertise, or if they know someone else, or else, I'm gonna post it on this Facebook page, which is,

Speaker 1

19:36

but you're also connected with the school, right? I mean, you can ask colleagues about promising students who might be, yeah, able to take on a few hours of work and just Yeah,

Lisbeth Frølunde

19:46

I think there's even a place you can post, if you want, you know, to hire someone. So I'm at that point, so now I'm researching like, I think

Speaker 1

19:54

that's really smart. I think if the if the Instagram thing is something that's going to continue to be like a big barrier for you, then you should just find somebody who can, you know, you can give them an idea, like, here's the thing I want to do, and they can just put it together for you and get it posted.

Lisbeth Frølunde

20:11

Yeah. I mean, a studio assistant. I mean, seriously, it's like,

Speaker 1

20:16

I mean, if you have the financial flexibility to hire somebody for a few hours a week, but you should do it for sure. Yeah,

Lisbeth Frølunde

20:27

my own, you know, what, like, I generate these not or, you know, these knots. Are there, these learning curves, you could say, are there,

Unknown Speaker

20:37

yeah, yeah,

Speaker 1

20:41

get help where you can the other thing to remember is that while you know, I hear you about wanting to present a professional face on Instagram, one of the things that works best about social media in general is when you are a little less than totally professional, when you show your human edges, and it doesn't mean that things look like a mess or you can't see them, and they're not. They have to, don't need to be like, muddy or something, but it's like, evidence of life is there, right? Works far better in terms of connecting with people and having conversations around the work than having something that's like, you know, absolutely controlled.

Lisbeth Frølunde

21:18

I agree. It's just, I just want the lighting and because it took me, like, all day to make that video, one minute video, thing that I, you know, yeah, so, yeah. So it's that kind of So, I bet I get what you're saying. I totally agree. Yeah, putting the human element into it, and not letting like, you know, not making the bar, like, way up there, you know, so that I yeah,

Speaker 1

21:43

I mean, once. And then the other thing is, like, getting a setup where it's like, okay, well, I have some lights. There's a place in my, you know, studio where can turn on the lights, put a thing there, you know, shoot a photo, shoot a video. But done right? Instead of having to, like, disassemble your kitchen every time, right? And

Lisbeth Frølunde

22:00

now I'm also setting up a new area, and I actually have a new table, and I just have to, like, do the last bit, because I can't carry the I can't do the last part of it because it's too heavy. So, so now I'm just waiting for someone to come in, like, carry, yeah, yeah, but I'm definitely, I'm trying to improve these things so that my my life and my studio life is just more together. So thanks.

Speaker 1

22:24

Yeah. I mean, I think that's great, and I think that's but, I mean, I see that all the time. I see that with me. I see that with Matt, where, like, there's just, there's, like, technical bars that you have to figure out how, like, you get, have to make an SOP, you have to make a way that you do this, yeah, these lights I use is whatever, right? I was trying to shoot, like a 15 second, 32nd scripted video a few days ago, and I wanted to, I have a script, and so I wanted to read it on a teleprompter, but I was like, do I use my phone as a camera? Do I use this camera? Do I, you know, go get something else. Do I use this microphone? Do I use the whatever microphone? Do I use this microphone, you know? And how do I get the the script to run close enough to the camera that I'm, like, looking in the, you know, at the camera, right? And I came up with this, like Rube Goldberg machine set up with this camera on, like a little hook thing with the script behind it. And this is the mic I was using, and the whatever, whatever. And lighting I was like, this light, that light, you know, the windows open, blah, blah, blah, and, I took a photo of it before I took it down, because I was like, I'm never gonna remember what I did. I'm never gonna remember this. So I just took my phone and, like, shot a photo, and I'm like, that's that's how I do it for now, like, when I need to make a scripted video, this is what I'm gonna do. And it's a little crazy. I need to buy new lights, whatever. But I

Lisbeth Frølunde

24:00

actually found a great list on this woman's website with all the supplies. And what she found, which scan is exactly how she uses prompts, how she sets it up on the iPad, and how, you know, I was like, that's what I need. I need an SOP. I need, and then I'll be okay,

Speaker 1

24:17

yeah, and there's a lesson on the basic ideas of writing an SOP in the creative folks workshop, in the deeper dives. It's not super detailed, but it'll give you some hints about how to like go about writing that down if you haven't done it before. Yeah, thanks. Basically,

Speaker 1

24:41

it's like, I think of it like a recipe. Here are the ingredients, and here's the you know, how you go through it? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker

24:47

yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1

24:51

Well, that sounds challenging, but good, good challenges, and I don't the other thing is that with these applications, they are real deadlines, like, when you're applying for something. You don't have to apply for it, obviously, but it's a real deadline. You're not

Lisbeth Frølunde

25:04

making it up. It's a hard deadline. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I heard

Speaker 1

25:08

you saying, like, it's not, you know, it's an invented deadline. It's personal,

Lisbeth Frølunde

25:12

no, it's because, like, the one that I'm applying for is a book artist residency. Artist book residency at the Women's studio workshop in New York, and it, you know, comes every, I think, every half year this particular one. So it's like, if I don't hit this one, well then maybe I'm more prepared for the next one,

Speaker 1

25:29

or, you know, whatever, yeah. I mean, like, life goes on, but Right, if you

Lisbeth Frølunde

25:33

do get in, it takes a whole year, you know. So it's like, yeah,

Speaker 1

25:39

oh, yeah, sorry, SOP, yes, SOPs, that's action. Recipes. Is my translation for the creative mind, the non business oriented mind, okay. Jess, how are things going with you?

Jessica Mehring

26:00

Oh, I don't know. My kids are still home. They don't start school until tomorrow, so I feel like reality hasn't hit yet, and I've just been in this dream world for the last three weeks while they've been home. But yeah, it's I've been still in business development mode pretty much during the day. But wanted to respond to some of the things that Ri was talking about, because my aunt there in Menlo Park sent me another package of trash, and I just want to reiterate how important it is what you're doing, please save my generation from packages of trash. You want me to meet your aunt? I really do. I really want you to meet my aunt. I want you to eat to meet several of my aunts. But yeah, the challenge is real. Yeah, she sent me a package of they were from my, my mother's childhood with her, you know, six sisters, and a couple of them were little doll shoes. It was a pair of ice skates. And one roller skate, not a pair of roller skates, one roller skate for dolls, and they were these metal like the ice skate, and the roller skate part was this solid metal, but then the shoe part, the itself, was crumbling into dust. And I'm like, why are you mailing this stuff me? I just think about the environmental impact of the of this one package of trash that she sent me and kills me. It kills me.

Speaker 1

27:44

It is actually a huge thing though, isn't it? That like that? This is, I think the boomer generation is kind of the first generation to have that much stuff to hand on. You know, like, they didn't get that much stuff from their parents. They got some. But then they just, like, the stacking up of stuff started happening. Like, I have a few things from in my family. I have things from earlier, some things from earlier, um, and even those, I'm like, how do we maintain this? I mean, do we how, you know, whatever. Yep, it's, it's a lot, yeah,

Jessica Mehring

28:23

yeah, it is. It's an emotional challenge. I'm facing this with my parents, my mom more so than my dad, but yeah, they're talking about end of life. And you know what me and my my one living brother are going to want? And I'm like, I don't want anything I have. I know, like, we don't have any, we don't have any room for your stuff. Yeah. And then my mom gets all heard that I don't want anything from her, and I'm like, Okay, fine. I'll, I'll take the, there's these chairs that they refinished from my dad's parents cabin that I really, like, I'll take the chairs. I claim the chairs. Okay, that made her happy. So anyway, like, I know the challenge is real, and ri, what you are doing is God's work. I'm serious. And then you guys were talking about letters and keeping letters, and I was literally thinking about this last night, how I wonder what future historians are going to think about this time in history, because we don't have the artifacts we don't have, and I'm thinking in terms of the written word, because that's my World. We don't have written artifacts beyond books, and thank God for books, but I think about all of the all of the communication that goes on, and it's all digital, and we're not going to have the artifacts from this point in time, and that may be a little bit sad, and I'm so I'm glad you guys are keeping some letters. Those artifacts are important. Future historians are going to look back and see those letters and see real human beings living their lives. So it's really cool that you guys are doing that. It

Speaker 1

30:13

would be interesting to see whether digital traces, like in 50 or 100 years exist, which they probably will, you know, and then will they be even more historically useful? Because you can use AI to, like, analyze all of those things and find that, you know what? I mean, like, yeah, yeah, it's a different mode. But yeah, something else. Yeah,

Jessica Mehring

30:40

I mean, back in the day when blogging was a thing, like the late aughts, the early 10s, I had a blog, and it was mainly for friends and family, but once a year, I would like print up this blog. I would use a service online to print up a hardback book of my blog for the year, and I have those blogs, like the printed blogs and these beautiful hardback books here on my bookshelf, and I stopped doing that when I had kids, and I don't, I don't think many people did that. So yeah, we're not what we're losing with all this digital communication, but I'm glad we're keeping some remnants of it. Mm, hmm. Anyway, those are my comments on what you guys were talking about. As for my challenges. I mean, just continuing on with the challenge of getting my business back on track, you know, the business that pays the bills. I had to furlough my team just I don't have any work for them, so luckily, they handled it beautifully, and I don't have to worry about them. They've got they were able to get other projects, and as soon as I have work, I'm pulling them right back in, and they are ready to jump back in. But that was really painful to have to furlough my team this month, and I am just all in on business development, outreach, networking, all the things to try to get some work in the door. My book writing kind of got put on hold while my kids have been home, and our schedule has been wonky with the holidays, and I'm okay with that. I'm okay with the book writing being on hold, and I'm hopeful that this week will be the week that I get back on track with the Wednesday and Thursday night book writing practice. You know that I was working on that topic ideation system before the holidays. It's done. It's live. I've got the landing page up. The opt in form is functional, and I never announced it. It just it never felt it never felt right.

Speaker 1

32:55

But I think now might be right actually, because the beginning of the year is when people are like, all right, I'm gonna get in there, and I'm gonna do the thing. And I think sometime in the next couple of weeks, could be a really good time to, you know, go public with this resource.

Jessica Mehring

33:13

I just don't think it's in the right format. I think the idea is solid. The fundamentals of it are solid, but the delivery format, the form, I just I don't think it, I think it feels too complex, and this should be a simple creative exercise. So I feel like that's kind of my thing right now, is to rethink

Unknown Speaker

33:40

maybe had anybody test it, though, that's the thing. I keep

Jessica Mehring

33:43

asking people to test it, and then they go to the landing page and like, I show them the landing page, and then I give them direct access to the tool so they don't even have to sign up. And I get feedback on the landing page, and then I get kind of, oh, this is nice response to the tool, but nobody's using it.

Speaker 1

34:02

Okay? Well, then the question is, what do people first of all, the people you're asking to use it, do they have a need of it? You know, if they're people who have their own ways of going about this, that might not be helpful. Because if you're asking, like, Lacy or whatever, to do it. Like, yeah, I'm asking writers, yeah, you know, she's got her way of doing it. She's like, Oh, this is cool. You did great. You did a thing that I already do in a different way, in a cool way. You know, the the question

Jessica Mehring

34:38

with this form, and gentlemen, I ideation

Speaker 1

34:44

project is like, who has this problem? Who is it? Who has the problem of not knowing how to interestingly express their ideas.

Jessica Mehring

35:03

I kind of designed it for the busy leader, people who have great ideas, but maybe are feeling like they want to do something more creative than putting that same idea out into the world in the same old format.

Speaker 1

35:18

Right? So busy leaders, but who want to be writers who want to like, which is your target market, right? Yes, exactly, right. But like, can you think of specific human beings who are that person?

Jessica Mehring

35:30

Yeah, and they're not responding to me. This is, I mean, this is the crossover problem that I'm having between the business development for Horizon peak and then building up the audience for my personal brand is I'm targeting people who are frankly unresponsive. I mean, this is why I'm having to rebuild my network right now. Is because my existing network these people, if they are still employed, if their businesses are still functional, which, that's a big if right now, because the tech industry especially, but a lot of industries have really suffered in the last two years. They're doing five people's jobs, and they're just simply not responding to me. So that's yeah.

Speaker 1

36:16

Well, that's the question with doing writing like this is, like, do they even have like a spare neuron for it, like, are they kind of, like a wishful thing? Like, I wish I could do that, but they don't really have, like, a content plan for 2025, and they're like, Well, how do I do it? How do I pull this off? And that's what you want. Is somebody who's like, that's it. I'm going to be out there. I'm going to develop my personal brand as a leader and a thinker, and I, I need to be getting stuff out on a weekly basis, but I need to figure out how to, like make that more efficient and make that more productive. You know, those are the people we need to be talking to, people who are, sort of, generally speaking, would like to be doing a better job sharing their ideas. There just isn't enough motivation like they, you know, using that tool, you have to formulate your thought of what you want to share. And then you have to make some decisions about, you know, what are things you want to try with that. And then you have to, like, actually write the thing that takes, you know, a big chunk of attention, and somebody who doesn't have that as a firm intention before showing up is not going to form that firm intention from that experience, yeah,

Jessica Mehring

37:35

yeah, that actually gets me thinking. So I told you that my biggest client, and I'll just say their name, even though I'm under NDA, I know this is a safe space, but my client from Dropbox, Dropbox laid off 20% of their employees the week before the election, so I lost my stakeholders, and that was a big hit for my company. And one of my stakeholders there went on, he's actually starting his new job@writer.it was writer.ai now it's writer.com he's starting this week, but he reached out to me over the last couple of weeks saying that he would like to talk to me about personal branding. He said he really likes what I've done with my personal brand, and kind of wanted to talk about how he might build his personal brand, and that might be a better target right now is somebody who has employment, or, you know, their company is doing well, and they have those Brain Cells of thinking, you know, for thinking of their their personal branding, yeah, and

Speaker 1

38:46

wanting to be like an entrepreneur, you know, stay within the company and like, do better, you know, do more. Like, establish their profile within a corporate structure. But I think that's probably like, if you think about why people want to be doing the kind of writing that you've been kind of promoting in this with this idea, that's the kind of people I think of as people who are they're not. There's certainly people who are like, I want to create a whole new, you know, like area of focus in my life and whatever. But I think a lot of people, they're just trying to stand out from the crowd within their industry and figure out how to do that effectively. And so they're going to want to be writing tweets and tweet threads, and they're going to want to be writing LinkedIn posts and maybe blog posts or something, or they just want to be able to, like, give a keynote for their company. You know, all of these things are things where they they need to define their voice, their message, their point of view, personal brand, and if you were to pivot your messaging around what you're doing. It's the same thing. I mean, the thing that I might say is that the tool that you've developed is great, but it might be more advanced than what people want. They want something simpler, easier, just like a really quick like, here's a one step thing you can do to that will put you on the path to defining your personal brand, yeah,

Jessica Mehring

40:27

maybe I should just turn it into a simple workbook,

Speaker 1

40:31

yeah, but a workbook is not simple. Workbook is long. I'm talking about something really short, like one page, okay? I mean, these are busy people, right? You keep telling me how busy something where they can open it up and they go, like, answer a couple things and like, here's your thing. Go do it.

Jessica Mehring

40:53

Okay, I'm writing this down. I love to over complicate things,

Speaker 1

40:57

yeah, well, and that's, and that's, yeah, we all do, believe me, I understand, but it's like, this is last time. It has to be simple. It has to be like, especially if it's something repeat. You want people to just kind of like, take it, use it, appreciate it, get something out of it immediately. So they're like, Oh, I totally see the value of this. It has to be super short and doable, yeah.

Jessica Mehring

41:19

Okay, thank you. That's exactly what I needed. And then there are things going well. Yeah, I developed a system for this business development that I've been doing because I have just been non stop business development for weeks now, feeling like there's no end point, feeling at the end of the day like I didn't do anything, even though I was in front of my computer all day. So I built a system in notion with nice little check boxes, and when the check boxes are checked, I am done for the day. So that's that exactly, and all my resources are there on the page, because notion is awesome and one stop shop business development, check, check, done. So that's feeling good. And I've been writing on sub stack for months now, and I built up this nice little library, and people are starting to really respond to what I'm doing there. So I'm feeling very inspired to to continue my work on sub stack and and maybe that related to the coaching. Yeah, just yeah, my personal brand. And, I mean, there's a teensy bit of crossover, audience wise and focus wise, as with all things, but, sure, but

Speaker 1

42:29

I'm thinking like that too. That could be something where you have this opportunity then to start talking about this idea of personal branding, and like, why that's important, and what, how you can do it in super simple ways, without taking a whole bunch of time out of your schedule, you can just, you know, get clear on your position within your organization and what role you play and where you're a specialist and how you want people to see you, and, you know, all those kinds of things that are so important in terms of progressing in a hierarchy, yeah,

Jessica Mehring

43:02

yeah. That's good. That's good. And I think that there are ways that I can strategically build up an audience there on substack in a way that I have really not been able to do on LinkedIn, because LinkedIn is algorithmic, not that sub stack doesn't have an algorithm, but I think I can. I think I can build something there, and people seem to really like what I'm doing there. So that feels good to be putting my thoughts on sub stack. Yeah, yeah, great. So that's, that's me,

Unknown Speaker

43:40

yeah. Okay, cool.

Speaker 1

43:44

Well, I think we have another 15 minutes if anybody wants to circle around again. Otherwise, I feel like it would be useful maybe to set a top three for the week together. So think about what are the top three areas of focus, or sort of larger multi step tasks that you want to make sure stay top of mind for the week. So let's just take a minute and think, and Then we'll go around in The same order again. So

Unknown Speaker

45:16

okay.

Unknown Speaker

45:20

Jennifer, what do you think?

Jennifer Catalano

45:23

Um? I was struggling with this because I have so many different areas of my life, and they all have their own top three sort of um, and there are more than three areas. It's not like you just pick one from each um. And then I think with my creative area, what I've been working with so far in here, I'm kind of intentionally not doing that. I'm kind of just like letting it pwd along. So, um, I think it's, it's more just kind of like a keep going for me, like a steady just keep showing up, um, rather than a wanting to accomplish something specific.

Speaker 1

46:01

I think that's fine. I mean, I think that if you I don't know if you guys follow what the postings that happen with the accountability thread and in the ACC, but like, Tamara is a good example of somebody who she'll have a top one or a top two, and it's like, take a nap every day. So yes, you know, she's really working on anxiety and making sure that she's, you know, taking care of herself and reducing her stress and so on, and that's showing up really well, and then her acting practice and career. So I definitely do not think of top threes as something where you have to set a lofty goal and shoot for it. I mean, it could be my top one is to check this box on my tracker every day.

Jennifer Catalano

46:53

Yeah, that makes sense. I think, I think, if I think about it that way, then it's like to do some of the things I committed to doing daily, which include getting to some of these organization projects, keeping going with the tracker and that practice and just like getting a little bit back into a healthy schedule after the holidays, like sleeping earlier, that sort of thing, so All kinds of self care things. Okay,

Unknown Speaker

47:21

sounds good.

Unknown Speaker

47:24

Ri, how about you

Speaker 3

47:27

doodling over here? My top three have to do with like it's it's allowing my business to take up mental and emotional space, but not that much time. Maybe I'm gonna work on my offering. I'm going to reach out to Jessica Mehring about that, because she offers so and I have a thought about maybe how we could support each other. I'm going to like, it's like, I'm going to plan, but maybe it's even just forming an intention around writing a warm letter. I'm just going to allow that to float. I haven't even allowed myself to, like, think of someone think of myself as doing that. So I'm just going to allow that to emerge. Maybe, maybe write like, some kind of draft. Maybe not. And then the other thing is, like, my time tracking. I had been really rigorously tracking my time up until somewhere in November, December, and I just stopped. And so at least I need a weekly schedule, so I'm going to work on that again and maybe start, maybe I'd like to start time tracking. I think the way I've been doing it doesn't work for me anymore. I think that's part of the problem. So I don't quite know. So allow myself to consider what, what my new time tracking method might be. Yeah,

Speaker 1

48:38

I think time tracking can be great and but if some point it just becomes mechanical and you're just tracking for tracking sake, then yeah, it can become, it's just compulsive, you know, like I stopped tracking. I was tracking all the time, most of my time, for like, couple years, using toggle, just work time, not, you know, every minute of the day, but, like, tracking a lot. And at some point, and early on, it had some logic to it, like we're going to figure out how much time I'm spending on this versus that. And, you know, is this project worth it because of how many hours I'm spending on it, or whatever that is, but at some point I wasn't really using it for that anymore.

Speaker 2

49:28

Yeah, so maybe that's yeah. And

Speaker 1

49:32

so I quit. I just stopped, and I was like, is this affecting my business at all, to not track right now, if I stopped, if I started feeling like, oh my gosh, I don't know what I'm doing with my days. Where's it all going? Sure, but like, there's no one of the things I sort of thought about in the last couple of years is that there's a lot of metrics and tracking that we do, that we're sort of told is like, the right thing to do in business. But if you don't use that information to take actions, yeah, it is not useful.

Speaker 3

50:09

Yeah, no, that's super helpful. And in fact, I stopped tracking time when I started doing things I wanted to be doing with my day. Yeah? So maybe I don't You're right,

Speaker 1

50:19

yeah. I mean, maybe need to do it for a week or two right now, because you're like, I need to make sure I'm spending x amount of time on my business and like, focusing on that, you know, I need to do whatever. So track your time and pay attention, but then let yourself stop again. Yeah? Once you feel like, okay, I've hit a rhythm that makes sense.

Unknown Speaker

50:36

Yeah?

Unknown Speaker

50:39

Great. Thank you. I mean, there are other reasons

Speaker 1

50:41

to track time. If you're like, you know, like, billing for time, yeah,

Speaker 3

50:47

no, I would do that. Like, I like that stuff. I like that. Okay, cool. That's super helpful. Thank you. Yeah, good, yeah. Like, no, no more, yeah, yeah. I mean,

Speaker 1

50:59

I'm curious, like, I want to know how much time, but I'm like, it's not worth it. It's not, you know, like that felt like a lot of time I spent on that thing. Yeah. Does it really matter? Though? Yeah.

Jessica Mehring

51:12

Cool. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker

51:13

Okay, cool. All right. Lisbeth, how

Lisbeth Frølunde

51:19

about you? Yeah, I think I pretty much know what I need to do for the week. And it's, it's good to I was in the Sunday night meeting, which I can recommend, even though sometimes it, it kind of goes, goes all over the place, but it's just such a nice way to remind oneself to to end the week and start the week, the Sunday night thing, I think is really nice. Yeah, as I said, I'm preparing this application, and it's setting these other things in motion. And what I'm realizing when I track that it's the same thing with social media. And one of the reasons I have it does something to my brain. It's like one thing leads to another, like a branch, and so I end up like scrolling or doing these other things that are relevant to what I actually intended to do. Of course, that's what it's designed to

Unknown Speaker

52:10

do, to distract you. That's what. Yes, exactly.

Lisbeth Frølunde

52:13

So it's sort of being aware of these things that become destructive for me and make me critical of myself, such as wasting my time, even though some of it's interesting what I find, but hours go by, you know, yeah, and then I'm realizing when I'm working in an analog way, the advantage for me is that it puts me into flow in a different way. And so I love working with my hands, and it relaxes me and and and hours also go by, but I feel much more fulfilled by it. So I'm really realizing that there's like a difference between this working online and with a lot of digital screens and things that captivate me, and then working with these physical paper and binding and all these things I'm gluing and that way I'm also recycling old letters, getting back to that, and old sketch books and old image Ri is getting a new importance for me, and yeah, so I think I'm going to continue that, because it's it declutters in so many ways for me, and then improving my health and trying to get my sleep A little bit better by not working so intensely in the evening. I think it puts me right. So

Speaker 1

53:25

the thing I would encourage you with stuff like that is, like, what is the specific thing you're going to try to do this week, which is specifically looking at x time or whatever? Yeah, I'm

Lisbeth Frølunde

53:35

not. I'm I have to really be aware of my screen time, especially in the evening. That's where I take off and do these things, and instead work with my hands, or read a book, you know, a physical thing, it's much more pleasant,

Speaker 1

53:48

right? So set a screen time, time of the day.

Lisbeth Frølunde

53:52

I do that, but I don't follow it. So it's like, Have

Speaker 1

53:55

you set a reminder on your phone? Ah, yeah. Did you turn on screen time on your phone, yes, and so it turns off, and then you override it,

Unknown Speaker

54:04

yeah,

Lisbeth Frølunde

54:09

I'm admitting all my bad habits.

Speaker 1

54:10

Okay, well, you know, I don't know what else to tell you. There's, you know, there's more.

Lisbeth Frølunde

54:14

I think it's like the addict, the addict in me is a no, I know. I mean, it's my drug, you know, they know, they know how to do it, yeah, yeah, so I'm working on it. Yeah.

Speaker 1

54:27

You can get other things that are more severe shutdowns, like freedom. There's a an app called freedom that will, like, shut it down, but yeah, RI says the other fiercer apps that will cut you off for what it's worth, yeah? So if you want to be cut off, you want to have it forced, you can get an enforcer. That is

Lisbeth Frølunde

54:46

possible, yeah? Well, just saying it here, I think is a good we that helps too, for sure.

Unknown Speaker

54:52

Jess, how about you?

Jessica Mehring

54:56

My plan is number one, to translate the topic ideation system into a one pager. Just make a plan for that. If I can get any of it done, awesome, but just make a plan. Two, come up with a few topics for some stack around personal branding. Again, if I can get that writing done, awesome, but just coming up with a few topics, I'm going to call that a win. And then three getting back into my Wednesday and Thursday night writing practice.

Speaker 1

55:28

Wonderful. Sounds great. I love it. Okay. So fantastic to see you all again. Sounds like things are getting back into gear as it were, over time, hopefully next week, will be feeling more our old selves in a good way. And yeah, have a great week and I'll see you next week.

Unknown Speaker

55:53

Thank you. Hi everybody. Thanks.

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