0:04

Hi Russ .

0:06

Dana , how are you today ?

0:07

I'm good . How are you ?

0:09

Okay , wondering about all the things and

0:11

challenges that business throws

0:13

at me and how to kind of

0:15

find and make changes without

0:17

kind of hitting my head against the wall all the time .

0:20

Well , we have a great guest and she's actually a repeat

0:22

guest . So if you've been a long time listener of

0:25

the podcast and are

0:27

familiar with episode 18 , we

0:29

talked with our friend , amanda Boylan

0:31

with she Did it Her Way and

0:34

our friend has pivoted and so

0:36

we are back with Amanda to talk about

0:38

her new pivot , the attention

0:41

audit . So , amanda , welcome back to . It's

0:43

Just Business .

0:44

Oh , wonderful . Well , thank you both for

0:46

having me back on your podcast

0:49

and it's fun to be back

0:51

. And yes , there's been quite a pivot

0:54

from she Did it Her Way and that was , I

0:56

think I pivoted it 2020

0:59

, maybe 2021 ? My God

1:01

, I can't remember . I feel like all the years have

1:03

kind of slid together . It was 2021

1:05

. At the end of 2021 , I closed and stopped

1:08

producing for she Did it Her Way and

1:10

that was a seven year journey that I was producing podcasts

1:13

for , and then we had courses and

1:15

I kind of took 2022

1:18

off , if you will , from the

1:20

external . I still had my clients

1:22

that I was working with , but I wasn't really active on

1:24

the forefront because I wanted an opportunity

1:26

and time for myself to really think about what

1:29

is that next chapter and what

1:31

is that next version and how

1:33

do I want to show up ? And something that I've always

1:35

been extremely passionate about has

1:38

been time management and productivity

1:40

and how can we ? Because I believe that if

1:43

we can manage ourselves

1:46

and create self-discipline to do whatever

1:48

it is that we want to do , we can make the world a better

1:50

place . And something that I've

1:52

just had since I was younger is just this idea

1:55

about efficiency and operations , and

1:57

I think there's some things that I'm pretty proficient

1:59

at , and that's where I came

2:01

with the Tent and Audit , where now I have

2:03

a podcast , have a course coming out

2:05

, and it's really focused around helping

2:07

people manage their time

2:10

through a digital calendar and then also

2:12

practicing saying no

2:14

and setting boundaries so that they can show

2:16

up and honor their priorities

2:18

and not let it be crowded out

2:20

by others' requests . So there's

2:22

a lot of things that we can dive into , but it's something that I'm extremely

2:25

passionate about and feel really good about .

2:27

I'm really curious what you are

2:30

feeling . When you decided to sunset

2:32

, she Did Her Way . You know , I

2:34

think when we are business owners , the

2:36

businesses are baby and it's

2:39

scary to let go of things

2:41

that we had relied on . So

2:43

if you can talk a little bit about what you were feeling

2:46

at that time , yeah

2:48

, definitely , we'll talk about it here and I highly recommend that

2:50

.

2:50

If someone is thinking about going through a pivot

2:52

to check out our last episode , I still

2:55

have the she Did Her Way

2:57

podcast episodes are still

2:59

available and that last episode I actually

3:01

have someone interviewing me about that very

3:03

thing . I had actually known

3:05

, probably for a year and a half

3:08

leading up to the actual sunset , if she did her

3:10

way , that something was off . It

3:12

was internally off and

3:14

I was

3:16

confusing the hardness

3:18

about running it with the

3:21

oh no , this isn't the aligned

3:23

thing , and I kept convincing

3:25

myself that , no

3:27

, I should be an online business owner , it should be

3:29

this . Everybody else can do it . Why

3:32

can't I do it ? And that kept

3:34

me going throughout

3:38

the end of it . But it really was like six

3:40

months before I ended it . So

3:42

if I closed it at the end of 2021

3:45

, mid 2021 , I had

3:47

a conversation with my husband and I was like

3:49

I don't think it's supposed to be this hard , like

3:51

I just don't think it is , and

3:54

I , for once that evening

3:56

, when I had that conversation , I actually was like oh

3:59

yeah , I'm not supposed to be doing

4:01

this and it was very

4:04

lifting

4:06

, like energy lifting it . I

4:09

felt lighter after I made that decision

4:11

and I

4:13

just knew and then . So from that point , like

4:15

the last six months , I was behind the scenes

4:17

doing things to clean it up and

4:19

streamline and I didn't announce

4:21

it until the end of the year

4:23

, but I just knew it was

4:26

the right decision . And I think that we

4:29

evolve as individuals and so do

4:31

our businesses , and

4:34

part of me looks back and thinks like man , I should have probably

4:36

actually done that a lot sooner . But now

4:39

I know , moving forward , that once that

4:42

alignment is off

4:44

, that's the indication be like , nope , that's

4:46

not the right path . Boom , like I

4:48

know where I need to go

4:50

Some curious businesses already hard

4:52

right .

4:54

So how do you and I'm sure

4:56

it's different for every individual how did you

4:58

determine the difference between this just

5:00

being hard and it's not supposed to be this

5:02

hard ?

5:04

Yeah , I think there are a couple of things like

5:06

, looking back , I

5:09

was coming up to the same ceiling as I described

5:11

to my husband . I'm like it's the same ceiling , it's the same

5:13

thought , it's the same challenge and

5:15

I'm like just something's not right and because I

5:17

couldn't pinpoint what wasn't fitting

5:19

about it or what wasn't aligned with it , I

5:22

thought that that meant that I should have kept going . And

5:24

, in reality , because I couldn't pinpoint it , I think

5:26

for me personally , moving forward

5:28

, just because I can't give a why

5:30

behind something

5:32

, not aligning isn't a good enough reason

5:34

to stay in it , and so

5:36

that there's that

5:38

piece . And then now , looking back , like I

5:40

wasn't the sound . It's not that

5:42

I wasn't passionate about the mission

5:44

of she did it her way and helping women

5:47

, you know , leave nine to five

5:49

and be inspired . I think I was

5:51

Not

5:54

the content and like

5:56

for me to get behind . Teaching online

5:58

business as a whole wasn't

6:00

something that I was passionate about , whereas

6:02

, like time management , productivity is something that I live

6:05

and breathe and that

6:07

, for me , feels way more aligned versus like what

6:09

I was actually teaching , and I was also teaching

6:11

people how to launch their own podcast

6:14

, which I loved and

6:16

was good at , and we had a very successful

6:18

podcast ourselves , but it

6:20

just I wasn't passionate about the actual thing that I was

6:22

teaching and I think that was another thing that

6:24

you know and passionate

6:26

about maybe what we're doing , kind of ebbs and flows

6:28

, but I just it's time

6:31

management . Productivity for me , is never something

6:33

that I'm like not passionate about , I'm just very

6:35

like into it , and so

6:37

I would say that was also a big piece of it as well

6:40

.

6:41

So I feel like a lot of people start a business when

6:43

they're already doing something else . You

6:45

know they start putting laying the foundational

6:48

work . You know structures

6:50

, maybe when they're working there nine to five , exactly

6:53

what you were teaching people how to

6:55

do and it sounds like you were preparing

6:57

for your pivot in the same way

6:59

, yes . Well , we're some

7:01

of the things that you were doing at

7:03

that time to really feel

7:06

comfortable with that pivot .

7:08

Yeah , I mean I've always been someone

7:10

that I I can't just

7:12

I mean I could if I wanted to , but it just

7:14

doesn't align with me and I think it's like also

7:16

, I did

7:18

a human design and I'm a manifesting

7:21

manifestor generator or whatever

7:23

they're called , and when I had my consultation

7:25

, she's like you're not designed to do just one thing

7:27

and so I've always in parallel

7:30

, like well , the one thing that got me out of corporate was

7:32

doing some contract work around

7:34

sales to training and leadership

7:37

development , and so I'd always been doing

7:39

that in parallel if she did it her way

7:41

. So when I made the decision

7:43

to pivot from , she did

7:45

it her way . Financially , I

7:47

could make it from a place of

7:49

knowing that I was okay because I had other

7:51

income from other clients and

7:54

I think that made the

7:56

ability to pivot a lot

7:58

easier and to

8:00

be able to be more confident in

8:02

that decision . But I think for the

8:04

six months leading up to the pivot , I simply

8:06

started not posting

8:08

on social media as much and I started looking at

8:10

, like , all the software tools that I was using and I

8:12

started trimming back and there were even moments

8:15

in that six months of

8:17

once I made the decision that I was no

8:19

longer going to operate after at

8:21

the end of the year there were still . It

8:23

was like there were still opportunities that came

8:25

up that I

8:28

could . I was trying to potentially convince

8:30

myself to stay in it , even

8:33

if it was just a little bit . So , for example , we had a

8:35

really great there's a

8:37

ton of amazing content through Sheet it Her

8:40

Way and I thought , well , maybe

8:42

I'll just like put up an ad and then

8:44

sell this one digital product and keep

8:46

it that way . And I kept trying to . My brain was like

8:48

you can still kind of be involved . And then I finally

8:50

was just no , I'm

8:53

out , I'm done and I'm creating

8:55

that constraint and we're

8:57

pivoting . And I didn't know that

9:00

I was going to pivot to attention audit

9:03

. That hadn't

9:05

really been shown to me until probably

9:08

mid 2022 , in

9:10

which at that point , I was six months pregnant

9:12

, seven months pregnant at that

9:14

point . So attention audit

9:17

didn't really birth

9:19

itself , probably until spring

9:22

of 2023 . So I took about

9:24

a year and a half , a little

9:27

over a year , letting things kind of breathe

9:29

.

9:31

So no pun intended when it birthed itself had

9:34

pregnancy .

9:35

It birthed itself along with , and I've heard

9:38

women get really creative during pregnancy

9:40

, so I'm not I wasn't surprised at that . One of my

9:42

other friends also experienced that during

9:44

pregnancy .

9:45

So I'm curious was there kind of a period where you're

9:47

just kind of in the fog looking for direction

9:50

in the you know like lost in the woods , or were

9:52

you actively just trying to seek

9:54

you know direction ? I mean

9:56

, what was that process like for ?

9:58

you . Yeah , I was probably

10:00

trying to seek more direction . During the ramp

10:02

down or like the closing of , she

10:04

did it her way at the end of 2022

10:07

. Then I , or at the end of 2021 , when

10:09

I was closing it down I was trying to like . I noticed

10:11

my brain was trying to think of , like what is

10:13

that next thing ? And at that

10:15

point , because I was still doing

10:17

contract work , I wasn't in

10:20

this rushness from a financial standpoint

10:22

that I had to figure it out . And that

10:24

was actually the first time in my life where I

10:26

was like I am okay , not

10:29

knowing what is

10:31

that next step . And maybe that next step was simply

10:33

staying in and doing contract work , and that was

10:35

my . That was what I was supposed

10:38

to do , and this time

10:40

I just really

10:42

allowed

10:44

myself to sit

10:46

back and wait for

10:49

that moment , rather to just

10:52

go and get it . And that was one other thing with the

10:54

human design . That I was told is that if

10:56

I try to initiate something

10:59

too soon or too early , it like

11:01

does not work . But if I can

11:04

create space and let the idea

11:06

pop in and take

11:08

action from a place of

11:10

following the lead , a

11:13

lot of amazing things happen .

11:17

How do you create that space ?

11:20

It's , I

11:22

would say , for me , creating

11:25

that space . You

11:27

kind of like the whole tune out to tune

11:30

in piece where it's really

11:32

easy to be influenced

11:34

by so much input , whether it's news , tv

11:37

, youtube , podcast

11:39

, social media . I

11:41

spent a lot of time offline

11:43

rather than online and

11:46

only consumed things that

11:49

spoke to me and that took a

11:51

lot of practice to discern what

11:54

is actually speaking to me and what is

11:56

potentially a distraction , and

12:00

it was just really nice to have that space

12:02

and also just be really

12:04

intentional about who I let in my space and

12:06

like what input I

12:08

let in . I think sometimes the

12:11

mindset is consume

12:13

more , which is

12:15

inefficient if it

12:17

doesn't really have value or doesn't

12:19

really add value to what it is that

12:22

you're trying to achieve .

12:24

Shiny object syndrome I suffer

12:26

from that .

12:29

Yeah , I mean , I still do . At times too , I have

12:31

to catch myself and like , wait , why am I doing this ? Why

12:33

am I consuming this ? Oh yeah , it doesn't matter . I've

12:36

turned on and off my Audible account

12:38

so many times because I get really excited

12:40

about a book to listen to and I start listening

12:43

to the book and I get halfway through and then I

12:45

just go back to the podcast that I listened to and

12:47

so then I just turned off the Audible because I'm like I

12:49

don't need this thing sitting there

12:51

.

12:52

So yeah , but yeah , shiny objects

12:54

syndrome , I have it , I have it . You

12:57

talked a little bit about human design . Can

13:00

you dive into that a little bit more , cause

13:03

it sounds really fascinating .

13:05

I can try if there's anyone out there that

13:07

is so I . When

13:09

did I get introduced ? I feel like human design

13:11

I was introduced to maybe five or six

13:13

years ago and then , actually for my

13:16

birthday , I got a consultation

13:18

in January of 2022

13:20

because I wanted to understand things , Cause that's right

13:22

after I had shut down . She

13:25

did it her way and kind of wanted to understand how I

13:27

operate . I believe there's like three or

13:29

four different designs and

13:32

based on your design , which also

13:34

kind of feeds in a little bit of your birth

13:36

chart If you follow

13:38

astrology , which I also , get my birth chart read . I

13:41

found that to be incredibly helpful and

13:43

, again , it's not like everything's a blanket . This

13:45

is exactly how it is but it can bring

13:48

awareness to some of the reasons

13:51

or potential why you are the way that you

13:53

are , and it was insightful to know because it was

13:55

more validating for me in that

13:57

instance being

13:59

a manifesting generator , because

14:02

I've always felt like anytime that I try to proactively

14:04

create something , it just crumbles

14:07

, but if I wait

14:09

and allow that like time and

14:12

space , it usually

14:15

I can , nuggets

14:17

can drop in , but

14:19

I can't really speak to a lot beyond

14:22

the human , like the other ones , I don't know a

14:24

ton about them , but I definitely find it fascinating and

14:26

you can take an online quiz . That's

14:29

there's like free ones that you can find there's

14:31

really insightful about like the different

14:33

chakras or areas of your body

14:35

that are on or open and closed and

14:37

how that impacts your vocal like

14:39

so much .

14:41

Russ loves the woo wooy stuff , so

14:43

this is right up his alley .

14:44

Yes , I love , like

14:47

I love . I mean the more honestly

14:49

, the more the older I get and

14:51

the more into personal development I get . I'm

14:53

like this is like

14:55

like are we real right now ? Is

14:58

this real and is this a matrix

15:00

? Like are you guys just here because am I

15:02

living my own life and y'all are just plopped

15:04

in Like it's crazy .

15:07

I so just to prove how much I've grown

15:09

, dana , I did bristle

15:11

at the first comment of you know just

15:13

some of the things that you're explaining

15:15

and mandating that you're going through and using to help grow

15:17

, but I

15:21

stopped myself and

15:23

I wanted listeners to stop too , cause if you did kind

15:25

of go , oh oh , that sounds a little out there for

15:27

me . There are so many

15:29

things that we don't know and experience that

15:32

this could be

15:34

a great thing . It's obviously been great

15:36

for you and I can't discount

15:38

that . Like just to dismiss

15:40

it because I'm not familiar with it is

15:42

ignorant . And so I just want to say

15:44

that out loud for our listeners , because

15:47

I needed to hear it too . And

15:49

now I'm in a place where I just I love

15:52

that you're just open to grow and this

15:56

works for you . I love it .

15:57

Yeah , yeah .

16:00

So what are the things that you kind of just start to do as

16:02

you started to get some direction and those nuggets started to

16:04

drop ? How did you start

16:06

putting those pieces together and which direction

16:08

you were going to move forward ?

16:10

Yeah , I think having the

16:12

experience that she did her way and having

16:14

an online business was very

16:16

instrumental . I feel like that was the warmup in

16:19

some regards , because I

16:21

am able to take everything that I learned from she

16:23

did her way and how to operate an online business and create

16:26

, like I built , all my sales pages . I did

16:28

everything from email marketing to copy to

16:30

social media , like everything

16:32

. And so now in this next

16:35

chapter , in version and journey

16:37

, it's I'm way more

16:39

, I'm smarter

16:41

about things and I have that experience

16:43

of that past With

16:47

the thing that I think

16:49

I did differently this time with

16:51

the tension audit , which I'm very intentional about

16:53

is just not

16:56

being influenced by other people on outside factors

16:58

, because , just like you said , dana , it's really easy

17:00

to get shiny ball syndrome and

17:02

it's really easy to look at what other people are doing and thinking

17:04

that you should do them too , and in

17:07

that stage , if she did her way

17:09

, for me at least , it felt like

17:11

the online space was really starting to blow

17:13

up , and so all the OGs that were

17:15

in online digital marketing , I mean there's

17:17

just so much about you should do this , you should do that and

17:20

like this is how you should run your podcast and I was so

17:22

susceptible and vulnerable at that time I think because

17:24

I was young and I was like I

17:26

didn't know where I wanted she did her way to go that

17:28

I was just taking in everything which

17:30

really caused me to go

17:33

zigzag and not in the most linear

17:35

path that I probably could have . Where now , with the tension

17:38

audit , I'm allowing myself

17:40

to go slower with it and

17:43

not put this pressure or

17:45

this hurriedness to it . Where

17:47

I was doing that with

17:49

, she did it her way and it felt like I was trying to

17:51

force so many things with that business . Where

17:53

now I'm like what

17:56

feels right , what feels aligned

17:58

, or even like using my own values

18:00

, which I teach seasonal values in one

18:02

of my courses , because we all have core

18:04

values that have been with us since

18:06

we can remember . But how

18:09

can we leverage seasonal values , whether

18:11

it's for a year or six months or the

18:13

next three months ahead of us , to

18:15

create a filter to make our decisions

18:17

? So , for example , attention

18:20

audit Academy . I thought , oh , I really wanna

18:22

do a coaching component to this . And then I

18:24

went back to my values and I'm like my main

18:26

value for this year is simplicity and I'm like , okay

18:28

, but does that make it simple or

18:31

does that complicate it more ? And I'm

18:33

like at this stage it complicates it more . I can

18:35

always add it in later , so we're just gonna stick with

18:37

the standalone course . So I think this time

18:39

it's just going back and like not having

18:41

this hurried rushness energy towards it

18:43

.

18:44

I was about to ask like does that ? Is it just

18:46

? It's more than just about slowing down , though

18:48

. Wait

18:51

, what ? What do you mean ? Like

18:53

being aligned with your

18:55

values ? It's more than just about

18:57

slowing down and noticing what's happening

19:00

, like you have to actually understand

19:02

what your values are yes

19:05

, exactly , that's 100 percent .

19:07

Because I didn't have any

19:10

value system and

19:13

road

19:16

map that I plugged myself into . I

19:18

was constantly just like , yeah , I'll do this , yeah , I'll

19:20

do that . I was trying to get object syndrome and I should

19:22

create a course on that because I can teach that it

19:25

was just building all these bridges but never actually finishing

19:27

the bridge where now I've

19:30

got my filter , I've got my

19:32

values that I can say , okay

19:34

, does this align with the values

19:36

in the life that I'm trying to create , or

19:38

that I am creating not trying to , but am creating

19:41

. It makes it way easier and

19:43

I'm way more confident in the decision than

19:46

I was in the past .

19:49

I think it's important to understand as a business

19:51

owner and for our listeners too , is we

19:53

all get our guilty of this in our own lives

19:55

. We want

19:57

to add to our business , we want to do all these things

19:59

, cast this big net and cover everything

20:02

. We want to do it all . How much

20:04

of this is just kind of niching down and finding the thing

20:06

that you're really passionate about and moving

20:08

it forward in such a way that now

20:10

I have clarity of mind

20:12

and I know what I'm moving for ? I

20:15

don't know the exact path , but I have

20:17

an end goal in mind and will adjust course

20:19

as necessary . How much of that has

20:22

gone into your piece and understanding

20:24

and where you're going ?

20:25

Yeah , a lot of it has , in terms

20:27

of also being disciplined

20:30

about what do I

20:32

teach and what do I not teach , because I could teach a lot

20:34

of different things and how do I want to do this and how

20:36

do I want to structure it and what . Again , I just

20:38

go back to what is the simplest way that

20:40

I can add value and help other business

20:42

owners , and being

20:45

ruthless about any opportunity

20:47

that comes and being

20:49

willing to practice and also say no

20:52

to things that normally I would want

20:54

to say yes to . But simply saying no

20:57

to and not being afraid to say

20:59

no , especially as a recovered people

21:01

pleaser , I think

21:03

like I swung from one

21:05

way , from one end

21:07

of the pendulum completely

21:10

to the other side . I don't know , I'm

21:12

coming back in the middle a little

21:14

bit more . But , yeah

21:17

, discipline to be this is what

21:19

I'm doing , this is what I'm doing , and kind of putting blinders on

21:21

and not being susceptible to like all the different

21:23

things and strategies , like

21:25

threads , for example . Did

21:28

you get on threads ? I

21:31

signed up and I knew that . I was

21:33

like why ? I'm curious

21:35

, but I never even published anything

21:37

about it , nothing . And I'm like

21:39

how is my whole spiel on

21:42

that ? But again I was like , okay , is this going

21:44

to be another TikTok ? Like people , you

21:46

know , you get afraid that you're not in the game and

21:48

all that , but again , that's scarcity . It's

21:50

like if you pick a platform

21:52

and you just commit to a platform

21:54

and you show up and you build that audience

21:57

, then pivot but focus on one

21:59

. Because you've tried to focus on so many at

22:01

once , you're just going to burn yourself out .

22:04

It's a lot of like . I

22:07

feel like the amount of shit that I learn

22:09

in therapy is so applicable

22:11

to business , because it's

22:15

the idea of like , oh , I should be doing this

22:17

. Or , you

22:19

know , someone tells me that this worked for them , so

22:21

it should work for me . And it sounds

22:23

like the attention audit really kind

22:26

of supports staying

22:28

true to your identity in

22:30

business .

22:31

Yes , it

22:33

really is . It's a

22:35

course that has

22:38

, like we talk about , values and then

22:40

it's goal setting in there as well

22:42

. The main piece of it is helping

22:45

people business owners , specifically learn

22:47

how to manage their time

22:49

using a digital calendar . So that

22:51

is my whole spiel . When I started using a digital

22:53

calendar , my productivity went through

22:56

the roof and like calendar

22:58

blocking probably a lot of things that you guys already do already

23:00

but really

23:02

teaching the basics of it I did . I used to do

23:04

it live in a 30 day container

23:06

with like six multi

23:08

, six , seven figure business owners that were

23:11

still trying to like struggle a little

23:13

bit with the wanting to do everything

23:15

and not really staying true . Because the one

23:17

thing that I love about a digital calendar is that

23:19

it reminds us that there are only 24 hours

23:21

in a day . And if you have everything

23:24

like listed out and there's so much that you

23:26

want to get done and you've got this to-do list , if you put it on

23:28

your calendar , you realistically see what can I accomplish

23:30

and what can't I , and then also

23:32

, working within the constraints of how many hours you

23:34

want to work a week , if you only want to work

23:37

20 , well then , how do we get everything done in 20

23:39

hours . And if we can't , if you can't do it , then it either

23:41

needs to go or it needs to be outsourced , and then how do we do

23:43

it ? And so that's really

23:45

like but it taking like what you're saying , dana

23:47

a holistic approach of making sure it's

23:50

not about just doing more , it's about

23:52

making sure that you're actually doing the things

23:54

that you need to be doing and getting rid

23:56

of the noise . Like if it doesn't need to be there , let's get

23:58

rid of it , and then let's do

24:00

those things efficiently and productively

24:03

.

24:04

So if you could boil it down to what you know

24:06

, your basic statement what's the

24:08

problem you're helping people solve ?

24:12

Oh , this is good . I'm still like total

24:14

transparency . I'm still boiling that , boiling

24:16

that down . I was like , am I saying boiling , boiling

24:19

that down ? It's Okay

24:24

, let me try this because , again , the attention audit

24:27

I ran it as

24:29

we did a live program and

24:31

then now I'm doing it as self-paced course . So , when I really

24:33

think about it , what is the one thing that I am helping

24:35

people with and

24:37

I fully know that this is a work in progress

24:40

, it

24:46

is gosh . I want to say so many things . It's helping them

24:48

use their digital calendar as

24:50

a filter for what

24:52

they say yes and no to . It's

24:55

bringing awareness and a reset with the relationship

24:57

that they have with time . And

24:59

also , even if someone's listening to this and

25:01

they use a digital calendar and they think they're okay

25:03

, but they still question their productivity , the

25:06

course is for them because it is

25:08

about setting the values

25:10

and then going from the

25:13

bigger picture down to the

25:15

micro piece of it , and

25:17

it's just helping people plan more efficiently and

25:20

create a schedule that is

25:22

more suited

25:25

towards their daily life

25:27

and what they need to get done .

25:31

Maybe this will help as we search

25:33

for clarity . I think well . So what does success

25:36

look like when they move through that and

25:38

are able to do solve that problem , and

25:40

what does failure look like if they're unable

25:43

to do that ?

25:45

Yeah , that's a great question . So

25:47

success is getting to the end of the day and being

25:49

confident that you've done what

25:51

you've needed to get done and

25:53

you know everything

25:56

is complete . So that's one of the things

25:58

One of my clients

26:00

that I worked with I

26:02

often see this happen with entrepreneurs

26:05

is that there's this thought there

26:07

can always be more to be done . Because it's this

26:09

thought of if I do more , then

26:11

I'm going to create more results . And

26:14

while , yes , that is sort of true

26:16

, it's also not the only way of thinking

26:19

and it's actually kind of , I think it's flawed

26:21

thinking that the more you do , the more results

26:23

you get , when in reality it

26:25

doesn't have to be that way . But going

26:27

back to it is like saying , okay , what does done look

26:29

like for the end of the day ? And then once you

26:31

plan it on your calendar and let's say you

26:33

get done at 2pm and you're planning

26:35

on going to four great , you can confidently

26:37

say I'm done for the day or you can continue

26:40

moving forward throughout your calendar . Not

26:42

doing it leads to absolute

26:44

burnout , chaos , overwhelm , constantly

26:47

feeling like you're behind or you're on the rabbit hole , that

26:49

you have a never ending to-do list . I hate to-do

26:51

list . I'm sorry

26:53

if anyone uses to-do list , but you got to get

26:55

that stuff on your calendar Because the to-do

26:58

list just sets you up for failure immediately

27:00

. You look at it and you're like , oh my gosh , I have so

27:02

much to do and it never ends . And

27:04

so if you put it on your calendar , you know exactly

27:06

when you're going to get that done and you can start

27:08

to realistically plan your days in

27:11

a way of like what do you actually have bandwidth

27:13

and what do you not have bandwidth for ? One

27:15

other benefit is that

27:18

I firmly

27:20

believe that the reason why people get caught in saying

27:22

and agreeing to so many things and saying yes

27:24

is because they don't really know why they're saying

27:27

no . They're

27:29

not clear in what they're defending , and I think

27:31

that is one

27:33

of the big benefits and main pieces of the course

27:36

is , I think we

27:38

blindly say yes to things without actually

27:40

knowing what we need

27:43

and want to get done , and that just

27:45

keeps us in a loop of

27:47

like saying yes over committing being

27:49

burned out . We've got so many things to do and it's just this

27:51

vicious cycle . So if we can get

27:53

clear on , like what actually is a priority for

27:55

you , then you're more confident to turn

27:57

things down or say no or not

27:59

right now , because you're clear on exactly does

28:02

it align or does it not align ? Does this make sense

28:04

? If health is a value , maybe

28:06

you're not going to say yes to something

28:08

that involves alcohol or something

28:10

like that , but you're just more

28:13

confident in your answers .

28:15

I am also a recovering people pleaser

28:17

and I've heard so

28:20

many different ways for people to say no . I

28:23

have a friend , andrew , who says , well , my calendar doesn't

28:25

allow for that . Or I've listened

28:27

to another podcaster and she says when

28:30

people ask for free advice , she says

28:32

I'm at capacity right now

28:34

for pro

28:36

bono work , but I'm happy to schedule a consultation

28:39

. And I'm curious how you say

28:41

no .

28:43

Oh , I say no . Well , there's a couple of different things . For

28:46

me it's just simply like I don't have the capacity

28:48

right now . For

28:52

me it's simple as that . Or if it's

28:54

like and you know , it depends if it's a

28:56

professional thing or a personal thing Maybe

28:59

if it's personal , I probably find myself giving more of a

29:01

reason why . But if it's professional , I simply

29:03

say I don't have the capacity right now . And

29:06

then , depending upon what that

29:08

request is , I might suggest something

29:10

else . I love the response that your friend

29:13

has about I don't have the capacity for

29:15

pro bono work right now , but happy to schedule

29:17

a call . Or maybe

29:19

sometimes it's like I'm not the expert but

29:21

let me introduce you to someone who is . So

29:23

if I can't necessarily help them directly , I

29:26

might offer up connecting

29:28

them to someone else . But

29:30

I think protecting

29:33

our time , your time , my time

29:35

is value

29:38

add to the world because

29:40

it's you know , if we can show

29:42

up with the things that we do well at

29:44

and commit to those things , it's

29:46

going to multiply . And

29:49

so that's another way . It's not to say like go

29:51

out until everyone know for everything , but

29:54

it's just saying let's practice the small ways

29:56

to say no and protect

29:58

our time so that we can be focused

30:01

on what it is that we truly want

30:03

to get done . We're , I think now I'm kind of going a little

30:05

bit of rabbit hole , but sometimes I think we say

30:07

yes as a way to distract ourselves

30:09

, because we're afraid to actually

30:12

show up and do the thing that we

30:14

say we want to do , but it's almost too intimidating

30:16

. So there's just a lot of also

30:19

underlying reasons why we say yes versus

30:22

when we really want to say no , to which actually

30:24

you kind of have to come . You have to get

30:26

a little curious as to why , like , are you always

30:28

saying yes ? I know I was always saying yes because I

30:30

won't . I was like buffering , I didn't want to not do

30:32

something . That was years ago .

30:35

Now I'm like that's a therapy moment right there

30:37

.

30:37

Yeah , that's a therapy moment .

30:40

You know we're all guilty of that . I think at some

30:42

point just saying well , now

30:44

I don't have to face all my problems , I'm going to say yes

30:46

and get distracted by this really good thing . Look

30:49

at the good thing I'm doing .

30:51

Right .

30:52

Sorry , so if you're helping me be more productive

30:54

and that's at the end result

30:57

and that's how I'm going to be successful . I

30:59

mean , how ? How

31:01

do we boil down , kind

31:04

of triaging the things that we do

31:06

Like this is more important than this

31:08

and this is more important than that . So

31:10

I don't want to do that before this . How

31:13

do you help people kind of go through that and

31:16

prioritize ?

31:19

Well , part of the prioritization comes through

31:21

the values , and I think there are

31:23

there's like eight different categories in which

31:25

we can set goals to . I really

31:28

try to restrain and I reckon in the course

31:30

I restrained to two , no more

31:32

than three , because I feel

31:34

like I've always found in the past , whenever I try to focus

31:36

on like the eight categories , which range from like mental

31:38

health , physical health , contribution to finding it , I'm

31:41

like am I really accomplishing

31:43

anything ? And I would rather focus on two to three

31:45

things than try

31:47

to do them all . So that's for starters , versus

31:49

trying to set eight

31:52

goals , I focus on two to three . The

31:55

other thing that I like to focus on is you can have

31:57

like a large , let's say , annual goal , maybe

32:00

most likely if you're in business , it's probably monetary

32:02

, but then from there I

32:05

like to bring the timeline in closer and focus

32:07

on the next 30 days and the next

32:09

week . So right now we're recording this

32:11

at the end of July , like I'm focused on

32:13

the month of August and what are the two to three outcomes

32:15

that I want to create ? And then I'm focused on the

32:17

next week of like what are the two to three outcomes that

32:19

I want to focus on ? That and the prioritization

32:22

feeds a little bit into the

32:25

value system and what you're creating

32:27

and then also like , what makes sense

32:29

for the season of life that you're in right now ? It's

32:33

priority . Yeah , so

32:36

prioritization comes down to constraining

32:38

and not trying to do everything number one

32:40

, because

32:42

it's just not possible . And then what happens is that

32:44

you spread yourself so thin and you don't accomplish anything

32:47

and then you create this habit of never

32:49

of like not following through and then you don't

32:51

trust yourself and then you get down on yourself . So the

32:53

next time it goes to set goals , you , like

32:55

, don't trust your ability to set

32:58

something . So I would rather see clients

33:00

set one thing that is

33:02

fairly easy , that they know they're going to follow through

33:05

one and be able to accomplish it , to

33:07

build up that trust with themselves , to

33:09

build that momentum and continue carrying

33:11

it . And I used to be guilty of this , of trying to do anything

33:14

all at once . And it's learning

33:17

to say like it's okay to go slow

33:19

and slow is subjective to everyone , but it

33:22

doesn't have to be a rush or a time

33:24

scarcity thing Like we can go

33:27

at a pace that is manageable

33:30

and also feels good .

33:33

What does it feel like to be

33:36

so closely aligned

33:38

with your values and so

33:40

like to have a business that so closely

33:43

aligns with your values ? I don't

33:45

question it .

33:46

Okay , I don't have it . That's the difference . Like what she did

33:48

her way . I was questioning it . I'm like should I be doing this ? Should

33:50

I be doing this ? I've never once questioned if I

33:52

should do this or not . It never , there's no doubt

33:54

. I think that in like is

33:57

there's doubt and there's question . There's probably something

33:59

to explore and I don't think it's a blanket oh

34:01

, you shouldn't be doing this or

34:04

in this . But it's just like I

34:06

don't have the mental clutter

34:08

that I did . And

34:10

I didn't have mental clutter the entire time when she did it

34:12

her way . It was more like probably

34:16

halfway through . So three and a half years

34:18

into that relationship , I started having the doubt and

34:20

the questioning and I just

34:22

kept pushing forward and finally I was like I can't

34:24

do this anymore and I don't have the mental

34:26

clutter or

34:28

doubt I once did . So

34:31

I think that's a key indication .

34:34

I know we just kind of jumped around . Going back to previously

34:36

, when you're talking about setting your goals , the

34:38

thought I had was setting milestones as you

34:41

kind of get into your goal , right

34:43

. So let's just say revenue , you want

34:45

to do a million dollars this year and you look at it , go well , what's

34:47

that mean ? A month ? You know 85 grand a month

34:49

. Okay , then what are we looking at ? A week , what do we got to

34:51

do every week ? We got to do what ? $19,000 , $20,000

34:53

a week in order to hit that goal . It kind

34:55

of puts it down in bite size form and

34:58

you're like all right , well , we got to make you

35:00

know what ? Five grand a day , All

35:03

right , Right , Okay , that's easy . How

35:05

do we do that ? We have to sell this many appointments

35:07

and this is how we got it . So , breaking it down and makes

35:09

it it's like take , how do you eat an elephant ? One

35:12

bite at a time , Right ? So I

35:14

love the idea of using milestones

35:16

and that helps us grow to our

35:18

goal and you can celebrate those milestones

35:21

. But it's just something we're passing by

35:23

on our way to our goal and even that goal

35:25

ends up being a milestone , because we

35:28

don't want to stop when we hit it . We will

35:30

keep growing past that Right

35:32

. So that's what productivity and the right

35:34

mindset will really do for you , I think .

35:37

Yeah , and to continue with that too

35:39

, is the more specific that we can

35:41

get whether it's a goal

35:44

or a task , an action

35:46

item the easier it will be

35:48

for our brain to take action . Because our brain loves

35:50

specificity and one of the biggest reasons

35:52

why either I know myself , but

35:54

I've seen my clients people procrastinate

35:57

or push something off that's on their calendars

36:00

because it's not specific enough . And

36:02

it's way too easy for the brain to be like

36:04

, oh , I'll get to it later , I'll do it later . And I just know that

36:06

, like , if I get to something and I find

36:08

myself like , oh , I want to move that on my

36:10

calendar , I noticed

36:12

that I kind of get curious as like , why

36:15

do I want to move it ? It's because I don't want to do it , or blah

36:17

blah . And what I find is is that , oh

36:19

, wow , if I would have broken this down

36:21

in a different way , I

36:24

would have gotten to that task . And I've been like , oh , I know exactly

36:26

what I need to do right now and get into

36:28

action . Versus it's like , oh , I'm

36:31

going to work on podcasts , like

36:33

, no , let's

36:35

get that's . Like let's get specific

36:37

to make it . There's so many we can talk

36:39

about , like time versus energy or planning

36:42

versus execution energy , and how all

36:44

of that plays into our ability just to like get

36:46

into action .

36:49

You have a couple of things coming up

36:51

with the attention audit right . You have

36:53

a something launching in

36:55

September .

36:56

Yes .

36:57

Right , I was a little bit about that yeah

36:59

.

36:59

So September , and I'm like , I'm so excited

37:01

about this it's it's called your , your

37:03

most productive month yet challenge

37:05

. So it's a month long challenge there

37:08

are we're doing weekly trainings and

37:10

coaching inside of it and then

37:12

we're also doing I call it's called 30

37:15

expand and it's about expanding your time

37:17

, energy and your focus and

37:19

there are a series of habits to

37:22

do every single day which involve

37:24

like one minute of breathing or meditation

37:27

a day , waiting

37:29

two hours for cell phone

37:31

interaction upon waking , like

37:35

getting no electronics an hour before

37:37

bed and then seven plus

37:39

hours of sleep along with 75

37:41

ounces of water a day . So just , it's kind

37:43

of like , if you've ever heard 75 hard , have

37:46

either of you yeah , I've never done 75

37:48

hard . I can't . I don't like I physically

37:50

don't have time to do 45 minute workouts in

37:52

my day anymore . Maybe pre

37:55

baby I could have done that . But it's the , it's similar

37:57

concept , but it's focused more

37:59

on 30 days . So that's why

38:01

it's 30 expands , with 30 day , 30 days

38:03

and then a set of habits that go

38:05

with it to ultimately help create

38:08

more focus , be less

38:10

distracted and be have the most productive

38:12

month yet . So in there's going to be a Facebook

38:15

group . We're doing trainings every single week

38:17

. There's a kickoff call on the first of the month

38:19

and we're just going to

38:21

and we're going to do a

38:24

like everyone's going to come in and have one specific

38:26

goal that they want to accomplish for the next 30 days , and

38:28

so that's going to be the anchor point throughout the challenge . So that's

38:30

happening . Yeah

38:33

, that challenge is happening .

38:34

I'm very excited about it , and

38:37

there's an Academy coming up in August as well

38:39

, and are these both open

38:41

to men and women .

38:43

Yeah , these are open to men and women , so this is yep

38:45

open to men and women can join the

38:47

attention audit Academy that is

38:49

officially launching August 1st , and so you

38:51

it's open enrollment anytime . You

38:53

can log in . You get access to all the content on

38:57

demand and it teaches , it goes through , like the whole

38:59

calendaring method , my goal setting method

39:01

and system that I use , and I'm

39:03

just I'm really excited about those two things .

39:07

We love it . All right , amanda , we put everybody through

39:09

a lightning round at the end of episodes , and

39:11

I don't think we did it when we had

39:13

you on first . I'm excited to hear your answer

39:16

. So the first question is

39:18

what is one thing you wish you had known before starting

39:20

a business ?

39:24

I think this isn't one

39:27

thing , maybe necessarily , but I

39:29

think mindset if

39:31

I could do it differently , I mean just off the top of my

39:33

head , but I guess I learned

39:36

so much through the action and grew

39:38

from a personal development standpoint that

39:41

the mindset came with the experience of it

39:43

. I just wish I

39:45

think I would have known not to take

39:48

action from a place of like rushness

39:50

and thinking that it had to happen so fast

39:52

, and just trusting and knowing that it actually does take

39:54

like five to seven years to build a business . It

39:58

doesn't have to be the way , but just be just having more

40:00

patience . Aw I want it now

40:02

.

40:03

Yeah right , I want success now . I don't want

40:05

to do the work .

40:06

Right now .

40:08

All right . So what's the favorite way to market your business ? And

40:10

there's a lot of ways .

40:12

Ooh , the first thing that came to mind was affiliates

40:14

. The reason why I like to partner with

40:16

other people is , I think I'm naturally just someone who

40:18

. There's another

40:20

quiz . It's called Fascinate Me I

40:22

don't know if either of you have heard of it and it

40:25

basically tells you , kind of like , what people

40:27

are most fascinated about

40:29

you around , and the thing that

40:31

came back was I was labeled as , like , the maestro

40:33

, and so I have this innate

40:36

ability to bring people together and to facilitate

40:38

conversations , which also plays into my , like

40:40

, training background . And

40:43

so that's why I like using affiliates , because I

40:46

like to partner with people in my network

40:48

that can see value in their

40:50

audience , can have value , and it's fun for me because

40:52

I get to work with other humans and

40:54

do that . So affiliate marketing is probably my favorite

40:57

.

40:58

What is one business platform that's changed

41:00

your life ?

41:04

Business platform . I mean , the first thing was

41:06

like Google suite for business

41:08

. Oh

41:11

, I mean , this isn't really a business platform , but

41:13

video speed controller have

41:15

you all heard of it ? It's a

41:17

Google , it's not a , it's not like business

41:20

necessarily , but it's a Google Chrome plugin

41:22

and when you have it as

41:24

a plugin , any video that you watch you

41:26

can slow down or speed up . It

41:29

is game changer . So

41:32

if I'm saying yeah , it's amazing

41:34

, like you can watch any training

41:36

video and you can watch any video

41:38

on it's . Yeah , it's awesome

41:40

. So , and it's free

41:43

, and loom Okay , loom is my second one . Loom

41:46

is , if you guys use Loom , right ?

41:47

Yes , yeah , they're video

41:49

associated , so I'm starting to see a trend

41:51

here .

41:52

Oh yeah , good , great , great , call out . Yeah

41:54

, loom is also my favorite . I think

41:56

that it's worth a $10 a month that you can

41:58

pay to record videos , and I

42:02

give feedback via loom and I

42:04

use it all the time , so it's amazing .

42:06

Great platform to do any kind of trainings or set

42:08

up kind of webinars to be , you know , consumed

42:10

later . It's really a fantastic platform

42:12

. All right , so what's your favorite business book

42:15

, or maybe a business book that's impacted your

42:17

life in business more than others ?

42:19

Atomic Habits by James Clear .

42:23

Love it , love it . And

42:26

then when did you feel like you had made it ?

42:29

Oh , when I for

42:31

okay , that question . I

42:34

think there's like many milestones of

42:36

making it right , like

42:39

I think

42:41

the , for my husband and I were

42:43

also real estate investors and so we did a lot

42:46

of house hacking , which is buying

42:48

a multi-unit , living in one unit and renting out

42:50

the others . I remember the first

42:52

multi-unit that we purchased in Chicago

42:54

. We lived in one unit , we rented out the other three

42:57

and we did not have

42:59

a living expense . We actually made money

43:01

and it was pretty . We were like , oh

43:03

my gosh , like this is amazing

43:05

. So that I mean I think there's you feel like

43:07

you for me , the made it . There's

43:10

made it moments and so there's little

43:12

times around . So that was , that

43:14

was one of them . I mean , when she

43:17

did it , her way , got noted by Forbes

43:19

and entrepreneurcom

43:21

and a bunch of other outlets , that was a made it

43:23

moment . And then we moved to

43:25

Charleston and I feel like that was another made it

43:27

moment . We're like , oh , we made this happen , like we talked about

43:30

this for two years , and now we're here and yeah

43:32

.

43:34

That's awesome , and I think you're right , and everybody's answers are so

43:36

different , and that's why we love asking it , because

43:38

it just gives us perspective on how

43:40

to think about things , and that's great

43:42

. I love it . Amanda

43:44

, where's the best place for people to find and

43:46

connect with you to

43:50

learn more about what you're doing ?

43:52

Yeah , head on over to attentionauditcom

43:55

and then there you can attentionauditcom

43:57

forward slash challenge , and then

43:59

attentionauditcom forward slash academy

44:01

, or where you can find also the course

44:05

, and then the challenge and there's a podcast

44:07

you can find on the website and all that good stuff .

44:10

Fantastic , and we'll have all those listed in our show

44:12

notes so you don't have to memorize it or

44:14

click back and write it all down . It'll

44:17

be easy to click to and connect with you . Amanda

44:19

, we're thank you for being here and sharing your time and

44:21

expertise with us again , and

44:23

we want to thank our listeners for being here , hopefully

44:25

again , and even if it was for

44:27

the first time . We hope you got the value

44:30

that we did from our guests

44:32

and just reach out and

44:34

I think you need to be more productive . Why not

44:36

take the challenge I think it's about time and

44:38

share it with somebody else . Maybe that you know

44:41

needs to be more productive or has been talking about

44:43

it right , because we know those people too

44:45

. Why not take the challenge together

44:47

and remember it's not personal

44:49

, it's just business .