S1, Ep 9: Smart Risk taking "Winging It" Book Review

Welcome to our 9th episode of Elevate with Grace.  In this episode we are rounding out our first smart risk taking series with an excellent book from Emma Isaacs', Winging It!  https://www.emmaisaacs.com/

As the title suggests Emma has some great tips on taking a chance on yourself, trusting your gut and winging it.  The sub-heading on her book - Stop thinking, Start Doing.  Why Action beats planning every time - gives you a hint.  There is a lot of rich content within this book that Claire and Miranda discuss from:

• Gut versus decision tool situations
  • "When you know you know, and when you don't you decide"
• Tips & Hacks to make more time... meetings are at the top of Emma's list, also some wonderful honesty around outsourcing & not doing it all!
  • If its not a hell yes, its a no (linking back to episode 5 - The one thing Emma talks to the need to say no far more than you say yes)
• Team Decision Making 
  • Avoiding sunk cost bias & Zoom think
• Networking - to help build lasting relationships
• An encouragement to take action
  • "Seize the Day, Today"
• Kindness and Fun always

ELEVATEE CHALLENGE
1. Let's foster some kindness.  A thank you note, flowers, coffee with a friend and just remember what it's like to be together again.
2. For our real decision making action challenge. Over the past few weeks you have done the work to analyse a key decision, checked any biases, used 1 or more tools to interrogate the options.  So you're 70 or 80% comfortable with decision. This is the week let Emma Isaacs inspire you to to take the decision on and just leap. Let's see what happens.

Booktopia Winging It link: https://booktopia.kh4ffx.net/ElevateWingingIt

This is an affiliate link

For more intel on smart risk taking or Elevate with Grace check out our Instagram or Website
We would love your feedback.  Please drop us a line via either of the above or our email elevatewithgrace@gmail.com

Music created by Claire's daughter Hannah

Transcript

Claire: 0:16

Welcome to the elevate with grace podcast, for women who are short on time and long to take steps, to create success on their own terms. In each episode, we dive into one of the pillars of our elevate with grace success on your own terms model, we explore smart. Risk-taking cultivating our careers and fueling our financial power. We curate insights from the best content and thought leaders across Australia and the world and discuss how these ideas can be practically applied in current contexts. We also provide bite-sized actionable steps to help you move forward from where you are, to where you want to be. Welcome to our second book review our ninth episode. And gosh, I think the. Podcasts. We've actually been on a record in person. It is. It's so exciting. Very exciting podcast recording. In-person amazing concept. So my name is Miranda. If you haven't listened to an episode for full, we would love you to go back and check out some of the initial ones.

Miranda: 1:14

And with me is the FMS sent Claire. So to round out our smart risk-taking series and from episode six through to now our smart risk taking series has been about helping Australian women kick butt. And there is no better way to wrap that up. Then a episode about the amazing book from Emma Isaak, winging it. And the Isaac herself is a kick-butt Australian woman who has taken on the challenges of creating her and business and really setting about to elevate women within Australia. So she's very much at our Heartland and it was an absolute joy. So, yes. So excited to share this book with you today. Claire and I actually set ourselves a mission of trying to uncover as many Australian thought leaders as we can across our pillars. So it was definitely a happy dance moment when we came across this one. For those that haven't heard of Emma Isaac, don't be ashamed. Neither had I it's. Um, it's quite funny how. You know, even in Australia, I think we're very much into big American thought leaders. And we do forget to kind of go and seek out our in, and they're not given as much air time maybe as they should. We're looking to change that. so Emma Isaak starting her entrepreneurial journey at 18. She speaks about working those long hours in the staffing business that hired her and from there when the business partner decided he didn't want to play anymore she was rewarded with a 50% share of the business. Then at 24, actually buying a struggling business chicks and turning it into the phenomenon that it is today. So business chicks is known for their incredible events, with huge guest speakers, including the likes of Debra Lee finesse and other kick-ass Australian, Richard Branson.

Claire: 2:56

She's a massive fan of Seth Goden.

Miranda: 2:58

Absolutely. so just incredible thought leaders across the world. And she also has six kids and he's a huge fan of home births, and also outsourcing to make sure that she can survive in life. And I think we all need to talk a little bit more about how we can outsource to do it all. She's not afraid to say no, and doesn't pretend to have everything, picture perfect in her life. She's quite honest about the challenges and also the joy that comes from imperfection, just focuses on those key things that are important. She's a breath of fresh air. I really feel, and her honesty and her pragmatism, and really stood out. There has been some big challenges she shared in her book, but she really didn't let them own her or her identity, which I've respected so much. Kept the dramatic very separate from who she is and what she wants to put out there in the world. I loved her section around how she fosters fun in her workplace. And we'll go into that in a bit more detail. Overall, I think she's an inspiration for Australian women. I really can't wait to see what she does next. So we're very excited to share this book with you, but before we dive in and I feel like I kind of already have let's first check in with the action challenge from last week and Claire, how are you doing so good to see you in person?

Claire: 4:05

No, it is. I'm very great today. The weather is amazing finally, and it's amazing to be out and about in person. So I'm feeling pretty high on life today. I. I wanted to also just quickly touch on the fact that Emma has released another new book actually called the new hustle and I've had a quick read through it. So I wouldn't mind weaving it into the podcast episode a little bit today, in terms of some of the content, because it does draw a lot on the content of winging it and It's basically Emma's response to what she's learned from the COVID pandemic about better ways to work in live. it's written as 77 anti rules around embracing radical flexibility, making quick decisions, which is a lot of the topics we've been talking about the last few weeks and working smarter from the emails that we craft to figuring out What people we would like to work with and what organizations we want to work for and how we can thrive to be our best selves. It's an interesting read as well. And I think she's learned even a lot about herself being locked down in a house, not being able to outsource managing six kids and doing everything that she's doing. There's some realism that comes and a recognition of her privilege in life too, which I found refreshing because I think she's obviously got a lot of self awareness in that space. Looking forward to talking about that. in terms of our action challenge from last week, which was practicing the decision trees I have. I've been looking at a different, a couple of different paid work options over the course of the last few weeks. And I did find that it was really helpful to just even do a quick write down. Think about some of those techniques that we did last week, what's the worst thing that can happen. What's the best thing that can happen. What are the different scenarios that could play out in different cases, to help make some decisions around that sort of stuff. So, yeah. I had a bit of success with the decision-making trees this week. What about yourself? I know you like the Seth Goden concept of the cul-de-sac and the dip and the cliff. What have you done this week on that action challenge? Have you had success with it?

Miranda: 6:06

I went hardcore. The full decision tree matrix. I see a word. And interestingly, I actually, I got to a point on the decision tree where I went, all right. I need to break this into a pro-con list and try and work out if it's a cliff or a dip. I absolutely loved that. I've read a bit more about it and I can't wait to dig in further. The interesting thing about the decision tree matrix is I think done well, it's not something you can do in one sitting because I've got it sort of mapped out to a point and now I've sort of gotta go and research those options. To really understand what percentages of outcomes, what some of the other options are, because I don't think we have all of the information right there in front of us. Good to write it all out and then go or what's missing. What else do I need to go and find? So, yeah, I'm good. And generally I think just really bounce back strong this week after a bit of a challenging week. Although human experiment, don't leave home without your phone at the moment. It makes it very hard to buying anything, to getting twins or those without your COVID passport. So just a little human error this morning, we asked over line on our smartphones. Let's get into this book.

Claire: 7:13

I listened to the Audible version. I do like audible from time to time. I change the mode. Sometimes audio books work for me, sometimes tactile books work for me, sometimes reading stuff on my Kindle works Read by herself and I got quite into it. As soon as I started listening, I think straight up in the first chapter, she calls out the need for us to spend less time trying to concoct the perfect plan and to future proof ourselves from dramas that probably won't eventuate. I think that hooked me in immediately because the biggest, most profound light bulb moment I had in the second half of 2020, is that realization that I actually have very little control over anything in terms of what might happen tomorrow or the next day or how your world can be turned upside down in the future. I had this illusion that I had my life pretty much under control with everything running on rails, out sourced, project managing my life project, managing my work, albeit on a super fast freight train, admittedly, which is another issue again. Something that I think when I first started reading the book that she hooked me into straight away, that there's an opportunity to be much more relaxed and as she has a very fun approach to life and thinking hey winging it. What's the worst that can happen. What about you? Did you get into it straight away? Do you think, or took you a little bit longer.

Miranda: 8:33

I did I actually, I remember first I was listening to the book as well and generally loving it. And I say generally, because I think sometimes, her experiences are very different other people. So there was definitely periods where you go, oh, I don't quite agree with that piece, but after the majority absolutely loved it. And to hear an Australian woman, telling her success story was just super exciting to me. I liked that she reads the book herself, very kind of personally uplifting and there some great ideas and things shared, and you're maybe more personally inspirational and a bit ra ra, this is how I did it. And some great tips for thriving. And the second half was really a bit more entrepreneurial business owner for. I was thinking about with this booklet for the podcast. And I've sort of come to the point where I've listened to it a couple of times and actually gone into what yes it does. Because even though people don't necessarily have their own businesses or they might not feel very entrepreneurial, there was actually a lot of our listeners that are leaders in our organization. And I think for that, it's still an incredibly relevant book. if you are listening on audio, a little public service announcement, she does do at the start of every chapter, a, a quote or a big passage about somebody else's life. And that can go on for a little bit. And so you kind of going, hang on, when was she a star on like a TV show? I did. I missed that. And at the end it's like, oh, but this is this person. So obviously if you're reading it, you would see that. Yeah. Yeah.

Claire: 9:52

Her approach to life and her ethos definitely resonated with me. I think the other, the other thing that I liked is. She Emma talks about success being achieved through perpetual motion and putting one foot in front of the other. And you just keep walking forward no matter what. And that it's about, even if you have bad days or actually I prefer the term that Simon Sinek uses, which is that you have behind days and ahead days, even on your behind days, rather than bad and good, because then it has that connotation. But even on the, behind the. Like, even if you just send one email or do one thing. And I just, I think that really works well within our success on your own terms model that it's just one day in front of the other small micro steps, actionable steps each day. And that is, she really kind of talks about that being absolutely critical in terms of her getting to where she is today. Just this constant ethos about one step in front of the other, which I thought was really good because it ties into a lot of our other stuff as well. Like the one thing and et cetera.

Miranda: 10:56

Yeah, I really loved her examples of that risk taking muscle. And I found that just give it a go try and work it on the fly is a great thing to say, but she actually demonstrated how she has lived that and, you know, not always comfortable for her or for us. What's really stuck with me is her journey of. Rushing to the airport to pick up a higher car. And, you know, she acknowledged she was on her laptop. She was trying to do things. She wasn't giving the staff the attention they needed. Um, and she ended up with a manual car. Now, when you do an airport cart, you are kilometers away from the counter. By the time you find this car. And so, you know, most of us would go, oh, Um, I drive a manual car, but, you know, for people that don't, that is quite confronting to actually get them in your car and need to get to a business meeting and not know how to drive it. The majority of people I think would go back to that counter and swap over the car because that's just not going to work for them instead. She's like, I need to get to this meeting. How hard can it be? I'll just try and work it out and then speaks about that journey or. This is really uncomfortable. This is awful. Why did I try and take this on too? All right. I've worked it out and it actually I'm feeling so empowered and so strong. So what a great example of winging it, firstly, but also, you know, if we think about the smart risk taking that we've been talking about taking you from okay. 70% of sort of map this decision out. I think this is what I need to do. That's the worst that can happen. Let's just give it a garri. If someone can teach themselves to drive a manual car on a way to remediating, you know, we can do this. And so I thought that the way that she presented those examples, the way that she sort of presented the fact that, you know, there is moments in there where you are going to have some serious self-doubt and BCIT doing some awful self-talking to. Oh, this is great. And I mean, you know, I empowered and I can do this and I'm a strong, strong woman.

Claire: 12:48

I think the other thing though, there's this sort of secondary element to that aspect of her pushing through. I did actually feel that I felt a bit of sweat when I was listening to her talk about that bunny hopping down the road with a manual car and there's people waiting at the traffic lights and she can't and trying to sort of block out that concern about disrupting others days. Right. I'm going to actually learn how to do this, and I'm just going to figure out, and I'm, it's driving me crazy that people are behind me beeping their horns, but I'm going to push through. And I felt that experience with her. I think though, the other aspect of what she does well, and she talks about this in the new hustle. And maybe I remember that because I've sort of read it more just in the last week, but that she also knows quite early on. And that's a bit like the energy stuff that we were talking about last week in the Seth Goden things, she taps into her gut when things aren't right and she pulls out if her gut is telling her it isn't right. So she says, you know, if she's feeling stuck or feeling stressed or tired and confused, and I would guess that that's more than bunny hopping down the road from that. But if there's a period of time, Whatever that timeframe for you is a couple of ways, a couple of months or whatever that she uses him. She's got a tool that she uses in her business and her in her personal life. When she's feeling stuck or feeling stressed or tired or confused, she stops and asks, be honest, is this working or not working? I get that. She's probably developed that muscle as an entrepreneurs and as your own boss, you have to make those decisions quite a lot of the time and you have to make quick decisions. And she gives a lot of great examples, both in winging it and in the new hustle about experiences that she's had, where she's followed her gut and thought about that sort of stuff. And so I think that's the other element of as that's the, I guess the complete picture is yeah. Pushing yourself and getting right out of your comfort zone and winging it. But also knowing that you've got that gut behind you to say, at some point, I've got to ask myself, have I put myself out there and it's uncomfortable, but in a good way, or is ever put myself out there. New job isn't for me or this particular thing that I'm doing isn't for me. And I think it's the combination that work well together. I think that as women, we all need to just tap into a lot more like it's then following your gut, but also pushing yourself.

Miranda: 15:09

I think we have biases are getting in the way as well. So she, you know, she spoke to sunk cost bias with the brand name example, like they paid these brand naming execs in the US thousands of dollars and all that executive time to solve the brand name. That's right. At some point he's like, ignore the sunk cost, ignore all the time we're putting into this. It's not working. Let's just keep the name and get on with it. Absolutely. I'm going to take this on. I need to do this. This is a challenge I can do for today. This doesn't feel right. I'm going to pull back. I'm going to take time, but it's not because of the biases. It's because I've thought about this and I'm going to sit with this and make sure that I'm not being interrupted by my own unconscious biases. So that was really good. Let's get on with this one. How do you have a favorite passage or a quote from the book that you'd like to. I Am cheating a little bit to say, but I think the quote that I pulled out in particular context of the last four episodes that we've done, and I do really like, it is her quote that she says, and it's a bit like what we've been talking about, the quote that she says, when, you know, you know, when you don't know, you decide, oh, I like it. And so. She talks about that. If we just sit still and really listen to ourselves and what our core is telling us, we can tap into what we know. Does this feel right? Does this excite me? And I think that I've started to learn a lot more about what that means. So as we're doing our own elevate with grace journey and thinking about, well what's our, why? Where do we want to be in five years? It's becoming easier for me to say, well, if I'm looking at this opportunity or that opportunity, or I'm thinking about what I'm doing, I am tapping into a lot more, not getting so caught up in. Specific detail of something, am I feeling really good about this versus, oh, that one's okay.

Claire: 16:56

And she really always goes for, if it's a mediocre business arrangement she cuts off. She would say that she cuts off 15 mediocre deals to have five great ones, because the fact is if it's the five great ones and your life is full and crazy and all that sort of stuff. It won't matter to you because you'll get energy from those five great ones. It kind of ties in nicely with, you know, when, you know, and if you're not sure then the decision-making tools that we bought up, like actually really spend the time to use them to help you figure it out when you can't follow your gut. I think we tend to around, asking everyone else what they think. Now that's different to having a few kind of advisors that you go to in specific circumstances that we talked about last week. I've got into the habit of asking my partner or my mom or my people where they're not going to necessarily give you the right decision.

Miranda: 17:46

You're using them to maybe validate what you want to hear, or you want to back it up with some external validation that did pull it out as one of my quotes as well, because I did love this. Like if they're not in the entrepreneurial trenches with you in her instance. Don't ask them their opinions and certainly don't give a lot of credence to the answers that other people give you all the feedback they give you.

Claire: 18:07

If you know a bit about where you want to go, what you want your life to look like, how you want things to work out in terms of success on your own terms only you can really know whether something is going to fuel that. You've got to make those decisions for yourself because other people are bringing their biases and their concerns and their views to the table. And then you just get into this decision action paralysis. So when we were talking about our example from this week about thinking about different work opportunities to think about. I didn't go and ask my mom or my partner or, I mean, I would clearly if it was family situation, but from a career point of view I could just use the methods that we had last week, talked to a couple of people to bounce some ideas, in that particular space, and I don't even actually know that I needed to do that this week. I know it was more. What feels right? What excites me? What, have I learned previously that I can now apply to these in terms of previous values? Like the energy stuff, you bring that in to help you make some decisions. I felt comfortable in my Isaak style to trusting myself that I know what's right. I've got a couple of other quotes which ties in a little bit about disease to please in caring what other people think. So she says,"so go on and run your own race and let others run theirs". That we need to stay far, far away from the compare and despair syndrome, which is really hard to do in a world of social media,

Miranda: 19:27

but so important, but it is your mental health. It's so important and I do agree. I absolutely loved the example she gave. Just celebrate women and be excited for your friends, your colleagues, when they achieve know that your time is coming and know that we're all on our own race and it is not you or them, and we are going to achieve together.

Claire: 19:46

So, yeah, I agree down as well.

Miranda: 19:49

To take that one further, it seize the day today. I think so often where we're seizing the day tomorrow and I've seen a lot of quotes pop up, which are all about no one sees a plan, they only see your action. So I think that ties in really well. Just wing it, you know, seize the day, make it happen. That she is only limited by what she can dream and where she wants to go and who she can take with her. I think that does come also with the caveat that some of our workplaces at the moment are feeling a little bit risky adverse. We've definitely felt this, Everyone in their box, just do what you do. And I think Claire, you've been sort of saying even out in the workforce, there's not this whole, oh, I can see how those experiences would cross-pollinate like, no, no have you done this exact job before, right?

Claire: 20:30

I think there is a context, particularly my experience in Melbourne. I don't know whether that's globally as well. Actually Emma does talk about it in the new hustle, which links into what I was saying last week about the biases that can come into group meetings in a hybrid and virtual workplace. We've become everyone, whether it's risk averse or not thinking outside the box, or I think everyone has become very transactional and very single-minded about how things need to get done. don't know whether that's because no one can take any more mental load or whether we're just a bit tunnel vision, because we're all on virtual meetings. As Emma talks about in the new hustle. I mentioned last week as well in the podcast, virtual meetings are a bit clunky and transactional anyway. It's about bringing in some skills to widen that out. Being very clear and she talks about it at zoom. I think not group thing, but zoom think, it's easier for people to nod, agree and get off the zoom meeting and carry on. So it's that pre preparation work that needs happen. We've become quite tunnel vision and insular over the last 18 months in a COVID world. But I think there's a massive opportunity that we need to reopen that up. In a virtual and hybrid working world, not wait until everyone's back in bricks and mortar buildings and all catching up in 3d, albeit that's amazing, we still need to be able to function properly and make great decisions in big creative individual and hybrid situation as well. My personal experience is that that hasn't been where a lot of people had been at for the last 12 months,

Miranda: 22:01

which my last quote, before we move on to, someone else section. Everyone is just a person kindness and respect is needed at all levels. Always keep good eye contact, a warm greeting, big genuine. And I do. I've absolutely always lived and felt this personally. it was great to see Emma with that quote, because I feel like it's really important. What I loved that she did is every, I think she was saying every week, she actually just goes out of our way for one person. Like whether it's just a card or a. Or up some flowers to her mom. So just putting it in your diary every week, just a little act of kindness. I think if everybody did that for the next set of eight weeks, we'd be back on track much faster than we've ever been.

Claire: 22:48

In the new hustle. One of our anti rules goes even further, which I really liked, which is to send a thank you email every morning. And she said she started off with just with having a 15 minute reminder and be like, who can I thank for something that they've done for me today and doing that every day. I thought that was a great tip. There is heaps of practical tips and stuff that you can just basically start doing like straight away. I think for us action people being I actually found that there was plenty and plenty of plenty of ideas and tips and suggestions that she put through the whole book that I just found was really quite good. Because she breaks the chapters up in winging it into various topics. And so for example, chapter four is about Emma's views on what successful people do and time-saving hacks. And at first that was one of the bits of the book where I did a bit of a mini eye roll. Cause what successful people do is a done to death topic, in my opinion. And I was a bit. Yeah. As a bit like, ah, here we go. It's supposed to be up at 5:00 AM, like creating, you know, my plans for the world until 7:00 AM. And then I was supposed to go exercise for an hour at 8:00 AM. And then at midnight I can go to bed or something and that's what you need to do to be successful. She does come up with some really just basic practical tips. so the time-saving hacks. One of the things I have noticed desperately over the last 18 months is everyone is fatigued by meetings. Like we've kind of gone from. Bricks and mortar situation where you're meeting in and probably inefficient and ineffective meetings in the first place. And then we've transferred them into a cOVID kind of zoom meeting world. And I love the fact that she is a complete meeting, like mad person. Like she will not stay on a meeting longer than if it's a meeting. That's she'll always ask what it's for. If she feels that at the end of the 15 minute meeting, again, she's a CEO founder, perhaps it's a bit different, but I still think we all need to be a bit brave. I remember she actually, oh, that's right. That, that was a big thing to talk about.

Miranda: 24:48

I really enjoyed her journey on that. She's realize somebody else need to be the entrepreneur. I need to be the founder and have a great story, but that somebody can actually run my company better. I was like, whoa.

Claire: 25:00

That's a really good point. She believes a lot in that as well. One of the things is, you know, I don't want people to talk about finding their passion. Like you find your passion by doing like, and going through and doing something. If that doesn't work out well, you cull that and you do something else. And so I think that actually does live and breathe her, um, belief in that concept to that. And then the degree is to say, Actually it's whether it's not my passion or it's not my skillset, it's probably a combination of both. I think that someone can do that CEO role better, and I need to hire someone to that role. I think that that's a pretty big lesson so I think her time-saving. Well, actually really practical, really questioning whether a meeting is required or can it be done with a 15 minute email exchange or quick, can you just pick up the phone, before you set that meeting does it really need to be set. Is there an easier and more effective way for people to do it be really responsible and accountable for people's time? I liked how she says she's got to do it now hack. So basically if you open an email. Um, answer it right now. Like if you've gone into your inbox and you've opened the email, don't close it and go back to it later. Just pen out a response. The response doesn't have to be perfect. Give yourself 60 seconds. Obviously, if it's a big email that requires a lot of work or a project, but if it's something that you can respond to immediately do not shove it down and go back to it later, just respond all that sort of stuff. It is very practical, small micro things that you can do, not this whole, how here's, how to be successful. Wake up at 5:00 AM

Miranda: 26:29

yes, I've got to do what feels right for you. Um, for me, I really liked how, she was very open about talking about money and I feel like this is something new that's coming into our culture that hasn't existed before. I'm excited for some of our financial episodes in the future.

Claire: 26:44

Needless to say, I love the fact that she had a chapter on money and finance. I was very happy to say that.

Miranda: 26:50

Absolutely. So she has a great relationship with investments and balancing. Um, ensuring that those, that rainy day funds when she needs it. And she really speaks about the cost of running business that friends that have been on this entrepreneurial journey that they really need to have that back into. So I think that was a really good pragmatic, again, lots of pragmatic advice throughout this. Um, I did an interview and we actually spoke about how hard she found that, that entrepreneurial journey in Australia and that in LA, she actually felt that it was much easier to be an entrepreneur. A much safer place for women to rise up. I think we need to try and create that in Australia. Not necessarily even just entrepreneurial women, but I think women that are in business, let's just try and support each other and celebrate each other and look for opportunities that can really help elevate all of the women around us. So she had a lot of those messages throughout that I really enjoyed. So, like I said, This book really sort of is split into two sections. So the first half is some great personal advice and great tips. And then the second half is more about running a business and great leadership, thoughts and hacks. And she's sort of saying 60% of small businesses in Australia really don't make it past the first three years. And it's important that we ensure that there's a market out there that do your homework, you expect it to be all consuming in the first couple of years and find others to support you, who skill surpass yours and other areas that you just can't do it all. And we spoke just before about how Emma's really lives that. I really liked seeing how Emma was so dedicated to raising the profile of women. And as I mentioned really looking to. Encourage women, wherever you are, that each individual can make a difference in their change by supporting the women around them. Collectively cheering on the success of the successes of others and having that individual responsibility to go. How can I help somebody else today and absolutely loved that. So the last section we wanted to discuss about with this book is. Whether it changed our opinion or perspective on anything. For me, I actually really enjoyed her section on networking. Genuinely love meeting new people, discovering new ideas, making connections, and sharing new thoughts. I am relatively extroverted. Absolutely gain energy from being surrounded by others. But a networking event is one of the most uncomfortable things. It's never stopped. Talk to me, I still attend different events. But you are an extrovert. Extrovert too as am I. She really challenges. I think everybody. And she calls herself. How does an introvert And there is some great tips and hacks on how you can overcome it. She came with some tips on how to go about networking. She recommends everyone brush up on some NPL. So neuro, linguistic programming and. And it's reading people's language. It's even thinking about questions rather than asking where do you work or what do you do? Having some interesting questions to ask people. Have you ever heard this speaker? Before. Where was the last place you traveled? What's what's your passion at the moment? What are you excited about? It's going to be a much better conversation then. Oh, yeah, I work. At the bank.

Claire: 29:53

Let's face it as, as someone that's done business cheeks. If we're going to listen to anyone about some suggestions, leadership's on how you can get better at. Networking and how you can make it. It less of a feeling of. Oh, my gosh. I'd rather poke my eyes out, then go to that event. I feel like Emma Isaacs is probably. A good one to listen to some of her networking tips. She's. He's got some really good ones in the new hustle as well. One of the things she says is one of the anti rules is sit down and work out. The 10 people in your network that are most powerful to you. Right? So if you think about what you want to do for the next 12 months, or a couple of years, sit down and look at your LinkedIn network or think. About your network work out, who are the 10, most powerful people to you now that could necessarily be the CEO. It could be someone that, you know, she gives a couple of good examples. It could be the assistant of the CEO. Who knows everybody in that industry that you want to get into it. Doesn't, it's not about power in terms of it's about who can, who's got the most influence to be able to help you with stuff that you need, and that you basically have those 10 people and you make a concerted effort each week on rotation to find a reason to contact one of them each week and make it a discipline and a habit I've heard. Others in the past, say if you find an article that you think would resonate for one of your people in your network, you should send it to them. But even as much as I just think Even if you will get to go on rotation and say, Hey, how's it going? Is there anything I can help you with at the moment on. You know, X, Y, and Z, or it could be, it doesn't have to be a big deal, but I really locked her. It's really important to continually foster and build relationships. You can't just expect people out of the blue and obviously that's something that she's so successful at. I think she's got some great content, both in that book and the other book. Yeah. It's good

Miranda: 31:42

Treating networking like a relationship. Is that what you're saying there? It's not just going in and going, hi, I'm this person. This is what I do. can I give you my business card? Sell, sell, sell it's. Hey, who are you? And get to know you as a person. She sort of speaks to that. But like dating, you get to know the people, you don't try to sell them anything. You get to build a relationship. See if you've got something that's interesting. And maybe on the second or third date, introduce that to them, but don't necessarily go on grab every business card, you can get, put them on a mailing list and start to harass them. That's not the way to build a relationship. She's got really great relationship building tips to the whole thing. And my final takeaway from networking events or doing any networking or conferencing, even online. Is, if you do connect with somebody. Booking in your diary to have 15 minutes the next day to actually do some followups and some reach-outs, she gives an example of sending a book to somebody like that. Hadn't heard of a book that she recommended or just any little note saying, thanks so much. I really appreciated your time, but then playing back some of the ideas that they've actually given to you, so you've really heard they've resonated with you. It's a great idea.

Claire: 32:46

Yeah. She's very giving and thought flux that comes to her naturally, I think. And then she gives some good tips. If it doesn't come to you naturally put some diarize items and then do it right then, and then send the thank you note. First thing first up at nine o'clock until it becomes a habit that was spoken about. For me it did. Change my perspective on a couple of things. I think I've got very serious and insular over the last decade of running on a treadmill and all the rest of it. And so her book. Combined with a COVID lockdown wake up. I think it's made me really appreciate asking myself every day. Am I having fun? Is this good? What is my day look like to, how can I make every situation and really checking myself when I'm thinking, oh, this is a drag. Should I really be doing this? And being very conscious and aware that. Life is short and it's precious. And it's about today. And in the moment, I think I got a lot of. Inspiration from Emma about that stuff. And. A bit about like similar sort of stuff with the relationships and networking about how you can be consciously thinking about all the times, how you are making other people's lives enjoyable. And fun as well. So you, if you're a leader, you have a responsibility to do that. Um, but even if you're not, if your coworkers, if. If you, if you walk over. And you see someone is struggling with something, you know, ask them. Is there anything that you can do if you're grabbing a glass of water for yourself, just grab a glass of water for another person and put it on front of their desk. Really basic, simple things about how can I make this person's life more enjoyable or fun right now? I love that, that she's got that philosophy. And I need to be more fun. I think. I'm fine, but not in everyday moment., how can I make this moment more fun? And also be aware of what fund may be to me is not fun or for somebody else and being so conscious of the others in that environment, that emotional awareness. So I really, yeah, I got a lot out of that book from that perspective. Excellent. Excellent takeaways from this book. I think you can tell from our view that we could not recommend it high enough. So please do check it out now how to plan to action challenge. But I think the first action challenge that I want to give everybody is not about decision making. It's actually what you just said. Let's foster some kindness. Let's send a thank you note. Let's send some flowers, let's get a coffee with a friend and just remember what it's like to be together again. That would just be so good now for decision making action challenge. Let's also take that on. So in the past few weeks, there's definitely been a lot of conversation about bias and tools to interrogated important decision. If anything is going to inspire you. Emma Isaacs winging at book should be about, let's just take that leap. So you're 70 or 80% comfortable with decision. This is the week to take the decision on and just leap. Let's see what happens. We're all going to do it collectively together. Exactly what we've been talking about. Let's raise each other up and you have our support to make it happen. Yes. Perfect time of the year too. I've seen some things on Instagram about people reminding us that this. It's something like 60 days until the end of the year. But, you know, there's a positive message in that you've got 60 days to the end of the year. What can you do each day? That is really going to be impactful for yourself and the decision that you want to make impactful for somebody else by sending a thank you note or being thoughtful about a gift or a catch-up. The message is lots of impactful decision making and thoughtful kind actions, is great. our next episode will be in a fortnight's time. So in two weeks, 18th of November. We've got three more episodes to go for this season so we're going to do them in two in fortnightly episode drops from here on end to the end of the year next episode we'll be talking about one of our other pillars which is cultivating career success on your terms so that'll be next episode In two weeks on the 18th of november so we look forward to speaking to you then any final words miranda just please check us out on all of the socials if you could share the podcast we would be super super grateful for that please share and follow so you don't miss an episode particularly as we move to this sort of fortnightly drop and just thank you so much it's been a wonderful episode wonderful Seeing you in person claire and listeners we hope you've really enjoyed this book review if you would like to check it out we do have a booktopia link in our show notes have a great week have a great fortnight, Awesome See you next time round up thanks everyone