Rituals and Routines

Kathleen Shannon 0:00
Hey Emily, guess what I'm looking forward to

Emily Thompson 0:04
if I had to guess I'd say your next meal all through that.

Kathleen Shannon 0:08
But even more than that I'm looking forward to our annual being boss vacation in New Orleans.

Emily Thompson 0:13
Same. We still have a handful of tickets left. So if you've been wanting to join us on our annual being boss vacation in New Orleans and consider this you're signed to join us for a live podcast recording, masterclasses and workshops, and an epic Abbas celebration and more with me, Kathleen and your creative peers from all over the world

Kathleen Shannon 0:35
in the most magical city in the world, right?

Emily Thompson 0:39
Yes.

Kathleen Shannon 0:40
All right. The being boss vacation is happening September 26. To the 28th in New Orleans. Go to being boss club slash Nola. For all the details.

Emily Thompson 0:50
We hope to see you there.

Kathleen Shannon 0:55
Hello, and welcome to being boss,

Emily Thompson 0:57
a podcast for creative entrepreneurs. I'm Emily Thompson. And I'm Kathleen Shannon. Alright bosses in the last few episodes, Kathleen and I have been getting down to business. In this one, we're going to chat about rituals and routines for work and life that help us feel grounded when we're making it all do.

Kathleen Shannon 1:23
As always, you can find all the tools, books and links we reference on the show notes at WWW dot FEMA dot club. Listen you all turning your side hustle into a full time job can be intimidating and even downright terrifying. You know, you can do it. But with so many hats where success can feel a long way off. Whatever your business entails finding the right tools to help you along the way is a big part of your success. tasks like accounting need to be taken care of on the regular. And while spreadsheets and shoeboxes full of receipts might get the job done. They aren't all that efficient. And listen to me I'm that person that totally used to do that before I had freshbooks. whenever it comes to accounting, there's no better tool for entrepreneurs than fresh books cloud accounting. Fresh books is accounting software that helps you make better use of your time. It's been designed with you a freelancer in mind, not for accountants. with fresh books, you can send an invoice in 30 seconds, set up online payments through invoices in just two clicks, and document and organize receipts with the camera on your mobile device. Overall freshbooks users can save up to 192 hours each year. So take off a few hats and use your time more wisely. freshbooks is a time saving business tool you've been looking for. To get a 30 day trial of fresh books right now go to freshbooks comm slash being boss and enter being boss in the How did you hear about us section? Okay, Emily, I want to talk more about like rituals and routines and kind of just our flow of life right now. And I want to start the conversation by touching base on our word of the year. So what was your word of the year? I want to talk about this. Just kidding. I do. My way you really don't know

Emily Thompson 3:20
I do I do.

Kathleen Shannon 3:23
Y'all Emily's like over there shaking her head like nope, nope. No, don't do it. No, I'm asking you to jump out of a plane or something or go swimming with sharks.

Emily Thompson 3:32
So guys, and my word of the year was peace. which hopefully the attitude with which I expressed that should tell you how it's going. So it's really funny. At the end of last year, you and I were talking about what our word of the year was going to be and you told me you're like, I don't want to do it. You and your reasoning was that to whenever you choose a word you always feel like that's where you're most tested. And you just didn't want to like put yourself through that. I don't know if you Yeah,

Kathleen Shannon 4:03
like, No, I do recall that. And I feel like you were like, What are you talking about?

Emily Thompson 4:08
Right? Well, no, I was like I understand because I feel it last year, my word was strength and holy cow. This year with my world beat or my word being peace. I

Unknown Speaker 4:19
thought I was playing it safe.

Emily Thompson 4:20
I thought it was like he's in there with something good. And I found myself having to find peace in the most tumultuous of storms.

Kathleen Shannon 4:29
I mean, right like it would not be an intention or a value if you are not tested on it a little bit.

Emily Thompson 4:36
So much so much. So it's going great. Obviously, for sure. I'm working on it this year has been really crazy for work especially but also a little bit in life. So we're recording this kind of early in the year. It hasn't come out for a little while. So but already in 2018 I've had to deal with some really big business upheavals, as well as some like weird shit that's happened to our house. So like my life and business both have been through have been through the wringer a little bit over the past couple of months, and I keep having to obviously find my peace with you know, the storm whirling around me. And it's had me you know, focusing more on meditation and really being grateful for what it is that I have another My life has been really totally awful guys, because it hasn't I'm very lucky and grateful for everything that I have. But it hasn't been easy to practice peace.

Kathleen Shannon 5:37
Yeah, nothing is going to shake up your peace, like having your roof replaced and working from home. Yeah, and that was schooling from home.

Emily Thompson 5:44
That was a really trying week. But it was also like all the things that led up to us for having to find the house. So that was the big house thing that happened was early in the year. We like I was in the shower, I looked up and oh, where'd that water spot come from. And what was could have been potentially just like a little patch job ended up being a complete redo of our entire roof. And not just like the roofing, but like the roof deck, all of the things. And it was one of those things that just snowballed really quickly into an insanely expensive endeavor on a roof that we thought we were going to have for another 567 years having to be completely redone. At the same time, we decided to do some renovations to our house, which again, really lovely things, but I was also really terribly sick. During all of it as well. I had like fever and adding dust to all that didn't make things better. And was also working from home and homeschooling through, you know, the weeks of construction and all of those things. So that was the house stuff. And then some fun business things as well, as well as the launching of the book, which has been really exciting and wonderful. And all of those things. It's just been it's been a really big year so far.

Kathleen Shannon 6:54
Okay, so whenever those moments come up, where you feel challenged, and because your intention of peace is front of mind, like how does that pan out for you in the moment? And what do you do to cope,

Emily Thompson 7:07
I always have to find a quiet place, which when you're getting your roof redone is pretty difficult. I had to wait a couple of days to find it then. But defining a quiet moment is really important for me and I can usually like you know, drop into a meditation or just enjoy the quiet for the moment. I also spend a lot of time in my yard. So like we've been really getting into gardening this year. And so that's been that's been a place where I can kind of retreat out back, touch my plants or whatever it may be. And just like remember that the world is bigger and more beautiful than the bullshit that's going on in my life.

Kathleen Shannon 7:40
There you go,

Emily Thompson 7:41
right.

Kathleen Shannon 7:42
Well, I have never been more engaged with a word of the year than I have this year. And I thought that my word was kind of like Ohio know, a little cheesy. So my word is abundance. And I feel like

Emily Thompson 7:57
that's cheesy.

Kathleen Shannon 7:59
Well, I feel like it's one of those words that's said too often in a yogi voice abundance. Recognize that? Yeah, you know what I'm yeah, yeah. I feel cheesy about it. Gotcha. But it was my word of the year. And I have certainly been challenged by that. Certainly business wise, and I don't know, like, I haven't experienced I think that we had some explosive growth with being boss. And now we're at a place where we're having a more steady even growth, but I'm so used to that explosive trajectory that I was. I thought we were gonna be multimillionaires by now.

Emily Thompson 8:41
Right?

Kathleen Shannon 8:42
Dear listeners, I hate to disappoint you. We are not multimillionaires, right?

Emily Thompson 8:47
We're not even single millionaires. Right now just like also paint that picture correctly as well. Right I I've enjoyed watching you. I've enjoyed watching you practice abundance because I can see you redefining it for yourself as you go.

Kathleen Shannon 9:05
So I am so I, at the beginning of the year I thought my word is gonna be abundance. I don't make a shit ton of money. But what it has challenged me to do is redefine where I have abundance already. And to really understand, okay, if I had a million dollars if I had $10 million, how would my life be any different like what would be different and then how can I experience that feeling now so like also throwing in some law of attraction stuff with it and the truth is, is that I am truly living a rich life and that has become my mantra for abundance. And I felt it most whenever you and I were hiking in the redwoods while we were on book tour and I thought we are having the most abundant, rich experience right now. And it is free. Well okay, it costs $10 to get into the park but for the most part like it does It costs a lot of money to live a rich life. And for me, you know, I'm about to go on a podcast, and I'm prepping for it. And they asked, like, do you feel successful. And I feel like at this point, my relationship with my family, my relationship with my business partners with my friends, it feels abundant. Truly, it does. And that's the kind of thing that money can't buy. And I know that that's really cheesy. And I will also 100% acknowledge that I am coming from a place of privilege and I have enough money, like I have enough money to meet my basic needs of food and living in a house and even be able to get some sushi on a Tuesday, right. But at some point, I don't know, like, I feel like I have enough. And so this is the other thing that I struggle with too, is at this point of gratitude, I've never felt this much gratitude for what I already have. And so much so that I'm about to go into, like our intention for the month is decluttering. I want to declutter, so I can work more with what I've got, not even to like, expand space for more stuff, which you might think of whenever you think of abundance, expansion. Not even that I just want to work more with what I've got. So it's allowing me to even release some of the things that I don't need in my space anymore, and finding abundance in that way. But I am struggling a little bit because I do want to be a multimillionaire, no shame in that game, I feel like I will be able to make so much more impact for the world. And even you know, recently for our book campaign, we had a giving back campaign. And even just being able to give, you know, a couple $100 to organizations and foundations felt so good, I want to do more of that. And I know that if I can have millions of dollars, I can make more of an impact in those places as well. So like, those are the things that I would do with that money. And so I've just been kind of meditating on that. Okay, but here's the place where I've been coming up against recently, and I'm really actually curious to chat this out with you, Emily, is that I want abundance for our audience. And you know, the people who listen to the show and engage with us. And I think that we probably see a lot of people who are struggling to make ends meet, doing what they love, like they are struggling paying the bills with their business, and a lot of them are coming to us for advice. So first and foremost, like, we're shining a light on the people who are not quite yet boss, for example, or we're attracting them in this way that like it feels like maybe there's more of it than there actually is like, I bet there's a lot of bosses listening to the show who are paying the bills doing what they love, we're just not hearing from them as much. So there's something about our brand that is attracting this and that's fine too. But then it I have to be careful not to like go into a lack place myself like to take on other people's scarcity mindset as my own does that make sense. And at the same time, I want abundance for our listeners and our audience and our bosses. Like more than anything I just want. Like whenever I think about what I really want the world to be whenever it filtered through the lens of abundance. I want creatives I want anyone to be able to do what they love for a living without having to worry about meeting their basic needs and paying the bills. That's what I want. Agreed. So like I don't know how to reconcile this like so I'm I'm focusing on abundance, but I'm also seeing scarcity. And I don't know if it's like a you know, what you resist persists kind of thing like, does focusing on an intention, bring up the inverse of that intention? Does that make sense? Yeah,

Emily Thompson 13:50
I mean, that's what you were talking about. A couple of months ago, when you didn't want to do this. That's what I was just talking about with you know, every time we do set these intentions, we are thrown the exact opposite in order to test our ability to like Hold tight to those intentions, which is how it works. I think you can only experience beauty through pain sort of thing where you know, you have to like I don't know, what is there's there sayings that I'm not going to butcher right now. But there are lots of them that have to do with exactly that. I do want to talk about like this intention setting that we do though, because as you know, as we're explaining how or how difficult that can be, and how it definitely brings up for us the opposite in order to force us to focus on what it is that we're trying to focus on. This intention setting you know, routine and ritual is something that Kathleen and have and I have adopted and shared together over the past several years. I mean, at this point, maybe like five, six years now we've been sort of playing this intention game and I can definitely feel it snowball Looking into becoming like bigger and bigger parts of our lives, where, you know, early on, I would set a monthly intention and forget about it after a day or two. And now I find myself like really living these every single day. And it really allows us to not only obviously think about what it means for ourselves, but what it means for everyone around us.

Kathleen Shannon 15:22
Yeah, totally. It's and it's so funny. Whenever you're talking about our like our intention, practice snowballing. I also feel like it's very much merging where our intentions like not only our periods synced up. So our intentions, apparently, yeah, for sure. So

Emily Thompson 15:39
even going back to what Kathleen was talking about a minute ago with us, you know, hiking in the woods in San Francisco, it was, I guess it's the new moon in Aries, like new Zodiac year happening. And Kathleen and I were going through redwoods were like let's go set some intentions for emotional development over the next year, like what is this going to look like? And we're hiking through the woods and Katelyn goes, Emily, what's your word? I go enthusiasm and she goes Shut up. So is mine.

Kathleen Shannon 16:05
Yeah, and so actually, that's really a good way to highlight a ritual that we did out in the redwoods was we set an intention out there, we wrote it on a bayleaf. We buried it without disrupting anything, we pulled a tarot card, we reflected on it. And it was as simple as that. And it's a moment that we will never forget. And that's one of the things that I love about the rituals and routines that we not only infuse into our lives, but into our business, is that it helps just like punctuate what we're doing every day with a little bit more meaning that also becomes a little bit more memorable.

Emily Thompson 16:39
For sure, for sure. I mean, I will never forget that. All parts of it. And, but it's also something that you don't even have to do. It's such like, you know, monumental moments, and we were on book tour, like it was this really big moment and mining Kathleen's lives. But these are also the kinds of things that we do you know, every single month, they're in some cases every single day to really tap into why it is that we're showing up to do this shit day after day, basically.

Kathleen Shannon 17:08
Okay, so I just had a thought about abundance and scarcity, I have to talk it through, go for it, go for it. Okay, so I think in the same ways, I've been working on it for myself, for myself, I need to stop projecting that maybe some of our audience is experiencing scarcity, like just because I get an email from somebody saying, I'm freaking out about money, or I don't know how to reconcile time, whenever it comes to working a day job and having a side hustle, I need to stop thinking like throwing them into the scarcity pool, and start really finding the places where they have abundance, just like I'm finding the places I have abundance. So this is my new intention whenever it comes to that. And then also, I love how our monthly intentions, which we typically line up with the new man, and tends to align or somehow support our overarching theme of the year as well. And so it really helps you make new connections whenever you're setting monthly intentions, and then pairing it with your yearly focus. So for example, another place where we're in sync or aligned is this month, we were texting back and forth like okay, what's what's our intention for the month. And it's funny because as much as we've adopted this as a ritual and routine and our work in life, I still sometimes forget. And that's why I love having a business bestie like you that can text me and say like, Ah, I'm having trouble thinking of my word helped me hash it out. And I'm like, Oh, yeah, I haven't even thought about my word yet. But intuitively, what I've been thinking about, you know, it's, it's just a good reminder. And it's a good practice to do with someone else, like an accountability, buddy, right. And so you were talking about decluttering and wanting something around decluttering. And I was like, that's it. That's the word. And since then, I've been taking a bag of stuff to like out to my trunk of my car every single day to then take to Goodwill and donate. And this decluttering is really playing into abundance as far as I have more than enough that I can get rid of stuff. And feel even more abundant. Whenever my house is cleared out of stuff that is weighing me down. So like, for me the idea of abundance coming in not getting more but having less, what am I in trip that is

Emily Thompson 19:27
right, expand that perception, open your mind, all of those things. And I think I think that's kind of the purpose of this is the purpose of showing up and doing the thing consistently, is that one, you know, it's going to work for the good and two, it's going to continue, you know, opening your ability to see the world in different ways. I think if we're all just showing up and doing the thing, we're not growing as humans, but if we're showing up and doing it with intention, we're getting closer and closer to who it is that we're supposed to be. is not easy. Nothing worth doing is easy. And it's not necessarily fun. But I do find it terribly fulfilling,

Unknown Speaker 20:07
for sure.

Kathleen Shannon 20:09
Okay, so I think that intentions and values, you all you can find these in our book, I think that's one of the best places to find these exercises, where we're talking about it. We also have it at being bossed clubs, slash values, a whole list of values that you can pick from and choose from. So be sure to check that out. But I want to go from that which is more of a mindset thing into like a really tactical and practical habits and routines that reflect our rituals or just like what we're doing. So what what are you doing? Oh, me,

Unknown Speaker 20:44
I'll go first.

Emily Thompson 20:46
So one of the things that I do is, you know, I get out and take a walk in my yard. Every day I walk about, we call it like serving the kingdom, even though our kingdom is like a quarter acre, guys. It's not huge, this nice little plot of land, but we call it serving our kingdom. And we go out and just see what's growing basically, or like, this morning went out there was a dead bird in the front yard, like just what has happened in the yard. Over the past,

Kathleen Shannon 21:15
I also think that you're so like, visceral with, you're serving the king though. I'm touching all the things yesterday, I was on a walk and I touched a tree and I thought of you.

Emily Thompson 21:26
I appreciate that. I'm sure my neighbors think that I am a nutcase because I literally will walk around and touch all of my plants. Not all of them all the time, but probably within a week, I'm touching them all.

Kathleen Shannon 21:37
So are you touching them? Because like you're a kid with that kind of sense of curiosity that has to be expressed through the sense of touch, or are you like, giving them love? Like, what is happening whenever you're touching? What am I doing?

Emily Thompson 21:53
Um, I guess, is probably one of the weirdest things I've ever said, but I'm experiencing their growth. How about that? Isn't that weird? is saying more? Right? So the best example of this is I have a Japanese maple tree in the front yard. That is right. It's one of my favorite things on the planet. And I remember whenever we were looking for a house, David asked me like, because we're tree people. He was like, what kind of tree do you hope our new house has. And I was like, I would love Japanese maple like that would be fantastic. If it doesn't have one, we'll plant one. And the house that we chose had a Japanese maple in the front yard. And it wasn't because of the maple. It just all lined up that way because that's how the world works. And so I have this very beautiful Japanese maple in the front yard. And whenever it blooms every spring, its leaves are amazing. Like they come out as like these little like soft, hairy red leaves. And they are they're just so soft. I can't help but touch them. And then as they grow, they lose the fur. And they become quite a bit more lifelike. But I like experiencing that throughout the process of it going from being a weird little hairy leaf to being like a hard maple leaf. And so that's really what I'm doing is I'm just experiencing all of my plants growing.

Kathleen Shannon 23:15
I love it. Are you smelling them too? know, something I've tried doing is like, I don't know, because I'm in a new house. Like as spring is happening, and things are blooming. I'm like rubbing my fingers on things that I think might be an herb in the smelling so that you can tell what it is good. But a lot of things don't smell like anything. So those are weeds, right?

Emily Thompson 23:38
Yes, most likely. I'm right. So I don't like smell all the things like there are plants in my yard that do smell good. I'll smell those like I'm always walking by my rosemary and like rubbing my hand down and smelling my hand and weird things like that. But I'm not just generally walking around smelling off my plants

Kathleen Shannon 23:55
now Okay, so you're touching things touching them.

Emily Thompson 23:57
I'm looking at flowers as they grow. We we also like we love mushrooms in this house. Like our backyard gets these patches of mushrooms most mornings and they're always they're only there for like minutes like once the sun hits them. They're gone. So we always like get out and try to like see the mushrooms before they disintegrate.

Kathleen Shannon 24:19
Wait How does that work? Do they pop up and then are they going back into the earth or are they disintegrating and then more are popping up the second they're disintegrating and more popping up?

Emily Thompson 24:29
Yeah, right. Mushrooms are fascinating. If anybody like needs to hang out with the mushrooms there's actually a really great Netflix documentary about mushrooms if you just want to go there just are they

Kathleen Shannon 24:43
have is the documentary about the magical kind psilocybin.

Emily Thompson 24:47
All mushrooms are magical, but no, not those magical mushrooms. No, but they're they're completely fascinating organism. And so it's one of those things that we get really geeky about as we walk around. I'm Dr. de la. I'm also currently making for instance, girl that's happening. We had a conversation together this morning. He's less scared of us than most squirrels are. He's kind of a baby. And he hasn't been taught to be super afraid of humans. And so we're hoping that we can be his friend and we just really want to feed him. Oh,

Kathleen Shannon 25:19
I love that. He's really cute. And Shauna has a squirrel, nubby twiglets Oh, yes,

Emily Thompson 25:24
yes, I was watching this little squirrel speak to me this morning. And I thought of her squirrel. So it's so cute. Um, so that's one of the things that I do every single day or not. If it's raining and off, it's super cold. But as often as I can, and the warm weather, I'll go out there twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening and just do a lap around the guard to see see what's up for no real purpose other than it's something to do that I enjoy doing. Like, there's no like real hardcore purpose, I'm not going out there. And like weeding every day or anything, like I just want to go see what's happening in the like, realm that is my home. And that always makes me feel super grounded. And reminds me again, that there are things happening in the world that have nothing to do with my online businesses or you know, the problems that I have, or the problems that other people have that are put in front of my face, or whatever it may be, that there are things happening in the world that are not affected by any of that. And they're beautiful.

Kathleen Shannon 26:25
You know, and coming back to the ritual and routine aspect of this though, and even the intention, I'm thinking about the garden awakening by our friend, Mary Reynolds, who has been on the show. And she talks about like walking the premise to almost like stake your claim a little bit right, like to really draw your boundaries. And I think that that's a really interesting, even if it's not something that's front of mind for you, as you're doing this, I think that's what you're doing. And for me, I even think about whenever I think about, like what makes my home a home, I always think about what it smells like. So the smells of the spices that I use, or the instance that I use. And I think of it as like infusing the space with energy or even having friends over. And I think that's what you're doing with your outdoor space is that you were infusing it with his energy. You're claiming it as yours. And I think it's a really beautiful ritual and routine, even if like you're not thinking about every single time you do it. And that's something else I want to point out about rituals and routines is that sometimes they can become the kinds of habits that aren't like super precious or such a big deal all the time.

Emily Thompson 27:34
Yeah, I think a lot of people put a lot of pressure or a lot of precious, a lot of pressure on creating routines and rituals that like they have to show up in a certain way every single time. And I think, you know, one of the things that we love about routines is that it's one of those things that you can do almost mindlessly, that can get you the same result every single time. And that's definitely It doesn't mean that it's less. I mean, I guess it does mean that it's less meaningful, but it doesn't make it meaning less, I guess is what I'm saying. It is still meaningful, you're still doing it for some sort of desired effect. And there's not a whole lot of pressure to do it, you can just do it and enjoy the process, even if it's different every single time or the same every single time. It's good stuff. What about you?

Kathleen Shannon 28:22
Well, I have a really short at my morning routine. And on telling me all that well I've just added in one small thing. So in the mornings, whenever I wake up, I go to the kitchen and I drink a huge glass of water every single morning. And I have been obsessed with the idea of hydration and not just getting fluids in my body but really getting that water into my cells. I don't know the science behind this stuff. But I listened to it like a lot of those like biohacking podcasts, I also listened to a lot of like magical stuff. So really blending the science with the magic with the body and like our experience as humans is really fascinating to me. And so I was connecting a few different dots between all of the different things that I was listening to. And like pink Himalayan salt, you might know more than I do like what the more magical properties of it is. But I recently learned that the word salary comes from Salt that soldiers were paid in salt. And so coming back to abundance and living a rich life in the morning. What I've been doing is warming up my water on the stove a little bit and then adding a pinch of pink Himalayan salt to the bottom of a mason jar. And I like doing this out of a mason jar too. Like there's something about the weight of it that feels extra special rather than just a regular glass. And also probably because I'm heating up the water it's nicer to have like a thicker glass some burning my hand. So I throw in a pinch of pink Himalayan salt, a teaspoon of calm magnesium powder and then squeeze of half a lemon Then even this morning, so I put all that in there. And then I pour the hot water over it and I stirred up. And you can see, because of like the magnesium and the salt and the lemon, like it makes a little Cyclone in the middle, like a little vortex in the middle. So even this morning, I was holding the water and I was like I'm living a rich life as this vortex is happening I am and then I drink it. And so I've been doing that every morning. And there's just something about like this extra little ritual that I've included in my day has been phenomenal. And I can't really describe what it is other than I feel like it's like taking a mundane thing that I was doing anyway to the next level. And really blending the science of it like getting more hydrated, getting more of those like minerals with the spirituality of it of like infusing my intention into this water, pushing it into all my cells. So there's been that, then, I haven't been great about journaling, like even morning pages never really resonated with me because I just felt like nothing was ever really coming of it. So I recently read tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss, which I'm obsessed with that is my new favorite book, I think every creative entrepreneur should have it. And so he talks about this thing called Five Minute journaling. And it's basically listing three things that you're grateful for. And then my favorite one my favorite prompt is today will be great if and then just listing out three things. So for example, today, my today will be great if one I get in a really good workout to the sauna is open. So the sauna at my gym has been closed for a week, and I suppose to be open yesterday, but it wasn't. So I was like today will be great if the sauna is open, and I can get in a good sweat. And then the third one was like maybe something around tackling some To Do List stuff. So like if I could just get everything off my to do list or if I could get down to Inbox Zero. Or if I could go for a long walk. And I found that like my today will be great if scenarios have been really super simple. And then at the end of the day, I feel totally accomplished because I was able to do most of the things or sometimes like it'll include meditation or doing yoga nidra. And sometimes I don't do those things. And so it's just like a good reminder like, okay, didn't do those things, maybe tomorrow. And then the last thing that you journal is kind of like I am mantras. And so for me, like it's like I am attracting amazing opportunities. Lo and behold, I am or like I am living a rich life. And then not only do I have my awesome salt water that makes me feel like I'm living a rich life. I'll get like a fat tax return because I accidentally did my numbers wrong last year. But like, like little like fun law of attraction, things like that have been happening, or at least I've been noticing more serendipity in journaling every morning in this way. So that's kind of like my new rituals and routines, my new morning routine that I'm obsessed with.

Emily Thompson 33:13
I love that I love that journaling one a lot. That's one that I've definitely dropped off of this year. And it's because I didn't buy myself a new journal at the beginning of the year. Isn't that a weird thing where like, I had a couple pages left in my like journal from last year. And I was like, Oh, I don't need one yet. Like, I'll like old was being frugal, I guess and like, wait, use up these last pages and I just stopped using it all together.

Kathleen Shannon 33:37
Okay, but I took a cue from you. Because don't you do you use the yellow legal pads or like the three ring like just five star?

Emily Thompson 33:45
Yeah, for like, not like journal?

Kathleen Shannon 33:48
No. Okay, well, I've been using that for journaling. And I've been saying more consistent using like a crappy dollar store notebook then, like the typical moleskin moleskin that I get and I think is because again like that, I'm not making it so precious or so important that it can just be in like a cheap three ring binder with a plastic red cover.

Emily Thompson 34:10
Nice. I'm being too precious. So yeah, I'm doing

Kathleen Shannon 34:14
I mean, maybe there is something nice about a moleskin my brother gets a new moleskin every year like the calendar planner, and all of his tour dates. So my brother is a sideshow performer, for those of you who don't know, but like he keeps track of all of his tour dates in there. And there's something so like, old fashioned D about it is cute. It's super cute. And I just love the way that it feels. That's another thing I've been doing is I've been doing a lot more pen to paper business planning. Yes. And it's something that we preach so much and like even our CEO day kit, is you're printing off 10 worksheets and you're filling them out by hand but there is something that happens whenever you start packaging something up and selling it like even chalkboard method. I haven't done it this here yet. And it's like one of those things where I feel like once I start teaching something so much, I stopped doing it myself. And I know that this happens even for like yoga instructors, for example is that they stopped practicing what they preach. But I've been getting back to it and remembering like, oh, whenever I'm struggling with things in my business, if I put pen to paper and actually work it out, it gets it out of my head onto paper and into an action plan that I can execute on and feel better about every single day. So like I've been doing a lot more of like pen to paper business planning, and that has made a huge difference.

Emily Thompson 35:38
Good. I love that. That's one of those things that I do still do. And I haven't been a or egg can't do business planning on the computer. I have such a hard time dude. Like my brain just can't work that way. So I love that I like sitting down once a week at least with a business notebook. And just either planning something or laying out the week ahead that that like pen to paper and that routine of doing it once a week, definitely, I think contributes to my ability to get shit done.

Kathleen Shannon 36:09
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Emily Thompson 37:04
is a ridiculous number. No computer workdays. 30 no computer work days, right. So one of the things that I've found a lot of for a long time, is that I don't like being in front of the computer anymore. Like I don't love it, it hurts my body to sit here in front of the computer, it hurts my brain to look at the screen all the time. So one of the things that I decided to do this quarter is 30 days of no computer at this point, I think I've done one, two, because I did a chalkboard for it hold up, let me count 912345 678-910-1112 I've done 12 of the 30 so far.

Kathleen Shannon 37:46
Okay, pro tip if you do like groupings of five.

Emily Thompson 37:51
See, I decided I know and design mistake, I decided to be cute and like bubble them in at random. I hate that decision. bad decision.

Kathleen Shannon 38:03
at all I know.

Emily Thompson 38:04
And I hate it. So I have to count them. And I can't really tell exactly like, it's bad idea I might redo it's a bad idea. But I have done 12 of the 30 so far, and a lot of that has been booked for stuff. So that counts as like days that I'm not sitting at a computer.

Kathleen Shannon 38:23
But I want to point that out to you. Because I've been on a lot of business trips with people who are spending like an hour or two in the morning hashing out work on their computer. And whenever we were on book tour, we really weren't doing any of

Emily Thompson 38:36
them. I didn't bring my wife, I never bring my laptop when I travel with you. I don't know if you've ever noticed that I never had a

Kathleen Shannon 38:42
laptop, I guess because I've got mine. Right? I

Emily Thompson 38:46
always know you're gonna have yours. So I have to, but also even you don't like there have been times when you have like, but for good reason. Um, but I never bring my laptop whenever I travel for business. And, um, and so I'm able to really use those days as like no computer days where I'm still working and getting things done, obviously. But I don't have to add a computer. One of the things that I have led myself to believe as I've built these online businesses is that I'm not working in less than sitting at the computer and that is not true. That is like as a CEO of a business or two. I can be working not at a computer and granted, starting Almanac and being a product based business has definitely given me the ability to to really separate my work from a computer but even at being boss like I can do hardcore planning pen to paper or I can have I can have out of house meetings and things that aren't at the computer. And so it's really forced me to think about how I can diversify my work hours so that it doesn't all involve a computer. screen,

Kathleen Shannon 40:01
you know, one of my favorite rituals and routines that I have is going for a walk. And I've been walking more every single day since I moved up here to Detroit. And even in the snow, and the cold, I've been getting outside and walking all the time, like I'm probably averaging 10,000 steps a day pretty easily. And sometimes I was feeling guilty about that, like taking that time to do that, because I'm probably spending about an hour an hour 15 walking. And like whenever it comes to tracking my time between braid and being boss, and then I'm spending an hour walking, and I'm also spending an hour in the morning working out. So probably like two hours a day moving my body. But in the grand scheme of things that makes me so much more efficient. And while I'm walking, I am coming up with so many more ideas. And I have found that like, this year has felt like one of my more creative years or like I'm freaking out a little bit less. And I haven't been staying super consistent with meditation, but I have been seeing more consistent with walking. And it just like opens up my brain to and I'm also listening to podcasts, I'm learning new things as I go as well that I'm absolutely applying to my businesses. So it's hard to like, I don't know, for me say like, that's not work, but it also doesn't feel like work. Does that make sense?

Emily Thompson 41:13
Yeah, I think it's work for sure, you should definitely just stick that in timely, haha, as your walk your walk time, because I do think that's work. And walking I think is important. That's something we do every day, if not twice a day, because we have a dog that needs to go for a walk and definitely something that, you know, we usually do it as a family, like that's family time for us. So whether it's before I get in here and do work and or you know, just after work or before we start getting ready for bed, it's a time that we can get together and you know, talk about our day or what we have planning for the day or what happened that day or you know what we want to do or where we're going to eat for dinner, it's always a great time to actually hash out what you're eating for dinner is when you're on a walk with everyone. So that's something that we definitely enjoy. And again, getting outside and we do a walk around the neighborhood that has me expanding my survey of the kingdom to like other people's yards as well. There are several like overhanging like rose bushes that overhang like sidewalks and things that will stop and smell the roses or you know, pick some honeysuckles along the way. Like it's become a nice like routine and even ritual and a lot of ways there are a couple hunting cycle buses that are like mining Lily snack along the way. That's a fun little thing to do, you know, as a family, but also just a human being who spends a lot of time with technology.

Kathleen Shannon 42:37
As someone who loves to eat honey cycles are not a snack. That's a testing experience. Just there is a tasting experience. You're right, I stand corrected. I stand corrected. Um, so one thing I've been doing lately that I've really been trying to get more intuitive with is my workouts. So those of you who follow me on Instagram, you may have seen some of my Instagram Stories of my workouts. And one of the things that I've done since this year since like moving away from my gym buddies, who I love so much. And I still look to for a lot of programming and guidance whenever it comes to my workouts. I've been trying to just get really intuitive with it. And this is something I actually look up to Melissa Hartwig a lot for so she has a background in CrossFit and all the things. And then I've also done some pretty hardcore workouts in the past and done a lot of boxing and done a lot of different things. And I've even tried bodybuilding and counting my macros and all of that I'm done with all of it. Like I just want to do movement that feels really good. And some days deadlifting really heavy, feels really good. Other days doing some light kettlebell work feels really good. And really just really intuitive about like, what does my body really need right now there are some days I'll just completely skip the gym altogether and do some yoga nidra instead, which is for those of you who don't know, like yoga nidra is not even moving through different asanas or different poses, it is literally laying there and bring your attention to different parts, different points of your body, and it becomes this total relaxation experience. And sometimes that's exactly what my body needs. But I do get like some questions on Instagram about how to work out or what's the best approach to getting in shape and we're talking about walking. Nothing has. This isn't about changing your body composition, but I will say in my experience, nothing has changed my body composition to feel stronger and leaner than walking every single day. Like if I'm doing nothing else but that I'm so solid like golden. So I'm just throwing that in there as well because I get a lot of questions about it. I love getting a lot more intuitive with my workouts like really listening to my body and oh, this made me think of that because you're talking about how sitting at your desk makes your body hurt. And so I think that our bodies hold so much wisdom and knowledge. And if we can start listening to that a little bit more, the better we are going to be personally professionally across the board.

Emily Thompson 45:15
I agree my body does not want me to sit here anymore guys, like very legit, which actually has me thinking about, you know, other desk solutions and studio setups and those sorts of things. It even has me get this thinking about getting an out of house office, like really a little bit and literally just for the fact of like, getting me further away from my bed and not that like not saying that for the purpose that like I spend my day in bed because I don't I'm only in bed when I'm sleeping at night. But literally just that act of like removing myself further from like where I am, so that my body has to be upright for longer everyday, right? Like that feels weird, but it has me thinking about it has been thinking about that a lot. I'm not ready to make any decisions. But after almost three years of working at it in home office after having a studio for about three years, I think it may be time for me to swing the other way. But we will interesting,

Kathleen Shannon 46:11
I like it. I also find that like with Sorry, I keep talking about working out. It's only because it's my favorite thing that I do. Like it's basically My hobby is working out. But I do find so many lessons and doing hard things and understanding my limits and my boundaries. With working out like for me, there is no better metaphor for my life as a creative entrepreneur than my life in the gym as well. or outside of the gym, wherever I'm getting my movement in. Right.

Emily Thompson 46:42
I like that. And even to go back to it. It's funny, I think these probably align really well with our intentions as well. But for me, another routine that I am staying in and we talked about this a couple several episodes ago about meditating is I am still meditating most mornings. So it's changed a lot. From then now it's just very, like I wake up and the first thing that I do is I usually have a couple of crystals on the side of my bed or on my bedside table. grabbing one of those usually relatively intuitively though, I've been super drawn to I have a super chunky Black Tourmaline, which I love very dearly, which is weird, but it's true because it's a rock. And I'll put it over a chakra. Intuitively, Solar Plexus is where it usually lives and and just meditate for however long, five minutes, 20 minutes, whatever it may be. And then I start my day and that has been that has been very grounding and a good experience. And one where you know if I do go a couple of days without doing it, I can tell I haven't done it. And mostly like I just miss it. Not that like my brain feels more scattered, but like I like you know not seeing a friend for a couple of days. You can just kind of miss it.

Kathleen Shannon 48:03
Okay, so I have something that's been happening with meditation, what I have to share, it's it's kind of like intention a little day where it's like, I know, where I feel like whenever I meditate, in some ways, I feel like it makes me more sensitive. And then like I end up having like a total emotional meltdown after a few days of meditate. Interesting. Yeah. So if any listeners know anything about that,

Emily Thompson 48:26
please write a detailed email because yeah, check that out.

Kathleen Shannon 48:30
Because I was so proud of myself. I did yoga nidra three days in a row. And then I had a total meltdown. Like just feeling like a terrible mom, a terrible business owner, like one of those like spiral moments where I was like, everything is shit. And I was like, but I've been meditating.

Emily Thompson 48:48
Maybe you should have done day four.

Kathleen Shannon 48:50
But you know what i exactly? That's exactly right. But speaking of crystals, I'm kind of coming back around to them. So like we dabble in a lot of Whoo. And we've integrated a lot of Tarot and herbs and different kind of magical tools and talismans into our work in our lives. And crystals is one of those things that I've always thought were pretty and you know, cool, but never super connected with them. And I am starting to like, I think it's because of the rich water like with the Himalayan salt. And this idea of that making me feel like I'm living a rich life and really feeling like I can infuse intentions into this like perfect form of the salt right back into my body. I'm like, okay, it's helped me reframe, like how maybe I could work with crystals to really supercharge some of my intentions, even if it's just like, I don't know, placebo or whatever, right? Like that's okay, too. Everything is an illusion. Everything is placebo. It's fine.

Emily Thompson 49:57
For sure, I have to and we've had conversations about Before where, you know, for a long time rock scissors pretty I Love Rocks collection, like give me all of them. Um, but while doing Almanac, I've definitely had to learn more about them, I definitely have access to more of them, I found myself using them significantly more and really enjoying them. I enjoy my rocks. Um, sometimes when I hear this shit, we sit him like, why does anyone listen to us, but legit, I've, I've really been enjoying my rocks lately. And I cleanse them often, I set them out in the full moon. And I've been doing that for years, even even at times when I didn't really think that it actually mattered, I would still do it, every Full Moon sitting all the crystals, and it's not just me, Lily will go grab all of her rocks around her room, David will go grab a couple of his that he has sort of tucked away and we'll all put them out for the full minutes become like a fun little family ritual every month.

Kathleen Shannon 50:57
I love that. Okay, so I'm going to plug almanaque here because we have one of your crystal grid kids and Fox and I just did one together the other day. And I was blown away at how intuitive he was to making a crystal grid. So I kind of started with like the middle of it. And this alone is a meditation and working with crystals. And it's like doing something with your hands

Emily Thompson 51:22
and creative and like all the fun things,

Kathleen Shannon 51:25
I think start like meditating maybe even in that way and like working with crystals in that way. I think it's like a really good way to blend all of the things in a way that really works with me. And I used to think that with crystal grids that it had to be like in a certain pattern or shape or decoration. I didn't know that you could just make it up. Yeah, just make it so dumb. Like why do I need permission around anything like if I've learned anything at this point is that you can make everything up. So Fox and I started doing a crystal grid together and he just instantly picked up on it. Love created this crystal grid out of an almanac bundle that you saw like a little pouch full of Tourmaline and quartz crystals. And then we did one and then he wanted to do another one. So I just let him do it all by himself and he created this skeleton. It was amazing. It was pretty incredible. I love that he you're a witch. So anyway, I think that that was like a really fun ritual and routine that I want to do more of. And I think that like going back to our intention of the year with mine being abundance, I think I've put a lot of focus on self care. And again, this idea of living a rich life like the I don't need a ton of money to do all these things that make me feel abundant and luxurious and really good. So I've also been doing a lot of dry brushing, do you ever do any of I do

Emily Thompson 52:48
I love a good dry brushing.

Kathleen Shannon 52:52
So some dry brushing always makes me feel like a horse. So this is like an ru Vedic practice. And it's these bristles on a brush and you're literally brushing your skin from the feet up toward your heart. And it like the first time you do it, you're like, Ouch, that hurts. But then you quickly adjust to it where it feels really good. So I do that before I take a shower. One thing I've been doing so going back to working out and the parallels between that and business, like whenever I can push myself through an extra set. I'm like, Yes, this is why I'm a boss because I can do this thing. Okay, but the hardest thing I do is taking a cold shower,

Emily Thompson 53:31
I can't do it.

Kathleen Shannon 53:32
I use and I used to think that I could do it. And this is again, going back to some of that link bio hacking stuff that I'm so nerdy about. But I used to think I was doing it. I didn't realize I wasn't turning the shower all the way to cold I can do warm. Oh my gosh, about the amount of discipline and courage it takes to pull that knob all the way to cold is intense. And it is like it takes your breath away. And it is so hard to do. And then every time you do it, I'm like I'm a boss. I can do this. And I do I do it.

Emily Thompson 54:14
I didn't hire you except for the fact that you don't have to do that.

Kathleen Shannon 54:20
You don't Okay, what other like luxurious, like self care things? Like are you taking a lot of baths lately? What are you doing? Sure.

Emily Thompson 54:26
So actually, I want to shout out two things. So you were mentioning Almanac crystal grids, you can get those in x supply code calm. And I also want to mention the dry brush because we had a listener send us some dry brushes. And I don't know if this is the one you're using but it's the one that I use and I love it good because I've had a couple in the past and didn't love them as much something about the size and like the weight of this one on my hand. Also the bristles are really great. So the one that we have is from staff and co we'll make sure we have a link in the show notes. It was Yeah, it was Dyson co.com dassen co.com it was a listener who sent them to us. And they didn't tell us to say this. And it's actually been quite a while. I think she said she sent them. But while we're talking about it, they're legit. Super, so

Kathleen Shannon 55:12
incredible. It's so good. Yeah. And then your crystals from Almanack supply co are so good. And I love getting them from you. Because I know that they're infused with your love. Right? I

Emily Thompson 55:23
do totally cleanse them. And they'll probably start going out the full moon as well. Just the way

Kathleen Shannon 55:27
do you actually cleanse them before you send them out?

Emily Thompson 55:31
Yeah, and partly because they're dirty. Like it just so many hands have been on them. Like they're just kind of Ooh. But also I wouldn't be who I am if I didn't like also energetically cleanse them. So they're really ready to go. So that is something that we do. But yes to Bad's so one of the things that I did during the nonsense of our house getting that like immediate workover was one thing that I wanted to get out of it was an upgrade to our bathroom that I've wanted since we moved in, but just hadn't been a priority. So we hadn't done it yet. But that was getting a new faucet for our bathtub. So we have like one of those really nice cloth, but cast iron bathtubs. It was one of the reasons why we bought this house. It fits me perfectly. It's too small for David but literally perfect size for me, which is fantastic. And it had like a really crappy faucet on it. And what I wanted was a nice faucet with like a hand shower. So one of the things that I've been doing more lately is taking Bad's but also just going in there and like soaking my feet. So we also have this like really great like across the tub sort of little shelf thing that makes it really great seat and I'll go in there and just like soak my feet or even make some herbal infusions for soaking my feet as well you

Kathleen Shannon 56:47
can do this is soaking your feet, a euphemism for vaginal steaming. Not this time. This time, it's nice that you're actually soaking your feet soaking

Emily Thompson 57:01
my feet. Because also I'm usually walking around the yard barefooted, like that's also a thing. So I'll go soak my feet only legitimately in that tub. So I do I am liking my tub quite a lot these days.

Kathleen Shannon 57:17
So one thing that I've been really into lately are face masks and my I got a brush like to apply my face masks. So I like blending them up myself. So love also shout out to our friend and boss at Flora apothecary calm. So like she makes some really cool face masks. And then I also got one from a place called Fox naturals here in Michigan. And so I got this really nice fan brush to actually paint my face mask on with and it feels so luxurious. I've never as fuck, I know, I've never had a facial like a professional one before. But I think that I've seen people use those, like, in commercials for facials or whatever. Anyway, I get it on, it feels so nice. And then it gets on all even and smooth. I just and it feels so good. That this is making me realize like I'm really good at self care. I'm never that person. I feel like we get asked a lot on interviews like Well, how do you manage self care? And I'm like, I pray word,

Emily Thompson 58:19
managing self care is made the rest of our life around self care.

Kathleen Shannon 58:23
That's exactly right.

Emily Thompson 58:25
Right, I can definitely use some work, but I'm definitely getting much better at it. And that's like, you've definitely driven a lot of that because you It's funny, you talk about like feeling guilty, maybe even about taking two hours to work out and walk in things. But and maybe this even goes back to that. Back to the partnership and collaboration and communication episode that we did a couple episodes ago. I I'm not mad that you spend all of that time on yourself being healthy and happy because I know that it makes your work significantly better. I know it's you know, your consistent workout routine that has you showing up to do the work the way you do. And I admire that you figured yourself out enough to know that that is your priority. And that allows you to show up in the capacity that you do.

Kathleen Shannon 59:16
So half off, thanks, I'll take that. But there are like some things that I really want to work on. And probably more around like the self care around my business. So like I'm good at taking care of my body. I would like to take care of my business more. And I think that even in this conversation is really highlighted that I need to do the chalkboard method again. Yeah. Like what,

Emily Thompson 59:40
why don't I have one with bad dots.

Kathleen Shannon 59:45
And then that CEO day kid of like really putting pen to paper. And I think that I've slacked with this a little bit because you do it for us. And I'm kind of just like rely on that. But I think that whenever I can get in there and really map out what I want our business needs to look like in a really intuitive values driven way. But also getting into the money Mojo and the marketing and revenue and planning all of that out. It just makes me feel almost like it makes me feel more secure in all of the insecurity that comes with running your own business. It makes me feel safe, and it makes me feel creative. And it makes me feel like I know what I'm working toward. Okay? Are there any more like habits routines you want to do more of,

Emily Thompson 1:00:27
I think this is probably showing me that I need to get back to journaling, regardless of not having a notebook, because that's stupid. But I think part of that too, is I go in and out have a really good daily Tarot practice, like, just in and out. And I'm out at the moment. And I'd like to get back in. I think we need to get Bridget back on the show. I agree.

Kathleen Shannon 1:00:48
I have some questions for her. Okay, so the other thing that I want to make sure to touch on before we hang up on this episode, is social rituals and routines, because this is something I've been seeing a lot of value in. And probably because I've moved away from my entire support system, I'm really having to cultivate some more habits and routines and rituals around my social life more than ever before. And so for me, I've been scheduling weekends with my favorite friend Liz, who also works for us over at Bree creative, she happens to live two hours away from me in Michigan. So I'm in the Detroit side, she's in the Grand Rapids side. And every time we get together over the weekend, either she'll come to my house with her family, so she has a little boy just like I do, and her and her husband will come over. And at the end of that weekend, like we just spent all weekend cooking together. And there's nothing like cooking with a friend that will bring you together, we'll go to like her. And I will often sneak off and go grab a glass of wine and some bytes, and dream about like what we want our lives to look like. And it's so good. But the thing that I really want to point out here in this conversation is that before we leave the weekend, we plan out the next one, like when is the next one happening, and we put it in the calendar. Otherwise, it is so easy to be like, I'm feeling lazy, I'm just gonna be on my couch all weekend. So we schedule it, and we make it a priority.

Emily Thompson 1:02:16
I love that. I've also been doing similar things not quite to that capacity, but with having meals with old friends. So friends who don't live also where I live now, and meeting in places in between just share dinner. So imagine like an hour or two drive for dinner and back. Like it's a commitment. It's not just like running out for a glass of wine with a friend. It's something where you both have to work a little harder. And doing that has made me feel more connected to you know, the relationships that I that are less accessible to me now, but also not because I have a car and a phone and all of those fantastic things. So, so just having dinner, so if you can't do weekends easily enough, or if the relationships aren't super conducive for doing that I have enjoyed just regular dinners with friends, which I think most people were like, Well, duh, that's easy. But as Kathleen and I have been, you know, launching the book and diving into all of those things. It's funny, I came out of that experience, realizing that I didn't have friends anymore. And obviously I had friends, but like I hadn't seen them in forever. Like we had really been knows the grindstones for so long, that I that that priority had fallen away. And so coming back to making that a priority has been something I've been working hard to do lately.

Kathleen Shannon 1:03:33
I love it. I think the other thing I've been doing around like social rituals and routines is picking up the phone, and not even texting people but facetiming them and I each time he was that I called I think it was Bridget. So our PR rep who helped us with the launch of the book, I had to call her for something and I was like I'm just a face timer and she laughed and she was like, are you grandma and I was like I don't think grandma's know how or maybe they do but I have been specifically facetiming my siblings a lot lately. And then I get super jealous and I call my sister and then my brother is over at her house. But then I guess it's like a two for one. But I've just been enjoying facetiming with them even whenever I have nothing to say and almost just like grabbing a glass of wine facetiming and having a conversation as if I'm there and this probably even comes from and we talked about this in our partnership and collaboration episode. But I think it comes from like our ability to just hop on zoom anytime I'm bringing that to my quote unquote real life or my life outside of work and really trying to make that a priority because Instagram is not enough. Texting is not enough. I need to have some good FaceTime, literally, with my family and my friends.

Emily Thompson 1:04:50
Right I agree. And I also just want to point out something that you and I think always do when we're together is you know one talking about what we want and Setting goals like Kathleen and I are always talking about what we want. And like on some level that feels like super selfish and pointless. But also, we know that it's not Kathleen. And I know that when when we can get clear on what it is that we want, even if it's big and dreaming ridiculous, we can take action to get there. So like, knowing that every time we're in the same physical space together, that's the time we're going to get really, really dreamy. And it's also a time when we're probably going to do some sort of special intention setting or like talking really deeply about what it is that our current intention is, or whatever it may be, we've gotten really good at, at having those like, sort of big life planning moments even together, which is really important and something I value in our relationship. And I'm able to value because it's a routine and something that we in it,

Unknown Speaker 1:05:44
that it's ritual,

Emily Thompson 1:05:45
like it's something that we put a lot of energy and thought into. And we do it every time we're together.

Kathleen Shannon 1:05:51
Well Am I want to highlight that ritual piece of it, because I think that you and I are especially good at taking what Liz and I called dreamings, which is like fantasizing about what it is that you want and coming back to like, what you want, I like to make a list of 100 things that I want to do or places that I want to go or things I want to eat or make or try like it could be as simple as baking a cheesecake, or as grand as going to Tokyo and eating sushi in Tokyo. So I have like all these big life goals, or it might be like, I think I even put in there owning a house with a beautiful bathtub with a Grand View. So like that is something I've never had is like a luxurious bathtub. So even you talking about your cast iron tub, I'm like, Oh, I want that, I want that for myself, I've only been able to fill out half of my list. And I feel like there's something wrong, like why and maybe this comes with the abundance thing where like I have everything I need, and balancing that with wanting things. But I think that wanting things is what really pushes you to evolve and grow and experience as much as you can in this human body of yours. Like we only have so much time, so why not want things and make things happen. But oh, what I was gonna say about us like this whole conversation has been around rituals and routines. And I think that it's about bringing the ideas that we have, or the desires that we have, the pleasures that we seek, or the problems that we're trying to tackle. And really bringing them into reality with these rituals like these things that we are literally doing to make a memory or to make it more real. And so even, I think for us, not only do we talk about our intentions, but we've gotten to a place where we can ritualize them by writing them on a bay leaf and throwing them in the redwoods somewhere, we're probably gonna get like fined for bringing a bay leaf into the Redwood

Unknown Speaker 1:07:52
National Park,

Emily Thompson 1:07:52
it was not like it's fine. It's fine.

Kathleen Shannon 1:07:55
Okay, like is this even legal? Of all the legal things I'm like worried about doing

Emily Thompson 1:08:01
worried about putting a bay leaf in the forest. Note it.

Kathleen Shannon 1:08:06
That's how much I respect our national parks. And okay, so anyway, I think that we have taken it to that next level of like, making it concrete and making it memorable. And we've only scratched the surface on some of the things that we do to ritualize or make routines out of all these wild thoughts going through our heads. So I would encourage our listeners to really think about the rituals and routines that you are bringing to your work and your life. Think about how you can turn some of those things into habits that you can come to rely on, and really count on to like brighten your day. Hey bosses, I want to tell you about the CEO day hit. The CEO day kit is 12 months of focus planning for your business in just one day. So Emily and I have packaged up the exact tools that we've been consistently using for years that have helped us grow from baby bosses to the CEOs of our own businesses. gain clarity, find focus, get momentum, prioritize your time, make better decisions and become more self reliant with the CEO day kit. Go to courses that being boss club to learn more and see if it's a fit for you and your business.

Emily Thompson 1:09:17
Thank you for listening to being boss. If you're looking for more help and being boss of your work in life accom check out our website where you can find Episode shownotes browser archives and access to free resources like worksheets, trainings, quizzes and more. It's all at WWW dot being boss dot club. Do the work be boss