Finding Alignment With Your Business with Megan Flatt

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[00:00:00] Emily Thompson: Welcome to Being Boss, a podcast for creatives, business owners, and entrepreneurs who want to take control of their work and live life on their own terms. I'm your host, Emily Thompson. And in this episode, I'm joined by my friend, Megan Flatt for a good old fashioned business bestie chat about the current weather of business ownership, pivoting and reflecting on the path of finding alignment

[00:00:23] as an entrepreneur, you can find all the tools, books, and links. We reference on the show notes at www.beingboss.club. And if you like this episode, be sure to subscribe to this show and share us with a friend.

[00:00:38] Navigating the blend of work in life is a big one for business owners and entrepreneurs. And if you feel yourself stumbling through that dance, or just looking for inspiration, then I have a podcast recommendation for you. Work @ Life, hosted by as Sonya Lucina and Maddie Grant brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network in this podcast, Sonya and Maddie

[00:00:57] explore the gray areas between work and life, as they share data on relevant topics, around workplace engagement and culture, one recent episode titled how to be optimistic when the world around you isn't discusses the simple and complex things you can do to keep your head up. When the world feels dark, check them out and listen to work at life wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:01:25] Megan Flatt is the co-founder of Let's Collective, a business growth strategy firm devoted to making entrepreneurship easier. Let's Collective helps their clients make revenue focused decisions and then create a strategy to get there. Megan recently launched a sister brand Focus Sessions, providing dedicated distraction for you, virtual co-working and to get your most important work done.

[00:01:47] Megan is obsessed with lattes post-it notes and helping women make money. When not doing that, she's hanging with her husband and two kids probably near the water in this San Francisco bay area. You can catch up with Megan letscollective.co or focus-sessions.com and if you'd like an intro to Megan before you dive into this episode you can go back to listen to previous chats with her at episode number 233 and 254. Megan, welcome back to Being Boss.

[00:02:17] So glad to chat with you today.

[00:02:18] Megan Flatt: Yay. Thank you so much for having me again. I just love being here.

[00:02:23] Emily Thompson: We're gonna have a fun chat. I think you've been up to all kinds of fun stuff. Um, I mean you and I talk every month, so I, I know what you're up to, but you haven't officially been on the show since spring 2021?

[00:02:37] No, 21.

[00:02:39] Megan Flatt: Yeah, I think so. Yeah. It's been a while.

[00:02:42] Emily Thompson: Or was it 22? I have 21 in my notes, but now that I think about it, I actually think it was this past spring. It might have been, I dunno.

[00:02:48] Megan Flatt: It might have been, I don't. What does time even mean anymore?

[00:02:51] Emily Thompson: Yeah. What is it? What is it? I so funny, funny little side note story.

[00:02:55] I'm going over or going through applications at Almanac for a new sales associate. And someone put that today's date was 2003 on their application.

[00:03:05] Megan Flatt: Wishful thinking.

[00:03:06] Emily Thompson: And I thought, well, that's worse than most.

[00:03:10] Megan Flatt: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:03:11] Emily Thompson: So whatever that was.

[00:03:13] Megan Flatt: Yeah, yeah. I've had numerous experiences like that recently where I've either sent complete, like I've said April and it's August or yeah, I've thought August was six months ago or, you know yeah.

[00:03:24] Time has no meaning anymore.

[00:03:25] Emily Thompson: Right? What is time? Indeed? Well, let's talk time a little bit. yeah. What have you been up?

[00:03:32] Megan Flatt: Oh, my gosh. I feel like this is such a loaded question, right? Like , it's like, you know, I, I, so, so I'm a business coach. We've talked about this before. And so I get this wonderful added perspective, as I know that you do as well of not only talking about what, like what I'm up to and what I'm doing specifically, but I get this chance to talk to my clients and kind of hear like what's up for them.

[00:03:58] And what's their perspective too. And I think there's just this universal shift, right? Or this universal, uh, like this, this question of like, what's next, what's now. And what I'm doing is what I'm doing, what I want to keep doing. How do I wanna show up for myself and, you know, and for the world and all of those things and my clients, as I'm sure, you know, people that you're talking to and friends it's like some people, their businesses completely skyrocketed during the pandemic.

[00:04:34] They were in a certain niche, or it just made sense people needed what they had to offer and their business has skyrocketed and other people had to make major pivots. And either either their current business model didn't work anymore or they needed to shift or whatever it was. But I feel like it doesn't matter.

[00:04:52] It doesn't matter if your business is quadruple what it was two years ago or a quarter of what it was two years ago. I feel like everyone is kind of asking this question. Like, what's now what now? Yeah. What happens next?

[00:05:07] Emily Thompson: You know, it's funny as you're saying that. Well, one, I did just pull it up and you haven't been here since spring 2021, which is wild me.

[00:05:13] Megan Flatt: That's wild. Okay.

[00:05:15] Emily Thompson: That was over. That was a year and a half ago.

[00:05:16] Megan Flatt: Okay, great. We've got stuff to talk about.

[00:05:19] Emily Thompson: Which is, mind blowing to me. What in the world? Um, It's funny that you're saying all this, because I haven't reconnected with this for myself in a while, but I remember when the pandemic hit, you know, there was a couple of ways in which I feel like I was seeing the future.

[00:05:35] Like I remember telling a friend of mine, you know, he came over like distancing in our backyard, around a fire, like right in those very early days. And he was like, you know, oh, it'll be a few weeks. And I was like, two years. It's gonna be two years. Like in that first, like two weeks, I was like, I see it. Like, this is going to take two years.

[00:05:52] This is not going to be a quick situation. And he was just like, no. And like legit kinda. Yeah, it wasn't until about two years that everyone started really going out and, you know, trying to live their lives again. I also remember another one of the things is I kept calling. Like the great reorganization is coming.

[00:06:11] Megan Flatt: Yes, yes.

[00:06:12] Emily Thompson: Right. And I kept calling it that even like way back then the great reorganization, because I, I saw how it was gonna happen, especially like in the corporate world and stuff, but I don't think I had really dug into what it would mean for us.

[00:06:25] Megan Flatt: Right.

[00:06:25] Emily Thompson: Right. For, for our kinds of, you know, professional people who are business owners and, you know, we've made these paths for ourselves based on things that bring us so much joy or whatever.

[00:06:38] But then the world changes and what we find joy in changes along with it. And that's never put that together, but this is a realization of that great reorganization. I was talking about two and a half years ago.

[00:06:52] Megan Flatt: Well, that's the thing. And it's, it's funny cuz I took a little bit of notes before, you know, before our call and this is like the last thing I wrote down, but we'll kind of jump into it now.

[00:07:01] Like there was a, there's a meme that circulates. You know, on social, you know, every once in a while that says that entrepreneurs are the only people that are willing to work 80 hours a week to keep from working 40 hours a week.

[00:07:16] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:07:16] Megan Flatt: And I remember when I first saw it, I was like, haha. Yeah, that's me, you know, like working all the time to keep from having like a real job.

[00:07:24] And this is. No, like , you know, that's, that's been the big thing for me. It's like, we, I don't the whole reason I'm an entrepreneur is so that I can have a different experience and it's not just about flexibility or freedom or all these words that kind of get, get thrown around. But it's it's so that I really can create.

[00:07:47] My day and my work and my contribution to society and to my kids and to all of the other things that I can really, I can really create exactly what I want it to be.

[00:07:59] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:07:59] Megan Flatt: And I think that's been the big thing and I wanna get in, you know, we can talk about like specifically what I've been doing, but I think that's been the biggest takeaway for me since.

[00:08:08] You know, spring of 2021 apparently is like, is that great reorganization? Right? And is that real, that step being able to take a step back and say, Who's who's the, I just turned 45. So I just had my 45th birthday. And like, I like to think of, you know, like your new year's resolutions, but kind of around your birthday.

[00:08:27] And since my birthday's in the summer, it's like that. Perfect. In fact, we figured out that we have the same birthday.

[00:08:32] Emily Thompson: Oh my God. Yes. Okay. Side sidebar here, Megan and I have been friends for years and you know, afterwards, like I'm thinking like maybe I did know this. And it just, it fell out of my Swiss cheese brain.

[00:08:43] Megan Flatt: Right.

[00:08:43] Emily Thompson: You know, or some, but also, maybe not. We were recently on, on our, on our, you know, monthly call. It was July and Megan was like, yeah, I just had my birthday and I was like, shut up. When's your birthday? And she said, July 9th. And I was like, shut up. I mean, me too, we have the same birthday and we maybe didn't even know it.

[00:09:03] Megan Flatt: Bizarre, but see, this is, but like, I do think like, like even that it's like just this part of like, kind of coming back to, you know, coming back to, I think it's so easy to just get on the hamster wheel. Right. Of like, what's the next thing. And I think, especially during the pandemic, because I did not

[00:09:21] think it was gonna last two years, I did not have the foresight that you did. So for me, it was like this constant, like two week bump, you know, it was this constant. Like if I think if someone would've told me in March of 2020, like, Hey, this is what we're gonna do for the next two years. Like I might have approached things differently just in general, right.

[00:09:41] Might have taken my family on a world sailing trip or something. I dunno, we wouldn't have actually done that, but you know, something like that, but I think that there is just this, um, I don't know, I lost my train of thought on that, but back to talking about like, you know, just the, the, like, How do I wanna show up?

[00:10:00] How do I want, how do I wanna feel, what do I want my days to look like? What do I want my weeks to look like? What's the contribution? Cause this is the other thing that's happened in the last two years. Right? It hasn't just been this pandemic, but it's, there's really been kind of a continuing of an awakening of how do, how do I want to show up for my community?

[00:10:19] How do I wanna show up for people that are, I am incredibly privileged and you know, how do I, how do I show up for people who aren't. Who don't have the privileges that I have and how do I make my business support that, and my kids are getting older. Um, and how do I support the people that they're becoming? You know, so all of those things that have kind of just seem a lot more important.

[00:10:44] All of a sudden. Yeah. Or maybe not.

[00:10:46] Emily Thompson: So it sounds like you've had a very low key year, right? no thinking happening over here.

[00:10:51] Megan Flatt: Oh my gosh. I literally made a note in my phone note section over the, the weekend that was called no decision making.

[00:11:01] Emily Thompson: Nice.

[00:11:02] Megan Flatt: And it was because I sometimes, and I hope you can relate or someone else can relate is that sometimes I'll get so in my head about thinking about like, what is the next thing?

[00:11:13] What is the next thing that I kind of gave my per myself permission and what that section in my notes on my phone is, is kind of the things that I'm thinking about and is the things that I wanna make, but that I don't have to make a decision on those right now. That I can. That I can give myself, Hey, let's just, let's do this for the next three months.

[00:11:32] And in the, in three months we're gonna collect data. We're gonna collect the, you know, I'm gonna collect the notes of the, the things that I wanna continue to examine, cuz I think that's the big thing. And again, I think that's what the pandemic has done. I think that's what politics have done. I think that's what social justice has done in the last two years is it's just forced us to really look at what we're doing on a day to day basis.

[00:11:57] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:11:57] Megan Flatt: And asking some, some serious questions and it's really, really hard. And I think it's really, really good.

[00:12:04] Emily Thompson: I love that. Uh, my tactic has been what I have dubbed intentional disassociating.

[00:12:09] Megan Flatt: Yeah. Yes.

[00:12:10] Emily Thompson: Where I'm just like what decisions that need to be made. I'd rather go read a book, right?

[00:12:16] Megan Flatt: Yeah. I've I've read. I have read double the amount of books. So far this year that I normally read in an entire year, and they're all, like, I was laughing with a girlfriend just this morning because I'm reading all like happily ever after romance novels. Because I just, I wanna know on page two. That everything's gonna turn out fine.

[00:12:38] I just, I don't want any surprises cause we get enough of those in our lives. Right.

[00:12:44] Emily Thompson: I love that mine is definitely a sort of a, a line of, of fiction. I mean, I guess it's similar. Mine's mostly like fantasy fiction, but like, yeah, just take me on an epic adventure where maybe some bad things happen along the way, but definitely like there's gonna be a happy ending.

[00:12:59] I am in the same boat. Reading way more than usual, but for intentional dissociating for all of these big decisions and things I have to think about, I'm still taking care of my responsibilities, everyone, but in the, in between time I'm going on adventures.

[00:13:13] Megan Flatt: Right. Which is probably, probably, which is probably really good because I think that's the thing it's like when our head, when our brains are just.

[00:13:21] It's like the open computer tabs, right? It's like the open computer tabs that make your computer.

[00:13:26] Emily Thompson: My fan is on.

[00:13:27] Megan Flatt: Yeah. yeah, we gotta shut that down. We gotta shut some of those tabs down every once. Once in a while. Yeah.

[00:13:33] Emily Thompson: Oh my God. That's exactly what it's like. Well, my fan starts running. I just shut everything down and go find a book.

[00:13:39] Megan Flatt: Shut everything down. Yeah.

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[00:14:39] Right. Okay. So, so how is this actually manifested? Because you've made a couple of like, oh, would you call them pivots?

[00:14:46] Megan Flatt: Yes.

[00:14:46] Emily Thompson: Like what? OK.

[00:14:48] Megan Flatt: Yeah. Yeah. I'd call them pivots.

[00:14:51] Emily Thompson: How has this manifested for you?

[00:14:52] Megan Flatt: Well, So just literally and logistically let's dive into that really quickly. Cuz I think that this is really, um, important and it's really a realization that I have recently about this that I think it's really important to talk about.

[00:15:06] Um, so, so I have been business coaching for almost a decade. Um, I've run masterminds in different formats since about 2014. So that's definitely been kind of my preferred method of coaching. Um, I work predominantly with women and non-binary folks. That, um, are primary caregivers and I have for a long time.

[00:15:29] And I really felt that bringing those people together, um, they're, they're running their own businesses and they're feeling super alone and I wanted to bring them together, not only for the coaching aspect, but also for that community aspect of like, oh, there's other people that are going through the same things that I am.

[00:15:46] And so that's been really important to me for a long time. And. Um, 2017, 2018, 2019, my business is growing. My business is scaling. I'm making more in revenue. I'm getting, I'm running a more expensive, a more exclusive mastermind. And you know, everyone is telling me and by everyone, I just mean like, you know, all the, all the things, right.

[00:16:10] Everything is telling me like, okay, you've gotta scale. You've gotta scale. You've gotta get this bigger. And I just really had this kind of aha for me and that there's tons of awesome, awesome, awesome ways to scale coaching businesses. And what I realized was I really liked the one on one aspect of my coaching business.

[00:16:30] I really liked being able to get under the hood with my client and not, not necessarily take them through 10 modules of my coaching framework, which is an awesome way to structure your business, but I just wanted to get under the hood and, and solve my client's problems. And if I was gonna do that, I was trading time for money.

[00:16:51] It didn't matter what the money was. It didn't matter what the price point was. I was still a mentor, a business mentor of mine said you're running a practice, not a business. And at first I was kind of offended, right. Like, no and then I went, oh yeah. And I'm kind of okay with that when it came to coaching, but I did

[00:17:12] again, this is during the pandemic. I had kind of sabotaged my business in a lot of ways, because like I said, I'd worked primarily with primary caregivers and, and helping them build successful businesses while also raising children. And then all of a sudden I had my two kids home with me and I started doubting my ability to run a successful business

[00:17:33] while also, you know, parenting my children through a pandemic. And because I started doubting my ability to do it, I started doubting my ability to coach people through it. Like, who am I? Who am I to tell people what to do? So I like to say I kind of sabotaged my own business. Um, But, but about that same time, I, I started thinking about these different scalable models and, um, it's not a, it's not a new business idea.

[00:17:58] It's something that we had been doing inside our masterminds. We've been doing these virtual coworking sessions inside our masterminds. And, um, at the end of 2020, a friend sent me a link to, to another business that we're doing these virtual coworking sessions. And I was like, oh my gosh, that's it. I mean, I was on like GoDaddy buying URLs, like within five minutes, I was like, let's do this.

[00:18:21] Emily Thompson: That's how you know.

[00:18:22] Megan Flatt: Right. That's how you know, . So, you know, six months later, June of 2021, we launched Focus Sessions. And Focus Sessions is a membership based virtual co-working platform. We have 16 virtual co-working sessions a week. They're all hosted. I like to say it's like a gym, but for productivity.

[00:18:41] So they're all hosted the hosts take, um, the, the attendees through the exact same kind of eight minute we call it a focus flow. It's kind of a little warm up that gets you ready. And then you spend the next 87 minutes doing your most important work, whatever that is, whether that's writing your memoir or sending out sales emails, or getting client work done or whatever you deem as your most important work.

[00:19:05] And we have all sorts of prompts and things to help you get there. But. But it's been amazing. And, um, I love it. I've built an incredible team that helps me run it. We have an incredible group of hosts that have come from all different backgrounds, so they bring their kind of unique perspective to it.

[00:19:26] And I, I love it. And it's a scalable business model, but even more than that, It's given me permission to go back and coach the way I wanna coach. So instead of having 25 mastermind clients and figuring out how I was gonna make it 50, and how was I gonna make it a hundred? I have, I have six. I have six clients now.

[00:19:48] And, um, It was hard for me because my revenue has dropped significantly since 2019. And I see that as a failure. I'll just be super honest. I like, I look at my, my graph and I'm like, oh, my business is failing. Like, that's my, that's my response. But when I take a step back and say, oh my gosh, I basically started a brand new business

[00:20:11] from scratch, that's growing exponentially each month. And I've switched from a $10,000 price point to a $40 price point, you know, it's doing okay.

[00:20:23] Emily Thompson: Right. And like, and what does your work life balance look like now?

[00:20:29] Megan Flatt: So different.

[00:20:31] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:20:32] Megan Flatt: And so different, but I'll tell you, Emily. I also, I have to. Reminding myself of that, because you know that experience when you're at the airport and you're on like the moving sidewalk.

[00:20:43] And then when you step off onto the hard ground and you're like, body goes like all you it's like your you're that's. I feel how my like, brain and productivity is I'm used to working so hard, so many hours and it shifted. My kids' school schedule has shifted. So I'm used to, and again, especially throughout the pandemic, right?

[00:21:02] Like squeezing every possible free moment and no time for exercise, no time to eat lunch, just work, work, work, work, work. And I sometimes have to remind myself that I don't have to do that anymore. And sometimes I'll find myself still, or like three in the morning, I'll wake up in a panic of like, these are all the things I have to do.

[00:21:21] And then I stop and say, yeah, but I have an amazing team that supports me. And I have plenty of time to do it. And I can ramp up or ramp down, you know, as, as needed. I took more time off this summer than I ever have. Um, and so it's certainly not perfect. And like I said, my revenue is down. I think it's important to be honest about that.

[00:21:45] Like I don't, you know, I think so often we hear like, oh, and I did this and then my revenue quadrupled. Mine didn't, you know, my membership program is growing. It's not growing as fast as I, as I predicted it would. And, but that's okay. We're, we're gonna get there. And we're building a really strong foundation and I'm living a life is that feels a lot better.

[00:22:07] Emily Thompson: Yes. I feel like so often. I mean, especially as business owners, the most air quotes, most important metric of success is that revenue graph, right? I mean, that's like this, what we tell ourselves is like, if. This is winning, then we are winning, right? And if this is failing, then we are failing. And I think, you know what it sounds like you've gotten yourself into is redefining and otherwise adding other metrics to your list of success that are now feeling just as important, if not more important than that revenue graph.

[00:22:44] Megan Flatt: Yeah.

[00:22:44] Emily Thompson: Which. Is a win it's.

[00:22:47] Megan Flatt: Yeah. I think that we get in our heads that, and it's that revenue, it's not even profitability. Right. It's just like top line revenue, right? And I'm in a local group. That's, there's an organization that's headed up by volunteer mentors and we, every month we meet and we have to bring

[00:23:03] kind of a, a presentation. And I realized that I was bringing this presentation with this beautiful graph of my revenue. And every month I was showing that graph and nowhere in there was I showing a graph of my membership growth. Even though I was running a membership program every month I was showing up and being like, here's my revenue, you know?

[00:23:26] And so this last month I went, whoa, here's my, here's my membership graph. And, and look at this trajectory, look at, look at where we started, look at where we are. And, but I think like, like you said, like many entrepreneurs, I was just conditioned to only look at this one number. Um, even though my revenue's down, I'm still able to pay myself, you know, which I think is an important, important metric.

[00:23:52] That again, we don't often we don't often track. And so, so again, it's looking at different metrics.

[00:23:59] Emily Thompson: Yeah. Well, you also just look very happy as you're talking about this. That's a metric I wanna throw out there as you look happy, Megan.

[00:24:07] Megan Flatt: You know, and it's, it's definitely been, it's been hard. I started therapy again during the pandemic, um, because I, you know, like I said, at the beginning I stopped, I kind of stopped trusting myself.

[00:24:18] I stopped trusting myself, you know, there were, it, it was, we were, we were being asked and still are to make so many decisions on a daily basis. You know, do we go here? Do we not go here? Do we send our kids here? Do we not send our kids here? Do we do this? Do we not do this? You know, we were being asked to make so many decisions that it's exhausting.

[00:24:38] It's, it's exhausting, it's decision fatigue on a daily basis. And that goes back to why I have my like no decision list because I was burning myself out with all the decisions that needed to be made.

[00:24:51] Emily Thompson: Yeah. Mm. Okay. So since you are working. Other folks you can maybe kind of touch on this a little bit in the beginning, but is this something that you're seeing beyond yourself, like in your work with other creative business owners?

[00:25:08] I will say in my work, you know, I've been working with the same group of six people for two and a half years or something like that. And like, I see it, I see it amongst them, but my fingers aren't on the pulse of, um, of a whole lot outside of that. You're working with more of them and have them in your co-working sessions.

[00:25:25] All of these things are, are you seeing this as being a common thing and or what else are you seeing happening these days as you're working so closely with business owners?

[00:25:35] Megan Flatt: I just feel like so, so yes, this is what I'm seeing. And I just, I feel like. When you ask an entrepreneur or let's, let's even just say like, you know, pre 2020, when you ask an entrepreneur, why they're an entrepreneur.

[00:25:51] They always say, you know, because of the flexibility, because of the freedom, because I wanna be there for my kids. Those were all the things that I said, those were all the things that I said, but I think we have a different or a new or a deeper. Realization or understanding of what that actually means.

[00:26:14] You know, I want, I, I want, I wanna be an entrepreneur because I want the freedom, but I'm also going to check my email while I'm pushing my kid on the swing. You know, like, like I think 2020 and 2021 and 2022 have forced us to be really honest with ourselves of what that looks like. And. And, and there's not a, there's not a right answer.

[00:26:41] Like if you wanna work 40 hours a week, 50 hours a week, 60 hours a week. Fantastic. Great. But like being really honest with what we want and what we want from our businesses. I think that's the shift that I'm seeing across the board with my clients. And again, it's not that everyone is saying. Oh, you know, I'm only gonna work two days a week and I don't wanna do, you know, it's not that it's that people, I just feel like people are wanting to get more aligned with yeah.

[00:27:13] With the businesses that they actually wanna run. Not just, not just the headline of what they wanna run.

[00:27:20] Emily Thompson: I also feel like this freedom and what is it situation. I hadn't quite thought about it the way you're saying it, but it's totally resonating with me in a way that like, I'm one of those people here for freedom, for sure.

[00:27:34] And the way I always measured that freedom. And I've talked about that this year before is, you know, pre pandemic freedom for me. And this is like a funny little metric for it, but I always had a plane ticket in queue , right? Like, I always had a trip planned. I could always like log into my Delta app and see where like I was always going somewhere next.

[00:27:57] And that was, that was my measure of success as like someone who is here building, you know, life and work that I love. Um, if I'm living in aligned life and achieving my version of success, one of the metrics is that there's always, always a plane ticket in the bucket. And when that was taken away, one, it was like, I had a hard time with that.

[00:28:21] That was something I very like consciously had to work through of like, okay, I'm not failing because the entire world is a shit show. Right. right, right. But it also made me see that. I hadn't really worked freedom into all the other parts of my life.

[00:28:37] Megan Flatt: Right. If you didn't have that, if you didn't have that metric, what else were you looking at?

[00:28:42] Emily Thompson: Right. What else was there? And I was still, you know, I was like, I was sitting down for like these weekly meetings that it was going on every single week, same day, time, same day, or, you know, whatever, all the other things were. It really made me redefine it and make it more of a holistic definition, right? Of what freedom was more so than this like singular metric. That really just means I'm traveling a lot.

[00:29:06] Megan Flatt: I feel like, yeah, exactly. And I feel like I had all these little like sound bites, like at all these little sound bites that I would say to my clients and that I would say to myself and, and one of them that just made me, it just made me think of it. When you said this, like I've, I've always kind of said like our lives aren't compartmentalized.

[00:29:25] So our business support, can't be either, that's always been kind of one of my little pitches, right? Like, yeah. If you work with me, we're gonna not just talk about business. We're gonna talk about that whole work life balance. We're gonna talk about how the whole piece works together. But, but like, was I, was I really living that?

[00:29:45] Or, you know, or how was that kind of manifesting for me? And like you said, like you just said, like, how was I looking at that holistically? And yeah, and it, and it's not about, you know, I have a, I have a friend who, um, you know, she couldn't wait to be able to have, she has young kids, her kids are little, she couldn't wait to have that

[00:30:09] full-time childcare back and get back to working, you know, 30, 40 plus hours a week. Great, great. You know, but like it's like, but like it's like consciously making that decision.

[00:30:22] Emily Thompson: I think we all have the opportunity to consciously put our worlds back together a little bit. Um, right. And I think that a lot of us went into it a little smarter a little more aware if nothing else um, as to what that looks like. So it's interesting that you are. You're talking about that, being something that you've seen because ditto and also like something I've personally experienced of like putting the things back together and being so much more conscious as to what it is or how it is that I want to express and manifest the things that are important to me and align myself with the things that are important to me.

[00:30:56] Megan Flatt: And just even, yeah, all of those things, like how are you defining success and failure? How are you, you know, I got some news this morning from, you know, that. That I think six months ago, definitely two years ago would've kind of sent me into a tailspin. And you know, like, and this morning I just went, oh, okay.

[00:31:18] Yeah. Alright, well, we can handle this, we'll roll with this. And I don't think I would've had that response if you know, I wouldn't have had that response in 2019.

[00:31:28] Emily Thompson: Yeah. I mean, well, you have survived the plague.

[00:31:31] Megan Flatt: Right?.

[00:31:32] Emily Thompson: You are stronger now.

[00:31:33] Megan Flatt: Good lord. Yes, exactly. Yeah.

[00:31:39] Emily Thompson: Late payments from clients and customers is often the worst part of doing business. Not only does it mess with that ever precious cash flow, it's also just awkward and honestly, pretty maddening. I mean, you have enough to worry about. So why not let Fresh Books chase down those unpaid invoices for you, which is the power of their automated late payment reminders.

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[00:32:26] This is fascinating, and I'm hoping that everyone listening to this, it can pinpoint ways in which maybe you have felt similarly, because I, I think that's a good sign. And also I think there it's important to. I don't know, like own your power in these situations as well. I think it'd probably be really easy after the couple years that we've had to, you know, fill a little lackadaisical

[00:32:48] isn't quite the word that I'm thinking of. Or just like just sort of phone it in or like, feel like you don't have control over anything and just look kind of let the world happen to, I feel like it's like it's easy to find yourself.

[00:32:59] Megan Flatt: Yeah. Yes. Well, I should just do this or, or this is. You know, so, and so is doing like, I've also like I've pulled way back from my own social media consumption because I found myself being like, oh, I should do that.

[00:33:13] Oh, that person's hosting webinar. I should host a webinar, you know? And, and it gets really noisy. It gets really noisy. And so, you know, being able to kind of step back and get a little more like introspective.

[00:33:24] Emily Thompson: Yeah. Introspective so that you are creating your future. I will say I'm definitely coming out of this giving

[00:33:31] so many fewer shits, just in general about all the things. Cause similarly, like getting all, like, I don't even care what y'all are doing. I don't even care in a way that I never really felt before. I'm just here doing what I wanna do. And I love that for you, but I'm probably gonna do something else.

[00:33:50] Megan Flatt: Well, listen, I, that was my question. I was talking, I was talking to my best friend, which even that in itself, my best friend called me this morning and I sat in the parking lot of my office and chatted with her for 30 minutes instead of being like, oh my God, I gotta run. I gotta get on. I gotta get on.

[00:34:06] You know, I was like, no, I got some time to chat with you. And I told her, and I was telling her this story of, you know, this little monkey wrench that got thrown into our plans. And I said, I said to her, I said, I'm not sure I said something happened and I've either matured. Or I don't give a, you know, F anymore.

[00:34:23] Like, I'm not sure which its and I told her and she's like, no, no, I think that's maturity. I'm like, let's go with, that's go with that. But I think it's maybe it's a little bit of both, right? Like, like we had our entire world ripped out from under us and so now a monkey wrench. It's like, nah, we can, we can get through.

[00:34:44] Emily Thompson: Geez. That's so funny. I know. I feel similarly feel similarly, like I just, I really couldn't care less anymore about so many things. And I do think that as I'm gonna choose maturity.

[00:34:57] Megan Flatt: Well, I think that let's, let's even rephrase that. It's not that you it's, like you say, like, I care less about so many things and then that is giving, that's freeing up

[00:35:08] space to care about the things. That you absolutely, that you really care about that you wanna care about?

[00:35:14] Emily Thompson: Yes. I care more about the things that I care about and far less about all the other things that literally don't deserve my time or energy.

[00:35:21] Megan Flatt: Same.

[00:35:22] Emily Thompson: Um, otherwise just really prioritizing, you know, showing up and creating the kind of work in life that I want for myself.

[00:35:30] And it's not perfect by any means. I mean, now I was in a mood yesterday and I told David, I was like, what the hell have we even been doing? Like, it was like one of those sort of situations. And he always like, looks at me. Okay, Emily.

[00:35:41] Megan Flatt: Oh, no, I have a full on, like, can we please just win the lottery and like

[00:35:46] Emily Thompson: yeah.

[00:35:46] Megan Flatt: You know? Right.

[00:35:47] Emily Thompson: That is the dream. That is the dream.

[00:35:49] Megan Flatt: No. So it's not to say that it's all like roses and sunshines all the time, but it's, but it's a different, it's a different approach. It's a different like mindset.

[00:35:58] Emily Thompson: Yeah, for sure. And especially if you're, it sounds like you are really moving into the test and changing too, of like, realizing that there are some decisions you can make now and just let them sit and collect your data.

[00:36:09] And go back to it later. I feel like that's one of the things I feel like that's one of the things I've. Uh, I feel like I, it ebbs and flows sometimes I'm really great at it. And sometimes I feel a little manic about it. just like needing to make all the decisions all the time. Um, but I think that's an important thing too, is we had to be so responsive for so long.

[00:36:30] That we need to get back into these flows of realizing you. I mean, you know, what is time and do you have it and all of those things, but you have time to make a decision, right. And really see what's going to happen. And then shift, uh, we've we've recently canceled some projects, both at Almanac and at Being Boss, we're like, you know, we tried some things out, waited a while, tested them, do we like them?

[00:36:51] Do we not. Let's delete it. Who cares about all the work that we put into it six months ago or a year ago? If it's not giving us what we want, let's just get rid of it. No shoulds, literally not a should in sight.

[00:37:03] Megan Flatt: Yeah. Yeah. I want that like tattooed on my body. Yeah. It's so easy. And of course, it's easy for me to say this with hindsight, but like, I think when you're starting a business, when you're starting a business, yeah.

[00:37:16] There's all sorts of different decisions you have to make, but there's, there's a little bit more of a predictable kind of step by step to kind of starting a business. And once you've been running a business for a while, all of a sudden it's like, I could do this or I could do this, or I could market my business and it, and, and it'll all work.

[00:37:36] Theoretically they'll all work. And so it's easy to get caught in. And that's why I say like, I'll, you know, I'll be on, I'll be on, you know, social media and I'll be like, oh my gosh, I should try to do a viral TikTok dance. Like I should do that.

[00:37:50] Emily Thompson: No, no one should do that.

[00:37:52] Megan Flatt: Right. Or, gosh, I should be speaking at the chamber of commerce.

[00:37:56] Like you start thinking of like all the things you should be doing. And like, that's what I, that's what I'm just really trying to. Let's just step back. Like, I kind of wrote down, you know, in my notes and, and this is, I know we're gonna talk a little bit about the, the event that is coming up, that I'm hosting

[00:38:15] that you're a part of, but I kind of wrote down this, this note about like, it's time to get introspective and then, and then proactive. You know, I think we've been really reactive for a long time again, it's like seeing the viral TikTok video and then being like, I should do that, you know, instead of like, let's get introspective, let's look at what, what fills your bucket?

[00:38:39] What, what makes you happy? What's the kind of work you want to be doing? And then how do you take action on that?

[00:38:46] Emily Thompson: Yeah. You know, it's so funny as you're saying, cuz I'm a hundred percent there. I think it's incredibly important. It's one of the things that I think makes us false is our ability to like look within ourselves and decide what it is that really feels right to us and not looking outside of ourselves for the answers, inspiration.

[00:39:01] Sure. Not answers. Um, but I feel like even though we've probably created this, like perfect storm that works in opposition to that, or at least for some people of like we've spent two and a half years in our heads worried and sick and angry and all of these things. That like sometimes being introspective can be one of the hardest things that someone asks you to do.

[00:39:28] And I mean, and then add on that questioning every decision you've ever made and wondering if you're failing because the metrics are different and just. Tactics don't work the same anymore. And all of the things that, you know, as you're saying that, but I've also like, I feel like lots of people are probably shaking in their boots at the idea of being introspective about literally anything

[00:39:48] Megan Flatt: Right. No, I, I hear that and I hear that and like, and it's like, I've, I've been describing us and I think you and I have even talked about this, like our brains, like our brains are like a pie chart. Right. And the amount of bandwidth the amount of capacity, like half of my pie chart is taken up making decisions about health and safety and like forward progress of my family and my community, like, you know, way more than, than we've ever experienced.

[00:40:16] And that leaves like this small little, you know, portion of my brain to think about like, gosh, what's, what's the next right step for my business. And I think that that's really, really hard, you know, that's really, that's really hard to go from having kind of feeling like you have, like maybe like using kind of air quotes here, but like full capacity to, you know, a much smaller capacity.

[00:40:40] And so, so I think it's just it's about, but it's still about giving yourself that time.

[00:40:48] Emily Thompson: It is the challenge, but like one that I think is worth the effort. A hundred percent being, or taking the moment to be introspective and answer the questions for yourself and really make sure that your actions are aligned with your intentions and all of the things.

[00:41:01] Um, so yeah, terrifying work

[00:41:04] Megan Flatt: Well, and maybe

[00:41:04] Emily Thompson: It's the path forward.

[00:41:05] Megan Flatt: Right. And maybe the decision or maybe the introspection is I'm gonna keep doing exactly what I'm doing. And I'm gonna revisit this on November 1st. That maybe that's the decision.

[00:41:20] Emily Thompson: Bold move, bold move.

[00:41:22] Megan Flatt: Bold move. Right. Instead of every day, waking up, maybe I should do this.

[00:41:25] Maybe I should do this. Maybe I should do this.

[00:41:27] Emily Thompson: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Oh, I love all of this. Well, I can tell this is definitely where you have been putting a lot of your thought and energy. Um, So tell us what you've been working on, cuz you do have something fun up your sleeves that I'm excited for bosses to hear about.

[00:41:43] Megan Flatt: Yes. So, so I have spent so much time thinking about this for myself and talking about it with my clients and with my team. And so we really, and, and talking, you know, talking with you and my other business friends and, and so I really wanted to have a chance to we've we've been talking about doing some type of, of virtual retreat or virtual convention.

[00:42:06] And, and I was really gungho on it being like business focus. You know, it was just gonna be a, it was gonna be a business convention. And the more I thought about that, the more I got introspective, I was like, you know what? We need a chance to take a pause and not, not in a, in a like, kind of lightweight, not, not to business focused way, but we need a way, like I said, to be introspective and

[00:42:31] proactive at the same time. And so we put together this idea for a conference called Your Best Week Ever. And so we are hosting this event. It's a five day event, um, where we want people to fall back in love with their business. Again, you know, and it's, this is, I think all of us are a little bit burned out.

[00:42:51] You know, from, from, from just life, someone asked me the other day like, oh, are you burned out on this or this? I'm like, no, I'm burned out on life.

[00:42:59] Emily Thompson: All of it.

[00:42:59] Megan Flatt: All of it. All of it. It's been a lot.

[00:43:02] Emily Thompson: The soup that has benn the past two and a half years.

[00:43:04] Megan Flatt: Yeah. You know, it's all been a lot. And so we wanted a chance and it's like you said, it's really hard and it's even harder

[00:43:12] now to take a pause and step back and, and do that introspective work, cuz sometimes it can be uncomfortable. And so it's not something that sometimes we choose to do, um, voluntarily. So, so we are hosting this conference and this summit so that we give people the space and, and people are gonna be hearing from speakers like you.

[00:43:35] Um, and other, we have 27 speakers. All short presentations, because we know our brains are all completely fried. We don't have time or the bandwidth to listen to long presentations, but listening to these speakers talk about with their expertise, how, how to help you be introspective and decide what is the right business that I wanna run.

[00:43:58] And I, not just the business that, that you love running, but one that kinda loves you back. You know, one that takes care of you too. Um, and then every day, um, in addition to these speakers every day, um, I'm gonna be hosting a live workshop that's your best week ever framework so that we take all of these ideas, cuz it's great.

[00:44:19] You go to a conference, you go to a convention, you get super inspired, but how do you actually implement it into your life? And that's where my superpower is. So I'm gonna help you every day. Turn what you're learning from the speakers into your own best week ever. So you can have your best week, week after week after week.

[00:44:38] Emily Thompson: Love it. I'm very excited about this. I think this is again, we've talked about how this is something that's not just us, but everyone we're talking to is experiencing these sort of like ew moments.

[00:44:55] Yeah. Yes.

[00:44:56] When it comes to these things that we've built that are supposed to not make us feel that way. So I love that you've put this together with the focus, um, of helping people create their best week ever. Something that is replicable and something that will help people fall back in love with the thing that they are here to do. I think it's wonderful. Um, how and where can folks find more about it?

[00:45:17] Megan Flatt: Yeah so. The summit is happening September the last week in September. So the 26th through the 30th and it's free and you can sign up at bestweeksummit.com and we'd love to have you there. And like I said, Emily, we're so excited to have you on the speaker line up. We've got some other amazing, amazing speakers from all different walks of life.

[00:45:40] We have business experts, we have lifestyle experts. We have therapists, we have, you know, all sorts of people talking. This isn't a like, How to run your business 101 summit. This is a, this is a, like, let's get our hands dirty. Let's roll up our sleeves and you know, let's do the work to, to fall back in love with our businesses again.

[00:45:58] Emily Thompson: Love it. Love it. Perfect. Well then with that, how about, how about like a piece of advice? Can we get like a piece of cloth, closing, I almost said clothing advice. Yeah, not clothing. Oh, they could be clothing, clothing related if you so choose. Um, but some closing advice for business owners to take into their day or week, maybe even based on this best week ever idea to help them.

[00:46:20] It can't be, you can't be, get a tattoo of no shoulds.

[00:46:24] Megan Flatt: Right? Okay. That's not it. That's not it, aside from that. Yeah. Aside from that, you know, I kind of default, I'm a planner. I like to have a plan. I like to, you know, schedule things. I like my calendar. So I tend to default to that when it comes to advice and the, the biggest piece of advice that, that I always give, but it has a new, uh, a new ring to it with this tone is about setting work hours.

[00:46:51] And I think one of the things that happens with entrepreneurs is under the guise of flexibility. We think like, well, I can work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I can work whenever I want.

[00:47:01] Emily Thompson: And then you do.

[00:47:02] Megan Flatt: And then you do exactly. That's when you start where you're checking email while you're pushing your kid on the swing or you're, you know, you're, you're waking up at three in the morning, thinking about an email you forgot.

[00:47:13] So the number one advice I give entrepreneurs is to set work hours and it doesn't matter what those are. If you work 6:00 AM to 8:00 AM and then 8:00 AM 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM. Great. Whatever your hours are. Set them. And so my, my, my advice for this is do that again, do that again, close your eyes, take some deep breaths, really envision what you want your work hours to be.

[00:47:41] So instead of just like, well, I'm a cuz this is what I used to do. My kids are in school from this time to this time. Therefore those are my work hours. Let's flip that around a little bit. What do you want your work hours to be? What do you want your days to feel like are, how do you, how do you wanna start your days?

[00:48:00] How do you wanna end your days? If you can spend some time thinking about that? And writing out what you want your work hours to look like. I think then you you've created a container that you can start to fill with the important things.

[00:48:14] Emily Thompson: Yeah, for sure. Oh, I love that. That's a good tip. That's a, that's a good one.

[00:48:18] I'm guilty of like messing up that one. I'll start working at 6:00 AM even though I don't want to, but because I can so love that everyone go set yourself some work hours. And my last question for you, Megan. What's making you feel most boss.

[00:48:34] Megan Flatt: Oh, oh, that's a good one. You know, I have this incredible team right now and for years I struggled with, um, and it wasn't even the people I've always, I've been so lucky to work with amazing, amazing people.

[00:48:51] But for years I think I just struggled. Um, I don't even know. It wasn't even like letting go. It wasn't that I, you know, some people were like, oh, nobody can do it as well as I can. Like, I didn't really think that, but I just had a really hard time, um, turning, turning things over to my team. And like, I didn't wanna burden them.

[00:49:11] I felt like, oh, I should be doing more. And I think because I burned out because I kind of, um, wasn't able to function at the level that I wanted to function. I had to trust my team and they knocked it out of the park when I gave them the space and the permission and the, and the plea to do their jobs. They killed it and I am so proud of the people on my team.

[00:49:40] So that's definitely what I'm feeling most, most boss about. Right now.

[00:49:43] Emily Thompson: Love that such a good answer. I'm glad that you finally got yourself to that place, for sure. Um, perfect. And where can folks find you otherwise? Maybe they're listening this outside of that best week ever timeline. Definitely.

[00:49:59] Megan Flatt: Well, check out focus-sessions.com for our whole focus session schedules.

[00:50:04] If you wanna do some virtual co-working. I'm @meganflatt on all the social media platforms and also focus sessions. Um, on Instagram you can follow for productivity tips, time management tips, and, um, yeah. Say hello.

[00:50:19] Emily Thompson: Awesome. Thanks for coming to chat with me. This is a good, this is like a good old school business

[00:50:23] bestie chat. Love it.

[00:50:24] Megan Flatt: Love it. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

[00:50:30] Emily Thompson: All right, boss, because you're here. I know you want to be a better creative at business owner, which means I've got something for you. Each week, the team at bean boss is scouring the news, the best entrepreneurial publications and updates and releases of the apps and tools that run our businesses and is curating it all into a weekly email that delivers the must know tips and tactics in the realms of mindset, money and productivity.

[00:50:53] This email is called brew. We brew it up for you each week to give you the insight you need to make decisions and move forward in your creative. Check it out now and sign up for yourself at beingboss.club slash brew. That's beingboss.club/brewed. Now until next time, do the work be boss.