Part 2: Business Bestie Year in Review with Kathleen Shannon

[00:00:00] Corey Winter: Hey there bosses! Corey from the Being Boss team here, I'm popping into let you know about a new way for you to stay up to date in the world as a creative entrepreneur, Brewed. Brewed is a weekly email, curated by the Being Boss team just for you. We share articles, podcasts, and resources from around the internet on the topics of mindset, money and productivity to help you show up and do the work in your business.

[00:00:24] Learn more and sign up for free at beingboss.club/brewed. That's beingboss.club/B R E W E D.

[00:00:37] 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 today I'm joined by my business bestie and once upon a time co-host of this podcast, Kathleen Shannon for a part two of our end of year business bestie conversation to review 2021.

[00:00:59] We're giving you a peek behind the scenes of the companies that we run and model for you the kinds of questions that you can ask in your own review of the year too. If you missed it, I highly recommend you backing up to listen to part one of this conversation, to give you the proper context for the rest of our chat here.

[00:01:16] And as always, you can find all the tools, books, and links we referenced 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.

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[00:01:52] And a recent episode, I loved hearing about how Michelle Grant, the founder of Lively, the lingerie and swimwear brand built and sold her company for $105 million in just three years, total boss move. So if you're looking for a new pod to inspire your next steps, listen to the female startup club podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:02:21] Here's my kind of working, the Almanac shop.

[00:02:28] I will say in all the ways that I want it to work, it's working. Like we are making revenue. We are growing our local presence. We are doing all of those things.

[00:02:40] Kathleen Shannon: You get a merchandise,

[00:02:42] Emily Thompson: we got to get to merchandise. It's beautiful. David gets it. We get to buy crystals all the time. It's wonderful. Like there are so many things about the shop that is working, but if I look at it as like a whole at the moment, it's only kind of working. And

[00:02:59] I think mostly it's because it's only like five, six months old. Y'all it's still very new and there's a lot of things that I still need to get in there and do, mostly around building out some processes, building out, building off of the way things are going to work and just continue getting the experience under our belt.

[00:03:19] That's going to allow us to understand the processes and things that need to be built, and where it's, where that goes a little bit deeper. Just taking a bit too much of my time at the moment for me to be able to call it totally working. It is, it is operating, more efficiently with less of my energy required.

[00:03:44] And I'm really looking forward to getting more of that time under our belt so that we can take it from kind of working to working, because again, in all the ways that I really want it. And most of the ways that I really want it to it is totally working. I’m very proud of the little spaces, so cute. And it's doing it.

[00:04:02] Kathleen Shannon: I mean, I feel like you've done all the things that you are best at, where you have expertise and talent, those things have been done. And you're really great at systems and processes too. It's just finding the talent. I feel like it's the things that are kind of out of your control that are probably not working as much.

[00:04:20] Emily Thompson: For the most part, yes. But there's definitely plenty of things that I can't even get to. That I like want to, and I know I'm going to be great at, because I am there checking out another customer or, you know, answering some emails about which crystal is better for whatever.

[00:04:35] Kathleen Shannon: And that kind of customer service while it's great.

[00:04:38] And I think that it is great for someone like you, the visionary behind the business, and especially in retail. I think it's great for your face to be behind the counter, to see what it's like for anyone that you end up hiring and training at the same time, your expertise should not be spent answering customer service questions.

[00:05:02] Emily Thompson: Amen.

[00:05:02] Yes. To all of that. And I am, and I've even had conversations with the team that like, I want to keep occasional, what's it called? Like slots of work. What is it called?

[00:05:19] Kathleen Shannon: Office hours, hours shifts.

[00:05:22] Emily Thompson: Shifts. There we go. I do want to keep occasional shifts because I think it's really important for me, merchandising, pricing, sourcing all of these things.

[00:05:31] I want to see what's drawing people's eye. I want to know what people are having questions about, like, and I'm only really going to get that if I'm in there. So I do absolutely understand the benefit. I know why I'm there. But I also know that there are many other things that need my fingers in them and I'm unable to currently put them in there.

[00:05:49] So if I just look at the, if I look at the year and wrapping it up, what's only kind of working at the moment is the shop,

[00:05:58] Kathleen Shannon: what else is kind of working for you? And it's

[00:06:00] Emily Thompson: kind of like, ah, okay. Right. I mean, otherwise I feel like it's either not working and we're ditching. Right, right. Or working, which is what comes next.

[00:06:11] What's working here.

[00:06:11] Kathleen Shannon: So here's a question. Here's a, how long do you give something to be kind of working before you are like that this needs to change? Are you constantly tweaking and evolving or I love when do you decide to let it go?

[00:06:29] Emily Thompson: Yeah, I don't think there's like a timeframe. I think if something's kind of working, you try to fix it.

[00:06:36] And I think like small tweaks are preferred. Yeah, for sure. And then at some point there's just a check-in and be like, okay, is this worth it? Right? And sometimes it's math, like ROI. I don't know, whatever. Sometimes it's just like, I just hate it. I don't want to do it anymore, whatever it may be. So I don't think there is any like rhyme or reason necessarily.

[00:06:57] You just do it. I do. The board note you do it. I think quite often, so many business owners will keep something in kind of working for so long that are literally like drain and kill their business. Right.

[00:07:11] Kathleen Shannon: And that's my thing with like content and social is really, I've just kind of forgiven myself for it being kind of working in some ways I kind of just wanted to stay in the kind of working column and just not like, literally just changed my mind about stressing about it.

[00:07:25] Like yeah. Sometimes I'm going to

[00:07:27] Emily Thompson: change the strategy, right? Like loosen it up.

[00:07:30] Kathleen Shannon: Make it, so that, I mean, that's what I've done. I've loosened up. And I think it's because we went from having such an OnPoint schedule with Being Boss publishing there. Yeah. And there's so much structure around it. And I was so used to that structure that coming off of that structure feels funny.

[00:07:46] So maybe that's what it is is that sometimes as things evolve and change, it's not bad or wrong, even if it feels funny because it's not what you're used to doing.

[00:07:57] Emily Thompson: I think so. Yeah. I think the answer to yours is just change the strategy so that it fits what you feel like is.

[00:08:07] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah. Well, I have so much stuff that's working too.

[00:08:14] I kind of want to what's the word? Quick-fire it let's do. It's like speed. Okay. So what's working only having one job. It's amazing. It's amazing, Emily. Good. I know that this isn't your vibe, but it is really awesome. Just having one job. Love that. Another thing that's working, waking up and doing some morning yoga.

[00:08:39] It's been harder through the winter as the days are getting shorter, but hopping up and getting on my mat and doing some yoga. That's really worked for me this year. Nice. The Braid Creative podcast has worked. So this is really interesting going from a podcast that is literally in the top 0.1% of all podcasts, which is Being Bossed, you would think it might be really hard to launch another podcast that literally.

[00:09:09] 30 downloads a month or whatever it is, right? Like it's not a lot, but I'll tell you what my goal was to get another credit union client out of it. So it's like a highly niche podcast. Those seeds have been planted and they are starting to sprout. So that has worked including a traditional mailer to support the podcast.

[00:09:35] Yeah. I knew you'd be excited about this. So we created a traditional postcard to send to people who might like to listen to our podcasts and because we're so highly niche, we were able to put together a list, reach out to people that we haven't talked to in a really long time, ask them for the addresses, send them a postcard in the mail saying, Hey, we have a podcast that you might like to listen to you.[00:10:00]

[00:10:00] So meeting people where they're at reaching them in not traditional ways you normally

[00:10:05] Emily Thompson: wouldn't see super traditional

[00:10:07] Kathleen Shannon: way. Yeah. Super traditional is now not traditional. So that was really fun. Like you I've started getting back into the mix, doing a little bit of speaking and my teammates and partners are also doing a lot of speaking.

[00:10:22] So that's working again, especially after 2020, it's just nice to kind of get back in the game there. What's working relationship. We cannot forget that business is all about relationships and investing in those relationships, whether it's time, money, energy is so important. And, and it's what it comes down to.

[00:10:46] And not like in a sleazy networking way, like in a truly authentic connecting with people kind of way. And it doesn't have to be like, you're best friends with everyone, but just reaching out and saying, Hey, to people, it just goes a really long way.

[00:11:01] Emily Thompson: Be a good person. It works.

[00:11:07] Kathleen Shannon: Okay. So the other thing that's working is I updated the Braid portfolio. It launched this week. Corey has been hard at work on it. And thank you, Corey. It was a beast to tackle. I mean, it truly was like a year long project, but one thing that was really cool is as a stop gap in between whenever people inquire about getting branding, I have kind of a template that I use and I realized that our portfolio is out of date toward the middle of the year.

[00:11:36] I need a stop gap because this is not, I'm embarrassed linking to it. So I tagged a bunch of our work in Instagram with hashtag braid creative portfolio and linked to that hashtag instead of to our portfolio to show off more of our current work that hasn't yet made it to the site. So I thought it was just a really interesting solution, easy solution.

[00:12:01] So that's another thing that. I think, I remember Jason Zook saying this on one of our podcasts back in the day was just make it easier. Like, is there a way to do what you're doing and make it easier? And that was my solution to making it easier was using Instagram to my advantage and using it as a way to organize content that I couldn't yet get on the website.

[00:12:22] So that worked. The other thing that's working is my team at Braid creative. Everyone is firing on all cylinders. And just doing wonderful. And then the last thing I've got, that's working are vaccines. We are so lucky to have modern medicine and, I mean, I'm nervous to say it cause like the anti-vaxxers came after me on Instagram.

[00:12:51] I deleted my Instagram for a week after this, but I'm just so grateful to have access to them. It makes me feel better. And in my community in traveling to get to see my family, maybe get to go to Disney world, which we had to cancel it. And we canceled a lot of stuff. In 2020, being able to send my kid to school, that's working, sending my child to school is working good.

[00:13:17] So yeah, I'm just like so grateful too. I don't know if you remember whenever all of this first started, I was like, this is going to be a two year ordeal. If not until 2024, I still stand by that timeline. So I'm hoping it's done by 2024, but good God. I'm ready to be out of this pandemic, like for good.

[00:13:40] But for now, vaccines are working for me.

[00:13:43] Emily Thompson: I'll add that one to mine, I'll start with that one. How about that one, vaccines. They work love it. Two, time, my time management practices have really shown up to serve the hell out of me this year, as I am juggling two businesses. And as we've done so much with both, and I've been able to show up and do all the things and still feel really good about my work-life balance.

[00:14:10] A couple of episodes ago in the test note, I did one. Oh, I did. An episode is hustling good or bad, so much a good one. If you haven't listened to it, everybody go listen to that one where I talked about, I talked about coming out of a season of hustle and even going through my first hall, my first Thanksgiving season at Almanac.

[00:14:32] And still doing, Being Boss and all the things I haven't worked more than 40 hours a week in weeks, which feels really great. After coming out of a season of hitting up against that, Purposefully for a while. My time management practices have gotten me back under that threshold and kept me there really wonderfully.

[00:14:53] So I've been able to do it all. And I feel really great about my work-life balance or flow or whatever the hell you want to call it. So time management practices are working for me. There is an episode, somewhere time management for bosses. If I'm not mistaken, I also have some training on literally how I time block all the links to all of those things are in the show notes.

[00:15:11] If you want to know more about how it is that I make it do checking your time. Right. Right now. And I time block every week at the beginning of the week. And to help me stay under 40 hours of even added another layer of it where I'm actually not even time blocking out like my task for the week, but I'm literally, time-blocking how much time I'm allowed to spend on each business each day to keep me under 40 hours a week.

[00:15:39] It's a lot, but it's working. Wow. It's working. Okay. So time management, generally, just that test and change mindset is really working for me, especially in the season where we're all in. We're nothing worked the way it used to. I'm so glad that one I've had years of practice in this mindset, because I do recognize that where I am

[00:16:02] with that is not something that a lot of business owners share. Hello, all you type A folks out there. I see you. So that has really worked for me this year. I've been able to find some interesting places where things that I did not expect would work work. One of those is another thing on my list is Brewed.

[00:16:22] So our weekly email of curated content that we're sending out every week, we launched it sort of soft launch that I believe in August, officially launched it in September, October, and y'all, it is working. It has been, I even feel a long time since I've launched something that worked as great as that is working.

[00:16:41] Our open rates are amazing. Our click-through rates are amazing. Our unsubscribes are so wonderfully low and it's, I feel great about creating that content and the team is creating that content. I am stepping in, in December. To do a bit more of the writing as we work on some processes for what it looks like to evolve the content.

[00:17:02] But I'm stepping in because they want to, because they want to be in there on those processes. But Brewed is a hundred percent working in, that's a place where all of my hypotheses around what would work were wrong and it's working in ways that I never anticipated working, which is super amazing and fun and imperative.

[00:17:22] Do you have that test and change mindset to go in? Because I can really like work with that. The podcast is working. I feel like it's back. I feel like in, in the test and change episode that we released a couple of weeks ago, I talked about how the podcast is a place where I tested and changed for, I think in the episode, I said 18 months, but when I got back to thinking about it more like 24.

[00:17:47] It was two years more or less of, just shy of two years of me testing and changing. What this podcast would become without you here for every episode. And it took two years for one to, for me to feel really great in this space again. And two for the metrics to prove that it's working. So I feel like the podcast is back to working.

[00:18:16] The community is working. I love that space so much community and the Clubhouse. And I could not do any in all of it without the next thing that's working. Then as the Being Boss team, the Being Boss team is amazing. I actually just got done with all of, all of my employee reviews. I had meetings with everyone and.

[00:18:37] Yeah, I don't think I can share too much, but it was basically a love Fest and every single one of them, we all love the work that we're doing. We all love the sort of the environment we've created of shitty ideas and testing and changing. And let's just see what works and are you enjoying what you're doing and how can we make it better and all of these things and that we're doing all of that.

[00:18:59] And producing really cool work. And that feels really amazing to me and juxtaposing that to Almanac team, not working. Like I want to create what I have in the Being Boss team at Almanac. And it's going to be effing magic when it happens. So the Being Boss team feels like it's working and then sort of going back to Almanac.

[00:19:21] One of the things that I love doing there and are working our crystal parties, which is bringing sort of the online, online stuff that we do the screen, the video time that I do love very much, and doing our crystal parties where we show up occasionally there's no like rhythm to them anymore. We just do it when we want to.

[00:19:43] And when it fits in our schedule, we show up for YouTube live Crystal Sales. I get to talk to all of my crystal people all over the country, world even. And we talk crystals and I show crystals and were oohing and I, and gasping and, and selling crystals, which is also my very favorite things to do and talking about new things.

[00:20:04] And, and that's a side of, that's a side of Almanac, like commerce and, and customer service that I do truly enjoy. We started them in this way in 2020, and we'll continue doing them well into 2022. I love our crystal parties. There are a ton of fun. They allow me to, I don't know, allow me to show up and talk crystals with my people.

[00:20:29] And it's a ton of fun. It sort of pairs what I love most about Being Boss with what I love about Almanac. It's fun. So all of those are my workings. It's working.

[00:20:40] Kathleen Shannon: So much stuff is working. You do. I know, I say, this is what a lot of experience and a lot of failure has brought us to you.

[00:20:50] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:20:51] And a lot of just showing up a lot of showing up, which kind of takes me into what is not quite my last question, but almost, but like biggest takeaway slash lesson from 2021, mine is,

[00:21:06] and there's sort of a little personal one where I just generally need something to look forward to, which I think everyone does, but that's one that I've really connected with reconnected with this year. But by really big one is you never know which rooms in which you were being discussed. And like in positive ways.

[00:21:25] And by continuing to show up, you continue to put yourself in opportunities or in line of opportunities. So whenever I think about Blinkist coming to me in early 2021 and wanted me to do the shortcast and then turning the Being Boss book into a blink and all of these things. I had never talked to anyone at blink as before, but they came ready with a plan.

[00:21:45] They had been talking about me for weeks and because I had continued to show up, they were here ready to offer me this cool opportunity to spread the Being Boss word in a completely different place. Same thing with HubSpot and the HubSpot podcast network. Where they came to me and they were like, you're on a short list of podcasts that we would really love to launch our network with.

[00:22:08] I had been talked about in rooms that I was not even aware existed, but because I had continued showing up, I put myself in the opportunities for these things to happen and similar things with Almanac as well. Thinking about how, you know, the shop opened so easily, you just continue showing up, even when you don't

[00:22:27] I think that anything is happening quite often, things are, and you will miss out if you stop too early. So that's my big one. Keep showing up.

[00:22:39] Kathleen Shannon: Mine is probably the same. And it comes down to my old metaphor of being a farmer, not a hunter. Right. So just, you're just constantly planting seeds and tending to them.

[00:22:53] Knowing that some years you're going to have a bountiful harvest some years, maybe not because there's a pandemic or, you know, whatever. There are things that are out of your control. But I would say that my, my 2021 takeaway is similar to yours. And it's just that overall that like you are not too good to do the work.

[00:23:13] Like it just comes down to showing up and doing the work. People are so concerned about going from zero to a hundred, that they're forgetting all the steps that it takes in between that end result. You cannot be thinking about 100 because you will either get overwhelmed. You'll get scared. You will be disappointed.

[00:23:35] You have to think about just putting one foot in front of the other.

[00:23:40] Emily Thompson: You got to think about one and two and three and four.

[00:23:47] Kathleen Shannon: And, you know, whenever it really comes to Being Boss, You're the person who's taking out the trash, you are the person that's fancying, those customer service questions. You are the person that's pushing those pixels. You are doing all of the things, no matter how much you have of a team supporting you.

[00:24:04] And you know, some of you who are solopreneurs, who might be listening to this might be jealous whenever we're talking about our teams that are helping us get it all done. But at the end of the day, it is on our shoulders to do the work, to do the dirty work and to keep showing up. And there have been moments in my life where I felt entitled, or like, I shouldn't have to do this.

[00:24:26] And 2020 and 2021, which all kind of lumped together is about, no, you have no choice. You're going to show up and you are going to do this. And guess what, how you do anything is how you do everything. So you are going to be the best goddamn trash taker, outer. That there is, or pixel pusher that there is, or bill payer, that there is.

[00:24:48] Emily Thompson: Amen.

[00:24:50] If I may, if I may, right. You're right. And I love that we both sort of came to the same place where like, you know, we show up and we do it regardless of what it is and we enjoy it. Even when we don't enjoy it, we enjoy it because there is this like element of freedom and, you know, I guess like Liberty is kind of the word that's coming to me that comes from choosing to do this kind of work.

[00:25:19] And even, you know, the other day on the Almanac, like monthly task sheet, weekly task sheet, I marked off took out the trash, but I did it that day.

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[00:27:09] Emily Thompson: I completely agree. It's been, it's been a hell of a year. I hope that 2022 is just bright and joyful, which takes me into my final ish question for you. Looking forward to 2022 hopes, dreams. What do you want to do? What are you looking forward to?

[00:27:27] Kathleen Shannon: Well, I think I might have my word of the year. Yeah.

[00:27:32] Emily Thompson: Is it over achievers.

[00:27:35] Kathleen Shannon: No, absolutely not. But I think that the thing that comes up is just travel and creativity always, always, but it's so it takes so much decision-making and logistics and I don't have the bandwidth like yesterday. It was kind of a shitty day. I had a shitty parenting day. I was in a bad mood. And I was just thinking like that, you know, that cliche of women crying in movies where they're like, oh, I used to be fun.

[00:28:08] Yep. I was that person yesterday. And so then today I was thinking about it. What is it that I want in 2022? And I think that my word is just going to be go. Just go, like don't overthink it. Just go. So maybe that is hitting publish on more newsletters and they're not perfect go. Maybe that is just scheduling the things and getting it in the calendar and buying the plane ticket.

[00:28:35] And I do have to remember that we're still in a global pandemic, which is

[00:28:41] so ready for a total buzz kill. But just go by buzzkill.

[00:28:49] And I think it is as I get creative urges to not overthink it, to write the article, to get in the car and go to the museum to try the new restaurant. I know these things sound kind of superficial, but it bleeds over into everything truly.

[00:29:08] To just go. And now that stuff does take energy and maybe just trusting that I have the bandwidth, I have the energy to make fun things happen.

[00:29:16] Emily Thompson: I also really love that. That counteracts the thing. I think we're all in the awful, maybe not awful the neutral habit, because it couldn't be good or bad. I'm just overthinking.

[00:29:30] Right. We've had to think so much about everything for so long that I love that this sort of counteracts that, and there are some things that don't need to be over-thought you just need to go.

[00:29:42] Kathleen Shannon: Just got to go. Yeah. I love that.

[00:29:46] Emily Thompson: So I thought you were going to say mine and I was about to say, of course you were, but you didn't, but you started alluding to it.

[00:29:52] I know that next year is a year where I want to create a couple of new things. It's actually been a very long time since I created anything new, everything that I have created in the past couple of years have just been iterations of something that already existed. Right. I really don't think probably since the Being Boss book, have I created some?

[00:30:15] No, I guess Almanac technically came after the Being Boss book was created. So launching Almanac, I think was the last time I created something new. Everything else has just been iterations of other things. I have a couple of things on my sleeve. And now that I have one team in place, And these really great foundations from which I'm afforded the ability to create something new.

[00:30:40] I'm ready to get a couple of these things out of me.

[00:30:43] Kathleen Shannon: Are you gonna have a baby?

[00:30:45] Emily Thompson: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. That's not funny. Not one of those. There are other things that I want to create. I definitely, I think there's another book in me. That's kind of itching to get out that I'm like, literally like just putting the lid on of like, I can't even take the inspiration right now that I'm ready to open up to some inspiration.

[00:31:08] There's a couple of things that Almanac that I've been itching to, or otherwise just need to create for the continuation of that. And it's been a long time since I've had urges to do things to my house. But I've been feeling them a little bit lately. I think it's been four years since we redid our kitchen.

[00:31:28] Isn't that crazy? I think it's been four years and

[00:31:31] Kathleen Shannon: I have like a daily urge. I do stuff to my house. All of my creative energy has gone right. Well,

[00:31:38] Emily Thompson: a couple months ago, maybe two months ago, David, I was having a bad weekend and David was like, well, why don't you buy a couch? He knew what would get me. And I was like, best mood ever.

[00:31:47] And so I ended up spending the weekend, picking out a couch and ordering and all of these things. And so I did recently sort of get back into it with, I got a new couch, which was on my 2021 like to-do list of if I end this year without a new couch, I failed. So I got a new couch. My dining room and it sort of bled into me wanting to get out a couple of other projects that I wanted to do.

[00:32:09] So I think my word is going to be create or similar where I want to create some new things. And I think that the work that I've done over the past two years has brought me to a place where I am supported and just opening myself up to some wily creativity.

[00:32:30] Ooh, let's see what that is.

[00:32:33] Kathleen Shannon: Have you talked about doing the artist's way on the podcast?

[00:32:36] Emily Thompson: I have not talked, but I have been doing it.

[00:32:39] Kathleen Shannon: I'm curious how that's going for you. Cause I'm thinking about doing it to you. Should I do it?

[00:32:44] Emily Thompson: Sure. I love that

[00:32:45] for you.

[00:32:46] Kathleen Shannon: Alison I'm asking as my business bestie. Oh, do you Emily knowing me true. Yes.

[00:32:54] Emily Thompson: The truth is not doing much for me.

[00:32:58] Kathleen Shannon: Okay. See, this is, this is what a real business bestie conversation is.

[00:33:01] Emily Thompson: I'm doing.

[00:33:02] It I've been doing the morning pages. I've been taking myself on my artist dates, all the things. And like, it just feels like every other day, like I don't feel myself opening up to great inspiration. I'm not feeling like, you know, increased motivation. I'm getting no, like whatever. I just, you know, I'm spending more time.

[00:33:20] Journaling, which isn't a bad thing, but I personally am not experiencing the benefits just yet. It's been about a month. I'm going to continue about further, but I will tell you I'm not being an

[00:33:33] Kathleen Shannon: experiment. Right? Right. So you didn't use sometimes I feel like I'm just consuming a lot. Like, even though they're dabbing on a walk without listening to a podcast for the first time in a very long time, and I realized, oh, maybe this isn't.

[00:33:49] Maybe this is why I'm not doing as much because I'm consuming so much. I'm reading a lot of books. I'm listening to a lot of podcasts. I'm watching a lot of TV. I'm working out a lot, but it's like, I'm not creating, but maybe I'm okay with that. But I don't know. This is where. Blah. Yeah, this is another business

[00:34:09] bestie conversations come visit me in 2022. And we'll talk about it.

[00:34:14] Emily Thompson: I need something to look forward to. I have definitely thought about that. I know I will. There's no thinking I'm coming to see you in 2022. Absolutely.

[00:34:24] Kathleen Shannon: And I gotta be warmer for you though, but he's coming like August

[00:34:29] Emily Thompson: wouldn't mind coming to see the snow.

[00:34:32] Kathleen Shannon: Well, we've got some on the ground right now, but I

[00:34:34] Emily Thompson: just want to like see it for a couple of days and leave, which I think is

[00:34:37] Kathleen Shannon: perfect. I know

[00:34:40] Emily Thompson: build and me a fire twice. Can you build me a fire? You have a gas fireplace, don't you?

[00:34:45] Kathleen Shannon: Well, I now know how to build a fire. I have a little fire pit. It's so funny.

[00:34:51] The other day I was taking out all my pumpkins because I was keeping the pumpkins up through November. Took them out to buy Backwoods where the DRR texted my neighbors to see if any of them had an axe. Nobody has an axe. Someone who is like, well, Emily has an axe and he's like, I know I need Emily here.

[00:35:10] Somebody go out and buy me, start traveling. I'll do that before you come up, I'll buy an axe.

[00:35:16] Emily Thompson: That I love that. And we'll build us a proper fire.

[00:35:20] Kathleen Shannon: We can build a fire. You have to come up in the summertime. Whenever I do want to do that as well, go to a lake, you can come up any time. I will just give up that direct flight.

[00:35:30] Emily Thompson: Indeed. We do.

[00:35:33] Kathleen Shannon: I'm coming to you to come back down to Chattanooga. Is that okay too?

[00:35:38] Emily Thompson: You could see my face right now. Everybody. Absolutely. Kathleen, anytime every, every other weekend. Can we just make it, can we have joint custody?

[00:35:49] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah,

[00:35:51] Emily Thompson: absolutely. Well, perfect. This has been a pleasure, Kathleen. I'm so glad that we

[00:35:54] Kathleen Shannon: were having me on the podcast.

[00:35:56] I love a little hop back on. Good. Just have me again.

[00:36:01] Emily Thompson: Of course I will. I do my final question for you.

[00:36:11] What's making you feel most boss?

[00:36:12] Kathleen Shannon: Well, let's see.

[00:36:19] Emily Thompson: I've never had anyone take this long to answer before.

[00:36:25] Kathleen Shannon: Take out and take out this pause. Corey, what is making me feel boss?

[00:36:35] Okay. Here's one. I invested in a fancy ass second monitor.

[00:36:41] Emily Thompson: Oh yeah. Actually your whole set up is pretty effin boss.

[00:36:47] Kathleen Shannon: Why don't we talk about my whole setup? I've got a standing desk. I've got an air on chair bought secondhand. Nice. I've got a Wacom tablet. I've got all sorts of laptops stands. I have wireless keyboard, a big track pad.

[00:37:07] I've got a new iPad. I mean, I have invested in some like tech and set up this year. Thanks to my husband. He's really spearheaded this like ergonomic situations since we've been working from home. I don't love that we're working from our dining room table, but my set up, like I have a little command station and it makes me feel boss and I have like a nice little background that I set up just for.

[00:37:31] Zooming. It feels good. It feels boss.

[00:37:36] Emily Thompson: Awesome.

[00:37:36] Kathleen Shannon: I also have red nails that always makes me feel boss. And I got a facial yesterday that makes me feel boss,

[00:37:43] Emily Thompson: look at you. Go. I do have a question about all your tech things. Are you actually using all of that?

[00:37:49] Kathleen Shannon: I am remember we had a big conversation about the Wacom tablet.

[00:37:54] So I'm using that in primarily in Photoshop. So like if I'm needing to [00:38:00] get in and do some Photoshopping, I'm plugging that in.

[00:38:03] Emily Thompson: And I, I want to add here, like I am a massive Wacom tablet, fan. I don't even use a mouse. Like I literally, I get angry. I have to use a mouse because I want to use my little stylists on my way.

[00:38:15] Calm tablet. I've used one for years and I converted Kathleen.

[00:38:21] Kathleen Shannon: I know, and I tried, I tried doing like the full Wacom as Vous situation. It's not for every work for me. Not for me. I maybe should have bought like the $500 Wacom tablet that's both. I think that there's one, that's a hybrid where you use your fingers on it.

[00:38:39] Like as a track pad. That's kind of what I wish that I had now at this point. I don't stand as much as I should probably. Yeah. So I don't use that as often as I'd like to I'm using my iPad, especially since getting this good notes, digital planners situation down. Yeah, I use all of it. My second monitor.

[00:39:03] I couldn't live without it. And I'm about to buy a new computer. My laptop is almost 10 years old.

[00:39:10] Emily Thompson: That's basically a dinosaur,

[00:39:12] Kathleen Shannon: a dinosaur of a computer. But she's hanging in there. So I'm going to go get a new laptop before the end of the year, just to do some like, you know, end of year spending. Yeah.

[00:39:23] Emily Thompson: Perfect.

[00:39:25] Kathleen Shannon: What's making you feel most boss?

[00:39:27] Emily Thompson: Kathleen, thank you for asking what is making me feel most boss.

[00:39:36] You think about it to you do, let me think on this. What is making me feel most boss?

[00:39:43] Kathleen Shannon: I think we have to think about it because literally everything that we do is like a boss move or a boss decision. We are such bosses all the time. That there's never a moment where we're not really being boss.

[00:39:57] Emily Thompson: Yeah. I really have to like grade things.

[00:39:59] [00:40:00] What makes me feel most boss at the moment? Most boss.

[00:40:05] Kathleen Shannon: See, you're looking around now look around playing Scrabble or like words with friends and you're like making up words and you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, Bish. How is that? Not a word. And then like, you're mad that it's not a word. This is us looking for things to be positive.

[00:40:24] That it's like a

[00:40:27] Emily Thompson: computer I'm seeing right now. It feels real boss. So I think maybe the one I'm going to go is so lame is that you're not, what's not working for you as a paper planner. How about, I think for the first time ever I'm ending my year with the same planner that I started with, like I legit have done all year long.

[00:40:54] I'm going to say that. Can I say that?

[00:40:56] Kathleen Shannon: I will give anything to look through it? I would give anything to just like scroll through your planner.

[00:41:02] Emily Thompson: So this is like, this is like an anti planner though. I will say it basically. It has a calendar at the front. I think it may have showed it to you. Maybe not. It just has like a basic monthly calendar in the front.

[00:41:14] So like that's the quote unquote planner part and the rest of it is just a notebook. Oh, yeah. It's just a notebook in columns, which I think is amazing. I've actually been thinking about, there might be a Being Boss version of this in the future, because this is literally the most boss planner I've ever had.

[00:41:32] And I have like showing Kathleen, there's like a binder clip in here where I can flip from the month to where I am currently. And it's basically just meeting notes and to do lists and like look scrap like little drawings of Almanac window displays and. Math. Here's some like multiplication happening here in this column.

[00:41:54] But the, I think this is literally, maybe the first year ever, where I have used the same paper planner all year long, and that honestly does feel quite boss.

[00:42:08] Kathleen Shannon: You better link that in the show notes, because anytime I mentioned planner on anything, people are like, which one, what is it people want to know will do.

[00:42:16] I will put it in the shed and affiliate link, link it up.

[00:42:21] Emily Thompson: Love it. So, anyway, I am finishing my planner. I'm in other news, my porch is getting fixed. And even though I'm doing nothing, like exactly. It feels very, very amazing. Maybe not boss, but amazing to just have my porch. And if anyone doesn't know a car hit my porch the summer, it took them five months to begin any work at all.

[00:42:46] And it's probably not quite halfway done, but it's something and that feels amazing. All right, Kathleen, this has been a treat. I'm so glad that we can do this. And I hope that we've inspired anyone listening to this to call up your business bestie, it looks like you're going to need about an hour and a half.

[00:43:07] Kathleen Shannon: If your business besties name rhymes with then yeah, you're going to need an hour and a half. Maybe two. Yeah.

[00:43:15] Emily Thompson: You're going to need a minute. A bonus points. If you take a beverage of choice, I had tea, Kathleen has just been drinking air

[00:43:28] and, and have these conversations reflect on the year that you've had take away the lessons that you can move into the new year and otherwise just build some real connections with real people who get what you do. And otherwise, Kathleen, I'm so glad that we could do this. I'm very grateful for you and that we can still have these business chats.

[00:43:50] Kathleen Shannon: Same same. There's nothing like talking it out to really hear what it is that you're thinking about. And we'll put some solutions. I didn't even know that I had in me here. He talking about with you. So thanks for having me.

[00:44:02] Emily Thompson: Of course.

[00:44:05] All right boss, because you're here. I know you want to be a better creative business owner, which means I've got something for you. Each week the team at Being 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.

[00:44:29] This email is called Brewed. We brew it up for you each week to give you the insight you need to make decisions and move forward in your creative business. Check it out now and sign up for yourself at beingboss.club/brewed. That's beingboss.club/B R E W E D. Now until next time, do the work, be boss[00:45:00] .