137: Space For Miracles

[00:00:00] You guys, I just have the best podcast ideas coming home from the Gem. So this one I'm just gonna riff off. That just came to me over the past couple of days because I've had a number of people, um, trying to get into my calendar for a couple of different reasons, and I've, they've got, they've given me the comment.

I know you're so busy. I don't know when I'll be able to get into your calendar. And it got me thinking. It's interesting that from the outside looking in, some of you think that I'm incredibly busy. Um, and I actually do not like that word. Um, to me, I'm blessed and I wanna talk about calendar management today and reveal, take kind of the curtain, lift up the curtain behind my calendar, and I think you'll be wide, wildly surprised.

That I'm not busy. I'm actually extremely blessed [00:01:00] with a lot of time in my calendar for the things that are most important to me, to my family, and to my business, and I strategically do not make myself available to the outside world for much. Except for very specific times in my calendar throughout the week, and so I think you guys will really enjoy this episode on what I'm gonna talk about.

I have not prepared it. I am just riffing off with you this morning because, um, I'm thinking about it. Here it is Friday. The reason I can riff off with you on a Friday is because, believe it or not, I never schedule anything in my calendar on Fridays. Um, and here's why. This is a huge topic I wanna talk to you guys about.

Um, If you are scheduled back to back to back all week long, number one, you are leaving no space for miracles, and we're gonna talk about that today. Number two, [00:02:00] you are giving yourself no time to actually follow up on. All the calls that you have throughout the week. It is some of the best advice that was given to me over a decade ago by a senior vice president that I used to work with who told me, you know, Melissa, as a leader, you must always have white space in your calendar to think, to critically think and think ahead.

But also to have space to address fire drills that are happening in business. And if we are overscheduled, we are underestimating the ripple effect of work that needs to be done between each call. And so if you are finding your yourself at the end of your workday as an entrepreneur, or even you know, an employee, Working at night, picking up your computer and responding to emails and catching up on projects.

Guys, I am here to tell you tough love. You are doing a really shitty job managing your calendar, tough love. You are [00:03:00] doing a really shitty job managing your calendar, and I have been there. But the reality is if you can anticipate that you actually need more time than you think, not scheduled. It will save your sanity because you're able to actually get the work load done during the specified time, during the day that you really anticipated aspirationally to work each week.

But then find yourself working at night, getting up super early in the morning, not taking care of yourself and addressing your business instead. Right? So how and why did I get to the space of not. We're like not taking calls on Fridays. And let me, let me, um, clarify this. Okay. What I have learned, and this is what works for me, is that I am not willing to take any standing calls ever in my calendar on Fridays.

It stays wide open till the week of that week. Okay, and [00:04:00] this is where, um, it, it, it runs a couple of purposes. It's two maybe threefold, right? So you never know what types of fire drills could happen in your business that are going to need your, your, your attention. And if you haven't scheduled white space to manage those fire drills, That's gonna be the number one scenario where you're gonna be up late at night, you're gonna be working on the weekends because you didn't anticipate that.

That's business, that's life. There's gonna be things that come up when you're running a business. Um, And so that's number one is that Fridays are designed so that for instance, this week we're having issues with our processor, our payment plan. Some of these things are, are dropping and we're not understanding what's going on, and we're having to organize calls with authorized.net and Thrive Car, and we're trying to get my CFO together.

That's a fire drill, right? That has to be addressed. Right. But if you are so overscheduled, this is gonna create such ridiculous [00:05:00] anxiety on you as the business owner because you have no space to address it in your calendar. Whereas for me this week, I'm like, cool, no big deal. Let's address it on Friday.

I've got, I've got time in my calendar, let's make it happen. Right? And I laughed cuz my c CFO was like, well, um, we need to, we need to start having a standing call, but I know your calendar's really busy. When can we get together? And I'm like, Friday's wide open for me, right? And she's like, oh, well I can get together in two weeks.

Right. But that is what I'm talking about is it's not that I don't take calls on Friday. It's not that I don't work on Friday, it's that I do not let my team or myself ever proactively put anything in the calendar on Fridays until the week of. When there is absolutely no other way to fit it anywhere else in my calendar, that is what it's reserved for.

Okay, number two. So number two is the miracles, right? [00:06:00] So. If we don't make space for miracles in our business, they'll never happen. But I'm talking about the good stuff, right? When somebody wants to CoLab with you, when you have a really bright idea that you wanna take action on, if you haven't created space in your calendar and you're so depleted from running your business, The miracles will never happen.

So another great example. I had a call with a, a dear friend of mine that I'm collaborating with on a jewelry line. We're building a capsule, um, for my, my brand. And this morning I was going back and forth with my photographer v via text, and we're trying to decide on the photo shoot and how we're gonna do it.

And last minute, I'm like, Hey, let's just pop on a quick zoom today for 10 or 15 minutes. Let's talk about the brand board. Let's talk about the inspo and where we want to go. Guys, those are miracles that I totally stress free. Have a wide open calendar to a address on Fridays, right? I'm not trying to [00:07:00] squeeze it in anywhere.

I've actually just anticipated put it out to the universe and made space for miracles that are coming to me. I hope this is making sense. Okay. The third that I said, it was kind of a three-pronged approach, or, you know, a couple of benefits of, of clearing calendar calendars on Fridays is, Like I said in the very beginning, when we go day to day with back-to-back calls, and I'll tell you man, my, I have like an accordion, like squeezed calendar of where I go back to back, to back, to back on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, um, especially Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, I am really tight and scheduled and it's on purpose and I time block.

My team knows that nine times outta 10, if you send me an email during the week. And I learned this from Tim Ferriss in the four hour work week. My best practice is you're gonna get my, I have a five day turnaround email. You will hear from me on Fridays, right? So I get into coaching mode, I get into creative [00:08:00] mode.

It depends on what my calendar is blocked for, but during the week, I am really tight on my calendar unless it's extremely urgent. I send emails out during the week of things I need as the c e O for people to get to me. But I do not respond to emails until Friday. Emails are someone else's urgent needs not yours.

Right? And unless it's extremely urgent to your business, you have to decide, are you in reactive mode, spending too much time every day in your inbox, responding to other people's needs instead of addressing moving the business forward as a C E O? Right? So where I'm going with this is that yes, depending on my calendar each week, I may spend a little bit of time in the afternoons catching up and cleaning up on email.

But the bottom line is I know that I know that. I know that if I'm behind in my inbox on Fridays, my team knows I get it completely cleaned up. I am, I have time in my calendar on Fridays to completely catch up. Why do I bring this up? Because like [00:09:00] I said in the beginning, I think, and I used to do this in corporate America before I.

Create a white space myself. Um, and that is, and even in, as in an entrepreneur, before I learned to really completely block Fridays until I figured this method out. And I'll walk you guys through my calendar in a second before I. Came up with this. I was up late at night catching up on emails, even as an entrepreneur.

Um, before I had figured out the Friday piece. Um, I was following up. You know, how many of you have calls back to back to back? And with each of those calls, there's action items. That need to be followed up on, but you're scheduled so tightly to the next call, you can't actually follow up. And your to-do list starts to get really, really long.

Right. And as the to-do list starts to get really, really long, we get further and further behind in business. And by the time Friday comes, we have a like, uh, who, who can commiserate with me? By Friday, you have a list so long because you've [00:10:00] been so overscheduled. Now you're extremely overwhelmed and you are getting up early in the mornings, or you are staying up late at night.

Maybe you're working on Saturday and Sunday mornings trying to catch up with your week before the next week starts, right? This is poor calendar management and it's poor calendar prioritization. Okay? A lot of you would be really surprised to know as a multiple seven figure c e o. I actually do not take calls before 11 o'clock any day of the week.

Even on my Monday c e o days, I spend an hour and a half exercising daily. I spend 30 minutes to an hour on breath work and meditation daily. I refuse. To take a call before 11 o'clock. So if you're listening to this and you're one of those people who's been trying to get in, let's say my calendar, my executive assistant is like, the first slot I have with Melissa is in four or five weeks.

That is because that is where it fits into the [00:11:00] prioritization of my business and my family and my health, right? And so, you know, the first half of my day in my calendar each day is blocked on purpose. This is where we have. The highest energy for me personally, this is where I'm fired up right now, right?

It's a Friday, so my full day's blocked off. So I could do this anytime, but in general, um, my calendar, I don't take calls before 11 o'clock any day of the week. I am taking critical action in my business. I am creatively thinking, I am creatively creating. I have record podcast, right? But I, I do what requires a large, large majority of my energy.

In the mornings before I take calls, once 11 o'clock hits, the calls start and they go and they go and they go and they go. And I actually am like the opposite of most people on Fridays. I typically still won't take a call even on a Friday. With a last minute scheduled [00:12:00] call till three or four, which some people are like, why would you take a call so late on a Friday?

I'm ready for my week to get, you know, get going because energetically I'm saving all the creative juice for me during the day on Fridays of what I'm following up with what I need to do. Um, and so even during the week, if people are trying to get into my calendar and get a call with me, my executive assistant is gonna look for the latest time slots in the day, which is typically four, because I wanna spend time with my family after that.

Um, and so where I'm going with all of this is, you know, from the outside looking in on someone like me who runs a business, you could think or perceive. Wow, she's so busy. I'll never get into her calendar. Right? But the reality is I am just highly prioritized in my calendar, around my health and around miracles in my business and around [00:13:00] space to reduce the possibility of overwhelm as a C E O by anticipating the fire drills that are inevitable in my business.

And by being a ninja with my calendar, it makes me healthy. It makes me wealthy and it makes me happy. Right? So I hope this episode has been really good for you guys. Like I said, it was just something I wanted to pop in and share with you. Um, let me give you really quickly, just a lay of the land of my calendar, um, is on Mondays as c e o day.

So I have calls throughout the day, which don't start until noon. So there you go. Um, that morning of the morning of I am spending my time looking and forecasting my calendar for the week as the C E o I look at my calendar for the week on Monday mornings and choose what needs to be canceled. Give yourself permission to cancel.

Maybe priorities have shifted, things have changed in your calendar, and you need to move and cancel things. And then I look at what do I need to prepare [00:14:00] for, right? Including my c e O day with my stakeholder calls, my leadership calls, my client calls, any podcasts that I'm recording or preparing for any events that I'm leading, right?

I spend the first four hours of my week. Creating planning and reprioritizing my calendar, right? The back half of that day is all, um, c e o I call them c e o days. I have a call with my team every single week. I have, um, a call with individual contributors on my team, um, certain ones of them through, uh, during that day.

My sales manager, um, I take a lot of just c e o calls on Mondays. And then I think you guys will find this interesting. I actually alternate weeks of creativity versus coaching. Um, I find that once we get into a flow state, um, of a particular type of activity, and I don't just find this data, supports this, it to switch in and out of activities, um, it takes, uh, the average human [00:15:00] 17 minutes to get back into flow state.

So if you, for instance, make yourself available through. Calendly link for people to book calls with you like at any time throughout the week, and it's peppered in around projects that you're working on. Know that you are giving away ultimately hours of your time and productivity, which is impacting your bottom line because you're not being ridiculously, um, uh, con cognizant of how you're managing your calendar.

And this is what I mean. I will every other week, Tuesday, Wednesday. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, every other week are what I call creative weeks. I go into those weeks knowing I am gonna be hanging out in my satin pajamas, drinking my coffee, and running my, um, essential oils while sitting on this little white couch if you're watching me live.

And creating. I am creating content for podcasts. I am creating contents for modules. I am creating and getting [00:16:00] ready for a launch. I am creating the curriculum for my mastermind events, for my live events. It is a constant flow state as a creative in my space that I need to make space for. And once I get into that state, I wanna stay in that flow state and not switch from.

Being comfortable in my Jamie's with no makeup on creating something magnificent. And I know some of you guys have experienced this. You're getting into flow state, you've got a lot of great ideas, and then you're like, shit, I've gotta jump on this coaching call. Shit, I've gotta get on this call with this client and now I've gotta stop what I'm doing and switch gears and it's really bad for productivity.

And so I have given myself permission to actually have creation weeks and coaching weeks. And it also gives your mindset at the beginning of each week, you're able to like get ready and gear up for it, right? So I know for me personally, coaching I love, [00:17:00] but energetically it's really draining. It takes a lot out of me versus my creative weeks where I'm not.

I'm not on. I'm not talking. I'm not on screen critically thinking and problem solving with my clients. To me, creative weeks give me energy. And, um, they're a totally different vibe. So when I sit down on my calendar on Mondays, I can brace myself for a coaching week and see, okay, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, back to back coaching calls, I'm gonna crush this.

It's like game day. I'm getting ready for it. And then as I get into that Friday and look at my calendar for the next week, my reward is a week of creation. The next week beyond my CEO day on Mondays, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday is predominantly creative work, right? And so. I encourage you to consider, and maybe you're not in a space in your business where you can time block every other week like that.

Maybe it's days, right? Maybe one day for [00:18:00] you is podcast production or creative production, and then the next day is taking calls with clients. Um, but there's a, there's a totally different energy and mindset for being on screen than there is for creating. For your business. And so the more you can separate them out and get a long runway of flow state for each, the more productive long-term in your business you're gonna be, when you look at all the switching back and forth.

If you're trying to juggle them both throughout the day, each day of the week, over a period of 365 days, I promise you, you are wasting thousands of hours in productivity. So, um, that is, so I switch weeks. So Monday, CEO day. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Alternates between coaching and creation. And then Fridays are always clear, right?

And so for me also, cause I never take calls on Fridays, about every six weeks there's a hair appointment in there. You know, every couple of [00:19:00] months there's a dental appointment in there. So what I do is Fridays are always my safe haven for self-care days too. Maybe I'm going to get Botox, maybe I'm getting a facial right?

But those all happen on Fridays and so I'll always have space to take care of myself. I always have space for miracles and I always have space to clean up the overwhelm for the week so that I can reset the following week, right? And so if you are feeling overwhelmed in your business and scattered tough love, that is on you with, with not making your time blocking a priority.

Priority in your calendar, right? If you're not feeling healthy and you're feeling like you're just not your best physically or mentally tough love, you're not making it a priority. You need to give it as much intention and your calendar as you [00:20:00] do the calls with your clients and the work you're doing in your business.

Because businesses, because bodies build businesses, right? So we have to create white space in order to be. Not only successful, but to thrive. And not feel like you're in a state of overwhelm and keep us from working over the weekends and late into the night. Right? So, lemme know if this resonates with you.

Drop me a comment if you're watching this live, who's committing to creating more white space in their calendar? Um, if you're watching this episode on record, definitely let me know. Shoot me a DM if you're making changes in your calendar. After listening to this, I hope you guys have a great weekend.

Those of you guys who are watching live and um, with that I'm off to enjoy my Friday.