Doubt and Downtime

Business brain episode 604 for Wednesday, December 4th. Extraordinary Work Team Recognition Day 2024. Greetings, folks, and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take some ideas, we crunch them, we dissect them, we use them to tune our business brains to better our chances of living those charmed lives. Sponsors for this episode include notion.com businessbrain, where you can go and try out Notion for free today. It's awesome thing that combines like your docs and your knowledge base and AI. We'll talk more about that in a little bit as well. We'll talk about legal do legalzoom.com where promo code bbshow gets you 10% off any business formation product. We'll talk a little bit more about that too. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, after the Thanksgiving weekend, I'm Dave Hamilton.

Yeah. Finally getting over it. I think all the turkey might be gone out of my fridge. I'm Shannon Jean from coming to you from Northern California. How's it going?

Yeah, it's going good.

That's great.

Yeah. Here we are on Extraordinary Work Team Recognition Day and also my kid's birthday. So, you know, happy birthday.

That's nice.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's awesome. That's very cool. Hey, we have a guest coming up here for our next episode, which you don't want to miss. But I did want to talk about a topic that comes up all the time when I talk with other business owners and entrepreneurs. It happened this morning again, and that is doubt. The topic of, you know, questioning if you're doing the right thing. I don't know. This kind of. And the context I want to kind of dig into is about as entrepreneurs, especially if you're a solo entrepreneur or just starting out. You know, we kind of live in these silos and we have these doubts, but it's hard to understand or to, you know, believe sometimes that everybody else has these doubts, too. And one of the common, most common things I hear when I talk with people jump on discovery calls or coaching call or whatever. It's wow, I'm so glad to hear that you've had this happen too. You felt this way too. And it, it really hit home with me. Had a really good call today. The power of connecting with other people, especially on other entrepreneurs. I don't think civilians quite understand it.

No.

Nothing against.

No, it's hard to have those conversations. Yes.

Yeah, yeah. But we talk about it here. Being able to talk on Business Brain each week and kind of flush things out sometimes. A lot of the topics I bring up are stu. I want to learn more about. Because I'm having a problem with them or just question them. So getting involved in. In with other people, a group, either online, in real life, just being able to share like, wow, I. I didn't know you. You went through this or you're going through it, or this is normal. Doubt. Doubting yourself in this realm of being a business owner, entrepreneur is. It's just the way it is. You're constantly going to be doubting yourself.

It is a common topic every time I speak with entrepreneurs. And case in point, it's a common topic when you and I talk, Shannon. Yes, absolutely. And you hear it in the show, too. It comes up in a lot of different ways. It's funny you bring this up. I was talking just about an hour ago with a friend of mine who is, I think objectively probably more successful in business than either one of us, potentially, than either one of us combined. I don't know if that's actually true. I haven't seen his financials. But from the outside, people would probably, if they said, look at the three of us, pick the one that's most successful in business, they'd probably point to him. And he was saying he was part of. He's part of this coaching group. And he was telling me about an offhanded comment that his coach made four years ago. Not even directed toward him, just kind of said it. And he's like, and now ever since then, this is the thing that wakes me up at night and I obsess about. I'm like, okay, well, now I gotta know, like, dude, yeah, this huge setup.

Crazy.

What was the comment? And the comment was, the worst kind of entrepreneurs to coach are those who haven't gone to college, which this guy has not, because they don't know how to. How to see different versions of what smart means. They're used to their own version of smart. They're used to being the only smart person in the room and they haven't experienced what different types of smart means. And. And he said, my gosh, that's me. You know, is my whole life a sham? And this, that and the other thing, I'm like, dude, it's clearly. It's not clearly all that's happening is that comment is feeding your version of imposter syndrome. But I get it. Like, I'm not meaning. I'm not trying to say it's not valid. It's just.

It's hard to control.

It's just. Yeah. And. And he's. But like, the Comment in and of itself is right. And I don't know about, like, whether college is important, but the idea of recognizing different types of intelligence. He. He gave a great example. He said it was during COVID lockdowns, and they were interviewing someone in their office in person. And so as they're getting ready to do this interview, somebody says, oh, hey, we. We want to call down to the security and let them know to let this person up so that, you know, we can interview. And my friend who's the founder of the company said, you know, I don't know that we do want to call down to security. People kind of raise their eyebrows. And he said, well, if they can't figure out how to negotiate their way past our security guard, then I don't know that we want them on the team anyway. And somebody else said, because this is how my friend thinks, like, this is, you know, it's like, okay, well, that's a good litmus test for someone. And somebody else on the team said, well, they might not be good at social engineering, but they might still be good at, say, software engineering. And they're smart at that, not at this. And it was just an example of, like, not necessarily wrecking, like being in your own silo. But. But still, he says, yeah, to this day, it feeds his.

His.

His security and all of us.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I heard one example. I heard you're just recently was the entrepreneur saying, when he's moving forward and getting things done, everything's great and he feels good, but when he slows down, that doubt creeps in and it can be paralyzing. And, man, I've been there. I have a task that I'm struggling with right now because I don't know how to do it, and it's like, driving me nuts. And you know, and then. Then the other way I heard it was a post about meetings and going around and making sure. You asked everybody, what are you struggling with right now at your meeting? Because it gets people talking. And. And I commented was, you know, it also helps blow the myth up of that I'm the only one struggling.

Right.

Because that's another thing you feel like, like, oh, I'm the. I'm the only one that's having a problem. Everybody else is killing it, you know, but that's just not true. At varying degrees. People have different. So you're doubting yourself, which is just, you know, human condition, I guess.

Yeah, it's just who we are.

Right? It's who we are. But, you know, it's just I just thought it's important to recognize there's no way what you're going through. If you're an entrepreneur and you're listening to this and this, your unique situation is unique, of course, but the doubts and the uncertainties, that's just the way it is. So living to or learning to operate in those conditions can really help you a lot.

All right folks, let's talk about sticker shock. You know, the kind you get when you see the price tag for traditional legal services. Starting your business should feel like an adventure, not like you just maxed out your credit card. And that's why there's our sponsor, LegalZoom. LegalZoom is the smarter way to handle all the legal stuff. Want to register your business or form an llc? No problem. Need to talk to an attorney without Worrying about a second mortgage? They've got you covered. LegalZoom makes starting and protecting your business simple, affordable and dare I say, actually enjoyable. With just a few clicks@legalzoom.com, you can take care of everything from formation to ongoing compliance. And their network of experienced attorneys is there to help. Minus the jaw dropping hourly rates. Over the past 20 years, LegalZoom has helped millions of businesses get off the ground and yours could be next. So skip the sticker shock and launch run and protect your business to make it official today@legalzoom.com and use promo code bbshow to get 10% off any LegalZoom business formation product, excluding subscriptions and renewals. This expires December 31st of 2024, the end of this month. Get everything you need from setup to success@legalzoom.com and use promo code BB show. Legalzoom.com use promo code BB show and as a disclaimer, LegalZoom provides access to independent attorneys and self service tools. LegalZoom is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice except where authorized through its subsidiary law firm LZ Legal Services LLC. And our thanks to LegalZoom for sponsoring this episode. You know those moments when you're juggling notes, projects and tasks and it feels like your brain is playing Twister? That used to be me until I discovered our sponsor Notion. I've been using it in one of my other businesses and let me tell you it it's like upgrading from a tricycle to a rocket ship. Notion combines everything, notes, docs, projects into one beautifully designed space and the new Notion AI Game Changer the new Notion AI is a single AI tool that does it all. Search across Notion and other apps, generate Docs in your own style, analyze PDFs and images, and chat with you about anything. It's it's so efficient, I'm half convinced it could plan my next vacation while managing my business. Unlike those clunky tools that make you bounce between six different apps, Notion keeps everything integrated and flexible. And over half of Fortune 500 companies are already on board. Why? Because it works. Ready to supercharge your workflow? Try Notion for free when you go to notion.com businessbrain that's all lowercase letters notion.com businessbrain to try the powerful, easy to use Notion AI today. And when you use our link, you're supporting our show notion.com businessbrain and our thanks to Notion for sponsoring this episode. You know, Shannon, I was coming out of the the holiday weekend here. We and our daughter, who lives in northern Italy now, was home for about two weeks with us. And it was great. We had some really great time with the four of us at the house. Our son came over from the other side of the state. And she was home last year for actually longer. She was home this time for about two weeks. Last time she was home for five weeks or something. And it felt like for a lot of it, we became tourists in our own land. Well, sort of like it was good. She, there were things she had been gone for about, you know, 10 months at that point, and there were a lot of things she was like, oh, I want to make sure I do this, I want to make sure I do that and get, get to do this. And like, so there were lots of things that she had on her list and we wound up doing most, if not all, and then some. And this time we all really just prioritized downtime together. And at the end of it, we were like, this is great. I felt like we all, and we all felt this way. We felt like we spent more time together in the two weeks with some downtime, as opposed to the five weeks of just like going nuts, running around, running around and all those things. And both are good. But the idea of prioritizing downtime, it's something I've worked on all my life. I remember when I was in my, I guess it would be my early 20s, you know, I was just starting to like, work. And I, I remember one night or, yeah, it was one night or at some point a friend called and said, hey, what are you doing on Tuesday night? And I remember saying to them, I'm doing nothing. And they said, oh, great. You want to get together and go like, do this Thing or go to a movie or, like, whatever. And I'm like, I. I meant. I meant what I said. Like, this is an activity. I scheduled nothing for Tuesday night because I had, like, mayhem, you know, leading up to that and from Wednesday after that. So I was like, no, on Tuesday, I'm actually doing nothing. And they respected that, and it was totally fine. I'm not always that good at it, mind you, but it is something that I continually work at. And this time it was almost accidental until we started doing it. Then it was like, wait a minute. Like, her last day here was. Was Sunday. She left Monday night for, you know, to take the red eye back. And as we were kind of leading into it, it was like, you know, we have nothing planned on Sunday. I was like, let's do that then. Let's just make it, like a home day. And we did. We wound up running an errand together as a family or whatever, but for the most part, we, you know, sort of went with the flow of the day. We wound up playing some board games. We interacted all day. It wasn't like we just vegetated and, like, ignored each other and slept or whatever, but it was, you know, we kind of kept the outside world out. And I. I think there's some. Some benefit to that.

I like it. Yeah. Especially this time of year. It's funny how when I've experienced this, too, when your kids leave or whatever, people come into town, it's like this sense of, okay, they're visiting. How do we entertain them?

Right.

And. And I like the idea of, like, no, no, we just keep going, do it. Maybe we'll go do something here and there or whatever, but for the most part, we're. We're coming together to be together. And, you know, I think that, you know, I love hustle culture. I like to grind and get stuff done, too. But it is really important to disconnect and to kind of recharge and connect with the people that meet the mean the most to you. So. Yeah, I love the concept. It's tough. I have a hard time. I know you don't like the word busy, which I agree with, but, you know, we don't sit down a lot at our house. The idea that we would sit down and, like. I don't know, this concept, like, especially, like, on a weekend. Yeah. That. That we would just sit and do nothing is really strange to me and to my wife. We've always got stuff going on, so maybe making yourself do that is, you know, it's just an important Part of it. And hanging out and chilling and just talking and. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like it.

It's not. It's not. It's something we have to be intentional about.

It's not natural.

No. So I keep. I keep a long list of anything that either I've thought of to put in the show or that you and I have discussed to put in the show. And this list is longer than we will ever get to. Right.

And.

And there's some stuff on it that's not so great and other things that, you know. You know, obviously we do. And then they come off the list. I put this on Sunday. I put be intentional with your downtime on the list. And as I came into it, I noticed there was another comment about downtime that's probably about four or five years old that I had queued up for the show that we never talked about. And I want to read you what I wrote because. Dovetails into what you just said.

Okay.

What I wrote. And again, this is years ago, but it was for. You're not falling in love with being busy. You're falling in love with being productive. That also means good breaks. Schedule downtime in your calendar just like any other task. Those short breaks can be fantastic.

Yeah. It's huge. It's really important, man. To start reset. Because we're just bombarded.

Yes.

We're bombarded with so much stuff during the day. And it's like I gotta fill every minute and I do this and I've got to get this. And how do I measure? You know, I have this sickness where at the end of the day, I'm constantly. Okay. What did I get done? And do I deserve to relax? Yes. And. And sometimes that's a good motivator. I like that.

It is. But.

But it can be counterproductive too, certainly. So.

Well, I. What I find when I. When I do these things. The relaxation time. When I give myself permission to take a day or even two days in a row off from being productive. Which. Which really happened this weekend. We had Thanksgiving.

Nice.

Which. Which was not a work day. Like, we had family, you know, extended family came over and we, you know, we did all that stuff. And then because our daughter is only home for two weeks, we did Christmas morning on Friday morning. We.

That's a good idea.

And it was great. We are. We are not. I wouldn't call us a religious family. You know, Christmas is a secular holiday as far as we're concerned.

Yeah.

It's like school. It's all okay. Right. Like, however you do it in your family is totally fine, of course. But because of that, like, the date didn't mean anything. It felt like Christmas all day on Friday. That meant it was a down day for us, but we also didn't have to entertain anybody because it wasn't actually Christmas. Right.

That's nice.

And we did that the day before Saturday. We had some stuff to do. But having, you know, Friday and then Sunday with these basically just family days gave me the fuel on Monday to be like, all right, now I get to be productive again.

Nice. Yeah, I was feeling kind of itchy by end of day Saturday.

Like, I can see that. Yeah.

Thursday we were, you know, we did entertain people, just family. So it was no big deal. Friday I had. I was like, oh, I got another day. And I did get a few things done, but, you know, pretty much just hung out and did some things with, you know, family. Saturday, you know, I. We had some plans because my had to take my son to the airport. We went and hit topgolf on the way. It was cool. Yeah. But I felt like after I got home Saturday, it was like, hey, I need to get some work done. Yeah. And so anyway. But it's. It's cool. How do you use downtime? You know, we'd love to hear it. Feedbackusbrain show. It's. It's super important to recharge your batteries and share your tips so we can share em here on the air.

Absolutely. Like he said, feedback at businessbrain show. I think this downtime thing is important, so tell us how you do it, and that way we can all actually reap the rewards of what we do and keep living that charmed life. We'll see you on Friday.