323. Achieve More and Stress Less: Cultivating Success Habits for Work-Life Balance, with Marcey Rader

Welcome to episode 323 of the Brainy Business Understanding the Psychology of why People Buy. In today's episode, I'm excited to introduce you to Marci Rader, author of Work well Play More. Ready?

Let's get started.

You are listening to the Brainy Business podcast where we dig into the psychology of why people buy and help you incorporate behavioral economics into your business, making it more brain friendly. Now here's your host, Melina Palmer.

Hello.

Hello everyone. My name is Melina Palmer and I want to welcome you to the Brainy Business Podcast. In today's conversation, I'm joined by Marci Rader who believes that health powers productivity.

Love that.

She is a multi certified health, productivity and digital wellness expert, an award winning global speaker and three time author. As the founder of the comprehensive productivity company Raider Company, she and her expert team help executives banish burnout and keep great employees through coaching, consulting, speaking and training. Sought after by Fortune 100 companies, startups and everyone in between, Marcy's spoken for more than a hundred thousand people across five continents from North Dakota to Dubai. Recognized as One of only 850 certified speaking professionals worldwide, she is a top 1% speaker who trains her audiences to improve their focus, maximize their energy, conquer the calendar, master tasks and extinguish their email. Trust, trust.

Trust me. You are going to love the tips in this conversation and especially in Marcy's book. Work well, Play More.

There's so much in there. You can optimize your life a little bit at a time.

Forever. Really quickly before we get into the.

Conversation and all those tips, I want to be sure you know that there are links in the show, notes for everything including related past episodes, links to articles and books including Work well, Play More and so much more. It's all within the app you're listening to and@the brainybusiness.com 323. Now let's jump right in. Marci Rader, welcome to the Brainy Business Podcast.

Thank you for having me Melina, because I first discovered you a couple of months ago and I have binge listened to so many of your podcast episodes. I have changed some of the things on my website. I have shared information with other business owners, I have told my concierge we need to start doing this and stop doing this and it is such a wealth of information and I am a fan girl.

Oh well thank you so much. I am always, I'm just so honored and delighted to hear that. And you know, as I know you have a podcast yourself and it's One of those things to know that like we create the content for people to be able to do something with it. Right. And so hearing that people are able to use it and that it's enjoyable to listen to is the best feedback I can ever get. So thank you. Well, as you said, we met just a couple months ago and we had.

The great fortune to both be speaking.

At the same conference. It was close for you across the country, for me in North Carolina. And thank you to our friend Melissa for, because I believe that's a big reason why we're both there. So shout out to you, Melissa. Appreciate you. And then, yeah, we, we were just chatting and I think this was also Melissa saying, hey, y' all need to know each other. Yes, yes.

Well, I, I had spoken for that group, I've spoken for that group several times and Melissa said she was going to be there and she said, you have to meet Molina Palmer. There are so many things that you do that is similar to what she does. And there I, I had the pleasure of watching your keynote and there were things that you say that I say. And I gave you my book because I wanted you to see that I was saying this in 2019, before I even knew Molina Palmer. Like we were so in sync with it. We were even using the same analogies that I thought I was original, you know, but, but our brains work, I guess, are a little bit in sync like that. So it was, it was pretty cool.

I love it. And of course then, so I loved and read your book and I'm so, I was so bummed that your talk, talks were at a different time from where I had to fly out. So I didn't get to attend yours, but someday I'll be able to. But I took your book, started reading it and said, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're, you're coming over, we're going to have the conversation because yes, definitely we already knew we were kindred and all we' talking about. And so for everyone who is saying, all right, so what are the similarities? What do you even do? Can you share about your background, the work that you do and you know how it ties into behavioral economics?

Sure. So I founded a company called Raider Company 10 years ago. We just celebrated our 10th business anniversary and we are a health powered productivity company. We do speaking, training, consulting and coaching. And what that means is by you know, saying we're health powered productivity is that it doesn't matter how many boxes you check on your tax task list, if you are staying up all night to do it, it doesn't matter how many emails you're blasting through, if you are doing them during dinner with your family. And so when we go into companies or when we're, you know, coaching clients and we're looking at their calendars, their meeting effectiveness, how they communicate, we're also looking at, do you take screen free lunches, do you take breaks? Do you have times without distractions that you can focus on deep work? And so that is what we do. And so much of it is about behavior change. We do trainings on systems and tools, but our focus is on the behaviors to use those systems and tools. Because everything we do, you know, whether it's how we check our email, how we, you know, how we decide on which tasks to complete first, you know, all of those are habits, which is why the two of us have so many things that we talk about that are similar.

For sure. For sure. Well, and I already know I'm going to be linking to lots of episodes in the show notes definitely when Wendy Wood was on and Tahiti about good habits, bad habits, near real when he was talking about indistractable like great over, you know, comparison points there overlays of things that tie together things on planning fallacy and optimism bias and other episodes on habits. Like there's, there's tons to, to be tying into here. And I, I'm, I want to start with how you got into this space. I know you talk a little bit about your story in the book, but getting into, you know, there's health, there's productivity, there are habits, there's. And, but like uncovering and finding how they work together and how something, two things that seem like they're not connected can be impacting each other. I'm really interested in having everybody, you know, myself included, learning more about your journey and how you got here.

Sure. Well, nobody goes to college to become a productivity coach or speaker.

Maybe not yet, but I think they.

Not yet. Yes. Yes. So. But I actually went to school for exercise science and nutrition and got an undergrad and a master's in that. I did not work in the field for very long, but I maintained multiple certifications. It was more of a selfish degree. I just wanted it for me. But I fell into the world of clinical research. So I did pharma and biotech research for 14 years. I used my exercise science background to help with that, worked my way up, became a manager, went into the training department, managed other trainers. But that job, I traveled 48 weeks a year and for about a decade during that time, I was in my 30s. And I also competed in over 100 ultra and endurance sports sporting events. So I was doing Ironmans, I was doing races, adventure races, up to 48 hours. And it sounds really cool and interesting. People would have thought I was the healthiest person in the room, but I was running marathons and running from my life at the same time. It, you know, I was such a high achiever that any goal I set for myself was not high enough. If I reached it, then I needed to make a new one that was higher. Like, I didn't even take time to celebrate what, what I had done. I just, I just always needed to keep pushing. And I did that to the point that I triggered an autoimmune disease called Hashimoto's disease. I went into a state of menopause for 12 years. I call it menopause. It's actually the, the technical term is hypothalamic amenorrhea. And, but I did that to myself because of the stress I put on my body physically, but also the mental stress, the stress of travel. And so one of those things that I would push, push, push myself is from a work perspective. And way back in, I mean, this was like maybe 13 years ago, there was a book that called the Power of Less by Leo Babata. And I read that book. And out of every book that I've ever read in my life, it changed me. And he was all about minimalism and less is more. And my life was not about anything but maximizing. I had to maximize everything. So I started really rethinking about even where I lived. We decluttered. We have since downsized twice since then. We live in an 1100 square foot house now and it's perfect. I love it. I started thinking about the way I worked and all of the things that I was, you know, trying to do. And that got me interested in more minimalism, more productivity hacks. There was a new website back then called Life Hacks or Life Hackers, something like that. I don't even know if it still exists, but I got super into that. And so then I just started experimenting with, you know, things like my email, my calendar. And I was shutting down with Inbox zero every night, whereas I used to be, you know, and not because I was just sitting in my inbox all day. And I cut my hours back from about 50 to 52 hours a week to like 35 to 40. And I didn't tell anyone. I was so afraid. And I hear this from people all the time. I was so afraid to tell my boss that I was more efficient and working fewer hours because I was afraid she would just give me more work. And finally I was doing some kind of review or something and she was talking about how she can't believe I get all this stuff done. And I said, okay, Jackie, I have a secret. This is what I'm doing. And she said, oh my gosh, teach us. So then I taught our training department and I started training, having my own special module during this three week training that I would do for the company I worked for. And it was about email and time and your focus and attention and so on how to be healthy on the road. And when I was on my last long travel stint, which was three weeks, and I only got to see my husband for like two and a half days during that time, I decided I was going to start a business and I was going to coach people to do these things so that they didn't end up like me. And I wanted to coach them not just from a productivity perspective because it's not about getting it all done when you're sacrificing your health or your relationships to do it. And the company's just evolved since then. It's not just me anymore. We work a lot more with, with companies and, and teams and, you know, looking at their whole culture, you know, around that and you know, this is so cliche to say life's purpose, but this is, this is absolutely mine.

Yeah, definitely. Well, it shines through in all of what you are doing and I think with anyone who, anyone's going to be more impactful with the people they're working with and for. If they've been there before. Right. It's one thing. So like, if my personal trainer is someone who has never struggled with their weight and has always been good at getting up and going to the gym every day no matter what, and doesn't care about what their food tastes like or like anything else. Right. Like, like it doesn't resonate in the same way as someone who has had similar struggles or, or who's been there. So, you know, someone that's always been really super organized then trying to, you know, help somebody who's not. It can be. It feels like you're being attacked maybe. Right. So you don't. And it's like, well, it's easy for you to say that, but I'm different. And so I love how open you are with sharing your story because it helps other people to see one like, oh yeah, that's me. And then also knowing that it's possible, right, that they can make this change, which I think is really important in the journey because there's a lot of stuff that can be done when we look at all these habits in different spots. Right.

And I think that becomes its own overwhelming thing.

One, like you say. So me as a person, if I'm in that state of overwhelm that you're talking about, right, where you have health issues, you have sleep issues, you have eating issues, you like all the, all the things and too many emails and you're behind on deadlines and you're feeling the stress and, and, and, and, and, and, and your house is cluttered. And this. Right.

Where do you even start?

Like, I wouldn't even know what to do. It feels like it just becomes that kind of too much and don't know what to do. So being able to have some sort.

Of guidance in that process for people.

I think is really helpful. So you don't just jump, try to do everything at once, because we know that doesn't work for one thing or, you know, feeling like you can't do anything and that you're never going to have the progress. So I'm sure you have plenty of stories and things that can build on those sorts of problems. But, you know, how do you help people get past that moment of feeling like there's no way out?

Again, this sounds so cliche. It's just you're starting with one thing, the one thing that I put in my book that sometimes I'm like, I'm not sure actually I had it in all three of my books. And, and I feel like for some people, they may read it and feel overwhelmed and others they may feel like, okay. And that is that back when I read that first book and I started reading some other books around minimalism and, and by no, and by no means am I would be considered a minimalist. I'm not. So please don't think that I live in a house with like one fork and, and have three shirts or anything like that. I'm not, but because that, that is a varying degree, you know, that is everyone's own definition. But I put a hundred things on a whiteboard that I wanted to change about myself and not just like from a personal internal, but also like, you know, my house, my, the way I, my, my email behaviors, you know, whatever those were. And 100 sounds like a lot, but I broke it down. Like declutter my shoes, you know, declutter the kitchen drawer, you know, not check email the first 30 minutes of every day, like, I got so detailed that. And it took me, like, you know, a while to make this list. I kind of added to it. I was in that preparation phase where I was, like, considering change. I wasn't ready to do it yet. And then I kind of organized it, and it allowed me to have quick wins and to be able to really see my progress, because some things were very easy for me to do quickly and others took, you know, sometimes several months. But I would literally, like, check off, check off, check off that. I did it every day because I read that Jerry Seinfeld did that, that he has a calendar that he, you know, on his calendar, every day he writes a joke and he makes a check mark, you know, and I read that somewhere. And so, you know, it's really breaking it down. And I think that people just most of the time make their goals so big without looking at the small steps to get there, for sure.

And like you said, I really like that idea of just stepping back and thinking about all the things that could be. I love that. So you're. This episode is coming out the week after my conversation with Kate Gigax, and she's talking about how people, as you're looking to go into Act 2 in your life and career and go from being the, like, yes, yes, yes, take on all the things to, like, what.

Do I actually want?

What am I interested in? And the wouldn't it be cool if stuff. And what is that even for you? And there's so much crossover between the work that. That you both are doing that I'm excited to have these be coming out right next to each other. So, of course, a link for that in the show notes as well. And with that, though, taking the time to just stop and say, I mean, what would it. What might I even change? And that it can be little things, like you said about organizing your shoes or decluttering shoes or that one drawer. But it doesn't have to be the big drawer, right? Like, we. There's. There's one junk drawer that is a lifetime to declutter, and then there's maybe another one that's a little bit easier to be able to tackle. And by breaking them down, instead of saying, like, declutter the house, which will never happen in that, if you look at it that way. Right. Yeah, that's too much to try to do. So. And then you can look. And you don't need to devote an entire Saturday to a lot of those things. And so if you get those little wins, it can help to build Momentum and really keep moving.

Yes, well, and even I know you've read this in the book. I did not eat vegetables until I was in my 30s. And like, literally I did not eat vegetables. I was just a carb. I was a vegetarian that just ate bread and pasta. And I started out one serving a day and I worked on that for like a month and then I moved to two servings a day and that was for like another couple months. And like it took me like two years probably to get up to where like now it is nothing for me to eat five or six servings a day. I mean, I love, love, love vegetables. I really truly do. But I didn't. And you know, I would have never, if you would have asked me 15 years ago, like Omar, you know, like someday, or told me someday you're going to be eating five or six servings, I would have said you were out of your mind. Because I wasn't even eating one on some days. And so it was also like being very thoughtful about, okay, I can't go from zero to 60, I can't go from zero to three or five or six. It's, I'm going to have one serving a day and I'm going to make sure that I do that, give myself enough time to make it easy and then I go to two servings a day. And you know, so even making the goal small, smaller, but also thinking about the timeline involved because our habits, to change our habits, it depends on how long they've been ingrained in us too, you know. And so I know, I know you have said this about how the whole 21 day habit thing is total BS. I have. I say that too in my book. And you know, I can't take an entire lifetime of something that is like family culture. The Raiders don't eat vegetables, you know, and, and change it overnight.

Right, right. And no matter how much you want to, no matter how important you think it is, and even, you know, with 20 days of consistently doing it, it's easy to get sucked into the old ways. And so that, and again, especially if you're trying to do 15 things at once. So if you are going to be adding the serving of vegetables while you're also cutting out all of your sugar and when you are doing and, and, and, and, and, and, and it's not going to happen. And I think that this is a good transition to get into your book. So your book work well. Play more. I find to be a fascinating, really helpful guide for people that are looking to make lots of changes and don't know where to start and but want to have the kind of that side by side is able to work with you and you can be at your own pace and it's a choose your own adventure. It's like all these things in one. So share a bit about your book and once you say all your things I'll give follow up questions.

Okay. I love this book. I am so proud of this book and I will say that because my first book, don't anybody buy it wasn't great. That's first book, first practice, practice, whatever. But this third book, I was so proud of it. So it covers the topics of productivity, clutter and health. Clutter could be digital, physical or mental clutter. And it's divided into 12 months and each month has a productivity behavior, a clutter behavior and a health behavior. Each of those are then further divided into novice, pro or master levels. So the reason why I wanted a book that encompassed all of them because a lot of times when we're, you know, working in one area of our life, working another. I also wanted a book that was specific. So I find that a lot of books are very consistent exceptual Like Atomic Habits is a great book but it's, it's. He's not saying like go into your Gmail and do xyz, you know. So I wanted a book that like complements those kinds of books and also that it would meet people where they are. You know, books tend to be written to like the general population. And I wanted people from very beginner to advanced be able to get something out of each month or each chapter. And the way that people have told me that they use it is some people, because it came out in 2019, I actually just updated it two weeks ago. And so there are some updates in the Kindle and the print version. But they'll say like I just did all the productivity in one year and then next year I'm going to do all the declutter. Next year I'm going to do the health or they will do all the novice. And then the next year all the the. And then there are other people that will just jump around and it absolutely doesn't have to be done in a month. And that's, you know, each month. That's one thing that I say in the book too is that you can come back and move forward and you know, go fast or go slow for any of these and it's, that's what it's meant for.

Yeah. Well, and what I think is really Important in this, too, is I may be a novice in one category and master in another, and it might even be both within decluttering. But, like, decluttering, my kitchen is done easy. No big deal. And my inbox is a nightmare. Or my apps. Right, right. And so to be able to say, like, this is the book for the decluttering master, like, I don't know, like, maybe that's me. And so being able to read through and see, like, oh, yeah, I've done that. Like, oh, okay, got it. And then even something that might pop up in a novice section could still be something that I haven't thought of or done in the same way. So you can get little tidbits from those as you read through and see, you know, where you fit of the thing you want to tackle and do. So, like, in the first month, even there's the piece that's about, you know, it's decluttering some of the technology and a lot of the tips in there. It was like, okay, got it. Like, know these ones.

Cool.

And then the one that is on my. I know I need to do this.

Thing list, but it's hasn't impacted me.

Enough to actually have to do, but I know that I want to do it is to clean up my contacts.

Oh, yeah.

Because I've had the same phone number and then it's moved, you know, from device to device for a thousand years. And there are absolutely contacts in there from 990 years ago and, you know, multiple people that I don't need. And. And so even the tip, we're saying, like, you can just do one letter per day, Right. So you can go in and go through the A's and then be done, and then you can do the B's tomorrow. And you're like, oh, okay, like, I can do that.

Melina, I want to tell you something fun I did during COVID with my contacts.

Yeah.

So I did one letter every two weeks. And as I was going through them, I would see, like, oh, I haven't talked to this person for a long time. So I would call them.

Yay.

And this was the first year of COVID And so it was like, there were some people that were like, oh, my gosh. And it was just such a cool way to connect with them. People I would have never thought about unless I was going through the contacts. So as I was cleaning people out, I was also reconnecting with people, but I did one letter every two weeks. And that. That is the time. Works that way, too. You could do One letter a month. Yeah.

Right, yeah. So that's where you're able to pace it. And I mean, I was going to say I'd like to meet the person. I don't know if that's true, but like that can actually fully accomplish everything that's here in all of the sections in the full year of time. It's like, whoa, I don't think that person exists.

No, it certainly wasn't me. I mean I, because I, I share in the first part of the book that you know that some of these things took me years. Right, Took me years.

Yeah.

But I had to come up with some kind of framework and that was the easiest, clearest framework that would be the most familiar to people, I felt like, because it's, it's good to have some kind of timeline and not just keep it open ended. But it doesn't have to be that one.

Right? For sure. Well, I, I know I already told you, I want to talk about the way you organized all the information, but before we get to that, do you have some of your favorite or top tips? Like what are some of the things that resonate with people? I know you have an order that they're in here, but like some of the aspects or approaches or common things.

Yeah. So I will pull one from each area. From the productivity, the one that I hear people say that they work on the most, that's also the hardest. But the most effective is Ohio, and that is only handling it once. And that is, you know, not opening an email until you are ready to do something with it. If you can tell by the subject line that you cannot do any, you know, you can't do what you need to do with that email, don't open it. You have just wasted time, you've wasted a decision. And I always give the example of, you know, if I got a proposal in my inbox right before this podcast with you, like if I got a response back from somebody, I'm not going to open it because either I need to. If it's a yes, put it in my project management system, do all this stuff to it. If it's a no, then I might be disappointed, I still need to respond back or whatever. So Ohio is a big one. From the productivity piece, from the declutter. I have been surprised at how many people will ask me about my car and if it's client ready and they will use that terminology, I'm getting my car client ready. I even had somebody, I have a few books, there are a few book clubs that have this is a great book club book. Great book club book. But there's one specifically that's going on still now. And they got my number and texted me pictures of their car. And in the book I talk about how might be master level. I can't remember off top of my head, but that I try to keep my car client ready. Which means that if I had to pick up a client that I wouldn't be embarrassed. So it doesn't mean it's like looks like it's just been detailed.

Right.

It's just that I wouldn't be embarrassed and be making excuses. So that. That was the one that was really funny to me. From the decluttering and then from the health, people seem to really resonate either with the vegetables or with the sugar and the. I didn't, we didn't eat vegetables growing up because sugar was a food group in our house. And I ate a lot of sugar. And I am not anti sugar. I am not one of those people that is very righteous and is like, like, I don't eat any sugar because that's no fun to me. But I, I started. I used to get grande mocha frappuccinos every, every day that I traveled. And that's about a third of a cup of sugar. And why those? And so I started by just asking for one less pump of mocha in the mocha frappuccino. And then it came down like two pump. You know, I only went two pumps. And. And so I gradually decreased it. And so now I get one pump, you know, one pump in a grande or maybe even a venti. But that also really resonated with people that it can just be like those small steps can make a difference.

Yeah. You don't have to go from like your delicious frappuccino. I'm a chai tea latte person myself.

Love my chai tea too.

Oh, it's so. And it's not so. There's. And I know that for all the listeners in India that are or anywhere else that you know what chai is tea and everything. Right. So here in Starbucks calls it a chai tea latte. So I, I'm. I'm saying it right even though I'm saying it wrong. And I know this.

We have completely bastardized it.

Yeah. Sorry. Apologize. And that. That is what it is. So the. But that is like all sugar and all the things. So, yes, I have made some transitions where I was getting the extra pump of chai in mine before, and so now I'm actually one less than the normal. So living the, the dream and transition. Yeah. So anyway, that, that's one thing that is. Makes it that it doesn't have to go from like that to just say, well, I only drink water now.

Yes. Yeah. Well, the other thing with that, because I've been on the other end, I, I'm. I choose to be gluten free and I have been for 10 years for Digestive reasons. But, you know, I also don't want to be the person at the party that everybody's worried to make food for because my diet is so restrictive. She doesn't eat gluten, she doesn't eat meat, she doesn't eat sugar, she doesn't eat dairy. And if you are that person, that's fine. For me, I want to feel like I have a little bit more flexibility in my life.

Oh yeah. As someone with celiac disease, I know what's up. I got it.

I mean, gluten is a, like that's a black or white for me. I don't have it. But you know, the. I have sugar on the weekends and holidays.

Nice, nice, nice. So Ohio is definitely one for me where it's like, I just, I just am going to read it so I can be thinking about what I'm going to say when it comes time to respond. And that's really hard to break of that habit. Right. Because you want to just, just get the little. There's too much in that. Like, what might it say? Brain chemical ness that. That comes up there. One of the other rules that I know from when I talk about this, I teach a class on goal setting and stuff which has a lot of similar things to where it's like, I'll make sure to. I'll show you all of that stuff and say like. And you can see, I created this years ago before we talked that I got your book. Same thing, right? In reverse.

I believe you.

Yes. But the. When I talk with students and clients about it, the two minute rule is a thing that I know can be difficult for people and it's actually really helpful. And so for anybody that's not familiar, the two minute rule is if it's.

Anything you can do in two minutes.

Or less, do it right now and don't wait. So where, you know, just put the thing in the dishwasher. Just if it is the quick email, like just send it instead of thinking about it. If it's filing the piece of mail, like just put it over there. Put your shoes away. Like those little things and those really add up in a way that people see a huge amount of impact in a way that doesn't have to feel like, you know, you're reorganizing the whole kitchen or whatever.

Right, right.

Yeah, but so Ohio and the two minute rule for everyone to keep that in mind. So I want to make sure before we close out because so as we've already said, there are a gargantuan amount of amazing tips and really specific ways of doing things. Like you were saying where it's like.

Open up your Gmail, click on this.

Go to the like, very, very specific tips. And you're updating the book regularly as all things update. I can't even imagine.

So I'm so interested in how you.

Went about organizing all of this information. And so for everyone who I know listens to the show that's been thinking about writing a book or that is thinking about doing coursework or if you're building your framework, this sort of approach to organizing such a massive amount of information, that feels very disparate, but it has to come together in some sort of cohesive journey for people. I'm very interested to hear about your approach.

I actually have a photo somewhere of how I did this. So I wrote this would have been seven years into my business. And so I listed out all of the things, well, not all the things, but the things in the areas of productivity, clutter and health that I most helped clients with in that, you know, up to that seven years that I was getting the most requests about. Also the things that were the most impactful for me. And I listed them all out on stickies. Three different colored stickies. I think it was like blue for productivity, green for clutter, pink for, for health. And I have a folding table. And I laid them out on the folding table, all the stickies, and then I moved them around and organized them that way. Kind of figured out, you know, first I worked with the health piece and like thought what would be a natural progression or what would be the thing that people would be, you know, like the thing that people need the help with the most. And I would start there and then I would, you know, did the productivity and I did the clutter. The, the productivity and the clutter. There's definitely a natural transition for some things like with email or, or task management. And then I also took the, you know, looked at the tips and was like, what would this be considered? Novice, pro or master, and also thought about my clients that came to me. But it really was from a like, logistical standpoint, sticky notes. And that is how I. How I also, when I'm doing a new presentation, when I'm creating something from scratch, because I really only want to cover like three main points. And so I'll, you know, put all the different points that I want to cover related to the three main points, and then I'll move them around and be able to look at them when all the stickies on that folding table and. And then put them into order that way. That works so awesome for me. And I am very much a digital person. Like, we use ClickUp for project management. I am, you know, all about technology, but there's something about taking a Sharpie, writing it, you know, a point on a sticky note, and being able to move it around quickly with my hands. That really works well.

For sure. Yeah. I used, for my first book, I used Stormboard to be moving digital sticky notes around and it worked for that book. And but like, when I'm doing, you know, some strategic business planning and doing, I still need to handwrite stuff sometimes. So I totally get where those things can be different. So knowing what tools you want to use and what aspects and, and whatnot. And I think it's also even just that it wasn't. I think it's fascinating that the journey. It wasn't like if you are a novice in productivity, like, here's the full thing about novice productivity person through the year and then here is the habits novice through the year or, you know, the clutter through the year. Right. And health, like having it be like a whole section on clutter and then a whole section on productivity, but that they come in together, which it's the perfect way, the way that you've brought it together. But I don't know that my brain would have done it that way. And I guess that just comes with, you know, the expertise of the. All the years that you've been doing this work and knowing about that crossover and how those things come together.

Thank you. That, that means a lot coming from you. I appreciate that.

Yeah, for sure. Well, I also know, so you taught, you mentioned a little bit that, you know, you do have clients and you work with people. And that's everyone from, you know, someone that just says, please, Marcy, help me. And you work with organizations, like you said as well. And so, you know, that's, you know, being able to help the whole team out. Can you share a little bit about, like, what you do when you work with a company? So, you know, for the people that have, you know, let's say 20 or 30 or 300 employees that are needing help or thousands. What, how do they work with you?

Yes, so we are, we consider ourselves a boutique agency. And so we're very tailored. We do not have a cookie cutter approach at all. We go in with a scorecard and ask questions to the team or the company around their email behaviors, communication, focus and distraction, how they manage their time and also their meeting effectiveness, their culture around meetings, but also health questions like do you take a screen free lunch, you know, how's your sleep? And so on. We take that information and develop a strategy and figure out areas that we need to cover or that we need to focus our efforts on. And then we provide training around that, you know, whatever that topic area is. But you know, before that there may be a consulting piece where we are looking at their meetings and how they run them or we're looking at their communication. And then also there is coaching involved for key players or, you know, high potentials. One example of something that we've done that I've been super excited about is one of the companies with, I believe they have about 750 employees. They are a biotech company, Blueprint Medicines, and they have implemented design days. And these design days are held quarterly and they are one day every quarter that almost the entire company is meeting in email and teams free. And I say almost because they are a biotech company. There are patients involved and like there are certain people that need to be available, but even they have fewer distractions on those days because the people in the other areas aren't communicating with them. And so this day is to be used to really be able to deep dive into things that they can't normally because like most companies, they have a lot of meetings and there's a lot of things going on. And so I was really proud that we were able to pilot that. It was super successful and we have implemented it. And so as a company, they are doing these design days regularly. And then also individuals, because there is a common language and you know, there, there's a term about what a design day's design day is that they are, you know, individuals are now empowered to say, you know, I need a deep dive on this project and I'm taking a design day. No meetings, no email, nothing like that. So it's things like that that we are doing with companies that's really exciting.

Yeah, definitely. And love that it's able to, your approach is able to help people help themselves. Like I said, when there's so much you have, not even just as a single person to think about myself and all of my habits and where would I even start? And then I've got a team and it's the whole company and where does everybody like. I don't even know what to do there. So knowing that there's a resource that can help with that is really, really amazing.

And then people, everyone can be more.

Productive and get time back and, and everything which is, and you know, happier.

Times and just all amazing.

So for everyone who I know is now so excited to learn more about.

You and your work and connect and.

All the things, what is their best course of doing?

So our website is helloraiderco.com and we have pages there for trainings and speaking and also coaching to learn about that. I am LinkedIn only so you can find me on LinkedIn. Marcyrader M A R C E Y R A D E R and I also Lena reference you referenced my podcast so it is not, I call it a podcast. It's not your typical podcast. It is. They're all three to 15 minute long episodes of actionable tips. And I just, you know, it's all about efficiency, but I have that as well.

Wonderful. Well, we'll definitely link to everything in the show, notes for everyone as well as links so they can go get their copy of Work well play more because everyone needs this book for sure. For sure. It will change your life. Amazing. And thank you again so much, Marcie for joining me on the show. It was wonderful to chat with you again today.

My pleasure.

Thank you again to Marcy Rader for joining me on the show today. What got your brain buzzing in today's conversation?

Besides, you know, all the things for.

Me, I love, love, love all the little things in the world that make big differences and how masterfully Marcy has been able to target these overlapping areas of health, productivity and clutter so that people can improve a little bit at a time in all those areas and see benefits across other aspects of their life. That may be unexpected.

It's just really cool.

As I mentioned in the episode, Marcy.

And I have a lot of overlap in the things we talk about and how we approach this sort of work.

My brainy mindset course and the goal setting class I teach through Texas A and M University talk about the different types of clutter and breaking down goals, but she takes these insights to a whole other universe. The way she was able to break down so many insightful and useful tips into one book in a way that's empowering and not overwhelming is honestly, it's amazing.

I absolutely love this book. And I know you will too.

You know, there's a link for you in the show notes in my second book, what yout Employees need and Can't Tell youl, which is the keynote I.

Was giving that day when Marcy saw.

Me presenting in North Carolina. Thank you again to Melissa Galasso of Galasso Learning Solutions for making that connection and for the NCA CPA group for having us both out to present. Love how this all worked out. Anyway, in that book and presentation I talk about how much time is lost because of a lack of thoughtfulness in communication and that it's estimated that 17 hours of communication per person per week is spent clarifying or following up on something that's already been said. 17 hours per person per week. It's just nuts when you think about taking something of Marcy's like Ohio and only handling things once. And one of the tips I recommend thinking about both in my book and in that talk is to imagine if you could only send one email per day to each person on your team, how might that communication change? How would you summarize the information information? How might you group thoughts together to be more thorough to make sure that they only get the important stuff? Stats like this show us how the results Marcy has had in her own life, reducing her hours so she works way less while getting a lot more done and being able to give that to her clients and all these people across those teams again and again, it's amazing. And we can see how that can.

Happen when you look at things like.

Those things, 17 hours that are available to be given back to people. If we were just a little bit.

More thoughtful, a little bit better at.

Handling our time, it's so wonderful and inspiring and I love that you can have that too. It doesn't have to be big stuff, it doesn't have to be everything and it definitely doesn't have to be all at once, but all those little things add up. Is there anything you're inspired to go do first based on the conversation today? Maybe to cut one pump on the chai or to go through your contacts to delete and re engage. I love that by the way. So great to use this as a way to reconnect with people or to test out Ohio or the two minute rule. Whatever it is, come share it with us on LinkedIn. I'm Melina Palmer and she is Marci Rader. You know those are linked for you in the show notes along with ways to connect with Marcy and see about how she can work with you and your team because I know you're all.

Excited for that extra productivity as well.

As to get your copy of Work well. Play more and check out related past episodes. It's all waiting for you in the app you're listening to and@the brainybusiness.com 323 and thank you again to Marcy Rader for joining me on the show today. It was a delight to chat with and learn from you. Join me Tuesday for another Brainy episode of the Brainy Business Podcast.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

You won't want to miss it. Until then, thanks again for listening and learning with me, and remember to be thoughtful.

Thank you for listening to the Brainy Business Podcast. Molina offers virtual strategy sessions, workshops, and other services to help businesses be more brain friendly. For more free resources, visit thebrainybusiness.com.