176: 🍪 What’s the Chocolate Chip Banana Bread in Your Business?🍌

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If you can create these memorable or meaningful touch points, you can build a stronger relationship and people will look back fondly on their time working with you and they will therefore be more likely to want to work with you again in the future or refer you to other people in their network.

This is your time. How can we earn twice as much in half the time with joy and ease while serving the highest good? That is our guiding question here at the Freetime Cafe, your home for heart based business. I'm your host Jenny Blake. Join me for conversations with authors, friends and fellow business owners as we explore ways to free your mind, time and team to do your best work. Now onto today's show.

I practically squealed with glee when I got a text message from my high school math teacher saying that she was making a trip to New York City and did Michael and I want to have dinner with her and her husband. Marianne is one of the most influential teachers in my life, one of the most influential people in my life, and I am deeply grateful that we've kept in touch all these years. Hi Marianne, if you're listening, they were going to see a show on Broadway and asked if I could think of anywhere the four of us could could go eat. What she didn't know is that I had had a bee in my bonnet about taking her to one restaurant in particular, that when she was visiting the city celebrating a big birthday ten years prior, I redirected us at the last minute to somewhere in Tribeca, a really lovely restaurant called Locanda Verde. But it wasn't Gramercy Tavern. Ever since she left from that first visit for that big birthday, I got to know Gramercy Tavern. It's one of the famous restaurateur Danny Meyer's spots in New York City. And I came to really love the homey, delightful experience their tasting menus. I have friends where we go on an annual basis to celebrate the end of the year and the start of a new one or big birthdays. When my grandma was in town the last time, it's getting harder and harder to make big trips for her. I took her and her friend Sharon and they still talk about it to this day, many years later. This restaurant has a special place in my heart. And you can imagine that when Marianne told me she was coming back, the first thing I did was set a reminder on my phone for exactly 21 days prior to the day she would be in town so that I could snag a reservation. And at long last, after 10 years, set this micro regret to rest that I had redirected her from such a wonderful experience. Sure enough, the four of us had an incredible dinner. We were laughing, we had so much to talk about. It just felt like the night could go on forever.

The reason I'm telling you this is because it reminded me of something that any Danny Meyer restaurant does, or at least the fancy ones that stuck with me as a real way to create a wonderful moment for the people that you're serving. We had eaten a five course tasting menu dinner that included things off the menu like an amuse bouche to start, a little truffle at the end. Of course that's not on the menu. And right after we took care of the bill, they gave us each a little takeaway bag with a loaf of chocolate chip banana bread. This is such a delightful takeaway to remember the night before. They know that you're stuffed to the brim. They know we could not eat another bite. This was not dessert. We had already had a really delicious dessert. This is intentionally meant as a takeaway so that the next morning with your morning coffee, you can remember the night before and have yet another yummy bite to take you into the following day. I had a similar experience at another Danny Meyer restaurant, 11 Madison park somewhere that I waited 10 years of living in New York. Actually 11 years. Very apropos to finally book and land a reservation, which is also very difficult with three friends. This is even schmancier of a restaurant where the bill for three of us not even having that much alcohol is over $1,000. Theirs is an 11 course vegetarian tasting menu. If not vegan, give you a glass jar full of granola, you can share it with a family member. Who didn't get that full experience didn't get to be there. I have a keepsake jar, the glass jar that just reminds me of that wonderful dinner with my two besties. And you have something that carries on about the experience and memory even after it technically ends. That's the thing about surprise and delight moments. They seem small and even spontaneous, but the best ones have a lot of intention behind them and strong systems to back them up and make sure they actually happen. It's not hard to design a system to do this repeatedly and consistently for the people you love, whether you're clients or extended friends and family. But in a business sense, sometimes what seems like these little icing on the cake moments will encourage more word of mouth referrals, in the process helping you reduce your reliance on marketing strategies that don't align with your energy and how you like to do business. So what I love about baking in, to use a food and dessert pun, baking in these moments into my business, only after many years realizing I needed to design smarter systems to do this to ensure that they happen, is it helps me make a lasting impression with the people that I want. And we all know that small gifts can make a big impact, that emotional resonance of making somebody smile or helping them reflect on a really beautiful memory, a peak experience that they've had with friends, with family, or even engaging with your business.

I'm going to share a bunch of resources and books in the show notes as always, but there's two in particular that I want to kick off with. The first is called Setting the the Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer. He's the one I mentioned who created Gramercy Tavern, 11 Madison Park. He also founded the modern Shake Shack. He has a catering business. He is One of the OGs, one of the most famous restaurateurs, as I mentioned, in New York City. And unreasonable hospitality, the remarkable power of giving people more than they expect. By Will Guidara Will operated eleven Madison park and in fact was there, as he took it, to be the number one restaurant in the world. And part of the way that he did that is by creating incredible experiences for people with what he calls unreasonable hospitality. Shout out to Sarah Young for putting that great book on my radar. At the start of his book, Danny Meyer says business, like life, is all about how you make people feel. It's that simple and it's that hard. He is known for his philosophy of enlightened hospitality. And then Will, who I mentioned, who I'm sure learned so much from, Danny Meyer says In the introduction to his book. What I'd really like to do is let you in on a little secret, one that the truly great professionals in my business know. Hospitality is a selfish pleasure. It feels great to make other people feel good.

If you've read freetime, you know that generosity and even warmth, those are big values in my business. Personalization is another one that's super important to me whenever possible. When freetime was going to come out, I had a list of about 300 recipients to get advance copies. These were friends, family, people in media, podcast guests, fellow podcasters who were maybe considering whether or not to have me on their show. And I could not imagine just having these books go out from the warehouse in a kind of nameless envelope with no card, no personalization. I couldn't picture it because these hundred people were my VIPs. These people were going to be the most important people for the book launch, including the BFF community, the launch team. Again, like I said, other podcasters. So why on earth would I make their first impression an impersonal one? I just couldn't fathom it. This is very uncharacteristic. I don't know if any other Idea Press authors have done this, but I took a nine hour train ride up to Rochester, booked a hotel for two nights, showed up at the warehouse with their permission of course, and I sat in a back room all day to sign all 300 of those books and write a handwritten note for every single.

Down to the point where I even personalized which type of paper clip each person was going to get. So I had little heart paperclips. I had bigger loop paper clips. I like went to town on all the swag for free time because that's something that made me happy as I shared in a recent episode, like made me feel surprised and delight. We had neon green shred. I mentioned the two pins a pen. But it was so important to me that all these early VIPs get a signed copy of the book because who doesn't want a signed copy and a handwritten note that was paperclipped to the top. Thankfully the warehouse was willing to do this for me and with me. And of course I pay a lot more per book to mail out this whole bundle cause it can't go out media mail anymore which is the cheapest. We paid at least $10 to mail each one of these packages. I paid, I don't even know a couple dollars per pen. I used pens.com and wizardpens.com if anyone wants to know And I got personalized cards that said it's free time. The paper clips, as I mentioned. And then there's also the assembly cost from those at the warehouse who are going to put this all together. Sure enough, as people started opening these boxes, they had real feelings of joy. People were posting on social media. They were taking pictures of their handwritten note or the signed book or the swag. They were sending me pictures of their kids wearing the pins. I can't tell you how many kids have stolen the pins from their parents and put them on their school backpack or their sweater. It's just the sweetest thing. This all created such a virtuous cycle of sharing and smiling and laughing and joy. And that's what the spirit of free time is about. That's what I aim for whenever I can in my business. And so I will disproportionately spend time, money and energy to create warm, generous, surprising, delightful moments whenever I can. It was not always like this in my business, even though I say that it's important to me. There was one year pre pandemic where I remember that we didn't send thank you notes or gifts for some of my Q4 speaking engagements until April of the following year. And that just felt like such a miss to me. My speaking clients mean a lot to me. They provide a lot of my income. I always enjoy working with them. We do a lot of planning before, during and after any event. And it felt so icky that because I was the bottleneck, because we didn't have systems dialed in, I didn't send anything. It was kind of radio silence on my part. Not that they would have expected anything after the event, but there's something so wonderful about being able to say thank you and make somebody smile and give them a surprise to open. I just love being able to do that as quickly after the event as I can. I'll share more about the specific systems that I've set up to ensure that this doesn't fall through the cracks and that I'm not a bottleneck, as well as the $5 gift that I'll never forget. That just goes to show you it's not about how much money you spend. Sometimes it really is the thought that counts. But first, let's talk about how do people get this wrong and what's at stake. Strategic gifting, as John Ruling calls it. In his fantastic must read book Giftology. He would say you can get strategic gifting wrong. That if you're sending a product with your logo on it that is promotional Material that is not a gift. I've never forgotten that. Once I read it in Giftology that if you send something with your logo, it's promotional material for you. It's not a gift for them. There have been well meaning people who've sent me T shirts for being a podcast guest, but it has the name of their show, like really big all over it. And I think this is thoughtful. Yes. And I can't see myself really wearing it out. So even the freetime pins, they don't say free time. That, yes, it's a logo icon, but it's meant to kind of spark joy. One of them says book nerd. It's meant to say something about you. One of the ways that we do get this wrong is that what we think is a gift is really just stuff that's gonna now sit around someone's house collecting dust or that they're gonna need to figure out how to give away or get rid of. I would also say that you could have really good intentions in this area, like I did for a while. And if you don't have strong systems in place, it's just going to fall through the cracks. Surprise and delight moments again, no matter how small they seem, they take a lot of thought and care, and there are a lot of small decisions involved along the way. There's nothing in business saying that you have to be this magnanimous gifting person all the time. That might not be your style, but. But what I love that Rulin highlights in giftology, and that I strongly believe as well, is that if you can create these memorable or meaningful touch points, you can build a stronger relationship and people will look back fondly on their time working with you, and they will therefore be more likely to want to work with you again in the future or refer you to other people in their network. Let me give you a few more examples before I interview a podcast guest. I ask, do you have an external microphone? And if they say no, I send them one. Now, this is not uncommon, but what a lot of people send is sort of a cheap headset that you can get on Amazon. And I decided that I don't want to send them a cheap product that's good enough. I would rather send something that is of high quality and that will last for them. So the mic I chose is called the Yeti Nano. It's really great for Travel. It's about $100. And when I've told other people about that, they say, wow, that's a lot to spend on someone. It's just a podcast guest, but consider that these guests are authors and friends, people that I admire. At least three times now I have sent this microphone to an author who I really love, admire and respect their work, and they didn't have an external mic previously, but I sent the Yeti Nano and then I knew for a fact that they used it the rest of their book tour. So it's super functional. This isn't a Frou Frou gift, it's actually something that they're going to use a lot and it helps them sound their best. That's such a better gift than something that's going to just help them remember me. Of course they'll remember me while they use the mic, but that's not the point. They are going to feel good because in every subsequent podcast interview they are sounding their best and they'll know. Oh yeah, that was so sweet that Jenny sent this. Now again, I'm not doing it for the kudos. I'm doing it because I want my shows to sound great selfishly. But it's also a win win because then they get to sound great on the rest of their podcast tour and any future listeners of any interview they do are going to benefit. You'll hear soon in episode 179 on video free Business and intuitive writing with Jacqueline Fish that at the end of an engagement with her clients, she sends a See you soon kit. I love this. She's named it. It's called the See you soon Kit and she includes template emails if they want to refer her to a friend, a post survey asking for feedback and testimonials and just everything they could need to either work with her again or tell a friend.

We'll be right back just after this.

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After I conclude a speaking engagement, whether in person or Virtual. I always try to send a gift and I send a nice one. It's usually about $150 through a service called BoxVox. One of the reasons that I love BoxVox is that you get to customize what goes in it and they send a handwritten note. I think this is so important because sometimes you could send a nice gift, but if the packaging is very bland and the note is just typed out and lame like it is on a lot of services, think of an Amazon card. It's sweet, it's better than nothing. But eh, there's kind of a wah wah when you get one of those. So I love services like BoxVox that will actually write a handwritten note. For most people, they're not going to know really whether that's you writing the note or someone at a service like that. If it's a close friend. I don't have anybody forge a note on my behalf. Like I end up going to the post office a lot when I send copies of Free Time out because I can't stand the thought of somebody writing a note as if it's me. And then I also can't stand the thought of sending a book in a really impersonal way if it's somebody that I want to build a relationship with. As in like just stuffed into an unmarked unbranded envelope. In addition to those boxes with the green shred that I told you about, I also got for easier mailing every now and then. Bubble mailers from sticker mule.com you can design them. So on one side it says Free Time inside with the balloons, the letter bubbles like you see on the podcast episode Art. That's really fun too because I'm enclosing a book and it says Free Time Inside. It's a little cheaper to mail that way, a little more straightforward, so I have that as backup. But I can't imagine just sending a book in an envelope with no personalization, no note, no nothing. Every now and then I'll do it when I absolutely just don't have the time to go to the post office in person. But I try not to. On the other side of a speaking event, sometimes organizers will gift me something. I've gotten all kinds of cool, memorable things over the years. I remember doing a free event for Lululemon and they gave me some clothes, but also this great like briefcase bag that has a pocket for everything you could ever want. I still use it to this day. Seven or eight years later. I've had organizers gift me all kinds of yeti mugs. To be fair, yes, it has their logo on it, but I kind of like it because it's a keepsake, a memory from the event. And sometimes I'll treat these like manifestation mugs. I have so much Google swag from working there, but also the events I've done post. And it just helps me have those warm fuzzies of an event that went well and then trying to energetically call in more from the future. I know that might sound silly, but it means a lot when organizers think to write a card and give me a little something at the end of an event. I mentioned John Rulin earlier, who I met through Dori Clark, and he was visiting her in town. This was many years ago, 2016, and the four of us had coffee. It was John Dorie. I had just started dating Michael. He had just gotten back from Beirut, and after that one coffee, John sent this gorgeous tumbler with my logo on it. So there he was, living his message of giftology. Of course, I never forgot that and the generosity of that gesture from just having our coffee. It wasn't even just the two of us, and I was kind of just a side addition, you know, to him and Dory already having coffee. And then on the giftology front, one of the sweetest gifts that we've ever gotten as a household was a cutco knife that came from ideapress. After we had turned in the manuscript for free time, it was off to the printer. Michael gets a gift in the mail in true giftology style. It wasn't for me because the spouses have to put up with a lot of crankiness and a lot of time missing when their partner's writing a book. Between the idea press team and the giftology team, they just knocked this out of the park. They wrote him a handwritten card. It said, michael, we read about how you take such great care in feeding Ryder for Ryder's plate. That's the fictional restaurant that I talk about in the book. And we know how much work it takes to support your partner when they're working on a big project like a book. So we sent this to you for rider's plate, something like that. I'm kind of butchering. There's another good pun, butchering this note on what it said. Then the knife itself had the little prince quote that I say to Michael in the acknowledgments. They had pulled that quote out for true love is inexhaustible. The more you give, the more you have and engraved it on one side of the knife. And then the Freetime F logo was on the other side. So it was not only completely personalized to Michael, but they had pulled out Ryder's plate, the fictional restaurant. They had pulled out that quote from the acknowledgments and they had handwritten such a sweet card. Michael instantly, because he knows about John and his work. Michael's like, wow, look at this giftology baby. And so we profusely thanked the Idea Press folks, the Giftology team. It has created so many smiles all the way around. And now when I make my mom's famous chili soup, especially every week in the winter, I'm chopping all my veggies with writer's plate. Gorgeous white Cutco knife. So thank you again to Idea Press. Rohit Shavi John, the Giftology Team. These are just a few small examples of ways to create surprise and delight moments. But how do you ensure that they actually happen? If you've read Freetime, you know that I share that for a while. The gifting process in my business was muddy and confused. That although gifting was aligned with my value of generosity, we did not have the workflow in place to make it happen more smoothly. And it seems so easy send a gift. But there would often be these little pieces that would get held up on my desk. For example, do we have their mailing address and contact info? What do you want the card to say? Jenny, what gift should we send? Did this gift ever arrive? So we ended up creating Kanban style board in notion called the Gift Tracker where any team member can add a new task or rather a card for someone that we'd like to send a gift to. The card has the recipient's name as the title and then it travels across this board. The life of a gift in our Gift Tracker with the following headings that represent six stages in the process. IDEA we add a card as soon as we think of someone so we don't forget missing information, what details we need to find like their mailing address, select gift and write message. This is collaborative, so it allows me to personalize the note even if a team member might draft the note or place the order. We also indicate what type of gift that we want to send across five levels of investment. Starting with a small surprise to something much more substantial. I've even sent engraved waterstone crystal glasses. I really make a point to send the most personalized thoughtful thing that I can. And we have a list of preferred vendors for each. There's also a field within each card for maximum spend so that the team if they're going to take the first crack at what to get this person. They know generally the range for the gift. Then we have a column for place order. So once it's all personalized and we have their info, we assign it to the team member with a due date. Tagging cards with the gift category also allows us to do batch processing if we're ordering multiple gifts from a certain vendor at the same time. Stage five, track and confirm. Once the order is placed, we don't forget about it. We actually wait, use the tracking number if the place sends us one and we check a done box once we know the gift has arrived. Stage six, archive. This is the last step. Once all the ones that I just mentioned are complete and there's even a place for us to say, do we want to return this card re gift to this person in the future? Creating this gift tracker made such a massive difference in my business because finally we had operationalized these values that were so important to me. Generosity, surprise, delight. But that again, I had been embarrassingly slow at creating systems to manage. So finally, instead of dropping the ball and backing up dozens of gifts on my desk, we finally could have this smooth process. A way to ensure that nothing fell through the cracks. And it has made our gifting process so much more automatic and joyful. Within each card on the gift tracker, we also have fields that we've added later as the system evolves. Things like desired delivery date so that we know if there's a certain day we're aiming for. We have an up to price, that's a numerical field that is, let's say, a max not to surpass. We have a regift in the future dropdown. And then we have the ones that happen after it's placed. So number field for amount spent, date sent, that's a date field. Estimated delivery, that's another date field. A URL field for the tracking link or number if there is one. And then we have a box that we check that is that they finally received it, the recipient might email us and say, oh, I got the gift. Thank you so much. We just want to make sure that it got there. Those fields that I just mentioned are beyond what is kind of obvious like who it's assigned to. What stage do we need to set a reminder? The person category, the gift category, as I mentioned, a link to the gift itself once we've chosen it. A notes field for the gift message. Any additional notes? I encourage you if you want to dig into this, join us in BFF because we have a whole thread of at least 30 gifting services that all of us use to send to clients. And I also share their more screenshots of my gift Tracker. That's@itsfreetime.com BFF.

We'Ll be right back just after this.

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As you think about designing your system at the most basic level, you want to have a checklist. If you are going to create any kind of surprise and delight moment at the beginning, middle or end of an engagement or working with a client, you got to add it to your checklist. For example, a speaking gig is not complete until the gift is sent. We keep the card for that speaking event very active and we don't get to close it out until the gift is sent. I used to close out the speaking event as soon as I was finished we'd archive it and that's why the gifts kind of just fell off my radar. If it's at the start of working with someone, you can spark a lot of joy by creating joyful anticipation getting somebody excited to work with you. For example, when I would do more VIP days, I might send them a gift box in the mail or something that was self care oriented. I had a friend once I was staying in her city and we were going to get together the following day at the hotel that she had recommended to me. Once I checked in there was a handwritten card from her, a bottle of champagne and a local box of chocolates. It was so sweet. I've never had a friend do that before when I was passing through their city. Those are some ideas you can do at the beginning or that functional example that I gave of sending the microphone in advance in the middle of an engagement. I mentioned VIP days. I used to always make sure I had fresh, beautiful flowers that I would put into the room that we were meeting in. Or you could get somebody a spa service certificate if they're coming in from out of town. That's for an in person event. Thinking about how do you want to make the middle of your work actually the heart of what you're doing in terms of delivering services to a client? Something joyful along the way at the end. We've talked plenty about a thank you note or a thank you gift. Something that just puts a nice warm, fuzzy cap on the experience. And then you could also do a check in six months down the road. John Rowland would say, do not send your gifts at Thanksgiving or the holidays in December. They're just going to get lost in a sea of noise of everybody sending things. Just because it's the end of the year. It feels obligatory and not all that creative. And so he and his team are really good about designing a recurring gifting strategy for your core VIPs that just let them know, hey, I'm thinking of you. And in fact, they go next level than I do. And the gifts actually build on each other. So a participant is getting Cutco knives. They'll get a different kind at different intervals so that it builds their collection over time. At the start, I told you I would also tell you about the $5 gift that I never forgot. This practice might become more common now, but these moments don't have to be expensive. I remember back when I used to do a little more pick your brain calls than I do now, which is next to none. I had a call, it was maybe 30 minutes with somebody really young, really early in their career, and we just chatted about entrepreneurship, leaving corporate. I honestly didn't think that much of it. It was a lovely phone call, but that was it. Next thing I know, I got a handwritten thank you card in the mail and a $5 gift card to Starbucks, which 10 years ago would actually buy you a full drink and maybe even a snack. I don't know if it does anymore. And she said in her note, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me. Your next coffee is on me. That was just so sweet. Nobody had done that before from a pick your ring call. Yes, I had gotten a few handwritten thank you notes over the years, but to go that extra little bit and say, your next cup of coffee is on me, or in lieu of us being able to have coffee in person, Your next one's on me. It was just really sweet and it stuck out in my mind and it has lasted with me almost 15 years later. So it doesn't have to be big. It's just something thoughtful, something creative, something that makes somebody smile goes such a long way. I'll give one more caution. Buyer beware that I know John Rulin would share. He does not gift edible gifts. So, for example, I've received sometimes a bottle of wine or cocktail mixers. Michael and I don't drink much and let's say a bottle of wine shows up. So then we drink it and then I just feel gross the next morning. You don't want your recipients to feel gross because of something you sent. There's another service called Sugar Wish. It's great, it's easy. You can deliver the gift via email. The recipient gets to pick which kinds of like, ugh, guilty pleasure childhood sweets and treats strike their fancy. So whether it's popcorn or in my case, peach rings, apple rings, watermelon, sour patch kids, chocolate covered almonds, I mean, I'll go to town on this kind of thing. Swedish fish. When I redeemed this as a gift once, I got four of my favorite items, the ones I just described, and they arrived. And Michael and I just can't help ourselves. We're not good if there's sugar in the house or in front of us. And we were just like binging this candy until we felt sick. And he said, never accept a sugar wish again. So although it's so thoughtful and my inner child was so delighted at these sweets, I ended up just feeling kind of bloated and gross as a result of powering through eating these. Because we can't help ourselves, sometimes we'll just eat it even faster so that we finish it even faster and we're not tempted. But you don't really want that experience. Also, because they're perishable. On the one hand, it's good if the recipient is minimalist and they don't want more stuff around the house. But I find that sending something edible, it just doesn't last that long. It doesn't spark any joy after the fact. You kind of easily forget about it. Same thing with flowers. I'll still send flowers. Sometimes they're just right for the occasion. But it's also something that's just going to be gone in a week. There's one more service that I really love that I want to tell you about called Goody. I'll put the link in the show notes. It's a mobile app and it allows you to send a recipient a gift via text message so you don't have to have their mailing address. And they have gifts of all different investment options like $20 box of macaroons or $300 personalized Tumi luggage. I mean, they got a lot in there. The one thing I'll say about Goody, you can have a really kind of delightful experience. And a lot of people that I've sent Goody gifts to, large and small, seem to really love getting this surprise via text. The card is animated. Once they click on the link, you can write a nice note and something I love. If they don't like the gift you chose, they can swap it out for something else. So I was giving Ember mugs through the Goody app and I would tell someone if you already have one or you don't like it, I almost bought you the robe. Or I would give them kind of a backup gift. I like that they can swap it out for something they actually want. The one downside to Goody is that the box itself when it arrives, because they're just having these gifts shipped out from different vendors. There's no handwritten note, it's just a packing slip. So it's not that delightful when they open it. But the gift inside of course is when it comes to creating a gifting system or even more broadly, a referral system, do not miss the Referral Engine by John Jantz. This book made such a lasting impact on me. If we zoom out from surprise and delight moments where we started this with the chocolate chip banana bread from Glamercy Tavern, you can design a system to generate more word of mouth referrals in your business. This little surprise and delight moment is just one pinpoint of that bigger referral system. You can be intentional with how you design for referrals as well at the beginning, middle and end of an engagement. So the Referral Engine by John Jantz has a lot more on that and about how you can really systematically ask for referrals in your business. One of the biggest points he makes is that you got to deliver a great product first and foremost. You got to be unique. You got to actually deliver really high quality home run level work to get people to talk about you and make it easy for them to refer you by being super clear about who you work with and who you would love to hear from. I'll leave you with another line from Will Gudara who I mentioned of eleven Madison park and the book Unreasonable Hospitality. He says, I Believe that whatever you do for a living, you can choose to be in the hospitality business. You have the privilege of joining people as they celebrate the most joyful moments in their lives and the chance to offer them a brief moment of consolation and relief in the midst of their most difficult ones. Most important, we have an opportunity, a responsibility to make magic in a world that desperately needs more of it. You hereby have permission to spice up the surprise and delight in your business. Spend a little more than you think is reasonable or than you have in the past. Trust that it's going toward building deeper relationships, creating memorable experiences, and sprinkling just a little bit more magic in the world, and you have permission to get creative. Do as you would have others do unto you. What has made you smile? Whether it's gifts from friends, family, colleagues, people that you've engaged with in your business, look back. What are the gifts that have been most memorable? If you don't already have a gift tracker, I encourage you to make one in whatever software you use to track. And if you want to join us in BFF to talk more in detail about things like my Gift Tracker, what we all use for gifting to clients, again, you can join us@itsfreetime.com BFF if you do nothing else from listening to this episode, pick one person, one client, one team member, one friend, one person that you want to make smile and send them something unexpected. Thank you so much for being here listening. Have a beautiful day. Delightful, surprising rest of your day.

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Thank you.

Word of mouth is the most joyful way we can grow this show and it helps us land interviews with the luminaries and insightful guests that you would most love to hear from. Please send this episode to a friend who might find it helpful and for show notes and related links from this episode, visit it's freetime.com while you're there, make sure you're subscribed to the Time well Spent newsletter. You'll get instant access to my tech Toolkit, a continually updated list of all the software I use, along with the total monthly spend to run my business where no one works full time, even me. Visit itsfreetime.com join remember, you are running the show. It's time for radical reimagine imagining and everything is up for grabs. Let it be easy, let it be fun, and build with love.

This episode is brought to you by Marketa. When it comes to your payments provider, you can't afford to compromise Marketa's modern payment solutions Flex with your business without the trade offs. Stable and agile, Secure and innovative, Scalable and configurable. If they say you can't have it all, don't believe them. Your business demands more. Choose a payments provider that delivers more. Choose Marketa. Visit Marketa.com Spotify to learn more.

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