Brainkeeping: The Leadership Practice You Didn’t Know You Needed

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Welcome to Leadership is Feminine. This is Chris Blackie. Thank you for joining me. I am recording this podcast on a trip. My husband and I flew to Washington State to watch my daughter play soccer. And it was a rough game, so first rough game of the season, which is always hard, but good, I think, too, when you have been doing really, really well, you know, it's. This is all sports and everything. Life is about resilience as well as it is about success. And so I know they're going to rally through the process, but it was hard. Not going to lie as a mama. The reason I'm telling you that is if you could see me.

I needed to find somewhere I could record this podcast that would be quiet and uninterrupted. I'm at my dad's house, so I'm sitting in a closet, a dark closet with no light other than my phone. So it's fun. But I had something I really wanted to talk to you about. You know, last week I. I talked with you quite a bit about the Sage Mini Mind, which is what I've now started to call it instead of a mastermind, just because it's easier to say. But I've been doing a lot of journaling and I've been thinking a lot about how I want to move through the next, you know, two, three, two, four months or so. And the reason I'm doing the Sage Mini Mind is that I like the idea of a concentrated focus for eight to 12 weeks. I like that idea for myself and I like that idea for the work I'm going to do, which is why I like the idea of inviting you into it. Right. So the more that I think about that, I think about why is that the case? Because I know so many people who are content creators, who are thought leaders, who are, you know, in the domain of self help and life coaching and all the different kinds of coaching. And there are so many who are so good at focusing on, you know, very specific thing and just doing that very consistently. And I'm not. And I'm very aware of that. Like, I know that you were attracted to this space because I focus a lot on helping women in their role as a leader in their business or in the businesses that they work in. But I am, you know, transitioning really to focus mostly just on the leader and less on, you know, the goings on in the business. But that's a very normal thing for me. What's normal for me is to be incredibly curious about something, even from a provocative perspective. Like, I don't like it, or it makes me mad or bothered or even scared. And then I kind of lock into it, and then I sort of pursue it. I seek to understand it, I explore, I ask questions, I try things on, and then I come up with what I believe to be answers, solutions, approaches, ideas, insights to move through it. And one of the reasons I love the coaching that I do with my clients is my clients have regular strategic issues that they're facing, and they really run the board, right? Just because you run a business doesn't mean that you're all facing the same problems. And I find it so fascinating when a client brings me something that we're both like, oh, dear. Okay, let's explore that. That's uncomfortable. Let's play with what the ideas are. Let's play with the insights that we both have. Let's play with the potential solutions that are available, and let's move through those. And years ago, one of my best girlfriends, who many of you know, her name is Brooke Castillo, she and I talked about how I am her brain's best brain keeper. Brainskeeping, right? Like, I need some brainskeeping, just like we need housekeeping. And so that's kind of how I think about this. It's like you. You go through your day, and even if you imagine yourself in your house, right? You go through your house and you realize, oh, crud, that thing is still there. Oh, shoot, that thing is broken. Oh, dear. That's not working anymore. Oh, dear. How did that get here? I don't want that here. Oh, I'm so sick of this lamp. This I want to resolve. There's something that you want to resolve, right? You go through your house, you have housekeeping, you clean it up, you tidy it up, you straighten it up, you remodel, you switch it up, you dust, you. You make sure that you're doing some housekeeping. And I think brainskeeping is the same thing. And I think that what. For whatever reason, from when I was very young, and it was interesting, as I was journaling, I was sort of realizing that even from when I was a young girl, I. The closest girlfriends I've had have always been friends who ask big questions. My bestie from when I was in, like, elementary school, Stephanie, she and I were just sort of different. We were maverick girls. We loved to play with the boys. We loved to be faster than the boys. We were in the gate program, and so we loved doing really interesting, complex things. We asked. We were kind of dorky, nerdy, if I'm honest, right? We played poker at lunch, like we were just an interesting little duo and we had interesting friends as a result. It just, we were very adulty even though we were in third and fourth grade. It's just funny thinking back on it. And then I moved away and I moved to California and I developed a friendship with Jill. And Jill and I the same. Like she is, she is as hyper aware, if not more so than I. And so we would just notice things all the time about other people or the way that things were happening. And we would just talk about them, like, why is that happening? And why do you think that happens and why do you think they said that and why. And we were always sort of diving in. And it's not surprising that now Jill is the head of a major social work organization because she's constantly. She's been asking those questions her whole life. And then I have my other Bessie, Brooke, who is the head of the Life Coach School, the founder of that. And that's all she and I do is ask questions like, why is this happening? And what do we think about this? And you know, Brooke gave me that word years ago, brains keeping. And that's what I think about it. It's like, oh, I noticed something. It makes me uncomfortable, it makes me curious, it makes me judgy, it makes me sad, it makes me fearful. Why? So when I think about all of the different kinds of people there are on the planet, I've always said this. I think that there's like five to seven kinds of people. And I like to think that I'm a kind of person that has a journal in her hand. I, I know other women who always have like a credit card in their hand, like they love to go shop. And then I know there are other women who always have a drink in their hand. They love to have a good party. And then I know there's other women who love to have, you know, a book in their hand and they love to just have quiet time and read. And then I know other woman women who always have a yoga mat under their arm. They love to move their body and be strong. And I suppose I could also say I know that there are women now who always have a pickleball racket or paddle in their hand, right? So there's this, it's silly, but this is. There's tends to be sort of like.

Women who have these preferences for how they want to spend their free time or they are drawn into. And I think they attract other women like them. And so if we go with me always having a Journal in my hand. I like to think that I'm just constantly exploring and as a result doing this brain keeping. And that's what I really find I do with my clients is, you know, and I attract the client who wants that. So you're out there in the world running this business. You are in decision reaction mode most of the day. From the time you wake up and first look at your phone until you finally put it all away, it's rapid fire, it's ongoing. There's not a lot of time to think. And I think that oftentimes when you hear some of the invitations from people like me, like for my sage mini mind, right? You think I don't have time. I'm already. Are you kidding? I go 100 miles an hour, I don't have time for another thing. And yeah, it's twice a week, right? It's an hour twice a week. And my answer always is I don't think you don't not have time. Let me say that right? I think you must make time. Because the reason that you get to a point in your life or your business and you sort of look up. Because if you're like me, the woman with the journal, the woman who asks the questions, if you go too long without looking up, you end up somewhere. You don't know how the heck you got here. You have to invest in yourself. And if this drops in for you, you know I'm telling you the truth, you have to check in. Because in the absence of checking in, you get too far away from you. You don't have that brain keeping you get away from your truth. You don't take a minute to explore. Why is this so hard? Why am I repeating this? What is this? Right? And so the reason I'm making a program be just 12 weeks and focusing on, as I said before, right, Those four core areas. Readiness for you, the team and the business. Your ability to advise and consult the leaders that you put in place in the business. Exit strategies, having an elegant exit, having an exit, the end in mind. Even if you don't have any interest in ending, but building something you can walk away from. It's such a novel idea. Yo, nobody's talking about it. The more people I talk about, it's more shocking. And then finally, how do we sort of use and leverage some technology today to build a knowledge base that's just a little pocket of important things that a woman who leads her own business has to explore? You're going to have to. And I'm going to create the Time for that. And so we're going to have time to talk and I'm going to teach, but then we're going to do brain keeping. I'm opening up calls once a week to take your questions, to answer them, to coach you through those higher level strategic thinking questions that are coming up through our work together. But here's my point. It's less about my sage mini mind and more about you understanding that I believe part of the reason that you listen to this podcast and that you are a faithful listener. And if you're new. Hi. But if you're a faithful listener, it's because you seek brain keeping, you seek clarity, you ask questions that other people aren't asking. So where do you go to get those answers right? And I have a client right now who I started working with over the summer and she's been listening to my podcast for eight years. It's hysterical. She just came to the Hawaii retreat as well. It's like the podcast has come to life. And I, I think, you know, there's a truth in knowing that like you don't have to just listen. You can engage, you can create your own responses for yourself with support.

And I'm, I just am a little over advocating, I suppose, at this point because I, I feel the traffic and the noise of the world right now. That's why I am not on social media anymore. If you go to my Chris Plackie coach Instagram or Facebook, you'll see I just am not there. I can't be there. It's too noisy, it's too curated. But the algorithm has destroyed free thought. Now what it does is it whatever you watch, more than 10 seconds of, it thinks, oh, you want more. It's destroying your free thinking because it's programming you to think what it thinks you want to think.

And that alarms me, which is why I stopped doing Facebook ads. Like, I can't feed into this monster. I am really unhappy with it. And listen, I don't have any judgment if you use social media in your business, so I get that. But for me, it's so anti my ethics and values. I can't do it right. Not right now. Which is honestly why if you listen to this podcast and you love this podcast, I would love it if you would share it with everybody. You know, because I'm not going to be using social media to broadcast my work. I really want to lean into the algorithm of referrals. And so to the degree that you can help me with that, that would be fantastic. But what I want to bring you back to is that your curiosity needs a minute to be heard. Your concerns need a minute to be calibrated and supported with alternative ideas. And your confusion needs to be held and then redirected. When you get that way as the leader of your own company, it affects the directions that you take in your company, right? And so whether it's with me and the work I do with my clients or somewhere else, please invest in brain keeping. You are the asset and we need you to feel good, to think well and clearly and to explore the curiosities that come to you. Because you're a little mavericky and you're a little visionary and there's gold in there in those little whispers that you're getting. But if your head down from 6am to 10pm with your face in your face in your laptop or your phone, you're not exploring your own magic, your own wisdom and your own roadblocks and bottlenecks. Every strong successful by achieving woman need the place to go to do brain keeping. My answer to that is the sage mini mind that starts in a few weeks. What is your answer? How do you get personalized support.

And the support for those? Remember I gave you those types, right? There's the yoga mat, there's the drink, here's the pickleball paddle, there's the credit card. You know, there's different kinds of environments for all sorts of different kinds of women and what, what feels good to you, right? My assistant that works with me, she's totally the yoga mat, right? Like she just went on a five day hike into the woods with backpacks and like had the, with 50 other women, had the best time of her life, right? It it right? Other women I know they belong in groups of women and they wear their Jimmy Choos and their big huge fantastic purses and their right, get it right. I assemble women who are elegantly successful and they love inquiry, they're curious. Exploration is their jam. Understanding things at a new level. SRjam, what is it that you need and crave my love? Because you are the asset. That brain of yours needs a little sweep up and I know you know that and if this is what sounds good, then I really want to invite you to go to the visionary CEO forward slash SageMM.

And let's get this thing going and let's meet each other and work together, get off the podcast, get into real life. Why not? So I hope this gave you a little something to think about because I want to really respect how unique we all are and that I think sometimes our uniqueness makes us feel like we're not right, like we don't do it right. But I think actually the truth is our uniqueness is what makes us so incredible. But if we aren't investing in redirecting, a lot of that thinking that we have, that pulls us out of ourselves and pulls us into fear, worry, confusion, overwhelm all the things we don't harness, what we can really achieve when we redirect. And sometimes all it takes is one conversation to propel people into an entirely different direction. And I think that's just magic. So thank you for tuning in today, and I hope.

I hope I get to meet you sometime soon. Go to the visionary CEO SageMM, and let's see where we go. Talk to you next time.