Mastermind Recap with Lisa J

I'll try not to fangirl.

You're gonna be fangirling on your— hi guys! Hey, I've got Lisa from Australia here. Oh my goodness, she flew all the way from Australia for the Mastermind. Yeah, somebody's already raised their hand. I don't know what that means when you raise your hand. So we are going to record a Wednesday podcast episode, and I said, Lisa, can we stream it while we record it? Because how fun is that? And then when we're done recording it, I'll attempt to read what you guys have said and see if there are any more questions that you want to ask. I'll probably start— stop the podcast when we do that. So does that sound like fun? I don't know, you're on there.

It's fun for me, I can tell you it's fun for me.

Okay, so let me start the podcast recording and then I'll just hand it to you and we'll just hand it back and forth.

Lisa.

Welcome to the Organized 365 Podcast.

Oh my goodness, thank you. This is beyond an honor. It's ridiculous. We're in person.

We're—

I'm right next to you.

It's crazy. Okay, so I got this idea this morning, and of course Lisa is a Lisa, so she's like, yes, of course we can talk. And now we're actually also streaming it live on the app. We've had so much fun at the in-person mastermind, and I was thinking about last night, you know, I've been talking to Virginia, like, how do we convey to you who are not here, what this experience was like. And I said, you know what, I want to talk to Lisa about it, and I want to talk to Monique about it on the podcast. And then I thought, oh, how will I coordinate with your schedule in Australia?

We live 12 hours apart in time zones.

Yeah, the first time we had to do this, it was, um, forever to get the, the podcast to get recorded.

7 AM my time, 7 PM your time, something like that.

I was like, you know, she happens to be in the United States right now, Maybe she would just stay late on a Friday. So, so here we go. So Lisa, and you can hear Lisa's podcast episode. Do you know when it was that we recorded it?

They were a year apart. I know that. Maybe it was September 24th, September 23rd, something like that.

Good luck, Pat. Find them and put it in the show notes. Um, so Lisa owns a farm in Australia and she has a new business called Farm Office Toolbox. Oh, I got it. Pharma Office Toolbox. And the first question I have for you is like, why did you decide to come to the March Mastermind?

Um, everything I've listened to you say and read and implemented that you have taught has just improved my life and increased my productivity and taken my personal confidence and my skills in business To the next level. And it just made my heart sing when you said there was going to be an opportunity for an in-person. Um, I just couldn't, couldn't jump on it quick enough.

And okay, so thank you, and I love spending time with you too.

Thank you.

But also, like, what did you hope to get out of it? Like, what did you hope it would accomplish?

Well, and I Um, I've done 2 Wednesday podcasts with you, and in each one you gave me some personal coaching off the cuff, and those things made a tremendous difference. And they were so targeted and spot-on personal to my needs. Um, I knew that would be amplified in person. So, and also to be in the room with like-minded people who are using the same tools and techniques. and facing the same challenges and probably have implemented to a similar level to me. I knew that would be very powerful and it most certainly was. It really has been.

So when I created the Mastermind, I'd been a business coach before. I love, I love learning about other people's businesses. I love sharing ideas. I am an okay coach. I'm a great consultant. I just want to tell you what I think. You can do it or not, but I, I have a— I think I have a good business mind. I have a lot of good ideas.

Yes.

And I have been a business coach. I was a business coach before I did Organized 365. So it is a uniqueness of me, but it is not the uniqueness of Organized 365. So I'm taking this, you know, little opportunity to do a couple of these masterminds because I just love it so much. And I'm like getting it out of my system because I know it's not the business that I am growing, but it's you know, just this fun little thing I'm doing while I get this PhD. So when I created the mastermind, I knew that once you guys turned in your forms of what your businesses were, it would inform what I would actually teach in the mastermind. And so I had thought it was like, okay, we will do like session 1 all about like how you have a pink dream and turn it into a purple project, and then session 2— yeah, as soon as I got the surveys back, I was like, oh, They don't need any of that. Like, nothing I was going to teach was needed. Like, you all already had all of the products.

Yes.

Nobody was having any problem with ideas, by the way. Everybody had plenty of ideas. Nobody really had— a few people had some team issues, but for the most part, that wasn't what they wanted to talk about. It was more like productivity, and everyone was great planners, and it really was this camaraderie and this, this building together. So that threw me for a loop, I must say. So as soon as I started reading—

You didn't, you didn't look like it.

So I got all these forms, I started reading them a couple weeks in advance, and I was like, oh, I have questions, I have questions. So I was traveling to Virginia and I had a layover on the way back. I'd read the, um, the papers on the way out and I had a layover on the way back, and I was like, oh, if I wait until you get To me, and then I try to ask all of you your individual questions in order for me to figure out how to make this the most meaningful for you, we will have wasted a day. So I contacted Virginia the person, not Virginia the place. I was just in Virginia the place, and I contacted Virginia the person as my plane was being de-iced. And I said, Virginia, I'm gonna have a 2-hour layover. If you email the mastermind people now, some of them will join me on Voxer by the time I land, which is exactly what happened. I I don't think you did because you were— it's the middle of the night. But about half of the people did. So then I just pulled out every sheet that I had highlighted on the airplane and I said, here's my question and here's a suggestion and have you tried this? Tell me what you're trying so when you get here. So when you guys got here, I totally knew your businesses.

Yes.

So instead of having them introduce each other, I introduced everybody by their business and I grouped everyone by business. Um, size and revenue, and also business type. So we had 2 bookkeepers, we had 2 property managers, um, you were farming, because you, you were land farming.

3 farmers.

And then we had a— oh yes, Sarah's a farmer too, but primary business is electrical. And that was so true, like so many people had multiple businesses. Like on your form you're like, have a farm, don't want to talk about that. Like, I want to talk about this other thing, which was super helpful too.

Yes, yes, I knew. Yeah.

Yeah, so I was like, okay, these are all really— now I'm getting imposter syndrome. These are all really accomplished women who have these great businesses, who are very clear with what they want. How am I going to be able to help them? And I started about half the people before they got here really starting to identify all of the work they did. Like, start identifying all your work you did. So when you got here and I introduced you by business, I then had you really do a gigantic brain dump and organize that in a couple of ways. And that's how we kicked it off. And then I talked to you about how I use a lot of different systems in order to see time and organize time, like beyond the Friday Work Box and the 2.5 Year Planner. What else am I doing that we don't market and sell in ways that I get sometimes a bigger picture? And that was the first session. How did you feel about everything up until lunch?

I got off to an absolutely cracking start because The previous week at work, we'd done some diving into our business and as a group, we discovered that I was doing way too many small tasks and maybe we needed another admin staff. We needed some way to solve that. I had no tools to identify, nut that out. And the very first activity Lisa laid out exactly what I needed.

Mm-hmm.

And so that just got that problem right off Off my desk. Um, and then that really opened my mind space to absorb even more everything that you were saying. Um, so it— you had obviously assimilated everything, and it's one of your special skills. You can draw on what you know in your experience and teach us, and that's exactly what you did.

Yeah, a couple of people came up after that experience and they were like, I— like, mind blown. You know, and I was like, it's a very easy— I, I've done this experience over and over and over again. But it was the right time with the right attitude.

Yes.

And I think we were going to be together for 3 days.

Mm-hmm.

So everybody was kind of like settling in. It wasn't like, I have to get everything done in a short amount of time and then I'm off to the next thing. Like, people had invested in being here. So let's talk about that. Like, how long are you here? And oh my gosh, you came all the way from Australia.

It was worth every mile and all the money.

Yeah.

I don't doubt it at all. I'm going to get back my investment tenfold and some. Um, so it was 8-hour drive from my farm to my capital city, um, and then 20-something hour flight. Had a few days in Chicago to acclimatize, which was super fun. And, um, and then I've had 4 days here and staying in the hotel with most of the ladies participating participating in the mastermind, which has also been just phenomenal. Made 20 great friends and we've connected, we've shared all our details with each other. So it's just layer upon layer of great experience and people I can, you know, you can't always talk to Lisa, so I can go into our group and say, hey, remember this? Oh, Stacy, can you tell me that? Um, Cindy, can you remind me again not to do that thing?

Yes.

So we know what all our businesses are, we know each other's families, where we are, industries, industry connections. Um, Missy has connected me with a variety of people that are going to be enormously useful to me who I never would have had the opportunity to connect with. So, um, valuable on so many levels. And I, I intuitively knew that, but it was hard to describe to my friends. They're going, why are you going to Cincinnati? What?

Yeah, um, I bet, I bet they were.

Yeah. Yeah, invaluable.

Okay, so it's lunchtime, and now I'm like, well, I don't have any more rabbits in my hat. What am I, what am I going to do with these wonderful ladies? Because I felt like I knew the value was in the community, but also like, I want to be a teacher, I want to move you forward, I want to be a facilitator, I want to be a coach. So, after we came back for lunch, Now I let you introduce yourself to the group, and I had everybody say why they came to the event, and then what their strengths and their weaknesses were, so that we could pull on each other's strengths and weaknesses. And as they were doing that, I wrote everybody an individual index card. I just started writing strengths and weaknesses, and there were a couple of themes that came up. Making decisions was one. I can't think of the other ones, but that led into, like—

Self-confidence.

Well, it led into about a 90-minute conversation, and then I had you all write another question that you wanted me to either answer or for us to discuss. And while everybody went to the bathroom, Joey, my son, read through all of the index cards, and he said, Mom, these are all related to self-confidence. They just need more self-confidence. So, I went through every single card, and we read through those, and we went through all of those, and then at the end, I told you guys that. You guys were all like, oh! Like, it was just like, yes! We had all of the skills inside of us.

Oh yeah.

We just needed to pull them out. And the way I had the room set up, it was very Montessori, where new business owners were learning from more experienced business owners, and remote people were learning from bricks-and-mortar people. And so we kind of knew what everybody's strengths were by the end of the day. And then we went out to a really, really long dinner. It was so fun. So what do you remember about the second session and dinner?

It was absolutely fabulous getting everyone's opinion from themselves about their strengths and weaknesses.

Mm-hmm.

And I was able at dinner to say, hey, you said this was a strength, you know, tell me about that. I think that's my weakness, you know, elaborate. And also, we'd heard about their amazing professional endeavors, and I could say, You said that was a weakness. Oh my goodness, you don't see yourself the way I see you. That's remarkable. So we were lifting each other up and, um, and offering skills, skill sharing. And yeah, and we had a lot of laughs too, which was really fun.

So fun.

It was really fun. And, um, I learned so much about America, and I love sharing.

I love to hear about America.

Oh, just the— just where everyone's from. There was people from all over and Um, I love talking about Australia, so I told everyone as much as I could about that. So there's lots of beautiful sharing. And Charmaine from England, um, also. And we just went to Walmart. Charmaine and I got a guided tour. It was so fun.

Come to America, we'll take you to Walmart.

It was on our bucket list.

And we also had Cindy from the, um, from Canada.

Yes, of course. I said Cindy.

Yeah, so we had, uh, quite a lot of international representation. And what I noticed, I mean, right from the beginning, I, I love these events. Like, I have no nerves or anything. I'm like, yay, all my best friends are here! So excited. Like, I know, I know you, I know your name, I get to see you. But I feel like everybody felt that way right away.

Yes.

There was no like standing timidly to like— it was just like walking straight in and, and, oh, you're in Bookkeeper. Oh, I remember you from the app, or whatever. Like, it just seemed Very quickly everyone was getting along.

Oh, you must mention that, um, uh, the team connected us inside the app. We got our own course page in the community app and we all introduced ourselves and what we do and where we're from, what we look like. So we, we felt like we already knew each other. We'd already asked questions and connected, and that was a super important part of making us feel comfortable and prepared and, and to speed up that getting-to-know-you phase. So it was Very important. That was good.

You're all staying at the same hotel. Did you do anything before you guys came the first day?

Yes, we connected on the app and, um, we had coffee and, um, that kind of thing. Everyone arrived at different times. We didn't have a meal the first night, but we were all— we had all agreed that at the first opportunity we would have a meal, and we had breakfast all together most mornings. So that was really fun, and we went for walks. And went to the gym and this kind of thing. So that, that was just incidental and a bonus. There's a gymnasium inside the hotel. Oh, okay.

A gym. There's a gym. Welcome to Ohio, Lisa. Um, so anyway, yeah, you stayed at the hotel where Tanya was staying. So Tanya was also staying there. It's just a little, um, Residence Inn down the street. So you had— did you have the little kitchenette and everything in your rooms?

Yes.

So that's kind of nice because you're, you're here for I have 4 or 5 days.

4 or 5 days. Yes, that's terrific.

And Charmaine's got 10. Yeah, yeah, you could do your laundry. Yeah, and it's like literally a mile and a half from here.

Super close.

I think you all went to IKEA when you left today.

Oh, we went to Walmart. I think the ladies with cars might have gone home via IKEA.

Yeah, yeah. So, so you did not drive here because we drive on the opposite side of the road.

Charmaine and I were not going to drive.

But there's like cars up and down. It's like, you know, everybody's in everybody's car.

Yeah, I, I was curious about the American cars, so I got a lift with each person in turn.

And what about our cars? How are they? What, are they different than yours?

They're very nice. They're just, um, slightly different brand, and they put the steering wheel in the wrong spot. I don't know what's going on.

Do yours have TVs in them like ours do? Like the navigation system?

Yes, yes, they do.

Oh my goodness, we're basically driving TVs now. Okay, so we go home at the end of that first night, and I'm leaving, and I'm like, now what am I gonna do? Like, you guys already have all the stuff, you're already highly accomplished, we've already talked about everything. I'm like, okay, Lisa, well, it's not a course. And I was like, what would be the most helpful for everyone? What would be the most meaningful? And I was like, well, one-on-one time with me. I would think would be the most helpful.

So you had not planned that in advance?

No.

That was genius. I thought that was planned. That was genius.

No, and I had to leave dinner like quickly after I had a couple martinis to come back and talk to my professor because I failed another exam. And, um, so I show up for office hours and I'm like ready to go, and she says, I have to talk to other people, so, um, can I talk to you later? I'm like, absolutely, we will just deal with me another day. And so, I sat there, I was like, how can I do this? There's so many people, you know, I can't just like sit in my office all day and meet with people one-on-one and just be like, wait your turn. So, I was like, how many minutes could I give everyone? So, I was like, well, if I give them 12 minutes, I know it sounds like an odd amount of time, but I was like, you have to allow for hugging and oh my goodness and goodbye. So, that would give you a solid 10 minutes of us actually talking. Now, I told you I used to be a business coach. And when I did business coaching, I business coached for 18 minutes because people were overloaded at minute 8. Oh yeah, I would coach for 18 minutes and they'd be like, oh, make a dot, because I gave so many actionable ideas.

Wow.

That it was hard to, to do it. So I knew that 10 minutes would be enough, but if I gave you 10 minutes, it wouldn't be enough because of the hi, goodbye, and hug. So I did 12 minutes. So it was, uh, 9 24, 9:36, 9:48, 10, 10:12. So I took a—

And you know, you know which number I got?

What number?

9:24.

Oh, so, so I made my notepad and then I put bathroom breaks for me in there. And I must have gotten off because I ended up a little bit late, but everybody got their full 12 minutes.

Yeah.

And I was going to put the numbers at everybody's spot because this is like 8 o'clock at night now, you guys are back in your hotels. And I thought, no, because some people will want to go first, and some people will want to go last. And if they get the number, they're going to be, like, pressured, like, oh my gosh, you know what, I get my time with Lisa and I don't know what to say, or I really want to talk to Lisa so then I can process through this before we have the next talking thing. So, I said, Anna will give you your numbers. Anna's like, I have numbers? Stephanie goes, you will. And I handed her the numbers. And I came and I sat in my office and I said, you know, 12 minutes, just bring one problem or one, um, question that you have for me, nothing's off limits. And then I knew it'd be 3 and a half hours, so during that time some people really wanted to get a lot of work done. So I was like, get work done. Somebody was like, find me a quiet place, we put her in a quiet place.

Yeah.

Everybody wanted to keep talking to everybody. Like, everybody had like all these things they wanted to talk to everybody else about. And then also, you know, we had Anna, Tanya, and Stephanie here. And so we had anybody who was thinking about Chief of Staff, which a lot of people were, talk to Stephanie. Remote work, decision-making, financial, we sent them to Tanya. Anything about our VTOs, our Google Sheets, our meeting agendas, we sent them to Anna. And so everybody also talked to the Organized 365 staff. Also, we had the warehouse open so you could go putz around in there, and we had shopping open during that time. So I felt like—

I really enjoyed having a chat with Joey.

Oh my gosh, Joey! Joey loved this event. He was just like— he's supposed to be running sound. He comes out of the room and he's just like sitting there and he's like, oh, and I think— and he's like, golly.

And he had good points. He had very good points.

He's at dinner, he's going from table to table like I am, like such a little— he, he's just so, so good at these kind of events. He's so good.

We had a really great chat about American versus Australian cars. Not, not competitively, just so curious, and it was really good.

Oh yes, that was another thing you could do while people were having their time with me. You were allowed to see Joey's car. He was having people come out front to see his car. It was too cold, so he pulled it in the back so people could come and see his car. That was another optional activity during our open play. So I want to talk about that. Um, was that 12 minutes— did you think that was a good thing? And then do you mind sharing what we talked about?

It was genius, the 12 minutes. Because a lot of us found that we are not good at getting to the point. So having the limited timeframe pushed us, gave us a— I've forgotten the word. A deadline.

Yeah.

We had a deadline and we work well with deadlines. So that was really good. The 12 minutes was enough. And like you say, you get filled up with ideas. And, and I wanted that opportunity one-on-one for you to listen to my idea. And after learning quite a bit on the first day and processing, I'd had quite a few epiphanies, and I came up with, um, I would really like to do coaching retreats for farmers at my farm.

No, you gotta say what you're— wait, that's what we came up with, but what'd you come in the room with? Do you remember?

No.

Oh, okay. So you came in, you had 3 things.

Yeah.

You said, okay, I want to do, um, I'm being asked to do one-on-one coaching for organizing people's farms, organizing their offices. And I said, okay, what is your rate? And you said $500. I was like, that is a good rate, that's a good rate. And then you said, um, they're asking me to come to their farms and organize their offices, but I don't want to travel. Okay, and then you said, but I used to do, my business used to be where I would help farmers transition out of farming and either, you know, to the next generation or to sell the farm. And you used to charge $20,000 for that 20 years ago, right? And I said, how do you— and she said, but oh, the emotions, I can't handle the emotions. And I said, oh, I understand, this is why I don't teach the Warrior Mama Binder. And you said, I've had a lot of therapy and maybe I could do it, but oh, the emotions. And I said, do you go to the farmers or do they come to you? And you said, oh, I go to the farmers. And then I said to you, well, you're here, I didn't come to Australia, what if the farmers come to you? And you were like, I have a bunkhouse or whatever that has like 8 rooms and a cook.

Yeah.

And I was like, what? So I— and you told me it was $20,000 that you did that. And I said, and what if— because the, the families who are either selling or transitioning must go through this emotional and conversational process. I was like, are there therapists in your area? You were like, yeah. And I said, well, Tuesday is therapist day, and you hire the therapist and she comes out and talks to them all day, and you don't even have to go in the bunkhouse. And you're like, I don't even have to go. I can have other people. And I was like, yes!

I don't have to travel.

Yes!

I don't have to take it all on emotionally. I can get help. Oh God, that's so obvious now Lisa said it. Um, and it'll facilitate them to have time to talk with each other and work through those processes. And they get to come to our farm, which is really fun too.

Yes, your farm is the model farm. Yours is the one that's already productive, already has the systems, already has the transition.

And the family works.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, and also, you came all the way here to have a 30-foot view, to be able to have time away. So when the families are coming to your farm, they are not on their farm. They can't possibly go, you know, take care of the newborn goat because the newborn goat is somewhere else. And so now they're on your farm, not with their responsibilities. They've got a professional therapist, and you're doing what you love to do. Right from home, sleeping in your own bed.

Yeah, it, it just— all the stars aligned with that concept. And because that concept's been sparked, in the next day and a half I was able to flesh that out, and I've got a really quite a fully formed plan. Um, and then Monique gave me some more coaching into that, and she said to do the marketing Take the plan to the bank. The bank knows what families are looking for this service, so you market to 3 or 4 banks.

Yes.

And they have the customers, so it's a lead funnel. Wow, I would not have come up with that at all. And then I had some one-on-one with Tanya, and she looked at my WorkBox and she said, you've got all the work you really love hidden up the back, and all the work you really don't like Up the front, I want you to swap that around. Put your energy into the work you love. That'll give you energy to do the stuff you don't like. And I want you to come back in 3 months and tell me if you've found people to do those things that you don't like. So that— genius, genius, genius, genius. Yeah.

Nice. So the reason I asked you to come on the podcast, and Monique will be next, although we won't be able to do this live streaming with Monique, although we could, but we're She'll be from home. Um, is because your uniqueness is being able to transition a farm in generations, and it's a really big uniqueness. It's really valuable. Not a lot of people have it, but it's like second nature to you because you've done it and you've even charged for it in the past.

I feel passionately about it, um, and there's not enough other people doing it. Um, yeah.

But, people were also asking you to travel to their farm to organize their office, and you were like, I don't want to travel. And, even if you were to charge $500 an hour, which is a lot, I mean, organizing, like, caps at, like, $150. So, it just didn't align energetically.

It didn't give me the same amount of joy.

It didn't align. And, I was like, we don't do this. I just put it next. I was like, we don't, we don't do this. I was like, oh, thank God.

Right?

You were trying to figure out how to do it.

Yeah. Pushing against the energy, trying to— it was so hard to work that out. When I sparked the right idea, it just flowed out of me, and I've got a lovely plan in my, in my box now. Yeah.

And every 12 minutes was like that. Like, everybody came with, this is the thing, but I have a totally different perspective. And also, like, I mean, I've seen you in the app a million times. We've had 2 Wednesday podcast episodes. I read the whole thing that you filled in for me. I'm connecting the dots. I know you. I mean, I do. I know you guys. So it's not like I've never heard of you before. I don't know what a farmer is. I don't know what your uniqueness is. I'm able to see your uniqueness more than you are. And then everybody affirmed it.

You can see what I can't see about myself.

Yeah.

Which is very special in a very educated and targeted and skilled way. And yeah, yeah, amazing.

And then the confidence.

That you gave me?

Yeah.

Oh my goodness, I skipped out of the room. I wouldn't— next time you do this, yeah, could Joey video everybody coming out of the 12-minute session? Because the energy coming out was remarkable, and the joy on people's faces was a joy for the rest of the audience to see. It was beautiful. And coming out of the room, we were in the other room, and every Every 12 minutes you could hear, woohoo!

I wanted— I, I was like, the only thing I regret is, um, is I wish that I could have also been part of that. Like, I didn't want to miss anything. And I was like, wow, I'm so secluded in here, like, for 4 hours. But if I were going to an event like this, I would want to make all of the connections. And also, the other thing, by only giving you 12 minutes with me and being in here for 4 hours, It gave you the opportunity to network with everybody else without wondering, oh, what's Lisa saying? I don't want to miss something Lisa's saying. Not that I'm a big deal, but that's why you came.

That was actually a very valuable— um, there was no FOMO. We could really have good conversations. And because we'd learned by that point, we'd learned what each person's skill set, education background, business— I had a targeted question for every person. Of course you did. So I learned, you know, I could I have actually written down, I have one page for every person here and it's full of what they told me, advised me, great tips they had, great things they brought up in conversation. So, um, yeah. And now I've got a network to go back and find those people in the future. Absolutely.

Yeah.

Okay.

So now I'm coming out and I've eaten my lunch while I was talking to Monique. I think I was like, can I eat my sandwich while I talk to you? She's like, of course. So I come out and it is 1 o'clock, I think. So you guys had all finished up lunch. We have a couple more hours, and I was having you guys give me questions of things to talk about, and I only had one question. And it was kind of like we were all very full at that point.

Yeah.

Um, but then someone said, let's talk about AI, and that sparked like, uh, that was great, at least a 60 to 90 minute discussion.

That's terrific.

I think all of us, like, except Cindy knew. Cindy knew AI. Other than Cindy, all the rest of us are like, we've heard it's a thing.

But Cindy did love teaching it to us. She loved disseminating what she knew. She got a lot out of sharing that.

Oh, good.

Yeah, so she found that really valuable. You could see the joy spark in her when she spoke about it.

Yeah, she would start and then she'd be like, and then this, and then this, and then somebody else would go, she'd go, and then you could also do this, and we're like, wait, could you come up to the front please? Because she like is using it. And having heard her talk about how much she understands AI, when I went back to what I read in her business, I'm like, this is why she's still succeeding, is because she has embraced AI and used it to her advantage. I was like, oh, this is the missing link. And everyone had, like, they've tried different things and done different things. And we literally, I felt I personally went from, like, barely crawling to maybe second-grade level Just in that conversation.

Me too. Yeah. I think we could easily do a workshop on, in the Friday Workbooks, you know, Friday sessions, how to use AI to our advantage in email, because that's something that comes up over and over in our Workbooks sessions. No one's got really great solutions for email. And Cindy does. AI is coming to help. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, so anyway, that was a great conversation. And then we kind of popcorned around a little bit, and I had class at 4, so we had a hard stop at 4. And so I'm in here in class and they're out there laughing and joking around, and it took them a while to leave while I was in my class. And you're— I'm like, where are they going? So where did you go after?

Well, it was really boring. I'm not telling you.

Oh no, tell them! It's so fun.

We went to a Mexican restaurant and talked for hours. It was great.

Okay, they went to Agave and Rye, right? So that's another favorite restaurant I have. It's like these really fun tacos and they like have these cushions and everything and it's really fun atmosphere. Um, it's fun. And so you were over in Liberty Center. There are like shops there. So June and September would be fun to walk around. Maybe not now. Um, you guys did that and then you all went back to the hotel.

And we all slept like babies. Yeah.

Did you have a margarita?

Yes, yes, we did.

They make really good drinks there. And then I offered you to come for Workbox Planning Day at the office. Obviously I have to teach Workbox Planning Day in my little cubicle, so you guys were all out there, but that was really fun. I've never gotten claps at the end of Workbox Planning Day. I was like, hey, everybody was out there! What was it like doing Workbox Planning Day here?

We all want you to do that again. Okay, that was a resounding success. success. Um, that was a unanimous thumbs up, um, to do it following the Mastermind because we all were full of ideas and it allowed us to flesh that out really, really well. Um, and it— I don't know, I'm sure all of Lisa's followers feel the same way. When I hear Lisa talk, it puts me into such a great flow work mode, and to do that in this environment was was spectacular, and we were silent most of the time out there, um, because we, we were all— everyone's just heads down writing, writing, writing. It was very powerful. It was really good.

Yeah.

And there's great snacks.

Yeah. Oh yeah, I have all the snacks. I have all the drinks, the teas, the coffees, the snacks. I said to Stephanie and Tanya today at the end, we were debriefing, and I said, I think we had enough snacks. They were like, we have enough snacks? We're like, A long time, Lisa. I was like, good, I like snacks. I don't want anybody to be hungry. Like the first day you came, we had a whole bunch of water so you could take it back to your hotel.

And we were so well looked after. We felt really— you're a beautiful host. Thank you.

Oh, thank you. So fun. I felt like we should have had a pajama party. This was like— it was like camp. It was so fun.

I didn't want it to end. When you're not doing a PhD, you can add in a pajama party.

Sounds like fun to me. Okay, so when I was back in Virginia the state and asked Virginia the person to add you all to Voxer for me, and I landed in Atlanta and I had a couple hours, I'm walking around the airport talking to everyone on Voxer. That was really, really helpful. So another thing I decided to do, because I'm making this up as I go, um, when I decided to do the 12 minutes, I also had already decided that I would let you have Voxer access for 2 more weekends because I know that when I leave something like this And now you're gonna drive home or you're gonna fly home and you're gonna have new thoughts and new ideas. You'll be like, oh darn it, I meant to ask Lisa this, or I wonder if I do this pivot what Lisa would say. So I've extended your Voxer access until I think it's March 16th, whatever that weekend is. It gives you 2 full weekends to have, oh my goodness, what would Lisa say? And contact me a couple of times and we'll go back and forth through that Voxer, which I love to do as long as you give me enough time. Um, what did you think about the Voxer?

Um, really good because we all have different thinking speeds and processing times, so it really allows for that mode of learning. And, um, one of the personality type indexes came up and Lisa talked about it, so last night everybody did it.

Oh, you all have your Kolbe?

Yeah, and then over breakfast we were all comparing it and And there was a lot of, oh, of course, yeah, from what you said the last few days, yeah, you're definitely that. And we're the same. And I can— and then there was so much, ah, now that's why I'm having trouble with that, or how do you deal with it, blah blah. So we can, um, I'm— I've got some questions around that because you're more experienced than Nicole.

Yes, yes.

Um, and, and everybody said, you know, by the time I drive home or fly home, I'm— something's going to click or block or not seem right or Just want to reiterate about our 12 minutes with you particularly.

Yeah. So I think, I think for the June and the September sessions, I'm just gonna, you know, if you want, it's $50 to do the Colby, but I think, you know, do it before we come then.

I would recommend do it before you come. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Absolutely. It was so, so worth it. That was an extra $50 very well spent, especially when you've got something in common. Um, that you're all talking the same language. And then you can find people who have very similar properties to you. And because you get to know each other so well, you can really see where the, um, understand why the blockages are. It's kind of like looking at yourself. You're like, oh, I get Sarah because she has the same as me and I can see what her business is. And, um, so another level of learning came out.

So I've talked about the Kolbe before on the podcast, long time ago. Um, It's not a personality test. It's how your brain processes.

Okay.

And the order in which you process information, and you can't change it. And once you recognize it, you're like, oh, you're being your Colby, and it's really— it helps you to be not so hard on yourself. But also it tells you when you're falling into your first battery and you gotta move it on out into one of the other batteries, otherwise you're never gonna get anything done. And that was a big thing that came up. I plan, I do all these things, but I— how do I make myself do what I have planned to do? That was like probably that and decision-making were the top 2 things on day 1.

Yes. Um, a lot of us seem to have, um, 8 for research, which means you get really bogged down in the research and you can't move on. And so many of us found we had that in common. And needed techniques to get out of that. How do I move on? Have you found a technique to move on? And I came— some of the ladies gave me 3 or 4 different techniques to move on. Plus, we know that of each other now, and we can say in the app, hey, can someone give me a Voxer?

Yeah.

I'm stuck in the weeds, you know, can we talk this over? Because when I talked a particular problem over during planning day today, Cindy just said one sentence and I'm like, ah, there's a solution, move on. And then I— that really pushed me forward. So we'll be able to— I've got a network to support me in one of those weaknesses that I have, and they understand and we have the same lingo.

Something that I observed of the group, because we were kind of grouped by income and different types of businesses that as a problem would come up or as a, like, hey, this is something I'm struggling with, as you got to the members who had been in business the longest and the biggest businesses, pretty much the answer was always, yeah, just do it, just deal with it, just, I don't know why we're talking, yep, you just gotta, just make yourself, you know? And you kept hearing that over and over again and you're like, okay, that table's just gonna be like, Yep, just gotta learn how to make yourself, as opposed to sometimes you're like, okay, well maybe if I talk to all these people, there'll be a really easy way to do this. And then when you hear and you're looking to the table that's right next to you, you're like, this is where I am, this is where I'm going. And you see how they're responding and answering the questions, you're like, oh, this is just a skill set I need to learn. It's not like a value judgment on me because I can't make decisions fast enough or I can't make myself do the work. Eventually you just have to manage yourself and be like, I don't care that you don't like it, you're going to do it because we're going to be profitable and we're moving on. And it's less emotional and we're just like, get it done.

Yes. Um, I have so many thoughts about that that, um, I don't even know where to start. Um, what is that saying, Lisa? And you've said it a lot: success is the culmination of many small steps, and not all the steps are fun.

No, business, that's The decisions get harder.

You just got to do the steps and you've got to push through the pain a little bit. And then reminding— we all came up with reminding ourselves of the goal. Remember the why. Put it in front of you when you've got something really hard to do. Like, I gotta do the hard thing because— yep, that's my why. And that— it's like exercise, I guess. What's my why? I want to live till Yes. And be healthy.

And travel.

That's why I'm doing the exercise. It's not because I love it, and there's no way around it.

Yes.

Um, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I, I don't want to finish the PhD. I don't want to finish the PhD. Um, I mean, I want to have a PhD. That's not a why. And so, but yes, so what's my why? Because I will be a doctor of psychology, and so what I say will be taken more seriously. I'll be saying the same things, but now I'd be like, oh, Dr. Woodruff's— I'll be saying the same things. It's just like I need that piece of paper in order to be taken seriously. So I'm willing to put in the work to be taken seriously to help solve this problem and stop making it being a he said, she said.

Um, and what about the deep satisfaction of completing something really hard?

Uh, we'll see when I get there. Remind me, remind me, Lisa.

Remind me. Is it 12 months?

Oh no, I hope not. 9 months.

Okay, I'm asking her again in November. November.

We done in November. I have asked my chair and my second reader. I'm like, this can be done by December, right? They're like, oh yeah. I'm like, write that down, they said yes. Um, so one of the reasons why I asked you to do this podcast Is because yesterday at the end of the day, you got out your phone and you said— was it Slack or what were you on?

We chose WhatsApp.

WhatsApp. You're like, here's my phone, I'm on WhatsApp. If you want to be in our group, you know, put your number. And I'm sure not everybody did because some people don't want to do that.

They did.

They all did?

100%, plus your staff.

Ah, my staff is on it! I should be in this group.

Well, you were too busy.

I was too busy. So, but I think that that is the most beautiful part, because I'm not going to join the WhatsApp group.

That's fine.

But when you go to these things, and you get to work with somebody that you've listened to forever, like me, the event is not me. I mean, you're going to get some of me, but this event will live on for the rest of your life with those people, which is so cool. And everyone here is so cool, it's so friendly, it's so nice, and so genuine, and so open, and like, Someone said yesterday, they said, um, we literally can ask or say anything and there's no— we weren't worried at all.

You created a safe space for us to be ourselves, be vulnerable, and ask the difficult questions that we just didn't have another forum to ask those questions amongst professional women who understand the same challenges.

Yeah.

And it brought us to tears many times because of the safety that we felt and the support that we received. Thank you.

Oh, that's so cool. You know, it's like, it's like another outpouring of Organized 365 that I didn't even expect. And so I give that to you as an example of when you do what you are uniquely gifted and created to do, things will happen that you cannot anticipate or predict because You're not in control of other people, you're only in control of yourself. And while I'm not going to be a business coach, I was thinking the other day, I was like, why did I end up doing this Mastermind Mom and Middle PhD? By the way, didn't bother me at all. Like, I could do— I love this. I love this. So I love doing this so much.

You love filling your cup. You love filling your heart space to give yourself the energy to continue. It was a battery booster. And guess what I benefited from?

Totally. And I really think it also did come from being so ticked off when I went to the Dave Ramsey thing.

Oh.

Yeah, I think it, I think it was, you know, that is like a 5 out of 5 stars business conference as far as like it's got all the, like there's nothing that they're missing like from a business perspective. But on day 1 when Dave Ramsey said, you know, some, a woman, and it was There were more women than men in the audience, said, what hire is your executive assistant? And I said, number one. Like, I'm out loud, I'm like, number one. And he's like, it's about 5 or 7. And I was like, on what planet? Yes, because he goes, Sharon did all this, and then I did all this, and then we hired an executive assistant. Well, if you don't have a wife, then you need an executive assistant number one.

Where Sharon was.

Yes, yes. And so I think you can know all of the business basics, you can learn all of the knowledge that you need, but you have to acknowledge that as a woman, we manage a lot and we want to manage it. Honestly, we want it done our way and we want to do it, but we need to duplicate ourselves in many, many ways. I think we talked more about executive assistants and chief of staff and the difference between the two than anything else over the whole weekend. And really the confidence to say that yes, you need that in order to be able to have more time to do what you're uniquely gifted and created to do.

Yes. The mental load is one of your key topics over and over again, and we all struggle with it. So organizing yourself to reduce the mental load and then duplicating yourself to reduce the mental load, these are steps that It's a process of acceleration. Once you're more organized, you do better at your work and you make more money, and then you can afford to duplicate yourself. And on it goes in a natural stepwise progression. And we all talked through that and worked out where we were on those levels and what might be our next path. And I looked at some ladies in the bigger businesses and I could see where I was headed in regards to that.

Yeah.

And that was very empowering and inspiring.

Yeah. So we had people who have not even started their businesses to people who are in businesses that were 120 years old and matched in billions of dollars. Like, huge range of industry, fairly broad range of age, but so much uniqueness. And we had so many similarities.

So many similarities.

So many similarities. And you know what was interesting was almost everything we talked about was our similarities and perspectives on them, when usually on the second day I was like, oh yeah, we're always talking about all of our differences, and all we talked about were our similarities and like making them a little bit better. It was so refreshing.

It was, it was absolutely refreshing, um, and, and really, um, empowering to know it's nothing to do with your industry or your business It's human factors.

Yes.

And we're all human. And with this great cross-section of people, if I was weak in that area, it wasn't a failing. It was, um, it was an overcome— something I could overcome. And, and I got the opportunity to hear so many tools of how I could do that. So that was very deep connection on, um, at a human level. Which was, yeah, part of the success of the whole thing. And for me, I'm in a small family business, and there was a lot of family businesses represented.

A lot.

Um, in a huge array of industries. So that was, that was a lovely thing for me.

Yeah. So you can see I've added a lot more to what this mastermind is than I originally said. Like, I've added Voxer for, you know, a couple weeks before and a couple weeks after. I've added this little bit of time that you get one-on-one time with me. Planning day the next day is apparently part of it now.

That's right.

Um, and so yes, I think you're right. I think I did create this so I would have like these little pops to get me through the rest of the PhD because I'm like, yeah, I have all these new friends. Um, I got to have like a party at my house. That's why I was still able to do my classes. Um, but the other reason why I created it is because I know that once I get my PhD, and we're hoping to sell a book, and we hope it'll be a best-selling book this time. That I do believe that Organized 365 is going to grow from here, just because I'm not going to give up. That's part of why it's going to grow, and that's part of what my business grows is because you just don't give up. Um, but I know that I'm not always going to be able to do things like this, especially small groups like this, if you know, 20, 25 people at one time.

Mm-hmm.

And I have watched other people that I've read their books and watched their podcasts and had them offer these kinds of small intimate gatherings, and I'm like, oh, I'll do it there next time they offer, I'll do it the next time they offer, and then they get to the point where they're no longer able to offer these things. And I do believe that I've been in business a long time, I have a lot to share, I can really speak into businesses. I'm never going to be a business coach, but I have all this knowledge that I could share While I still have the opportunity to do it. And so I know $2,500 is a lot of money. We're not going to raise the price. We were going to raise the price. We're not going to. I know it's a lot of money, but I also know it's worth what I am offering. And I also know that if you followed me this long and you're like, I just would love to have a couple days with Lisa and know what she would say, I know I'm not going to be able to do this after 2026. So when you said you would, I was like, how? I'm like, How many emails can we send out about that? I wanted you to really hear from Lisa and wait till you hear from Monique, what it was really like so that if you're thinking about it, you don't let the opportunity pass you by. What would you say?

You indicated that this might be something that you won't be able to do in the future.

No, I definitely won't.

And I was able to— there was a gap in my calendar So there's no way I was going to miss out on it. And even if I had learnt 5% of what I learnt, I wouldn't— it would have still been good value for money. But the synergy of what came together, you know, all the small parts have blended into a magnificent outcome for myself. So even if it's a stretch to pay for it, you work out a way to pay it back over time for yourself. It is an investment in yourself and you wouldn't be disappointed in any way, shape, or form. That's my heartfelt thoughts at this point, and I would do it again if I could as well. And a few of the ladies have said, I want to come back, do it again, And build on it and accelerate that even further.

Yeah.

There's something else I really want to say, but I'll come back to it.

I can't remember.

Okay.

We'll have to fill time until she remembers what she wants to say. You'll have to be like, oh, take the mic from me. I will.

Give me a minute.

Let me give her a minute. Okay. I don't see any comments on it. Oh my gosh. Look at all these comments. Oh, Wendy Trinh. Hi. Hi, Wendy.

Um, I— the first thing I did with Lisa was gave a hug from all the Australians. And we have a little, uh, Messenger group that we talk and, and do activities together. So I did, I gave those hugs.

They said we should have done a Workbox pajama party.

Next time.

Next time.

Hi, Susan!

Oh my gosh, everybody from Australia is on here.

Yeah, Susan and I talk all the time.

Oh my gosh, these are all your people, Lisa.

They invited me into their group. I was very— um, they had a group for longer than I've been around, so it was really nice.

I can't believe I didn't have the comments on the whole time. Okay, do you guys have any questions that you want us to, um, answer? Wendy went and told the whole group that you were on.

Oh, thank you. So now we can talk later.

Okay, I know you guys have FOMO. I not— I know it's not for everybody, but also I'm like, I don't want to have it be October and people say, oh, well, you didn't say it was Vox, or you didn't say we got time with you, you didn't say we were going to get to do work. But I don't want anybody to be like, well, I— you didn't tell me what it was going to be, so I couldn't make a decision. I wanted you to be able to know what it was so you could make a Did you remember your thing yet?

Nope.

Do you need a note card?

I'll just come back on in, and in September we'll do another, um, annual Lisa chat if you'll have me for a Wednesday podcast.

Okay, well, you're gonna have to have already gotten started and have—

Oh yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna have progress. Yeah, I'm gonna report back on progress.

Okay, and you said that your bunkhouse is Full some of the time, obviously when you're in harvest, and not full other times. What is the time when it's not full?

Um, January to March, July to September.

January to March, July to September. Okay, so that's when you'll be doing these. So if you have a farm and you need to go through this thing, you need to go to Australia if you're in the United States. Farms are farms, right?

Oh yeah, people are people. Um, what, what I like to address is the people challenges, the, um, uh, family, family communication and different generations working with each other, and the financial, um, steps you need to take to get there. So that, that's universal.

Yeah, and it's a big deal. I remember— I don't remember, maybe it was in one of our Wednesday podcasts that you said it, maybe that's where I heard it from, but somebody said that the last crop of a farm Is the land.

Oh, I didn't say that. Yeah, sounds a good thing.

Yeah, and I was like, because I'm in a lot of farm country around here. That's what IKEA is on former farm country. Yes. Okay, I don't see any um any questions. So, and you don't remember what you were gonna say?

I'll I'll come back in September if you have me.

You're gonna come back here?

No, just do a podcast again.

Yeah, I was gonna say she's not flying. She's not flying all those hours.

I think I won't be over the jet lag by then.

Can't even imagine. You said that the flight was 17 hours when I talked to you the other day. Now this time you're saying it's 20 hours.

Oh, I added them all up, um, for the 20 hours. There was a, a 7, um, to Hong Kong and then a 15 Hong Kong to Chicago. So it's 22. Um, 22 was the worst of it, the long-haul flight.

Yeah, when I was in college, I went to Beijing for an international exchange thing and we went from here to San Francisco, San Francisco to Tokyo, Tokyo to Beijing. Yes, I'm still recovering. All right, well, you guys don't have any questions. We're glad— I'm glad you did this live with me. I'm glad you did this with me. I'm glad you came, and I'm glad we did it live, cuz that was really fun. I think that was fun.

I didn't want to ask to do a podcast with Lisa, but I, I did dream about it. Alina Impact Really? I manifested this.

In the office even!

I imagined us sitting on these lovely chairs together.

From Wayfair!

So thank you for asking.

So fun! Thank you so much for doing the podcast. Thank you guys for joining us live, and if you can make it happen, I promise, I promise, I will make it worth it. Goodbye.

Goodbye.

Or you say good day.

Goodbye.

Oh, thank you for joining us live. That was so fun. No questions though. Nobody has questions for us. How are you guys doing though?

We're just enjoying the, um— oh, thanks Melissa.

Hi.

Oh, great convo. They were just enjoying the conversation.

Yeah. All right, well you guys will be able to watch this as a replay and then you'll be able to see it Sooner rather than later, we'll put you on the next Wednesday that I can get you on.

Thanks for my new friends. Hi, new friends! I hope I did you proud.

You did, you did. They're saying you did. All right, bye guys!