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Building a Better Life, One Day at a Time with Samantha Lane · We Built This Brand

0:00
Samantha: I want more people to, to realize that they can
0:02
manage their time better and not lose the productivity.
0:06
Chris: Welcome to We Built This Brand, where we pull back
0:09
the curtain on the people, the ideas, and the sometimes
0:11
challenging process of building something that matters.
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Today, I'm joined by my good friend Samantha Lane, the
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founder of Origami Day, where she helps individuals and
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teams escape burnout through better time management.
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In this conversation, we get into how a serious surgery
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turned a workaholic into time management's biggest
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fan, and what's coming next as the work keeps evolving.
0:33
So without further ado, here's my conversation
0:35
with Samantha Lane of Origami Day.
0:43
Samantha, welcome to We Built This Brand.
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It's great to have you with us.
0:45
Samantha: Thank you.
0:46
It's a joy to be here today.
0:47
Chris: I'm so excited.
0:48
Um, we've known each other for quite a while.
0:50
Samantha: Yes.
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Chris: And, um, you know, I was reminded of that when we had our pre-call.
0:54
Samantha: Yeah.
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I love that.
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Chris: And, and, and I think it's really cool because you're, you're one of
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the people that I can say, like, "Thanks to your help, I am where I am today."
1:02
Samantha: I love that.
1:03
Chris: And I don't know if you've ever thought of it that way, but-
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Samantha: I really haven't- Yeah
1:06
… Chris: but
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Samantha: I love that.
1:07
But- But that's also why I loved that job.
1:08
Chris: Yeah, yeah.
1:09
You helped me get into King University and
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helped me through getting my MBA and all that.
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So thank you.
1:14
Samantha: You're welcome.
1:15
Chris: Yeah.
1:15
Samantha: You're welcome.
1:16
Chris: So since King, you've gone on to have quite the career.
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I like to start these conversations off by just
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talking about your background and where you come from.
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So I would just love for you to tell me, like, where you got your start,
1:31
how we got to King, and then what happened from there to start Origami Day.
1:35
Samantha: After college, I started working in the creative industry, and
1:39
I loved my job, and I had a little bit of some workaholic tendencies.
1:42
When I met you, I was working at King, higher ed, helping adults go back
1:45
to school, really fulfilling work, so very easy to work all the time.
1:49
But then when I was 29 years old, I had to have my chest cut open,
1:53
and it, uh, was a planned surgery, but it was a wild experience.
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I had a ton of complications.
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I almost died, and that sort of was a huge fracture in
2:01
my life and sent me down the world of time management.
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And in 2017, I officially started a time management business
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and slowly built that from, you know, part-time, two hours
2:14
a week, to full-time with a team, and that is what I do now.
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I teach time management.
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Chris: So you got to the point where, you know, ob-
2:21
obviously, you were at King, and then you had this… Was
2:23
it d- while you were at King, you had the surgery then?
2:25
Samantha: Yeah.
2:26
So, and I'm happy to speak more about that.
2:28
I was diagnosed with a condition called pectus excavatum.
2:30
Mm-hmm.
2:30
It is not that uncommon.
2:32
One in 400 people have it.
2:33
Mm-hmm.
2:33
Uh, but most people don't have it to the severity that I did.
2:37
And so if they require surgery, it's usually done in adolescence.
2:40
Mm-hmm.
2:41
So my diagnosis came later as an adult, and I was prescribed
2:45
as being medically severely deformed, which is not- Whoa
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not what a young woman wants to be marked as.
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But the doctor said, "You know, y- y- this is why you have poor
2:54
breathing, and if you don't have this corrected, you'll end up with
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a heart defect." So they said, "You know, we, we should cut you
3:00
open and fix it, and you'll be good to go within four weeks." But
3:03
unfortunately, four weeks after the surgery, I was not better, and I
3:06
had a lot of complications, including a staph infection in my chest.
3:09
So like I said, it was a wild ride, but it
3:11
really taught me how uncertain our time can be.
3:14
Mm-hmm.
3:14
And it really was the, the catalyst for me to say,
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"Life is short, and I'm doing it way wrong." Yeah.
3:20
And so then I set out on this mission of Figuring out what
3:24
was important or reflecting on what was important, and then
3:27
saying, "Well, what do I do once I know what's important?"
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My husband, I married for love.
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My husband was working as a firefighter.
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So I kind of said, "Well, I've sealed my fate- Mm-hmm … to work
3:34
forever." So that sort of sent me down this sort of like, if I know
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what's important and I have to work, what is the way I do this?
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Mm. And it, time management really was the key.
3:43
Chris: So how did you realize that time management was so important?
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I mean, obviously a surgery makes you realize the limited amount
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of time you have, and if you have a job that's like a sales role or
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something where it's income related, like that's a big challenge.
3:56
Um, and very scary to be without potentially your income during
4:00
that time, 'cause you're not making commission or things like that.
4:02
But what was it for you?
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Samantha: It was a lot.
4:05
So from the ti- my surgery was 2014, and my business didn't start until 2017.
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So there was a good two and a half plus years where I was in
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what I would call a really significant existential awakening.
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I was questioning everything.
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I was uncertain about everything.
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I felt very lost, and I really thought that I had s- somewhat been misinformed.
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Like, I thought we have this American dream.
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We work hard, and we hustle, and then if we do that right,
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we eventually make it, and we get to a place where we don't
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have to do hard things anymore, and suddenly we're there.
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And somewhere along this journey, I was like, "I think
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all of that is not real at all." I think we never make it.
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Chris: Mm-hmm.
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Samantha: I think that's a lie, and I think what's, what's
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maybe more important is we, we in, we stay involved now.
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We be fully present now, which I was not doing.
5:00
I did not do a good job, you know, calling my mom or my grandmother
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or going to lunch with my husband when he had a day off.
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So I guess, like, how did I get to time management?
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Well, I realized, like, the one thing we all have is time.
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The, the issue here is time.
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And I remember going to a workshop, a time management
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workshop, after the surgery during my recovery.
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I was able to go to a workshop with my Rolla King, and the presenter
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was so good, and he shared a quote by Annie Dillard that says,
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"How we spend each day is in fact how we are spending our lives."
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And I was floored by that.
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I was like, "You're right. This is life." What
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we're doing right now, Chris, this is, this is life.
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This isn't a test run.
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This isn't, you know, a trial.
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This is it.
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Chris: Mm-hmm.
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Samantha: This is our life.
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Chris: Mm-hmm.
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Samantha: And that just weighed so heavy on me.
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And then I, I was like, "Well, there's gotta be a way I manage it better."
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I l- I tried every app, every planner, all the
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things, and I couldn't find that magic bullet.
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And so that's when I created my own tools based off of what I learned.
6:00
And so my business really started as a product-centered
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business with the tools that I created to manage my time better.
6:07
Chris: I can understand that, being a bit ADD.
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Like, I tend to find a rhythm or a process that seems to work
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for me, and then doesn't, and then does, and then doesn't.
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Like, from the time management perspective, I feel like I'm okay on
6:20
time management, but, like, I definitely can understand what you're
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getting at with not finding something that's satisfying in terms of time
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management or managing your own, um, priorities and things like that.
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So that's, that's fascinating.
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And what's more, like, talking about, like, the American dream.
6:37
I mean, come on.
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Like, I think you're spot on.
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We, we spend a lot of times, I think… And I, I think
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this is more, like, our parents' generation and prior, but
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there's a lot of people that have this perception of, like,
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"Well, I'm going to work, and when I retire, then I'll live."
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And you don't always get to that point.
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You pass away before that, something happens, or, or you end
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up in an economy where you, where that, your, all your savings
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go away, and that makes a big difference in how all that works.
7:07
Samantha: And I think about sometimes when people say, "Well,
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I'll do that later." And I'm like, "But later's not real.
7:13
Later is a unicorn.
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Later's fake." Or, like, "Well, I'll get to do that when I'm older." And
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it's like, "Well, who told you that?" Mm. Like, "Do you know someone that
7:20
I don't know, and they've told you that you have a certain future?" Yeah.
7:23
'Cause I don't know that, you know?
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And I know that sounds really heavy, and I usually, when I do
7:28
trainings with teams or speak at events, I try to disclaimer.
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I'm like, "I understand that what I'm talking to you about can be really
7:34
dark and really heavy really fast, but that's how important it is." Yeah.
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Like, that to me underscores how important it is- Mm … is that we
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just have this one wild and precious life, and, you know, our time is
7:44
passing whether we're living a fruitful life, a happy life, or not.
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Mm. I guess I also came to a place after my surgery where
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so much had happened in that recovery that I was kind of
7:56
at a place where I didn't care if my guesses were wrong.
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So what I mean by that is it felt a little bit
8:06
like a gamble to manage my time differently.
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You know, the biggest thing I learned is what I now teach.
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Time management comes down to prioritize, plan, and protect.
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Understand what's important, plan your time like a resource, same way you'd
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plan your money, and then protect your plan and your ability to execute it.
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Protect yourself as an asset.
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So that's really what I, my biggest takeaway from that experience.
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So when I started trying to execute that in my day-to-day, I was like, "I could
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be wrong. I could be really wrong." But I was kinda like, "But I don't care.
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I'm willing to try it, and if it doesn't work, then I just change course." Yeah.
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But the wild part was how much it worked.
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Not only that it worked to make my life better, but I started
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seeing how much it helped other people, and then the most
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significant part to me was realizing when I wasn't a frazzled,
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stressed out workaholic, I was better in every aspect of life.
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When I said no more, things got better.
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When I had more boundaries, things were better.
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When I did less things, everything was better.
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It was like this, this magical realization that we're all doing this
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one thing because we think it's the right thing, and I opted to go
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the other direction, and it turns out the other direction was awesome.
9:09
Chris: It's easy to be in the market that you're in and just
9:12
go, "Oh, uh, this, this problem has already been solved.
9:15
We have Franklin Covey.
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We have, you know, we have all these other things that
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exist out here in the world about time management.
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Why do I need to do another time management tool?"
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Samantha: Well, so here's the thing, though, about that.
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So- If we have solved the problem of time management, then
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why would the planner industry still grow year after year?
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Why would we have more and more brands on the market?
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Why would we have more consultants, more hacks, more downloads, more, more tips?
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We've not solved the problem.
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And so a lot of times, you know, in, especially in the
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marketing and business space, "Who are your competitors?
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Who are your competitors?" Well, I don't know that my competitors
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are other planners or apps or even other time management resources.
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The way I see it, we're all actually on the same side
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of the battlefield- Mm … and we're fighting against
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overwhelm and stress and people not living their lives.
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So the fact that we still haven't solved the
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problem, to me means that we're all on the same team.
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Chris: That's a great way of putting it, because anytime I'm looking, as
10:14
a consumer looking at time management stuff, it's always, how can I better
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manage my time- Mm … and what product is gonna help me do that best?
10:21
And I might try something new for a little while or try
10:23
something else, but it's always fighting against time.
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I'm never thinking about it in terms of, oh,
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this company sucks or this method is terrible.
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I'm thinking of it in terms of like, what can I do to better improve myself?
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Which is probably part of that cycle you go through or see of people
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going to one thing and then another and then another with time management.
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Samantha: Which is why I think we're actually not addressing the right problem.
10:45
So in addition to the th- the 3P framework that I teach, I
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really hone in on what I think is the formula for success.
10:53
Mm. So if you see professional athletes, successful business owners,
10:56
anyone in your life that you're like, "Man, they're succeeding," when you
10:59
really pay attention, their success is a simple formula of two parts- Mm
11:03
mindset plus habits.
11:05
Mm. What is happening in their, their head?
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What's going on in the space between their ears?
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Do they have clarity on their goals?
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Are they thinking about things the right way?
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Are they taking care of their mental health?
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And then what are their daily habits?
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Mm. You know, how do they show up every day?
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What drives their actions?
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Where is their attention going?
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And those are two huge buckets and deep wells that, that require a lot.
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But part of what I believe in, and this is, was the topic
11:30
really of my TEDx was we're overcomplicating time management.
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It doesn't have to be that difficult.
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Easy and simple are not necessarily the same thing, but we
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can simplify the way we're addressing our time management,
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which makes it a lot easier for us to succeed at.
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Chris: That's a great way of putting it, and a great approach
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to it because it, it helps you get beyond that habit or
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that problem of, um, just finding something new to go onto.
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You're, you're addressing a deeper root cause.
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Samantha: Right.
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So for me, when you and I first met, I had really
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strong time management habits in a lot of ways.
12:01
Yeah.
12:01
But my mindset was the thing that also created some negative habits.
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So what I mean by that is I didn't think I was allowed
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to say no, and I thought I had to say yes to everything.
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Which then created too much on my day-to-day.
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So I was chronically overbooking myself.
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When I got to a place where I realized saying yes to something is saying
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no to something else, I utilized the psychological tactic of cognitive
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reframing, and I started changing the way I looked at my time, and then it
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helped me to lean on the good habits that I had by adjusting my mindset.
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So a lot of people who are your most burnout, most
12:34
ambitious professionals, they tend to be strong in habits,
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but they could use a little bit of the mindset formula.
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Versus the other population I work with a lot is c- highly creative folks.
12:42
Mm-hmm.
12:42
And they tend to be really strong on the mindset
12:45
side, but the habits could use fine-tuning.
12:46
So I think, like, I love that formula because if you're not getting to
12:50
where you wanna be, and by the way, I don't define success for other people.
12:53
Right.
12:53
You know, you know what success is for you.
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Chris: Right.
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Samantha: My point is just, if you don't feel that you're succeeding in
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the area that you want, which side of the formula do you feel like you're
13:00
stronger in, and which side do you feel like you need some tweaking in?
13:04
As silly as that sounds to connect to time management.
13:07
Chris: No, uh, it doesn't sound silly at all.
13:08
I mean, I think that those are things that you have to,
13:12
have to really think deeply about as you're, as you're
13:14
going through your time management planning and processes.
13:17
So yeah.
13:18
Samantha: Yeah.
13:18
And I think the deep thinking was really what, what
13:21
the first few years of my business were- Mm-hmm
13:23
is I incubated.
13:24
D- um, did you ever read the book Zero to One?
13:26
Chris: I've heard of it.
13:27
I've not read it.
13:28
Samantha: Very good.
13:28
One of my biggest takeaways out of that book
13:30
was, you know, there are no overnight successes.
13:32
You think about a chicken, they use the
13:34
example of a chicken hatching from an egg.
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That chicken spends time in the egg growing legs and lungs
13:40
and wings and a beak that's strong enough to break through.
13:42
Mm-hmm.
13:42
But we just get excited about the chicken hatching.
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We don't think about all that time it took to incubate.
13:48
And that was one of the first books that I consumed
13:51
in my, you know, sort of existential awakening.
13:55
And it really made me think, "You know what? That's great. I'm
13:57
gonna embrace the season of incubating, and I'm going to let
14:00
myself learn and grow before I expect to do any big changes."
14:04
And I think that's a really helpful thing for
14:06
anyone who's trying to do any sort of habit changes.
14:08
Give yourself space- Yeah … to t- to, to change, to just
14:12
incubate and figure out what's good for you before you really
14:15
put pressure on yourself- Yeah … to make big changes.
14:18
Chris: I heard, um, James Clear actually, I don't know if you know who he is.
14:21
Samantha: Yeah, for
14:22
Chris: sure.
14:22
I was at a conference where he was, and- Cool … he said that, you know, the
14:25
one thing we don't think about a lot is that everybody grows at different rates.
14:29
He was talking about he … him, him, and then the founder
14:33
of, it was Kit's conference- Yeah … Crafting Commerce.
14:36
And, um, he was on stage with, um, uh, Nathan Barry, the founder of Kit.
14:41
And so they were talk- Somebody had asked a question about, "How
14:44
do I become successful, or how, how do you view each other's
14:48
successes with James being the most successful publisher right
14:51
now, and, you know, you all being at these different stages?" And,
14:54
and he just said, "Everybody moves along at a different pace."
14:57
Yeah.
14:58
And so you have to think about it in that way.
15:01
Like, just because I'm not being successful in the moment doesn't
15:04
mean that I'm not gonna be successful later, and it's more important
15:08
that you focus on what you do and your successes, you know, related to
15:12
the work that you're doing as opposed to just leaning into, oh, well,
15:17
they're successful, and, um, being jealous of them in that regard.
15:20
Samantha: And also, what are the goals?
15:21
Yeah.
15:21
I just had this conversation with an- another business owner this week.
15:24
For a lot of businesses, he said there were, you know, there
15:26
were three or four different kinds of goals for businesses.
15:28
You know, you have a legacy business.
15:29
You build something to leave behind for your family.
15:31
Or you have a, a sell it fast, like grow it fast, sell it high business.
15:36
Mm-hmm.
15:36
Or you have a lifestyle business.
15:38
And I was like, I said from the beginning,
15:40
I was never planning to start a business.
15:41
I just accidentally figured out how to have a better life through time
15:44
management, and then I felt like I was mean if I didn't share that.
15:48
So I sort of am … I joke that I'm a reluctant business owner.
15:51
But so when I finally committed to, okay, well, let me give this a try
15:54
and go ahead and see what, what I can do here, I sort of said, "I'll make
15:59
a lifestyle business." So- The reality is business can be life-giving.
16:04
And I think setting that goal for myself took some of that pressure
16:09
off, so it made it easier for me to feel comfortable in my own success.
16:13
Because maybe certain things looked really good from the outside,
16:18
or maybe certain things looked not as cool from the outside.
16:21
But I… It worked for me.
16:23
You know, my revenue, I feel like I was not… I had no investment dollars.
16:27
I was self-funded.
16:28
My first round of planners, I paid for out of my own personal savings account.
16:31
I convinced my husband we need to take out,
16:32
like, $1,100 and to buy these planners.
16:34
Wow.
16:35
I ran the numbers.
16:35
I did all the things, and he was just like, "I trust
16:37
you. If that's what you think we should do, let's do it."
16:40
And so I self-funded my, uh, my first round of planners.
16:44
And so then my goal was just, like, grow it, just a
16:46
little bit at a time, just a little bit at a time.
16:48
And so to me, like, that would be unsuccessful
16:50
to a lot of business owners probably.
16:52
Mm. But to me, it also gave me a life where I spend time with my family.
16:56
I am active in ways that make me happy.
16:58
I get to look people in the eye when I talk to them, and I get
17:02
to, you know, go to the grocery store as a form of self-care.
17:05
I, I get to do all those things, and so to me, that's successful.
17:08
Chris: So you named the business Origami Day.
17:10
I think there's a lot in the name of any business, and
17:13
there's always some level of intentionality behind it.
17:16
So I'd just love to know from you why the name Origami Day?
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18:01
Samantha: So the long story short is when I was in the throes of
18:07
my recovery trying to figure out how to manage time I created a
18:12
folding weekly planning sheet that became the cornerstone of my
18:16
business, a p- product that still sells and is an- our, our main lead
18:21
generator for people who wanna start managing their time differently.
18:25
And I started using that sheet every week,
18:26
and that's really what changed my life.
18:28
And I also grew up in a Japanese American home.
18:32
My mother moved to the United States from Japan when she was a little
18:34
girl, and I lived also with my grandmother, who was from Japan.
18:39
So the Japanese culture has always been part of my life.
18:41
Um, and the Japanese word for folding paper is origami.
18:45
And so I felt very much that the, the, the tool was divinely given,
18:50
and part of the Japanese culture is respect for your ancestors.
18:53
And so to me, it felt that it was the
18:54
appropriate thing to do to name the business.
18:57
It was originally called Organizational Origami, and that is such a mouthful
19:01
that it morphed and changed into Origami Day, you know, with a lot of,
19:05
like, shape your time messaging and, like, um, sort of, like, folding or
19:10
unfolding the life you want, shaping a day at a time, which is really great
19:14
and beautiful when you know that story and when you know that product.
19:17
Mm-hmm.
19:17
But outside of that, it has been a branding challenge.
19:21
Chris: Yeah.
19:21
But I do like it.
19:22
And w- when you, when you describe the fact that there's a folding
19:26
method to what you do during the day, it makes total sense.
19:30
That's, that's really cool.
19:32
So I, I have actually never been through your program or any of your stuff.
19:36
So tell me a little bit more about this product that you have,
19:40
the actual origami paper, and, and what that approach is.
19:43
Yeah.
19:44
I'm really curious.
19:44
Samantha: So, and if I can, I'll even
19:45
expand that out into, like, a full overview-
19:47
Chris: Yeah, go right ahead
19:48
… Samantha: of the- Yes … the brand if I can.
19:49
So it started with this folding piece of paper.
19:51
Chris: Mm-hmm.
19:51
Samantha: And originally, it was even delivered in, like, subscription boxes.
19:54
That's what was hip back then.
19:56
But it eventually is… There's, there's a folding piece of paper that helps
19:59
you plan your week, and then you fold it down to only look at one day at a time.
20:02
So that's the main thing that, that we encourage people to do, is fill
20:06
that out every Friday for the week ahead or once a week to sort of
20:10
have an overview of your week, but then focus on one day at a time.
20:13
Mm. And the companion product to that is a 14-month undated
20:17
calendar that also has a year preview and 88 blank pages.
20:22
So that's a planner.
20:23
And I do have the tools with me.
20:24
I'm happy to, to share about or pictures of them.
20:26
Um, and so that combo gives you weekly and daily in
20:30
one piece, and then two years' worth of planning.
20:34
Part of what I discovered in my recovery was that w- when we
20:40
plan only on digital- Mm … it's much easier to overbook.
20:44
So there's so much value in paper planning, especially for people who wanna say
20:47
yes to everything, people who are high achievers, people who are visionaries.
20:51
Sometimes we need guardrails, and so that's one of the
20:53
reasons that I really created the tools the way that I did.
20:55
They're all very intentionally designed through what I've
20:58
read about productivity, efficiency, and human behavior.
21:01
And so they really force you To say no to more
21:04
things so that you can focus on the important things.
21:06
So th- those are the products.
21:07
And then there's also, eventually we released a productivity pad, which is
21:11
designed to help avid note-takers to write all those things you want, but
21:14
then have one really clear action column for the things that are important.
21:18
And so that's the system.
21:19
And so that's a huge part of what really launched the
21:22
business, and that, that makes up the Origami Day brand.
21:25
Eventually, services became a big piece of it,
21:27
and then that was a spinoff brand in itself.
21:30
Chris: That's really neat.
21:31
Um, and I totally see what you're saying
21:33
about the, the calendar and digital planning.
21:35
I sometimes feel like I'm just a slave to my Calendly,
21:39
and whatever people book with me is when I have to meet.
21:41
And sometimes I've been doing, like, outbound lead generation
21:44
and development, and so sometimes I just have to take the
21:47
calls when they get booked because I have no control over that.
21:50
But even learning to control that system is really helpful.
21:53
But yeah, it's a big challenge for a lot of people, I think, to plan
21:56
through their, their day or to let, you know, let their calendar drive
22:00
their decisions through the week without even putting any controls on it.
22:03
Samantha: Ooh.
22:03
And I'll just tell you, I know the focus of this podcast
22:06
is more branding- Uh-huh … versus time management.
22:09
Right.
22:09
But there are 97 things I could tell you about what
22:11
you just said that would make your life better.
22:14
Chris: So many red
22:15
Samantha: flags, I'm sure.
22:16
I'm, I'm, you know, I'm just, like, fighting the urge to rant
22:17
about time management, 'cause the weird thing is, like, I laugh
22:20
all the time that I'm like, "I had this surgery, and I believe
22:23
God put me on this earth to preach the gospel of time management."
22:26
And I'm like, "How random is that?" Yeah.
22:28
I was not a little girl who was like, "You know what?
22:30
One day I wanna grow up and I wanna teach time management." But that
22:32
is now what I love doing because I, I hear what you're saying, and I'm
22:35
like, "I know exactly what we could do to make that better for you."
22:38
Chris: Well, I mean, honestly, the people
22:40
who listen to this are other creatives.
22:42
They're people that are in marketing and branding.
22:43
So if you wanna share some advice, feel free.
22:45
I'm all ears.
22:46
Samantha: Okay.
22:47
So a lot of people in your field and my field, the
22:49
majority of knowledge workers, which is a population
22:51
that, uh, the largest population that I tend to work with.
22:54
It's people who you're paid to use your brain.
22:56
Mm-hmm.
22:56
You've gotta use your brain.
22:57
That's your money maker.
22:58
You're not necessarily, like, reading an SOP
23:00
and turning a wrench on a production line.
23:02
I do surprisingly work with a lot of manufacturing, but,
23:04
but, um, you know, your brain is your, your project.
23:07
Knowledge workers tend to have work that falls in three buckets.
23:11
You have deep work.
23:13
So this is, you know, Cal Newport wrote the
23:15
book on deep work- True … and all that's true.
23:17
So this is that work.
23:18
The, the work is brain intensive.
23:20
You don't wanna do it interrupted.
23:21
I kind of joke you don't wanna do it with a hangover.
23:24
It requires high level concentration and focus.
23:27
You have the opposite of that, surface level work.
23:30
So this is something that it's fine if you do it with the TV on in the
23:32
background or on the side of your kid's soccer game or with a hangover.
23:35
Like- … it doesn't require as much of your brain.
23:37
Chris: Right.
23:38
Samantha: And then the last piece is people work.
23:40
So this is synchronous.
23:41
It's not asynchronous, like a text message that is sent by one person at
23:46
their convenience and received by the other person at their convenience.
23:48
Mm. This is like what we're doing, syncing up.
23:51
It's a meeting.
23:52
It's an event.
23:53
It's a podcast interview.
23:55
Most knowledge workers Those are, that's all their work.
23:59
It's one of those three buckets.
24:01
So what I try to encourage my clients to do is understand how
24:04
much time do you need in each of those three buckets Look at
24:08
your calendar, which is for each week you've got 168 hours.
24:13
Figure out if you need 50% of your week to be in people work, plot it
24:17
out, pre-populate it, and then that's where your Calendly link goes to.
24:21
People don't get carte blanche of all of your day.
24:24
Right.
24:24
They can have carte blanche within your people block.
24:28
And so just something simple like that- Mm-hmm … can
24:30
help put you in the driver's seat of your time, and that's
24:34
one of the many things I would say in response to you.
24:36
But, but it is really simple, just saying a big thing that came out of
24:40
my, uh, my experience was just realizing that time is not a vague concept.
24:47
Right.
24:47
You know?
24:48
Sure, it's infinite, and it's just this thing we
24:50
can't fully understand, but it's actually really not.
24:53
Like, in our lives, we understand what a minute is, what an hour is.
24:59
We know what Thursday is.
25:00
The, the weeks and the months are sequential.
25:03
So what helped me more than anything, what I really try to help
25:05
other people understand is, let's stop thinking about time as
25:09
a vague, intangible, can't-quite-grasp-it concept, and let's
25:14
think about time in the same way we'd think about dollars or, you
25:19
know, uh, gallons of gas in a tank or cups of flour in a recipe.
25:23
Mm-hmm.
25:23
Let's measure it more.
25:24
You know, when I lived in Knoxville, I believed that you could get
25:26
anywhere within 15 minutes, and at the time that may have been true.
25:29
I don't know if it's true now.
25:30
It
25:30
Chris: still feels like it is, even though it's probably not.
25:32
Samantha: I love that answer.
25:33
Because you're like, "It feels like it's true."
25:35
So then- That's how
25:36
Chris: I plan my day.
25:36
Samantha: Excellent.
25:38
I'm sure a lot of people do, but then here's my question
25:40
to you, Chris: How often are you five minutes late?
25:44
Because the reality is you might say, "I'm gonna go from downtown
25:48
to West Knoxville, and it's gonna take me 15 minutes" or you
25:51
could actually execute a weekly planning practice- Mm-hmm
25:53
which is what I encourage people to do, and you could plot how
25:56
long is it gonna take me to get from downtown to West Knoxville.
26:00
Oh, turns out it's 18 minutes.
26:02
So instead of thinking about it like a vague
26:04
15 minutes, let's… what is it actually?
26:06
Chris: Yeah.
26:07
Samantha: You know?
26:07
Chris: Yeah.
26:07
Samantha: It's like if you went to a restaurant, and you
26:10
were like, "Oh, dinner will be $15," and you only bring
26:13
$15, and then they bring you the check, and it's $18.
26:15
This is our time.
26:16
Chris: That'd be a great dinner at this day and age, but yes.
26:19
Samantha: Yeah, true.
26:20
Except then you're still $3 short.
26:21
Chris: Exactly.
26:22
That too.
26:22
Samantha: You know?
26:23
Yeah.
26:23
So, like, that's… I know that sounds like kind of a
26:25
rant from where we started in this conversation, but- No,
26:28
Chris: but that's good
26:29
… Samantha: but that's, I think, to me, the thing.
26:31
That's why we still have growth in the time management space because we're
26:34
just changing the outside of a planner, but the inside's all the same.
26:38
Yeah.
26:38
And we're still leaning… We're onl- only going farther into
26:42
this, this space of digital, where your calendar will let you
26:46
put 97 things on your day, but you can't execute 97 things well.
26:50
Right.
26:50
So I think there's gotta be this alignment with how people work.
26:54
Chris: Mm-hmm.
26:55
Samantha: And the fact that time, if you really dig
26:58
into time, which I have- Yeah … guess what time is?
27:01
It's a combination of mathematics and physics.
27:03
That's how we understand time.
27:06
And so why are we not putting that type of science into how we manage it?
27:10
I'll get off my soapbox now.
27:11
Chris: No, no, th- that, that's, that's really good.
27:13
Um, actually, as far as time management goes, if I'm going meeting
27:16
to meeting, um, one of my favorite things to do is to make sure
27:19
that my calendar apps actually have the physical address in them.
27:22
Oh.
27:22
I don't know.
27:23
I think Apple's iOS does it.
27:24
I've been using Fantastical for a long time.
27:27
Ooh, I've not heard of that, no.
27:27
Huge fan of that one.
27:28
Okay, look into that.
27:28
You can look it up later.
27:29
Maybe we'll sh- put it in the show notes-
27:30
Yeah … since we're talking productivity here.
27:33
The great thing about it is I can put that in, and it will tell
27:35
me exactly, like, how long it will take me, and it'll prompt me.
27:39
Like, if I, it takes me 20 minutes to get there, it'll, it'll message me
27:42
like 25 minutes before and say, "You need to leave now to be there on time."
27:46
Samantha: I love it, and it gives you buffer time.
27:47
Chris: It does.
27:48
Samantha: I love that.
27:49
Chris: Yeah,
27:49
Samantha: yeah.
27:49
And that, the difference is, like, so, like, what that is
27:51
doing is that's not taking this 15-minute vague concept- Mm-hmm
27:55
and it's saying, "Guess what? Point A to point B, it's very
27:58
specific, and let's give you a little bit of extra 'cause you
28:00
never know what happens." And, like, that is such a simple thing.
28:04
It's not over-complicated.
28:05
It's not complex.
28:06
But how many of us are making that pivot versus how many of us are
28:09
just like, "Eh, if I just leave 15 minutes early, I'll be fine"?
28:12
Yeah.
28:12
Or you'll be five minutes late.
28:14
Chris: And it's really helpful for me 'cause I'm a pro-crastinator.
28:17
Samantha: Oh, yeah.
28:18
Yeah.
28:19
Chris: Uh, love using that terrible pun.
28:21
Um, but, but I'm, I'm really good at putting things off, so if I see it's
28:24
coming in five minutes, I'm more likely to be like, "Oh, I have time.
28:27
I can finish up this one thing," versus, "Hey, you need
28:31
to leave now to be there in 15 minutes," or just getting
28:34
a 15-minute alert when it's 20 or 30 minutes away.
28:37
Samantha: I love that you said that.
28:38
I don't know your audience intimately, but I would be willing
28:41
to put money on the fact that if not every single person
28:44
listening to this- At least most of them have had that thing
28:47
where they're like, "I can just do one more thing." Like- That's
28:52
Chris: me so often.
28:53
Samantha: Oh my gosh.
28:53
Yes.
28:53
That was past me all the time.
28:55
When, when, when current me tries to do that, I've gotta shut that
28:57
down, 'cause I'm like, "You don't need to. There's no reason."
28:59
And that's why I do love having a fr- a plan, and then I literally
29:03
will plan my work a week in advance, and then I'm like, if it's
29:05
not on my plan, like I gotta really give myself some friction.
29:08
Like, do I need to be doing this?
29:09
Not really.
29:10
Like, what my plan says is, "Finish this task and get out the door."
29:13
Chris: Yeah, and I, I think that's extra hard when you're, like
29:16
in your position or my position, where you run your own business.
29:19
Because it's like, I have to do these things, and sometimes it's like, there's
29:22
a priority here, and I know if I don't get it done, it's gonna be a problem.
29:25
But sometimes it is better just to realize they
29:27
are not gonna open the email until the morning.
29:30
If you do one more thing in the evening and it's already
29:32
past 5:00 PM, they're probably not even gonna see it.
29:35
And so do it later at night if you have
29:37
to, but like, manage your time better and-
29:39
Samantha: And that's an example of that mindset plus habits.
29:42
Like, you're, you're having to do that mental trickery or that
29:44
reframing to say, "I don't need to do this right now." And then,
29:47
you know, we've already touched on James Clear, but like w- one
29:49
of the biggest takeaways I got out of Atomic Habits was friction.
29:52
Create friction so you're not doing those habits that are not good for you.
29:55
I feel like in the show notes, by the way, there
29:56
could be definitely James Clear and Cal Newport, so.
30:00
Yeah,
30:00
Chris: and, and by the way, Cal Newport's one of my favorite-
30:02
Samantha: Love his stuff
30:03
… Chris: I love, that was, especially because I started working remote years
30:06
before I started HumblePod, and one of my first big problems with working remote
30:11
was feeling, and this is pre-pandemic, I started feeling really guilty about- Mm
30:15
how I was spending my time.
30:17
I wasn't cheating my boss, I wasn't doing anything wrong, but
30:21
there were just periods of time where there would be gaps, and
30:24
I wouldn't, I would feel like I hadn't done enough just because
30:27
I have this, you know, desire to achieve and to do things.
30:30
And realized that after reading Deep Work, that oh, there are
30:34
actually maybe an hour and a half to two hours a day where I
30:37
actually am gonna get deep work done, and the rest is service level.
30:40
Oh, and I'm also not in an office with coworkers.
30:43
So I'm, I don't have a water cooler to go to.
30:45
I don't have these things.
30:46
So if I send a message to a friend, or I take a brief look at Facebook, as
30:50
long as it's not my entire day ranting online about politics or something
30:53
crazy, then it's probably okay to take a breather and do those things.
30:57
Samantha: It's probably also productive.
30:59
It probably is.
30:59
So then if we add onto it Daniel Pink- Mm-hmm … and his book When.
31:02
Yes.
31:02
Uh, we would probably argue that it's productive.
31:05
Yeah.
31:05
So, so many things I could comment on this.
31:07
So let me just say this.
31:08
Uh, one of the things I've discovered in my years of, um, being time
31:12
management's biggest fan is that, uh, time management is actually
31:15
just a combination of attention management and energy management.
31:19
And if you can manage those two things well,
31:21
turns out you're crushing your time management.
31:23
Yeah.
31:23
So the other thing too, if you've not read Cal
31:25
Newport's other books- Mm … besides Deep Work-
31:28
Chris: I have not
31:28
… Samantha: they're very good.
31:29
Okay.
31:29
I would say the next one should be Probably Slow
31:32
Productivity, and then after that, A World Without Email.
31:35
I love all his books.
31:36
He's great.
31:37
Chris: Oh, I need to check those out.
31:38
Samantha: And check out Daniel Pink when… If it, if
31:40
it… Um, I actually have a book list I can share with you.
31:42
Please do.
31:43
Yes.
31:43
Of all… Like, I pretty much breathe in books.
31:45
Uh-huh.
31:45
It's, uh, one of the things that when I, when I sort of set on this
31:48
journey, I was like, "Well, I know what I don't know, and that's a lot."
31:50
Mm-hmm.
31:50
So then I was like, "But I know I can figure it out."
31:52
So I started, um, I got a subscription to Audible, and
31:56
I just started listening to books on my drive to work.
31:58
Yeah.
31:58
When I was driving from South Knoxville all the way out to Hardin Valley, I
32:01
would listen to books in my 27-minute drive, and, um, it really helped me a lot
32:06
to just learn everything I could, and there's really some great books out there.
32:09
So then I started… People eventually would
32:11
be like, "You always talk about these books.
32:12
Do you have a list?" And I was like, "I do now." So now
32:15
I started a list of, like, all the books I consume, and
32:17
then I always note my favorite time management resources.
32:20
Chris: Yeah, I'm very much the same, listening to audiobooks.
32:22
And the, the challenge I have with productivity books on
32:24
audio is sometimes there's, like, a practical application or
32:27
something like that I wanna go back, so I get the book trophy.
32:29
Samantha: Mm-hmm.
32:30
Chris: You know?
32:31
Samantha: Yeah.
32:32
Chris: Um, but I, I definitely do that so that I can go
32:34
back and reference it physically or share it with people,
32:37
um, when they're in similar things, but that's awesome.
32:39
Yeah.
32:40
That's
32:40
Samantha: awesome.
32:40
Books are great.
32:40
We're so lucky to have them.
32:41
Chris: Absolutely.
32:42
So you started Origami Day.
32:44
When was what, what I would call the moment of validation for you?
32:49
Um, what, what I like to say is, like, we all start this thing going,
32:52
"Oh, I hope that maybe it sells a few copies, or I at least make my
32:55
money back." You know, you're, you're just testing the waters with it.
32:58
And when did you get to the point where
33:00
you realized, "Oh, this is a real business.
33:02
Like, this is more than just, you know, a planner that I'm selling.
33:06
This is a whole community.
33:08
It's a whole consultancy," like?
33:10
That's a good
33:10
Samantha: question.
33:11
I'm kind of perplexed by this.
33:12
So I feel like there was one initial validation very early on.
33:16
So my surgery was 2014.
33:19
By the beginning of 2015, I had most of the products
33:22
already created, and I was using them for myself personally.
33:24
The beginning of 2017, people said, "You short- you should enter this business
33:29
pitch competition-" Mm. "… through the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center." Mm-hmm.
33:32
So I was like, "Sure." Threw my name out.
33:34
By that point, there were a handful of people using the weekly planning sheet.
33:37
It's, like, just mostly friends, coworkers using this sheet.
33:42
So I threw my name out, and they selected me as a finalist,
33:44
and so then I got to do this 48-hour business launch.
33:47
People came and helped me.
33:49
And I remember just my team, Tommy Wynn.
33:53
Chris: Mm-hmm.
33:53
Samantha: Do you know Tommy?
33:54
Chris: Yes, I absolutely know Tommy.
33:56
Samantha: Tommy and a couple other guys, uh,
33:57
they were my team, and they were my mentors.
33:59
And they helped me sort of talk through things.
34:02
They'd listen to my crazy idea, and they helped me get ready for this pitch and
34:06
essentially, like, start my LLC, all the things, like, make my idea a business.
34:10
Mm. And then I pitched to try to win funding, and I did not win, and… But
34:15
that moment of validation, I remember this was, like, a Sunday night pitch.
34:19
Monday morning, I woke up, and I remember just sitting there for a minute
34:21
being like, "Did that just happen?" And I was like, "I think I'm supposed
34:26
to do this." And it was, there were so many people who came to me in
34:30
that weekend, after that weekend, and just said, "This is a great idea.
34:34
We need this." And so that was probably the first real validation,
34:37
which was not deep into it, 'cause I still barely had a business model.
34:41
I had… I didn't even have a way to make money at that point.
34:44
It was really still a concept.
34:45
I guess I'm trying to think where the other validation came through.
34:48
It was probably a few years later when, um, I was n- not just
34:53
selling the products, but also doing a lot more services.
34:57
The pandemic was shockingly a good thing for my business
35:00
because people suddenly were confronted with, "Oh my
35:02
gosh, how do I manage my time and how do I work at home?"
35:04
Chris: Yeah.
35:05
Samantha: So a lot of people-
35:06
Chris: Exactly what I went through.
35:06
Samantha: Yeah.
35:06
Yeah.
35:07
And a lot of people turned to me and said, "How do I help?"
35:08
Like, "H- can you help?" And so that, that really sort
35:10
of like skyrocketed the services side of the business.
35:13
And so it was probably somewhere after that
35:16
where someone said, "Oh, you're Origami Day?
35:20
I've heard of you.
35:21
Your business is great." And I'm like, "Okay, people are talking about me.
35:26
They're talking about my business.
35:27
I've become a, a, you know, a Knoxville urban legend of something
35:31
that was, you know, built on the, on the periphery," so.
35:34
Chris: You, you have.
35:37
I'm not, I'm not joking.
35:38
I have heard your name dropped so many times over the years- I
35:40
Samantha: love that
35:41
Chris: um, doing this or doing that or talking at these things, or, "Oh,
35:44
I'm going to something with Samantha Lane- Oh, that's great … and Origami
35:47
Day," and yeah, you're, you're a bit of an urban legend around here.
35:49
Samantha: Well, I love that.
35:50
Well, and then what was cool was to go out into the,
35:52
the vast world beyond Knoxville, and then to be able to
35:55
be in rooms with people whose books I once listened to.
35:58
Right.
35:59
And for them to pour into me and give me guidance, and that really was
36:04
validating, to be in a room with businesses and, and leaders, thought
36:07
leaders that I only w- ever dreamed about meeting, and for them to
36:12
say, "I love your business," or like, "You're an excellent guide,"
36:15
or like, "This is a cool concept," or, "Your planners are beautiful."
36:19
And so, you know, it's… It… Over the years there's been, I'm
36:22
very thankful, consistent validation that I'm on the right path.
36:25
But it still doesn't stop the inner critic that every business
36:28
owner has- … just to be perfectly blunt, that says like-
36:31
Of course … "Am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing, or
36:33
do I just need to like call it, call it quits and move on?"
36:37
Chris: Yes, I feel that, so I totally understand.
36:39
So how did it go from a product then to what
36:42
you're doing now with the consulting side of it?
36:44
Samantha: Yeah, great question.
36:45
So it was… It started with I had the products, they were
36:47
starting to sell, and, um, someone came up to me and said,
36:51
"This is so great. Can you teach me everything you know?"
36:54
I was like- Sure.
36:56
'Cause I, at this point I was like, "I need money." So like yeah, I
36:58
don't know what to charge, so I started doing one-on-one coaching.
37:01
Then I started doing that for more and more people.
37:03
Then people said, "Your coaching has helped me so much. Will
37:05
you come teach my team? 'Cause they need to know what you know."
37:08
So then I started doing corporate training, which
37:10
has become the largest part of what the business is.
37:12
Um, the bulk of my time is training teams now.
37:14
And then eventually people said, "Wait a minute, you did
37:16
all this 'cause you almost died?" Which I previously didn't
37:19
talk about, and they said, "Come speak at my conference."
37:21
So that brought in the speaking.
37:22
So now the bulk of my time is spent, uh, training with teams,
37:27
speaking at events, and then I run one group coaching program,
37:30
but then I don't really do that much one-on-one coaching anymore.
37:32
I'll do it for a select few people.
37:34
But I have two coaches who I've taught my framework and I've
37:37
poured into, and they help teach people on a one-on-one basis,
37:40
and the bulk of my time is, is really the, like, group work.
37:43
Yeah.
37:43
Um, and then the products are kind of doing their own thing.
37:45
Chris: As, as a business owner, that's one of the hidden, I think, secrets or
37:49
realizations as a business owner of, like, having other people helping you,
37:53
is, unlocks a lot of the ability to be better about time management as well.
37:59
Mm-hmm.
37:59
When you're not, when it's not all on you all the time, and you learn
38:03
to delegate, which is just as hard as running your business was before.
38:07
Samantha: Yeah.
38:08
Chris: But learning to let go of things and trust other
38:10
people to do it, I think brings a whole new level of, um,
38:13
just time management in, in and of itself there, if that
38:17
Samantha: makes sense.
38:17
Absolutely.
38:17
And, and being able to explain to someone what to do- Right … also
38:21
requires a certain amount of, like, it can't just live in your head.
38:23
Mm. You have to have an SOP.
38:25
You have to have some sort of structure.
38:27
Like, the passwords can't all just be in your head.
38:30
The structure can't all just be in your head.
38:32
And so that was something that has been fun to develop over time.
38:36
Like, you know, I had one of my first bosses in Knoxville, he
38:39
had this whole, like, y- everyone needs a hit by a bus plan.
38:41
And he was like, "If you get hit by a bus, someone's gotta know how to
38:44
run your business." And that was great advice, and I took that to heart.
38:46
And so I believe in that, and so that's one of the things that
38:49
I, any time I work with business owners, I make sure they have.
38:52
Like, that's an investment of your time, not a spend.
38:53
Yeah.
38:53
It's gonna save you time down the road.
38:55
Yeah.
38:55
If you can think about, like, what c- what do people need to know beyond you?
38:58
And plus, like, at some point I realized I'm just one girl ranting
39:01
about time management, and I'm gonna hit a, a capacity really fast,
39:04
and if my goal is a culture shift, then I can't do it that way.
39:09
There's got to be a bigger reach.
39:11
Now, to me, that's not, like, scale.
39:12
Like, you know, 'cause scale sometimes to me is a, is a weird
39:15
world- Mm … in terms of, like, higher revenue, more reach.
39:19
Like, I see the pros and cons of that.
39:20
Um, and scale's always a place that I'm trying to figure
39:22
out where do I belong in that scale, but to me it's impact.
39:25
Like, I want more people to f- to realize that they can
39:28
manage their time better and not lose at productivity.
39:32
Chris: So what do you, what do you see as the future for Origami Dave?
39:35
Samantha: That's a great question.
39:36
So if you'd asked me that three months ago,
39:38
maybe my answer would've been different.
39:39
But right now, I'd say I've been working on a book kinda
39:44
quietly in the, in the shadows for the last year and a
39:47
half, and I, I think it's gonna come out in some way.
39:51
I'm still figuring out what is the right publishing method.
39:53
There's lots of different ways to get a book out into the world.
39:55
So, so that is coming.
39:57
And then growing the individuals that we have both in the coaching
40:04
programs, in the team trainings, and then growing the coaches that we have.
40:08
The goal is for the two coaches that, that teach
40:11
the framework to not be the only two coaches.
40:13
So to be able to have more people who are empowered to
40:16
teach this 3P framework so that we have a bigger reach.
40:19
So that's really the way that we see the scale going and what's
40:22
coming, is products are still always gonna be part of the, the method.
40:26
I will still always go speak at events.
40:28
I will always go train teams.
40:29
But again, that has a, a certain capacity, so what I'm working
40:33
on doing is, is developing the people who get it, who love
40:36
it, and who wanna help spread this message through coaching.
40:41
Chris: Yeah.
40:41
I, I mean, I feel like that's a natural progression for where you're at.
40:44
In fact, I was wondering when you were gonna tell me you were writing a book.
40:47
Samantha: Yeah, the book.
40:48
Yeah, and it's… and honestly, I never wanted to, 'cause I thought, "Well,
40:51
nobody wants to hear from me." But then I realized, but wait a minute.
40:54
I'm, I'm the guide.
40:56
You know, so one of the frameworks, uh, that's been really instrumental
40:58
in my business is the StoryBrand framework by Donald Miller.
41:01
Chris: Yep.
41:02
Samantha: And, um, realizing that I could
41:05
talk about my story without being the hero.
41:08
Mm. I could talk about my story from the position of a guide, and so I
41:12
could help keep the focus on the individual and still share what I know.
41:18
And so that's helped me to embrace a little bit more that what I went
41:20
through had a reason and had a purpose, and I can talk about it in a way
41:24
that is not self-serving, but in fact really helpful for someone else.
41:29
And it's taken me a long time to get behind
41:31
that, but now I understand that more.
41:33
Chris: Yeah.
41:34
I think Donald Miller has a great model, too, and something you probably
41:37
would, I would see benefit from emulating in terms of, like, if you're gonna
41:40
have guides and train people, like, the StoryBrand guide program that he
41:45
has and all that, like, has a lot of value to people all over the world now.
41:48
Samantha: For sure.
41:49
For sure, and he has been a huge influence in my business.
41:51
Mm-hmm.
41:51
Um, not just from the books, but being able to, to meet him
41:54
and work directly under him has had a huge influence in, in my
41:57
business and his, his really, you know, saying like, "Yeah, I think
42:00
having guides, like, you should do it." I think it's the future
42:02
for the business t- so that we can reach and help more people.
42:05
I
42:05
Chris: only ever caught one thing from Donald Miller, and that was a cold.
42:08
Samantha: Did you really?
42:09
Chris: I think I did, yeah.
42:11
Um, I met him at a conference, and he was sniffling and
42:13
dying, and we got to shake his hand, and he was a cool guy.
42:17
Um, but, but that was, like, that was actually
42:19
pre-StoryBrand, in his Blue Like Jazz days.
42:21
Yeah.
42:22
And that was, that was really cool to meet him then, but I f- I was always
42:26
bummed 'cause I was like, "Man, I wanted to hang out with you, but you
42:28
were, like, dead sick." "And then there was no way to hang out," but yeah.
42:32
Samantha: That's, but that also shows what a ch- what a trooper he is.
42:35
Chris: He was.
42:36
A lot of respect for him.
42:37
I-
42:37
Samantha: A lot of respect for him.
42:38
Chris: And he, that conference was crazy, and I have a lot of respect for
42:42
him coming in and doing and saying what he did during that conference.
42:45
Samantha: You know, they always say, "Don't meet your heroes."
42:48
Chris: Uh-huh.
42:49
Samantha: And when I first was going to meet Don- Mm … I
42:52
was, like, really afraid he was gonna be a bad person-
42:54
or suck or have some ego.
42:56
And then when I met him, I was like, "Oh, thank God. He's a really good human."
43:01
Chris: That's good
43:01
Samantha: to hear.
43:01
I was really afraid of that, but no, he's great.
43:02
Chris: That's good to hear.
43:04
Yeah, he's a, he's a really cool guy.
43:05
But yeah, so that's, that's exciting for your future.
43:08
Sounds like you've got a lot going, um, going your direction.
43:11
Um, as we wrap up, I always love to ask this question at the end.
43:14
This is a marketing branding podcast.
43:16
We've talked a lot about the Origami Day brand, um, but
43:19
what brand would you say you admire the most right now?
43:22
Samantha: Oh, gosh.
43:23
There's so many brands I admire.
43:24
Do I have to pick one?
43:26
Chris: You, you do have to pick one.
43:27
Samantha: Shoot.
43:28
Chris: And i- actually, no, it can be multiple.
43:30
I, I take that back.
43:30
It can be multiple.
43:31
Samantha: Okay.
43:32
I'm gonna just pick the StoryBrand brand, because that is one that I
43:36
think has, has shown the reach of what we can do when we're not the hero.
43:43
And so to me, I think that's a really respectable way to grow a business,
43:47
and I do think their branding has been consistent, you know, rolling
43:50
out different things and experimenting while still staying true to the
43:54
core, uh, which is that story brand, marketing from the place of a guide.
43:58
Mm. And so that's probably a brand that I, I admire a lot right now, and for
44:01
the years there… I haven't come to a place where I stop admiring that brand.
44:05
Mm. So I'm gonna say that's my answer.
44:07
If I can do an honorable mention?
44:08
Chris: Yes, please.
44:09
Samantha: I'm gonna go Robert Glazer.
44:11
Chris: Okay.
44:11
Samantha: Um, because I think he's underrated.
44:13
I think people know him, uh, but, uh, more people need to know him.
44:16
Chris: I don't know who him is.
44:17
Samantha: Oh.
44:17
Chris: So
44:18
Samantha: tell, tell me.
44:18
Robert Glazer.
44:19
He has a phenomenal email that comes out every Friday, and it's called
44:21
the Friday Forward, and he's just such a really spot-on thought leader.
44:26
He's written a couple books.
44:28
He's really in the leadership and team space, and
44:31
I just think… He's got a, a podcast as well.
44:34
Um, and he is j- It's called Elevate.
44:36
Mm. And just his brand, the Robert brand, I just only have good
44:41
thoughts when I think about it, 'cause the man is just solidly good.
44:44
Chris: Awesome.
44:45
Well, where can people find out more about Origami
44:48
Day and you if they wanna connect with you?
44:50
Samantha: Yeah, so we sort of now call it the family of brands.
44:53
So we have Origami Day, which is the product,
44:55
so origamiday.com has all of our products.
44:58
Then the services became their own brand of Present and Productive.
45:02
Mm. So presentandproductive.com gets all of the details on team
45:05
training and… So then thesamanthalane.com is where a lot of my content
45:09
and speaking and where the books, all of that, will originate from.
45:12
So the family of brands, origamiday.com,
45:15
presentandproductive.com, thesamanthalane.com.
45:18
Chris: Awesome.
45:19
Well, Samantha, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today.
45:21
This has been a lot of fun, and- Thank you … I'm sure we could
45:24
talk for hours- I know … on planning out- outside of this, so.
45:26
Samantha: It would be worth the time, though.
45:27
Chris: Absolutely it would be.
45:28
Thank you.
45:29
Samantha: So thank you.
45:30
Chris: All righty.
45:32
Thanks for checking out this episode of We Built This Brand.
45:35
Don't forget to like, follow, and subscribe on your player of choice.
45:39
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45:44
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