Latest / Black Girls Consult TOO! / Episode 93: Striking a Balance between Corporate Life and Entrepreneurship with Dr. Nicole Bryan

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Episode 93: Striking a Balance between Corporate Life and Entrepreneurship with Dr. Nicole Bryan · Black Girls Consult TOO!

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: There's a misconception that we don't exist, that somehow our ability to excel at the highest level of our industry is limited, that overcoming barriers as a woman of color would be insurmountable.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: But what would happen if we decided to venture out on our own, despite everything we're up against?
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you Welcome to the Black Girls Consult 2 podcast.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, dr Angelina Davis, a healthcare consultant, consulting coach, high performance fanatic wife and proud girl mom.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: I help transform female professionals into thriving solo consultants and, just like you, I'm wearing all the hats and doing all the things.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: So this podcast is to empower the busy female professionals to move past fear to start and grow a successful consulting business, despite the obstacles you may encounter.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: We'll dive deep into consulting practice, business strategy, mindset and more.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: So grab your cup of coffee or tea, if that's your thing, and let's get started.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: All right, hello there.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Black Girls Consult 2 podcast.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: I am so excited to have this conversation.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: You know we have my special guest.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: We have been together before on LinkedIn and I know, if you go back and you listened to you know previous recording, you have learned a lot about what it takes in order to start your business while you're working in 9-5.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: I think we hammered all of that out, but now we are back at it again and I am going to let Nicole introduce herself to you and share with us a little bit about who you are, what your business is, and you know why you're joining my conversation today about time management, especially when you're working your 9-5.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much for welcoming me again and having me.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Like you said, we've had numerous conversations.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: One or two have been recorded and shared with our community, so I'm really excited to be back and talking about this topic.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: So my name is Dr Nicole Bryan.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: I am a human resources executive.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I am also a entrepreneur and I own my own consulting and coaching business called the Change Doc.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: I have been in business for almost two years now, which I swear it feels so much longer than that, but officially I've been in business for two years.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: I've been a HR executive for 15 years and I bring my work experience and my corporate experience navigating the corporate world to mid-career women in particular and helping them get into the executive suite as well as excel in the executive suite.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Awesome.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: You know, I always love to hear those beginning stories Like what actually made you decide that you were going to start this business while you work.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, you had a phenomenal job, right?
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: So I know that you had climbed the corporate ladder.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: You had a place where I'm assuming that you had reached a level of success, that you had been working for a long time, but you decided to start this new venture, right?
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: What drove you to do that?
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: When I think about my career, I get really excited.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: It's one of the reasons why I've chosen to help other women who are equally excited about their career and who want to make a change in the world.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: But for me, I speak to a lot of other women who don't have great experiences in the corporate environment in particular, and who find themselves running into challenge after challenge after challenge.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: I am lucky enough that my career, although it was not rocky free, was and continues to be like a great journey.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: I love what I did.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: I love what I do what.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: I recognize that everybody's experience is not that way.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: But so what prompted me to start my own business was a few things.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: One I was looking for a new challenge.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: I had done a lot of what I wanted to accomplish in the corporate world that I was in, in the job that I was in at the time, and I wanted to do something different.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: I am like probably you and other people who are listening right now.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: I am one of those continuous learners.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: If I'm in a role and I'm not learning and I'm not being challenged, I start to wander somewhere else.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: That was one thing.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: That was the personal reason.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: But then my mission became bigger.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: In my corporate jobs that I've had they've all been in human resources.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Probably I've been the person who was responsible for bringing in talent to the organization and educating talent like leadership development and those types of things.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: I've always been a coach and a consultant.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Just by the definition of the work that I was doing, it dawned on me like well, nicole, why not cut out the middleman?
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: We've been doing this for big organizations like Colgate, palm Olive, citibank, t-row Price.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: They've all been great experiences.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: You've learned a lot.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: You've cultivated a lot of global leaders.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Why not cut off the middleman and go directly and help women in particular, who is still underrepresented in the executive suite?
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: That's what that was.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: The mission-based part of it.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: It was both a combination of.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: I wanted a new and different challenge, and then there was also how can I continue to build leaders for the world as well as cultivate and get more?
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: estrogen in the executive suite.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: That's so neat.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: One of the statistics I like to use over and over again has to do with the number of women, especially women of color, that make it to the highest level.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I think older McKinsey study kind of states that, if I'm quoting this correctly, it was like roughly 20% were women and then only it was less than 5% women of color.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: That's huge, beyond huge.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: It's exciting to hear that.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: I think you also mentioned something that I always like to share about even my journey as well is the fact that you don't have to quit your nine to five if it's something that you truly desire to do and something that you find to be enjoyable, or you're still growing and evolving in that particular role.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: It's great to see examples of that, because I think we need to have more and more of that.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Just let people know that it's possible, it's not impossible, for you to be able to do both.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Then it becomes your choice.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: I always talk about making your nine to five optional.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: That means if you love it, stay.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: If you want to make a change, make a change, but do it on your terms.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of people, when it comes to entrepreneurship, have this misconception that in order for me to truly have a real quote unquote business, I need to quit my job and throw everything to the wind and go off into entrepreneurial land.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: That is not always the case.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be that way.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: You can map out your own journey.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so much that you just said, I think.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: The first thing is, I think many of us don't recognize that we, as women, have not been in the workforce a full hundred years at this point in time.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: We haven't.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: I think so many of us my generation, the generations that are coming behind us, this is all we've known, so we don't recognize that it was just the 50s, the 60s that's crazy.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: In the 70s, 1970, where women actually started working full time, where it was actually okay to be working full time, and even then women, we were cast aside to the administrative roles in a professional work environment.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Whereas now again, not even 100 years later, although we still have our under-representation in so many areas STEM and executive suites and et cetera.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: What I'm finding exciting, frankly, is we can now have a conversation of you don't need to just have one career, you can have two, you can have three, right, and that is okay.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: You can build your own business and you can still work a nine to five.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: That is okay, and I love seeing so many more women in particular take advantage of that and, frankly, thrive.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: It's neither is easy, neither path working in a full time, nine to five or going the entrepreneurial world not.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: Neither is easy, so let alone doing both at the same time.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: But for me the most important thing is that we have the choice to do what makes our heart pit or pattern, and we get to take on what we wanna take on and not take on what we don't wanna take on.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: And I think that's what led us to come up with this idea.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Just letting everyone know we talked a little bit about what would be a topic that would be the perfect topic following, you know, the LinkedIn Live that we did previously, that aired on the podcast, and the follow up to that, I think, is really thinking about yes, we're telling you, this is possible.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: You know, we're saying that, we've been able to do it.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: We're proof and evidence that you can have a not just a nine to five a demanding career, high level career, and still start your own business and be successful at both.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: So we know that, that it is possible.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: That's just a fact at this point.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: But how to do that in terms of managing your time and being able to fit all of those things in without losing sight of the other things that are very important in life?
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: And I always like to go onto Instagram whenever you're posting and traveling all over the world, which you go to some amazing destinations.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: You know it lets me know, and it's that reminder that, yes, we can do all of this and we can still enjoy life to the fullest.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: So how do you actually find time to fit in your business in the midst of all that, you have going on with your career.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: Honestly it is.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: To me it is a.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: It's a commitment like anything else, right?
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: So we commit to raising our kids, we commit to nurturing our relationships, our romantic relationships with our partners.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: We commit to the nine to five.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: For me, what's worked is figuring out what commitment looks like for the business, and so, with juggling everything, I have two step sons, I have a partner, I have elder care, so I'm the primary caregiver for my mom, like many, I'm sure, of us who are listening.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: There's just, you know, the list goes on in terms of who is depending on them.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: I'm an executive leader, so I have teams of people that I'm responsible for.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: So the list goes on.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: But for me, what I tried to do was be very deliberate about when, what and when I'm going to give to my business, and really that came down to discipline, like being very.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: You know, what we can't control is when other people are needing things of us, but we can't control how we respond, how and when we respond to those demands, essentially.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: So I started out by just carving out time, like I literally worked on my business on the weekends.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: That was easiest for me.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Luckily, I serve a population of the women, other working women who too would probably prefer either evenings or weekends.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: That's when they have their quote unquote free time, if there's ever such a thing.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: So luckily it coincided with the population that I was serving, so while I was working still full time, sorry, working in my nine to five full time and building my business, I would deliberately carve out business hours for myself, and so that was usually Wednesday evening, wednesday and Thursday evenings, from six to nine Eastern standard time, and Saturdays, saturday mornings and Sunday afternoons, like that were those were my business hours.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: And when I was focusing on my business, I was very clear with my team, with my boss, saying I'm not available on these days.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: So it wasn't.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: It wasn't hard in terms of figuring out the how and when.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: It was hard, as you could imagine, sticking to it when everything wasn't, you know, when an emergency came up or somebody thought something was an emergency and it really wasn't an emergency.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: Right, we all get those calls.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: But even then, I think just going being able to address the situation, move, you know, close it down and then go back to the boundaries that I had set was it felt back to me being disciplined in terms of how I use my time and how I respond.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Right, I feel the same way.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: That level of discipline to say that I am going to commit to using my time in this manner is, I think, vital for you to be able to do both.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Oftentimes, you know, people like to think about their weekends as being totally free and they are able to kind of just Netflix and chill on weekends.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: But I do think that you know when you're working on something that you're really passionate about and that you really enjoy those weekends.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: I'm similar to you where I spend a lot of weekend time, you know, working on the business and you know, even in the business, and that's enjoyable because it's something that I really do love to do, I'm passionate about.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I have a harder time nowadays focusing on you know my nine to five when I'm there, I want to be doing the business.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: So I think that, having just that mindset shift from I work a job and on the weekend I do nothing but kind of veg out which in all honesty most of us didn't do anyway I always would take work home from work.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: And so one of those boundaries I had and I think you mentioned this is kind of everything needs to fit into the week for work and I was trying my best to limit having that overflow so the more efficient and more productive I could be during my week, that was going to be my way of protecting that time, especially, you know, on the weekend or at night, and so I don't want to give anyone the impression that those times will not be important for this process.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: I haven't met anyone yet that's been able to do that without having anything, you know, either at night or on the weekend.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Even if you block off your weekends, maybe you're doing things at night or in the early morning.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: There has to be some other time that we can carve out.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Now I know my biggest issue is boundaries around.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: You know my family, so I have boundaries that with coworkers and clients what about with my family?
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: So do you ever run into that problem?
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: I don't, because my partner is an entrepreneur, so his and his work's good and he owns personal training business.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: So you know personal trainers, they're up at the crack of dawn and you know their hours are more.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: They center their hours around their clients availability, so this is more sporadic.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: So I, honestly, and my kids are grown enough that they don't need me or him on a you know, every minute Doesn't mean that they don't call and they don't.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: You know they do need things that come unexpectedly.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I, yeah, you know what.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: No.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to think.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, occasionally yes, but no, no.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: I like they want to spend time with you or they need you to like take them somewhere or do okay, you know it's like that last minute and I have even my youngest is 13.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: So I always give the example.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: She just got had a tryout for volleyball for school and we had to get her physical done.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: And we get there now.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: I scheduled at 740 AM because my goal was to get it out the way.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: So I could, it wouldn't interrupt the day.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: We drive 20, 30 minutes out to go get this.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: You know this physical done and she leaves her glasses at home, which I'm thinking to myself you knew you couldn't see.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: I mean that's, that's just something that you know right.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: I'm taking a 30 minute car ride from you to recognize that she's Right.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: What you guys mean, well, she gets there and tries to take the test without her glasses and, of course, fails.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting on the side and the letter she was calling out.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: I was like, okay, we got to go back home.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Like this is not gonna work, so we had to go back home, make a long story short, it turned into an all day ordeal which threw off the whole day.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: So that tends to happen.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: I'm always trying to find ways to think ahead of the game.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: We've, I've even gone as far as like, hey, we need to pack a bag, I need extra clothes and shoes and all of this for the kids and the cars, so that, if anything happens, we're going to have an extra pair.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, glasses was an extra pair of glasses is not on a list.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, but that's a great point, right Meaning, no matter, you can plan and planning is important.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Being, having your boundaries are important, knowing, like, when you're going to be working on one thing versus when you're going to be working on another.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: All of that is important and, frankly, to keep your sanity if nothing else, to keep your sanity you need to do that.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: But I think your point is really valid, angelina, that the truth of the matter is sometimes, no matter how you plan, something comes up that demands your time and it's something that you didn't plan on doing that day or that half a day or hour or whatever, and so I think what I would say to that is you have to be, you have to, you have to have some level of flexibility.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Right, like you, something's going to come that's going to take you off track.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Even sometimes my mind takes me off track, like I will say I will carve out time.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: When you see my calendar, it's all color coded, like you would think.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: That is like regimented the truth of the matter is, I blocked out even today.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: I blocked out three hours to do an email sequence that I need for a launch that I'm doing soon.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: I just couldn't concentrate on it.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: Like I tried to do it.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: I know what I need to do.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: I carved the time out but I couldn't get my brain to focus on it and after like 45 minutes I was like you gotta give this up, you gotta go do something else because it's not working, like why are you hitting your head or why are you banging your head on the wall?
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: So sometimes it's other people, but that distracts us or pulls us away, but sometimes it's us as well.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: And so I think you just gotta recognize when to keep going to push through and versus when to just let what's happening happen and take a step back and then regroup and get back to it when it's appropriate.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: It's so true.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: I always have clients create a list of to-dos that are kind of things they can do when they don't have that creative energy or they have just been exhausted from the week or through the day, but still are things that have to be done.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: So I always like to use examples of doing your market research or maybe some aspect of getting content ideas or starting to organize certain aspects of their business Things that you can do while you're kind of relaxing and not having to use a lot of your mental energy to do it, because those things still have to be done and instead of them taking up your quality, like working hours, let those things be for when you're sitting in a waiting room and you're waiting for the kids to finish up a practice or whatnot like.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Do those types of things then, instead of just scrolling randomly on social media or texting with a friend, and you can get so much more done.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: And it doesn't mean that you don't relax, but you're just using some of that downtime a little bit more efficiently to get those things done, which always feel like it helps in the long run because, number one, you take things off your plate, so you're not thinking about it, which is gonna help you rest and sleep better, which we all know we definitely need that level of energy.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: So have you ever had a situation where there's been a crisis at work as well as a kind of a fire in your business as well.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: So like two periods where you're in high demand and there's like a lot going on on both ends.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: How did you handle that if this happened?
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: So, yes, that happens and it happens.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Actually, I would say it happens fairly often.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: So one thing that I didn't share was that, in addition to being an HR executive and a business owner, is that I'm also a psychotherapist.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: So I've kind of had my own.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: I call myself a dual career instead of a dual career family.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: I call myself a dual career person, as I think that term was getting more popular at this point in time, but I've been that way since I became a psychotherapist back in 2008.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: But all of that, to say yes, I've been.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: I have had some very hairy issues, particularly when I was when I had my psychotherapy practice.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: So there was a time, for example, when I was in a board meeting at the company that I was working for at the time, doing a presentation, and I had a patient who needed some emergency psychological assistance and support, and I remember at the time I could see my phone going off all the time and I was like what's happening?
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: I figured it was something related to my kids.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: When I'm in a board meeting so I'm not necessarily to pick up their phone in the board meeting is like that's like career suicide, right, right, right.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: And then my executive assistant came in and I was like, okay, something's really wrong, so, and then she told me what was happening One of my patients had committed tried to commit, suicide, was being held in the hospital, and so in that moment I literally had to be like it would pause Right, Like this the meeting is the meeting, but and I was scheduled to present at that meeting, but I just had to walk out and go take care of my patient.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: So those I've had a couple of those instances, actually never the other way around, because when it comes to psychological care, that's the first, that is my priority.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: And that's actually a tip that I would give us is I've had to in non-emergent.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: When there's non-emergency times, I've had to be very clear about what is my order of priority.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: Like what are the things that are most important to me?
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: Families at the top of that, right.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: So if anything happens any place, I don't care who I'm with, what I'm doing doesn't matter, that's number one.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: And then for me, obviously, my patients, and then my executive responsibilities.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: For me, then my business.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: Some people have it the other way around and that's perfectly fine.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: But just knowing what the order is so that when those crises moments do come, you don't have to think of it Like you're literally you already know what your pecking order is and how you would respond to it.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: But when there's been other situations, angelina, when I have not had, it's not about providing psychological and psychotherapy support to anyone or no emergency, personal emergency situations, but when you're coaching people, the reality is part of your services.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: That you provide is being there and being available to support your clients and sometimes, most of the times, you can schedule that there's.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: You know you're having regular sessions with them and they schedule this on the calendar, et cetera, but there are a lot of times that they may need you in the moment.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: If they are, you know my clients, for example, will find themselves in the midst of negotiations for their total compensation right and they need to go back with.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: You know they have a couple of hours to make a decision on something and go back and give a counter offer or something like that.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: If I am otherwise engaged at my nine to five, then I'm not available.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: I'm not checking email.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: We don't have beepers these days.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: The text is coming on in, but when I'm focused at my nine to five my cell phone is off so I'm not thinking about that.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: And so there have been times where some of my clients have needed me, like in the moment.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's an emergency or two deadline that they're facing, and other times it just feels like an emergency to them, although it may not be.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: You know, have a deadline on it and I've had to make yes, I've had to make decisions about okay, do I step out of this meeting or step out of this conversation in my nine to five and go deal with that?
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: Most times I will say that I don't.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: I will not do that because if there isn't a sense of, if there isn't a true urgency, like a true, someone's gonna lose that opportunity If they don't make a decision.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: Or and a part of my responsibility as a coach is to help you make those decisions on your own right.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: We talk about all those scenarios, so most times I will not.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: There's only been one or two times that I can think of right now where my clients super seeded, like they didn't just send me an email, they actually called my admin to get me out of wherever I was.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: That to me is always a signal that is super important, at least from their perspective, but most times it's.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: I will always favor where I am.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: If I'm focusing on the job, that's where my focus is right.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: Then and there If it's if I'm focusing, if it's the time to focus on my clients, that's where I'll focus and not respond to things about my job.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: I'll say one more thing.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: So I have a as an HR exec, I have a large team like have a team of over 200 people that I'm responsible for, right.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: I even train my team, basically right.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: So I'm very transparent about these are my priorities.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: This is what I'm doing when you know I have a whole nother business when I'm not here and I give them permission to reach out to me when it is an emergency, what's interesting and hopefully my bosses and my former bosses are not listening.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: I don't do the opposite.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: So what I mean by that is I will stop something that I'm doing If I get a call or if I am informed about an urgent need for someone on my team who reports into me.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: I will stop what I'm doing because I know that they know that I'm doing something else and that they have made the conscious decision that, despite what's going on, I need Nicole's input to be able to move forward.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: I will not do that for my boss.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: So if my boss and this has happened, my boss calls me, I'm not stopping, and not because I don't care about what she needs, but because she has decision power with help to make a decision.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: Except she wants to consult with me, which I completely respect, and I want her to consult with me.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: But I know that if she doesn't get me, it's not gonna stop her ultimately from making a decision, whereas my team they need me to be able like they are very aware that if Nicole doesn't say yes to this, we can't move forward right.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: If she can move forward without me, they can't move forward without me.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: So that's another kind of dynamic that I deal with between the business and my full time.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I always like to think of it, as we have this ability to set boundaries on either side, and that even goes for what we set for ourselves like.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: So the boundaries that we give ourselves in terms of how far we want to go, what we want to involve ourselves in, what we want to extend to people, that in essence compromises how much time or what takes us away from the priorities that we have right, and I think setting expectations plays a big role in that, meaning that if you have a client and you have the expectation that I will get back to you within 24 to 48 hours, there is the expectation of this being a longer timeframe than an immediate response, and so, although we may still show up, you know immediately when we are able to.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: It's not the expectation, and so I think by really being clear about that, you know when people are starting out.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: It can be extremely helpful and just believe some of that anxiety, of feeling as if we need to be there all of the time for everyone, because I think that's just human nature, and especially for women, especially women of color, it's like the super woman syndrome we want to be present everywhere, at all times.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: I'm like you can't be on the present.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Only one being can do that.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: You know, like, in my opinion.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: So, at the end of the day, like you can't do that, and so there has to be boundaries that you set and expectations that you give so that you don't carry that burden of feeling as if you need to show up in ways that you just physically and mentally can't.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: So I think that, yeah, and the priority piece is so important I love the way that you said that because you do have to choose, right.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: No one's saying what's right or wrong.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: You can choose your career, you can choose your business, you can choose your clients.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, the choice is up to you, but it's a choice, you know, and I think that we forget that, like, we sometimes feel as if, for instance, if it were to be your business, in that moment, you may I mean not your business, but your job in a moment that you describe, if your patient was having, or your client was having, you know, difficulty that was life-threatening some people would feel like, well, this is my job, I can't break away, right, but we still always have that choice.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: We just may not take that opportunity, but we have the choice and, I think, just realizing that things we have more control over things than we think we do, that it's not as limiting as we may feel at times, what may have felt in the past, because I think there's a lot that I've told myself, for instance in the past I can't do that.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: You know, that's not allowed.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: And I'm thinking to myself now, like why did I ever think that that was not allowed?
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you know, someone may not have liked it, it may not have been consistent with what, you know, the my organization wanted at that moment, but as an adult then I had a choice that I could make and I think that really getting to that point is very free.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: At least I felt that way.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: I don't know about that and like I will once again.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: I think that's an important distinction, right.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: So for all of our listeners, I would say when you hear yourself because I've done this as well, right, but when you hear yourself saying I can't, I think you gotta pause, pause the button and ask yourself really I can't, well, why can't I?
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: And I do that with people, I do that with women that I work with now, and usually they'll have a response like well, I can't do that because the rule is such and such and such.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: And I'm like okay, where is that rule written?
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: Who told you that rule?
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: Let me see it in writing.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: What's the consequences if that does like?
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: Right, like, and most of the times it's a rule that we've been conditioned.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: Either we've been conditioned to or we assumed there's not.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: No one has ever said no, you can't take two days off to work on your business and clock the last vacation days.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: You're saying you can't do that because vacation isn't supposed to be used that way.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: But you can use your vacation anyway.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: I have your one, exactly, your boss did not say you can't take those days off to go work, da-da-da.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: And even if they didn't, that's their preference, not, I'm sure it's not in the company handbook, like that's not a rule per se.
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: Right All of that to say?
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: I think when you hear, when we hear ourselves say I can't or we shouldn't, any of those types of phrases, I think we have to help train ourselves to pause and really question ourselves on why.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: Who said that?
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: Why do I believe it?
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: Is it really true?
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: Is it fact, or is it what I think is the right thing or the wrong thing to do, or whatever?
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: Right, yeah those are.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: Those three words are things that I am just not a fan of.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: Can, should it?
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: and should it yeah.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Those are all usually going to lead you down this path.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: You know kind of like these assumptions or other people's.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: You know kind of like beliefs and opinions that you are kind of taking as gospel.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: So, so that's huge.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: I have a question.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: So now we've talked about like being able to manage both.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: You've been able to do that successfully, but have you found that there are certain time management techniques or maybe other types of solutions?
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you're big into tech and apps, so you know just what keeps you going and able to balance it all?
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: So I don't know if you would consider this a time management technique, but for me, working out, as you probably I know you already know it's because you see it.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I see you all the time Like y'all, cheat is always in the gym.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Now I know because of your.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: I posted every day is part of my content that I post.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: But, in all seriousness, like I have for me to have the energy and the clarity to be able to work multiple careers at the same time, working out is what does that for me, right?
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: It gives me mental clarity, it gives me physical energy, it makes me feel positive enough to tackle the entire day, whatever is going to be coming for that day.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: So that, to me, is a.
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: I put that in my time management bucket and definitely in the bucket of what helps me juggle everything.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: So that's one thing for sure.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: So I'm physically act Before I go do anything for anybody else, including my kids.
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: That's what I'm doing.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: I'm working out period.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's a non negotiable.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: Then, in terms of, I guess, more traditional time management things, I do plan out my week.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: So I will spend, like Sunday morning in particular, planning out my well, two things on the Friday before I leave work.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: Right, I will always look at the two weeks ahead.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: So I'll take the time to kind of look what's on my, what meetings I have coming up or appointments I have coming up for two reasons.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: One, just a general awareness, right, I to figure out, like, what I might need to add to what might to do list or take off on to my do to do list based on what's coming up, but then to to see if I need to shuffle things around, because I'm juggling to three different kind of roles.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: Different roles I may need to, you know, move an appointment here or change something there.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: That's one thing I do.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: The second thing I do is on Sundays Sunday mornings I will plan out that same week, so I looked ahead two weeks.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: Then Sundays I take the time to actually look at my meetings and see okay, do I do I need to create an agenda for this meeting or what are the topics I want to cover with this client, you know, for her next coaching session.
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: So I will get myself organized.
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: That helps me a lot.
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: It helps me reduce the stress that comes through the week because once again I'll be able to plan for the things that are on my calendar.
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: But things are going to probably pop up that I don't know about.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: But being knowing, being feeling prepared for the things that I do know about, helps me with all of that.
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: I also I think I mentioned earlier I color code my calendar so I can see what's on it, like just by a glance, and I'll know, okay, if it's.
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: If it's blue, I know it's a coaching session, if it's red, then I know it's a HR business, hr execs thing, if it right.
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: So I know what's happening.
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: And then the last thing I will say is I mentioned it earlier too, but I'll just repeat it which is I block time, I block work time.
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: Right, my solo work time, not work time, but solo work time to work.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: What do we call it?
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: Work on work on this rather than in the business.
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: So that helps as well.
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: So I don't leave, I don't leave things to chance in terms of like, if I have things that I need to get done, even if it's just me who's going to be working on it, I will block the time on my calendar to make sure that I have the space to do it, but also that I don't forget to do it.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: Right yeah.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what do you?
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: What do you know you?
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: know I'm a lot of the strategies that you mentioned I also do.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: Another thing that has been helpful for me is also compartmentalizing my home duties as well.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: So everything from you know cooking dinner to you know getting ready for the week and handling the kids.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: There have been times, like, for instance, this summer, my daughter's been home from college.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: I've been able to lean on her to cook dinner at night.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: So I take advantage of those things, like when I can back before I am have been known to be crock pot queen.
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: Now, yes, an air fryer.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: I know what we did with alcohol to before those things, but yes yeah, when I've been in the heat and I'll be honest and a little bit transparent I have been in this type of I don't know, I don't know if you want to call it like a go phase for a long time, so some of it is just second nature to me now.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but one thing that I used to do a lot was to put on a crock pot meal, for instance, the night before it would cook overnight and I'll put in refrigerator what dinner is already ready and I didn't have to do anything but like, do the prepping of putting it in, you know, 15 minutes before bedtime, yeah.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: So there are a lot of, I feel like, those shortcuts that you can take to create the room, yeah, and then the key is just not allowing other things to feel that space, and I feel like that's been the hardest part for me with staying kind of productive and handling my time is just once I clear out the space by using, you know, a lot of these shortcuts, how do I keep other things from filling in?
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: You know, once that gap is made?
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: And you know one of the things to you mentioned about looking at the week ahead.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: That is super helpful because before that I will say that I was at many times I have been scattered and I was like you know, you become paranoid and there was so much anxiety.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: I didn't want to miss a meeting and I would have everything coming to my watch because if I needed to be there, I needed someone to like, buzz me and make sure that I'm there.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: Now I have, you know, I don't have a watch on and I just feel less anxious because I know what to expect from the week.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: So there are other things that may pop up.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: But you know, before I start my week already know what meetings are coming up.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: I'm already prepped for the meetings that are coming up.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: And I started just using my Fridays, you know, to do that, like having a second half of the day where I literally would run through a number of items that I knew I needed to make sure that I had checked, that have my calendar updated, that I've reached out to everyone to make sure that we're still on for the next week, that you know that you're kind of confirming all these things and that I also have things for my family lined up, like who's going to pick up the kids and you know who needs to be on alert, just in case my meeting was late.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: You know, all that releases and release me of so much anxiety and stress that it has made the world of difference in terms of balancing all of it.
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: You made me think about something else when you mentioned not having your watch on, because I think so many of us under and I do think this falls in the time management bucket.
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: It's not what.
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: It's not on the what you do side, but what you maybe maybe don't do, and for me it is.
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: Maybe it may have been six months ago it sounds like you do this now, but maybe six months ago I was listening to young lady on Instagram and she young lady, I feel that maybe some of like.
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: I was listening to someone on Instagram and she was talking about the fact that she does not.
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: She turns off all her notifications, so she makes her living on Instagram, but she does not allow Instagram to ping her, so all her notifications are off.
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: And I was like it goes back to one of those things that people say you should do something, but like, and I thought to myself if you make your living off of Instagram, I don't make my living off of Instagram.
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: Yet that thing is pinging me all the time.
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: Meaning not when I say ping, meaning that the notifications are coming through.
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: I might have my phone on silent, which I always do, but when I pick up the phone, the notifications are there, like I can see them coming in, or there's a number right, that's Wayne that says 25 thing.
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: 25 notifications are waiting for you.
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: I turned all of that off, not just from Instagram, but from all of my apps.
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: Girl, it's like a whole another life, because it's not that I don't.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: Now I choose when I go on to those platforms versus being like Pavlov's dog and every time the ping comes through I'm like oh, let me see what's happening Now.
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: Literally, I may go on there too, maybe three times a day, but it's like quick, go in, get out.
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: I'm not every five seconds or every five minutes going on because someone pinged me on so I got a notification.
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: I swear I think that gave me back at least an hour or two in my entire day.
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: Like I'm not responding.
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: I'm being proactive and making the choice of when I take to go look on social media versus waiting for them to ping me.
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you, if that's what you're saying Definitely, definitely.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: You know, I will get certain messages a lot of times somewhat on Instagram, but I've gotten into the habit of choosing when I look and when I don't.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: I feel like I can control that piece.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: The one that I could not control very well was Facebook.
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: Amazing because.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: I'm not even on Facebook like that, but you know that's where family and friends are.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: And usually when those come through, there's a certain level of almost like obligation.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: You feel like you need to respond.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: Well, look, I got to the point where I was like you know what?
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: Susie's graduation is awesome, but respond to it right now.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: So I literally, actually, to be honest with you, I only log on Facebook oftentimes, like maybe once a week, and I literally, for a set period of time, go through and come in and like and catch up on birthdays and do all of that, and then I'm off again and I think that that has helped me a lot.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: And you know, while we're talking about the benefit of that, there's also a downside, because I think we both work with clients that likely function in a very similar fashion.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: So what I always like to tell people is that don't assume that your ideal client is sitting online and seeing everything that you do.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: Number one, because nine times out of 10, they're not Like.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: They may log in on the weekend or maybe at night when they're just scrolling.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: So you know, you do have to have some level of consistency or even think about where the best place to meet them may be.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: It may not be online, it may be offline, because they're not gonna necessarily be present on social media to the extent that they normally would.
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: So you have to think about those things in greater depth, based upon just the you know the type of lives that we live nowadays, everybody is very busy, and so just kind of figuring out how to navigate that space for ourselves within, also in reaching the people that we want to, you know, we want to work with in order to build our businesses, I feel like there's an element of that that we also have to be, you know, mindful of and now we talked about that piece in terms of just turning off notification was, which keeps the anxiety down.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: But how do you really control, you know, this element of possible burnout?
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: So you know you're doing so many things.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: So, technically, you have two full careers.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: You have the business, like how, and family.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: How do you keep yourself from burning out, like?
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: so what I would say is that it's important to know what brings you calm and what brings you peace.
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: For me, sorry, it's important to know it, and then it's important to make time to do it.
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: For me, it is working out right.
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: That's for many people that is a chore.
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: For me it is not.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: For me it is-.
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to get back there.
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna acknowledge it because I know it's the truth.
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: For most people that's not enjoyment.
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: I get it, but for me it is.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: So that's one thing, and so I make that that's a daily practice.
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: For other people it might be yoga, for other so other people it might be Netflix, whatever brings you calm and peace.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: I think you have to make that a part of your daily.
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: You have to figure a way to make that your daily routine.
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: That's one thing I will say.
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: The other thing for me is that, just like I schedule all my work time, I actually also schedule downtime.
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: So I am a loner, right and so, and I am a introvert, and so for me, I have to have time by myself to be able to face the week ahead, or blah, blah, blah.
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: So for me, like I think I had mentioned to you guys that I work on Sundays when I look at my calendar ahead, and da, da, da, sunday evenings is the whole time, and so I will spend the morning planning the week ahead, figuring out what I need to do at home and for work, but then, come three o'clock, I cut it off, and so from three to whenever I go to bed, that is my time, and I use that time to escape into reading.
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: Right, I'm not a big TV person, but I love novels and so and reading is a solo sport, thank God, and so that's what I'll do.
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: That gives me that, that gives me energy, like, that allows me to rest, it allows me to block my mind from worrying about what's coming or what happened last.
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: You know, what happened last week that I can't change anyway, and so those are the things that kind of help rejuvenate me, like, those are the things that I can work into my regular, either daily or weekly schedule.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: But the other big thing that I do and you had mentioned this before is I travel.
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: So every couple of months I'm taking some big trip, whether by myself or with friends or with my sweetheart.
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: We are going somewhere, and it's somewhere good, right?
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: Yes, you all are.
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: You all are everywhere.
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: Not just a road trip an hour away and then boom right, we're going someplace.
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: Good.
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: So, for example, at the end of this month I'm heading to London for two weeks.
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: That's why I'll be there.
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: I'm taking my mom, it'll be great, right, but when I'm there like I'm there.
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: So to me, the other thing is, when you are doing these things that are supposed to, that you want to kind of rejuvenate yourself.
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: You have to be as present in those moments as you are for your business and as you are for your nine to five, otherwise they won't rejuvenate you.
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm kind of like that too.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: I haven't done a lot of traveling overseas recently I think this year, following on one place but for me it's been the travel with my daughter's playing volleyball yes.
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: Or being able to go up and spend time with my older daughter, who's now in college, and I'm like you when I'm there, like when we go into volleyball tournaments.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: I tell everybody that it's just like I'm in volleyball world.
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know, it could be an atomic bomb outside and I have no clue, because it's all about volleyball in that moment.
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: So that is something that I really do look forward to because, like you said, it's kind of like your whole family is there or you're just involved in that moment.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: If you're traveling, if you're loving the area that you're traveling to and you're just immersing yourself in that.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: But I always remind clients, it's also a great time to just capture just video footage, something that simple.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: Or when you get like a creative download and you wanna just write while you're there, do it.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: Just pull out your phone or pull out a pen and just sit on the beach and write.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: You'll be amazed as to how creative you become when you're in those elements.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: And that's still.
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: There's still a aspect of working on your business that you don't even realize you're doing, because a lot of these pictures that you take can storm away and you can use them at some other time.
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: I'm not posting them then, but they will show up weeks down the road possibly, or when you get back, or maybe that idea that sparked why you were talking to a friend and you all were just kind of hanging out, that idea turns into your next offer.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: That may not see the light of day for a year, but those moments are more than necessary because otherwise I feel like it's easy to burn out.
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: And I guess I'm very, I'm very, mindful of that because I tell people like when I started Excel or Consulting, I started my business, part of it was because my mentor at the time, who was also my colleague that I worked with in consulting actually she ended up experiencing severe burnout that led to the end of her career, and I don't want, I never wanted that to happen To me, and because I saw how it occurred for her.
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: And it's not to say that every situation is the same, by no means.
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: But just seeing that not having those opportunities to take a break and putting so much pressure on yourself to perform and not just perform well but perform exceptionally, and to never take breaks and to go above and beyond all the time, it's just all of those things becomes too much weight for any one person to bear, and so I try to allow myself to have those moments where I can just break free, be more creative, follow my energy.
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: So there are times where, even with the podcast.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: Yes, the podcast is released each week but if, by chance, the energy is not there to do the podcast, sometimes I don't force myself to do it.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: It may be an episode that's gonna be a rebroadcast, but I think just listening to our bodies understanding those dynamics with our families if we have families and where maybe some of that attention needs to be placed in that moment in time I think just having the willingness to allow yourself to be present in the moments that really matter in life can make a huge difference.
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: If you wanna give someone any advice starting out, who is embarking on this journey of starting their business, especially their consulting business with the 95, what would you, what would be the one thing that you would tell them?
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: If you could only tell them one thing?
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: I know we talked about 10 billion, but what would be that one thing?
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: If it would be one thing to me, it would be get the help you need.
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: I think so many of us women, particularly women of color, we feel the need.
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: We're over achievers and we feel the need to do things on our own.
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's because we just like to learn and we like to.
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: It's exciting, it's a new experience and we're like all in, like all of our energy is there.
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: Other times it's because we're stubborn and we don't want to admit that we don't necessarily know what we're doing and we don't ask for help.
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: And what I would say is when you are, first of all, there are enough women and women of color at this point in time, who are, in fact, holding down on nine to five and working on their own business, that you don't have to do it by yourself.
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: You don't even have to pay for I'm not talking necessarily about paying for a coach.
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: You can.
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, both of us are coaches, so obviously that is definitely an option.
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: But what I'm talking about is build a community around you yourself.
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: If you see people on Instagram who you're like oh, she's trying to do something similar to me, reach out, introduce yourself.
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: If you are able to find groups of women who and there are so many out there who are just supporting each other right Virtually as well as now.
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: People are starting to get back in person and doing.
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: I see a lot of local women entrepreneurs doing local events in their cities and their states just find a community of people.
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: I think that's one of the things that I appreciate about you, angelina.
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: Like we met through a coaching program and we've that coaching program is long over yes, state connected.
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: I can think of several.
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: I can name you 10 other women who, at this point in time in my journey building my business, I know who are just supportive of what's happening.
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: If I have a question, I don't know how, if I don't know how to do a podcast, I know I can call Angelina.
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: If I don't know, if I'm having problem with getting a post social media post I know who I can call.
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: Like if I just want to vent, because today is a crazy day between work and the business, I have resources around me that can do that and they're not paid resources.
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: So I would say, don't feel the need to do it on your own.
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: Get a community of support around you, even if you feel like you don't need it, because when you do need it it's gonna sneak up on you and you wanna have that already kind of established for yourself.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to have that support system.
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: It's not even about having like a cheering squad.
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: It really is about finding the help that you need in that moment, someone that you can literally call text and a message to and just say, listen, I either need to vent, I need some advice, I need you to point me in the right direction, and the thing I found similar to what you were just saying is that most people are more than willing to do that.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: You have that mindset of abundance where my helping you we're helping someone else has nothing to do with my level of success, right, and we are all on that same mission of getting more and more women, especially women of color, to be able to reach new heights.
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: So how are we gonna do that unless we help each other?
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: That's been our biggest hindrance not having any help, and so really kind of breaking that is key.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I have really enjoyed this conversation, but I can't let you go without sharing where people can find you, what you're up to right now, like what services you offer, and the whole nine you can fill us in.
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: So yes, as I said, my Dr Nicole A Bryan, my business is called the Change Doc.
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: You can find me on.
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: The best place to find me and connect with me is on LinkedIn, and please reach out.
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: I know everyone says that, but I really, really would love to kind of hear what you guys are doing, what your businesses are, where you work.
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: If you're juggling two things, so just reach out, let me know that.
• 59:59
  Speaker 2: You heard me on the Dr Angelina's podcast and we can connect.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: So I am same name, dr Nicole A Bryan, on LinkedIn.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: I have a couple of programs that are coming up.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: You can find out information about me and the business and the programs at wwwthechangecom.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: I will say that one program that if you are someone who is working full-time and you plan to continue to do both work full-time as well as go the entrepreneurial route and in your full-time role, you want to move up in terms of leadership or into the executive suite, then definitely check me out, because that's what my home business is about and you would probably be very interested in a couple of the programs that I have right now.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: Yes, awesome, and I will include that in the description.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: So, for anyone who is tuning in, the information will be in the description so that they can have an easy way to just click a link and reach you.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: So this has been amazing.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: Thank you so so much for joining the podcast again and I can't wait to talk again soon.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: All right, let me write, okay.
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: Okay, come here, bye.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: Bye.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in to the Black Girls Console 2 podcast.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to leave your review on Apple Podcast, subscribe and share it with a friend.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: We're on a mission to increase the success and longevity of women in consulting, and you can help us do that Also.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you, so let's connect at Dr Angelina Davis on Instagram or LinkedIn and don't forget to visit excelatconsultingcom for more information to support your consulting journey.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: Until next time, take care Bye.