March 17, 2020 • 53 mins
In this special episode, Emily and Kathleen take some time to talk about the Coronavirus pandemic, the lessons you can learn from it, the opportunities you can find in it as a creative business owners, and our top tips for working from home (especially if your kids are home with you.)
This episode is sponsored by Freshbooks Cloud Accounting and Acuity Scheduling.
Get full show notes for this episode here
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Emily Thompson (00:02):
I'm Emily Thompson.
Kathleen Shannon (00:04):
And I'm Kathleen Shannon.
Emily Thompson (00:05):
And this is being boss. And this episode of
being boss, join Kathleen and Ias we discuss the current
coronavirus pandemic, as well asthe lessons that you can take
from and opportunities that youcan find in it as creative
business owners. And there aretop tips for working from home,
(00:26):
especially if you're now doingit with kids. As always, you can
find all the tools and books andlinks we reference on the show
notes at WWW dot being boss dotclub. How are you doing,
Kathleen?
Kathleen Shannon (00:42):
Well, I lost.
I mean, I'm losing days to theCoronavirus.
Emily Thompson (00:49):
Right. And to be clear, you don't have it. You're
just no
Kathleen Shannon (00:52):
I have. I have the panic, which feels just as
contagious in so many ways.
Emily Thompson (00:58):
Oh my goodness.
So for everyone who's listeningto this? It is Friday. It is
Friday, March 13. It is Fridaythe 13th
Kathleen Shannon (01:09):
that we're recording this this is coming
out on Tuesday, Tuesday, what
Emily Thompson (01:13):
13/45 is the 17th. So this is like a very
fast turnaround. And we actuallyhad another episode scheduled to
go live on today, the Tuesday orwhatever, on the 17th. But we
decided to push that one for amoment and instead talk about
this because this pandemicCoronavirus is live and well
(01:35):
right now across the world. Andso many conversations are being
had so many people arepanicking, so many things that
are happening that arecompletely outside of our
control. We're absolutelyfeeling it. You hear Kathleen
she's losing days. So the panic.
Things are happening in people'sbusinesses. I've been having
conversations about this forweeks with people that I am
(01:55):
close with in terms of how thisis going to affect your
business. How these is going toaffect things like events, pause
long pause. Because it washaving effects weeks ago now
it's having like every effect apossibly can have.
Kathleen Shannon (02:14):
Well, what's interesting is in the past 24
hours, one I've lost close tofive figures in revenue. For us.
I mean, there's like a realmonetary impact here. The thing
that gives me hope with it isthat we're all in it together.
And I think that we're going tocome out of it like this is an
experience like any other andhopefully nobody dies from it,
(02:36):
right? I mean, that is going tohappen because it's a pandemic.
And I don't mean to get doom andgloom here. But with that,
whenever it's a life or deathsituation, it makes business
decisions a lot easier to make,and travel decisions a lot
easier to make. So for me, Iguess I also last 24 hours where
I could be working on stuff justmaking decisions around
(02:59):
canceling basically every singlething I had five trips planned
in April five, in all of themhave been canceled, you know
what I mean? And so that justtakes a day of planning and just
kind of freaking out.
Emily Thompson (03:12):
Oh, for sure.
I've lost a week of just puttingout fires. And we'll talk about
that in a minute. But what Iwhat I want to do with this
episode is hopefully giveeveryone a little bit of hope
and peace and direction andlight. Because
Kathleen Shannon (03:27):
I feel like my comment was not helpful. Like I
lost all the money and canceledall the drips,
Emily Thompson (03:33):
right and and that's true. That is like that
is perfectly true. But thatdoesn't mean that there can't be
good things that come from this.
I've been just reading someinteresting things and doing
some interesting things that Iwant to I want to share here in
this episode. So if you'relistening to this, if you're
totally freaking out, you cansit on Kathleen side of the
room. And if you're like thiscan't be all bad. Please come
(03:57):
sit on my side of the room andwe can have a big long
conversation about this.
Kathleen Shannon (04:04):
Well, and that's why I wanted to have the
conversation with you. Thispodcast wasn't planned. And I
hopped on FaceTime with youyesterday because I just needed
to not be alone.
Emily Thompson (04:14):
I know I was telling you. I was telling David
yesterday. I was like soKathleen called me Jay. He was
like oh yeah, what you want. Iwas like it was one of those
calls where she just needed tosit on the phone with someone
and he was like, Oh,
Kathleen Shannon (04:24):
yeah, yeah.
And you were markedly calm,especially for some of the very
big decisions you were having tomake and the fires that you were
having to put out. And, and itdid call me down. It really did
and just realizing that we'reall in this together and we're
all making hard decisionstogether. And they're they're
like you said there areopportunities. Not not
(04:46):
necessarily for me. I'm notthinking opportunities but more
of like hope. I'm seeing howsome systems are broken and how
they could be changed for thebetter. And I think that this is
a big crack that's gonna reveala lot of that on a global level.
But then also like on our teeny,tiny, small business levels to
Emily Thompson (05:10):
Yes. And that's really the piece that I want to
talk about today because I dosee this as an opportunity. And
I think to this comes from so Ireally started having these
conversations about theCoronavirus, a couple of weeks
ago, whenever my mastermindgroup came into town, this is my
peer mastermind group, not onethat I run, but one that I am a
part of that came toChattanooga, and it was right
about the time that it wasreally big in China, and maybe
(05:34):
the first couple of cases hadbeen found in the US. And we
began talking about it and whatit meant for you know, two of us
run traditional brick andmortars, two of us have very
strong online presences. All ofus have hourly employees hourly,
or salaried employees. And so itjust it was a very interesting,
(05:57):
engaging conversation that hadme talking about it kind of
weeks before anyone else wasreally talking about it. And
because we were together in thesame house for a couple of days,
literally, every single one ofher conversations would end up
coming back to it. So we talkedabout it a lot. And, and so yes,
I was able to come to peace withwith it and sort of begin
preparing mentally for what itwould do to my business a couple
(06:19):
of weeks ago. And I think thatdefinitely put me ahead of the
curve. And one of the thingsthat really came out of that
conversation of thoseconversations for me was that
this would end up being a reallybig test for businesses. And
that there really is a realopportunity for small, agile,
easy to maneuver and shift andchange businesses, like creative
(06:44):
businesses, and especially beingcreatives it gives us the
ability to be, or it gives usthe predisposition to be a
little less rigid, and to bemore open to thinking outside
the box for creative solutions.
And I think we can all agreethat in times like this, that is
an imperative quality to have tobe able to think outside the
(07:04):
box, because this is somethingthat has never happened on this
scale before. There is no box tocontain it.
Kathleen Shannon (07:12):
I mean, it has happened on this scale before.
Like, I mean, haven't youwatched Interview with the
Vampire? Exactly. The world isbigger, and we have the internet
and the the ability to traveland spread things. So for sure,
I think this is new to a lot ofus. It does help me feeling
though a little bit like I didafter 911. And like after the
(07:36):
Oklahoma City bombing, and aftersome of the tragic tornadoes
that we've had in Oklahoma, likewe've been through some stuff,
but I feel like it's happeningat faster speeds. And on a more
publicized level.
Emily Thompson (07:51):
And yes, publicize in this idea that
those even were relativelyisolated events. 911 definitely
not like that definitelyinvolved people from all over
the world. But this is one thisis completely global like and
has shown how people movingaround the world can move things
so quickly and easily withouteven trying and I think that's
it's fascinating.
Kathleen Shannon (08:13):
But I have been tempted to watch contagion.
You know, like to watch scarymovies that are related to the
vacations I'm on like I lovewatching scary ocean movies
about sharks that are eatingpeople whenever I'm at the
beach. Yeah, and like Cabin inthe Woods whenever I'm on like a
Colorado vacation. So now I kindof want to watch some outbreak.
Emily Thompson (08:38):
interview, you're not allowed to call me.
That's like, you know, when youtell your kid that, like if you
watch the scary movie tonight,you cannot come sleep in the
battery. That's the conversationwe're having right now.
Unknown (08:51):
Okay, right.
Emily Thompson (08:53):
Okay. So another piece of this that I've been
really fascinated with is howthis is bringing about in
imperativeness. To balanceonline and offline operations of
businesses. This has been areally exciting one for me to
think about. Because it's onethat I've navigated and thought
about for the past decade, asI've been helping businesses get
(09:15):
online, whether they beoperating solely online, me
talking them into doing someoffline things or offline
businesses that I've helped getonline as well. Because we live
in a time when we have theability to build businesses that
operate in real space, andremotely simultaneously. I think
that's an amazing opportunityand not one that many people
take. So I feel like this eventis showing us that it's really
(09:38):
important to adopt this offlineand online model, so that we can
build strong businesses thathave the ability to stand the
test of whatever unknown thingsare thrown at us. And you see
this in big corporations thatare finally adopting remote work
forces, which I think isfascinating. also anticipate
seeing lots of corporations.
Going to a remote model. Imagineif big businesses stop having
(10:02):
office spaces. Hey, can
Kathleen Shannon (10:07):
I talk about this for a second? Because one
thing I was thinking aboutwhenever it comes to braid, I
don't know how it's going toimpact us. I can't see I don't
have a crystal ball. And I thinkthe economic impact of this
might, someone even on myInstagram, compared it to an
earthquake, you know, where youcan feel the ripple coming. And
you don't know when it's goingto end. But one thing that I did
think about whenever it comes tobraid creative and our team is
(10:30):
that we've already adopted asuper flexible system for
working. Because we're allworking moms, we've all had
things come up on a very minorlevel, like we have to go pick
up a sick kid from school orsummer breaks, what do we do,
then we've we've already createdthis flexible model that has
made my work life not feel thatdifferent. And we'll talk a
(10:53):
little bit more about systems ifyou're new to working from home
in a little bit and what that'slike, but also, yeah, my husband
has been given orders to workfrom home until further notice.
My neighbors have been given thesame orders. So I do think is
really interesting and couldbring about a big opportunity
for more flexible work systemson larger levels.
Emily Thompson (11:17):
Yeah, I hope so.
I think as far as I love thatworking work from home moms are
the most prepared. I know right?
Yeah, exactly. Who saw thatcoming? all working moms did. So
was Ella was talking aboutworkforce. Oh, so the balance of
like, large workforces goingremote, but also the sort of re
(11:40):
and portas sation is becomingimportant again, I'm making up
words priority.
Kathleen Shannon (11:45):
I'm prioritizing.
Emily Thompson (11:46):
Yes. This reprioritization? How about
that, of focusing on small andlocal of doing things really
close to home? I feel like we'resort of living through this
little paradigm shift pocket,which I think is fascinating.
And I'm totally eating it up.
loving it. I mean, I don't loveit. But you guys know what I
(12:07):
mean?
Kathleen Shannon (12:09):
Yeah, I do think it's important to keep
money flowing small and local.
If you can businesses in Seattlehave already shut down within a
week shut down. So if you cankeep money flowing where you can
and when you can, I think thatthat's a good idea. I was
feeling really funny about beingin the middle of a kitchen
remodel. I'm having newappliances delivered today. And
(12:30):
I was like, that seems silly.
Like if I had to make thedecision to invest in my kitchen
today, I would be like, Nope,I'm just gonna hoard away my
money and jars and bury them inthe backyard. Right?
Emily Thompson (12:43):
But in that's how Academy stop. Exactly. So
Kathleen Shannon (12:45):
then I thought, No, I'm doing good
things for the economy. And I'musing a local design team and
local contractors and localelectrician. So I did not feel
bad about putting that check inthe mail to my local electrician
that was over yesterday workingin my kitchen. So that's where
I'm trying to, like feel goodabout keeping money flowing.
Emily Thompson (13:07):
Yeah, do it. I think you should feel good about
it. For as long as as long foras long as we can all do those
things. I think we only staveoff sort of disaster by doing
that. So I mean, it's important.
Another one of the big thingsthat I see coming from this that
again, I find fascinating towatch is that this is a major
test of systems across theboard. And this can be very
(13:30):
large picture like healthcaresystems, for example,
Kathleen Shannon (13:35):
but you know, even on like a micro level of
health care systems, we've beentalking for years about staying
hydrated, stay hydrated bosses,eat well drink your greens, eat
your greens, however you need toget greens in your body. You
know and so this is anencouragement to stay healthy
everybody drink your water stayhydrated. Sure.
Emily Thompson (13:58):
And then also it's testing our individual
business to systems as well. AndI think that's true well for us
very personally at Almanacsupply co we took the team
remote yesterday and immediatelythere were things going on in
slack like where's that filethat I need? Why does it have
this on it whatever and I got inthere and I was like alright
(14:18):
guys, this is like the remotetest. Like Can we do this let's
shore up systems let's make sureeverything's working like
communicate very openly like doall these like let's let's get
this stuff in order becausewe're going to be testing all of
our business systems through thenext couple of months. And
another fun example of this isactually a boss has gotten in
(14:39):
touch with us in the communitythat I also love that she
messaged you on Instagram aswell. Saying that profit first
which is a financial planningsystem proposed by Mike mccalla
Wits we had him on the podcast Iwant to say maybe like 126 ish
and hold on. There's totallysome sirens going by.
Kathleen Shannon (15:01):
Can't hear them.
Emily Thompson (15:02):
Oh, perfect.
Kathleen Shannon (15:03):
Maybe it just adds to the ambience of this
episode for Navy sirens.
Emily Thompson (15:09):
It feels appropriate,
Kathleen Shannon (15:10):
maybe a helicopter will by fly by next.
Oh, gosh.
Emily Thompson (15:14):
Um, so I mean, he was on episode 126, if I'm
not mistaken, and talking aboutprofit first, it's also a book
highly recommended. And sheshared that doing profit first
help her bolster, a sort offinancial foundation of if about
six weeks of she could doliterally no business for six
(15:34):
weeks. And she's totallyfinancially secure, because she
adopted profit first. And Ithink that whenever we can use
systems like that, whenever weuse them consistently, they
prove themselves in times likethis. So this is going to be a
major test in systems.
Kathleen Shannon (15:50):
So we've been doing the same braid method
process for branding people forthe past almost nine years. And
it was cool because even thoughyesterday was hijacked by a lot
of Coronavirus discussion, I wasable to use my canned responses
and keep systems going andthings scheduled because we have
such a system in flow for how wework that even though I was
(16:11):
completely emotionally andmentally hijacked by all of
this, I had some things in placewhere business could kind of
flow as usual for my clients,and they weren't feeling the
freakout. And because thosesystems are so solid, and we're
so used to zooming and workingremote anyway, we were able to
be nimble around the things thatdid need to be adjusted, like
(16:33):
speaking gigs and stuff likethat.
Emily Thompson (16:36):
Yes. I think another thing, this test is our
ability to be agile and ourability to, you know, turn on a
dime pivot as needed. Like ifyou had a conference planned.
Kathleen Shannon (16:49):
Or here's the sad news, right?
Emily Thompson (16:53):
We've officially decided that the being boss
conference is going to have avenue change is no longer going
to be hosted in New Orleans, ourfavorite city instead it's going
to be hosted in your house or inyour office, because we are
taking it virtual.
Kathleen Shannon (17:12):
Can we throw some popcorn in the swag bags
for people like me
Emily Thompson (17:15):
made something, something that was the hardest
decision that I've had to makein a really long time. I will
also tell you that that hastested my mental health and have
come out of it to the good wherelike if I had had to have made
this decision a year ago, guys,I'd probably still be in the bed
(17:37):
crying like right this momentand feel free to go back we have
an episode that we did a coupleof months ago called burnout.
And by outdoor we talk aboutburnout and the sort of slump
that Kathleen and I went throughfor about 18 months plus. And
this has only shown me that Ithink I'm like, really in a very
(17:59):
real way, again, over thisthing. Because it's been It was
not an easy decision. But it wasit's been fine. It's been
really, really fine. And it's
Kathleen Shannon (18:09):
shown me that I'm not through the burnout,
because it really stressed meout that I mean, it stressed me
out for you. And that's part ofthe reason why the buyout
happened is because you have thecapacity to make these hard
decisions right now, I wouldhave had a harder time but I'm
so impressed with yourresilience through this and your
(18:30):
calmness, like you're legitleader, you all can see some
kind of like thumbs up beingEmily right now. Thank you. And
it's the kind of leadership thatwe need on a small business
level. And on a community levelI do I do feel more calm on a
community level, like withschools getting canceled. Fox is
home for three weeks. And I'mtrying to reach out to my
(18:52):
elderly neighbors and see ifthey need help grocery shopping.
I'm not trying to distract fromthe conference conversation, but
it did freak me out a littlebit. Yeah,
Emily Thompson (19:02):
I mean, and I was like, I was mad. I had a
couple of days there where I wasmad and I was going nothing's
gonna make me cancel this thingshort of like a travel ban. Like
I said that to multiple people,like unless there's a travel
ban, this conference ishappening, I don't even care.
And then there wereconversations about well, then
more and more cases came up.
More and more, you know, stateof emergencies was put in place.
(19:24):
what really got me was severalcases of Coronavirus coming out
of New Orleans that stemmed froma conference. And so like
whenever it just started gettingreal real and several
conversations with bosses. So Istarted talking to some of the
speakers through behind thescenes and it was a mix it was
(19:44):
like you know, you know you dowhat you think is right and I'll
be there and now is kind of whatgot me was that I was making a
decision not for myself. I wasmaking a decision for myself.
Hell yeah. I'm going to NewOrleans and doing this
conference. It's going to befinding great I was making this
decision for over 100 otherhuman beings,
Kathleen Shannon (20:03):
well, and then that multiplied like that, yeah,
Emily Thompson (20:06):
multiply, and then it's the entire New Orleans
community. And then it's thestate of Louisiana. And then
like, whenever I thought aboutthat sort of impact, and the
fact that people were looking tome to make the right decision,
the only decision that I couldmake was to do make the decision
that would protect everyone asmuch as humanly possible. So I
(20:28):
made that decision. And I waiteda couple of days, to have some
further conversations, to dosome due diligence to check
contracts to talk to vendors andsome of the other speakers to
really sort of make the mostinformed decision that I could,
both in making the decision andin addressing how, or addressing
(20:49):
the decision that I had madepublicly as well. And some of
that is still sort of going onas in terms of, like, right now,
this episode being released,we're still releasing some of
that information. So we'retaking it online. I'm very
excited about it, actually. Andthat's sort of like that gut
check is even one of the thingsthat made this decision
(21:11):
relatively easy as once I gotover the disappointment of, you
know, not hugging all of my bossfriends, which is no longer
allowed, you can't hug them. Orthe fact that we were going to,
you know, miss a parade, whichis sort of this grand
celebration of all of the workthat we've done. Once I get over
that disappointment, it justmade sense. It just made sense.
(21:33):
And I also cannot, cannot sayenough how much I sincerely
appreciate the support that Ihave had, from my boss, friends,
from the attendees, from thepeople who just checked in with
me, who checked in with megoing, I know that you're
planning a conference right now.
And I'm thinking about you, areyou okay? I get several of those
emails and messages from pastclients, or some of the speakers
(21:57):
offering to have conversationsand helped me brainstorm how to
solve this problem. All of thesethings, the support I have
received from the boss communityhas, again proven to me that you
guys are special. reallyspecial. So we have we've made
that decision. And we'veimmediately jumped into planning
conference number two, and byconference number two, I mean,
(22:20):
we planned one conference, wewere on the road doing it and
we've had to completely pivotand instead plan an online
conference. And the team isstepping up like everyone's
like, Okay, let's do this thing.
What do you need? How are yougoing to do this? And we have
some really exciting things inplace. It's also funny, we were
planning on doing virtualtickets for the conference,
(22:43):
anyhow. And we were planning onlaunching those around now.
Anyhow. So now we're just sortof kind of pivoting kind of
shifting kind of justrealigning. And I don't know now
we're doing a virtualconference. It's happening. It's
gonna be great. Way better thaneveryone getting Coronavirus.
Unknown (23:07):
Oh, for sure. I want to talk a little bit about well,
should we take a break realquick?
Emily Thompson (23:13):
Yep. As I say, add, put add here. I'm already
seeing the messages flyingthrough my feeds. I'm missing
human contact. I love myhusband, but he's the only
person I get to see and it'sdriving me mad, or I'm freaking
out about the isolation. Thatone's legit bosses. It's bad for
(23:33):
your mental health to beisolated from your peers now,
and always, it's more importantthan ever to schedule out
virtual coffee chats with yourcolleagues and business besties.
Or if you're working remotelyfrom your team, getting some
virtual face time on theschedule is a must. But spending
long threads of communication tofind the right time will always
(23:54):
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Kathleen Shannon (24:30):
I want to talk a little bit about finding
opportunities and a little bitof balance whenever it comes to
maintaining enthusiasm andoptimism but also being
realistic and weathering thestorm. Where are you at with all
of that?
Emily Thompson (24:48):
I'm just here.
Kathleen Shannon (24:53):
I know I really can only take it one day
at a time. Yeah, I'm
Emily Thompson (24:57):
just one day at a time. I mean, we've worn Left
self quarantined. And partiallylike I was in California last
week. Right? Like I flew to altsummit last week and did that
conference and came back and Iwent to work for a couple of
days haven't come into contactwith very many people. But I, a
couple days ago decided, youknow what I was like, if
Kathleen Shannon (25:18):
I'm going to cancel a conference, I should
also self quarantine just tolike, I better like cross all my
T's and dot all my eyes in termsof like protecting myself and
everyone based on my decisions.
Yeah, I'm doing that too. So foxis out of school for the next
three weeks, which we need totalk about, because I can't
figure out how to homeschool mychild while also working from
(25:39):
home. Yep. And that for me, I'mtrying to approach all of it
like a parent. I'm probablybeing a little bit more candid
about my freakout on thispodcast to our all of our
listeners, we're all friends,right? But whenever it comes to
my social media feed, especiallylike on my business account, and
(26:00):
whenever it comes to literallytalking to my child about
Coronavirus, I'm trying to keepit really positive and not
scary. And I need to remember totalk to myself that way too. And
just take it one day at a timeto stay positive. I mean, you
all know it's so funny with withall this travel that I'm having
to cancel because I basicallythink I'm going to die before
(26:21):
every trip anyway. And I everbefore every trip I have to
convince myself that is notreal. That is just your anxiety
speaking. And so then with theworst case scenario now popping
up with this Coronavirus and apandemic. I'm like, Wait, is
this just my anxiety? Or is thisreal?
Emily Thompson (26:41):
This is real real. This one was real, all the
other ones were anxiety. But itcan be hard to tell. I mean,
like I said, I've been I guessI've been talking about it and
having conversations and reallycreating contingency plans for
like multiple, multiple parts ofmy life for so many more weeks.
And now that we're here, I feela little more prepared. So I'm
(27:03):
feeling a little less freakedout. I also don't freak out very
easily about a lot of thingslike this. But I will also say
to I'm probably more wellinformed about this event than
any other world event that isliterally ever happened in my
lifetime. And partially becauseI've had to stay very well
informed in order to make thedecision that you know, has
affected over 100 of ourcommunity members in terms of
(27:26):
making a decision about theconference. But I mean the only
thing I can do is just sit athome and do my work and send
David out for toilet paper hecan't find or whatever it like
Kathleen Shannon (27:40):
you know just when toilet paper is not going
to save you from theCoronavirus.
Emily Thompson (27:45):
No,
Kathleen Shannon (27:46):
is not everyone just wash your hands.
You know and that's one of thethings as far as staying
informed goes. It's funnybecause actually I've been on
top of this probably sinceJanuary. I have a client who has
product that's been on hold inChina since January because of
Coronavirus. Some of Jeremy's coworkers have had to be been be
(28:06):
quarantined. And I definitelyhad that very American approach
where I felt immune and safe andisolated from it, even though
the CDC warned us that this isgoing to happen. And it's going
to get worse before it getsbetter. So whenever it comes to
lessons learned, my lesson Ihave learned is that we're not
(28:28):
immune to this and that we needto listen to the experts. So I
saw this really great graphshared by pantsuit politics, and
they've done a couple of reallygood episodes on this that have
helped ease my fears. For me,staying informed has eased some
of my fears. And if we just alldo our best, it's going to be
fine. It's going to beinconvenient, but it's going to
(28:48):
be fine. And so one of thosethings is canceling everything,
we have to cancel the curve.
whenever it comes to keepingeverybody safe. My parents had a
trip planned to Hawaii literallyon Sunday. And I encourage them
to cancel like they are notimmune either. Don't be flying
across the ocean. So we have tostay informed. We have to say,
resilient, we have to
Emily Thompson (29:12):
stay stable, right and help each other, like
be there for each other. Solike, if I can't buy toilet
paper, I'm texting my neighborsand I'm hoping against hope that
my neighbors are there for me.
For sure. I
Kathleen Shannon (29:27):
know it's so funny. This is also prioritizing
what's important
Emily Thompson (29:33):
that there are things that become irrelevant
and they are things that youbecome a little less you care
less about at times like this,but like you have to also live
your life like whenever youstart getting angry because not
every Instagram feed is notaddressing the world's pandemic
right now. And I think therethere is a difference between
being completely aloof and likenot even pretending it doesn't
(29:53):
exist. For example, like there'ssomething there's difference
between that and just livingyour life still,
Kathleen Shannon (30:02):
you know, we've been balancing this for
the past four years, and we hadit. We got angry. I mean, we got
real mad, and we're still mad.
But we realize that that can'tbe the message that we're always
putting out into the world thatwe have to continue to be
enthusiastic about the thingsthat we love, and be creatives
from a place of hope andoptimism versus reacting out of
fear and anger. We're still madabout a lot of things. We're
(30:26):
just not instagramming it
Emily Thompson (30:29):
right? We're and I was having this exact same
conversation at Almanac thismorning. Because Mary, my
employee at Almanac was sayinglike Instagram this week, I
should put some things about,you know, the Coronavirus, and I
was like no don't like puts in,it wasn't quite this sort of
Stark of a conversation butsummed up No, don't encourage
(30:55):
people to take care ofthemselves, remind them that
spring is still coming, that theworld is still turning sort of
be this sort of quiet supportthat's not in your face about
the thing but support peoplewithout reminding them of the
constant shift that we're in,like a be a light of hope, not
like giving someone a shoveltoday.
Kathleen Shannon (31:16):
So you know, I'm a total gym rat. And I love
going to the gym. And I'vestopped going to the gym for the
time being again, because a lotof older folks workout at my
gym, and I have a young childwho sometimes I take to the gym
and just again doing what we cando to contain this thing. So
(31:37):
I've been sharing that onInstagram, just the little
things that I'm doing and thehard decisions that I'm making,
again, canceling all of thepersonal travel, not going to
the gym. And so and a few peoplehave reached out and said that
this is helpful whenever I evenask people if they want us to do
a podcast episode about it likean emergency episode. We got a
resounding yes. Like please,that would be great. And I guess
(32:00):
so whenever it comes to that.
What I really want to say isthat you're not alone. We're all
making adjustments. We're allfreaking out at different
levels. Emily's freaking out ata different level than I'm
freaking out. And we're in thistogether like,
Emily Thompson (32:15):
literally dreaming conference decisions
all night long. Like I wake uptired guys, because I'm solving
conference pivot questions in myhead literally constantly. I'm
not instagramming routing itearly. No, I'm not none of those
things. But we are all freakingout about our own things for
sure. I want to go into I wantto go into talking about finding
(32:39):
opportunities within this mess.
Because that is the only thingthat we can do to like better
ourselves in the currentsituation. And when I talk about
this, I really mean businessthings. We are a business
podcast, we're talking aboutbusiness stuff. And sure you can
adopt some, you know, heightenedself care practices or take
better care of your health orwhatever that is. But I want to
talk some business opportunitieshere. I pose this question. It's
(33:00):
funny. I think this question isreally hard for Google, I pose
this question in the communitythe other day, and got some
interesting answers. Where isand what I mean is the prompt
that I put in here was whatopportunities are available to
you during this time ofCoronavirus. And I got a lot of
like the negative like this isgoing to hurt my revenue. My
(33:21):
clients are disappearing, likethose sorts of things. But what
I want to facilitate here is amindset shift. Because during
this time of slower business orworking from home or whatever it
may be, there are opportunitieshere, you just have to look for
them. For me, I'm I'm so excitedto be working back from home
(33:42):
again, if you don't know I movedinto an office space, which I
love, but I also am total hermitand I like working by myself at
home. So an opportunity for meis I'm back in my like home
office and I kind of love it.
But there are other things thatyou can do, too, that are
sincerely more practical, liketesting your systems. You know,
(34:04):
for you, you were able to moreor less like tap out yesterday,
but continue running yoursystems that has proof for you
that your systems are onlockdown. And that's an amazing
thing for your business.
Kathleen Shannon (34:16):
Yeah, another thing I'm thinking a lot about
is if we slow down, and I'mhoping that we don't. But you
know, another system is that weare already used to working
remote again. But anotheropportunity I've thought about
is using that time to update mywebsite. You know, it's always
good to do a website audit everyyear and just reassess your
(34:37):
branding reassess your messagingto people is it clear whenever
you go to your website, howpeople hire you. Have you
updated your portfolio in awhile.
Emily Thompson (34:46):
Maybe you haven't done all your
bookkeeping,
Kathleen Shannon (34:49):
right? Yeah.
Have you finished your taxes.
Also systems around you know,Instagram like maybe you've just
been trying to do one day at atime and that's funny too
because I've realized estimizemy Instagram recently with
braid, and we're posting everyday. So again, even during my
freakout yesterday where I gotcompletely hijacked, a post
still went up on Instagram. Andbecause I had systems in place
(35:12):
and in place, and because I'vebatched it. So these are times
where some of those things thatyou haven't been doing, like
getting on Asana or figuring outyour bookkeeping, or
implementing your fresh books,or your acuity systems, or
finally developing out thatonline course, those are all
things that you can startworking on now. And shoring up
(35:34):
so that whenever you hit theground running in six to eight
weeks with all your client work,and people are out shopping
again, you've got some extrahelp in just automating some
stuff.
Emily Thompson (35:45):
Right? You've done the work, I recorded an
episode of making a businesswhich is available only in the
clubhouse here of the being bosscommunity about slow seasons,
and it came out maybe a month ortwo ago. And this is the exact
idea of that is that everybusiness has slow seasons. And
whereas usually we can, we cananticipate when they'll come
(36:06):
because you know, there's anatural ebb and flow that is
usually around Christmas, all ofthe economy operates around
Christmas guys one way or theother, you're affected by it.
But this is one that's just kindof been slammed in there. I know
we were previously unaware ofit. But there are still things
that you can do during your slowseason. Another thing that that
(36:28):
I'm seeing that I'm loving somuch, and I think we'll only
begin seeing more of this as aas a cultivation or re
cultivation of community. One oftwo of the things I've seen as
one my peer mastermind, we aretalking so much more right now,
because we're troubleshootingproblems. Were asking each other
questions, I was able to get intouch with one of my one of my
(36:52):
peer mastermind folks a coupledays ago and was like I, you
read to me this really greatsentence that you wrote about
the Coronavirus that you sent toyour email list when we were
together recently. Can youplease send me that because I'm
trying to write one for myself.
And I sound like a caveman likeso we've been talking through
and working through some ofthese things very, very closely.
Similarly, and one of mymastermind groups that I've run
(37:14):
Previously, we still have agroup slack together. They're in
their scheduling of a call witheach other for next week,
because they're all now workingfrom home. Most of their
husbands are also now workingfrom home, which is a whole
other dynamic, and they justwant to talk to each other. They
want to talk to their people. SoI see people reconnecting in a
really beautiful way. And goodthings can only come from that.
(37:38):
Hey boss, listening to us inyour headphones or in your car
while you do whatever it is thatyou're doing all by your
lonesome. Guess what, no matterwhat you think. You're not
alone. And the being boss,community bosses from all over
the world are rallying to dothis thing together. Even if
(37:59):
we're sitting alone at ourcomputer, whether PJ pants on,
you can connect with bosses anytime to ask questions, get help
or just chime in. Whatever youneed to remind yourself that
we're all here. And we've gotyour back, learn more and join
the beam boss community by goingto be boss dot club slash
community.
Kathleen Shannon (38:24):
Okay, I want to do a quick fire about working
from home, we've probably did aworking from home episode
probably within our first 10episodes of being boss. But now
with this, a lot of people areeither talking to friends who
are just now working from home,or maybe you have a full time
job and a side hustle and you'rehaving to work from home now. So
(38:46):
I just want to kind of quickfire some tips for working from
home. My first ones are to getset up with zoom and slack. So
zoom is great for videoconferencing with your
teammates. I think that thatface to face connection is
really important. And you'regoing to start missing that if
you are working from home forthe first time and have team
(39:07):
members. Or again, like yousaid, with your business besties
or a pure mastermind group, youcan just hop on zoom real quick
or FaceTime and see people faceto face. But then also slack is
so good whenever it comes toworking remotely because you're
not cluttering your inbox andyou're still getting some of
that, like, you know, watercooler chat. In certain
(39:30):
channels, you're getting quickanswers to business or client
questions that you might have.
And it doesn't have to go toemail. So those are my two big
like apps that I would startusing ASAP is zoom and
Unknown (39:43):
slack.
Emily Thompson (39:44):
Yes. And I want to talk about like physical
workspace. I think finding aplace in your house that you can
get focused and do the work isimperative. Like for me, I
cannot work from my kitchencounter because I'm looking
straight at my sink. And if I'mlooking at my sink, I'm usually
thinking oh I wish that you knownine For washed, or maybe I
should wash an apple and eat itor like what I can't work ethic
(40:05):
kitchen counter, for example,and I have a great island that
would be great for working, butI can't do it. For me having a
designated space and extrapoints if you have a door,
especially Actually, yes,especially if you have other
people in the house. But I alsothink if it's just me in my
house by myself, when I closethe door, it's time for work.
Kathleen Shannon (40:24):
Yeah, with that, I will also want to say
don't do chores during your workhours. Oh, no, no, just don't do
them. And I know it's tempting.
But don't do it. Wait until yourwork hours are over to go clean
your kitchen or do the things. Ialso want to say that you might
get more done in less timeworking from home, you don't
have that casual chatter thatreally starts to add up.
(40:46):
whenever it comes to working.
You don't have your commute,you're gonna get more done in
five to six hours, then youtypically do in an eight to nine
hour work day. So if you have totap out early, don't feel bad.
If you're not putting in a 40Hour Work Week.
Emily Thompson (41:04):
Just gonna throw Sure. I will also say to stay
away from your kitchen. I oftenfind myself when I'm working at
home At home snacking a littletoo often, like it's so easy
just to like, Oh, I need to takea tinkle break, oh, maybe I'll
make myself a cup of tea, andthen I'm eating chips. So I have
(41:25):
to be very mindful of myrelationship with my kitchen.
When I'm working from home. Justputting that out there.
Kathleen Shannon (41:33):
I have to make sure on that note, I have to
make sure that the chips andpeanut butter and all the things
and especially the chocolate, Ican eat a bar of chocolate in a
day working from home. So I justhave to make sure it's not on
the counter. If it's on thecounter, I'm going to eat it.
But if it's put away in acupboard, I'm not going to snack
all day. Yeah, that was my newthing. Anyway, um, I need help
(41:57):
on working from home with my kidhome. So my child's school was
closed. As of right now forthree weeks, it could be longer.
Who knows, I know that a lot ofschools are closed for four to
six weeks right now. Um, I havehad him stay home sick from
school before or on breaks. AndI just let him iPad all day
(42:20):
long, because it's temporary.
But we can't sustain eight hoursto 12 hours a day of watching
YouTube while I'm working fromhome, so my
Emily Thompson (42:32):
brain will be jello. I mean, jello,
Kathleen Shannon (42:35):
he's pretty smart. But yeah, jello, it
affects No, it has nothing to dowith his smart, it's his
attitude, he gets real upset andemotional whenever he has that
much screentime for sure, forsure.
Emily Thompson (42:49):
So I have been homeschooling my daughter since
she was in the first grade. Andshe's currently in the sixth
grade. So in the past for thepast five years and worked for
home for the bulk of those. Andso I'll take I'll sort of
address this from two places.
One is if your partner is alsoworking from home, take shifts,
I think if one of you can takethe kids to the park or for a
(43:09):
walk or you know, sit down andread a book together, or even if
it is playing video gamestogether, or whatever it is some
sort of engaged time together,take shifts, and I think you
should hash this out either atthe beginning of every week or
every morning. So sit down andbe like what meetings Do you
have what tasks are on your todo list, whatever, whatever
who's going to take the kid whenbecause whenever one of you is
(43:32):
interacting with your kid andalso think of this as an
opportunity to. And I know itcan be hard and kind of suck to
get it. But you can look at thisas an opportunity to spend more
time with your kid, which isreally what a lot of working
parents really do want. So youhave the opportunity to do that.
You just have to prioritize it.
(43:52):
So take shifts as much aspossible. If you are a single
parent, working from home withyour kid. That can be a little
more difficult. But I think youcan take shifts in terms of work
and hanging out with your kid.
The entire world is going to bequite a bit more accepting right
now of you spending more timewith your kid. So take advantage
of it. If anyone gets mad. Tellhim to suck it. Because it's the
(44:15):
reality of everyone.
Kathleen Shannon (44:20):
That's a good point. I had a few conferences
canceled, obviously,
Emily Thompson (44:24):
and not canceled. We change the venue.
Correct.
Kathleen Shannon (44:29):
I love that repositioning. I love it. Travel
has been canceled. Spring Breakhas been cancelled. I supposed
to go to Mexico City. And so nowmaybe I was thinking oh, I can
get more work done. But maybemaybe since fox is out of school
anyway, I will actually takethat time to be a good mom and
have some like hands on. Youhave the opportunity. You
(44:51):
totally have the opportunity todo so one of the things that I
think that we'll probably do isimplement some sort of schedule.
So our school is Going to have aclassroom like an online
learning plan. I'm curious tosee what that's like. But I
think what I want to do is maybeon posterboard schedule out our
day. And so just like Ischeduled time to go to the gym,
(45:12):
I'm going to schedule time, youknow, maybe two hours a day out
of my work day, to have PE withmy kiddo, maybe we'll do some
yoga together or go for a walkoutside. And then also
scheduling time to do thingslike write a letter to grandma.
Today, we walked around theyard, I thought of you, Emily,
because I felt veryhomeschooling, I was like, I'm
doing it, doing what we didscience today by walking around
(45:35):
the yard and looking at what'sblooming. And I was like, oh,
let's take a picture of thisflower everyday. And we'll see
how it grows over the next threeweeks that you're not in school,
Emily Thompson (45:43):
you're totally doing it. But he's also upstairs
playing video games while werecord this. So okay, so that's
that, that's completely fine. Sohere's another hardcore rule
that I have in place. And it'sfunny, because I see this being
not done in the way that I do ita lot. And it drives me insane.
I draw a very hard firmboundary, around my meetings,
(46:08):
and around my very intense worktimes. And for example, if my
door is closed, you're notallowed to come in, I don't even
knock, you better be quiet whenyou walk by the door. And like
it, but if you're bleeding orthrowing up, or if there's
someone at the door, come getme. Like, those are the three
(46:29):
cases, those are the only threecases. So either closing the
door, or also I have my thing,if I'm typing, if my fingers are
actively on the keyboards doingthe thing, it's mean that it
means that I'm writing an email,or writing something and it's
flowing. And if you break myconcentration, I lose it. So my
(46:51):
family knows that if my, if myfingers are on the keyboards,
they are not allowed to speak tome. That's perfect.
Kathleen Shannon (46:57):
I also think that with headphones, sometimes
I'll have headphones in my earswithout even having anything
playing on my headphones. Andit's kind of that another
boundary because I don't have anoffice with the door
surprisingly, in this house,even though I work from home
100% of the time. Um, but yeah,headphones in my ears maybe is a
good one, too.
Emily Thompson (47:17):
Yeah. And I can't, I cannot stress it enough
how important it is for you tocreate that boundary with your
child and completely and utterlyexpect them to follow it.
Period. It's not bad parenting,it's great parenting, you're
teaching your children how torespect other people's
boundaries. And I think we canall agree that the world needs a
little more of that. Okay, andthen I have one more resource
(47:40):
that I really want to share withanyone. I found this resource I
think as a wonderful one I,before I get into the pros and
cons, it's called Teachers Payteacher's Teachers Pay teacher's
calm. It is almost like an Etsyfor teachers. So teachers can
take the lessons that they'vecreated. And this is like all
subjects all grades, and theycan put them for sale on this
(48:02):
website. And so these will behere are these they're on their
site. And they're like $1, orlike $4. Or sometimes like $120.
If you want like a legitproject, I think these are
things like bundles of writingprompts, or handwriting practice
sheets, or science projects, ormath kits. So Lily has done a
(48:25):
couple of these and one of them.
They're like small businessfocus, too, which I really love.
But things like okay, you'regoing to start a bakery, you
need to figure out your costs.
You need to figure out how tomake recipes, how to double your
recipes is like practices inpricing and fractions and all
kinds of fun stuff.
Kathleen Shannon (48:43):
And do you get cookies at the end of it? Oh,
this bakery?
Emily Thompson (48:47):
If you do it right. I hope so. I have found
quite often that they need agood look over before doing
them. Because sometimes they'renot the most like top quality
learning tools I've ever foundtoo. Sometimes they say where
things are like the answersaren't or like because most of
(49:07):
them come with actually, most ofthem come with answer keys. So
don't just print them out andgive them to your kids because
they'll have the answers takethe answer keys out. Because
sometimes the answers are notactually the answers. They're
not vetted. They're actuallyhere's the funny thing too. This
is like online business melooking at funny things.
(49:29):
Teachers are really great aboutgiving other teachers raving
reviews, even if the productkind of sucks. So like, I would
not just look at the reviews andthink it has five stars and that
it is five stars. But I do thinkit's a great resource. I've
gotten many, many projects onthere. It's fun to do with your
kid. It's also find the kinds ofthings that they can do by
(49:52):
themselves. It's a good way forthem to still learn without tech
time and a lot of them arereally creative and quite
involved. But a lot of them arealso very simple like just go do
this worksheet, many solutionsso I highly recommend that we
use that a lot. And then otherthan that, get them to read some
(50:12):
books or read some books withthem. And that's a great way to
to spend some time with your kidor have them spend some time
with ourselves without being ontech too. Well, I
Kathleen Shannon (50:24):
feel like everything is changing, emotions
are changing. Logistics arechanging day by day, hour by
hour and I think it's reallygood to stay in contact with
each other. So where can ourbosses go to stay in touch with
each other?
Emily Thompson (50:39):
We are talking about all kinds of stuff these
days in the being bosscommunity. We're having
conversations about Coronavirus,but also not Coronavirus. We're
talking about email marketingplatforms and sales tactics and
what tools are great forlaunches and those sorts of
things. So whenever it comes toOh, we're also like talking
(50:59):
he'll talk a lot of Tarot andastrology in there. It seems a
come and go pretty loudly whenit does is right
Kathleen Shannon (51:05):
Coronavirus in the stars. Is there an
astrological reason for this?
Emily Thompson (51:09):
I've thought about this that I think so you
know how there was that bigSaturn Pluto conjunction a
couple like in February and thencame Coronavirus. And they all
said that that conjunction wasall about testing systems. Hmm
burning things to the groundthat weren't working correctly.
Remember that remember thatanyway. Um, so the big boss
(51:31):
community is where we are havingtons of chats and cultivating
all kinds of community. It willalso be a huge part of the being
boss conference, which is hatsis still happening change of
venue. In April of this year,several key elements will be
going down in the community aswell. So if you'd like to come
join us over there being bossclub slash community, or if you
(51:52):
do want to set aside three daysin a brawl to do some business
learning at home from someamazing speakers and watch me
figure this shit out. Being bossclub slash conference,
Kathleen Shannon (52:09):
I'll be there with you.
Emily Thompson (52:11):
It'd be fun.
Alright, anyway, I do want towrap this up with you've got
this. We've all got this. We'llfigure it out together know
that? There are bigconversations going on all over.
And I don't know I I have plentyof hope. How about that? I have
plenty of it'll be fine. I
Kathleen Shannon (52:30):
do too. And we're all in it together.
Emily Thompson (52:37):
Thanks for listening. And hey, if you want
more resources, we're talkingworksheets, free trainings in
person meetups and vacations andmore. Go to our website at www
dot FBI boss dot club.
Kathleen Shannon (52:50):
Do the work the boss
I'm Emily Thompson.
Kathleen Shannon (00:04):
And I'm Kathleen Shannon.
Emily Thompson (00:05):
And this is being boss. And this episode of
being boss, join Kathleen and Ias we discuss the current
coronavirus pandemic, as well asthe lessons that you can take
from and opportunities that youcan find in it as creative
business owners. And there aretop tips for working from home,
(00:26):
especially if you're now doingit with kids. As always, you can
find all the tools and books andlinks we reference on the show
notes at WWW dot being boss dotclub. How are you doing,
Kathleen?
Kathleen Shannon (00:42):
Well, I lost.
I mean, I'm losing days to theCoronavirus.
Emily Thompson (00:49):
Right. And to be clear, you don't have it. You're
just no
Kathleen Shannon (00:52):
I have. I have the panic, which feels just as
contagious in so many ways.
Emily Thompson (00:58):
Oh my goodness.
So for everyone who's listeningto this? It is Friday. It is
Friday, March 13. It is Fridaythe 13th
Kathleen Shannon (01:09):
that we're recording this this is coming
out on Tuesday, Tuesday, what
Emily Thompson (01:13):
13/45 is the 17th. So this is like a very
fast turnaround. And we actuallyhad another episode scheduled to
go live on today, the Tuesday orwhatever, on the 17th. But we
decided to push that one for amoment and instead talk about
this because this pandemicCoronavirus is live and well
(01:35):
right now across the world. Andso many conversations are being
had so many people arepanicking, so many things that
are happening that arecompletely outside of our
control. We're absolutelyfeeling it. You hear Kathleen
she's losing days. So the panic.
Things are happening in people'sbusinesses. I've been having
conversations about this forweeks with people that I am
(01:55):
close with in terms of how thisis going to affect your
business. How these is going toaffect things like events, pause
long pause. Because it washaving effects weeks ago now
it's having like every effect apossibly can have.
Kathleen Shannon (02:14):
Well, what's interesting is in the past 24
hours, one I've lost close tofive figures in revenue. For us.
I mean, there's like a realmonetary impact here. The thing
that gives me hope with it isthat we're all in it together.
And I think that we're going tocome out of it like this is an
experience like any other andhopefully nobody dies from it,
(02:36):
right? I mean, that is going tohappen because it's a pandemic.
And I don't mean to get doom andgloom here. But with that,
whenever it's a life or deathsituation, it makes business
decisions a lot easier to make,and travel decisions a lot
easier to make. So for me, Iguess I also last 24 hours where
I could be working on stuff justmaking decisions around
(02:59):
canceling basically every singlething I had five trips planned
in April five, in all of themhave been canceled, you know
what I mean? And so that justtakes a day of planning and just
kind of freaking out.
Emily Thompson (03:12):
Oh, for sure.
I've lost a week of just puttingout fires. And we'll talk about
that in a minute. But what Iwhat I want to do with this
episode is hopefully giveeveryone a little bit of hope
and peace and direction andlight. Because
Kathleen Shannon (03:27):
I feel like my comment was not helpful. Like I
lost all the money and canceledall the drips,
Emily Thompson (03:33):
right and and that's true. That is like that
is perfectly true. But thatdoesn't mean that there can't be
good things that come from this.
I've been just reading someinteresting things and doing
some interesting things that Iwant to I want to share here in
this episode. So if you'relistening to this, if you're
totally freaking out, you cansit on Kathleen side of the
room. And if you're like thiscan't be all bad. Please come
(03:57):
sit on my side of the room andwe can have a big long
conversation about this.
Kathleen Shannon (04:04):
Well, and that's why I wanted to have the
conversation with you. Thispodcast wasn't planned. And I
hopped on FaceTime with youyesterday because I just needed
to not be alone.
Emily Thompson (04:14):
I know I was telling you. I was telling David
yesterday. I was like soKathleen called me Jay. He was
like oh yeah, what you want. Iwas like it was one of those
calls where she just needed tosit on the phone with someone
and he was like, Oh,
Kathleen Shannon (04:24):
yeah, yeah.
And you were markedly calm,especially for some of the very
big decisions you were having tomake and the fires that you were
having to put out. And, and itdid call me down. It really did
and just realizing that we'reall in this together and we're
all making hard decisionstogether. And they're they're
like you said there areopportunities. Not not
(04:46):
necessarily for me. I'm notthinking opportunities but more
of like hope. I'm seeing howsome systems are broken and how
they could be changed for thebetter. And I think that this is
a big crack that's gonna reveala lot of that on a global level.
But then also like on our teeny,tiny, small business levels to
Emily Thompson (05:10):
Yes. And that's really the piece that I want to
talk about today because I dosee this as an opportunity. And
I think to this comes from so Ireally started having these
conversations about theCoronavirus, a couple of weeks
ago, whenever my mastermindgroup came into town, this is my
peer mastermind group, not onethat I run, but one that I am a
part of that came toChattanooga, and it was right
about the time that it wasreally big in China, and maybe
(05:34):
the first couple of cases hadbeen found in the US. And we
began talking about it and whatit meant for you know, two of us
run traditional brick andmortars, two of us have very
strong online presences. All ofus have hourly employees hourly,
or salaried employees. And so itjust it was a very interesting,
(05:57):
engaging conversation that hadme talking about it kind of
weeks before anyone else wasreally talking about it. And
because we were together in thesame house for a couple of days,
literally, every single one ofher conversations would end up
coming back to it. So we talkedabout it a lot. And, and so yes,
I was able to come to peace withwith it and sort of begin
preparing mentally for what itwould do to my business a couple
(06:19):
of weeks ago. And I think thatdefinitely put me ahead of the
curve. And one of the thingsthat really came out of that
conversation of thoseconversations for me was that
this would end up being a reallybig test for businesses. And
that there really is a realopportunity for small, agile,
easy to maneuver and shift andchange businesses, like creative
(06:44):
businesses, and especially beingcreatives it gives us the
ability to be, or it gives usthe predisposition to be a
little less rigid, and to bemore open to thinking outside
the box for creative solutions.
And I think we can all agreethat in times like this, that is
an imperative quality to have tobe able to think outside the
(07:04):
box, because this is somethingthat has never happened on this
scale before. There is no box tocontain it.
Kathleen Shannon (07:12):
I mean, it has happened on this scale before.
Like, I mean, haven't youwatched Interview with the
Vampire? Exactly. The world isbigger, and we have the internet
and the the ability to traveland spread things. So for sure,
I think this is new to a lot ofus. It does help me feeling
though a little bit like I didafter 911. And like after the
(07:36):
Oklahoma City bombing, and aftersome of the tragic tornadoes
that we've had in Oklahoma, likewe've been through some stuff,
but I feel like it's happeningat faster speeds. And on a more
publicized level.
Emily Thompson (07:51):
And yes, publicize in this idea that
those even were relativelyisolated events. 911 definitely
not like that definitelyinvolved people from all over
the world. But this is one thisis completely global like and
has shown how people movingaround the world can move things
so quickly and easily withouteven trying and I think that's
it's fascinating.
Kathleen Shannon (08:13):
But I have been tempted to watch contagion.
You know, like to watch scarymovies that are related to the
vacations I'm on like I lovewatching scary ocean movies
about sharks that are eatingpeople whenever I'm at the
beach. Yeah, and like Cabin inthe Woods whenever I'm on like a
Colorado vacation. So now I kindof want to watch some outbreak.
Emily Thompson (08:38):
interview, you're not allowed to call me.
That's like, you know, when youtell your kid that, like if you
watch the scary movie tonight,you cannot come sleep in the
battery. That's the conversationwe're having right now.
Unknown (08:51):
Okay, right.
Emily Thompson (08:53):
Okay. So another piece of this that I've been
really fascinated with is howthis is bringing about in
imperativeness. To balanceonline and offline operations of
businesses. This has been areally exciting one for me to
think about. Because it's onethat I've navigated and thought
about for the past decade, asI've been helping businesses get
(09:15):
online, whether they beoperating solely online, me
talking them into doing someoffline things or offline
businesses that I've helped getonline as well. Because we live
in a time when we have theability to build businesses that
operate in real space, andremotely simultaneously. I think
that's an amazing opportunityand not one that many people
take. So I feel like this eventis showing us that it's really
(09:38):
important to adopt this offlineand online model, so that we can
build strong businesses thathave the ability to stand the
test of whatever unknown thingsare thrown at us. And you see
this in big corporations thatare finally adopting remote work
forces, which I think isfascinating. also anticipate
seeing lots of corporations.
Going to a remote model. Imagineif big businesses stop having
(10:02):
office spaces. Hey, can
Kathleen Shannon (10:07):
I talk about this for a second? Because one
thing I was thinking aboutwhenever it comes to braid, I
don't know how it's going toimpact us. I can't see I don't
have a crystal ball. And I thinkthe economic impact of this
might, someone even on myInstagram, compared it to an
earthquake, you know, where youcan feel the ripple coming. And
you don't know when it's goingto end. But one thing that I did
think about whenever it comes tobraid creative and our team is
(10:30):
that we've already adopted asuper flexible system for
working. Because we're allworking moms, we've all had
things come up on a very minorlevel, like we have to go pick
up a sick kid from school orsummer breaks, what do we do,
then we've we've already createdthis flexible model that has
made my work life not feel thatdifferent. And we'll talk a
(10:53):
little bit more about systems ifyou're new to working from home
in a little bit and what that'slike, but also, yeah, my husband
has been given orders to workfrom home until further notice.
My neighbors have been given thesame orders. So I do think is
really interesting and couldbring about a big opportunity
for more flexible work systemson larger levels.
Emily Thompson (11:17):
Yeah, I hope so.
I think as far as I love thatworking work from home moms are
the most prepared. I know right?
Yeah, exactly. Who saw thatcoming? all working moms did. So
was Ella was talking aboutworkforce. Oh, so the balance of
like, large workforces goingremote, but also the sort of re
(11:40):
and portas sation is becomingimportant again, I'm making up
words priority.
Kathleen Shannon (11:45):
I'm prioritizing.
Emily Thompson (11:46):
Yes. This reprioritization? How about
that, of focusing on small andlocal of doing things really
close to home? I feel like we'resort of living through this
little paradigm shift pocket,which I think is fascinating.
And I'm totally eating it up.
loving it. I mean, I don't loveit. But you guys know what I
(12:07):
mean?
Kathleen Shannon (12:09):
Yeah, I do think it's important to keep
money flowing small and local.
If you can businesses in Seattlehave already shut down within a
week shut down. So if you cankeep money flowing where you can
and when you can, I think thatthat's a good idea. I was
feeling really funny about beingin the middle of a kitchen
remodel. I'm having newappliances delivered today. And
(12:30):
I was like, that seems silly.
Like if I had to make thedecision to invest in my kitchen
today, I would be like, Nope,I'm just gonna hoard away my
money and jars and bury them inthe backyard. Right?
Emily Thompson (12:43):
But in that's how Academy stop. Exactly. So
Kathleen Shannon (12:45):
then I thought, No, I'm doing good
things for the economy. And I'musing a local design team and
local contractors and localelectrician. So I did not feel
bad about putting that check inthe mail to my local electrician
that was over yesterday workingin my kitchen. So that's where
I'm trying to, like feel goodabout keeping money flowing.
Emily Thompson (13:07):
Yeah, do it. I think you should feel good about
it. For as long as as long foras long as we can all do those
things. I think we only staveoff sort of disaster by doing
that. So I mean, it's important.
Another one of the big thingsthat I see coming from this that
again, I find fascinating towatch is that this is a major
test of systems across theboard. And this can be very
(13:30):
large picture like healthcaresystems, for example,
Kathleen Shannon (13:35):
but you know, even on like a micro level of
health care systems, we've beentalking for years about staying
hydrated, stay hydrated bosses,eat well drink your greens, eat
your greens, however you need toget greens in your body. You
know and so this is anencouragement to stay healthy
everybody drink your water stayhydrated. Sure.
Emily Thompson (13:58):
And then also it's testing our individual
business to systems as well. AndI think that's true well for us
very personally at Almanacsupply co we took the team
remote yesterday and immediatelythere were things going on in
slack like where's that filethat I need? Why does it have
this on it whatever and I got inthere and I was like alright
(14:18):
guys, this is like the remotetest. Like Can we do this let's
shore up systems let's make sureeverything's working like
communicate very openly like doall these like let's let's get
this stuff in order becausewe're going to be testing all of
our business systems through thenext couple of months. And
another fun example of this isactually a boss has gotten in
(14:39):
touch with us in the communitythat I also love that she
messaged you on Instagram aswell. Saying that profit first
which is a financial planningsystem proposed by Mike mccalla
Wits we had him on the podcast Iwant to say maybe like 126 ish
and hold on. There's totallysome sirens going by.
Kathleen Shannon (15:01):
Can't hear them.
Emily Thompson (15:02):
Oh, perfect.
Kathleen Shannon (15:03):
Maybe it just adds to the ambience of this
episode for Navy sirens.
Emily Thompson (15:09):
It feels appropriate,
Kathleen Shannon (15:10):
maybe a helicopter will by fly by next.
Oh, gosh.
Emily Thompson (15:14):
Um, so I mean, he was on episode 126, if I'm
not mistaken, and talking aboutprofit first, it's also a book
highly recommended. And sheshared that doing profit first
help her bolster, a sort offinancial foundation of if about
six weeks of she could doliterally no business for six
(15:34):
weeks. And she's totallyfinancially secure, because she
adopted profit first. And Ithink that whenever we can use
systems like that, whenever weuse them consistently, they
prove themselves in times likethis. So this is going to be a
major test in systems.
Kathleen Shannon (15:50):
So we've been doing the same braid method
process for branding people forthe past almost nine years. And
it was cool because even thoughyesterday was hijacked by a lot
of Coronavirus discussion, I wasable to use my canned responses
and keep systems going andthings scheduled because we have
such a system in flow for how wework that even though I was
(16:11):
completely emotionally andmentally hijacked by all of
this, I had some things in placewhere business could kind of
flow as usual for my clients,and they weren't feeling the
freakout. And because thosesystems are so solid, and we're
so used to zooming and workingremote anyway, we were able to
be nimble around the things thatdid need to be adjusted, like
(16:33):
speaking gigs and stuff likethat.
Emily Thompson (16:36):
Yes. I think another thing, this test is our
ability to be agile and ourability to, you know, turn on a
dime pivot as needed. Like ifyou had a conference planned.
Kathleen Shannon (16:49):
Or here's the sad news, right?
Emily Thompson (16:53):
We've officially decided that the being boss
conference is going to have avenue change is no longer going
to be hosted in New Orleans, ourfavorite city instead it's going
to be hosted in your house or inyour office, because we are
taking it virtual.
Kathleen Shannon (17:12):
Can we throw some popcorn in the swag bags
for people like me
Emily Thompson (17:15):
made something, something that was the hardest
decision that I've had to makein a really long time. I will
also tell you that that hastested my mental health and have
come out of it to the good wherelike if I had had to have made
this decision a year ago, guys,I'd probably still be in the bed
(17:37):
crying like right this momentand feel free to go back we have
an episode that we did a coupleof months ago called burnout.
And by outdoor we talk aboutburnout and the sort of slump
that Kathleen and I went throughfor about 18 months plus. And
this has only shown me that Ithink I'm like, really in a very
(17:59):
real way, again, over thisthing. Because it's been It was
not an easy decision. But it wasit's been fine. It's been
really, really fine. And it's
Kathleen Shannon (18:09):
shown me that I'm not through the burnout,
because it really stressed meout that I mean, it stressed me
out for you. And that's part ofthe reason why the buyout
happened is because you have thecapacity to make these hard
decisions right now, I wouldhave had a harder time but I'm
so impressed with yourresilience through this and your
(18:30):
calmness, like you're legitleader, you all can see some
kind of like thumbs up beingEmily right now. Thank you. And
it's the kind of leadership thatwe need on a small business
level. And on a community levelI do I do feel more calm on a
community level, like withschools getting canceled. Fox is
home for three weeks. And I'mtrying to reach out to my
(18:52):
elderly neighbors and see ifthey need help grocery shopping.
I'm not trying to distract fromthe conference conversation, but
it did freak me out a littlebit. Yeah,
Emily Thompson (19:02):
I mean, and I was like, I was mad. I had a
couple of days there where I wasmad and I was going nothing's
gonna make me cancel this thingshort of like a travel ban. Like
I said that to multiple people,like unless there's a travel
ban, this conference ishappening, I don't even care.
And then there wereconversations about well, then
more and more cases came up.
More and more, you know, stateof emergencies was put in place.
(19:24):
what really got me was severalcases of Coronavirus coming out
of New Orleans that stemmed froma conference. And so like
whenever it just started gettingreal real and several
conversations with bosses. So Istarted talking to some of the
speakers through behind thescenes and it was a mix it was
(19:44):
like you know, you know you dowhat you think is right and I'll
be there and now is kind of whatgot me was that I was making a
decision not for myself. I wasmaking a decision for myself.
Hell yeah. I'm going to NewOrleans and doing this
conference. It's going to befinding great I was making this
decision for over 100 otherhuman beings,
Kathleen Shannon (20:03):
well, and then that multiplied like that, yeah,
Emily Thompson (20:06):
multiply, and then it's the entire New Orleans
community. And then it's thestate of Louisiana. And then
like, whenever I thought aboutthat sort of impact, and the
fact that people were looking tome to make the right decision,
the only decision that I couldmake was to do make the decision
that would protect everyone asmuch as humanly possible. So I
(20:28):
made that decision. And I waiteda couple of days, to have some
further conversations, to dosome due diligence to check
contracts to talk to vendors andsome of the other speakers to
really sort of make the mostinformed decision that I could,
both in making the decision andin addressing how, or addressing
(20:49):
the decision that I had madepublicly as well. And some of
that is still sort of going onas in terms of, like, right now,
this episode being released,we're still releasing some of
that information. So we'retaking it online. I'm very
excited about it, actually. Andthat's sort of like that gut
check is even one of the thingsthat made this decision
(21:11):
relatively easy as once I gotover the disappointment of, you
know, not hugging all of my bossfriends, which is no longer
allowed, you can't hug them. Orthe fact that we were going to,
you know, miss a parade, whichis sort of this grand
celebration of all of the workthat we've done. Once I get over
that disappointment, it justmade sense. It just made sense.
(21:33):
And I also cannot, cannot sayenough how much I sincerely
appreciate the support that Ihave had, from my boss, friends,
from the attendees, from thepeople who just checked in with
me, who checked in with megoing, I know that you're
planning a conference right now.
And I'm thinking about you, areyou okay? I get several of those
emails and messages from pastclients, or some of the speakers
(21:57):
offering to have conversationsand helped me brainstorm how to
solve this problem. All of thesethings, the support I have
received from the boss communityhas, again proven to me that you
guys are special. reallyspecial. So we have we've made
that decision. And we'veimmediately jumped into planning
conference number two, and byconference number two, I mean,
(22:20):
we planned one conference, wewere on the road doing it and
we've had to completely pivotand instead plan an online
conference. And the team isstepping up like everyone's
like, Okay, let's do this thing.
What do you need? How are yougoing to do this? And we have
some really exciting things inplace. It's also funny, we were
planning on doing virtualtickets for the conference,
(22:43):
anyhow. And we were planning onlaunching those around now.
Anyhow. So now we're just sortof kind of pivoting kind of
shifting kind of justrealigning. And I don't know now
we're doing a virtualconference. It's happening. It's
gonna be great. Way better thaneveryone getting Coronavirus.
Unknown (23:07):
Oh, for sure. I want to talk a little bit about well,
should we take a break realquick?
Emily Thompson (23:13):
Yep. As I say, add, put add here. I'm already
seeing the messages flyingthrough my feeds. I'm missing
human contact. I love myhusband, but he's the only
person I get to see and it'sdriving me mad, or I'm freaking
out about the isolation. Thatone's legit bosses. It's bad for
(23:33):
your mental health to beisolated from your peers now,
and always, it's more importantthan ever to schedule out
virtual coffee chats with yourcolleagues and business besties.
Or if you're working remotelyfrom your team, getting some
virtual face time on theschedule is a must. But spending
long threads of communication tofind the right time will always
(23:54):
be an unnecessary waste of time.
With acuity scheduling, saygoodbye to the back and forth to
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(24:17):
scheduling absolutely free. nocredit card required by going to
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Kathleen Shannon (24:30):
I want to talk a little bit about finding
opportunities and a little bitof balance whenever it comes to
maintaining enthusiasm andoptimism but also being
realistic and weathering thestorm. Where are you at with all
of that?
Emily Thompson (24:48):
I'm just here.
Kathleen Shannon (24:53):
I know I really can only take it one day
at a time. Yeah, I'm
Emily Thompson (24:57):
just one day at a time. I mean, we've worn Left
self quarantined. And partiallylike I was in California last
week. Right? Like I flew to altsummit last week and did that
conference and came back and Iwent to work for a couple of
days haven't come into contactwith very many people. But I, a
couple days ago decided, youknow what I was like, if
Kathleen Shannon (25:18):
I'm going to cancel a conference, I should
also self quarantine just tolike, I better like cross all my
T's and dot all my eyes in termsof like protecting myself and
everyone based on my decisions.
Yeah, I'm doing that too. So foxis out of school for the next
three weeks, which we need totalk about, because I can't
figure out how to homeschool mychild while also working from
(25:39):
home. Yep. And that for me, I'mtrying to approach all of it
like a parent. I'm probablybeing a little bit more candid
about my freakout on thispodcast to our all of our
listeners, we're all friends,right? But whenever it comes to
my social media feed, especiallylike on my business account, and
(26:00):
whenever it comes to literallytalking to my child about
Coronavirus, I'm trying to keepit really positive and not
scary. And I need to remember totalk to myself that way too. And
just take it one day at a timeto stay positive. I mean, you
all know it's so funny with withall this travel that I'm having
to cancel because I basicallythink I'm going to die before
(26:21):
every trip anyway. And I everbefore every trip I have to
convince myself that is notreal. That is just your anxiety
speaking. And so then with theworst case scenario now popping
up with this Coronavirus and apandemic. I'm like, Wait, is
this just my anxiety? Or is thisreal?
Emily Thompson (26:41):
This is real real. This one was real, all the
other ones were anxiety. But itcan be hard to tell. I mean,
like I said, I've been I guessI've been talking about it and
having conversations and reallycreating contingency plans for
like multiple, multiple parts ofmy life for so many more weeks.
And now that we're here, I feela little more prepared. So I'm
(27:03):
feeling a little less freakedout. I also don't freak out very
easily about a lot of thingslike this. But I will also say
to I'm probably more wellinformed about this event than
any other world event that isliterally ever happened in my
lifetime. And partially becauseI've had to stay very well
informed in order to make thedecision that you know, has
affected over 100 of ourcommunity members in terms of
(27:26):
making a decision about theconference. But I mean the only
thing I can do is just sit athome and do my work and send
David out for toilet paper hecan't find or whatever it like
Kathleen Shannon (27:40):
you know just when toilet paper is not going
to save you from theCoronavirus.
Emily Thompson (27:45):
No,
Kathleen Shannon (27:46):
is not everyone just wash your hands.
You know and that's one of thethings as far as staying
informed goes. It's funnybecause actually I've been on
top of this probably sinceJanuary. I have a client who has
product that's been on hold inChina since January because of
Coronavirus. Some of Jeremy's coworkers have had to be been be
(28:06):
quarantined. And I definitelyhad that very American approach
where I felt immune and safe andisolated from it, even though
the CDC warned us that this isgoing to happen. And it's going
to get worse before it getsbetter. So whenever it comes to
lessons learned, my lesson Ihave learned is that we're not
(28:28):
immune to this and that we needto listen to the experts. So I
saw this really great graphshared by pantsuit politics, and
they've done a couple of reallygood episodes on this that have
helped ease my fears. For me,staying informed has eased some
of my fears. And if we just alldo our best, it's going to be
fine. It's going to beinconvenient, but it's going to
(28:48):
be fine. And so one of thosethings is canceling everything,
we have to cancel the curve.
whenever it comes to keepingeverybody safe. My parents had a
trip planned to Hawaii literallyon Sunday. And I encourage them
to cancel like they are notimmune either. Don't be flying
across the ocean. So we have tostay informed. We have to say,
resilient, we have to
Emily Thompson (29:12):
stay stable, right and help each other, like
be there for each other. Solike, if I can't buy toilet
paper, I'm texting my neighborsand I'm hoping against hope that
my neighbors are there for me.
For sure. I
Kathleen Shannon (29:27):
know it's so funny. This is also prioritizing
what's important
Emily Thompson (29:33):
that there are things that become irrelevant
and they are things that youbecome a little less you care
less about at times like this,but like you have to also live
your life like whenever youstart getting angry because not
every Instagram feed is notaddressing the world's pandemic
right now. And I think therethere is a difference between
being completely aloof and likenot even pretending it doesn't
(29:53):
exist. For example, like there'ssomething there's difference
between that and just livingyour life still,
Kathleen Shannon (30:02):
you know, we've been balancing this for
the past four years, and we hadit. We got angry. I mean, we got
real mad, and we're still mad.
But we realize that that can'tbe the message that we're always
putting out into the world thatwe have to continue to be
enthusiastic about the thingsthat we love, and be creatives
from a place of hope andoptimism versus reacting out of
fear and anger. We're still madabout a lot of things. We're
(30:26):
just not instagramming it
Emily Thompson (30:29):
right? We're and I was having this exact same
conversation at Almanac thismorning. Because Mary, my
employee at Almanac was sayinglike Instagram this week, I
should put some things about,you know, the Coronavirus, and I
was like no don't like puts in,it wasn't quite this sort of
Stark of a conversation butsummed up No, don't encourage
(30:55):
people to take care ofthemselves, remind them that
spring is still coming, that theworld is still turning sort of
be this sort of quiet supportthat's not in your face about
the thing but support peoplewithout reminding them of the
constant shift that we're in,like a be a light of hope, not
like giving someone a shoveltoday.
Kathleen Shannon (31:16):
So you know, I'm a total gym rat. And I love
going to the gym. And I'vestopped going to the gym for the
time being again, because a lotof older folks workout at my
gym, and I have a young childwho sometimes I take to the gym
and just again doing what we cando to contain this thing. So
(31:37):
I've been sharing that onInstagram, just the little
things that I'm doing and thehard decisions that I'm making,
again, canceling all of thepersonal travel, not going to
the gym. And so and a few peoplehave reached out and said that
this is helpful whenever I evenask people if they want us to do
a podcast episode about it likean emergency episode. We got a
resounding yes. Like please,that would be great. And I guess
(32:00):
so whenever it comes to that.
What I really want to say isthat you're not alone. We're all
making adjustments. We're allfreaking out at different
levels. Emily's freaking out ata different level than I'm
freaking out. And we're in thistogether like,
Emily Thompson (32:15):
literally dreaming conference decisions
all night long. Like I wake uptired guys, because I'm solving
conference pivot questions in myhead literally constantly. I'm
not instagramming routing itearly. No, I'm not none of those
things. But we are all freakingout about our own things for
sure. I want to go into I wantto go into talking about finding
(32:39):
opportunities within this mess.
Because that is the only thingthat we can do to like better
ourselves in the currentsituation. And when I talk about
this, I really mean businessthings. We are a business
podcast, we're talking aboutbusiness stuff. And sure you can
adopt some, you know, heightenedself care practices or take
better care of your health orwhatever that is. But I want to
talk some business opportunitieshere. I pose this question. It's
(33:00):
funny. I think this question isreally hard for Google, I pose
this question in the communitythe other day, and got some
interesting answers. Where isand what I mean is the prompt
that I put in here was whatopportunities are available to
you during this time ofCoronavirus. And I got a lot of
like the negative like this isgoing to hurt my revenue. My
(33:21):
clients are disappearing, likethose sorts of things. But what
I want to facilitate here is amindset shift. Because during
this time of slower business orworking from home or whatever it
may be, there are opportunitieshere, you just have to look for
them. For me, I'm I'm so excitedto be working back from home
(33:42):
again, if you don't know I movedinto an office space, which I
love, but I also am total hermitand I like working by myself at
home. So an opportunity for meis I'm back in my like home
office and I kind of love it.
But there are other things thatyou can do, too, that are
sincerely more practical, liketesting your systems. You know,
(34:04):
for you, you were able to moreor less like tap out yesterday,
but continue running yoursystems that has proof for you
that your systems are onlockdown. And that's an amazing
thing for your business.
Kathleen Shannon (34:16):
Yeah, another thing I'm thinking a lot about
is if we slow down, and I'mhoping that we don't. But you
know, another system is that weare already used to working
remote again. But anotheropportunity I've thought about
is using that time to update mywebsite. You know, it's always
good to do a website audit everyyear and just reassess your
(34:37):
branding reassess your messagingto people is it clear whenever
you go to your website, howpeople hire you. Have you
updated your portfolio in awhile.
Emily Thompson (34:46):
Maybe you haven't done all your
bookkeeping,
Kathleen Shannon (34:49):
right? Yeah.
Have you finished your taxes.
Also systems around you know,Instagram like maybe you've just
been trying to do one day at atime and that's funny too
because I've realized estimizemy Instagram recently with
braid, and we're posting everyday. So again, even during my
freakout yesterday where I gotcompletely hijacked, a post
still went up on Instagram. Andbecause I had systems in place
(35:12):
and in place, and because I'vebatched it. So these are times
where some of those things thatyou haven't been doing, like
getting on Asana or figuring outyour bookkeeping, or
implementing your fresh books,or your acuity systems, or
finally developing out thatonline course, those are all
things that you can startworking on now. And shoring up
(35:34):
so that whenever you hit theground running in six to eight
weeks with all your client work,and people are out shopping
again, you've got some extrahelp in just automating some
stuff.
Emily Thompson (35:45):
Right? You've done the work, I recorded an
episode of making a businesswhich is available only in the
clubhouse here of the being bosscommunity about slow seasons,
and it came out maybe a month ortwo ago. And this is the exact
idea of that is that everybusiness has slow seasons. And
whereas usually we can, we cananticipate when they'll come
(36:06):
because you know, there's anatural ebb and flow that is
usually around Christmas, all ofthe economy operates around
Christmas guys one way or theother, you're affected by it.
But this is one that's just kindof been slammed in there. I know
we were previously unaware ofit. But there are still things
that you can do during your slowseason. Another thing that that
(36:28):
I'm seeing that I'm loving somuch, and I think we'll only
begin seeing more of this as aas a cultivation or re
cultivation of community. One oftwo of the things I've seen as
one my peer mastermind, we aretalking so much more right now,
because we're troubleshootingproblems. Were asking each other
questions, I was able to get intouch with one of my one of my
(36:52):
peer mastermind folks a coupledays ago and was like I, you
read to me this really greatsentence that you wrote about
the Coronavirus that you sent toyour email list when we were
together recently. Can youplease send me that because I'm
trying to write one for myself.
And I sound like a caveman likeso we've been talking through
and working through some ofthese things very, very closely.
Similarly, and one of mymastermind groups that I've run
(37:14):
Previously, we still have agroup slack together. They're in
their scheduling of a call witheach other for next week,
because they're all now workingfrom home. Most of their
husbands are also now workingfrom home, which is a whole
other dynamic, and they justwant to talk to each other. They
want to talk to their people. SoI see people reconnecting in a
really beautiful way. And goodthings can only come from that.
(37:38):
Hey boss, listening to us inyour headphones or in your car
while you do whatever it is thatyou're doing all by your
lonesome. Guess what, no matterwhat you think. You're not
alone. And the being boss,community bosses from all over
the world are rallying to dothis thing together. Even if
(37:59):
we're sitting alone at ourcomputer, whether PJ pants on,
you can connect with bosses anytime to ask questions, get help
or just chime in. Whatever youneed to remind yourself that
we're all here. And we've gotyour back, learn more and join
the beam boss community by goingto be boss dot club slash
community.
Kathleen Shannon (38:24):
Okay, I want to do a quick fire about working
from home, we've probably did aworking from home episode
probably within our first 10episodes of being boss. But now
with this, a lot of people areeither talking to friends who
are just now working from home,or maybe you have a full time
job and a side hustle and you'rehaving to work from home now. So
(38:46):
I just want to kind of quickfire some tips for working from
home. My first ones are to getset up with zoom and slack. So
zoom is great for videoconferencing with your
teammates. I think that thatface to face connection is
really important. And you'regoing to start missing that if
you are working from home forthe first time and have team
(39:07):
members. Or again, like yousaid, with your business besties
or a pure mastermind group, youcan just hop on zoom real quick
or FaceTime and see people faceto face. But then also slack is
so good whenever it comes toworking remotely because you're
not cluttering your inbox andyou're still getting some of
that, like, you know, watercooler chat. In certain
(39:30):
channels, you're getting quickanswers to business or client
questions that you might have.
And it doesn't have to go toemail. So those are my two big
like apps that I would startusing ASAP is zoom and
Unknown (39:43):
slack.
Emily Thompson (39:44):
Yes. And I want to talk about like physical
workspace. I think finding aplace in your house that you can
get focused and do the work isimperative. Like for me, I
cannot work from my kitchencounter because I'm looking
straight at my sink. And if I'mlooking at my sink, I'm usually
thinking oh I wish that you knownine For washed, or maybe I
should wash an apple and eat itor like what I can't work ethic
(40:05):
kitchen counter, for example,and I have a great island that
would be great for working, butI can't do it. For me having a
designated space and extrapoints if you have a door,
especially Actually, yes,especially if you have other
people in the house. But I alsothink if it's just me in my
house by myself, when I closethe door, it's time for work.
Kathleen Shannon (40:24):
Yeah, with that, I will also want to say
don't do chores during your workhours. Oh, no, no, just don't do
them. And I know it's tempting.
But don't do it. Wait until yourwork hours are over to go clean
your kitchen or do the things. Ialso want to say that you might
get more done in less timeworking from home, you don't
have that casual chatter thatreally starts to add up.
(40:46):
whenever it comes to working.
You don't have your commute,you're gonna get more done in
five to six hours, then youtypically do in an eight to nine
hour work day. So if you have totap out early, don't feel bad.
If you're not putting in a 40Hour Work Week.
Emily Thompson (41:04):
Just gonna throw Sure. I will also say to stay
away from your kitchen. I oftenfind myself when I'm working at
home At home snacking a littletoo often, like it's so easy
just to like, Oh, I need to takea tinkle break, oh, maybe I'll
make myself a cup of tea, andthen I'm eating chips. So I have
(41:25):
to be very mindful of myrelationship with my kitchen.
When I'm working from home. Justputting that out there.
Kathleen Shannon (41:33):
I have to make sure on that note, I have to
make sure that the chips andpeanut butter and all the things
and especially the chocolate, Ican eat a bar of chocolate in a
day working from home. So I justhave to make sure it's not on
the counter. If it's on thecounter, I'm going to eat it.
But if it's put away in acupboard, I'm not going to snack
all day. Yeah, that was my newthing. Anyway, um, I need help
(41:57):
on working from home with my kidhome. So my child's school was
closed. As of right now forthree weeks, it could be longer.
Who knows, I know that a lot ofschools are closed for four to
six weeks right now. Um, I havehad him stay home sick from
school before or on breaks. AndI just let him iPad all day
(42:20):
long, because it's temporary.
But we can't sustain eight hoursto 12 hours a day of watching
YouTube while I'm working fromhome, so my
Emily Thompson (42:32):
brain will be jello. I mean, jello,
Kathleen Shannon (42:35):
he's pretty smart. But yeah, jello, it
affects No, it has nothing to dowith his smart, it's his
attitude, he gets real upset andemotional whenever he has that
much screentime for sure, forsure.
Emily Thompson (42:49):
So I have been homeschooling my daughter since
she was in the first grade. Andshe's currently in the sixth
grade. So in the past for thepast five years and worked for
home for the bulk of those. Andso I'll take I'll sort of
address this from two places.
One is if your partner is alsoworking from home, take shifts,
I think if one of you can takethe kids to the park or for a
(43:09):
walk or you know, sit down andread a book together, or even if
it is playing video gamestogether, or whatever it is some
sort of engaged time together,take shifts, and I think you
should hash this out either atthe beginning of every week or
every morning. So sit down andbe like what meetings Do you
have what tasks are on your todo list, whatever, whatever
who's going to take the kid whenbecause whenever one of you is
(43:32):
interacting with your kid andalso think of this as an
opportunity to. And I know itcan be hard and kind of suck to
get it. But you can look at thisas an opportunity to spend more
time with your kid, which isreally what a lot of working
parents really do want. So youhave the opportunity to do that.
You just have to prioritize it.
(43:52):
So take shifts as much aspossible. If you are a single
parent, working from home withyour kid. That can be a little
more difficult. But I think youcan take shifts in terms of work
and hanging out with your kid.
The entire world is going to bequite a bit more accepting right
now of you spending more timewith your kid. So take advantage
of it. If anyone gets mad. Tellhim to suck it. Because it's the
(44:15):
reality of everyone.
Kathleen Shannon (44:20):
That's a good point. I had a few conferences
canceled, obviously,
Emily Thompson (44:24):
and not canceled. We change the venue.
Correct.
Kathleen Shannon (44:29):
I love that repositioning. I love it. Travel
has been canceled. Spring Breakhas been cancelled. I supposed
to go to Mexico City. And so nowmaybe I was thinking oh, I can
get more work done. But maybemaybe since fox is out of school
anyway, I will actually takethat time to be a good mom and
have some like hands on. Youhave the opportunity. You
(44:51):
totally have the opportunity todo so one of the things that I
think that we'll probably do isimplement some sort of schedule.
So our school is Going to have aclassroom like an online
learning plan. I'm curious tosee what that's like. But I
think what I want to do is maybeon posterboard schedule out our
day. And so just like Ischeduled time to go to the gym,
(45:12):
I'm going to schedule time, youknow, maybe two hours a day out
of my work day, to have PE withmy kiddo, maybe we'll do some
yoga together or go for a walkoutside. And then also
scheduling time to do thingslike write a letter to grandma.
Today, we walked around theyard, I thought of you, Emily,
because I felt veryhomeschooling, I was like, I'm
doing it, doing what we didscience today by walking around
(45:35):
the yard and looking at what'sblooming. And I was like, oh,
let's take a picture of thisflower everyday. And we'll see
how it grows over the next threeweeks that you're not in school,
Emily Thompson (45:43):
you're totally doing it. But he's also upstairs
playing video games while werecord this. So okay, so that's
that, that's completely fine. Sohere's another hardcore rule
that I have in place. And it'sfunny, because I see this being
not done in the way that I do ita lot. And it drives me insane.
I draw a very hard firmboundary, around my meetings,
(46:08):
and around my very intense worktimes. And for example, if my
door is closed, you're notallowed to come in, I don't even
knock, you better be quiet whenyou walk by the door. And like
it, but if you're bleeding orthrowing up, or if there's
someone at the door, come getme. Like, those are the three
(46:29):
cases, those are the only threecases. So either closing the
door, or also I have my thing,if I'm typing, if my fingers are
actively on the keyboards doingthe thing, it's mean that it
means that I'm writing an email,or writing something and it's
flowing. And if you break myconcentration, I lose it. So my
(46:51):
family knows that if my, if myfingers are on the keyboards,
they are not allowed to speak tome. That's perfect.
Kathleen Shannon (46:57):
I also think that with headphones, sometimes
I'll have headphones in my earswithout even having anything
playing on my headphones. Andit's kind of that another
boundary because I don't have anoffice with the door
surprisingly, in this house,even though I work from home
100% of the time. Um, but yeah,headphones in my ears maybe is a
good one, too.
Emily Thompson (47:17):
Yeah. And I can't, I cannot stress it enough
how important it is for you tocreate that boundary with your
child and completely and utterlyexpect them to follow it.
Period. It's not bad parenting,it's great parenting, you're
teaching your children how torespect other people's
boundaries. And I think we canall agree that the world needs a
little more of that. Okay, andthen I have one more resource
(47:40):
that I really want to share withanyone. I found this resource I
think as a wonderful one I,before I get into the pros and
cons, it's called Teachers Payteacher's Teachers Pay teacher's
calm. It is almost like an Etsyfor teachers. So teachers can
take the lessons that they'vecreated. And this is like all
subjects all grades, and theycan put them for sale on this
(48:02):
website. And so these will behere are these they're on their
site. And they're like $1, orlike $4. Or sometimes like $120.
If you want like a legitproject, I think these are
things like bundles of writingprompts, or handwriting practice
sheets, or science projects, ormath kits. So Lily has done a
(48:25):
couple of these and one of them.
They're like small businessfocus, too, which I really love.
But things like okay, you'regoing to start a bakery, you
need to figure out your costs.
You need to figure out how tomake recipes, how to double your
recipes is like practices inpricing and fractions and all
kinds of fun stuff.
Kathleen Shannon (48:43):
And do you get cookies at the end of it? Oh,
this bakery?
Emily Thompson (48:47):
If you do it right. I hope so. I have found
quite often that they need agood look over before doing
them. Because sometimes they'renot the most like top quality
learning tools I've ever foundtoo. Sometimes they say where
things are like the answersaren't or like because most of
(49:07):
them come with actually, most ofthem come with answer keys. So
don't just print them out andgive them to your kids because
they'll have the answers takethe answer keys out. Because
sometimes the answers are notactually the answers. They're
not vetted. They're actuallyhere's the funny thing too. This
is like online business melooking at funny things.
(49:29):
Teachers are really great aboutgiving other teachers raving
reviews, even if the productkind of sucks. So like, I would
not just look at the reviews andthink it has five stars and that
it is five stars. But I do thinkit's a great resource. I've
gotten many, many projects onthere. It's fun to do with your
kid. It's also find the kinds ofthings that they can do by
(49:52):
themselves. It's a good way forthem to still learn without tech
time and a lot of them arereally creative and quite
involved. But a lot of them arealso very simple like just go do
this worksheet, many solutionsso I highly recommend that we
use that a lot. And then otherthan that, get them to read some
(50:12):
books or read some books withthem. And that's a great way to
to spend some time with your kidor have them spend some time
with ourselves without being ontech too. Well, I
Kathleen Shannon (50:24):
feel like everything is changing, emotions
are changing. Logistics arechanging day by day, hour by
hour and I think it's reallygood to stay in contact with
each other. So where can ourbosses go to stay in touch with
each other?
Emily Thompson (50:39):
We are talking about all kinds of stuff these
days in the being bosscommunity. We're having
conversations about Coronavirus,but also not Coronavirus. We're
talking about email marketingplatforms and sales tactics and
what tools are great forlaunches and those sorts of
things. So whenever it comes toOh, we're also like talking
(50:59):
he'll talk a lot of Tarot andastrology in there. It seems a
come and go pretty loudly whenit does is right
Kathleen Shannon (51:05):
Coronavirus in the stars. Is there an
astrological reason for this?
Emily Thompson (51:09):
I've thought about this that I think so you
know how there was that bigSaturn Pluto conjunction a
couple like in February and thencame Coronavirus. And they all
said that that conjunction wasall about testing systems. Hmm
burning things to the groundthat weren't working correctly.
Remember that remember thatanyway. Um, so the big boss
(51:31):
community is where we are havingtons of chats and cultivating
all kinds of community. It willalso be a huge part of the being
boss conference, which is hatsis still happening change of
venue. In April of this year,several key elements will be
going down in the community aswell. So if you'd like to come
join us over there being bossclub slash community, or if you
(51:52):
do want to set aside three daysin a brawl to do some business
learning at home from someamazing speakers and watch me
figure this shit out. Being bossclub slash conference,
Kathleen Shannon (52:09):
I'll be there with you.
Emily Thompson (52:11):
It'd be fun.
Alright, anyway, I do want towrap this up with you've got
this. We've all got this. We'llfigure it out together know
that? There are bigconversations going on all over.
And I don't know I I have plentyof hope. How about that? I have
plenty of it'll be fine. I
Kathleen Shannon (52:30):
do too. And we're all in it together.
Emily Thompson (52:37):
Thanks for listening. And hey, if you want
more resources, we're talkingworksheets, free trainings in
person meetups and vacations andmore. Go to our website at www
dot FBI boss dot club.
Kathleen Shannon (52:50):
Do the work the boss
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