WEBVTT - Tech and networking tips, with Molly Beck 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:09.240 Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning. 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:14.880 This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:17.160 episode is going to be a longer one part of 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:20.239 the series where I interview fascinating people about how they 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:23.320 take their days from great to awesome and any advice 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:26.000 they have for the rest of us. So I am 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:29.920 delighted to today welcome Molly Beck to the program. Mollie 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:33.440 is an entrepreneur, an author, and she also runs a 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:34.960 substack newsletter. 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:38.440 Called beck on Tech. So Mollie, welcome to the show. 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:40.839 Laura, I'm so delighted to be here. Thank you. 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:44.360 Yeah, I'm thrilled to have you. So tell our listeners 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:45.680 a little bit about yourself. 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:48.519 My main job is I am a startup founder. My 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:53.000 company is Workperfectly dot com. Our software helps large enterprises 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:57.160 start private podcasts for their employees. And as you touched 0:00:57.160 --> 0:00:59.960 on in my intro, outside of Work Perfectly, I keep 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:03.800 myself busy with a lot of smaller entrepreneurial ventures. I 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:07.520 write that daily tech newsletter, I sell templates on Etsy, 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:11.160 I do some investing. I just like to always have 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:14.160 my hand and some other things awesome. 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:15.080 That is good. 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:17.759 Well, I first got to know you many years ago 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:20.840 when you were sort of known as a proponent of 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.160 what you call the reach out method, and that's the 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:24.839 title of your first book. I wonder if you could 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:27.760 tell people a little bit what it means to reach 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:29.160 out as a method. 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:33.480 Reaching out is the idea of sending one message email 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.600 social media. I even had someone wants to do a 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.120 reach out on twenty three and meters to someone that 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:41.240 you don't know or is on the edge of your 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:45.720 network every single workday, and the idea being that there 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:49.120 are so many opportunities out there bouncing around, but unless 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:51.320 people know about you, it can be hard for those 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:54.040 opportunities to come to you. And it's also hard to 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:57.040 show up at some sort of conference and hope that 0:01:57.080 --> 0:02:00.360 you make a connection. But if you're really intentional single 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:03.320 day about reaching out to someone on the edge or 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.720 a complete stranger of your network, you can grow that network. 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:09.720 And what we're trying to develop by doing it every 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:13.520 single day is a bad memory. It can be really demoralizing. 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.200 If you've found one person that you think will change 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:19.480 your career, you reach out and you hear crickets. But 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:21.240 if that one person is the person you've reach out 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:23.320 to on Tuesday and by Friday you've already done three 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:26.440 more reachouts you've completely forgotten. So you're trying to make 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:30.120 it a habit of being okay with going out into 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.560 the universe, saying hi, giving someone a gift, being a 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:36.240 joy in their inbox, and seeing what comes back to you. 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:39.720 Yeah, how long does this tend to take when people 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:40.079 do it? 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:42.880 You know? Before AI, I would have said, oh, maybe 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:45.400 ten or fifteen minutes a day. Now I think that 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:49.280 you can have used tools like chat, GPT or cloud 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:51.440 to help you write a quick reach out to someone 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:53.480 and send it off in five minutes or less. 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:57.120 And how do you think about which person to reach 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:58.440 out to on any given day? 0:02:58.480 --> 0:02:59.720 Like do you have a running list and you just 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:01.400 work through it? Or I mean, how does that work? 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:03.600 I definitely have a reading list and I do work 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:06.480 through it. But like this morning, my reach out was 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:08.720 to someone that I was reading their substack. They're just 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:11.160 a random person that I follow. I was so touched 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:13.440 by what they write. I pulled out a quote from 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:15.680 it and I said, I think that this quote is 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:18.120 so amazing. You should do a podcast around this topic, 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:21.040 and if you do, I will be your very first listener, 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:23.720 just a quick little note hopefully it made them smile 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:26.040 and then move on with my day. Yeah. 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:28.160 I love that idea, sort of being of service and 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.079 like being a positive force in someone's inbox, like you're 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:33.760 not reaching out asking for the person to do something 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:34.360 big for you. 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.520 Right, Such a great point. Absolutely, And like Laura, that's 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:40.200 how you and I met. In twenty twelve. I sent 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:42.840 you a reach out although I wasn't even really calling 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:46.280 it that then, and said, I absolutely love your books. 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:48.680 I believe I just read one of them, and I'm 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:50.840 just so excited to be a fan of you. And now, 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:53.520 I mean, look at this is thirteen years later. We've 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:55.840 I was able to quote you and reach out, We've 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:59.680 had professional collaborations, I'm appearing on your podcast. Not every 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:02.760 reach will be so successful, but we never would have 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:04.720 met if I hadn't just sent you that email, not 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:06.560 even asking for anything, just telling you what a fan 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:06.960 I was. 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:11.240 Yeah, well I smiled to get that email in my inbox. 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:14.440 I'm very curious, like how often do people get back 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:15.160 in touch with you? 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:16.640 I mean, you know, like, what would you say the 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:17.480 response rate is? 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:19.920 The response rate really varies on if it's someone that's 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:21.800 actually on the edge of my network, like I've met 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:24.880 them previously, or a total cold stranger, a cold stranger 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:27.040 twenty twenty five percent, like one on a four. I'm 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:30.040 getting our response someone that they at least recognized my 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:33.279 name much higher eighty or even ninety. And then someone 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:35.279 that I was actually like, used to be friends with 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:37.080 or used to work with. You can say it like 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:39.120 that's one hundred. Maybe not immediately, but they'll get back 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:39.320 to you. 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:40.240 Yeah. 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:42.640 Yeah, So be prepared for the cold reach outs to 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:44.680 have a low response rate. Yeah, But the ones that 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:46.920 are more sort of on your on the edge of 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:48.800 your network, friend of friend, like more like. 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:51.039 Someone you can name drop, like in the subject line like, 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:53.239 oh I'm a friend of blah blah blah. 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:56.640 Yes, exactly, exactly. Well, what a great discipline to develop. 0:04:56.720 --> 0:05:00.520 I'm sure it's really helped grow your network over the years. So, 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:03.880 but let's talk about your current project of Back on Tech. 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.640 I mean, obviously you have your major startup stuff you're doing, 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:09.560 but Back on Tech is a new newsletter where you 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:10.480 talk all things tech. 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:11.440 So tell us about it. 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:13.800 You know, I just was really thinking, Hey, what am 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:16.880 I super interested in these days? And it's really technology. 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:19.800 I run a technology startup, I invest in other technologies. 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:23.159 I love the Internet, I love learning about AI, and 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:26.159 I have just been really interested in I like the 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:28.679 process of creation, and I was looking at hunting around, 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:31.760 casting about, as you might say, for an idea for 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:35.440 a newsletter, and that's I decided to try it. I 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:39.039 launched it a couple of months ago, and my rule 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:40.600 when I first launched it is that I wouldn't tell 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:42.360 anybody about it for at least a month make sure 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:44.360 I could continually do it. It comes out every day 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:47.400 at noon, so it's a daily newsletter, which you write 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:50.760 one too. You know that can sometimes you start those 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:52.480 and then you realize you run out of ideas. So 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:54.200 I wanted to do it for a full month before 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:57.200 I started, sort of lightly promoting it among people I knew. 0:05:57.560 --> 0:05:58.840 And now I'm a couple of months in it, and 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:02.279 I'm just really enjoyed it. It's really short tech tips, 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:05.479 interesting corners of the Internet, stuff I'm learning about AI 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:08.159 that people can read every day. 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:10.400 Yeah. Well, I love the idea of making sure you 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:13.159 have a lot of ideas as you are launching something. 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:15.440 I know I've given the advice to people starting a 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:18.799 podcast that you should have like twenty ideas for shows 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:22.159 before you start, and because that tells you, really if 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:24.520 it's something that you can keep running with, right, And 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:26.360 I assume it wasn't that hard for you to come 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:28.400 up with a month's worth of stuffing. 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:30.360 It wasn't that hard, But I didn't really know that 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:33.359 going into it. And nobody likes to be this person, 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:35.960 and I've been this person where you start something, you 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.160 tell everyone you know and then you just kind of 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:40.080 run out of ideas, or you didn't like it as much, 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:42.239 or you don't have the space for it. So giving 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:44.560 yourself a little bit of privacy to launch something. I 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:47.440 think I had like three subscribers. It was literally my mom, 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:49.880 my husband, and my sister for the first month, just 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:51.880 making sure that I could get into the practice. And 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:53.520 then when I did start promoting it, I had a 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:56.520 whole backlog, so it looked like, oh, hey, Molly's actually 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:58.400 doing this, like she's really into it, and then I 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:00.000 felt more confident sharing it with others. 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:02.880 People excellent, Well we're going to take a quick ad 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:04.480 break and then we will be back with a little 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:05.840 bit more from Molly Beck. 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:13.880 Well, I am back. 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:18.120 I am interviewing Molly Beck, who is an entrepreneur and author, 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:21.520 the founder of a substack called beck on Tech, which 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:24.240 we've just been talking about. So Molly, back on Tech 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:27.160 gives a short tech tip many days. I wonder if 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:28.840 you could share one or two that you think our 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:30.480 listeners might find useful. 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:32.960 You know a tech tip that I recently shared that's 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:35.640 a very dedicated part of my morning routine is I 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:38.120 do something called a money minute, which is every morning 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:40.000 when I sit down on my computer, the first thing 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:42.920 I do is I checked all of my bank accounts, 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:45.440 credit cards, savings account I even checked my four oh 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:48.880 one K my coinbase, And that means it takes probably 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:50.760 it definitely takes less than a minute. I don't have 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:52.960 that many accounts, but it means that I always have 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:55.559 a really good handle on the total amount of money 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:58.000 that I have. And I started this about two years 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:00.160 ago when I was just sort of always feeling I'm 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.840 an entrepreneur and sometimes I feel nervous about hey, like, 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:06.880 what is my financial forecast look like three six, nine months? 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:08.840 And to know what the forecast is, you have to 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:11.200 know what's going on now. So now I feel really 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:13.720 on top of it with this practice of quickly running 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:15.800 through all of my accounts every morning. It's the first 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:17.920 thing I do before I check my email. 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:20.640 Now, that's interesting that you would check your four oh 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:22.960 one K every day, because I've certainly heard the advice 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:24.200 that one should not do that. 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:28.400 Laura, I literally do you are going to mention that? 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:30.160 As I was saying it, I was like, Laura's not 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:31.200 gonna like this Sparrowaki thing. 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:33.920 Well, I mean, I get it. I totally get it. 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:37.400 But and a lot of my investment accounts are attached 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:40.040 to my check account, so I have to see them anyway. Like, 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:42.640 it's not a mystery. I totally get it. But maybe 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:44.720 you can explain why you consciously get well. 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:46.559 For rest all, it doesn't change that much because it's 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:50.160 just tied to the market. But you know what reminds me, 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:54.240 I'm I you know, in thirty years, I will, hopefully 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:56.360 God willing be here to tap into it and like 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:59.319 what's going on there? And I also think like thinking 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:01.679 about retirement is a big source of anxiety for a 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:04.079 lot of people, especially if you have a more unstable 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:08.319 income like a founder does, and just knowing that number, 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:10.760 even if it's not always exactly what I want to see, 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:12.800 but it's getting there and you can see the graph 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:15.280 go up over time. I think it does help with 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:19.800 anxiety for me. Almost anything that I'm nervous about in life, 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:22.240 it's because I'm avoiding it, and if you just dive 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:25.319 head into it, you know. I think in therapy they 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:28.080 literally call that exposure therapy. I think it does, like 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:30.160 really actually help to lower the anxiety. 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:33.080 Yeah, all right, so exposure therapy with our four one 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:35.920 really care Yeah, yeah, and you had another one recently. 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:39.200 We mentioned that there's some setting that you can automatically 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:39.960 shorten your meeting. 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:43.400 Yes, it's called like the speedy meeting setting, and Google 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:46.160 has it outlook has it Just like literally Google, Hey, 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:47.800 I don't do the speedy meeting setting, and it will 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:51.280 automatically make your meetings twenty five minutes or fifty five minutes, 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:53.480 so you never even have to worry about like slightly 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:56.000 adjusting the time. That just gives you a buffer. I 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:58.320 also think when I get a meeting invite from someone 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:00.760 that has set the meeting for twenty five minutes, I'm like, oh, 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:03.240 this person is like they're on top of their life, 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:04.920 like they know what's going on. Like we got to 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:07.320 be on our game, and I think it's like a 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:09.920 very positive signal to the other person that you are 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:11.800 on top of your schedule. 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:14.600 Absolutely, and you'll have time to go to the restaurant 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:17.000 before your next meeting, which is a big benefit. 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:19.599 Grab a little handful of eminem you know, just a 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:20.320 little snack. 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:22.520 Absolutely. Absolutely. 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:24.719 So you said you do your money minute as part 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:26.480 of your morning routine. I wonder if you have any 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:29.600 other sort of routines through your day that are helpful 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:29.840 to you. 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:33.120 Yes, I do. I would say one of my biggest 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:35.640 routines actually is what I don't do, and that is 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:37.800 that I do not have email on my phone and 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:40.960 I don't check my tech messages very often. So that 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:42.880 means that when I wake up in the morning, I'm 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:45.640 not even like touching my phone until I really sit 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:48.920 down at my desk, and that means in the morning, 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:52.880 I'm focused on the kids. I am focused on getting dressed. 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:55.240 I do think part of my morning routine is like 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.960 getting dressed, putting on makeup. I wear a dress almost 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:01.840 every day looking nice, and that means when I sit 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:04.360 down at nine or nine fifteen to really start the day, 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:07.240 I have not checked my email in a while, and 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.400 I have emails to respond to, things to do, and 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:12.680 so that's my first sort of part of my routine 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:14.920 is what is not on the routine the rest of it. 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:16.640 When I sit down, I do the money minute, I 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:19.000 check all my email accounts. You know, most people these 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:21.440 days have more than one. I'll work one, a personal one, 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:24.360 and then I try to just dive into the day. 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.680 Right now, I have a newborn at home, so my 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:29.880 day is a little bit all over the place with 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:33.480 breastfeeding on demand. And sometimes that's good to be shaking 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.600 up the regular old routine being dependent on someone else. 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:42.400 I also would say another part of my like sort 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:45.199 of shutdown ritual is I do one let's check on 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:48.040 my email accounts. I usually look at my to do 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:50.240 list and I know what's the very first thing I'm 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:51.880 going to do when I come back the next day. 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:53.839 And then I just shut the computer and walk away. 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:56.880 And I like to say, like I work in podcasting, 0:11:56.920 --> 0:12:00.040 like there's no emergencies. The biggest emergency is that my 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:01.559 kids are not always going to be at my house. 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:03.440 Like that's the most urgent thing in my life is 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:05.600 that I should be present at home with my family 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:08.960 right now. And the podcast will be there at nine 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:09.760 am the next day. 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.160 Yeah, it is a normal work day starting at nine am. 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:15.400 Do you have a target in time or I'm curious 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:16.440 what that tends to. 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:18.200 Le Yeah, my normal work day, I drop my kids 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:20.120 off at school at nine and then I live like 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:22.240 next to the school, go to Starbucks. I try to 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:24.360 be at my guest by like nine twenty every day. 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:26.599 And like the kids school bell, I can hear it 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:29.160 from my house and it rings at nine thirty, and 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:32.080 like nine hundred percent when I hear that bell ring, 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:33.960 I better be at my desk. So I use that 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.559 as like a little timing ritual. I loved your before 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:39.440 breakfast tip recently. That was on like alarm clock noises, 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:41.120 and I was like, oh, the school bell's like kind 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:43.200 of my alarm clock. To start my day start at 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:44.920 nine thirty, and then the kids have to be picked 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:47.120 up at four thirty. So I try to start that 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.439 little shutdown ritual right around four o'clock. Sometimes I have 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:54.120 little things popping up, but I do try to start 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:56.240 winding up for the day around four o'clock. 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.160 And do you have a set sort of sense of 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:00.920 what you make and how do you choose what you're 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:03.680 going to do in any given day. Is it based 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:05.360 on what you see coming in in the morning, or 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:07.720 do you have a general guideline of how you're organizing things? 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:12.240 Laura, this is such the problem of being your own boss. 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:14.280 One of the reasons I try to do my to 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:16.400 do list the night before is because I haven't seen 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:18.760 the emails yet for the next day. I try to 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:21.240 choose two big things that I want to get accomplished 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:24.319 in the day, and then the rest is actually pretty 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:24.960 email driven. 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:25.160 You know. 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:28.000 I as a founder now, a lot of my job 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:30.400 is sales driven. So I either have meetings, or I 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:32.840 have customer service questions coming in, or I have like 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:34.360 somebody emails me. I want to get back to them 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:36.679 right away because I want to upsell them. I do. 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:38.760 It is sort of email driven, and I've just sort 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:41.880 of made peace with that. I think that's okay as 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:43.760 long as you as long as you a lot into 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:46.320 your schedule. And then the other thing I do is 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:48.720 I do like to have little projects and like they 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:51.240 are sort of like little hobbies to me, and I 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:53.240 try to do those outside of that like nine to 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:57.760 four hour sometimes later at night, I'll fire up the laptop, 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:01.040 work on my aut csha's and I sometimes do back 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:02.280 on talk because I try to do them for a 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:05.400 week at a time. I like to have nine to 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:07.760 four sort of protected for my quote nquote real work 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.120 and then do my like fun little projects other times. 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:11.480 What's the Etsy Store? 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:14.880 Oh? Well, it's so fun. I sell little like habit 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:17.560 trackers that are like really bright, really colorful. They're like 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:20.120 eighties and nineties themed. It's just like a cute thing. 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:22.760 It's called the Neon Upside. It's just something I do 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:25.280 for fun, but I really enjoy it. 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:28.200 Well, do you have any habits that you are tracking currently? 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:33.040 Yes, I actually do so. I have an eight week 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:34.880 old and this is my fourth trial, so I've been 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:38.400 through postpartum previously, and for three months after I have 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:41.240 a baby, I do something I called every Days and 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:44.560 it's in a Google doc and it's about twenty items 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:47.280 that you know, I think after you get birth, you're 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:49.720 you can it's easy for things to get a little 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:52.640 off track. And I track these twenty things and I 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:54.080 have with all of the kids, and some of them 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:56.760 are super easy get up, get dressed. One of them 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.200 is like say I love you to someone, like easy 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:02.120 that's one second. But some of them are especially in 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:04.160 like the week or two after you give birth. I 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:06.400 try to do like one career related thing a day, 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:08.240 could be as simple as one email because I'm not 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:11.680 really checking emails back then. One of them is have 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:14.280 a longer conversation with someone in person. I feel like 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:17.120 that's important for mental health. I just try to keep. 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:20.640 One of them is making sure I'm meaning enough protein, 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:23.840 like I try to keep. I try to be more 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:26.200 diligent about my habits right after I give birth because 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:28.960 I do think that that is like a sensitive time 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:29.600 in your life. 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:32.960 Yeah, well, it's funny you and I've had enough babies 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:34.400 that it starts to be a thing you can kind 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:38.400 of have a set routine for doing. 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:41.480 But I love that you just, you know, by focusing. 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:43.480 On only having a few things though that you're doing, 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:46.400 I mean, you probably do those things and then feel 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:49.080 like you're the most productive person in the world. 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:51.680 One hundred percent. And like saying I love you comment 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:53.800 that's like it takes more time to do the check mark. 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:56.200 But I'm like, oh, and I don't always do all 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:58.120 twenty things every day, but if I do fifteen or 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:00.200 sixteen of them, and some of them are like, hey, 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:02.440 make sure to have face to face time, like a 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:05.840 solid meeting with each of the three kids. Just like 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:08.560 trying one is like clean one thing around the house. 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:11.600 Like the standards are low, but like it's a really 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:14.040 nice way to feel productive, and I think it would work. 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:15.800 I usually do it after I have a baby, but 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:17.120 I think it would work if you were going through 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:19.240 any sort of hard time. Just like, make that to 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:21.600 do list really easy and get that thrill of checking 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:22.200 things off. 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:24.960 I love the idea of checking off that I got 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:29.000 up in the morning. I really like the idea I 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:30.720 check off, yes, yes. 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:33.160 Open my eyes, got a glass of water, like my mind. 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:34.560 We're waiting already. 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:37.120 All right, Well, we're gonna take one more quick ad 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:46.880 break and then I'll be back with more from Molly Beck. Well, 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:50.040 I am back with Molly Beck, who is an author 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:53.800 an entrepreneur. She writes the substack Back on tech. As 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:57.040 she mentioned, she has four extremely young children. I'm curious, 0:16:57.080 --> 0:16:59.280 do you guys have a regular end of the day 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:01.000 around your house? I mean, do the kids go to 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:02.320 bed at a certain time? Do you go to bed 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:03.120 at a certain time? 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:05.560 We do have a ritual for the end of the day. 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:11.960 But it is just going to sleep, you know. Like 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:14.159 I we have four kids, so we usually two. One 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:15.720 of us takes two and then my husband takes the 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:18.879